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TL;DR Version
The Heart Curse on DFQC makes him powerless as Orchid puts off fixing the destiny book. They exchange names but she mishears him and remains ignorant of his true identity. When she finally works on the destiny book, she collapses in exhaustion. DFQC goes to collect morning dew to take care of her.
Recap
Orchid and DFQC are yanked out of bed and brought before Chang Heng. DFQC grovels but is slaughtered. Chang Heng tells Orchid she disappointed him and kills her too.
But we’re still only in episode 4, so it’s just a dream. Orchid wakes in panic and DFQC does too. It’s the first time he’s felt fear in a very long time.
Later that morning, DFQC tries to wake Orchid to get her to fix the destiny book. He discovers two things; that she’s not a morning person, and that she seems to have some kind of power over him. At her command, he ends up in her greenhouse counting flowers.
Stuck there, he calls upon Shang Que. While intercut with flashing, horror imagery of beautiful flowers that he has to count, DFQC commands Shang Que to get the Book of Xilan to help him figure out what’s going on.
Shang Que brings it, and the book is an absurdly long scroll. They spread it in a spiral around the room they are in, with them settled in the center. Working together, they learn the details of the Heart Curse. As we’ve seen, it’s a one-way spell that gives DFQC all Orchid’s feelings and pain while she feels nothing, making her his biggest weakness. If someone kills her, he will be dead too.
DFQC is infuriated at being at mercy to this “grass”.
Shang Que points out that since she’s oblivious about being Xilan and the curse, DFQC has an advantage. DFQC decides to focus on his plans for reviving his soldiers and killing all the fairies, leaving the curse for later.
Once awake, DFQC informs Orchid that there are 8,452 flowers in her greenhouse. She thinks it’s hilarious that he took her seriously, for the rather sad reason that she is usually ignored.
The curse continues to make life miserable for DFQC, as Orchid’s empty stomach is felt by both of them, making breakfast the priority. Over breakfast they exchange names, and a sneeze from her turns his name into Dongfang Qiang. She recognizes the similarity to the evil, dead DFQC. Orchid doesn’t want him to feel bad about this though, pointing out at least he has a family and a surname, unlike her.
For the rest of the day, he wants her to fix the destiny book and she tells him about DFQC and how ugly and horrible he is. Her loose understanding of the history and embellishment of the facts horrifies him into trying to set her straight about it. He points out her lax attitude might hurt her chances with the immortal exam, but she shrugs him off.
While making pastries, he asks after the torn-up portrait he found in one of her books. Orchid gets flustered and runs off. DFQC realizes they’ve wasted the entire day.
The new plan is to fix the destiny book tomorrow. DFQC complains to Shang Que that even though she doesn’t know what she’s doing, she’s easily manipulating him. Never mind the soldiers, he wants to break the curse and kill her. He sends Shang Que to get the Heart-Hidden hairpin, and also a bath.
Alone in her room, Orchid reflects that despite his horrible personality, DFQC does make things more interesting. She thinks he can’t be that bad, despite having been locked up. They have very different feelings about each other.
The next day Orchid tries to fix the destiny book. She is too weak and collapses. Shang Que concludes that after the ordeal of the last few days, it may be many, many years before she has power enough. DFQC is not happy.
Chang Heng is working on an Immortal Pill for Orchid, despite the protests of his servant. Rong Hao, though, gets that Chang Heng is in love. Another flashback to 500 years ago, right after Orchid became a fairy, reveals that he got the handkerchief when she wrapped it around his wounded hand.
Frustrated, DFQC continues to disregard the rules, trying to mess with the destiny book himself, without luck. Shang Que is concerned because he has to leave and DFQC will be stuck with Orchid. They read more of the Xilan book, studying a section on the care of delicate flowers like Orchid. DFQC is infuriated at the idea of doing any of these things for Orchid and vows not to.
First thing next morning, he is up and collecting morning dew, one of the things that should help Orchid. In the beautiful, peaceful forest he scares off magic creatures and fantasizes about destroying everything around him while he waits for the bowl to fill.
Orchid, meanwhile, searches frantically all over Siming Hall for him. Chang Heng tries to deliver the pill but gets pulled away by work. Orchid doesn’t see him and realizes that DFQC must have left on his own. She’s thrilled.
Thoughts
This episode dips pretty hard into typical rom-com territory, with the prolonged back and forth between Orchid and DFQC where she’s describing how awful he is without knowing it’s him. Some necessary character/plot stuff happens in that time, but after the breakneck pace of the last few episodes, this one is a little on the slow side.
That said, the continued communication and misunderstandings between them are important to their characters. She’s trying to be kind to him but is driving him crazy, and he wants to use her and kill her, and she thinks he isn’t that bad.
This episode also has another one of my favorite early moments from this show: DFQC arriving with smoke-and-flames wings like some kind of satanic monster in the fairy-tale greenery of Orchid’s greenhouse. Then, the way the flowers flash on the screen while he attempts to talk with Shang Que is like horror editing of someone caught by terrible visions Only, it’s just a bunch of beautiful flowers.
Also, he and Shang Que look really dashing in their shades-of-black outfits as they work together on the problem that is Orchid.