Episode 5 Recap
In the lab with Ai Li Si, He Hao Yi sees a glimpse of her past self. Sitting quietly from a bench behind her, he watches Ai Li Si’s habit of sitting with a leg tucked underneath her. The sight sends a smile to his lips as he recalls the memory of her sitting like this when they were in the library in high school, and how he went to try rid the numb and tingly sensation she got sitting on her leg. He swung and tugged at her arm.
Back then, she believed in his method and told him it worked. Now, she tells him it’s useless. When he rushes to help her with the numbness, she tells him the uncomfortable sensation has always gone away on its own, implying that it was never his method that helped it go away. Although she says this, she doesn’t stop him from carrying on with the method—that is until he brings up the past and how she didn’t think this way back then.
Ai Li Si recalls the same memory He Hao Yi recalled moments before. Immediately, she pulls her arm away from him. She tells him she was naive and a fool and that’s why she believed him. She’s not the same person anymore, though. He Hao Yi disagrees. He points out another example that suggest she isn’t as different as she made herself out to be. She picks up the journal on her bench—a journal he seems to recognise as one she used to carry around and still does—and uses it as that example. Ai Li Si snatches it away from his grasp like he had gotten one up on her before announcing that she’s finishing for the day.
He Hao Yi follows after her and perseveres by asking Ai Li Si whether she got some time free once they get off work as he needs to talk to her because Capital has questions for her about the experiment. He asks in front of Song Han Ming who’s turned up to take Ai Li Si away, and does so after prompting her with words of having plans after.
Ai Li Si leaves with Song Han Ming following his lead. Song Han Ming successfully blocks He Hao Yi. However, it only lasts for a night as Song Han Ming ends up bringing Ai Li Si closer to He Hao Yi when he brings Ai Li Si to a welcoming party for Bai Shu Lei, which sees Ai Li Si end up drunk and revealing her true feelings to He Hao Yi when he comes take her home.
At this party, Song Han Ming’s invited colleagues from his and her department to welcome Bai Shu Lei. This party plays a part in Song Han Ming’s game to play with Bai Shu Lei. Bai Shu Lei turned up thinking the night was a date between Song Han Ming and her only to come through the door with people screaming “Surprise!”. It was also a party set up for Ai Li Si to see Bai Shu Lei having a hard time—which she does after seeing Ai Li Si at the back standing with Song Han Ming talking away.
Ai Li Si, who wasn’t interested in staying around to see how he handles Bai Shu Lei, makes a move to leave the party. Bai Shu Lei suddenly comes up to her and tells she’s not allowed to. When Ai Li Si tells her she’s nothing to say to her, Bai Shu Lei eggs her on by drawing attention to her wanting to run again like thirteen years ago and how disappointed she was in how Ai Li Si was the same person as before. Bai Shu Lei then goes on to suggest a bet—a drink-off. If Ai Li Si can’t drink more than her, Ai Li Si must promise to accept three requests from her; if she loses then she will resign.
This has Ai Li Si sit down by a low bar table and accept the bet. She tells Bai Shu Lei, the only reason she’s accepting the bet is to see Bai Shu Lei resign and begin drinking shot after shot. They go through six to seven bottles between them before Bai Shu Lei is looking ready to lose the bet any moment. Her cheeks are flushed and can barely stand up straight when she announces a bathroom break. Ai Li Si, however, is in her seat looking every bit as sober as when she started.
Bai Shu Lei doesn’t know that she was never going to win this bet. Ai Li Si doesn’t get drunk unless she mixes her liquor. This is why Ai Li Si was able to stay sober when He Hao Yi tried to get her drunk (so that she reveals her true feelings to him) and failed. This fact is revealed to Bai Shu Lei in the bathroom when she dials him wondering what she should do about losing to Ai Li Si who doesn’t seem to be getting drunk. Worried Ai Li Si will get drunk, He Hao Yi gives the piece of information that goes against what he’s hoping to stop. “Don’t let her mix liquors. She’ll get drunk,” he advises. With that information, Bai Shu Lei ends the conversation, leaving He Hao Yi on the other end worried over how she was to using that information and getting Ai Li Si drunk.
He Hao Yi immediately leaves his house for the party. By the time he arrives, Ai Li Si is very drunk. Bai Shu Lei’s gone and switched from the white liquor they were drinking to red wine and finally Ai Li Si fall to the alcohol’s effects. Bai Shu Lei’s announcing of He Hao Yi’s arrival has Ai Li Si get up to tell him off for telling Bai Shu Lei about her weakness with mixing alcohols. Her drunkenness sends her falling towards the floor, towards the shattered wine glass she knocked over.
