It was meant to be a day trip for Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen, but it turns into an overnight one as Bai Hao Yu isn’t able to pay for the meal he had offered to shout. This causes Xia Qiao to worry about what might happen between the two, but it’s not Xia Qiao who takes action, it’s Lin Yi Mu!
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 17 Recap
Table filled with dishes and Li Hui Zhen back from apparently having gone to look at the animals on the farm, lunch is served.
Before making a start on the meals, Bai Hao Yu lets Li Hui Zhen know he’ll be off to wash his hands. This sets Xia Qiao up to finding out that Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen are on a business trip together.
Xia Qiao:
“Did he say he was on a business trip today?”
Li Hui Zhen:
“Hello, this is Li Hui Zhen. Deputy Editor in Chief isn’t available right now. If there is anything, you can leave a message with me. I’ll make sure to pass it onto him later.”
With Bai Hao Yu not at the table to receive the call, Li Hui Zhen figured that it might be an urgent matter so she takes the call. It’s fortunate that Xia Qiao didn’t say a word and Li Hui Zhen introduced herself to prevent Xia Qiao from exposing herself before she was ready to tell the truth.
Escaping the close call, Xia Qiao can rest easy about being discovered for the time being. As for learning that Li Hui Zhen is with Bai Hao Yu on this business trip is a different story. She now worries about what could happen between them.
Bai Hao Yu forgets his wallet. The business trip that was supposed to be a day trip turns into an overnight one for Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen in the end.
Come time to pay for the meal, Bai Hao Yu finds that he’s misplaced his wallet and needs Li Hui Zhen to help him out, but the cash on her doesn’t even cover one-fifth the cost of the meal. She is made to try and negotiate a discount after the owner won’t accept cash, but there was no way they could accept an almost 85% discount. She tries offering the owners her ID and bank card as a form of pledge to give them the money when they return. The owner isn’t interested in such pledges; they just want cash. Li Hui Zhen tries calling Xia Qiao and Han Xue, but no one answers.
Bai Hao Yu—who, up until this point, sat watching poor Li Hui Zhen try find a solution to this problem without success—offers his watch as collateral. The watch is a limited edition so it should convey Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen’s intention to return to pay for the meal, but that’s not accepted either.
The owner’s wearing the exact same one—well, a knock-off version of the watch anyway. The owner dismisses the watch as a common watch which anyone can buy for 20 yuan. Even Li Hui Zhen couldn’t tell the difference when the owner leaves the watch with them to discuss with Ni Zi about holding Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen back.
Ni Zi:
“They don’t seem like swindlers.”
Restaurant Owner:
“Who says they’re swindlers? Look here. We’ve got cultured people who don’t have money. They’re fun to mess with. Ni Zi, are you tired?”
“How about I give you and Mo Mo the day off?”
Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen are accused of attempting to dine without paying, but the owner and Ni Zi don’t really believe that. The owner was just playing with them. It was the perfect situation to make Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen do their day’s work so he, Ni Zi, Mo Mo can take the day off.
Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen are put to work at the farm, feeding the farm animals and collecting eggs from the chickens. Ni Zi and Mo Mo are instructed to watch over them, but the owner makes the mistake of not being clearer with his instructions to supply Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen with whatever they need to work off their debt on the farm. Food meant for the owner’s wife is used to feed the pigs, milk meant for the owner and fruit meant to make fruit baskets for guests are used for the sheep, and wigs the owner couldn’t even bear to wear were used to keep collected eggs warm.
Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen end up causing more loss than gains in their short time. This has the owner’s wife not impressed when she returns, but this all happened because Ni Zi and Mo Mo listened to her husband’s instructions.
The owner’s wife lets Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen go, trusting they’d bring the money and their friends the next time they’re through again. Pretty much that means they are free to go not needing to reimburse them for the mistakes or the meals. They are then sent off with a shower and a change of clothes.
While this is all going on, over at Lin Hao’s side, he’s been made to look unsuspecting and scruffy to keep him out of consideration for being a likely heir to a conglomerate. Lin Hao’s injured leg sees him in his room, dressed in a tee and shorts, scratching his bandaged leg with a back scratcher and snacking on packaged food. He’s invited out to lunch by Na Na and Ya Ling, which sees him shouting to his mother that he’s not eating in.
The impression Lin Hao gives off isn’t very heir-like. He doesn’t fit the typical mould of a stereotypical TV heir. Heirs should be young and/or handsome and show some signs of wealth. Lin Yi Mu and Lin Hu Sheng has the looks and they both are suggested to be wealthy, too: Lin Yi Mu lives in the Presidential Suite of the hotel Xia Qiao works at, while Lin Hu Sheng (based on Han Xue’s speculations) looks to be taking over the company from his father. It’s probably the reason Han Xue’s considered going after Lin Yi Mu and now Lin Hu Sheng, but pretty much ignored Lin Hao when she singled out the three as possible heirs.
But Lin Hao’s lunch with Na Na and Ya Ling is suggesting he might actually be the Editor in Chief’s nephew and the heir Han Xue has been looking for.
Editor in Chief unexpectedly arrives to join them. While Na Na and Ya Ling was seen to get up off their seated position at the table to greet and address the Editor in Chief (a sign of respect), Lin Hao could care less about paying his supposed superior any kind of greeting let alone respect. He remained seated and focused on eating his food.
When the Editor in Chief is asked about her outfit and the reason for being in such a melancholic mood (she’s saying goodbye to a love that didn’t belong to her), Na Na and Ya Ling were both listening intently; Lin Hao is again heads-down eating his food. Go back to before the Editor in Chief started her explanation, Lin Hao curtly told his colleagues not to ask about it. He didn’t say this because it was rude to pry about personal matters, but it came off as not wanting to hear the Editor in Chief talk about a matter he seems to already know about and found embarrassing. Lin Hao even voices the embarrassment he felt because of the Editor in Chief. Lin Hao and the Editor in Chief gives off a suspiciously familiar relationship.
