Episode Summary
The team deals with the aftermath of the tomb raid, mourning Da Kui and discovering their main treasure is fake. Wu Xie unlocks a mysterious box containing a bronze fish, which matches one his uncle has. This prompts Third Uncle to reveal a long-buried secret about a lost expedition and his decision to return to the sea to find answers.
Spoiler Alert
After the Tomb
A Rough Ride and a Heavy Heart
So, the crew is out, but not everyone is okay. Pan Zi is seriously hurt. The local hospital can't handle his injuries. Third Uncle has to drive through the night to a bigger hospital in the provincial capital.
On the way, he makes a really tough phone call. He calls Da Kui's mother. She's also sick and in the hospital. She hears it's Da Kui's boss and asks Third Uncle to look after her son. He just can't bring himself to tell her that Da Kui is dead. Telling an old, sick mother that her son is gone would just break her. He hangs up the phone, and you can tell it weighs on him.
Settling Debts
Third Uncle decides what to do with the money they got. Pan Zi's share is untouched. But he says his share and Wu Xie's share should go to Da Kui's mother. Wu Xie agrees right away. He says Da Kui was a brother who risked his life to save him. With Da Kui gone, he has no desire to spend that money anyway.
A New Mystery Unfolds
Worthless Treasure
Third Uncle takes their main prize, the gold silk scroll, to his company to get it checked out. It turns out to be a fake. The experts say the craftsmanship is too precise for the period it's supposed to be from. So that whole dangerous trip was for a worthless forgery. He's pretty crushed.
The Locked Box
Back with their gear, Wu Xie finds something interesting. It's a metal box. It's locked and needs an eight-digit password to open. Wu Xie's memory kicks in. He remembers seeing an eight-digit number on the clothes of a foreigner's body back in the tomb. He tries the numbers, not really expecting anything. But it works. The box opens.
The Past Comes Back
The Two Fish
Third Uncle looks inside the box. He finds a metal fish. He stares at it for a moment. Then he reaches into his own pocket and pulls out an identical fish. The two pieces fit together perfectly.
Third Uncle's Lost Team
Seeing the fish triggers a thirty-year-old memory for Third Uncle. He thinks back to when he was a young man. He had a partner, a woman named Chen Wenjin. She was really into geological exploration. They were part of a team of adventurers. On an expedition to a sea island, the entire team disappeared in the Ru Sea. Only Third Uncle survived.
He's been confused about it ever since. He says he just fell asleep for a little while on a sunken ship. When he woke up, Chen Wenjin and everyone else were gone. He was in a completely different location. He believes he only survived because he was carrying his metal fish. He says it's called a Shemei bronze fish. The legend is that it can protect you from evil.
Now, a second fish has appeared. This makes him even more curious about what really happened all those years ago. He decides he wants to go back to the Ru Sea. He needs to investigate the truth behind his team's disappearance.
