A consort cloaked in silk. A bug-loving maid slipping through shadows. A rebel hiding in plain sight.
That’s Loulan—aka Shisui—in The Apothecary Diaries: a woman who faked loyalty to a treasonous mother while plotting her downfall, saving innocents, and engineering her own escape. Her fate was wrapped around survival, deception, and self-reinvention. So what really happened to Loulan/Shisui after the Shi clan’s collapse?
Let’s unmask the truth.
Loulan’s Tightrope Walk: Daughter, Consort, Rebel
At first glance, Loulan was the perfect consort—elegant, composed, and dutiful to her powerful mother, Shenmei, the iron-fisted matriarch of the Shi clan. But behind the silken masks and jeweled pins was a woman playing a dangerous game.
- Shenmei’s rebellion wasn’t just palace gossip. It was treason: funded by embezzled gold, weaponized with feifa (explosives), and aimed squarely at Jinshi, the imperial brother she despised.
- Loulan’s role? A double agent. Publicly compliant, secretly undermining the rebellion with her father, Shishou.
And when the palace maid Shisui flitted through laundry rooms and corridors, it wasn’t a coincidence. That was Loulan—her real self—slipping free of Shenmei’s control, gathering intelligence, and forging bonds with key players like Maomao and Xiaolan.
Loulan’s double life was rebellion in disguise.
A Death Staged to Perfection in Apothecary Diaries
When Shenmei’s rebellion imploded, Loulan wasn’t a passive bystander. She orchestrated a vanishing act so convincing that even seasoned courtiers believed her dead:
- “Presumed dead under the snow,” Loulan’s staged demise was a brilliant cover, allowing her to escape the purge that obliterated the Shi clan.
- Rumors swirl of her scratching Jinshi’s face in public—a staged “attack” (with his consent) to cement her as a traitor and make her death legally airtight.
The use of the resurrection drug—a pharmacological marvel from “the West”—sealed the deal. This concoction faked death so convincingly it spared the Shi clan’s innocent children, whom Loulan smuggled into safety under Lady Ah-Duo’s care.
| Character | Fate and Aftermath |
|---|---|
| Loulan/Shisui | Faked death, reemerged as “Tamamo” |
| Suirei | Survived under Lady Ah-Duo’s protection |
| Shi Clan Children | “Resurrected,” spared execution, hidden away |
| Shenmei | Executed during rebellion’s suppression |
| Shishou | Died in the rebellion, double agent to the end |
| Loulan’s Maids | Ambiguous: punished but likely not executed |
Shisui’s True Self in Apothecary Diaries
Emerging as Tamamo, Loulan left behind her silk-clad prison to embrace freedom. But it came at a steep cost:
- Lost everything: Title, wealth, family, and even the right to her own name.
- A wanderer with nothing but her wits and a passion for insects. She even sold a hairpin given by Maomao, trading past ties for a bug-themed trinket that symbolized her true identity.
Shisui’s escape wasn’t just survival. It was a rebirth.
Why Loulan’s Story Still Resonates
Loulan’s dual identities—Consort Loulan and the bug-loving maid Shisui—represent the suffocating mask of duty versus the raw hunger for authenticity.
Jinshi’s subtle cooperation and Suirei’s survival under Lady Ah-Duo reveal the moral complexity of the series.
And Loulan? She didn’t just survive.
She outsmarted an empire.
🧠 What Happened to Shisui/Loulan in The Apothecary Diaries?
Did Loulan truly die during the Shi clan rebellion?
No. Loulan faked her death with a meticulous plan. Her public “demise” under the snow was staged, likely with Jinshi’s consent, to allow her to vanish from imperial scrutiny.
Why did Loulan become Tamamo?
After faking her death, Loulan shed her old life to embrace freedom. The name “Tamamo” may reference Tamamo-no-Mae from folklore, symbolizing a fresh start cloaked in cunning and resilience.
What’s the significance of the resurrection drug?
The resurrection drug fakes death convincingly using substances like thorn-apple and pufferfish toxin. Loulan used it to save Shi clan children from execution, offering them a second chance at life.
Did Jinshi play a role in Loulan’s escape?
Yes. Evidence suggests Jinshi not only allowed Loulan to “attack” him as part of her escape but also ensured Suirei’s safety and protected the “resurrected” children from persecution.
Where did Loulan go after the rebellion?
She was last seen boarding a ship to a foreign land—possibly the series’ version of Japan—as Tamamo, free to live as her true self far from the palace intrigues.