Recaps

Hu Xing and Qingmu entered Xia Wenyuan’s dream and confronted a shadow trying to take over his body. Qingmu’s raven tore the shadow apart, but a faint shadow began to emerge again beside Xia Wenyuan.

• Hu Xing asked Qingmu why a shadow was attacking her grandfather, and Qingmu explained that it was an intruder seeking to possess Xia Wenyuan.
• Qingmu stepped into Xia Wenyuan’s dream, disturbing the space and drawing the shadow’s attention.
• The shadow claimed it was Xia Wenyuan, while Qingmu questioned its identity and a raven seized it.
• The raven tore the shadow into fragments, but a dim shadow slowly emerged in the water beside Xia Wenyuan.

After Qingmu rescued Xia Wenyuan from the conscious shadow in his dream, he explained that an invading consciousness had entered Xia Wenyuan’s mind and tried to kill him. Xia Wenyuan wondered whether someone had used dark arts against him, and Qingmu’s explanation led him to inspect a Picasso painting.

• Xia Wenyuan woke with Wu Lixia beside him, while Hu Xing also awoke and realized they had escaped the dream.
• Xia Wenyuan thanked Qingmu for saving him and invited him to a family banquet, while Wu Lixia asked Qingmu to explain what had happened.
• Qingmu explained that Xia Wenyuan’s shadow had developed self-awareness, but that the consciousness was an invader rather than a split personality.
• Peter challenged Qingmu’s account and asked whether the invader had caused the fibrosis in Xia Wenyuan’s brain, which Qingmu could not explain.
• Xia Wenyuan asked whether someone had used dark arts to harm him, and Qingmu described how a foreign consciousness could grow inside a person.
• Qingmu stood up and asked whether a Picasso painting had always hung in the room.

Qingmu questioned Xia Wenyuan about the Picasso painting in his study and learned that its history echoed Xia Wenyuan’s family story and reminded him of his daughter, Xiaoxiao. After seeing Xiaoxiao’s photograph, Qingmu recognized her as Meimei’s young mother, and Xia Wenyuan revealed that she had died five years earlier.

• Qingmu examined the painting and asked Xia Wenyuan why he had bought it.
• Xia Wenyuan explained that the painting’s creation and the painter’s relationship mirrored details of his parents’ lives.
• Xia Wenyuan said he bought the painting after seeing that the painted woman resembled his daughter Xiaoxiao.
• Wu Lixia showed Qingmu a photograph of Xiaoxiao posing by a red sofa.
• Qingmu recognized Xiaoxiao as Meimei’s young mother, and Xia Wenyuan said she had died five years earlier.

Qingmu explained that the shadow in Xia Wenyuan’s dreams had been strengthened by the mental residue in the Picasso painting, but said it could only be suppressed by filling Xia’s life with light. Meanwhile, Mei Ziqing arrived in Copenhagen with Professor Mei Yiqiu, where the genetics conference was unexpectedly moved forward and Professor Mei was summoned to a private meeting.

• Qingmu explained that Picasso’s painting could activate a seed of consciousness in Xia Wenyuan, but its mental residue could not become an independent being.
• Qingmu told Xia Wenyuan that the shadow would grow strong again unless he filled his life with light, and said he would consult Professor Mei about another solution.
• Mei Ziqing and Professor Mei Yiqiu arrived in Copenhagen, where Mei Ziqing admired the scenery and planned to explore before the conference began.
• The conference organizers moved the international genetics conference forward, and Professor Frederick denied reporters’ claims of a new discovery involving the pyramids.
• Professor Frederick summoned selected scholars, including Professor Mei Yiqiu, to a private meeting while Mei Ziqing listened.

After receiving three million yuan from Xia Wenyuan, Qingmu rode home with Hu Xing and discussed lucid dreams and the disappearance of her aunt. He found his bar closed and Ruhua unreachable, leaving Hu Xing to offer him a place to stay before his teasing sent her driving off.

• Xia Wenyuan transferred Qingmu three million yuan, and Qingmu counted it out loud while Hu Xing drove him home.
• Qingmu warned Hu Xing that lucid dreams could feel real and become dangerous if she could not control them.
• Hu Xing told Qingmu that her youngest aunt had disappeared five years earlier and was later presumed dead after a suspected kidnapper confessed, then recanted.
• Qingmu suggested Hu Xing's aunt might still be alive in Wuzhong, but Hu Xing dismissed the idea.
• Qingmu found the bar closed and could not reach Ruhua, so Hu Xing offered him a place to stay; Qingmu joked about losing his virtue, and Hu Xing angrily drove away.

