Episode Summary
A fire forces the Shen family's departure from the past. Shaoguang says a final goodbye to Lin Yan and disappears, leaving him to live out a long, lonely life waiting for her. Back in the present, Shaoguang grieves what she believes is a permanent loss, only to meet a modern man who looks exactly like Lin Yan and shares a mysterious connection to her through a dream.
Spoiler Alert
The Fire and the Hostage Crisis
The episode kicks off with a massive fire. It’s spreading fast. Lin Yan immediately gets his men on it.
The real problem is the fire is about to engulf the Shen family's restaurant. And Shen Yangyang is still trapped inside. The whole family rushes in to help with the rescue. During the chaos, a burning beam falls and hits Shen Shaojie on the head. The blow makes him remember something his grandfather once said. He remembers the original Shen family died in a fire. He immediately starts searching for his family members.
Shen Shaoguang is also fighting the fire. She spots Li Ang walking past, deliberately carrying an unconscious Shen Yangyang. Right then, her parents, Shen Jianshe and his wife, run up to her. They tell her the time has come. The family is about to be pulled back to their own time.
Shaoguang doesn't have time to think. She follows Li Ang to find her sister. But as soon as she gets there, Li Ang grabs her. He uses her as a hostage.
The rest of the Shen family arrives moments later. They all start shouting, offering to take Shaoguang's place. Li Ang is completely unhinged. He screams at them to find Lin Yan. Then he drags Shaoguang into a room that hasn't collapsed yet.
A Final, Fiery Goodbye
Shaoguang tries to stall for time. Li Ang doesn't fall for it. He's about to kill her when Lin Yan finally shows up.
Lin Yan and Li Ang fight. In the struggle, Li Ang loses his footing and slips, about to fall into the inferno below. In a split second, Lin Yan grabs his arm to save him. But Li Ang decides to be a monster to the very end. He intentionally tries to pull Lin Yan down into the fire with him.
Lin Yan starts to fall. But then Shen Shaoguang grabs his hand with all her might. In that moment, she finally understands the desperation he must have felt when he saved her back in Sushui City. The pain is intense, but she refuses to let go. They are both pulled back to safety.
Lin Yan sees that Shaoguang's arm is bleeding. He tears a strip of cloth from his own sleeve and bandages her wound.
As they walk towards the edge of the building, a single butterfly flies in front of Shaoguang. She remembers what Shaojie said. They've reached the end of their journey. Below them, officers from the Jingzhao Prefecture hold a large rescue net.
She looks at Lin Yan. She gives him one last kiss. Then she pushes him off the building, sending him falling safely into the net. Shen Shaoguang herself slowly fades away in a brilliant flash of light.
A Life Spent Waiting
The next day, Lin Yan frantically searches the ruins. He's looking for any sign of Shaoguang. He can't even find a single piece of burned bone. She's just gone.
A local tavern owner comes to thank the Jingzhao Prefecture for their help. Lin Yan asks him if he saw the Shen family. The owner is confused. He says he has always run his business there. He has never heard of any family named Shen. Liu Chang looks at Lin Yan with concern. He thinks his boss has invented this entire family out of thin air.
Time passes. Lin Yan keeps trying to tell people about the Shen family, but nobody believes him. He's completely alone with his memories.
To stop himself from forgetting Shaoguang, he draws their restaurant on a piece of paper. He draws it completely from memory. Then he rents the exact same plot of land and rebuilds the restaurant. He makes it a perfect copy, even duplicating the menu. He does all this with the hope that if she ever comes back, she'll have a place that feels like home.
Years and years go by. Lin Yan grows old, his hair turning white. He never sees Shaoguang again. He often walks through the empty restaurant. The familiar sights trigger vivid memories. He remembers them eating hot pot, learning to use the dishwasher, and watching the lanterns on festival night. He remembers all their struggles and how they finally got married.
Surrounded by these beautiful memories, the elderly Lin Yan collapses in the snow. His life ends.
Waking Up from the Dream
Shen Shaoguang's family is calling her name. She wakes up with a start.
She's back in the modern world. The entire experience feels like a beautiful, heartbreaking dream. All she can do is cry. Her mother, Li Fengxia, holds her and tries to comfort her.
The new Shen family restaurant finally opens. That short video they made about time travel and dating an ancestor went viral. It brought in a lot of customers. Her family tells her she needs to move on. They think she's getting lost in a dream. But Shaoguang knows it was real.
Is It Really Over?
That night, Shaoguang writes in her diary. She writes down everything she remembers about Lin Yan. She feels like she was a spectator to his life. She watched him grow old and die alone, all while waiting for her. All she has left is the longing. Tears fall onto the pages of her diary.
The next day, she goes to the Shen family ancestral hall to pay her respects. She looks at a hanging portrait and it jogs a memory of being drawn in the past.
Suddenly, she hears someone call her name.
She turns around. A man who looks exactly like Lin Yan is standing there. She asks him how he knows her name. He says he just woke up from a very long dream. And she was in it.
The diary slips from her hand and falls to the floor. They just look at each other, their eyes already filled with tears.