He Hao Yi spots it all and rushes to catch her before she lands on top of the glass and cut herself. Ai Li Si weakly tries to push him away, but fails. He hears her talk about the real reason she took the bet. It wasn’t that she wanted to see Bai Shu Lei resign. It was that she didn’t want to hear Bai Shu Lei accuse her of running away or remain the “garbage truck girl” who swallows all trash that comes her way.
Although Ai Li Si claims to have forgotten the things that happened in high school, she’s still very much affected by what happened. When He Hao Yi manages to get past Song Han Ming (who stops him briefly, insisting he take Ai Li Si home), Ai Li Si shows him the way things turned out thirteen years ago still affects her.
Out in the street she scolds herself for ever trusting him. He is the only one who knows about her getting drunk after mixing different types of drinks. She blames him for causing her to be this way. He Hao Yi moves to apologise. In doing so, she blames herself for trusting him now and for trusting him thirteen years ago. She then hits herself in the head, calling herself an idiot over and over again.
Recognising Ai Li Si’s need to vent her anger, he tells her he doesn’t care if her grudges are old or new, she can come and hit and kick him if that’s what will make her better. He takes a few steps back, closes his eyes and invites her come at him. Ai Li Si waves her arms a few times to make sure he really sees nothing. “You’re done for,” she says. She holds a fist above her head and charges at him. Just as she reaches him and about to give it to him, she falls unconscious on to him.
Ai Li Si is taken back to her home. There, He Hao Yi sees just how she’s been living her life. She doesn’t keep friends. When he goes to look through her phone to call someone to look after her, he find no one in her contacts list. It has He Hao Yi wonder if she really is the Ai Li Si he once knew. Her place is bare, very different from how her home used to be. Her kitchen cupboards only contains one set of cutlery, enough for herself. She doesn’t look like she needs to use them with only jars of pickles in the fridge.
He Hao Yi, who had left her on the couch whilst he looked in the fridge for something for her, manages to return with only a glass of water. He has her sit upright and take a sip before laying her back down. Ai Li Si soon wakes—semi-aware of He Hao Yi’s presence as he sits there rubbing her hands to try warm them. He Hao Yi finally hears Ai Li Si’s true thoughts and feelings as well as what happened the day she asked to meet with him and the others.
She thought he and the others had given up on her, so why did they appear in front of her again? Back then, she had waited for them at the place where they buried their time capsules to explain and clear everything up. She brought along gifts for them, too, but not one turned up. At this point, Ai Li Si’s voice cracks, pained by this fact. He Hao Yi apologises for being late. He tells her he’s here now and will listen to whatever she had to say to him. Ai Li Si tells him it’s no use because she’s thrown away all the gifts. She can’t find them anymore. She then asks him to not appear in front of her anymore because every time she saw him, her chest would hurt. She ends with saying how he didn’t want her.
Now that He Hao Yi knows Ai Li Si’s true thoughts and feelings, he is able to tell her words that are most important. As he is being kicked out in the morning and not being given a chance to say or do much, He Hao Yi tells her that he never gave up on her and won’t do so until her heart doesn’t hurt. He Hao Yi then takes his leaves.
Over across at Song Han Ming’s apartment, Bai Shu Lei wakes up in Song Han Ming’s room, sleeping on his bed. For a short moment, she is freaked out by the strange surroundings and not knowing what she did the previous night. When she stops to try recall the events of last night and remembers telling Song Han Ming—or according to her, Peter—that she wanted to go back to his home to sleep, a small smile creeps onto her face. But then, when she thinks over it again and remember the drunk, uncompressed state she was in, she scolds herself for getting so drunk.
No matter though. They are both adults, she tells herself as she checks her appearance in the mirror. She’ll just go say a hello. She walks out into the living room to stand in front of his view, partially blocking the TV Song Han Ming is playing a game on, she expresses her greeting. Song Han Ming completely ignores her. She tries again, moving further into his view and makes her greeting again. She is again ignored. It takes her to call him a third time in a harsh tone before Song Han Ming directs a bit of attention to her. He gives her a short greeting before he goes right back to playing his game.
Bai Shu Lei recomposes herself. Wanting to have breakfast with him, she moves to ask him out. To her frustration, she is waved aside and told to wait to talk later as he was busy with the game. This has Bai Shu Lei pick up the remote and shut the TV off, shutting down his gameplay. (Gasp! She didn’t just do that!) Song Han Ming puts done his controller in a composed, held-back manner, and gives her a sarcastic greeting.