Qingmu invited Hu Xing upstairs for a drink, where Boss Coal teased them before they discussed Yang Baoguo’s death and unresolved questions in the Ma Fuqing case. Hu Xing left after realizing she had drunk beer and could no longer drive home.

• Qingmu used Boss Coal’s key to enter the bar and invited Hu Xing upstairs for a drink.
• Boss Coal made lewd jokes about Qingmu and Hu Xing, prompting Qingmu to threaten to withhold his food.
• Hu Xing told Qingmu that Yang Baoguo had suffocated himself in detention the night before his expected release.
• Hu Xing explained that Ma Fuquan’s psychiatric assessment was complete and the case would soon go to the procuratorate.
• Qingmu questioned why Ma Fuqing had disposed of his wife’s body in ways that seemed to ensure it would be found, but Hu Xing said the case would proceed to court.
• Hu Xing decided to leave, then realized she had drunk beer and could not drive home.

Hu Xing stayed at Qingmu’s studio after she could not find a ride home, and she chose his immaculate inner room over the cluttered office. Restless and remembering her college days, she went downstairs to find the toilet and called for Qingmu, but he did not answer.

• Qingmu offered Hu Xing a place to sleep after she said she could not drive, and Boss Coal’s drunken teasing made her laugh.
• Boss Coal passed out on the couch, and Qingmu went downstairs while Hu Xing entered the inner room.
• Hu Xing compared the spotless room with Qingmu’s messy studio and decided to sleep in the inner room.
• Hu Xing lay awake, recalled her police academy days and her family’s influence, and hoped to have another lucid dream.
• Needing the toilet, Hu Xing went downstairs and called for Qingmu in the dark bar, but received no response.

Hu Xing wandered through a darkening corridor in her lucid dream and fell into an abyss before her father pulled her to safety. She realized Qingmu was an intruder in the dream, and then woke to find him beside her in a bright, clean room.

• Hu Xing returned to the dorm room, struggled to sleep through the noise, and went back into the corridor to escape it.
• Hu Xing heard running water and found the corridor filling with a thick, insect-crawling liquid, then entered a room where the floor had vanished.
• Hu Xing fell into the abyss, and her father caught her wrist and urged her to care for herself and never give up.
• Hu Xing told her father she had become a qualified police officer, then saw a pale, hostile face at the window.
• Hu Xing realized she was dreaming and recognized Qingmu as an intruder before Qingmu told her she was finally awake.

Hu Xing successfully entered a lucid dream and learned from Qingmu that her dream version of him was created by her subconscious. After Qingmu left to search for the missing proprietress and singing girl, he warned Hu Xing that she must find a way out of her dream, leaving her frightened and trapped in the dorm room.

• Hu Xing held on through the distortions of her dream and met Qingmu in her college dorm room.
• Qingmu congratulated Hu Xing for passing the first lesson but said her mental power was too weak to continue training.
• Qingmu explained that her subconscious had given his bodiless consciousness a familiar appearance.
• Qingmu said the proprietress, the singing girl, and Xiao Qi could not be reached, and he left to search for them.
• Qingmu warned Hu Xing that she had to find a way out of the dream, then faded away before explaining how.
• Hu Xing panicked as her roommate sat up and spoke to her inside the dream.

After Mo Yu disappeared, Xiao Qi and Bi Shenghua searched for her at the townhouse she rented in Spring Moon Garden. They learned she was inside, but a man’s threatening phone call suggested she was in danger, leaving them outside her door as he arrived.

• Xiao Qi received Mo Yu’s text saying she was unworthy of his care, then learned from Bi Shenghua that Mo Yu had left the bar.
• Xiao Qi and Bi Shenghua went to Spring Moon Garden after recalling that Mo Yu lived in Building 11.
• A woman inside the townhouse said Mo Yu was asleep and refused to let Xiao Qi and Bi Shenghua see her.
• Xiao Qi and Bi Shenghua overheard a man complain that Jiang had nearly killed him and say they had finally gotten Mo Yu back.
• The man reached the townhouse and said he would teach Mo Yu a lesson for refusing him.

