Recaps

Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren visited the martyrs' cemetery, where she mourned her parents and learned about the continuing drug trade in Masuba. Yu Meiren left a roast chicken at her parents' grave and told them about her life in Wuzhong, while Teacher Qingmu remained missing.

• Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren visited the graves of Yu Gang, his wife, and their fallen comrades with Peng Jiahu.
• Peng Jiahu told Shi Dazhuang that small drug gangs still operated, and explained that You Ka had taken control of Masuba while keeping his drugs out of China.
• Shi Dazhuang said Teacher Qingmu had disappeared and could not be found if he did not want to be found.
• Yu Meiren asked to buy a chicken for her father, and Peng Jiahu returned with a roast chicken and liquor after accepting her saved money for the chicken.
• Yu Meiren placed the chicken before her parents' headstone and told them about her life in Wuzhong, her friends, and how much she missed them.

Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren returned to Mangdian, where the town’s growth reminded them how much had changed since their last visit. At a shop that had once belonged to Medicine Granny, they encountered Yusang, who recognized Shi Dazhuang as Papa Shi.

• Peng Jiahu entrusted Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren to Chen Changshou’s protection before returning to Baoteng.
• Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren stayed overnight in the newly developed Mangdian and heard Chen Changshou describe the region’s tourism and border security.
• Yu Meiren mistook a beggar for Beggar Yeye, gave him her remaining change, and felt upset when children chased after him.
• Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren explored the lively souvenir shops on Tobacco and Hemp Street.
• At the former shop of Medicine Granny, Yusang emerged with a rattan craft, recognized Shi Dazhuang, and was greeted by Yu Meiren as Brother Yusang.

Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren reunite with Yusang and learn how Kuaziba has prospered since leaving opium behind. They discover that Grandpa Enkun has died, and Yusang’s wife comforts Yu Meiren by describing his legacy and saying he has gone ahead to a pure place.

• Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren meet Yusang, who introduces his wife and welcomes them to a belated wedding feast.
• Yusang tells Shi Dazhuang that Kuaziba has a new road, improved homes, and a cooperative that sells mountain products and wickerwork.
• Yusang reveals that Grandpa Enkun died a month earlier, and Yu Meiren breaks down in grief.
• Yusang’s wife recounts how Grandpa Enkun helped Kuaziba abandon opium, build livelihoods, and bring a road to the valley.
• Yu Meiren calms down and asks whether Grandpa Enkun will become a star.

Yu Meiren awakened the life-giving power in Grandpa Enkun’s ebony cane at his grave and declared that she would stay in Kuaziba. As she pulled the cane from the earth, Bi Shenghua sensed the upheaval from afar and rushed toward Liuying Lane.

• Shi Dazhuang took Yu Meiren to Kuaziba, where she paid respects at Grandpa Enkun’s grave beside the graves of Yu Gang and Lemao.
• Yu Meiren touched Grandpa Enkun’s cane, and the dead wood sprouted into an evergreen tree as life surged across the hillside.
• Shi Dazhuang saw Grandpa Enkun appear in a dreamlike vision, then heard Yu Meiren say she would not return to Wuzhong because Kuaziba was her home.
• Yu Meiren pulled the cane from the earth, gathering the land’s vitality into her hand.
• Bi Shenghua saw a vision of a giant uprooting a tree, then rushed from the New Ruhua Bar toward Liuying Lane.

Xia Tian traveled to Southern Yunnan hoping to persuade Yu Meiren to return to Wuzhong, but decided he wanted to stay near her. Yu Meiren refused to go back with him and encouraged him to return home, while their promise to meet again was fulfilled years later when Xia Tian saw a canopy tree and blue poppy in the mountains.

• Xia Tian flew to Spring City with Hu Xing, but his father, Xia Changzheng, arrived too late to stop him from leaving Wuzhong.
• Captivated by Mangdian and Kuaziba, Xia Tian decided he wanted to stay, and Xia Changzheng agreed to invest in the area and build a school.
• Xia Tian asked Yu Meiren whether she would return with him if his great-uncle refused to let him stay, but she said no and urged him to go home.
• Yu Meiren told Xia Tian that he could return to see the beautiful scenery and shared her mother's story that a blue poppy would bloom for a canopy tree that grew taller than the mountains.
• Xia Tian returned to Wuzhong after Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia refused to let him live in a distant border town, while Xia Changzheng went to Ruihekou to oversee the tourism investment.
• Years later, Xia Tian visited Southern Yunnan and saw a canopy tree and blue poppy on a mountain scree slope.

