Kusuriya no Hitorigoto - Vol. 8 Ch. 37 - Balsam and Wood Sorrel (Part 1)

[Wanderdoodle]

I didnt even catch it the first time i read the chapter but he didnt even know he loved her. He was so busy looking at their go and xiangqi games that he only realised after she was dead and the first time he wanted to actually see someone as a person was when he saw his daughter. This chapter explained so much like why Pai Rin seemed to care a lot about for Mao Mao’s mother. I dont even think he had facial blindness, more like he was just so used to seeing people as unimportant and later on as pawns until he found someone worth recognising. God this manga is a masterpiece

 

[hentacle]

¿Qué?

 

[mammaria]

huh, this makes him seem way more sympathetic than the novel, imo. anyway, mao mao's mom isn't dead in this interpretation tho, is she?? didn't we see her a few chapters ago??? (i mean, i assumed that was her mother anyway, i'm like 99% sure it was)

thank you for the update!! can't believe i missed it alksdlk

 

[hansonagi]

@Official229 why did you change the mother’s name? Feng Shen sounds much better than Fon

 

[Official229]

@hansonagi from what I can decipher from the TLs ramblings, Fon Shen is how the author intended it to be. Feng Xian being the chinese name, Fon Shen being the japanese equivelent. Feng Shen was a mixture of both, I think.

 

[Helen_Brite]

I feel so sorry for Rakan now... he really didn't have a choice when he left... and all those years he just wanted to be with his daughter, the only person he could se the face. Why they took Mao Mao away from him? It was not his fault. Also, I think Fon Shen is still alive and Rakan doesn't even know about that. Isn't she the woman with siphilis we saw a few chapters ago? I went back to see if she had a missing finger, but her hands were not shown entirely.

 

[hansonagi]

@Official229 then can you also decipher why Rakan eventually comes to recognize a face, first being Fon Shen (when he says so this is what a person's face looks like), and then his daughter Mao Mao, but never his uncle? People who aren't remarkable or stand out in any way are seen as game pieces from either GO or Xianqi to him but you would think that his brilliant uncle wouldn't be one of them. Since he was the one who suggested to him the method of trying to remember people as a xiangi piece. Also from the beginning to the end of the chapter the piece that was assigned to his uncle is 車 although idk if that has an significance.

 

[Official229]

@hansonagi I think your memory of that TL note is a bit off, here: https://mangadex.org/chapter/1058296/18
Everyone who isn't remarkable in any way is seen as a pieces from the game GO, while those that are/and or stand out, are seen as pieces from the game Xianqi.
The reason why he's able to see Fon Shen's face, as opposed to his uncle's, is probably because of the shock he received from losing a game against her when he thought he was going to easily win.
As for why he was able to see Mao Mao's face, it's probably because he was able to subconsciously recognize the similarity between her and Fon Shen, thus making him able to see her face as well.
That's my take on it at least.

 

[Ochredog]

poor dude...

man... did that black page with the creak and rustle sound effects give anyone else a boner? I read enough hentai to have some immunity alright. It just goes to show that you don't need to explicitly depict a scene to invoke an emotional (or even physiological) reaction in the audience.

Truly superb writing!

 

[shibaweeb]

Interesting, Rakan has face blindness..... maybe? His sudden magical ability to see, recognize, and differentiate both Feng Shen and Mao Mao's faces kinda throws a wrench in that, but all his other symptoms fit.

@hansonagi 車 is the character used in Xiangqi to depict the "chariot" piece, which like the chapter pointed out would equate to the rook piece in western chess. It's commonly thought of as the strongest piece, since it lacks many restrictions and moves fairly freely, which might point to the idea that Rakan considers his uncle to be like that piece.

A reason he uses Go and Xiangqi pieces for different people is likely an indication of their "importance". As you may have noticed in the chapter, the number of pieces between a Xiangqi set and a Go set are vastly different; this is because Go does not put significance on each piece, while Xiangqi does. Thus, Rakan views "the vast majority" as Go pieces due to their abundance of numbers and lack of real significance to his personal life or work, using the black and white to differentiate the dichotomy of men and women. People who are directly related to his work or have significance to him would need further designation so he can move the right pieces unto the right places (Xiangqi is a military simulation, technically). Since every piece in Xiangqi has a role to play, it's as simple as assigning the appropriate piece to remind him what they're there for.

 

[Ruixixi]

Whoa, the argument in this comment section is just
You're all discussing about the madam and the brothel establishment at the start right? Idk how the it turned into argument about slave, has someone mentioned before that prostitute are not slave?
Like, slave=do labor, not getting any material or money (being exploited)
prostitute=do labor(entertainment/sex), do get money from it
so my take is: prostitute is considered as a legitimate job and brothel is a business, albeit a very very lowly one. Slavery and prostitution is different. In a sense I think prostitute here is closer to being a servant because servant do labor and get paid also
Idk, I just think the argument could've been shorter if it stays in context

 

[heml8ck]

This story is so good, I wish it had more chapters already so I wouldn't have to bear the wait lol! Thanks as always for the quality updates <3

 

[blueoddog]

this corresponds to which ch in the LN?

 

[Tatsumaikyoku]

@starch12313 Right. . .Sure you are bro, whatever floats your boat and helps you sleep at night I guess.

 

[starch12313]

@Tatsumaikyoku

I mean I cant help it. Being right is just my thing.

 

[Tatsumaikyoku]

@starch12313 Ok

 

[daywithoutgames]

page 2 , panel 4 : the 2 Xiangqi pieces on their heads are Soldier / pawn / private / 兵 .

goof :
in page 21 , granny hag has a normal head in his eyes . does this mean he also loves granny ? lol .
then in page 24 , her head is a GO piece .

 

[acher13]

Wow that makes me pity him abit.

 

[uwumis]

? !

 

[vezlan]

damn....