Bi Shenghua and Xiao Qi entered the row house to investigate why its residents were hiding something about Mo Yu. After discovering the upstairs rooms were empty, they found a second staircase and Xiao Qi mistook his reflection for another person.

• Bi Shenghua and Xiao Qi climbed to the back window, where a woman wearing a facial mask startled them by appearing to have a ghostly face.
• The woman let Bi Shenghua and Xiao Qi into the house after they said they had come to see Mo Yu.
• Bi Shenghua and Xiao Qi waited downstairs while the woman and a man went upstairs, but no one came back down.
• Bi Shenghua and Xiao Qi searched the empty upstairs rooms and found a hidden staircase leading to the ground floor.
• Xiao Qi screamed when he saw his reflection in a mirror at the bottom of the stairs, and Bi Shenghua told him it was a mirror.

Bi Shenghua and Xiao Qi became separated inside a mirror labyrinth where reflections distorted space and time. Bi Shenghua found a reflection of herself as an old woman, while Xiao Qi saw his body age and decay as he ran from a face that was not his.

• Bi Shenghua entered the mirror passages with Xiao Qi, then discovered he had disappeared behind her.
• Bi Shenghua wandered through the mirrors, shattered one with a kick, and found it whole again after passing through its frame.
• Bi Shenghua counted thirteen mirrors and saw a reflection of her own gaunt, aged face.
• Xiao Qi caught sight of Bi Shenghua through an empty frame, but she lunged at him and vanished when their lights went dark.
• Xiao Qi became lost among mirrors filled with his reflection and ran as he watched himself age into a decaying corpse, while another face remained in the corner of his eye.

Xiao Qi escaped the mirror maze when a man in an old trench coat arrived, then collapsed after seeing him. Meanwhile, Jiang Deqian arranged to abduct Mo Yu and Bi Shenghua and brought them to Huang Ziqiang’s hot spring resort, where he threatened them.

• Xiao Qi saw Mo Yu in the mirrors as his reflection withered into a skeleton, and the mirrors shattered one after another.
• A messy-haired man in an old trench coat emerged from the broken glass, and Xiao Qi collapsed after greeting him.
• Jiang Deqian boasted to Huang Ziqiang about his family connections and learned that Mo Yu and the woman who had beaten him were at Liang Kai’s place.
• Jiang Deqian sent men to collect Mo Yu and Bi Shenghua, then waited with Huang Ziqiang at the resort.
• Jiang Deqian and Huang Ziqiang had the bound women brought into their private room, where Jiang Deqian threatened them with sexual violence and trafficking.

Jiang Deqian tried to assault the captive Bi Shenghua at Huang Ziqiang’s resort, but Qingmu arrived and swiftly crippled Jiang Deqian’s five thugs. As Huang Ziqiang prepared to summon armed men, Qingmu warned Jiang Deqian that he was about to die.

• Jiang Deqian dismissed Huang Ziqiang’s concerns and prepared to assault Bi Shenghua while Huang led the others outside.
• Qingmu kicked the soundproof door off its hinges and entered the suite, ignoring the resort manager.
• Bi Shenghua recognized Qingmu and urged him to flee and call the police, but Jiang Deqian kicked her to the floor.
• Qingmu caught one thug’s punch and disabled all five of Jiang Deqian’s men in moments.
• Huang Ziqiang signaled the manager to gather men and reached for his concealed pistol as Qingmu warned Jiang Deqian that he was about to die.

Qingmu confronted Jiang Deqian at Huang Ziqiang’s resort, but Jiang Deqian summoned his brother Jiang Deguan and Hou Biao for help. After Hou Biao appeared to defeat Qingmu, Jiang Deqian attacked the bound women, unaware that the danger might not be over.

• Huang Ziqiang held back from fighting Qingmu, and Qingmu said his caution had saved his life.
• Jiang Deqian held Bi Shenghua at knifepoint, called Monkey for help, and threatened Qingmu.
• Jiang Deguan arrived with Hou Biao, slapped Jiang Deqian, and ordered Hou Biao to deal with Qingmu.
• Hou Biao struck Qingmu into a wall, and Jiang Deqian stopped him from delivering another blow.
• Jiang Deqian dragged the two bound women onto the sofa and began tearing at their clothes.