Bian Ziyuan met Mei Ziqing at Ruhua Bar for drinks, where they shared a sake bomb and discussed the approaching typhoon Windmill. Their conversation was interrupted by a man who claimed Shenzhou was protected by a mysterious barrier, leaving Mei Ziqing curious.

• Bian Ziyuan arrived at Ruhua Bar and waited for Mei Ziqing, hoping to get a seat in the dim corner.
• Mei Ziqing joined Bian Ziyuan after learning the bar's proprietress had just left, and Xiao Qi prepared her a sake bomb.
• Bian Ziyuan asked Mei Ziqing about Windmill, and she said the professor believed it would not make landfall because the Andes Mountains would block it.
• A male customer told Mei Ziqing that a mysterious barrier hid Shenzhou and would keep the typhoon from making landfall.

A drunk man spun tales about Shenzhou’s supernatural barrier while trying to seduce Mei Ziqing, and Bian Ziyuan eventually shoved him away. The man’s accomplices pinned Bian Ziyuan against the bar, but Xiao Qi intervened and challenged him.

• A drunken man approached Mei Ziqing and claimed Kunlun was a barrier, then tried to read her palm while Bian Ziyuan grew jealous and angry.
• The man explained Shenzhou’s protection through a tale of two dragons, Guanyin, and the region’s prosperity, while Mei Ziqing questioned his claims.
• After the man invited Mei Ziqing somewhere quiet to tell her fortune, Bian Ziyuan shoved him and ordered him to leave.
• The man fell into nearby patrons and knocked drinks over, then demanded Bian Ziyuan pay for them while onlookers blamed Bian Ziyuan.
• Several men grabbed Bian Ziyuan and pinned him against the bar, but Xiao Qi confronted the drunken man and warned him to stop.

Xiao Qi handled a bar disturbance calmly, while Bian Ziyuan felt humiliated and longed to return to his virtual world. After Bian Ziyuan saw a strange red-haired man whose glance gave him a vision of frozen corpses, Mei Ziqing suggested he make his dream world real.

• Xiao Qi gave the provocative man a way to back down, offered him liquor, and covered the other customers’ bills before the man and his companions left.
• Xiao Qi served Bian Ziyuan vodka, and Mei Ziqing questioned him about how he had handled the troublemakers.
• Bian Ziyuan sat with Mei Ziqing and wished he could use the Space Box and Dream Guide to return to his virtual world.
• Bian Ziyuan noticed a hooded, red-haired man in the darkest corner, and the man’s glance made him see people frozen inside icebergs.
• Mei Ziqing comforted Bian Ziyuan and suggested he make his dream world real, leaving him startled by the idea.

Bi Shenghua remembered Qingmu and the willow while visiting Ruhua Bar, then rushed to Liuying Lane after seeing a vision of the tree being uprooted. She found an old man beneath the willow instead of Qingmu and recognized him as Professor Mei Yiqiu.

• Bi Shenghua reminisced about her old bar, Qingmu, and the talking bird while sitting in Ruhua Bar.
• Bi Shenghua saw a vision of a hand pulling the willow from the ground and dropped her cocktail glass.
• Bi Shenghua hurried back to the ruins of Liuying Lane to check on the willow.
• Bi Shenghua saw a figure beneath the tree and hoped Qingmu had returned, but the figure opened an umbrella.
• Bi Shenghua approached the old man and greeted Professor Mei Yiqiu.

Mei Yiqiu visited Bi Shenghua at the ruined Mulberry Garden and offered her advice on its redevelopment. He left her with paintings revealing what the garden had looked like before its destruction.

• Mei Yiqiu met Bi Shenghua in the rain and hinted that a hidden barrier lay beneath the tree in Wuzhong.
• Bi Shenghua told Mei Yiqiu she could find no records of the old Mulberry Garden and that the ancient tree’s roots obstructed construction.
• Mei Yiqiu noticed a key hidden beneath a succulent and recited a poem as Bi Shenghua opened the house.
• Mei Yiqiu visited Qingmu’s preserved room, remarked that Bi Shenghua resembled an old friend, and gave her a stack of landscape paintings.
• Bi Shenghua recognized the mulberry tree in the final painting, and Mei Yiqiu confirmed that the paintings depicted Mulberry Garden as it once was.

Mei Yiqiu gave Bi Shenghua historical paintings that helped her understand the Mulberry Garden’s layout, then entrusted her with a device called the Key to the Dreamscape. He warned that using it at the appropriate time could save humanity or reduce Earth’s population by half, and left Bi Shenghua with a warning about her Space Box.

