Episode 7 opened on a joyful, bustling scene—the carnival, a place rooted in Johnny's childhood memories.
The memory exploration journey of Eva and Neil wasn't over yet.
Now that they knew about Johnny and Joey's past, and why Johnny had no recollection of his childhood, they finally understood:
Johnny's desire to go to the moon—an obsession that surfaced only at the end of his life—stemmed from a memory he no longer remembered.
A forgotten dream, born in childhood.
But then came the question on Song Na's mind, and perhaps the minds of many viewers:
If that desire originated in childhood, so strong it lingered even without memory... why did Johnny remain indifferent to it for his entire life until now?
Why wait until death, when he was willing to pay a tech company to dive into his memories and rewrite his dream, just to reach the moon?
And most of all—what did the moon mean to Johnny?
He never showed interest in astronomy or space.
So… why the moon?
Why not Mars, Saturn, Jupiter?
As Song Na pondered these questions, the story continued.
In the carnival memory, Johnny and his brother Joey were playing together joyfully.
And soon, the heartbreaking moments returned.
The two boys entered a Whack-a-Mole game. Both completed the game perfectly.
But because Joey played first, he received the prize: a toy train. Johnny got a lesser prize.
Johnny was disappointed. Joey tried to share the train with him.
But their mother praised Joey's generosity and scolded Johnny for being petty and noisy.
Johnny's emotions sank even lower.
He quietly left, watching his mother and brother enjoy pickled cucumbers, a food he hated.
"Biased mothers are the worst... These two brothers love each other so much, and yet she still does this," Song Na muttered.
And knowing what was coming later only made her angrier.
She was the one who had accidentally run over Joey.
She was the one who raised Johnny as a stand-in for her dead son.
And at Johnny's own wedding, she even called him by his brother's name—Joey.
Song Na's sympathy for Johnny had reached its peak.
In the story, Johnny climbed the hill behind the carnival.
Cicadas sang in the summer night. The sky was filled with stars.
As he reached the top, what unfolded before him—and the viewers—was a sea of stars, vast and breathtaking.
"So beautiful!" Eva gasped, overwhelmed by the starlit view from Johnny's childhood.
"He found the perfect spot." Neil said, watching the young Johnny sitting quietly on a tree branch.
The two scientists, in virtual consciousness form, were invisible to Johnny's mind.
Little Johnny looked up at the sky, eyes full of longing—and loneliness.
His mother's love belonged to his brother.
But this sky is full of stars? That belonged to him.
Child actor Cao Shou needed only a single glance to melt Song Na's heart.
In this moment, all the pain and pressure from home faded away.
Then, someone approached from behind.
A little girl.
Beautiful. Calm. Quiet.
Her arrival made Johnny nervous.
She turned, ready to leave without saying a word.
"Wait! I'm Johnny. What's your name?"
"You're in my spot." The girl replied, looking at the tree branch.
"S-Sorry! I didn't mean to take it. Want to sit with me?" Johnny asked awkwardly.
"Are you here to look at the stars?"
"You too?"
The camera pulled back.
A pale golden moon hung in the sky, surrounded by a sea of stars.
Below them, Johnny and River sat side by side, looking upward.
Their first meeting—as children.
The sadness in Johnny from earlier began to lift.
This quiet, unfamiliar girl somehow gave him peace.
They talked with ease—no awkward pauses, no hesitation.
The conversation drifted from names to stars.
"So… what do you think stars are?" River asked calmly.
"My dad said they're giant fireballs hanging in the sky! I bet that's a lie."
"Adults lie all the time. Like Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny."
"Have you ever tried making a rabbit out of stars?"
"Like connecting constellations?"
Rabbit.
Paper rabbit?
Song Na's mind lit up.
Why are we suddenly talking about rabbits?
"Yeah, I tried connecting the stars to look like a rabbit. But I never managed to do it."
"Wanna try again?"
"Let's race to see who finds it first! 3… 2… 1—go!"
"I found it!" River called out quickly.
The camera zoomed out, showing the vast starry sky.
Song Na began scanning the stars too, just like the two children.
"Where is it?"
"Up there."
