Episode 5 recap: Huang Cong Er confirmed to be a replicant, An Qiu and Cheng Nuo help the Huang family escape from the extortion of criminals.
Cheng Nuo continues to investigate the matter regarding Li Yi. He and An Qiu separately follow Huang Shi Peng and Huang Cong Er, but they don't discover anything new. However, An Qiu notices that Huang Cong Er's daily routine is surprisingly consistent, which she finds somewhat unbelievable.
Cheng Nuo realizes that An Qiu has finally started to suspect Huang Cong Er's identity. An Qiu visits the Huang family once again and expresses her desire to talk to Cong Er. Cong Er's mother is unwilling, but Cong Er agrees. An Qiu enters Cong Er's room and discovers that Cong Er knows how to play chess. They play a game together, but Cong Er knows that An Qiu's visit is not about playing chess.
An Qiu asks about the time when Cong Er went missing, but Cong Er claims to have no recollection of it. An Qiu returns and tells Cheng Nuo about this. Cheng Nuo believes that Cong Er's behavior is more consistent with that of a replicant, but An Qiu says they can't definitively conclude that Cong Er is a replicant without evidence.
Cheng Nuo suggests starting the investigation from the Huang Cong Er missing case. Cheng Nuo goes to the police station, but unfortunately, the officer in charge of the case, Officer He, passed away due to illness. Consequently, Cheng Nuo requests access to the case files from that time to search for clues.
An Qiu continues to track Cong Er. Cong Er shows her a news report about crimes committed by replicants and asks An Qiu if replicants really pose a threat to society. An Qiu says that it's only the opinion of a certain group of people. Cong Er questions why Li Yi was arrested and why she is being constantly followed.
An Qiu wants to explain to Cong Er, but Cong Er says she needs to go home for dinner as her parents are waiting for her. Cheng Nuo finds An Qiu and informs her about the findings of his investigation. It turns out that Huang Shi Peng didn't report losing his daughter; instead, he found a homeless little girl. However, for all these years, Huang Shi Peng has been blackmailed by a man, and he has been giving money to that person.
Cheng Nuo and An Qiu decide to help the Huang family. They propose to administer a verification drug to determine whether Cong Er is a replicant or not. This leads Cong Er and Huang Shi Peng to reveal what happened six years ago.
Six years ago, while Huang Shi Peng was working, he saw a homeless little girl picking up leftover food from others. He bought her a bowl of noodles.
Huang Shi Peng, worried about the safety of the child, went to the police station to report the case. However, the girl's parents didn't react as expected. They showed no concern for the child. Huang Shi Peng was confused, so he found the girl's parents. The girl's father told Huang Shi Peng that the girl is a replicant and that nobody wanted her even when she was abandoned on the streets. Seeing Huang Shi Peng's kindness, the parents suggested that he take the child away by giving them some money.
Subsequently, Huang Shi Peng and his wife brought the girl to their own home and have been living with her ever since. But today, if An Qiu and Cheng Nuo hadn't arrived in time, Cong Er would have left without saying goodbye. Huang Shi Peng and his wife embraced Cong Er and burst into tears, as they had already regarded her as their own child.
The police brought in a man named Zhao Meng and his wife. It turned out that they had bought Cong Er with money, only for the purpose of dividing the family's property. After that was done, they planned to abandon Cong Er on the streets without any care. When Cong Er saw Zhao Meng and his wife, she emotionally shouted, asking why they were here. She had already given them all her money, so why did they come to her home? It turned out that Zhao Meng and his wife, due to their drug addiction, needed money, so besides extorting Huang Shi Peng, they also forced Cong Er to give them her own money.
Huang Shi Peng was furious upon hearing this and berated them as inhuman. The police informed them that the relationship between Huang Shi Peng, his wife, and Cong Er was not legally recognized. They would have to wait for further investigation and a solution from the Public Security Bureau and Mingmou. Huang Cong Er was temporarily taken to Mingmou, and An Qiu comforted her, assuring her that she would soon be reunited with her parents. Cong Er presented a gift from Li Yi and said that he was a good person, hoping that An Qiu and the others would spare him.
Upon seeing the gift, An Qiu couldn't help but feel surprised. This case has temporarily come to a close. An Qiu handed over the case files to her responsible colleague and unexpectedly learned that Mingmou had conducted a search in the slum area they had previously visited. She requested the information to review it and discovered that Cheng Nuo was the one leading the search. An Qiu recalled asking Cheng Nuo about it, and Cheng Nuo had claimed not to be familiar with the slum area.
Have you noticed that this series is actually anti-progressive? The concept of androids is a form of technology, and technology itself cannot be forcibly categorized into a binary system of good and evil.
It is only when events occur during its usage that violate fundamental moral principles that it falls into the realm of moral judgment.