Summary
The outcome of Han Jie’s confession ends terribly as Fang Xiao Rou rejects him. Without a reason to stay, Han Jie is at the airport bound for an international flight to Europe. However, a change of heart from Fang Xiao Rou, Han Jie doesn’t make the flight and remains in Taiwan.
Episode 9 Recap
In the previous episode, Han Jie confesses to Fang Xiao Rou— "You have the courage to say you like me. How can I not be even more courageous than you?—Fang Xiao Rou, I like you."
These words from Han Jie, however, doesn’t settle well with Fang Xiao Rou. She pushes him away and wants him to clarify. Is it that you confessed because I confessed? she questions. The use of words to describe his actions are wrong. Han Jie corrects them: he didn’t say anything because he worried that she’d worry. It’s also because he worried that she wouldn’t forgive him. The words ‘I won’t forgive you’ that he read in the confession letter seems to enter into his mind when he follows with asking if it was that she actually didn’t want him to leave because his leaving would see her unable to forgive him even more. Having no clue about the confession card to which Han Jie’s response was drawn from, it further disorientates Fang Xiao Rou.
Fang Xiao Rou provides Han Jie a clue that she has no idea about the confession card when she asks why he came to her place. However this gets missed by Han Jie when Fang Xiao Rou immediately follows it with telling him to not throw around words like ‘I like you’ so randomly.
An oblivious person conversing with another oblivious person, the confession gets to a point where, for a brief time, it seems to be heading in the direction of a positive outcome. Han Jie tells Fang Xiao Rou that he’s not randomly saying the words and he proves it by saying it a second time and much more clearly for her to hear: "I, Han Jie, like Fang Xiao Rou." Fang Xiao Rou’s response is something that appears like she’s happy to hear those words and wishes him to say it again. After playful reluctance to say it a third time, Han Jie begins to say them.
However, Fang Xiao Rou cuts him off and stops him from completing the words for her ears to hear once more, grabbing his lips with her fingers. The reason for all her questions is that she wanted to know why Han Jie had chosen today specifically to confess to her. Han Jie finally realises something is not right when she asks him if the reason he had chosen today to confess is because he had looked up the Chinese Farmer’s Calendar (foretells lucky days to carry out events). Of course not. It’s the confession card. It told him to come or be not forgiven. "Didn’t you ask me to meet you, today?" Han Jie asks Fang Xiao Rou.
Han Jie gets filled in on the situation when Ma Chong Sheng, Liu Xuan and Tang Xiao Niu are found out to be spying on them when Tang Xiao Niu loses footing on the stool he stood on and the noise alerts his attention towards his three students. "You wrote this card," Han Jie states with a hint of question, holding the confession card up in the air towards the students. "Only Teacher Fang is able to make you stay. We had no choice," Ma Chong Sheng says. Ma Chong Sheng and his classmates then make themselves scarce after Ma Chong Sheng tells Fang Xiao Rou that he’s handing the task over to her.
However, Fang Xiao Rou is not receiving the task of making Han Jie stay. She wraps up the confession with a rejection. "It’s not possible for you and me to be together," she tells Han Jie after Han Jie tells her that what he had said had been all from the heart. Han Jie has no other choice but to understand and see it as a misunderstanding. "Yes. It’s a misunderstanding," Fang Xiao Rou returns. "Your confession just now, I will also take it as a misunderstanding."
With these last words from Fang Xiao Rou, Han Jie is left watching Fang Xiao Rou leave him to remain standing there alone. “So there wasn’t even the opportunity to stay for you,” he says aloud with sadness.
Han Jie leaves the very next day, bound for Europe. Fang Xiao Rou gets informed of Han Jie leaving by Wen Zhen Yu when her query to why Wen Zhen Yu had returned to the faculty office during class time has Wen Zhen Yu tell her that he has no students to teach with his students liking Han Jie a lot and having gone to the airport.
Even after Fang Xiao Rou gains this knowledge, and even after we see her thinking about Han Jie, evident in her mindless scribbles of the words Han Jie and Oscar Han on her lined refill at her desk in the faculty office just before Wen Zhen Yu came in, she is still unwilling to let go of her resentment towards Han Jie.
Wen Zhen Yu provides Fang Xiao Rou some words to think about: "Letting him go like this and giving up your feeling for him, are you sure you won’t regret it? Back then, you gave up the opportunity to study bartending overseas. Right now, you are giving up on your feelings for Han Jie. This doesn’t seem like the Fang Xiao Rou I know."
