Week 5: 薬屋のひとりごと

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薬屋のひとりごと Home Thread

Week 5

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Previous Part: Week 4
Next Part: Week 6

Reading:

Week Start Date Chapter Names Page Count
Week 5 Mar 26th 「恫喝」「看病」「炎」 26

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle:

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Proper Noun Readings

Name Reading Notes Proof
猫猫 まおまお Main character furigana
玉葉 ギョクヨウ One of the four (main) wives (title: 貴妃) furigana
梨花 リファ One of the four (main) wives (title: 賢妃) furigana
小蘭 シャオラン furigana
鈴麗 リンリ Daughter of 玉葉; nickname: 小鈴 (シャオリン) furigana
壬氏 ジンシ 天女を思わせる宦官 furigana
紅娘 ホンニャン head of the maids of 玉葉 furigana
芙蓉 フヨウ 中級妃 furigana
高順 ガオシュン aid of 壬氏 furigana
桜花 インファ maid of 玉葉 furigana
2 Likes

Just finished the first chapter and holly molly. Nobody has to say anything for chapter 恫喝???

Thoughts
  • Oh wow a request directly from the 皇帝 so much for keeping a low profile. Already having 噂 about her…
  • When she described the foods I went through different stages. First confusion, then googling, then feeling hungry and finally eating something myself :smiley:
  • I don’t know why but the direct interactions between jinshi and mamau from her perspective with his eerie smile are somehow so good ^^.
  • BOSS WOMAN MAUMAU. How she just manhandles the maid. Slapping her and dragging her over the floor by her hair all while Jinshi is watching. WOW…
  • This was the second time the writing sucked me in ^^.

Puhh hype for the next chapter. But judging from the chapter title not much will hapen in the next chapter again sadly :frowning:

3 Likes

I hadn’t re-read this part yet, so I’ve abstained from commenting.

Well, let’s go

恫喝

長い髭だな、さわってみたい

That’s very 猫猫.

Well, he has to know about why she got here, plus she is making medicine in the kitchen… At the very least, that should have come to his attention. Especially since one would expect the quality of the medicine available in the 後宮 probably increased drastically over a short period of time. I don’t think those rumors would connect those to 猫猫, but the emperor has access to more information than regular people.

Well, if I remember correctly, some more things happen.

2 Likes

My favorite parts (except for 「炎」 lol).

Nyaa~

I was kind of amused when 猫猫 was giving the maid a dose of her own おしろい. I was like wut?? Little 猫猫??? Is this really little 猫猫?!
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why I liked reading about 猫猫 taking care of 梨花. Maybe that’s just it. Helping one of the wives recover and the fact that she could find out that Rifa wasn’t like her maids.
Lol @MaoMao consequently saving Gyokuyou from a lack of sleep :laughing:

Question
湯あみをさせるたびに見惚れたのは内緒である
What does this mean?

3 Likes
看病

Yes, 梨花 is one of my favorite characters.

I don’t remember the context, but I think it’s about 猫猫 looking at 梨花’s body?
It’s a secret (内緒である)
湯あみをさせる(give bath)
たびに(every time)
見惚れた (was fascinated/charmed/couldn’t avert her eyes)
の for nominalisation and は for topic.

→ let’s keep it secret that she couldn’t help staring every time she gave her a bath.

3 Likes

Thanks so much!

1 Like
炎 (well, kinda)

Oh, hey, the 媚薬 shows up again. Kinda. I remembered it got mentioned again, but not the exact content. Since that rumor doesn’t match very well with the version I thought about, I just googled the answer and the version I gave last time is the correct one according to the Internet. :person_shrugging: There are people complaining it’s hard to understand too.

2 Likes

Done with 看病

Not much to say for this chapter. It was nice though to get a better feel for 梨花 because except for her lashing out at 玉葉 in one scene we haven’t seen or heard from her in a long time.

Maumau seems to be pretty boob fixated. I didn’t expect her to explain titty fucking to a kisaki though…

Realized btw that it’s the scene from way back of the beginning of the book where we had the teaser pictures. So now that one makes sense ^^. I think only one of the initial teaser scenes is left by now.

4 Likes

Aaaah I forgot that I won’t have internet over the weekend. I’ll try to post the next thread in a few hours instead.

4 Likes

So done with 炎 and therefore for now with my reading of 薬屋.

Will probably pick it up at some point later in time, after now having made my way already roughly 40% through the story and aquiring all this super specific court vocabulary. Even though I did not put anything into SRS from this book it still felt like I passively learned some vocabulary with it repeating all the time. Will switch to more common vocabulary for now though.

Not many thoughts on this chapter. Maumau knows a lot of sciency stuff as always. The 医官 are clueless as always. Jinshi lurks around every corner as always.
But at least she seems to have found a nice place in the Palace for now.
Since she keeps on mentioning her pops so often I suspect he has to play a role at some point in the story?

EDIT: one sentence was hard for me はてと頭を抱えたとて仕事は終わらない. I found とて meaning something as ても but it does not really fit in this sentence. Can someone give me a rough translation for this sentence please or link me to some sources?

Either way have fun reading on to all you silent lurkers in these threads :joy:

3 Likes

頭を抱えても仕事は終わらない

The work won’t end/ won’t get done by being perplexed. So instead of thinking about things she can’t understand, she had better get back to work. :slight_smile:

Have fun with your other readings! Hope to see you around these threads again. :eyes:

3 Likes

自尊心 = プライド

Why though :sweat:

Hope you all don’t mind half my comments just consisting of complaints about the furigana.

4 Likes

I really liked the 恫喝 chapter. The other two were uneventful.

Some questions

ファ妃の看病で肉のげ落ちた猫猫は、戻るなり先輩じょたちに太らされることとなった。相対するきさきのもとに二か月もいたというのに、その反応はうれしい半面、困るものであり、籠には茶会のたびにもらう点心おやつを持て余していた。

I get that the 侍女 are trying to fatten her up, but I can’t find a definition for 削げ落ちる, which is making it hard to know exactly the reason. Is it just a weird way of saying she lost weight? Though it’s not clear to me why she should have lost weight just because she was helping リファ, unless she just doesn’t take care of herself when alone. (Making I’m completely misunderstanding this.)

二人のおっさんともに、口に入っているので共犯者決定である。ちゃんと二人が口に入れるまで猫猫は食べるのを待っていた。

Is there a typo here? Looks like it should be とともに to me.

2 Likes

It’s in my dictionary, though. :thinking:
そげお・ちる【削げ落ちる】(動タ上一)けずりとったように,その部分がなくなる。「頰(ほお)が―・ちる」

Like, you know how someone who hasn’t eaten for a while is depicted in manga? With cheeks inward. It’s not weird (but extreme).

I mean, she had no time to really take care of herself.

You don’t have the と when you just want to say both (or all) of […]

Example sentence from my dictionary (共に entry):
私も兄も[共に]健康だ

とともに would put 猫猫 in with them, but it doesn’t match the rest of the sentence (since she hadn’t put it in her mouth yet). So no と here :slight_smile:

4 Likes