Kusuriya no Hitorigoto - Vol. 8 Ch. 37 - Balsam and Wood Sorrel (Part 1)

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I wonder why Mao Mao was so upset by the thought of meeting her dad... Maybe she thinks that he purposefully drove up her mom's prices, got her pregnant, then ran away, leaving her ruined and ill, leading to that incident where Mao Mao's mom holds her down while brandishing a knife. In the end, I suppose Mao is obsessed with medicine because she wants to heal her mother.
 
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@Nep I can see what you're doing for Granny, but the other ones don't fly at all for me.

The regular visits to see a courtesan are not cheap. Rakan was not the first to go for her. That's worth more than "charity", Granny was most certainly earning bank. Her relative lack of "worth" is only because of the expectations she had for redemption. I am indeed referring partially to the courtesan system itself and not just Granny, but her actions cannot be justified by "for the good of the brothel as a whole", especially since Feng Sheng is still ALIVE in this version and Granny is apparently taking some moral high ground to prevent them from seeing each other. She's a terrible person, even within the era's standards for morals and "family" identity.

None of what you said about Rakan has anything to do with my points. I did not say Rakan should've found a way out of the expedition, I said he should have prepared safeguards, monetary ones, for Feng Sheng. These were options not available to him because he was not prepared to be attacked and did form connections with people he could entrust money to, which he fixed far too late.

And of course I'm not talking about official payment for the uncle. Yes, he did whatever was in the spoiler out of loyalty, but the selflessness to neglect to ask for funds out of concern that the cover-up would not stick meant that he did not have the power to cover for the people close to him. The comparative risk was of far less concern compared to properly rewarding a loyal retainer who became a eunuch and got exiled for the country.
 
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@Randomndude01
Lmao there was no way that Granny could misunderstand their situation. She knew very well that Feng Shen had a hand in that scheme - initiator even, because courtesans only got pregnant when they wanted it (contraceptive and abortion drug existed, duh).
If anything, Granny was angry with Rakan's absence in the last 3 years which led to Feng Shen's downfall. If he could return early and bailed her out, I don't think Granny would mind it (she would grumbled a lot though).
 
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@nep

"The granny was at fault for nothing."

The granny is the owner of the brothel and of the girls (that are essentially her slaves). She is rich from exploiting them. (Not only Mao Mao mother but the whole lot).

She is pretty fucking evil no matter how you look at it.


The fact that what she is doing is legally and culturally acepted in their society doesn't make it less evil.
 
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I think TL's third interpretation of each of them thinking about a different game is correct

Feng Shen wanted to have her wish fulfilled (be with rakan or maybe be a mother) so she wanted a game of Go, a game she would win

Rakan knew he has made a mistake so he could only think of what he could have done to avoid the mistake in the first place, pick the game he was better at than her

classic men wanting to avoid commitment or regretting the act itself

It seems feng shen also suffered from post-martum depression alongside perceived abandonment by rakan being away, blurring her judgement

It seems the Uncle read the letter and opened the pouch, figured out what had happened and went to look for rakan's child
 
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@Broken25 She really isnt. Despite being the owner, and making money off it, it also comes with the responsibility of protecting the girls within. In fact, she takes good care of the girls, as shown by her taking care of Maomao until she was adopted by the doctor, and even then still allowing maomao inside and basically live in the brothel with the courtesans.

As for whether it was "evil" or not, we can never be the judge of that. The measure for evil changes over time and place, so what's evil then might be normal now and vice versa.

And must i remind you that not all courtesans are slaves. Some willingly do it for the money.
 
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@Gurling

nah man he didn't know (it says as much in the chapter too) not all are aware of the brothels esp. that one rule, most of them live in a bubble for ex. Jinshi didn't know either, he had to ask Mao Mao

look at how shocked jinshi was when he learnt the reason behind mao mao prosthetic pimples

Rakan had little interest in other people or sex (prob. didn't have friends who could tell him esp. after rouman was sent off), or prob. a married life

He prob. even interpret (self-delusion) his relationship with Feng Shen as just a desire to play games with a worthy opponent whereas Feng Shen was much more honest (she did tell him she didn't have a mother and courtesan are allowed to be one)

she gave him an out though asking him to chose between she wanted and he wanted (status quo)
 
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@Gurgling The real problem here is that he really didn't. Not in the way of "Oh! I've never heard of it!" but more in the way of he having high levels of autism and his brain literally being unable of processing what was happening. Just like sociopaths are unable to process the consequences of good and evil, Rakkan simply couldn't connect the dots of what his lack of action would end up causing.
 
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@Broken25 Every single one of those girls can easily leave if they so choose to and it's pretty damn easy to do so, unless they've debts to the establishment, whether they incur the debts fair or not, they can leave.

They are willingly selling themselves, whether in its lowest form: sex; or at its top value: entertainment, they are willingly selling their services with the help of establishments like what the granny owns. They provide shelter, protection, repuation, and depending on the girls' repuation and services they can provide, those establishments can even connect them with rich and powerful clientele, easily securing them money without having to go low as to sell sex.

But I will be fair and say that this isn't a clean and pure industry, everywhere you go, the bigger it is the more likey it has a dark underbelly. And the 'entertainment' industry, both then and now, will always have a dark repuation centered in a reality: many of those girls sucked into it have no real choice, many of them will die if they don't enter the industry. Orphans, poverty-stricken, children of criminals, the kidnapped or abandoned are easy sources for girls for this industry, there is no question that exploitation of the desperate occurs.

But despite that, you are most definitely wrong of your assesement of the Granny and the establishment she runs, so wrong that I even wonder if you are actually capable of basic reading comprehension or your naive mindset or preconception is preventing you from understanding the reality of the culture you're reading. I'm not even sure if I want to be civil at this point because i'm just so dumbfounded with your assesment that it makes it so hard for me not to picture some rainbow-color haired, conservative, radical feminist who can't fathom the thought of a respectable sex industry or sex industry without sex, or the thought that there really are women who willingly sell themselves or are able to actually enjoy their work in the sex industry

Helloooo?? The Granny does not allow sex in her establishment, virginity is extremely valuable and she will never sell any of her girls' for cheap, and so do her clientele, in fact, one of key points of this story that we've read so far is that it was set off exactly because one of her girl's had sex and she was ruined because of it, her establishment acts as medium for women to sell entertaining aspects of themselves outside of sex, establishing them as reputable women, so much so they can even choose who they may be able to marry with equal or more repuation as them. In their culture at the time, women who sold themeselves with sex are lowly prostitutes, with very, very low reputation whose clientele will rarely consist more than cheap laborours, men with spare change to buy some cheap sex in a rundown brothel or whatnot.

I'm still so dumbfounded that I actually think you're probably some radical feminist or someone whose lacking in reading comprehension.

I'm sorry for the insults but i'm just being honst.
 
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EDIT2: Thanks to the responses to this comment my questions were cleared up - please do not respond any further.

I don't get it what happened? Did her value fall cause she became pregnant - and is that why she had to "take night customers" or whatever?
Why is Rakan so devastated? Did she die?
She likes him and sent him her pinkie - so why didn't he marry her?
And if mao mao is genuinely his child and he knows it, why didn't he take her in - especially because he can see her face, meaning he likes her?

I don't get it at all.

EDIT: after reading this thread I get it now. Her value fell cause she became pregnant but Rakan somehow didn't buy her once her value fell and fked off to an expedition. Some strategist.
It's unclear whether she is dead - people say she's got necrosis from Syphilis.
Not sure why Rakan didn't ever redeem her or why people lie to him about who she is, if he was trying to find her.
 

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