Rattan Episode 1 Recap
> Rattan Recap
In 1939, Si Teng, an elegant woman, was taken by a rickshaw to the remote Huamei Textile Mill warehouse. The driver, Jia San, stayed behind out of curiosity and witnessed Si Teng being murdered inside. Terrified, he inadvertently revealed his presence and was dragged into the warehouse by vines.
To save his life, Jia San agreed to the demands of a cloaked figure: he was to take Si Teng’s body to a place called Darna and have his family guard it for generations. Decades later, in 2020, Darna has become a popular tourist destination. On a bus, Qin Fang and his girlfriend An Man listen to a lecture by Bai Jin, an expert on ancient mysteries.
Bai Jin explains his theory of the "Tribe Yi": beings created when extraterrestrial genes from a crashed alien ship fused with Earth's plants, granting them human-like consciousness. He also mentions "super magnetic spheres," remnants of the ship with the power to destroy and regenerate the Yi. While An Man is intrigued, Qin Fang dismisses the stories.
His primary purpose in Darna is to find the descendants of the Jia family to repay a debt of gratitude, as their ancestor had saved his great-grandmother from a famine decades ago. They find the old Jia family house deserted, and a local elder confirms the family moved away long ago. Unable to find the benefactor's family, they check into a guesthouse. There, a man named Ma introduces himself, noting that An Man looks unwell.
Qin Fang attributes it to altitude sickness. In their room, An Man expresses her deep affection for Qin Fang before secretly leaving. She goes to another room where her ex-lover, Zhao Jianglong, is waiting. An Man pleads with him to let her go, promising to repay the money he spent on her and begging him not to reveal their past to Qin Fang. Enraged, Zhao Jianglong brutally attacks her.
Desperate, An Man escapes with an unconscious Qin Fang in her car. Haunted by the memory of stabbing Zhao Jianglong in self-defense during their struggle, she drives erratically. As she stops on a mountain road, another vehicle rams them, sending their car to the edge of a cliff. Men drag An Man out, demanding to know where Zhao Jianglong's "nine-eyed heavenly pearl" is.
An Man claims ignorance, but when they threaten Qin Fang, she lies that the item is in her cabinet. Disbelieving her, the men push the car, with Qin Fang still inside, over the cliff. Qin Fang is thrown from the car and impaled through the chest by a large branch. As he lies dying, he dreams of a mysterious woman in a white qipao. He awakens to find himself still impaled and unable to move.
At that moment, in Cangcheng Mountain, an elderly man named Yan Furui is startled by an explosion. A stone tablet in his courtyard has shattered, revealing a hidden book from his master. The book details the mission of their sect, the Xingyun Pavilion, to eradicate the Tribe Yi, and specifically describes Si Teng—a powerful and vicious rattan-like being whom his master claimed to have killed in 1946.
The master warned that if Si Teng ever revived, a strange anomaly would occur at the Pavilion. Just as Yan Furui reads this, his courtyard collapses, revealing a deep, dark well. Back at the cliff, Qin Fang watches in disbelief as a nearby plant rapidly grows and transforms into Si Teng, the woman from his dream. Her blood, mixed with his, has revived her. She approaches him and touches his chest, instantly healing the fatal wound.
Overwhelmed, Qin Fang tries to flee but is effortlessly pulled back by her. Si Teng asks for the current year, and upon learning it is 2020, she coolly informs him that she is his master now, and he must obey her every command. Reeling from the encounter, Qin Fang recalls the lecture about the Tribe Yi, realizing Si Teng fits the description. She immediately begins treating him as a servant, refusing the clothes he offers and demanding his shoes instead.
Recognizing that she is his savior, Qin Fang reluctantly complies. After they find new lodging, Si Teng makes another demand: a bath. As she prepares, she privately wonders who could have orchestrated her revival and brought her all the way to Darna.