Bai Shu Lei lets him know disappointed in the way he treats her after having spent the night together. Song Han Ming corrects her. If she thought that anything happened between them, it didn’t. Whilst she was took his bed, he spent the night playing video games in the living room. The relationship they had last night is like one between an owner of a bed and breakfast and a guest. The bed doesn’t include breakfast and the check-out time is 8:00am, which she has 10 minutes remaining. When Bai Shu Lei goes to make sure nothing happened, he points out her still having her clothes on. Clearly nothing did. Just to make it clearer, he tells her he has no interest in drunk woman. Bai Shu Lei stamps into the bathroom where Song Han Ming calls from the living room, telling her he’s allowed to use a toothbrush and she can take it with her as a souvenir. She better hurry along because she only has five minutes remaining.
The game between Song Han Ming and Bai Shu Lei continues just a little longer at work by the elevator where He Hao Yi, Bai Shu Lei and Song Han Mong is present. A comment from Song Han Ming about how it looks like no one—not He Hao Yi or himself—took advantage of anyone the night before has Bai Shu Lei let out she did stay overnight at someone else’s place—a fact she has been trying to deny to He Hao Yi before Song Han Ming arrived. To make things look worse, Song Han Ming suggestively mentions how they did what should be done and what shouldn’t be done was not. Song Han Ming is deliberately creating misunderstandings. It’s fortunate, it’s just in front of He Hao Yi and he won’t go spreading this for all to talk about and question her wholesomeness.
Arriving up in the office, He Hao Yi receives a call from Capital’s headquarters. They’re announcing a change of plans. They want He Hao Yi to persuade AI to work with them instead of the current arrangement with has Capital working with AI which we’re assuming Jsut International has a contract with.
Back over at Ai Li Si’s, another headache has hit again. It comes just after He Hao Yi left her place. It’s not just a headache brought on by the stresses of her life (like we were hoping). Returning to the doctors, Ai Li Si learns that she has a tumour in her brain and is told she must have surgery to remove it. She has a 50-50 percent chance of waking up from the surgery.
After the visit, Ai Li Si return to work in a daze, looking very under the weather. She is completely different from the alert Ai Li Si He Hao Yi left behind earlier in the morning. When He Hao Yi meets up with her on the steps outside their office building. He calls her several times before she acknowledges him. She tells him to leave her alone, but He Hao Yi refuses until he understands what’s going on. Ai Li Si mentions bring in a bad mood as a way of brushing him off.
The answer has him stick with her. He grabs her hand and lets him take her to a place where she used to enjoy snow ice, Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen. It’s a place that actually puts a smile on Ai Li Si’s face when she recalls the memories the place brings. He Hao Yi tells her to go ahead and order her favourite flavour. Surprisingly, she doesn’t reject his prompting. When she is told her favourite snow ice served with pudding is no longer is sold, she immediately walks out.
He Hao Yi chases after her and apologises for letting her down. Ai Li Si tells him that he thinks to little of her. She wouldn’t become disappointed just because such a small thing like a shaved ice shop no longer selling her favourite flavour.
The place that was supposed to lighten her mood having failed, Ai Li Si is back to trying send He Hao Yi away. She suggests bungy jumping. It was meant to scare He Hao Yi off so that she’d be left to herself. Instead, it has him follow her right up to the bridge overlooking a river, harnessed and ready to jump. He’s not leaving her and is willing to even bungy jump if it will turn her mood around.
Ai Li Si stare down below, her downcast mood replaced by fear. She’s scared to do jump. Seeing this, He Hao Yi tells her not to jump. She tries to put on a brave face, but when she almost slips before she’s ready to leap, it all becomes clear to He Hao Yi she is scared. He Hao Yi comes up with an idea to hook their harnesses together so that both of them jump together. He tells her to not look down and just keep her eyes on him. It doesn’t do anything to reduce her fear, though, which she openly admits to him. It has him ask why she wants to jump if dye was scared. She tells him she wants to experience what it feels like during the moment before her death. Then, right after she says that, she closes her eyes and jumps, pulling He Hao Yi down with her without him knowing they were going to make that jump at that moment.
As she plunges towards the river below, Ai Li Si is heard thinking about what she cares most in life. For the last 13 years, she’s lived in solitude with no friends and no loved one of her own. If she were to come to the end of the road, if she was facing her last days in earth, what would she care about the most? Based on the memories of her friends, Bai Shu Lei, Liu Xiao Fen and He Hao Yi which flashes by and the memory of them burying their time capsules and facing punishment together after being caught skipping study session, it is that she is together with her friends.
