Episode 3 Recap
The moment between Ai Li Si and He Hao Yi where Ai Li Si trips on his chest passes with He Hao Yi cringing. This moment is one of many that is to come in the episode, but these moments between them are also one of the last few between He Hao Yi and Ai Li Si as the Peter situation gets a resolution, but not before a major misunderstanding involving Ai Li Si and Chen Qi Tai is created. It is the one which creates the future which He Hao Yi has been hinting: it’s one where the group is no longer together and Ai Li Si is completely changed from the person she used to be.
It begins with Liu Xiao Fen calling He Hao Yi away wanting his help with sending away the group of guys wanting Bai Shu Lei to be their practice dance partner. He doesn’t get what Liu Xiao Fen is wanting until Ai Li Si points out that his sister is asking for his help to get rid of them. She tells him to go quickly, which he does, promising her that he’ll teach her to dance tomorrow during study hall and not to be late.
Ai Li Si smiles. Without a partner, she decides to head off towards the perimeter of the gymnasium where she meets Song Han Ming. He’s worried about her and her friendship with Bai Shu Lei. He calls her aside. He tells her that he saw them fight and asks why she didn’t just tell Bai Shu Lei who Peter was and whether he was worth risking their friendship for. Ai Li Si, who seemingly has faith that she can handle things between her and Bai Shu Lei, tells him that he’s her friend, too, and that as long as he’s not ready to tell her who he is, she won’t. She will keep her promise and figure it out herself.
Song Han Ming doesn’t want to be the cause and sets about writing a letter to have Bai Shu Lei stop asking Ai Li Si about him. He tells her that he was very happy when he heard that she wanted to see him, but the feelings he has for her is like a fan has towards their idol. He is happy to see her from a distance and that this happiness within his heart can exist without her knowing who he is. This letter might have been the way to solve the fight between Bai Shu Lei and Ai Li Si, but it wasn’t to be as because of this letter, Bai Shu Lei is given a clue of who Peter is.
With the help of Liu Xiao Fen’s clever idea, Bai Shu Lei is lead to the year and class of Peter. Taking the letter which Bai Shu Lei just finished reading, Liu Xiao Fen starts shading the top-left corner where students write their year and class. It is the paper from the same school notepad Song Han Ming uses to draw his drawings which differentiates his notebook from the notepads of other students). Year 2, class 6—Peter is from Class 206. This clever idea should have led Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen straight to Song Han Ming after they went to the class and started ruffling through the students’ desks when it was empty. If only Song Han Ming’s notepad wasn’t taken away by Chen Qi Tai earlier in the day when Chen Qi Tai was bullying him again.
Chen Qi Tai happens to walk in to the classroom as Bai Shu Lei stands flipping through the notepad, admiring the animation of her swimming across the bottom of the page before it ends with her standing on the podium. He takes ownership of the notebook, asking about the interest she has in his paper.
Thinking Chen Qi Tai is Peter, Bai Shu Lei starts allowing Chen Qi Tai to pursue her. She shows up before Ai Li Si who wakes from a dream about He Hao Yi.
(In this dream, Ai Li Si gets quite flustered after being backed into a tree by He Hao Yi. He tells her that he knows what it’s like to like someone: the heart races when you see him, breathing shortens, pupils dilate and mouth gets dry, like the way she was right then. He Hao Yi then admits he likes her when she asks him the question of liking her. Seems like Ai Li Si subconsciously has feelings for him and wishes he likes her!)
Ai Li Si is confused to see Bai Shu Lei’s decided to date Chen Qi Tai. She used to hate him so why the change of mind? Bai Shu Lei is trying to get Ai Li Si to tell her who Peter is. She’s hinting that she’s found out who Peter is and is giving Ai Li Si a chance to tell her. Chen Qi Tai isn’t Peter, so Ai Li Si doesn’t connect what she’s trying to get her to do and maintains that she can’t tell.
At the end of the school day, Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen head off with Chen Qi Tai and his group, leaving Ai Li Si behind. He Hao Yi catches up with Ai Li Si, who stands watching her two friends walk away. “Aren’t you going with them?” He Hao Yi asks. Bottling up her unhappiness inside, she tells him accepts the treatment from Bai Shu Lei and tells He Hao Yi she’s going home. He watches her head down the steps towards home without her two friends next to her, concern in his gaze.
He Hao Yi decides to accompany her, following her onto the bus which doesn’t pass his house. He uses the excuse of needing her to teach him trigonometry when she asks why he’s on the bus with her. He tells her that she’s the only one who can teach him trigonometry and pleads her to tutor for tomorrow’s test which counts towards final grades. He tells her that he failed midterms and don’t want to make the same mistakes. Not someone to turn down someone pleading for help, she smiles and agrees: “Alright, I will teach you!”
