E22 - Blue Roses

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(Please feel free to edit the speaker names if incomplete or inaccurate. Names are handled on a best-effort basis depending on the info on the source file. Dialogue is left as is.)
SIGN    The Apothecary Diaries
SIGN    The Apothecary Diaries
SIGN    This story is a work of fiction. The names of all of the characters, organizations, and so on
     are imaginary. It also bears no connection to any specific real-life events.
[01:33] Maomao
    By the time we started
    to smell spring in the air,
[01:36] Maomao
    it became certain that
    Lady Gyokuyou was indeed pregnant.
[01:46] Maomao
    That's curious. Can she tell
    there's a baby inside?
[01:54] Yinghua; Guiyuan; Ailan
    So cute!
[01:56] Hongniang
    Maybe I also should start to...
[02:03] Maomao
    Even if she did get a proposal,
[02:05] Maomao
    they'd probably never let her leave.
[02:08] Maomao
    Being too good at one's job
    can be a curse at times.
[02:16] Maomao
    Time flies when every day is so fulfilling.
[02:21] Maomao
    In comparison, the two months spent at
    Master Jinshi's offices felt like forever.
[02:30] Maomao
    Would you like to draw pictures again?
[02:32] Lingli
    Yes!
[02:38] Maomao
    This is the woolly milkcap,
    a poisonous mushroom—
[02:41] Maomao
    Ow!
[02:43] Hongniang
    Draw normal flowers, please.
[02:45] Maomao
    Normal flowers, huh?
[02:50] Jinshi
    A blue rose?
SIGN    Episode 22: Blue Roses
[02:52] Lakan
    Yes. Perhaps you've never seen one before?
[02:56] Lakan
    The striking blue petals are so beautiful.
[03:01] Lakan
    I used to see them in the palace often.
[03:05] Jinshi
    Perhaps you were dreaming?
[03:07] Jinshi
    Blue roses do not exist.
[03:11] Lakan
    But in fact, they do.
[03:15] Lakan
    Oh, how I'd love to appreciate them
    with everyone again.
[03:19] Lakan
    What do you think? Could it be done?
[03:23] Lakan
    With your power, there must be
    nothing outside your reach.
[03:27] Jinshi
    Understood. If such a rose does
    indeed exist, I'd like to see it as well.
[03:33] Lakan
    Then it's settled.
[03:35] Lakan
    Goodness, I can't wait!
[03:39] Lakan
    Excuse me.
[03:44] Lakan
    I hope to see it at next month's garden party.
[03:49] Gaoshun
    You're already so busy.
    You didn't have to take on more work.
[03:54] Jinshi
    Don't rub it in. Please just go ask
    every florist in the nation about this.
[04:04] Gaoshun
    The florists say that roses are not in season.
[04:12] Jinshi
    Sorry to call you up so suddenly.
[04:16] Jinshi
    We were talking about getting
     together to admire blue roses.
[04:21] Maomao
    Blue roses...?
[04:23] Maomao
    I'm just an apothecary, you know.
[04:25] Jinshi
    Yes, I'm aware...
[04:28] Maomao
    I wonder what prompted this?
    He seems awfully tired.
[04:33] Maomao
    Roses, huh? I do know 
    a thing or two about them.
[04:38] Maomao
    I've sold them before to make some
    quick cash with the courtesans. But...
[04:44] Maomao
    They really said they saw a blue rose?
[04:47] Jinshi
    Yes.
[04:49] Maomao
    Is there some new popular hallucinogen, or...?
[04:52] Jinshi
    That'd ruin our whole nation!
[04:54] Gaoshun
    Master Jinshi.
[04:59] Jinshi
    Is it impossible?
[05:04] Maomao
    What exactly is it that you desire?
[05:07] Jinshi
    Can you find some by next month's garden party?
[05:10] Maomao
    Next month? Roses bloom
    two months later at the earliest.
[05:15] Jinshi
    I know...
[05:18] Jinshi
    I'll find a way to turn him down.
[05:22] Maomao
    Master Jinshi's reaction, and this style of
    forcing people to attempt the impossible...
[05:28] Maomao
    Was this brought up by a certain strategist?
[05:35] Jinshi
    Yes.
[05:37] Maomao
    Understood. I will take this on.
[05:40] Jinshi
    Are you sure?
[05:41] Maomao
    I don't know if I can pull it off,
    but I'll try my best.
[05:45] Maomao
    I don't want to just run from him.