• Bi Shenghua compared Mei Yiqiu’s paintings and confirmed that the ancient willow stood where the Mulberry Garden’s giant mulberry tree had once grown.
• Mei Yiqiu asked Bi Shenghua to accept a keylike device and warned that its worst possible outcome would be humanity’s population and civilization falling back to levels of the 1960s.
• Mei Yiqiu explained that he trusted Bi Shenghua because someone he trusted most trusted her, and because he saw hope in her.
• Bi Shenghua agreed to take the device, which Mei Yiqiu named the Key to the Dreamscape, and he told her to follow her heart when the appropriate time came.
• Mei Yiqiu noticed Bi Shenghua’s Space Box and told her to lock it in a cabinet and never use it.

Bi Shenghua explored the Space Box world but kept her hopes for Qingmu in reality, then agreed to protect the secret while Mei Yiqiu promised to restrict minors’ access. After Bi Shenghua took the memory-impaired Hou Biao to KFC, Yao Jingjing arrived at Ruhua Bar and encountered a mysterious cloaked figure.

• Bi Shenghua entered the Space Box world, saw the three gods, and recreated Liuying Lane without giving up hope for the real Qingmu.
• Bi Shenghua asked Mei Yiqiu whether she could warn children about the game, and he said he would seek restrictions for minors.
• Bi Shenghua promised to keep what happened secret until prompted, and Mei Yiqiu added that she could tell Qingmu.
• Bi Shenghua found Hou Biao waiting for her and took him to KFC after learning he remembered little beyond Qingmu’s instruction and Yao Jingjing’s name.
• Yao Jingjing returned to Wuzhong, heard about Hou Biao from Bi Shenghua, and went to Ruhua Bar to meet them.
• At Ruhua Bar, Yao Jingjing noticed a cloaked figure with curled red hair, who beckoned and commanded her to sit.

Yao Jingjing met Ramesses, who revealed a connection between her great-grandmother, the tree in an old photograph, and a cat from the Holy Land. He warned that a battle for humanity’s freedom had begun, leaving Yao Jingjing without answers about the battle or her family’s past.

• Yao Jingjing confronted Ramesses in a bar and used her mental power to resist his illusion.
• Ramesses recognized that a tree had taught Yao Jingjing and showed her a vision matching a photograph from her great-grandmother’s home.
• Yao Jingjing identified Ramesses as the man connected to the strand of red hair and questioned him about her great-grandmother’s missing body.
• Ramesses pointed out that Yao Jingjing’s great-grandmother had not aged across decades of photographs and asked about a cat from the Holy Land.
• Yao Jingjing denied knowing where the cat was, and Ramesses accepted that she was telling the truth.
• Ramesses declared that humanity’s battle for freedom had begun and said no one could escape fate.

Ramesses tested Yao Jingjing with a desert dream, where she endured scorching hardship and found Hou Biao beside her. After they woke holding hands, Ramesses revealed that Yao Jingjing's great-grandmother's grave was empty and that she may still be alive.

• Ramesses drew Yao Jingjing into a vast desert dream and tested her with fire and an unreachable oasis.
• Yao Jingjing saw Hou Biao come to her, and they clasped hands and struggled together toward the oasis.
• A voice shattered the dream, and Yao Jingjing woke facing Hou Biao with their hands still clasped.
• Bi Shenghua left Hou Biao with Yao Jingjing and asked who Ramesses was.
• Ramesses left the bar and told Yao Jingjing that her great-grandmother's grave was empty, her photographs showed no signs of aging, and she might still be alive.

Bian Ziyuan’s humiliation and fantasies at the bar turned into a vision of himself as a powerful mechanical hero, leaving him convinced that consciousness could choose different bodies. A month later, he traveled to Japan and had a chip implanted in the back of his neck.

• After leaving Mei Ziqing, Bian Ziyuan went home in the rain, brooded over his failure, and imagined her comforting him as he showered.
• Bian Ziyuan remembered his pride as a computer genius, wrote down his resolve, and used the Space Box to create a world from his consciousness.
• In his imagined return to the bar, Bian Ziyuan impressed Mei Ziqing, threw out the harasser, and became a steel-bodied hero cheered by the crowd.
• Bian Ziyuan lost his strength when he encountered the two icy gazes, fell, and formed the conviction that mechanical bodies were humanity’s future.
• Bian Ziyuan awoke in the bar with Mei Ziqing opposite him and left beside her, feeling that he had regained his hope.
• A month later, Bian Ziyuan traveled to Japan and entered a secret underground laboratory, where mechanical arms implanted a chip in his neck.

After Windmill devastated the South Pacific, Xia Xiaoxiao returned to the untouched island where she had once lived with Situ and Alice. Remembering their life there, she watched Alice enter the mysterious beach hut through a door that appeared over the tide.