At Ai Li Si’s house, He Hao Yi is told one of the mnemonics in trigonometry to help him remember. It makes no logical sense, which has He Hao Yi question how he was going to remember it if it doesn’t make sense. Ai Li Si, who’s mind is still on Bai Shu Lei and Chen Qi Tai, loses patience. She tells him that if he wants logics then he can just fail. He Hao Yi notices and tells her to express her anger if that’s the way she’s feeling. He pokes at her to try get her to let it out. Ai Li Si holds it in, only telling him to stop poking her.
Guessing that the Peter issue was what was getting her so down, He Hao Yi suggests explaining it to fix it. Ai Li Si tells him it’s not the Peter issue that has her worried, it’s Bai Shi Lei and Chen Qi Tai. She tells He Hao Yi that Bai Shu Lei has always known whether she liked someone or not from the moment they first meet (in other words, Bai Shu Lei believes in love at first sight). Since Chen Qi Tai didn’t catch her the moment she saw him, Chen Qi Tai was someone she could possibly like. This has He Hao Yi comment how weird he finds girls for thinking that way. Feelings require time to develop between two people. Ai Li Si tells him that she was speaking in Bai Shu Lei’s case and not all girls. This has He Hao Yi ask her about how she knows when she likes someone.
Ai Li Si thinks about the question. She recalls all the times she and He Hao Yi were together: from when they met, when she was pulled into the swimming pool because he was angry with her kicking him in first, when he held her in the darkness of the library, when he had a fever and she comforted him at her place, when they read the Naruto manga together and when he sat at lunch with her earlier when Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen weren’t there. She tells him she knows she likes someone after knowing him for a time, after they’ve shared happiness and sadness together, and after she finds herself have gotten used to having him in her life and can depend on him.
The clarity in her answer has He Hao Yi see Ai Li Si likes someone. Curiously, he asks who it was. Ai Li Si turns towards him to find only a short distance separates them. She jumps back to the other half of the sofa they both occupy. Not letting her off, He Hao Yi takes hold of her cheeks and pinches them and continues to nag her to tell him. She refuses, which has He Hao Yi return to the couch he was originally seated with a serious expression. Ai Li Si slowly returns back to the closer half of the sofa. “Are you angry?” She asks. To show her he wasn’t, He Hao Yi starts tickling her. Ai Li Si hops off the couch and runs away; he chases her until she is back at the sofa with him over the top of her. The share a long, lingering gaze before Ai Li Si breaks it, telling him to go study.
They return to their original seats. It’s awkward, but Ai Li Si carries on. She teaches him another mnemonic in trigonometry when He Hao Yi interrupts her with more questions about who she likes: is he taker or shorter than he is? Does he have better grades than he does? He really wants to know. The person Ai Li Si likes being He Hao Yi himself, she tries to stop him asking her, telling him that she can’t say because she doesn’t know if he likes her or not. When he persists on the subject, asking whether this person he likes is more important or he was, it has her tell him that comparing himself to this person she likes like this is making it hard for her. (If only He Hao Yi knew how difficult of a situation he was putting her in!). This answer from her has him interpret as him coming second to the person she likes. He tell her that he won’t waste more of her time. Since she already has someone she likes, he’ll take his leave.
As he leaves, He Hao Yi drops his text book containing a test paper which shows a perfect score. He Hao Yi was not bad in maths. Far from it. He’s extremely good at it.
Ai Li Si heads out and catches up to He Hao Yi at the bus stop. She hands him his text book before she ask why he was doing so many weird thing like getting her to teach him maths when he received a perfect score. He tells her that since Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen was ignoring her, he thought that maybe she would be unused to it and provide her company. He goes on to ask why she can’t even recognise his good intentions, which has Ai Li Si recognise it then as she offered him her thanks.
He Hao Yi isn’t happy with the simple thanks, seemingly thinking she appreciates the person she likes more. Ai Li Si tries to get him to see that there is no one more important than he by emphasizing the fact that he was her best friend. This gets through to him, but being her “best friend” isn’t what he wants to hear. He asks her if they were just friends. Not picking up on He Hao Yi’s wants, Ai Li Si affirms before asking what more he wanted. Unable to go further without revealing his own feelings, he lets it go.
The day for the citizenship training where classes 206 and 209 go on their overnight camp trip arrives. All misunderstandings surrounding Ai Li Si build on this camp trip as her concern over Chen Qi Tai’s intentions with Bai Shu Lei has her land herself in another situation that looks to have been the one in time to have broken up the once close group of friends and caused the change in Ai Li Si which the present He Hao Yi hinted in his thoughts.
