Episode Summary
Su Muxin executes his plan to take the full blame for the murders, tricking Qu Tong into leaving with Shen Jing. He then walks into a police trap and confesses to everything, providing a detailed and logical, yet suspicious, account of the crimes. Zhou Mi believes he is covering for Qu Tong, who receives a final, heartbreaking message from Su Muxin before he is arrested.
Spoiler Alert
Beloved Episode 15: Recap & Spoilers
This episode was all about Su Muxin's final plan. It was intricate. It was heartbreaking. And it all went down exactly how he wanted.
The "Goodbye"
The episode starts on a quiet note. We see Su Muxin and Qu Tong on a mountaintop, just looking out over the city. They're eating ice cream. It feels almost normal for a second. Qu Tong pulls him into a hug. She tells him she's going to protect him from now on. You can just feel the gut punch coming.
Sure enough, they go down the mountain. Su Muxin tricks her. He gets her into Shen Jing's car and tells her he just needs to grab his cane. The second she lets go, he slams the door. Shen Jing hits the locks and speeds away. Qu Tong absolutely loses it. She's screaming for him in the back of the car. But as she's being driven away, Su Muxin just smiles. It's a chilling, tragic smile. He knows his plan is working. In the car, a sobbing Qu Tong looks at Shen Jing and says, "I hate you."
The Plan is Revealed
Qu Tong is furious at Shen Jing. She thinks Shen Jing is letting Su Muxin take the fall for everything. But then Shen Jing drops the bomb. This was all Su Muxin's idea. Every last bit of it.
She explains that Su Muxin planned his own capture. He wanted to take all the blame to set Qu Tong and Shen Jing free. He even arranged for them to escape Yunzhou by boat after his arrest. Shen Jing also reveals a huge piece of the past. Years ago, it was Qu Tong's father, Qu Lijun, who found a badly injured Su Muxin and took him to the hospital. He wouldn't even be alive today without her family.
The Inevitable Capture
We then see Su Muxin walking alone. He uses his cane to navigate through some old train tracks, heading back to that tin house by the river. He's not trying to hide. He's walking right into the trap he set for himself.
The police are waiting, just as he knew they would be. They surround him. He doesn't fight back at all. He just lets them take him. The lead detective, Zhou Mi, immediately asks where Qu Tong is. Su Muxin's answer is simple and brutal. "She's dead."
The Interrogation
Back at the station, Zhou Mi starts the questioning. He has a ton of evidence, but something feels off to him. Su Muxin's story is a little too perfect. He asks about Qu Tong. Su Muxin claims he doesn't care that she's "dead." He says she was just a high school crush and that she married his brother. He coldly says if she really cared, she would have noticed him sooner.
He confesses to killing his brother, Su Mufan, out of pure jealousy. He even explains how he got into the house. Qu Tong told him her birthday back in high school, and he used it as the door code.
He also explains what happened to Shi Yue. He says her asthma attack was real. His fingerprints are all over the kitchen because he was trying to find her medicine to save her. He admits he turned on the water in the bathtub and plugged the drain. He did it so the overflow would eventually alert the neighbors to her body.
Zhou Mi listens to all of it. He knows about the evidence Su Muxin planted. The testimony from Chen Shuncai. The report from Xue Xiaoling. The cyanide at the massage parlor. It all points to Su Muxin. But Zhou Mi isn't buying it. He believes Su Muxin is just covering for someone. He knows Qu Tong isn't dead.
The Final Signal
While all this is happening, Shen Jing gives Qu Tong a letter from Su Muxin. Inside is his ring. The letter is signed with his name, "Muxin," written in Chinese characters. After she reads it, she can't take it anymore. She throws open the car door and runs, straight into oncoming traffic, trying to get back to him.
Then, in the distance, the sky lights up. Fireworks. This was the signal. Chen Shuncai set them off, just like Su Muxin asked. He had told Qu Tong that when she saw the fireworks, it meant she was free. Seeing them, Qu Tong just collapses on the ground.