[05:51] Maomao
    I might as well take a swing at
    smashing his creepy monocle.
[05:56] Maomao
    Master Jinshi, may I make a few requests?
[06:01] Maomao
    Thank you for allowing me
    to use it, Lady Lihua.
[06:06] Lihua
    I don't mind. You were the one that
    had it constructed in the first place.
[06:12] Maomao
    It's been a while.
[06:14] Maomao
    I remember back then, I got them to
    make a steam room for Lady Lihua,
[06:18] Maomao
    who was suffering from poison back then.
[06:20] Maomao
    I'm borrowing it now,
    but I feel bad using it for free.
[06:26] Maomao
    This is the emperor's favorite book.
[06:29] Lihua
    I appreciate this.
[06:32] Maomao
    I'm glad I got it through the brothel.
[06:40] Jinshi
    Take that side.
[06:42] Eunuchs
    Yes, sir!
[06:43] Maomao
    Master Jinshi.
[06:44] Jinshi
    Ah, you're here.
[06:46] Jinshi
    I had them build this as you asked, but...
[06:48] Jinshi
    What is this for?
[06:50] Maomao
    We're going to make the roses go mad.
[06:52] Jinshi
    Make the roses go mad?
[06:54] Jinshi
    What does that mean, apothecary?
[07:03] Maomao
    We're going to let the sunlight in,
    and blow steam inside through there.
[07:09] Maomao
    The roses will grow in this warmed room.
[07:12] Maomao
    This way, the flowers might
    mistake it as the time to bloom.
[07:17] Jinshi
    I see, so they'll "go mad."
[07:20] Maomao
    I can't guarantee it, though.
[07:30] Maomao
    Oh.
[07:33] Xiaolan
    Maomao!
[07:36] Maomao
    Xiaolan?
[07:37] Xiaolan
    I'll help, too!
[07:39] Xiaolan
    Is your leg okay?
[07:43] Maomao
    Did he summon her to chaperone me?
[07:48] Maomao
    They did repeatedly tell me
    not to push myself too hard.
[07:53] Maomao
    I'm fine. Sorry to make you help.
[07:55] Xiaolan
    It's okay. It's been a while since
    we've worked together, huh?
[07:59] Maomao
    Yeah, it has.
[08:05] Maomao
    We brought in over one hundred roses.
[08:11] Maomao
    This is the last one.
[08:14] Xiaolan
    Wow, this is a lot!
[08:17] Maomao
    We diversified the species, selecting
    early-blooming ones where possible.
[08:21] Xiaolan
    Will they all bloom?
[08:23] Maomao
    I hope so.
[08:37] Maomao
    Temperature control requires utmost care.
[08:41] Maomao
    I got them to send some help, but this is
    a tough task to delegate to others.
[08:48] Maomao
    If we make a mistake and kill them all,
    that would be the end of it.
[08:56] Maomao
    On sunny days, we bring them
    outside to expose them to sunlight.
[09:02] Xiaolan
    That must feel good!
[09:05] Maomao
    Yeah.
[09:06] Gaoshun
    How are you doing?
[09:09] Gaoshun
    Here, a gift.
[09:14] Maomao
    Thank you very much.
[09:17] Xiaolan
    I get to skip work and
    eat snacks? This is great!
[09:22] Maomao
    This is work too, though.
[09:27] Xiaolan
    What's with them?
[09:29] Maomao
    I don't know. Maybe they're just curious.
[09:32] Maomao
    Or they want to be scared.
[09:37] Xiaolan
    What should I do next?
[09:40] Maomao
    If a seedling has a lot of sprouts
    on it, can you pick a few?
[09:44] Maomao
    It concentrates the nutrients into the
    remaining sprouts and helps prevent sickness.
[09:49] Eunuchs
    Ah.
[09:51] Eunuchs
    Whoa!
[09:55] Xiaolan
    It's fine.
[10:01] Eunuchs
    Thank you.
[10:02] Xiaolan
    Don't mention it!
[10:06] Maomao
    Hurry!
[10:16] Xiaolan
    It's taking them a long time to bloom.
[10:24] Maomao
    On days where it gets cold,
[10:31] Maomao
    I stay up all night to maintain the heat.
[10:41] Maomao
    Weather can't be controlled.
[10:55] Xiaolan
    Did you pull another all-nighter?
[10:58] Maomao
    I did sleep, around dawn.
[11:00] Xiaolan
    Dawn was just moments ago!
