Episode Summary
An Lan and Ding Qi break into Mo Yuanzhi's secret lab and discover he is the killer "Squid." They find Feng Wanqing cryogenically frozen, but Mo Yuanzhi traps them and triggers a self-destruct sequence just as the time loop resets. In the fifth loop, Ding Qi's health deteriorates as Mo Yuanzhi targets An Lan. An Lan narrowly escapes an encounter with Mo Yuanzhi at the lab. A flashback reveals Feng Wanqing's desperate decision to test drugs on herself, explaining Mo Yuanzhi's extreme actions.
Spoiler Alert
The Lab Break-In
The Plan
The episode kicks off with a quiet moment between Feng Wanqing and Mo Yuanzhi. She's on a rooftop, painting and secretly shaking her phone. She tells him she's faking her daily step count so her mom won't know she's sick and worry. It's a small, sad detail. Then she asks him about donating her body, wanting to "stay in this world." He promises her he'll find a cure.
Meanwhile, An Lan and Ding Qi are putting the pieces together. An Lan realizes Ding Qi is also a looper because he fell into a lake near Qingtengwan University, a place connected to the RAN drug.This isn't just a random ability. He's infected.Ding Qi recalls feeling heart pain before but keeps that to himself. This is a bad sign, especially after they learned the RN356 mouse died of premature organ failure.
Ding Qi decides they need to get into Mo Yuanzhi's secret lab. He comes clean to An Lan. He admits he used her so Yu Shiya could get the lab's password. It's a tense moment, but they have a goal.
The Reveal
They use the distraction of a wedding to sneak into the Moma building. Inside the lab, the first thing they see is a squid in a tank. Ding Qi finally understands. Mo Yuanzhi is the killer known as "Squid."They find a calendar marking the loop days and a mysterious number "28" written on a desk.
An Lan finds research on spinal tumors, which connects directly to Feng Wanqing's illness. She knows the lab is bigger than it looks and finds a hidden door behind a painting. This is where everything goes wrong.
The second they open the secret door, Mo Yuanzhi gets an alert on his phone. He pulls up the security feed and sees them. Inside the hidden room, there's a massive nitrogen tube. An Lan, knowing Mo Yuanzhi well, correctly guesses the password. A section of the tube opens.
It's Feng Wanqing. Her face is visible inside, perfectly preserved.
Before they can process it, Mo Yuanzhi activates the lab's self-destruct system. The doors lock. Gas floods the room. Ding Qi looks at his watch and tells An Lan they have one minute until the day resets. An Lan just looks at him and kisses him.
The Fifth Loop
A New Set of Problems
The loop resets, and we're now in the fifth cycle. Ding Qi wakes up and immediately calls An Lan, but she's asleep. He gets a sharp pain in his chest as he's about to leave his apartment. His body is starting to fail.
Mo Yuanzhi is also making moves. He warns his wife, Yu Shiya, to stop digging into his secrets. Then he sends a picture of An Lan to Ye Kun with a simple instruction: take her out.
Ding Qi is a step ahead. He tells his boss, Duan Zheng, that Ye Kun is likely the hitman who killed Han Song and Tang Shaorong. He gets his team to start a manhunt for Ye Kun.
A Close Call
Ding Qi finally reaches An Lan on the phone. He tells her to get out of the lab immediately. But she's a scientist first. She's busy recording data from the lab mice. While he's on the phone, Ding Qi suffers a massive heart attack and has to pull his car over.
An Lan, following Ding Qi's earlier instructions, manages to evade Mo Yuanzhi. He shows up at the Moma building, and she hides in a fire escape. He hears the door close and checks, but she's out of sight. He almost doubles back to check behind the door, but she had already moved to a safer spot. It's an incredibly tense chase.
She finally makes it out, and Ding Qi is there to meet her. They share a hug, both clearly shaken.
The episode ends with Mo Yuanzhi in his secret lab. He opens the nitrogen tube and looks at Feng Wanqing's face. We get a flashback. We see him working nonstop to find a cure for her. Desperate, Feng Wanqing decided to test the experimental drugs on herself, against his wishes. He saw the needle marks covering her hand, and it broke him.
