Orchid and Devy camp at a little Moon village for a while. Here Orchid gets to bond with some of the Moon women. This town is actually in a sad state because most of their men have either died in battle or lost during the last war.
While they were walking around, Devy is confronted by an old lady of a household whose son and grandson were both called to the front and haven’t come back yet. She said she would like to ask Devy some questions. She has an impressive walking cane, by the way. I would be afraid to go near her if I were you, Devy.
It seems like grandma wants to take this opportunity to give Devy a well-deserved lecture, though. She asks him where he has been and whether he intends to do something for the soldiers whose spirits are stuck in between realms.
Devy is pretty agitated but he lets it slide. When asks by Orchid later on why he didn’t punish the old lady, he says he took pity on her due to her grief. Noooo… Orchid is astonished. Devy is emotionally stunted, how could he have felt pity for the old lady? How could he have felt anything at all?
She guesses it must be because his Tree of Emotions is coming back to life.
At Orchid’s notion, she and Devy go to visit Devy’s “Tree”, it is indeed budding. Orhid is overjoyed, but Devy has a quiet “oh crap” moment. It’s unclear whether this Tree is an actual tree at a physical location or if this is only a trip to his heart by a magic spell.
The next day, Devy goes back to being mean to Orchid. He doesn’t understand how she alone could have evoked emotions from him and relived that Tree, the one thing he makes a point to keep dead. His reaction is almost like finding out you’re going to have a kid you are not prepared for and then blaming the woman for it. It takes two for this to happen, dear Devy, and you’re the one who insisted on keeping Orchid close.
That day, Jieli just has to add fuel to the fire by sneaking into the Moon Palace’s treasure room to steal stuff. These Moon people’s security is as effective as the Heaven Realm, it seems.
She gets caught. When Devy is about to brush the matter aside, he finds in her bag a little ceramic figure which invokes some painful memories; so now he’s really pissed and insists on killing Jieli. Once again, Orchid has to jump in to plead for Jieli. Shangque does it too, he’s been having a good time with Jieli recently.
Upon Orchid’s defiance, Devy yields.
At the court meeting that day, Devy has to deal with yet another confrontation. His brother Yunfeng asks him why he killed their father. And again, he has no answer to give.
A bit later that day, Orchid finds Devy alone in a garden. She approaches him and cautiously starts getting him to talk about his father. Well, as cautious as Orchid can be.
Did your father ever love you? She asks. Good, you two have finally started to ask questions the audience already figured out the answers to 5 episodes ago. But progress for them, yayy. They’re a couple of slow-pokes, after all.