"Where up there?"
Johnny leaned slightly toward River, trying to see what she saw.
"Use your imagination." She said gently.
A soft, touching melody played.
Under the moonlight, the boy and girl looked up at the sky.
And for Song Na—for all the viewers—it was magical.
In this moment, his mother's coldness and River's autism faded away.
Maybe it was their first meeting.
But in this brief time, they truly felt understood.
"Use your imagination. Look for the biggest one."
"Wait… I see it!"
"What do you see?"
When River turned to Johnny and asked this—
Song Na's heart clenched.
That line.
She remembered it.
In Episode 2 or 3, River, now old and frail, held up a yellow-bellied, blue-eared paper rabbit and looked at Johnny with sad eyes.
"Tell me… what do you see?"
Back in childhood memory, Johnny pointed at the moon.
The screen transitioned with soft visual effects.
Filtering out all the background stars—
Song Na saw it.
The pale yellow moon was the plump belly of a rabbit.
And the stars above and below it formed the ears and feet.
The deep blue sky was the background canvas.
Together, they formed a yellow-and-blue rabbit.
"Tell me… what do you see?"
Song Na's vision blurred with tears. Her nose stung.
Was that it?
The mystery behind River's paper rabbit obsession?
It made sense now.
In her final days, she handed Johnny the paper rabbit, hoping—begging—that he'd say what she needed to hear.
She didn't want him to say, "It's a paper rabbit."
She wanted him to say—
"It's the moon."
She wanted him to remember that night.
To remember their first meeting.
She held onto it her whole life.
But Johnny…
His mother's medicine stole that memory from him.
This wasn't a show you could casually watch.
But for attentive viewers, those with sharp memories, it was heartbreaking.
And it wasn't over.
"What do you think stars really are?" Johnny asked.
"I've never told anyone this, but I think stars are… lighthouses. Thousands of them. They can see each other. They want to talk to each other. But they can't. All they can do is shine as brightly as they can—hoping their light reaches someone else. Hoping it reaches… me."
Song Na's eyes widened.
She understood.
River was describing herself.
A star.
A lighthouse.
She could see others. Be near them. But because of her autism—her inability to express her true thoughts—she could never truly connect.
She was alone.
"Why you?"Johnny asked.
"Because one day, I'll become friends with one of them."
So that's why, in Episode 2, River begged Johnny to spend all their money building a house near the lighthouse with "Anya."
This…
This was that moment.
Song Na couldn't hold back.
She broke down in tears.
Viewers all across Xia Nation, understanding the metaphor, wept as the tears blurred their screens.
Still, the episode continued.
"What's in that bag?"
"The prize I got from Whack-a-Mole."
"What did you win?"
"A weird… duck-beaver thing?"
Johnny pulled out the plush toy.
Song Na's vision blurred even more.
Three mysteries, unveiled back-to-back.
Three waves of heartbreak.
That toy was the platypus.
The same one River always carried.
The one she held onto for life.
"It looks weird. I wish I won one too."
"Then it's yours! I'll win another one next time!"
River's eyes lit up as she took the toy.
Then, Johnny's mother called for him.
"Will you come again next year?"
River clutched the platypus and called after him.
"Of course. And you?"
"I will."
"Same time, same place?"
"Yeah."
Song Na was completely undone.
Because from here on… Johnny would forget everything.
He would break this promise for his entire life.
Then came the most soul-crushing moment:
"But what if you forget? Or get lost?"
Johnny looked up at the pale moon and pointed.
"Then we'll meet on the moon. You dummy."
The remote slipped from Song Na's hand.
Her eyes—full of unbearable grief.
She understood.
That line was the final puzzle piece that connected everything from Episodes 1 through 6.
Why had Johnny never shown any interest in going to the moon until now?
Because during his youth and adulthood, River was there.
But now… she was gone.
She died before him.
He might have forgotten the memory.
But that promise, buried in his soul, never left him.
"If one of us gets lost…"
"We'll meet on the moon, you dummy."
Song Na was no longer just crying.
She was sobbing aloud.
Johnny's wish to go to the moon… was never about astronomy.
It was about finding River.