Rattan Episode 5 Recap
> Rattan Recap
After nine days of fruitless discussions, the assembled Xuan Sect members still had no solution for Wang Qiankun’s Rattan Kill. A frustrated Yan Furui called Qin Fang, suggesting they bring Wang Qiankun to Si Teng for help, reasoning that she likely didn't truly want him dead. After the call, Yan Furui smirked, pleased with his deceptive performance, confident he had fooled Qin Fang and could now catch Si Teng's party off guard with a plan of his own.
While Qin Fang was on the phone, Wafang attempted to prank Si Teng with a cup of overly salty tea. Seeing through the trick, Si Teng playfully painted on the boy's face with an ink brush, making him cry. When Qin Fang arrived, he misunderstood the situation and chided Si Teng. Thinking she was offering the tea as an apology, he drank it himself and was choked by the salt.
Realizing Wafang was the culprit, Qin Fang conceded that the boy deserved Si Teng's teasing. Yan Furui learned that the family of an elderly woman named Huang Cuilan possessed a method to relieve the Rattan Kill. The story was that Qiu Shan himself had sought assistance from her father, Huang Yu, before his famed defeat of Si Teng.
The family’s secret method was passed down only to females and was nearly lost, but Huang Cuilan, now over eighty, was still lucid. News that she had confirmed the Rattan Kill "can be relieved" gave the Xuan Sect confidence. Privately, Si Teng informed Qin Fang that her powers were severely damaged and instructed him to keep it a secret from the visiting Xuan Sect members.
She explained that while manipulating vines was simple, she needed to conserve her energy for recuperation and currently possessed almost no powers. Despite the risk of provoking the Xuan Sect, she believed that "wealth comes from danger" and intended to leverage their fear to force them to grant "a request." Meanwhile, Shan Zhigang reported to Qin Fang on his investigation in Darna.
He found only one notable incident: a ceramics merchant from Li Town named Zhao Jianglong was hospitalized for a self-inflicted wound. Elsewhere, An Man, now with two male captors, assured them the "goods" they were after were hidden inside the wound Zhao Jianglong had given himself, and she knew he would still be in Li Town. During their downtime, Si Teng asked Qin Fang about his girlfriend, An Man, prompting him to recall the events before his accident.
He remembered An Man growing worried after a "Mr. Ma" appeared and then insisting he drink water, which he now suspected was drugged. Si Teng mused that both "Mr. Ma" and "An Man" were likely fake names. Concurrently, Shan Zhigang's investigation uncovered An Man's real identity as An Xiaoting, a former mistress of Zhao Jianglong who had once fled with his money.
Shan Zhigang theorized An Man had schemed with an accomplice to blackmail Qin Fang in Darna, but a conflict between them led to her disappearance. Qin Fang, however, told him to drop the investigation. The Xuan Sect members took Wang Qiankun into a room for treatment. Yan Furui, who admitted to knowing no Xuan Sect skills despite being Qiu Shan's disciple, waited outside with Bai Jin, a fellow member who was live-streaming for "storytelling material."
Yan Furui expressed his confusion to Bai Jin: if the Rattan Kill could be cured, what was Si Teng’s motive for using it? Suddenly, screams erupted from the room. They rushed in to find several Xuan Sect masters collapsing and bleeding, poisoned by the vine they were trying to remove. Bai Jin immediately put Si Teng on speakerphone to confront her.
Si Teng retorted by asking why they had ignored the message she sent via Yan Furui, in which she stated she simply had "a request." She advised them to remain calm to avoid aggravating the poison, noting she had intentionally not used a lethal dose. Si Teng then declared her intention to host a dinner, which the horrified masters assumed was a "last meal." Si Teng dismissed their fears, stating she had no interest in harming them.
The eldest master, Cang Hong, suggested they call Huang Cuilan, reasoning that since she knew the cure, she might have more insight into Si Teng's past. Over the phone, Huang Cuilan revealed a shocking truth. Qiu Shan, despite his talent, was shunned by the class-conscious Xuan Sect for his humble origins. Driven by resentment, he secretly engineered Si Teng’s mutation, intending to use her as a puppet.
He orchestrated fake monster uprisings for him to publicly suppress, thereby gaining fame and fortune. Huang Cuilan explained Qiu Shan’s contradictory nature: he despised Si Teng as a "lower race" yet relied on her for his ascent, treating her with extreme cruelty and confining her to a cage with animals as a child.
When a more mature Si Teng fell in love with a young man, Qiu Shan, seeing it as an abomination, deliberately forced her to reveal her true form in front of her beloved. Despite her desperate pleas for a second chance, he coldly reminded her she was nothing but a "lowly thing." Shortly after, Qiu Shan, now famous, prepared for his induction into the prestigious Mt. Changming sect.
But at the peak of his life, he was publicly disgraced when an anonymous letter was read aloud, denouncing him as a "despicable person" who was ineligible to join because he had raised "one of Tribe Yi"—a revelation considered a profound "disgrace for the Xuan Sect."
