The Apothecary Diaries is a medical and historical anime that centers around Maomao, an apothecary by profession. As an apothecary, Maomao has a fascination for medicinal herbs and all things that have poison. She is known as the Poison Maiden, but is Maomao immune to poison in The Apothecary Diaries?
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Meet Maomao: The Poison Maiden
At a young age, Maomao has always been fascinated with medicinal herbs and poison.
She often gets carried away with the sight of medicinal herbs and would rather take a very long time gathering these herbs on the farm than become a courtesan in the Verdigris House, where she would always be asked to work.
If Maomao is not on the farm gathering herbs, she is in the kitchen doing some experiments.
Her experiments involve using her arms to test poison, of which her big sister Pairin (not biologically related) would often scold her for her new scars.
Maomao is an apothecary by profession, but her fascination with it led her to a somehow different destiny in life.
After delivering the medicine to the Verdigris House, Maomao got kidnapped, and she didn’t know whether she became a scapegoat or was sold off to the rear palace.
The rear palace is an all-female area used for giving birth to the emperor’s child.
Men are strictly forbidden to enter the rear palace, except those who are high nobility, have blood relations, and are eunuchs who have lost their precious parts.
All the consorts and palace women total 2,000, and they live along with 1,000 living eunuchs, which makes the rear palace a wide living area.
Unlike the high, mid, and low-ranking consorts, Maomao became a maidservant who does menial tasks but can lose her life at any given moment.
The good thing is that Maomao gets a paid salary, and she can go out of the rear palace after completing five years of service.
While Maomao doesn’t want to stand out, her curiosity and appetite for knowledge, as well as her little sense of justice, did not stop her from helping Gyokuyou and her daughter Xiaoling, which led to her sudden promotion.
Her knowledge of the poisoned face powder helped save the life of Xiaoling, ultimately putting an end to the rumor about a curse that affected the emperor’s children.
This resulted in Maomao being assigned as Gyokuyou’s attendant and poison taster.
As a poison tester, Maomao receives an added salary for the threat to her life.
She also gets called for poison testing for two meals and every teatime at noon, which for her is a very simple task. She also gets asked to concoct medicines and potions, much to her delight.
Since then, Maomao has been a very reliable attendant to Gyokuyou and even to the beautiful eunuch, Jinshi.
So, Is Maomao Immune to Poison?
While Maomao possesses a strong tolerance for most poisons, she is not completely immune to them. This means she can still be affected by poison, especially if she is unaware of it or if it is a highly rare type of poison.
Back in the pleasure district when Maomao was young, she would test various poisons on her arms, calling them experiments like a mad scientist.
In the process, Maomao slowly adjusted her body to poison, so most types of poison don’t work on her.
Because of this, Maomao thinks she’s not suited for the role of poison tester.
Even so, her experience and exposure to poison allow her to sense suspicious things added to someone’s food just by smelling, as shown in the episode where she smelled Jinshi’s bao buns and detected an aphrodisiac.
Maomao is also knowledgeable when it comes to the colors and types of bowls the poison would react to, including its form and numbness.
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