Does She Still Remember? | The Apothecary Diaries 

Since he has the face thing he still sees her how he thinks she looks.

I was so hoping someone else would notice that. What a beautiful touch

​@victorbressler7156 you're forgetting the reason he was so interested in her to start is he doesn't see the face thing with her. He sees her actual face. This isn't that, this is just like an elderly couple that looks at their partner and sees them for the person they were in their 20s/30s because who they are on the inside matters more to them than what they look like. That's the point this scene is trying to make. She may be withered but she's still a rose.

Actually i found someone explained that due to Lakan's inability to recognize face, the Fengxian he saw is not just his imagination. It's literally what he sees. And i thought that made this scene more impactful.

Better to have some closure, however short it may be.

Yes 😢😢

I've missed the moment where we're told that he thought she was dead. And the motivation of the brothel owner is unclear for me. Why did she hide Fengxian? Was she thinking that Lakan was dangerous?

@@Nice_Treethe anime kind glazes over a lot of details.

@@Nice_TreeI’ve always thought the Madame was just trying to protect her. She didn’t like or trust Lakan after he abandoned Fengxian, and whilst she’d take his money, from her perspective, she doesn’t think he deserves to know or see her after the pain and ruin he caused her. To the best of her knowledge, he left willingly, and didn’t come back until it was much too late. That was one of her best ‘girls’, and whilst she is money hungry and runs a brothel, she still cares about them a lot and would have known how much Fengxian liked him compared to her other regulars. I think people also gloss over that, for the time, she wasn’t obligated to look after Fengxian. She’d have been justified at kicking her out on the street for good, after lowering the status of the brothel and herself like she did. But she still tried to keep her safe, tried to keep her as comfortable as possible as the infection progressed and tried to protect her and her daughter from what she considered threats.

It’s actually quite a good story telling perspective: you tell the story from the protagonist, then switch to the one in focus

After all, everyone's the protagonist of their own story.

​@@DThorn619the protagonist from Mein Kampf too?

​@@josephwagner7277The protagonist isn't always the good guy/hero. And that story's protagonist was no good guy.

@@josephwagner7277 protagonist =/= good guy. Just mean they are the main character of their own story

I wouldn't say she's hideous. In terms of appearance, she still looks much better compared to a lot of other people.

She is still beautiful, but her illness disfigured her😢

​@@gwen4200 they dont show her face properly in the anime but she doesn't have a nose anymore because of syphilis

Actually i found someone explained that due to Lakan's inability to recognize face, the Fengxian he saw is not just his imagination. It's literally what he sees. And i thought that made this scene more impactful.

Never again, already happened once and I don't think even the Emperor standing in his way, would stop him from going to her side.

Still better than most anime do it.

We are at least getting three seasons and at this pace up to 6 to 7.

WE BETTER

She planned this, I just know it.

@@algordo1997nope

@@manofclay53 isn't the flower she gave him meant to push him to find her mom?

Under the flower was a letter of Mao Mao saying to his father she should buy Mei Mei

@@JaAvii3456 yes the hint was the withered rose. She probably knew meimei would hint towards her mom as well

That's so tragically beautiful.

That could have been this episode title

That absolutely blew my mind when I realized, the only reason we think of him as a dirtbag is because he was all but describing himself as a dirtbag The series practically screams "don't trust how people describe themselves" yet we didn't think that that might apply to a good man beating himself up over a tragic mistake

@@CrispBaker Peak storytelling. Making us into master strategists and psychologists by the third season. 😅❤️☺️

IKR 😭

Just because it's bitter sweet doesn't mean it isn't a happy reunion.

@@Hypersaiyanike You know what happens next, right? Also, she has one of the saddest backstories I've seen.

Trust me, this is much better than the OG Web Novel where she was actually dead and Lakan wasn’t just misled. There’s a couple of those where people who died in the WN live in the LN. In this case there is still death but the character gets happiness first

WDYM, there are a few couples in the story who got their happy ending, just not this one. It is what it is.

@@onur6145 Yeah, it's why I said it's bitter sweet. Doesn't mean this moment right here for them isn't happy.

She knew what she was doing for real. 😂😂😂😂 She even snickered after she did it. With her mischievous cat eyes and all. 😅 I love that girl. ❤

He would have always done this

Given this context, the mess isn’t on him.

The Old lady said she was long gone and Moa Moa did not tell him until now.

@@lmae8337 Domo. 😑

We all know Maomao was raised by his uncle. Even if Fengxian was indeed gone, Maomao can still live. Nobody told him that Fengxian was alive.

Oh shush, let us imagine things are just a bit brighter than reality would usually be.

I mean she was literally waiting for him and when Maomao was told the "creepy guy" was at the brothel, Fengxian pulled out her Go stones and started setting up the board.

Well it's more complicated than that... But you make it sound like he doesn't deserve one

Homie, we still got like 6 light novels of material to adapt. Simmer down

@@Ash_Wen-liWell, now that it's revealed that Fengxian ain't dead, of course people are going to allow him some more sympathies points... still crossing my fingers that Maomao doesn't let him get away with it, tho.

​​@@Kaito57Get away with what? It was her plan to get pregnant and he was forcefully sent away (in some versions to war) He didn't give her Syphilis if that's what you think. There's nothing to get away with since he's a victim in this situation too

@@Ash_Wen-li A victim, uh ? Dude is so respected/feared, even the Emperor won’t mess with his clan and he LITERALLY sees anybody he doesn’t care in the slightest about as pawns to move around… yep, let cry for the man who’s alone at the top, I guess.

HTTYD 2 reference! 🥲

Oh great, just kick my heart while it's already on the ground 😭

I swooned the first time I heard that line. It remains one of the most perfect lines in my mind.