Back down on the ground, He Hao Yi brings her water to celebrate them “dying” together and moves to ask Ai Li Si about why she was so dazed back at the office, so much so she wanted a taste of death. She thinks about whether she should tell him about her dying. Would he feel bad for her? She doesn’t have the courage to use her dying to reveal his feelings for her.
Ai Li Si decides against it and makes a move to head back to the office. Afraid Ai Li Si will disappear on him, He Hao Yi grabs her wrist, asking her not to leave like in the past. As if thinking about her dying, Ai Li Si tells He Hao Yi that if she were to really disappear, grabbing her wrist won’t make any difference. He Hao Yi tells her that if grabbing her hand doesn’t work then he’ll hold on tightly and disappear with her. (Aww! Just like how he sort of did in the bungy jump!)
After this experience with Ai Li Si, He Hao Yi seemed to have made huge progress with Ai Li Si. After Ai Li Si returns to work, she involves herself in a lab explosion after she absentmindedly turns up the Bunsen burner instead of turning it off. The minor explosion is reported to He Hao Yi, who is travelling on the road by himself, via phone. Before his assistant manages to give him the full report that Ai Li Si is involved in the explosion, but she’s okay, the phone is cut off. It has him in a panic and rushing over to Jsut International to look for her. He is so worried about Ai Li Si that not even an passing car in the carpark stops him. He charges towards it and makes the leap before heading up to the lobby. Coming up to the automatic doors, he frantically waves at the sensors, pleading them to open for him.
When they finally open, they reveal Ai Li Si standing in front of him all fine. He lets out a huge sigh of relief before rushing straight at her to hugs her tightly, glad that she’s okay. The concern has Ai Li Si shocked and clearly touched as she finds herself feeling warm inside. “Is this the feeling of having someone worried about your disappearance?” Ai Li Si thinks to herself.
This concern not only has her feeling touched, but finally have her choose He Hao Yi over Song Han Ming. Before He Hao Yi turned up, Song Han Ming was with Ai Li Si defending her against her colleagues who were all too happy to see her resign because of her negligence. They had agreed to have Song Han Ming take her home, after she told him that she didn’t feel like going to eat hotpot when he said he would treat her to it. But standing in the lobby, after He Hao Yi’s display of concern, she turns Song Han Ming down to leave with He Hao Yi to go experience a taste of life in the form of shaved ice with a serving of pudding just the way she likes it.
After He Hao Yi failed in his goal to change Ai Li Si mood by taking her to a place that no longer sold her favourite shaved ice with pudding, He Hao Yi’s gone and looked for another place. He takes her there to order the dessert and tells her that just because one shop stopped selling it, it doesn’t mean there aren’t others selling it. His message to her is that he hopes Ai Li Si won’t give up on life easily.
He tells her that he will wait for Ai Li Si to find herself like the Henry in the story The Frog Prince which He Hao Yi says also goes by Iron Henry. In this story, Henry’s heart breaks after seeing the prince he serves turn into a frog. To prevent his heart from shattering, Henry commissions a smith to put iron rings around his heart. He tells that Henry was initially worried about these iron rings around his heart, but then his heart started beating again upon seeing the prince find his happiness with the princess which saw the iron rings shatter.
When Ai Li Si hears this story from He Hao Yi, she thinks He Hao Yi is likening her to Henry, but she’s actually the prince in the story; He Hao Yi is in fact Henry with the iron-clad heart. After he saw Ai Li Si become the way she is now, his heart broke like Henry’s did. He tells her that now he will wait for her to break the curse and find herself. When that time arrives, he will be happy for her just like Henry was for the prince when the princess kissed him and the curse was broken.
As they sit together and enjoy their shaved ice, Ai Li Si wonders if she can make He Hao Yi her reason to wake up from her 50-50 percent chance surgery.
With Ai Li Si off with He Hao Yi, Song Han Ming is not in a very happy one. When Bai Shu Lei appears in front of his car, he straight out tells her he’s not in the mood to take her home. Bai Shu Lei’s not looking for a ride home, though. She wants to confirm whether he likes Ai Li Si. Song Han Ming doesn’t hide the fact, telling her that he does. In fact, he’s currently pursuing her. He likes her because she is like him and credits the person he is now all to her. That is how important Ai Li Si to him. He goes further to tell her that she’s not the queen everyone goes crazy over. To him, she’s like a passerby who he has not one ounce of feelings for. Bai Shu Lei doesn’t give up, telling him that as a queen, she won’t turn into a passerby because he doesn’t acknowledge it and will make him fall for her.
