Archives: The Nanyang Mystery Episode 3 Recap
> Archives: The Nanyang Mystery Recaps
Following their decision to venture into the depths of the reef cave to resolve the crisis, Zhang Hailou and Zhang Haixia made their way inside despite the desperate warnings of onlookers to stay away. Inside, they discovered a calcified Ming Dynasty shipwreck that had merged completely with the surrounding reef, filling the damp air with a heavy stench of rotting flesh. Deep within the ship's hold, they found decayed corpses suspended in bags.
Zhang Haixia deduced that these bodies had been hung up to collect their fluids, which were then used to nourish the toxic plants growing below. A preserved Ming Dynasty nautical chart revealed a tragic history: during its voyage, the ship's crew had suffered from mysterious red rashes and ulcerating skin, leading to rapid deaths.
Believing they were haunted by water ghosts, the superstitious survivors had hung the corpses to trap the evil spirits, unaware that the black fluids dripping from the bodies carried Twilight Grass seeds, which thrived in the dark, humid cabins and wiped out everyone on board. Realizing the extreme danger of the Twilight Grass, the brothers resolved to destroy the plants before the military factions could exploit them. Meanwhile, Adjutant Chen slowly regained consciousness outside.
Despite his severe injuries, he bound his wounds and ordered his men to enter the cave to eliminate the intruders, warning them that his nemesis, Zhang Hailou, was inside and could not be allowed to escape. As Chen’s soldiers blocked the only exit, Zhang Hailou prepared to use explosives to blow open the hull, hoping the shockwave would carry them out into the sea. Seeing the sheer volume of military firepower, Zhang Haixia realized their chances of survival were slim.
Wishing to protect his brother, he told Zhang Hailou that he had no regrets or attachments left in Xiacheng, urging him to return home alone. Before Zhang Hailou could protest, Zhang Haixia shielded him with his own body just as the explosives detonated, causing the cave to collapse. When Zhang Hailou finally regained consciousness, he found himself washed up on a desolate reef.
He desperately checked on his brother and breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming that Zhang Haixia was still alive, though heavily injured. Meanwhile, the dying Adjutant Chen used his final moments to deliver the harvested Twilight Grass seeds and a letter to his warlord leader, Mo Yungao.
The letter warned of the Southern Archives under the Maritime Supervisory Office, identifying his encounter with agent Zhang Hailou, and stated that the Twilight Grass poison had spread among his soldiers, advising that they must be eliminated. Upon receiving the news, Mo Yungao ordered the execution of the infected soldiers to prevent further spread.
He then ordered his men to sever the stiff hand of Chen's corpse to retrieve the jar of seeds, and commanded a ruthless hunt to eliminate every member of the Southern Archives. In the wake of the disaster, the Southern Archives’ Balongzhou branch was abruptly shut down, and its members were dismissed. For three years, Zhang Hailou tried in vain to contact headquarters or their mentor, Zhang Haiqi.
Unbeknownst to them, Zhang Haiqi had gone into hiding to investigate the systematic killings of Archive members. During one of her secret investigations in a dense rainforest, she was ambushed by mysterious armed men, but managed to fight her way out. Living a quiet, impoverished life, Zhang Hailou dedicated himself to caring for Zhang Haixia, who was now permanently crippled and bound to a wheelchair.
They ran a modest business to get by, while Zhang Hailou held onto the hope of returning to Xiacheng to find Zhang Haiqi, believing her legendary medical skills could cure his brother’s legs. Their quiet routine was shattered when Zhang Haixia spotted a newspaper report detailing a sudden, lethal outbreak in Xucheng. The symptoms—red rashes, ulceration, and rapid death from inhaling dandelion-like spores—perfectly matched the Twilight Grass.
Suspecting a connection between this outbreak, the warlords, and their past encounter with the Evil God, Zhang Haixia urged Zhang Hailou to investigate. Zhang Hailou journeyed to Xucheng and returned with crucial information, as well as a young orphan girl he had rescued from the outskirts of the city. He named her Zhang Haijiao, choosing the "Hai" character because their mentor had once noted that the character signified their shared fate of wandering and separation from home.
After ensuring she was completely disinfected and free of any symptoms, they welcomed her into their home with a warm hotpot meal. Analyzing the outbreak, the brothers realized that the poison had spread simultaneously across three villages surrounding Xucheng. The first victims in each village had all boarded the ship "Nan'an" from Xiacheng to Balai in early July.
Since Xiacheng itself had no reported cases, they concluded that the victims must have been deliberately infected aboard the ship to maximize the spread of the toxin. To find the source, someone would need to board the "Nan'an" and investigate the entire route back to Xiacheng. Since their meager savings could only purchase a single steerage ticket, Zhang Hailou proposed selling their property so they could travel together.
Zhang Haixia refused, insisting that Zhang Hailou take the ticket, return to Xiacheng to find their mentor, and never return to waste his life in exile. The next morning, before Zhang Hailou could depart, he entered his brother's room to find Zhang Ruipu waiting for them. The disgraced former Archive member, whom they believed to be dead, mocked their poverty and revealed he had known their identities since their encounter under the saline lake.
Ruipu demanded to know what they had uncovered about the Twilight Grass, noting that Zhang Hailou's survival among the infected in Xucheng proved he had developed an alkaloid barrier from prior exposure. When Zhang Hailou refused to speak, citing the strict code of secrecy of the Southern Archives, Zhang Ruipu placed his hands on the wheelchair-bound Zhang Haixia, threatening to crush his spine vertebrae by vertebrae until Zhang Hailou gave him the answers he wanted.