Wen Zhen Yu’s words has effect on Fang Xiao Rou. She sees logic in them; however, she lacks the resolve to stop Han Jie from leaving. “It’s too late since he’s already leaving,” she says to Wen Zhen Yu. Wen Zhen Yu pushes on and tells her that she has done more difficult things for her students. Why can’t she persist and be brave for herself for once? This doesn’t lift Fang Xiao Rou off from her seat. It only continue her dejection as she lays her head onto her desk. Wen Zhen Yu can only do one last thing for her: he gives him the keys to his car and allows her to make the final decision of whether to see Han Jie or not.
The mode of transport Wen Zhen Yu provides Fang Xiao Rou only takes her to her dad’s workplace. Fang Xiao Rou’s dad is surprised to see his daughter cut school for the first time. However, it seems he had been expecting her appearance into the restaurant—or more possibly, he was hoping to see his daughter come visiting at this time. Fang Xiao Rou’s father brings out a plate of scotch egg (breaded runny egg wrapped in sausage meat).
After Fang Xiao Rou cuts into the scotch egg and being awed by the runny yellow yolk flowing downwards, she suddenly tells her dad she has seen a similar dish at Olives House Restaurant. This dish indeed is made by the owner of Olives House, Han Jie. Fang Xiao Rou’s father allows Fang Xiao Rou to enjoy a mouthful of it before he informs her that this dish she’s enjoying is made by Han Jie and he had especially come over to make it for her before he left to catch his flight.
Fang Xiao Rou is brought to tears when her dad retells Han Jie’s words of comparison between this dish he made for her and her own person—called Gentleness, the exterior easily get fired up, but the core is the most gentle and soft; it easily becomes soft-hearted and it also easily gets hurt.
This scotch egg dish that Han Jie made for Fang Xiao Rou before leaving for the airport to catch his flight is what finally has her heading to the airport and stop Han Jie from leaving.
But Fang Xiao Rou seems to want to have a play with Han Jie first. She shows up at the airport whilst his students make an attempt to stop Han Jie from leaving with Amy Fan taking his passport and stuffing it down her vest and another student holding onto his plane ticket. Hopelessness and disappointment is written on Han Jie’s face when Fang Xiao Rou hands him his passport and plane ticket after obtaining it from his students. He takes them in hand. Fang Xiao Rou tells him to leave the students with her and catch his flight. Han Jie can only accept: he bids his students goodbye and resumes boarding his plane.
Ma Chong Sheng is disappointed in Fang Xiao Rou as he feels they had almost managed to keep Han Jie back. Fang Xiao Rou tells them that their method wouldn’t have been able to hold Han Jie back—hers will.
Moments after Han Jie disappears through the boarding desk, he returns back. Unlike moments ago where Han Jie feels gloomy, though unimpressed, he now feels cheerful. He walks past his elated students and immediately heads to Fang Xiao Rou. "Did you have to play in such a dramatic way?" he asks Fang Xiao Rou. She uses his own words to defend her actions: "You said yourself I should vent. You should know that I’m a person who doesn’t like to yell or hit and so I was forced to do this."
What Fang Xiao Rou had done that see him returning and standing before her is a vandalising of Han Jie’s passport photo with a cute Hello Kitty-like drawing.
Han Jie remains in Taiwan. Fang Xiao Rou—seemingly, she is not the real reason to why Han Jie wishes to stay. On the drive home, Fang Xiao Rou sits with her head turned away from the front and towards her window. Han Jie notices and asks if her neck hurt before he says to her that he could always apply for an emergency processing of his passport which would allow him to book a flight and leave tomorrow. Fang Xiao Rou immediately rejects that idea. She starts to be concerned that she may have forced him to stay: “I hope you are staying for yourself and not because of anyone else.” This has Han Jie reveal that he didn’t do it for another. It is for himself that he is staying for. It just isn’t his style to leave after losing. But Fang Xiao Rou is in the equation, though. He adds that staying also allows him to find out the cause to why after encountering her, he became someone opposite to his past persistent and calm self and he has to find the remedy for it.
Fang Xiao Rou’s resentment is no longer a problem for Han Jie. However, he is still finding it difficult to get Fang Xiao Rou to agree to spend some time with him. A meal, a coffee, and just a chat all gets declined by Fang Xiao Rou when he suggested them during their ride home.