Qingmu rescued Bi Shenghua and Mo Yu from Jiang Deqian’s gang, while Huang Ziqiang watched Jiang Deqian die in a bizarre electrocution. After Qingmu left, Huang Ziqiang found the room and its thugs restored, but Jiang Deqian’s charred corpse remained.

• Huang Ziqiang hesitated over whether to support Jiang Deqian, then watched Jiang behave as if fighting an unseen opponent.
• Jiang Deqian electrocuted himself with an exposed lamp post while Huang Ziqiang and Bi Shenghua looked on in horror.
• Qingmu untied Bi Shenghua and Mo Yu, then gave Huang Ziqiang his business card and left with the women.
• Huang Ziqiang turned back to find the door and thugs restored, while Jiang Deqian’s corpse and the smell of burning remained.

Shi Dazhuang investigated the discovery of a dead pimp and uncovered a prostitution operation run by Li Qian using hypnosis and a maze of twelve mirrors. He left the case with Liang Kai’s cause of death, the mirrors’ effects, and Situ’s identity still unresolved.

• Shi Dazhuang arrived at townhouse number 11, where Qingmu and local officers had rescued Mo Yu and Bi Shenghua and found Liang Kai dead upstairs.
• Chen Jianzhong examined Liang Kai’s body and said the death appeared sudden, pending further examination.
• Shi Dazhuang examined twelve unusual mirrors in a concealed hall; when one shattered, his dizziness and breathing difficulty stopped.
• Li Qian’s statement revealed that she and Liang Kai had used hypnosis and the mirror maze to control female students and profit from prostitution, with help from someone named Situ.
• Shi Dazhuang pieced together the events from the witnesses’ accounts but remained uncertain whether Liang Kai had been murdered and who Situ was.

During questioning, Li Qian described why she had sold sex and her devotion to the mysterious Situ, while insisting she knew nothing about Liang Kai’s death. Shi Dazhuang learned that Liang Kai died during sex after a heart attack and ruptured spleen, and Chen Jianzhong raised a connection to two earlier deaths.

• Li Qian defended compensated dating by recounting her poverty, her clients through Liang Kai, and her admiration for Situ.
• Li Qian rejected the officer’s portrait of Situ and became hysterical when asked how Liang Kai had died.
• Qingmu asked Shi Dazhuang whether he and his friends could leave, and Shi let him go.
• Chen Jianzhong told Shi that Liang Kai had suffered a heart attack during sex and had a ruptured spleen, with earlier beatings worsening the risk.
• Chen Jianzhong questioned whether Liang Kai’s abnormal behavior could be linked to the deaths on Garbage Street and at the scrap collection yard.

After Jiang Deqian’s death, Xiao Qi recovered under Mo Yu’s care while Bi Shenghua used Qingmu’s three million to expand Ruhua Bar. As renovations and preparations continued, Hu Xing arrived with her cousin Xia Tian, hoping to become Qingmu’s disciple.

• Mo Yu moved in with Xiao Qi to care for him as he recovered from his ordeal.
• Qingmu gave Bi Shenghua his bank card, and she used the money to arrange the takeover of the two neighboring shops and expand Ruhua Bar.
• Bi Shenghua divided the bar’s shares among Qingmu, herself, the neighboring shopkeepers, and the staff, making Qingmu the investor and big boss.
• Bi Shenghua, Xiao Qi, and Mo Yu worked on the renovations and preparations while Qingmu spent his days relaxing with Boss Coal.
• The police returned several times to ask about the night Jiang Deqian died, and Hu Xing arrived with Xia Tian and gifts to ask Qingmu to take her as his disciple.

Qingmu joked with Hu Xing, Bi Shenghua, Xia Tian, and Boss Coal before hearing how the investigation into Liang Kai’s death and the prostitution case had stalled. The experts rejected mind control and the authorities had found no trace of Situ, leaving his existence in doubt.

• Hu Xing brought Xia Tian to Qingmu’s studio, where the group joked about Qingmu taking disciples and Boss Coal entertained the child.
• Xia Tian remembered riding Boss Coal and fed the crow while asking whether he could grow large enough to carry him flying.
• Hu Xing told Qingmu that eleven girls had been found and that Liang Kai had died from blood loss and a heart attack after a beating, while the man accused of arranging the beating had died that same night.
• Hu Xing said the case would likely pass to the public order unit and that experts had found no evidence of mind control or anything unusual about the mirrors.
• Hu Xing reported that investigators had found no useful leads on Situ, and provincial experts suggested he might be a shared fantasy among the female students.