At the camp site, it all starts off well. Bai Shu Lei looks to be on the way to forgiving Ai Li Si. After Ai Li Si shows concern for Bai Shu Lei by offering her sunscreen knowing she doesn’t like to tan, Liu Xiao Fen gets Bai Shu Lei to let her sleep in the same tent as them as opposed to sleeping outside. She and He Hao Yi are best friends. With neither of them brave enough to admit to each other they like one another, both of them are afraid to take the first step of accepting each other as each other’s dance partner. He Hao Yi’s popularity and not knowing whether he is sincere or not stops her from accepting him as her dance partner. He Hao Yi wants her to be his dance partner, but having heard she has someone she likes, he worries about her not wanting to go with him. She’s also indicated that she didn’t want to be his dance partner because she didn’t want his fans to treat him as their enemy.
As a way of giving himself a chance to end up with Ai Li Si at the dance without risking seriously asking and receiving a straight out rejection, He Hao Yi comes up with an agreement with her. The agreement has Ai Li Si promise that she’ll be his dance partner if she still hasn’t found him a partner and she isn’t with one herself by the time of the dance. She was always going to fail in the task of finding him a partner because he turned down every girl she found for him. With him being the person Ai Li Si likes, He Hao Yi also didn’t have any one to worry about—he doesn’t know this, but chances are good for him with only these hurdles to pass. The only thing stopping him from ending up with Ai Li Si is if she doesn’t take his hand, which should also not have been a hurdle. After Song Han Ming gets Ai Li Si to see that He Hao Yi could go off and find a partner himself, she thinks it over.
When time came to take his hand or not for the dance, Ai Li Si ends up accepting his request for her to be his dance partner. Her decision was probably helped by the fact that when He Hao Yi came and told her he was sincerely asking her to dance not because of pity or loyalty. (We have a feeling Song Han Ming must have relayed this to He Hao Yi. He Hao Yi’s words is similar to what Ai Li Si told Song Han Ming about why she didn’t want to be He Hao Yi’s dance partner.)
He Hao Yi and Ai Li Si prepare to head towards the outdoor area the dance is taking place. Ai Li Si’s taken his hand, but on her mind is the information Liu Xiao Fen just revealed to her moments before: Bai Shu Lei thinks Peter is Chen Qi Tai. As He Hao Yi waits for her to go with him, Ai Li Si recalls the piece of information about Chen Qi Tai having a bottle of liquor on him which Song Han Ming told her after he gave her the advice about accepting He Hao Yi as her partner.
Bai Shu Lei, Chen Qi Tai and a bottle of liquor. She is thinking the worse and fear for the safety of her friend. She pulls her hand away from He Hao Yi’s and runs off, telling him she’s got something more important to see to.
He Hao Yi, Liu Xiao Fen and Song Han Min follow the path Ai Li Si travelled. They run into the instructor who’s after Chen Qi Tai for sneaking in liquor on their way before everyone is led to Chen Qi Tai’s tent. Behind the tent, Ai Li Si is found on top of Chen Qi Tai and yet another misunderstanding falls on Ai Li Si. She tries to explain that Chen Qi Tai and she were like that because she knocked him out. She tells Bai Shu Lei that she came to tell her Chen Qi Tai wasn’t Peter and that he was looking to get her drunk. Bai Shu Lei asks Ai Li Si once again about Peter, “Tell me who Peter is.” Flicking her gaze briefly over to Song Han Min she then looks down at the ground, repeating the same answer she’s given to Bai Shu Lei: “I really can’t tell you.”
Chen Qi Tai takes this chance to tell his side. He tells them that Ai Li Si has been hiding her feelings for him and came to confess. He adds that she hates seeing others happy so she came to ruin it.
Song Han Ming steps in at this point, shouting for everyone to stop pressuring Ai Li Si. “You just want to know who Peter is,” he says. “I’m Peter.”
It’s out. Peter is Song Han Ming. It should resolve everything. Misunderstandings should have been cleared and Ai Li Si’s reputation saved, but it doesn’t turn out this way. Bai Shu Lei runs off refuses to accept Song Han Ming as Peter. Classmates call Ai Li Si shameless and a slut. He Hao Yi only believes what his eyes see.
Forward to the present. Ai Li Si is a researcher at a company called AI. She is a workaholic who works overtime and sleeps at work. Her colleagues complain about her nagging ways which she does through Post-It note after Post-It note across their desks. who tells colleagues off for not putting the antibiotics on ice and eating food in the lab. She criticises them on their work performance and even their weight. She is no longer the trusting, compassionate girl who steps in to help an elderly person across the street without a second thought.