• Windmill devastated islands across the South Pacific, while Hawaii rebuilt and the small island south of the Bass Islands remained untouched.
• Xia Xiaoxiao recalled how she and Situ found the island while fleeing danger and built stone cottages there.
• Xia Xiaoxiao remembered giving birth to Alice in Santa Fe City and later settling on the island to keep their daughter safe.
• Situ built Alice a doorless hut on the beach and told her that only she could enter it to meet him when she missed him.
• When Alice said she missed her father, Xia Xiaoxiao watched her cross the seawater, climb invisible stairs, and enter a door that appeared in the hut.

Xia Xiaoxiao returned to the island where she and Situ had made their home and waited beneath the stars, while Xia Chujue grew into the Xia Family’s successor and later helped rebuild civilization after catastrophe. In her final moments, Xia Chujue returned to the island and wept before the weathered stone statue of her mother, who still gazed at the sky.

• Xia Xiaoxiao returned to the island, walked the beach, and spent each day waiting for Situ beneath the stars.
• Years later, Situ saw Xia Xiaoxiao transformed into reef rock as he traveled through the Heart of Ten Suns.
• Xia Wenyuan groomed Xia Chujue to lead the Xia Family, and she proved her ability as she grew older.
• Xia Chujue inherited the Xia Family’s leadership after Xia Wenyuan died, and Bi Shenghua transferred Third Space and the Mei Laboratory businesses to her.
• Xia Chujue consolidated the Wolf Family’s businesses and later used her wealth and abilities to help rebuild order after civilization’s collapse.
• In her final moments, Xia Chujue returned to the island and knelt in tears before the stone statue of Xia Xiaoxiao.

After the Huracan altar activated, Qingmu and the others were swallowed by the Spacetime Stasis Zone and found themselves beneath a starry sky with four suns faintly visible above it. Situ confirmed they were in the zone by revealing that only one second had passed on his consciousness’s atomic clock, despite the group feeling that ten to twelve hours had elapsed.

• Qingmu realized the altar’s activation had likely triggered a protective mechanism that drew the surrounding space into a spacetime deep well, but he could not explain Ronald Cohen’s actions or warnings.
• Qingmu and the others tried to flee as the advancing black line approached, but they stopped when they saw they could not escape it.
• The black line passed over the group, slowing time briefly before the world returned to normal beneath a starry sky and four faint suns.
• The group returned to the altar, saw the corpses of the Itza People, and searched the surrounding mountains for a way out.
• Alice feared they would grow old and die there, while Su Huilan questioned whether they were truly in a stasis zone.
• Situ confirmed that they were in the Spacetime Stasis Zone, saying his consciousness’s atomic clock had advanced only one second since the shadow covered them.

The survivors began adapting to life in Stasis Spacetime and cremated the hundreds of mummified bodies aboard the ship. As Ivan and Petru vanished during a search for Ronald Cohen, a sudden fire erupted onshore, where Mrs. Larry and Alice had been left alone.

• Situ explained that time passed forty thousand times faster in Stasis Spacetime, and Mrs. Larry urged everyone to keep going like Robinson.
• The survivors divided up work to gather food, fish, prepare supplies, and cremate the bodies aboard the ship.
• Qingmu and Situ prepared a pyre at the Sangqi Tribe’s former camp, and the group brought more than three hundred bodies ashore.
• Situ noticed that Ronald Cohen was missing, and Ivan and Petru went back to the ship to search for him.
• Qingmu and Situ returned to the ship and found that Ivan and Petru had disappeared too.
• Su Huilan and Duwa came over to the ship, leaving Mrs. Larry and Alice onshore, and a blaze suddenly lit up the shore.

Qingmu and the others returned to shore and discovered that Alice had burned the corpses while Mrs. Larry was ill and disoriented. They continued searching the Swordfish and the island for the missing men, but found neither them nor any remains of the burned bodies; Situ finally said they had been living this way for twenty-one seconds.

• Qingmu, Situ, Su Huilan, and Duwa returned to shore and found Mrs. Larry unwell and Alice frightened after she had lit the cremation fire.
• Duwa examined Mrs. Larry and Alice, then told Qingmu and Situ that Mrs. Larry seemed to have suffered trauma from resisting hypnosis.
• Qingmu, Situ, and Su Huilan searched the Swordfish for Petru, Ivan, and Ronald Cohen's body but found no trace of them.
• Qingmu later found no bones among the cremation ground's ashes, and the group continued searching the ship and nearby woods without success.
• When Alice asked how long they had been living this way, Situ answered that it had been twenty-one seconds.

