We silently honor the missing character in season three of "The Apothecary Diaries", and that's it.

The Apothecary Diaries season 3, episode 4 shows why Shisui is still important.

The Apothecary Diaries season 3, episode 4, "The Last Volume", continues the investigation into a plague of locusts, puts deceased character Shisui at the center of Maomao's next lead and sets the slower, high-tension pace of the season by allowing viewers to more accurately view White Lady.

After episode 48 ended the main storyline that had driven the first two seasons last year, the series has asked viewers to adapt with a smaller cast. Maomao continues to pick up fragments from her accumulated life as she moves forward and many of the characters who became fan favorites in the first 2 seasons are now rare or non-existent.

Shisui's absence shaped the investigation.

At the end of Season 3, Episode 3, Maomao chooses to visit Suirei and ask him what he knows about the missing germ. This reunion paves the way for yet another mystery, especially as season 3 slowly leads into its next episode.

When the two pharmacy employees meet again, female Ah-Duo is in the background taking frequent breaks and proves that Suirei's former mentor cannot help. She was the one who led Maomao on his experiments to find an elixir of immortality for Lady Shenmei and has suffered the same fate as Chou-u since she was the original experimenter of the potion once used by Suirei to escape from the Western Palace.

Suirei also does not know what happened to the last book of insects from her collection. The subject has always been with her sister, and Maomao's attention is turned towards Shisui. Both women realize that Kishi-su's permanent departure would normally render her absence useless, but a warning by Lady Ah-Duo gives Maumao a clearer reminder that such an awkward girl should never give up: it was on the day she saw the last number of bugs with her own two eyes that Suirei and Shisui snatched him away from the clinic.

The episode pays tribute to the memory of Shisui, a troubled young woman who sacrificed everything to protect her sister and Shi Clan children. In Season 2, Shisue became a beloved character whose relationship with Xiaolan and Maomao drove some of the season's most intense moments. Her influence now lives on in the traces she left behind.

Our last recording is a reconstruction of the locust crisis.

Jinshi retrieves the book from a warehouse where all of Maomao's belongings were confiscated after he was kidnapped. The recovered text gives some insight into what the characters can expect, but also intensifies the problem they are facing as they try to prevent possible starvation.

Shi Klan harvests the forests near areas most affected by locusts. The disappearance of so many birds in that area leads to a huge proliferation of insect pests. While there are few solutions to a disaster they don't know they need to anticipate, the characters at least have an idea of how one pesticide can negate future crop damage.

One of her happiest suggestions was that both Jinshi and Gaoshun stay green. When she wondered if banning the hunting of butterflies would help, Jinxi complained that ants were a source of food for people who were losing out. Her idea was enough to create a fox meal and make the Moon Prince recoil in horror from praising the royal family.

The comedy continues at Verdigris House, where Maomao invites Jinshi to dinner before leaving. They bring a plate full of cooked worms on the table and Maamao expects that he will back off instead; wanting to prove himself, Jinshi is bitten and swallowed with a happy face. His willingness to be literally ill confuses him, as she feeds him porridge like an infant, while Granny and the three princesses contemplate Mao's romantic future.

A white woman comes into the frame.

Each episode brought the story closer to White Lady's official introduction. While early scenes showed her poisoning a starving people, Episode 4 opens up the first serious discussion of this strange woman who is really looking at her and entertaining people with her unique appearance, promises about magic, and claims of immortality.

The conversation between the princess of Verdigris' house and Maomao adds more context about a woman with albinism who had recently snatched an income from their doorstep. Maumao realizes that the only way to learn more is by watching her own performance. Unfortunately, she has no access to the theater and faces the possibility of someone who can help her in the scene being someone she does not want to interview.

What happened next?

In this week's episode, we show another slow fire -- the mystery that viewers are asked to believe leads us somewhere worth following. The Apothecary Diaries is taking its time this season, and that pace may be frustrating for some fans.

The story's underpinnings remain the foundation for all of this. After a young girl is captured and sold into slavery in an imperial palace, she secretly uses her medicinal skills with the help of her superior eunuch to unravel medical mysteries inside the chamber. & It's called OLM.