[11:02] Xiaolan
    I'll do what I can,
    so why don't you get some sleep?
[11:06] Maomao
    I can't leave this alone.
[11:10] Xiaolan
    They're looking at us again.
[11:13] Maomao
    Every single day. Don't they get tired of this?
[11:16] Maomao
    It's irritating.
[11:19] Maomao
    I wonder if I can divert their attention...
[11:26] Xiaolan
    Wow! So this is what a manicure is like!
[11:31] Maomao
    Everyone does it in the pleasure district.
[11:34] Xiaolan
    It sure is pretty!
[11:47] Guiyuan
    Oh, you did it too, Maomao?
[11:49] Guiyuan
    So cute!
[11:51] Ailan
    It's been popular recently.
[11:54] Maomao
    Indeed.
[11:57] Maomao
    The high-ranking concubines are always
    at the cutting edge of fashion.
[12:08] Hongniang
    Seems like a waste of time.
[12:12] Maomao
    Lady Hongniang prefers work over fashion.
[12:16] Maomao
    I've finished tasting for poison,
    so I'll go back to the Crystal Pavilion now.
[12:20] Gyokuyou
    Already?
[12:21] Maomao
    The garden party is coming up soon.
[12:24] Gyokuyou
    I see...
[12:26] Hongniang
    Oh, by the way, Lady Gyokuyou
    won't be attending this time around.
[12:31] Hongniang
    We're letting the focus of this event
     be Lady Loulan's introduction.
[12:35] Maomao
    To hide the pregnancy, right.
[12:38] Maomao
    Understood. Excuse me.
[12:41] Yinghua
    Hey, is everything alright
    at the Crystal Pavilion?
[12:44] Guiyuan
    You look worse for wear every day.
[12:46] Ailan
    Don't push yourself too hard, okay?
[12:48] Maomao
    Thank you.
[13:01] Xiaolan
    Maomao!
[13:04] Xiaolan
    Maomao, hurry!
[13:11] Maomao
    A bud...
[13:12] Xiaolan
    I found it just now.
[13:14] Xiaolan
    Our first one, finally!
[13:18] Maomao
    At this rate... We might just make it in time.
[13:23] Xiaolan
    Maomao? Maomao!
[13:26] Xiaolan
    Maomao!
[13:36] Jinshi
    Has the apothecary sent any word?
[13:38] Gaoshun
    No, nothing.
[13:40] Gaoshun
    I haven't been able to visit her
    for the past few days.
[13:43] Jinshi
    We were both busy preparing
    for the garden party.
[13:50] Maomao
    Master Jinshi.
[14:21] Military Officer 1
    So, that's Concubine Loulan,
    daughter of Master Shishou.
[14:29] Bureaucrat 1
    How splendid.
[14:44] Shishou
    Regarding Concubine Loulan,
[14:49] Shishou
    is there anything that needs improvement?
[14:53] Shishou
    Please, hold nothing back.
[14:59] Loulan
    Please.
[15:01] Empress Dowager
    Oh.
[15:14] High Official 1
    Blue roses?!
[15:15] High Official 2
    It can't be...
[15:22] Jinshi
    It may be entertaining
[15:25] Jinshi
    to enjoy the beauty of these buds while
    imagining how they look at full bloom.
[15:30] Emperor
    Yes. They're beautiful.
[15:34] High Official 1
    Hmph.
[15:34] Jinshi
    The attention that "Jinshi" gets.
[15:39] Jinshi
    Unlike some of the worthless officials,
[15:42] Jinshi
    many don't appreciate a young eunuch
    hoarding attention, no matter how beautiful.
[15:50] Jinshi
    Lust is fine. It's easy to exploit that.
[15:57] Jinshi
    Envy is fine, too. It's manageable.
[15:59] Jinshi
    What's really troubling is...
[16:02] Jinshi
    When I can't tell what they're thinking.
[16:05] Jinshi
    Shishou. Concubine Loulan's father, the man
    favored by the mother of the former emperor...
[16:11] Jinshi
    Even now, the emperor
    can't look him in the eye.
[16:14] Jinshi
    That's why I also can't let
    my smile fade, either.
[16:18] Jinshi
    And besides, the one who's more
    worrying than Shishou right now is...
[16:22] Jinshi
    That man, Lakan.
[16:35] Lakan
    How annoying.
[16:44] Yinghua
    Are you awake?
[16:45] Maomao
    Yinghua.