He tries again later on at night. He sends messages to her phone wishing to know if she was asleep and hopes she can chat with him. But again, it’s messages of declines filled with Z’s as Fang Xiao Rou prefers to go to sleep.
It seems Han Jie is wishing to see Fang Xiao Rou face-to-face as he’s seen sending these messages from just outside her place. He’s out of luck with wanting to have her come out and join him in a chat. However, he’s not out of luck if he’s satisfied with just seeing Fang Xiao Rou’s person. Jiang Pei Ying forgetting to take out the trash and her complaint of it stinking up the place has Fang Xiao Rou head out of her place and into the streets to take out the trash. He’s not only simply able to see Fang Xiao Rou’s face but he gets to be entertained by her when he gets to see her scared by his prank of placing one of her bags of trash right behind her and hear her exclaim being overwhelmed by him when he sends her a message to take responsibility of making him stay and agree to see each other on Sunday at 7 PM.
Han Jie seems to not have gotten a reply to that last message of seeing each other on Sunday at 7 PM when, during a shopping excursion at a clothes store, he asks Jiang Pei Ying to pass on a message to Fang Xiao Rou that he looks forward to seeing Fang Xiao Rou on Sunday and that he will wait for her until she showed up.
Han Jie’s meet up at the clothes store with Jiang Pei Ying is in light of Wang Mai Zhi needing Han Jie to help him with making up to Liu Xuan after he revealed to everyone at the airport that he was the cheater at the competition as a means to convince Han Jie to stay. Han Jie, Wang Mai Zhi explains, is someone Liu Xuan looks up to a lot and he is popular amongst the female students. This help that Wang Mai Zhi requests of Han Jie leads both Han Jie and Wang Mai Zhi to the clothes store where Jiang Pei Ying is helping Fang Xiao Rou look for an outfit to wear for the Sunday meetup with Han Jie. Fang Xiao Rou’s reason in agreeing to look for an outfit and show up at the Sunday meetup was initially with the intent of turning Han Jie down, but later it becomes a desire to look impressive on the day to beat out Han Jie’s usually impressive manner.
Jiang Pei Ying and Fang Xiao Rou and Han Jie and Wang Mai Zhi’s shopping excursions coincide when Wang Mai Zhi enters into the women’s section where Jiang Pei Ying is waiting for Fang Xiao Rou to change into a rather revealing outfit that Jiang Pei Ying had picked out and had judged as the outfit with the capabilty to help Fang Xiao Rou stand against Han Jie’s impressiveness on the day.
However, the dress (a peach neck sheer dress) that Jiang Pei Ying selects only gains harsh criticism from Wang Mai Zhi and disapppointment from Han Jie for her poor judgement.
With Fang Xiao Rou’s face shielded from Wang Mai Zhi’s eyes with a large black hat, she hears Wang Mai Zhi’s criticism of her body being much too lacking to pull of such a revealing dress and praises her for being so brave as to wear it.
Han Jie, on the other hand, is aware of the person behind the hat. He is embarrassed for Fang Xiao Rou, but more so unimpressed with her poor judgement. "No matter what you look like, the person who truly likes you will understand and appreciate you." When Jiang Pei Ying finds his words strangely unlike his person, he changes his words to sound more like him. "If she were my woman, I will definitely not allow her to wear something like this. Such a revealing outfit, is it for other men to look at?"
It seems Fang Xiao Rou listened to Han Jie’s words. On the day of the meetup, her outfit is plain and characteristic of Fang Xiao Rou. She wears a casual white top, pink cardigan and jeans. However, it could possibly also be that she isn’t in the mood to dress up much more than a casual white top, pink cardigan and jeans when after her shopping excursion that day, she hears Han Jie express some words that was not so pleasant to hear and she’s on standby as she gives Han Jie the chance to undo her misunderstanding before making her decision whether to meet up with him or leave.
During a stopover at her father’s place, she hears Han Jie express that it’s his promise to her dad that he treats her so well. However, it’s only a portion of his thoughts. She leaves much too early. Had she stayed for a bit longer, she would have heard Han Jie say how it wasn’t the promise that made him like her. It’s that he’d never forgive himself for letting a great woman as herself slip by him. Staying around even longer would have let her to hear him ask her father to allow him to take her along and work hard at walking through life together.
This chance Fang Xiao Rou is giving Han Jie to undo the misunderstanding seems to require Han Jie to respond incredibly well. A scene prior to the day of the meetup, we hear Fang Xiao Rou tell Jiang Pei Ying to keep a secret about some news regarding Fang Xiao Rou that we aren’t told about, but this news seems worthy of being announced on the Internet. Han Jie responding well then is extremely crucial.
