Chapter 11 Episode 11 of Thee Devil Punisher begins with Chung and Hsiao-Chi taking care of the rampaging cinema-goers. Hsiao-Chi cleverly uses humans to clean up the mess and Chung surmises perhaps he needs a human assistant. Hsin-Yu complains to her flower about En-Hsi, Chung and not having anyone with whom to talk. She’s suddenly swept from where she stands to Chung’s living room for a reunion. Chung is pleased that Hsin-Yu isn’t angry and missed him. Professor Lu asks En-Hsi about her relationship with Hsin-Yu but she immediately gets prickly and leaves the cafe. Ouyang Kai follows her, noticing she’s avoiding going home. He joins her on the swings, bringing her out of her mood. They eat ice cream and he encourages her to call him whenever she’s unhappy. Chung and Hsin-Yu cuddle at his house and he asks about En-Hsi. Hsin-Yu avoids the question and questions him about the case and the Underworld instead. She thinks about getting back to work but he turns the discussion back her friendship with En-Hsi. Now that he’s back, Chung promises to do anything Hsin-Yu would like. She’d like to have a date – like humans do. Chung admits he hasn’t had one before. He offers to take her to pick up a dinner she can share with En-Hsi. Hsin-Yu decides to cook there instead. Cheng Huang joins them and Chung is upset to hear they’d been hanging out while he was away. Annoyed at Chung’s reaction, Cheng Huang complains about sleep loss due to worrying about Chung’s girlfriend. Hsin-Yu offers to make him tea with the rafflesia flower. Cheng Huang thinks there’s something suspicious and takes the flower to investigate. Ouyang Kai tells himself to be brave and share his feelings with En-Hsi. But she’s absorbed in avoiding Hsin-Yu. When he tries to take her hand, she says they’re from different worlds and walks away from him. Hsin-Yu checks to see if En-Hsi is home before she and Chung get comfortable. She says En-Hsi feels like a stranger and this perks Chung’s ears. She again considers returning to work but Chung convinces her to enjoy the break while she can, rather than submitting her resignation again later. En-Hsi arrives home to find Chung standing outside. He tries to speak with her but she’s instantly angry and walks off instead. Cheng Huang is curious about why he’s being nice to En-Hsi. As usual, he gets the wrong end of the stick. Ouyang Kai wakes up to Chung who has an offer and makes him breakfast. Freaked out by Chung’s true identity, Ouyang Kai accepts the appointment as the Exorcism Lord’s assistant anyway. But he thinks his first assignment is too easy. So, Chung asks him for dating advice too. He laughs that over 1000 years Chung has only ever had one relationship. Chung smiles at En-Hsi, trying to make peace, but no dice. He asks Professor Lu if Hsin-Yu can have time off for a date. Of course, he agrees. En-Hsi is annoyed just seeing Hsin-Yu and Chung together and makes her escape. Professor Lu asks En-Hsi to dinner. Cheng Huang investigates the flower through old texts. Called ‘corpse flower,’ it only blooms for 48 hours and can calm people’s worries. Locally it’s known as a tranquilizer. He appears at Chung’s house the next morning, but Chung is more interested in his date with Hsin-Yu, so he doesn’t get to tell him about the flower. Chung picks Hsin-Yu up on a motorcycle, following Ouyang Kai’s dating rules. He gives her white roses, ticking off rule number two. There’s a flashback (with pretty sketchy hair) to a time when he’d given her white roses in their past. Rule 3 takes them to an amusement park, but it looks more like a children’s jumping venue. With that fail, he rechecks the list and heads to a haunted house. Hmm. They follow another couple in but Hsin-Yu unsurprisingly does not find it scary at all. Chung realises his mistake pretty quickly. They share ice cream to close but Chung says the date doesn’t count. They kiss to a romantic flow of white petals and Hsin-Yu recalls a similar experience with him. Cheng Huang has breakfast with Hsiao-Chi and she’s giving him the eye. He reminds her he’s married. Then she fills him in on how they got the rafflesia flower. He too questions how it can be so efficacious in such extreme circumstances. Professor Lu makes dinner for En-Hsi. The dish reminds her of her father. He distracts her by telling his story of eating it for encouragement as a student. He says the dinner is to thank her for sharing her feelings and he apologies for not being able to reciprocate. Hsin-Yu’s tells Chung she thinks they knew each other before meeting in the Underworld. She says he seemed familiar when she first spotted him there. Cheng Huang and Hsiao-Chi are still at Chung’s house. He tells Chung the flower couldn’t possibly cure insanity. He’s sent back to do more research but before leaving wants to hear about the date. He laughs at Ouyang Kai’s list, especially the haunted house. Chung is about to say more about the date but remembers he’s got another guest. Hsiao-Chi reports that the students from the movie theatre all drank cola but she’s not got much else on the incident. Chung and Cheng Huang have a drink and Chung tells him about discovering that En-Hsi is his sister from a past life. Whoa. En-Hsi walks home after dinner and thinks Ouyang Kai is following her. As she tucks away to surprise him, someone grabs her. Hsin-Yu dreams of seeing Chung before he became the Exorcism Lord. En-Hsi is creepily standing over her bed as she sleeps. Chung tells Cheng Huang that En-Hsi’s name was Mei’Er. As he read her file, the information disappeared – something that hasn’t happened before and could signal a change in fate. They agree that even if she hates him, he can work to make sure she has a good life. They discuss discrepancies in the Ching-Yuan incident. The still active case gives Chung extra time on Earth and the opportunity to protect his sister. Chung visits Ouyang Kai who shares CCTV footage from the cinema but nothing seems odd. Now after several incidents, Chung notes that Ouyang Kai’s university is unsafe. Chung Kuei’s proverb: Whether human or ghost, [anyone] can be good or bad. Only by being kind can they be on the right path. The Episode Review More new information this chapter and the start of pulling together some of the loose ends of the storyline. The peek at Chung and Hsin-Yu’s past plus the revelation that En-Hsi was Chung’s sister is interesting. It’s all close to home for Chung now. And the Ching-Yuan thing is still alive and kicking. So, if it’s not Ching-Yuan’s video that’s inciting people, what is it? Chung interestingly noted that Ching-Yuan also has gaps in his memory and doesn’t remember his motivation behind breaking the Bridge of Helplessness. So, something bigger is at work as Chung presumed? This glimpse of Chung and Hsin-Yu’s past is interesting. (Let’s ignore Chung’s crazy past life hairstyle for now.) There’s an indication that the two were a couple before Chung became the Exorcism Lord and that he had been on his way to take a test. According to legend, Chung Kuei travelled to the capital city to take the state-wide imperial exam (ancient civil service assessment). After having scored top marks, his title was unfairly stripped from him and in anger, he committed suicide. In Hell AKA The Underworld (because of the suicide) he was given the Ghost King role because of his intelligence. Of course, this is the abridged version but the funniest part – as per folklore – is that he was stripped of his title because of his extreme ugliness. Poor Chung. Continuing with the legend piece, where do you think they’re going with the rafflesia flower? Interesting that it isn’t able to cure what they had thought. But as the words ‘corpse flower’ keep coming out, is it possible that those who drank the tea will be affected in some adverse way? So far that’s Yu-Han, Professor Lu, possibly Hsin-Yu. Anyone else?