[16:47] Yinghua
    Don't go to the Crystal Pavilion anymore.
[16:49] Yinghua
    You always come back looking so exhausted.
[16:54] Maomao
    I'm sorry.
[16:56] Jinshi
    You're up.
[17:01] Yinghua
    Excuse me.
[17:05] Jinshi
    You can stay seated.
[17:09] Maomao
    It was hard. I couldn't get them
    to fully bloom.
[17:14] Jinshi
    You're not apologizing to me, are you?
[17:19] Jinshi
    Never mind. You did well.
[17:23] Jinshi
    How did you do it, though?
[17:26] Maomao
    I just dyed them.
[17:28] Jinshi
    Dyed? But there's nothing on them.
[17:31] Maomao
    Not on the outside. We dyed them from the inside.
[17:39] Maomao
    All of these roses were originally white.
[17:44] Maomao
    We mixed water with several colors
    and had the white buds suck them up.
[17:49] Jinshi
    So that's why there were
    many colors, not just blue.
[17:53] Maomao
    Yes. The leaves ended up coming out
    black, so we plucked them all.
[17:59] Maomao
    Then all we had to do was to fix cotton
    soaked in the dyed water to the stems,
[18:03] Maomao
    so they wouldn't lose their
     vibrancy during the garden party.
[18:07] Maomao
    It really was quite simple.
[18:09] Maomao
    What was actually difficult was
    getting the roses to bloom at all.
[18:14] Jinshi
    Simple, indeed.
[18:17] Maomao
    Also, because some officials might
     have picked a quarrel about this,
[18:22] Maomao
    I went ahead and revealed
    the trick to the emperor.
[18:26] Maomao
    He seemed to enjoy the fact that
    he got to know the secret first,
[18:29] Maomao
    and had a good time listening to me explain.
[18:32] Jinshi
    So, about the story of the blue roses
    being seen in the palace...
[18:36] Maomao
    There must have been someone with a lot of
    free time feeding blue water to the roses.
[18:44] Jinshi
    Who would do something like that?
[18:47] Maomao
    Who knows? Maybe they wanted
    a gimmick with which to woo women.
[18:52] Jinshi
    That's unexpected. Are you painting your nails?
[18:55] Maomao
    It doesn't suit me, though.
[18:58] Maomao
    If I had some balsam and woodsorrel,
    I could have made them look prettier.
[19:03] Maomao
    Balsam is often used to dye fingernails,
    and woodsorrel is nicknamed cat's foot.
[19:08] Maomao
    Mixing them together and applying them
    on the fingernails creates a vivid red.
[19:12] Maomao
    But then, even if I made them prettier...
[19:15] Maomao
    This is better than it was before.
[19:19] Maomao
    Master Gaoshun, what about
    the item I requested?
[19:22] Gaoshun
    Yes, as you wished.
[19:25] Maomao
    Thank you.
[19:28] Maomao
    Now the stage is set.
[19:30] Maomao
    All I have to do now is catch
    that nasty creep off guard.
[19:39] Lakan
    I didn't expect my provocation to fail.
[19:51] Lakan
    Most humans only look like go stones to me.
[19:55] Lakan
    Men are black stones, women are white stones.
SIGN    Pawn
SIGN    Pawn
SIGN    Pawn
SIGN    Pawn
[19:59] Lakan
    Even my subordinates in the military
    only appear as chess pieces, at best.
[20:04] Lakan
    Most are soldiers, pawns.
[20:07] Lakan
    As they gain ranks,
    they become cavalry and cannons.
SIGN    River
[20:11] Lakan
    Working in the military is easy.
[20:14] Lakan
    I just need to know where to place the pieces.
[20:18] Lakan
    The right pieces in the right places.
    Most wars can be won by that alone.
[20:22] Lakan
    It's quite easy. Even if I were
    completely useless,
[20:27] Lakan
    as long as I placed others in the right places,
    the work would get done on its own.
[20:32] Lakan
    My eyes hurt more than usual today.
[20:35] Lakan
    A red color keeps flickering into my view.
[20:40] Lakan
    Manicures...
[20:42] Lakan
    The manicures in my memories
    aren't this overly flamboyant crimson.
[20:48] Lakan
    They're the soft color of balsam.
SIGN    Advisor
SIGN    Bishop
SIGN    Next Time
[22:46] Narrator
    Next time:
    "Balsam and Woodsorrel."
SIGN    Episode 23: Balsam and Woodsorrel