Some distance away from Han Jie and undetected, she calls him and asks what it is that he liked about her. Han Jie’s answer is unsatisfactory: he tells her that he doesn’t know. He’s failed, but she goes to give him a clue to her problem: she tells him to never randomly promise to take care of a woman in the future and cause a misunderstanding. Han Jie isn’t able to understand the meaning behind the words, but he senses oddness in the words.
Han Jie’s phone doesn’t assist him in allowing him to further understand, either, as after a few more exchanges of words, it alerts him of a low battery level. The low battery causes Han Jie to miss Fang Xiao Rou telling him to be himself and not be forced into doing things out of responsibility. He also misses Fang Xiao Rou saying good bye.
With these last words, Fang Xiao Rou turns and walks away, leaving Han Jie waiting unaware that she has chosen not to come.
Thoughts
So after all, it seems Han Jie didn’t realise anything at all! It was so uncomfortable watching Han Jie realise that Fang Xiao Rou didn’t actually confess and it was his students who wrote the confession card. We felt so bad for Han Jie. But not as bad as when Fang Xiao Rou still rejected Han Jie even after he told her that he meant what he said about liking her.
We had terribly expected Han Jie to leave, but it seems that the tiny possibly of Fang Xiao Rou being the one to make Han Jie stay was actually not a tiny possibility, but a huge one. It didn’t seem that way at the beginning of the episode when Fang Xiao Rou was still too stubborn to let go of the resentment she had towards Han Jie, though. It was again Han Jie’s persistence in not giving up that totally softened Fang Xiao Rou’s heart that stopped Han Jie from leaving with that dish he made at her father’s workplace before he left. We loved how Han Jie was told to have made a comparison between this dish and Fang Xiao Rou. It was so sweet. And it made it very cool that it was a dish that Han Jie served at his three-star famous restaurant, too!
The airport scene where Fang Xiao Rou stops Han Jie from leaving with the drawing on Han Jie’s passport, can anyone figure out when she had time to draw that cute Hello Kitty drawing on his passport photo? From the time she got it out from Amy Fan’s clothes to handing it over to Han Jie, we can’t seem to figure out when there was a time that she could have drawn it since the shots were quite continuous and the only time the shot cut was when it cut to a close-up of the passport with Fang Xiao Rou flicking the plane ticket. We’ll just say it was during that cut that she had time to sneakily draw it or she had a magical device that stopped time and allowed her to draw that drawing in! Haha.
Even though we expected Han Jie to leave and did actually want Han Jie to leave because we saw how much potential there was for a great plot, we do enjoy watching light-hearted and fun scenes, so we’re equally fine with Han Jie ending up staying and getting to see fun and playfulness occurring between Han Jie and Fang Xiao Rou again! The scene where Fang Xiao Rou goes to put out the trash and Han Jie hiding and playing tricks on her with moving one of her bags of trash was so funny!
With Han Jie asking Fang Xiao Rou to agree to meet up on Sunday, we had no expectation for the outcome of it, but we guess it’s always nice to have a happy outcome. So we did hope that Fang Xiao Rou would end up meeting up with Han Jie. It looked promising after Han Jie said so many great things during the shopping trip with letting Fang Xiao Rou know that appearances didn’t matter to him and he liked her for her. She also gets to hear him say how he always worried about not being able to take care of her well even when she gets him into situations that was troublesome for him during Han Jie’s talk with her father. But, Fang Xiao Rou also overhears a portion of Han Jie’s thoughts that was not so pleasant to hear—the part where he expresses that his like what had thought to be because of the responsibility of fulfilling the promise to her father. Why do characters always leave after hearing half the conversation? Dramas exist in their dramaland, they should know to leave only at the very, very end of the conversation!
Now, there seems to be something happening in Fang Xiao Rou’s side of things. And we’re not clued in on it. It sounds huge. Don’t tell us that it’s Fang Xiao Rou’s turn to leave?!
But with Han Jie not leaving and Fang Xiao Rou letting up on her resentment towards Han Jie, a problem has to come in from somewhere or else the story is just filled with sugary-sweetness that can sometimes be bland and uneventful. We’re not expecting a certain outcome for this. However, we sure are itching to know what that secret that Fang Xiao Rou has forbidden Jiang Pei Ying to tell and pinky swear to keep it a secret!
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