After breaking a curse on the imperial heirs, a palace servant with training in herbal medicine is promoted up the ranks to food taster…and right into the thick of palace intrigue in this lushly illustrated historical mystery series!
Though Maomao has left the palace behind and returned to her home in the pleasure district, it seems the Inner Court can’t do without her! Jinshi comes to the erstwhile food taster with a request involving the attempted poisoning of the Virtuous Consort during the garden banquet and the identity of the mastermind behind it!
bookshop.org

Content Warnings: mention of murder, execution, mutilation, human trafficking, loss of a child, death of children, and indentured servitude.
This, by far, was my favorite volume! Not only do we get to know more about Maomao but we get more interactions with Jinshin and we learn more history of, some of, the residence of the palace.
I was already interested in the series after reading the first few books but I have to say volume four has cemented my need to get my hands on the entire series. Apparently, this was a novel first, that has now been turned into a manga…I’m tempted to get my hands on the novels as well since I’ll be able to learn more of the story before the manga volumes release.
If you’re looking for a, mostly, lighthearted historically set manga that has a lot of mysteries to uncover I highly recommend picking this series up!