Mei Ziqing met a man named Xingzhi, who also called himself Situ, while the scientists at the Bella conference learned that a research vessel, several islands, and underwater ruins had vanished. Frederick then announced that Evans Lester had died, leaving Mei Yiqiu and the other scientists in shock.

• Mei Ziqing met Xingzhi, who gave her a personal letter for Professor Mei and introduced himself as Situ.
• Frederick told the conference that a research vessel carrying twenty-seven expedition members and forty-six crew had been missing for sixty-three hours.
• Frederick explained that there had been no storm or significant earthquake, and that several islands and the underwater ruins had also disappeared.
• Frederick announced that Evans Lester had died, and Mei Yiqiu was stunned by the news.

At a scientific conference, Frederick revealed that Evans Lester had died after claiming an alien consciousness invaded his brain. Lester’s final message linked his death to the missing research vessel and underwater pyramids by suggesting that Earth contains a wormhole to an unknown part of the universe.

• Frederick announced that Evans Lester had died of acute encephalitis, prompting Mei Yiqiu to question the diagnosis and whether Lester’s death was connected to the research vessel’s disappearance.
• Frederick revealed that Lester had left a final message in the thought matrix cipher, delivered through Dr. Dardova.
• Mei Yiqiu explained how the thought matrix cipher depended on its author’s unique patterns of thought and could not be forged.
• Frederick said Lester’s message claimed that another conscious entity had invaded and attacked his brain, and that Lester suspected it was an alien.
• Professor Frank argued that extraterrestrial life might exist as forms of consciousness unlike familiar material organisms.
• Frank revealed that Lester believed a wormhole on Earth led to an unknown place in the universe.

Mei Yiqiu and the others watched a VR reconstruction of Evans Lester’s message, in which Lester warned that an alien consciousness shared his body and was growing stronger. The message revealed that the invaders were organisms unlike any familiar form of life, but left their purpose unknown.

• Frederick introduced the VR headsets and explained that Professor Dardova had reconstructed information from Lester’s Mind Matrix.
• Mei Yiqiu activated his headset and watched the matrix form a lifelike image of Evans Lester, who greeted him by his old nickname.
• Lester said a second consciousness had secretly grown inside his brain, shared his memories, and was trying to take over his body.
• Lester explained that he had studied the entity, could see it in dreams, and could no longer tell whether his decisions were his own.
• Lester warned that the entity was an invading organism and that there was more than one of them, while stressing that extraterrestrial life might take no recognizable form.

The narrator described parasitic consciousnesses that infiltrated human minds and warned that humanity had no reliable way to identify or stop them. As the narrator’s own invader grew stronger, he chose to die with it and sent his thought-matrix information to Dardova, while Mei Yiqiu listened in grief.

• The narrator explained that parasitic consciousnesses could occupy bodies, steal memories, and drive out their hosts’ original minds.
• The narrator warned that the parasites had no concern for humanity’s future and might have already possessed people across Earth.
• The narrator admitted that his own parasite had grown powerful enough to control his daily life and decided to perish with it.
• The narrator sent his information to Dardova, whom he trusted to decipher the thought-matrix cipher, and named Silva, Hans, and Mei Yiqiu as others he trusted.
• Mei Yiqiu heard the narrator say his name and covered his face, overcome with emotion beneath his VR headset.

While Ruhua Bar underwent renovations, Qingmu and Boss Coal temporarily worked at Liuying Community’s mental health counseling room. After several quiet weeks, Director Liu brought Qingmu a new client, who recognized him as being “from over there.”

• Bi Shenghua arranged for Qingmu and Boss Coal to work at the community counseling room while the bar was renovated.
• Qingmu settled into the temporary job, while Boss Coal disrupted sessions until Qingmu confined him to the back room.
• Qingmu learned that Professor Mei had stayed in Copenhagen, delaying a chance to discuss his questions with him.
• Hu Xing practiced lucid dreaming without learning how to wake herself, while Xia Tian’s mental health improved and Xia Wenyuan’s brain condition remained unchanged.
• Director Liu brought Qingmu a disheveled man for counseling, and the man said he knew Qingmu was from “over there.”