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「鏡」 (Kagami)
“Mirrors”
The latest buzz in the rear palace is the arrival of mirrors courtesy of the big, important envoy arrived from the West. Now, mirrors themselves are nothing new. They had mirrors in ancient Asia. Japan has had mirrors since ancient times used in ceremonial practices and obtained mirrors from trading with China. So, they aren’t new. Perhaps it’s the length and material that is revolutionary. HD TV screens vs. old school tube TVs kind of deal. The designs on the mirror are similar to designs on pottery and textiles from the middle east/central Asia, which based on some of the shots, appears to be the case.
The oohing and awing is cut short by a surprise visit from Gaoshun, who requests a private conference with Maomao. A servant accompanies her for propriety’s sake, but let’s be honest- she just wants to size him up (promptly squashed due to him already being taken).
The problem he presents runs like an American daytime TV “Who’s the baby daddy?” show but set in historical China. That whole mystery set up cracked me up, especially the part about getting impregnated by a wizard. LOL. All I can say is, where there’s a will, there’s a way. You can try to isolate your kids from the world all you want, but they almost always end up breaking out or it breaks in. The reality is, there’s really not much you can do, other than teaching them to be smart about what they do- policing them does squat, if anything, it makes the situation much worse. Not to mention how unhealthy it is to isolate one’s child in a social vacuum. A little sex education would have gone a long way here, as I’m sure MaoMao would agree. MaoMao gets the sneaking suspicion that Gaoshun’s hiding something, and I have to wonder if it will end up having something to do with it involving Gaoshun’s daughters or perhaps a lady with the envoy. That would big some big time diplomatic trouble if one of the envoys got pregnant.
Maomao quickly deduces that the two girls were actually one girl reflected in a mirror while the other one broke out. It had also occurred to me that it could be possible for someone to dig a hidden underground passage in the floor, connecting their room with the outside like in a prison escape movie (which is basically what this is). But the mirror closes the case neatly, though it leaves me and MaoMao with many burning questions. Knowing the personality of this series, I assume we’ll come back to this mini mystery in an episode or two, so I’ll wait until then.
The final piece of this episode was the mysterious moon fairy courtesan who cried tears of pearls, which sounds as much of a tall tale as the “impregnated by a wizard” bit. The envoy’s grandfather was charmed by just such a woman on a previous mission to the palace 50 years before and the current envoy demands to hear the legendary waif she heard about growing up. Maomao only needs a second to think before landing on the identity of the lady in question- none other than her tough cookie of a grandma back in the flower district.
Apparently grandma was quite a looker back in the day, from a painting commissioned by the envoy- tall, beautiful, and well-endowed. Obviously, they can’t send grandma out there- aged and having shrunk a few centimeters, she won’t match the ageless, otherworldly fantasy that the young girl has in mind. But- never fear, they have another tall, beautiful substitute, who you know is 100% going to be Jinshi. The only thing missing is the pearly tears trick, which is kind of obvious is going to have something to do with the bioluminescent butterflies glimpsed at the end. While the threads in these mini mysteries are plain as day, where the interest lies is in the characters who use that threads and the process of them spinning (or unravelling, whichever you prefer) them, more than the actual end product itself.
Preview
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