The Apothecary Diaries - Vol. 7 Ch. 33 - The Devil's Trumpet

[the_white_rabbit]

@ Glomoro
Mao Mao doesn't really do complex spatial-mathematical reasoning, so simply ignoring other stuff seems to be sufficient for her, and I don't really see that changing. 😔

Spoiler

Her mathematically-focus genius cousin might do the Heterodyne humming, simply because he's more likely to need to keep track of large numbers of discreet variables. But going from what I've read in the novel, her family's type of genius is such that little outside of their topic of obsession interests them enough to distract them from it. So they probably don't need those kinds of techniques.

Mao Mao's expressiveness when she loses the tight grip she keeps on herself is delightful, so I certainly understand wanting to see more of it.

 

[Beregorn]

@Glomoro @the_white_rabbit
Hi there, fellow men of culture! I'd say she has at least some drops of Heterodyne blood: as Albia's spark mentioned "They always had such a... unique vision! Horrifying, of course, but still unique!" I'd say it definitely fit the bill...

 

[Zephyr247]

You mean to tell me that nobody outside of Jinshi and the people she knows is working on this? And nobody is looking for the girl who thwarted a murder attempt? If she doesn’t get an accolade of some kind (which she’d hate, but you know what, she has a concussion, solved a mystery, and nearly died, so she deserves it) I am going to be upset. Is anybody paying any attention in this place?

 

[hina_sw]

Mao Mao is such a mad scientist. I love her xD

 

[sneezl]

MaoMao is the best character in manga right now.

 

[Alyseb630]

So glad she’s okay! 😭

She’s so smart! I’m so proud of her!

Thank you for translating this!

 

[scarlet_summer]

What I'd do to see this in anime

 

[Queenvon]

This is absolutely a top manga!

THANK YOUto the scanlation team! We Readers appreciate your dedication & hard work in bringing this awesome manga to us!

Can't wait err, patiently waiting for next upload....hiyaku!!

 

[Kefrayba]

@d_a_renoir I would guess that the author was inspired by the Voodoo Zombie legend. It was speculated that they use blowfish poison to make a person seems death and then apply the antidote to make it looks like they have the power to make zombies.

 

[d_a_renoir]

@Kefrayba Oh cool, so it's real. Thanks!

 

[vangoz]

Currently her job is basically court detective, solving problems here and there.
She should try to pass the test and be a proper court lady to get better standing from the officers.

 

[WhoCares]

During a reread, I noticed that Rakan mentions the faulty ceremonial fitting to Jinshi shortly after MaoMao solves the case of the goldsmith's sons. Seems like he was aware of the murder plot.

Coupled with how Sui Rei seems to also work in the military section of the palace, he looks pretty suspicious...but if he wanted the plot to succeed, bringing the case to Jinshi in the first place and helping MaoMao interrupt the ceremony to save him would be wholly counterproductive. Hmm.

 

[miyako19]

@Kaarme You obviously don't know about Chinese history or haven't watch any Chinese historical drama. What you said only true about Western slaves. As an Asian whose country was influenced by China, my country was the same in the past. Servants can be killed anytime by people with high status even if they belong to another person, if the servants did anything that upset them. Nobody would bother to argue or pick a fight with another person with high status over the death of a lowly servant, the most they would do is asking the other to find a replacement or pay some money. Of course, they weren't always kill others blatantly but made up some kind of excuses. It is a political game where the poor servants are just sacrificial pawns. Peasants' lives are just trash to the nobles. Punishments like Nine familial exterminations were common.
Maomao disturbed a royal ceremony. If it turned out she was wrong about the assassination, not only her but her adopted father and the prostitutes she lived with would also get killed. About the guard, he was just doing his job. If he let people interrupted the ceremony then he would be killed too. He had no reason to believe the words of a lowly servant. Guards in the past were just simple-minded like that. "Do as you are told and don't mind any other things if you want to live" is something that was drilled into their mind.
I recommend you to read the novel "Water Margin" or watching "Justice Bao". Of course, those fictional stories are exaggerated a bit but the core of the imperial Chinese are still there.

 

[Kaarme]

@miyako19 Yes, I know for a fact there are lots of people here who know the Chinese history a whole lot better than me. At least I can learn by reading the comments from those who do know.

And once again, a guard is not doing his job simply by stubbornly preventing everyone from entering. That's the job of a gate, not a guard. If Jinshi had actually died and witnesses had revealed the guard could have possibly prevented it, you can be sure the guard would have been executed, along with his family if that was a thing. If you say the guard was doing his job, then so was Maomao as well. A guard's life was quite cheap everywhere in the world, cheaper than a skillful servant's.

 

[doodlingbookworm]

Asdfsdfasd I can't lmaoo

 

[Alex-dono-sama]

This is the greatest thing since sliced bread

 

[Svelandria]

This feels like some sort of game between Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, with Mao Mao being a twisted Holmes since that laugh and her morbid interest in this game seems a tad more befitting of Moriarty.

 

[Ironclad]

She found her Moriarty.

 

[OWPrototype]

oh
normal morning glory is a hallucinogen which is similar to LSD that can cause vomiting at high doses, but it's relatively benign. devil's trumpet is a plant that contains a strongly anticholinergic compound that causes high fevers, delirium, and irreversible brain damage. it's otherwise known as Datura. it's the least-safe psychoactive compound known to man. the majority of people that consume it have lifelong side effects from a single trip if they end up surviving. there's a pretty big difference between the two...

 

[Svelandria]

Q@OWPrototype To be fair, Mao Mao mentioned that the resurrection drug is made using a combination of poisons that cancel out each other, so the idea is that Sui Rei managed to combine Devil's Trumpet with some other poison(s) in such a way where she can appear dead as planned but also avoid most, if not all, of the negative effects of the poisons used. As such, it being the more deadly Devil's Trumpet works just fine within this situation. That being said, I'm wondering how the author is gonna deal with the potential recipe of the resurrection drug being properly brought up later in the story. Are they gonna make up a fictional recipe, or is there actually such a drug that exists in our world? If there's a real one that they reference and it doesn't include Devil's Trumpet, then I'd consider that a fuck up on the author's part.