Está frase me hace llorar 😭 Es muy dulce y romántica 💖

EMOTIONAL DAMAGE😢❤

😭

😢

I think it's reversed. I think Feng would have been the one questioning his love and Lakan would be the one to answer. Eitherway, this scene is so bittersweet.

Don’t watch the show but Maomao wanted her father to buy out another woman and get with her instead of her mom? Because that was what it meant to buy out a courtesan back then. To make them your concubine

@@elithluxe7568 In Maomao's eyes, Meimei deserved to be bought out and be happy over her own mother who she considers mostly a stranger, while she treats Meimei as more of a mother figure to her instead

@@theeldude1000why would Maomao want her mother figure to marry a guy she, at best, feels nothing towards? And why would Maomao send the withered rose message if not referring to her mother? Meimei, while a little on the older side, still shows no sings of slowing down, she’s not “withered” at all. It is very clear that the courtesan Maomao wanted to get bought out was her mother, which also makes sense from her perspective, even if she doesn’t particularly care for either of her parents, she still looks over Fengxian and knows Lakan better than anyone, it just makes sense to let the, be together since it doesn’t take anything away from Maomao, guarantees that her mother will be looked after even better than on the pleasure district, and gets her father off her back for a while while he goes on his honeymoon. Plus, she knows that Lakan doesn’t particularly care for Meimei (at least in that way), so that’d just doom her to a one sided marriage for the rest of her life. By removing the option of Lakan being her’s, Maomao forces Meimei to look somewhere else for love

@@San-nj8fj Lakan is wealthy and has good status, meaning Meimei could retire from the brothel and live a comfortable life. He also doesn't seem like an abusive partner. Practically speaking, buying Meimei out would be a safe escape from the redlight district which is the ultimate goal of a courtesan.

@@atypewriter I just feel like Maomao would want Meimei to marry someone who loves her back. Lakan very clearly only loves Fengxian and Maomao, everyone else he’s either indifferent to or at best, he’s fine with them.

And fell. HEADFIRST. 😂 How? 😂😂😂

Lakan messed up once by compromising, he's obviously going to take the straightest path to Fengxian this time

@@sallyt.4786 Well that was... so sweet. Unexpectedly.

Is also heavily implied she actually loved Lakan too.

I guess this is one benefit of being face blind

Part of the great advantage of suffering Prosopagnosia (face blindness); but it does not rule out that the most important people can distinguish them; Even those who lost, may the latter continue to see her as the beauty she was regardless of how she suffers from syphilis.

From what I'm seeing here, she never told him she was dead. And I don't think Lakan ever explained his situation either. So to her, he's just some dude who disappeared for three long years and did that to Fengxian. To her, he doesn't deserve her.

@@zoraackerman1684 The madam said Fengxian was "gone". Her mind and beauty is gone and might have assumed he would have rejected her in that state.

@@lmae8337 Or was maybe just emotional. Like there's nothing here for you anymore, you missed your chance. Anyway, while she could have done better, she's not to blame for the whole situation. Miscommunication. I doubt she knew, or even fully knows even now what held Lakan back. That same ✨️miscommunication✨️. If it wasn't for Maomao none of this would have even happened. Leave it up to the kid y'all are supposed to be protecting to fix it all. 🤦

​@zoraackerman1684 in the msnga she told him she was dead. The anime changed the dialogue to be more vague

​@@zoraackerman1684 telling someone that the woman they loved, who after he left suffered from possibly several STDs, and according to the letters AND FINGERS, was mentally unstable, is gone isclearly meant to imply that she is dead. Granny wanted him to believe she was dead. This isn't a miscommunication moment.

same.

Well yeah bur mainly because they commented over Gungi and Meruem realized his feelings and went back with only her in mind. They are both tragedies but honestly this leaves way more of a bitter taste, in HxH that was borderline a happy ending

​@@huh5950How could that be a happy ending if they both die? That was a tragic ending, while this relationship between Laokan and Fengxian it's just bittersweet, they were apart for a lot of years, but at least now they get to be happy together, while Meruem and Komugi had little time to know each other and had to say goodbye forever immediately after, that can't be considered a happy ending.

@@Hikari12217 Japanese do have this concept of double suicide by lovers so they can be together in the afterlife/next life, you could interpret Meruem and Komugi's death as something like this. Certainly not a Happy end but bittersweet, yes.

More like Rias and Issei from DxD.

You sure?

@@zoraackerman1684 Yes, Fengxian pretty much embodied Pride, hence why she had a reputation of looking at others like they were insects (of course this made her appealing among certain circles of clientele obviously, in addition to her intellect & skill at Go)

I would say the madam of the brothel had more to do with that than her.

Yeah, she could have told him that she was pregnant in the letter, rather than giving him complete hints and hoping he will figure it out. Even intelligent men can be dense sometimes. Even Maomao said she became insane because her plan didn’t work out.

You got it right, if she was only more sincere... just like Mei said.

The thing about maomao is that even she doesn't get it, not really; she dismisses lakan as "just a stud horse" that was exploited by her birth mother maomao is too traumatized to love, so she really isn't equipped to accept how they really felt about each other, why her mom did what she did, and exactly WHY fengxian lost her mind at the perceived betrayal

She spent every able-bodied moment playing their game. Even if it's fuzzy, she remembers him.

Last time a moment’s hesitation cost him everything, he will not take that chance again.

My guess is that she didn't but the smile shows how she felt on the inside

Seaon 2 for this is already in production. The release date they announced was 2025.

@@zoraackerman1684 for apothecary? How about 7th loop? Hehehe