Unlike the past Ai Li Si who listens and helps everyone all the while bottling her own feelings up, the Ai Li Si now is cold, frank and yells at people. Her compassionate and helpful nature is so complete gone that when a man was choking, she chose to catch the Naruto manga he dropped so she could read it than help the man dislodge the item of food and breathe. She left that job to He Hao Yi who happened to be there fighting with her for the Naruto manga. (Ai Li Si has a mask on during their encounter, so He Hao Yi doesn’t recognise her.)
After He Hao Yi saves the man, he goes over to the small reading space she was located to confront her about leaving the man to die, she called He Hao Yi’s life-saving actions as an act of being a busybody. Feeling injustice that she had snatched the manga away from him in such a way she did, he demands her let him read the manga today. Ai Li Si ignores him, which has him threaten to go in there and read it with her.
Ai Li Si gets up and walks right up close to him. Despite knowing this man she’s talking to is He Hao Yi, she is afraid of coming within a hand-span of his face nor stare at him, sending him a firm, direct stare. For the first time, He Hao Yi gets a good look at this woman he just a moment ago called a cold-blooded animal. Shock then confusion run through him. This couldn’t be Ai Li Si he once knew. Her habits might be similar to Ai Li Si, but how can someone like her be her? What’s more, she’s been missing for thirteen years.
He gets his chance to confirm that the woman he saw was Ai Li Si the very next day in the meeting he arrived from America to attend. His company is in talks with Director Wang and AI regarding investing in genetic modification experiments. After Director Wang screens He Hao Yi (we aren’t quite clear exactly what he’s screening, but perhaps how much his company knows about genetic modification experiments and the attention he pays to the companies he invests), Director Wang is satisfied with He Hao Yi and presents the AI researcher he promised to introduce to him.
In comes Ai Li Si. After thirteen years, they meet again. He’s found her.
Thoughts
Love, love, love! So this whole Bai Shu Lei and Peter situation was all leading to the downfall of Ai Li Si’s reputation and her change to being the cold, solitary person she became. With even He Hao Yi not believing Ai Li Si, we can only imagine that between that incident with Chen Qi Tai and the rest of her time in high school, it was spent trying to defend herself before she eventually gave in and disappeared from everyone she once called her close friends.
We feel so sorry for Ai Li Si. She did so much for everyone. She took the wrap for Bai Shu Lei when the school inspected her class for cigarettes. She forgave He Hao Yi for mistaking her as Liu Xiao Fen and causing her to be caught with the cigarettes. She helped him and his mother get back on good terms and got him to return home to his mother and sister. Bai Shu Lei continued to receive gifts from Peter which she treasured so much because Ai Li Si convinced Song Han Ming not to stop. Everything she did was for everyone else’s happiness. To have it all thrown back at her with all these misunderstandings is so unfair.
We’ve always found Bai Shu Lei to be too much with the way she reacted when she found out Ai Li Si knew who Peter was. He Hao Yi, we think he probably let his jealousy take over and might have been why he said what he said about believing only his eyes, but then we’re thinking there has to have been more incidents that caused more misunderstandings for Ai Li Si to become the way she did. That incident happened in Year 2, so there was till a whole year left before she left the school.
We found all the tripping and falling on top of each other which He Hao Yi and Ai Li Si did a bit too much. There were just so many. There were three or four occasions it happened in this episode and about the same in Episode 2. But the way episode 3 ended, we’re looking back at them and thinking that they all create a great contrast to how much Ai Li Si used to be affected by He Hao Yi and how innocent and pure her feelings were for him. She seems to still hold fond memories of when they were in high school, but the way she turned out, we’re thinking He Hao Yi never ended up believing her. It should be super interesting to see how these two interact now.
Bai Shu Lei believing in love or like at first sight, it was interesting to hear Ai Li Si mention Bai Shu Lei as believing in this. We’re hoping the drama will build on her and Song Han Ming, get her to change her thoughts and feelings about Song Han Min and prove that sometimes, feelings can change with time.
Another thing that was interesting is the brief mention of the present cold Ai Li Si receiving breakfast on her desk. We’re curious who this person is. Could it be Song Han Ming? We don’t think it’s He Hao Yi since he seems to not have known where Ai Li Si disappeared off to the last thirteen years.
What’s most interesting right, though, is Ai Li Si. He Hao Yi’s driver/assistant was wondering about whether the company AI stood for artificial intelligence or not. This has He Hao Yi answer him that whether AI is human or robot, he’ll find out tomorrow. It sounds like the writer making a reference to Ai Li Si—is she human or robot? That, we’re really curious about, because at this point of the story, she comes off as more robot than human. We’re looking forward to seeing Ai Li Si return to her warm self, but before then, we look forward to seeing the former group of friends come back into the story and see what all those misunderstandings have done to their once nice, compassionate, helpful Ai Li Si.
Expecting some great episodes coming in!!
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