The last scene in the episode has He Hao Yi text Ai Li Si wanting to wish her a good night. (Hope, she saves He Hao Yi’s number. He’d make her first contact on her phone and the beginning of a new beginning.)
Thoughts
Ai Li Si’s headaches, no! She has a tumour. We were hoping the drama wouldn’t go there! But, it went there. We’re thinking this is just a device to get Ai Li Si to realise the way she’s been living is the way she should be living and it’ll push her to see life in a different way. Still, why did they have to bring in a tumour?!
Song Han Ming actually admits that he likes Ai Li Si! We hope he genuinely does like her and there actually is a genuine rival between Song Han Ming and He Hao Yi to come. We hope it’s not one of those confessions said once and we never see anything more developed from it. Worse, yet, it’s just a confession used to get Song Han Ming to make known how much he dislikes Bai Shu Lei to make their hate-hate, love-hate relationship more dramatic.
We’re not shipping Song Han Ming and Ai Li Si. We actually don’t have a preference to who goes for who at this point in the drama. We’re happy watching each of the men with Ai Li Si to see who comes up top each time. Episode 4, Song Han Ming came up on top, but Episode 5 definitely He Hao Yi.
The scenes between Ai Li Si and He Hao Yi were super. From when Ai Li Si directed a weak fist at He Hao Yi when he invited her to vent her anger on the street to when she revealed her true thoughts and feelings to him allowing him to finally act and show how serious he was about being by her side and never giving up on her.
The bungy jump was a nice scene to summarise He Hao Yi’s sincerity, we think. For Ai Li Si, the bungy jump represented death. When they were up on the bridge, they were harnessed up separately. But then, after seeing Ai Li Si scared, they’re hooked up together and they end up jumping together. When she is faced with difficult times, whether it’s facing death or otherwise, she won’t be alone. He will be right next to her the whole time. It’s a great way to symbolise He Hao Yi’s promise and sincerity of his words he made earlier in the morning to her. We also love that story he told about Iron Henry and how he’ll wait for her to find herself and break the iron rings around his heart when he finally sees her find her happiness.
Yup. He Hao Yi is definitely has one up on Song Han Ming this episode. You really can’t compete with a person like He Hao Yi who represent life. Song Han Ming, at the moment, is the opposite of what He Hao Yi represents. Song Han Ming encourages Ai Li Si to continue living a life of solitude without love which could be taken as a kind of death—a death of the heart.
It makes us feel so sad to see Ai Li Si living the way she’s been. As shown by the emptiness of her phone’s contact list, she really doesn’t keep friends. Not even Song Han Ming it seems. We were surprised to see that he’s not in her phone’s contact list even. Isn’t he supposed to be her one and closest friend? Maybe she doesn’t need to put his phone on there because she remembers his phone number off by heart!
Hearing Ai Li Si talk about how she waited, brought along gifts for them hoping to explain everything to He Hao Yi, Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao and finding no one turned up also makes us sad. It still amazes us how Bai Shu Lei could let the fact that Ai Li Si won’t tell her who Peter is get so out of hand. We get that it was about principles, but after she thought she found out who Peter was, she should have gone to Ai Li Si and talked about it. That way it’ll at least save Ai Li Si from the huge misunderstanding. Bai Shu Lei accused Ai Li Si of not being a best friend for not revealing Peter’s identity, but compared to how self-absorbed and much she didn’t understand Ai Li Si’s reasons for keeping a secret that Sing Han Ming clearly didn’t want to reveal at the time, doesn’t say much Bai Shu Lei either.
It’ll be interesting to see where Bai Shu Lei and Song Han Ming’s relationship goes. Right now, both seem like they’re playing games with each other. Song Han Ming’s clearly trying to dish out what she dished out back in high school; and Bai Shu Lei, it feels like she’s trying to make him fall for her because no one rejects Queen Bai Shu Lei. Does anyone actually like anyone?
The arc involving Capital and Jsut International, it makes us wonder if it’ll create any issues between Ai Li Si and He Hao Yi or maybe He Hao Yi and Bai Shu Lei. Jsut International, if we understood correctly, we think is Bai Shu Lei’s company. AI is the company that Ai Li Si works for and the company both Jsut International and Capital seems to be secretly fighting over to work with. If He Hao Yi goes and persuade AI to work with Capital and (we’re assuming) break off with Jsut International, it might create a bit of drama between the former friends again… Not much has been revealed, so guess we’ll have to wait and see how it fits into the story.
We really like this week’s episode. The episode managed to get quite a number of cool scenes into it. We’ll be waiting to see where it heads with Ai Li Si’s tumour and what comes from those brief scenes involving He Hao Yi talking to Capital headquarters.
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