The crew realized that twenty-one seconds in the Spacetime Deep Well had cost them ten and a half days, and feared Petru and Ivan had vanished or died. When the two men suddenly returned, Mrs. Larry confessed her feelings and accepted Petru's proposal, leaving them ready to marry.

• Qingmu calculated that twenty-one seconds outside the Spacetime Deep Well had amounted to ten and a half days for the crew.
• Boss Coal worried that Petru and Ivan had been missing long enough to starve, while Mrs. Larry regretted keeping her distance from Petru and began to cry.
• Petru and Ivan emerged from the command room, surprising the crew after they had searched the ship for Ronald Cohen's body.
• Petru saw Mrs. Larry crying and angrily demanded to know who had upset her.
• Mrs. Larry asked Petru whether he loved her and wanted to marry her, and Petru said yes before she agreed to marry him.

Petru and Mrs. Larry celebrated their wedding aboard the Swordfish, but Situ discovered that the spacetime bubble in the helicopter hangar might let time flow normally. The group decided to investigate the hangar together, with the newlyweds refusing to be left behind.

• Petru and Mrs. Larry arrived at the Swordfish by boat as Alice and Su Huilan showered them with flowers, then Situ and Duwa witnessed their wedding.
• After the ceremony, Petru and Mrs. Larry considered using the decorated command room, while Situ warned that they would not grow old in the Stasis Space.
• Situ asked Ivan about the helicopter hangar, and Ivan confirmed that he and Petru had briefly searched it for Ronald Cohen's body.
• Situ realized the spacetime bubble might still be in the hangar and explained that entering it could have caused the others to vanish while only a few women remained outside.
• Petru insisted that he and Mrs. Larry would join the trip to the hangar, and Situ agreed that no one would be left behind.

With hope of escaping the Spacetime Stasis Zone, the group waited aboard the ship while Petru and Mrs. Larry enjoyed time outside, where time passed far faster. The crow then questioned how the helicopter’s fuel had disappeared, raising a troubling mystery.

• Su Huilan asked Situ and Qingmu why they had waited until after Petru and Mrs. Larry’s wedding to reveal their escape plan, and the crow joked that one had overthought it while the other had not thought at all.
• The group entered the hangar and learned from Situ that their passage through the Spacetime Deep Well might take ten days or a month.
• Petru and Mrs. Larry went outside for fresh air, then returned looking rejuvenated after spending about a minute and a half outside, which equaled roughly forty-five days inside.
• The group ate together and decided to go out in pairs when they needed to use the toilet, while conserving their torches by putting them out between uses.
• Qingmu said the helicopter had no fuel, and the crow wondered who had removed it, since Petru and Mrs. Larry had spent weeks outside while the others had barely eaten.

After the group suspected someone else had survived aboard the Swordfish, they waited in the hangar for whoever had taken the fuel. Qingmu left the frozen hangar alone and discovered the ship had run aground after a thousand years, then explored the overgrown shore and reached the Huracan Tribe’s altar, where bleached bones still covered the ground.

• Su Huilan, Petru, Ivan, and the others reasoned that the missing fuel suggested one or more people might have survived, and the crow recalled seeing a shadow in the passageway.
• Situ proposed waiting in the hangar, and the group stayed there as time passed differently outside; eventually, they left in turns to relieve themselves.
• Qingmu watched Situ and Ivan disappear into darkness outside the hangar, then left with Boss Coal and Hanran while the people inside remained frozen like a still image.
• Qingmu saw that the Swordfish had drifted ashore and become badly rusted, then rowed to the beach and walked through the overgrown landscape to the Huracan Tribe’s valley.
• Qingmu reached the altar square, where bleached bones still lay in the poses of the dead, and felt his legs grow heavy as he prepared to climb.

Qingmu and the others survived the Spacetime Deep Well as the Swordfish and landscape rapidly decayed, relying on water from the altar and cacti growing over the remains of the Itza People. After the four Suns returned, they realized they still had to find a way out and reach the next altar.

• Qingmu recognized that the rocks in the altar pool matched the Tapu islands and returned to the Swordfish with torches.
• Qingmu and the others watched the Swordfish and their surroundings change as they made repeated trips outside, until the lake dried up and the mountains became barren.
• Qingmu and the others found water in the altar and edible cacti growing where the Itza People had been buried, and carried supplies back to the Swordfish.
• Qingmu and the others emerged from the Spacetime Deep Well as the four Suns returned, and Qingmu remembered the Itza prayer.
• Situ said they had to wait for fog to leave and reach the next altar.