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TL;DR Version
Tai Sui tries to take over Chi Di Nu Zi’s body but Rong Hao kills her and himself, trying to take Tai Sui in the process. Orchid reveals to Chang Heng that she’s really Orchid, and they must get married to stop Tai Sui, though Orchid will die in the process. Orchid accidentally reveals that she’s still Orchid to DFQC, and he realizes that he can change her fate.
Recap
Rong Hao killed those random people and turned them into Evil Spirit for Chi Di Nu Zi, but when she comes back to herself she’s horrified.
Rong Hao confronts Evil God Tai Sui, upset over how miserable Chi Di is now. Tai Sui offers its latest deal, if it occupies Chi Di’s body then she and Rong Hao could live in peace forever. Rong Hao doesn’t trust it, but it says Rong Hao has no choice.
Back with Chi Di Nu Zi, she begs Rong Hao to kill her and we see that he accepts Tai Sui’s deal. Outside, Rong Hao explains this to her and how it’ll be great and she won’t be in pain. Chi Di tries to take her own life and he stops her. She blames his mortal heart, and he says he is mortal and she can’t understand because she’s a Goddess.
We see Chi Di Nu Zi’s memories from when he was a starving, blind, freezing orphan playing his flute. She had Siming bring him back to life despite being warned against it. She accepts this choice even though it might doom her one day.
Rong Hao sees that this is her mortal heart for him. He cries, hugs her, and stabs her. She’s crying and sighs with relief.
Pulled back to Tai Sui, it turns out Rong Hao lied so he could detonate his primordial spirit and take it with him. Then he’ll be with Chi Di forever. Tai Sui says his primordial spirit won’t be enough, but Rong Hao does it anyway. With Chi Di, he cries, apologizes, and dies.
Orchid, Chang Heng, and DFQC visit their graves and pay their respects. Orchid says Tai Sui is causing havoc and it’s time for her and Chang Heng to act.
Flashback to Chang Heng discovering that Orchid is still Orchid, though she’s also Goddess Xiyun. Chang Heng is desperately hopeful she’s marrying him because she loves him. Nope, this is the only way to activate his powers and protect the three realms against Tai Sui. Chang Heng realizes she’s going to die, and that she’s lying to DFQC rather than letting him suffer.
Chang Heng is resentful that she’s not protecting him the same way and wonders if she’ll claim she has no choice. She says this is her choice.
Back at the graves, Chang Heng and Orchid leave DFQC behind. Chang Heng mentions that Tai Sui will go after DFQC next, and does she really want to sacrifice herself for him? Orchid says she loves all people, and she loves one person.
DFQC asks a favor of Orchid before she leaves. Even though he knows Orchid is really gone, he brings her to Lovesickness Bridge, where they were going to hang their locks. He tells the Goddess how Orchid is the only one for him and she was the only one who loved him despite how awful he could be.
Crying so he can’t see, she tells him to stop talking. He says he shouldn’t have brought her and she leaves. But she stops to hear him explain he tried to make her stop loving him to save her, so he could break the Bone Orchid. He cries and asks why she never stopped loving him.
At Xishan Siming Hall, he says goodbye and have a nice wedding. She stops him and puts her fingers to his lips to make him smile, the way she did countless times as Orchid. He’s stunned and wants to know who she is. She runs away.
He remembers what Siming told him after she gave him Orchid’s Destiny Book. Siming told him he was the only one who could change Orchid’s fate. At the time he thought it was about reviving her, but Siming said he didn’t understand. Now he sees in her book that her fate is broken, and she’s dying with Tai Sui. DFQC says he’ll change her fate.
DFQC waits outside Orchid’s room, but when she goes to look he’s not there. She looks further, and he appears and gives her an awesome kiss. She’s crying, and he vanishes in his smoke wings.
Shang Que brings him his full Moon Supreme garb while Orchid prepares for her wedding. She and Chang Heng approach Yun Zhong together, while DFQC strides alone across a windy landscape that looks like the moon.
Thoughts
Okay, either episode 31 or this one is the most heartbreaking episode, and I refuse to pick. Obviously, there’s everything with Orchid and DFQC, his scene at the bridge, and then later that heroic kiss he gives her before wordlessly going to save her from her fate. (That kiss is one of the best dramatic, romantic kisses ever.)
But also the surprisingly sad story of Rong Hao and Chi Di Nu Zi, and Chang Heng’s hopeful heart getting broken yet one more time. I really appreciate the writers fleshing out their characters so that they don’t just exist to make the main characters do things and plot happen, but that their lives actually mattered and had meaning.
And again and again, this world may have fate but it also has choices. Orchid said that this wasn’t her fate but a choice. Chi Di Nu Zi chose to save mortal Rong Hao even knowing it would end tragically. Tai Sui claimed Rong Hao had no choice, but clearly it’s wrong. Even though he previously said he had no choice, Rong Hao makes one here, dying with Chi Di Nu Zi and trying to be the hero.
DFQC also clearly made a choice here.
Noble idiocy is one of my least favorite tropes, and part of me doesn’t love that first DFQC lied to Orchid to try and save her and now she’s lying to DFQC to save him. But in this world of gods and goddesses and endless Siming Halls, I’m willing to accept these over-the-top gestures. They also don’t drag on too long. And it shows how similar the Orchid and DFQC are, the lengths they will go for each other, even though they are a Fairy and a Devil.
I love that Orchid can’t help being Orchid in that moment with DFQC when she lifted his lips. Often those kinds of slips can feel contrived, but I believe it here after she heard his impassioned speech at the bridge. She couldn’t help herself, she loves him too much. And then she dealt with it in an Orchid way, by just running away.
Neither of the translations I have gave the name of the moon place DFQC is walking over at the end there, but the characters seem to be 来不及, lái bu jí, which means ‘it’s too late’. I love it.