Han Xue’s hopes of using this business trip to perform well in front of him doesn’t go exactly to plan: she gets a stomachache which douses her plans to put on moves on him. But, her stomachache does get her a back ride after she ventures into the rice fields and tripped. So, despite not showing her best side to Lin Hu Sheng, she got a pretty good response from him. But with Lin Hao being suspiciously coming off as the heir, she might be chasing after the wrong guy.
Li Hui Zhen:
“What do I do? Where’s my employee badge?”
Bai Hao Yu:
“We can get another one made for you once we return.”
Li Hui Zhen:
“No! That was my first employee badge! I must wear it until I’m old! I must protect it until it grows old and see it to its funeral!”
Back on the road, Li Hui Zhen suddenly realise she’s without her company ID card. It has her in a panic and pleading Bai Hao Yu to turn back. He initially refuses to turn back—firstly because another employee card can be made, and secondly, he found that going back for an employee card was absurd. In the end, he does turn back and the employee badge is quickly retrieved from the owners at the restaurant.
Li Hui Zhen shares her thoughts about being so adamant about going back to retrieve her badge:
Li Hui Zhen:
“The truth is, over these few months, I’ve experienced so many firsts. This is my first time working in a big company, my first time having and wearing a badge with my name and the company’s name on it. I’ve always envied those who could wear company staff badges around their necks. I feel they’re so lucky. Deputy Editor in Chief, do you think I’m especially lacking promise and drive?”
It’s not something Bai Hao Yu doesn’t understand since he also has something that he values that others wouldn’t:
Bai Hao Yu:
“It’s a little ridiculous, but not incomprehensible. There will always be things others see as completely worthless, but, to you, they are as important as your life.”
It’s that puzzle Li Hui Zhen shattered back at his apartment.
Bai Hao Yu:
“Although it’s an ordinary puzzle, it’s very important to me. Others probably see me as quite silly, but that puzzle is my talisman, energy bar, charger, and treasure chest. In any case, I can lose anything except that puzzle.”
Discovering how much Bai Hao Yu treasures the puzzle has Li Hui Zhen surprised. She’s seen it framed in his apartment, but it’s not until now she discovers just how much the puzzle means to him.
Bai Hao Yu, in his joking moods again, asks Li Hui Zhen for money to pay for the shattered frame. Li Hui Zhen is a little taken aback, but she agrees to pay. Close friends pay each other back she reasons; so, with Bai Hao Yu being her supervisor—someone who’s not even that close—of course she should pay. And she will pay then and there, too. “How much could it be?” she asks. A lot! The crystal frame she shattered cost ¥3600 (US$500+). That’s around six times the cost of the meal they just had and around 25 times the amount of cash Li Hui Zhen had in her wallet.
Li Hui Zhen shrinks back from paying him then and there, telling him she’ll pay him later since he didn’t look all that bothered by it at the moment. This has Bai Hao Yu smirk out of amusement. He’s smiling and smirking a lot in this episode. He seems to enjoy teasing Li Hui Zhen.
Night’s fallen. It has Lin Yi Mu out on the bench with Xia Qiao worried about what could happen between Li Hui Zhen and Bai Hao Yu.
After arriving back from his assignment, he discovers that Li Hui Zhen hasn’t come back from her business trip with Bai Hao Yu. He’s informed by Team Leader Zhu Ying that it will be an overnight trip. The new has Lin Yi Mu’s expression drop into a frown. He hadn’t intended on doing anything about it, but another run-in with a troubled Xia Qiao change that.
When Lin Yi Mu runs into Xia Qiao, he only had the intention of getting Xia Qiao to voice her problems, only to end up hearing his own problems reflected in Xia Qiao’s words:
Xia Qiao:
“The guy I like is spending the night alone with the girl he likes.”
Like he was working through his own suggestion himself, he tells Xia Qiao to go look for them. Xia Qiao turns the suggestion down. For one, she’s not someone who can been seen, as that would mean her act would be exposed; secondly, she believes it wouldn’t change things much since it looks like this might be fate in action. Seeing how Bai Hao Yu still ended up being with Li Hui Zhen despite her efforts to keep Bai Hao Yu by her side with the puzzle, she’s led to believe that one really can’t change what is/what isn’t meant to be. Because of this thought, Xia Qiao resigns to accepting the situation and just wait for when they return before thinking too much about anything.
Xia Qiao:
“So many things seem like it’s fate. No matter what you do, they will still meet. No matter how hard you work, you still can’t stand between them.”
Lin Yi Mu:
“I don’t believe it. If I want something I must fight for it.”
“I must personally make the trip there.”
As Xia Qiao is talking about Li Hui Zhen and Bai Hao Yu meeting, being together on the business trip, it’s very possible that Lin Yi Mu might have thought the same as Xia Qiao for a short time, but in the end, Lin Yi Mu can’t accept Xia Qiao’s view. He believes in effort as the decider of the outcome. He won’t sit by and watch idly. So, off he goes to close in on Li Hui Zhen and Bai Hao’s location and challenge this fate Xia Qiao seems to believe is what Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen is.
Settling for the night, Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui check in at a hotel. There’s a two-hour wait time for their rooms to be ready, which seems to have Li Hui Zhen a little nervous. When they are advised their wait can be taken in their lounging area where tea will be served and TV can be watched or a video game can be played, Li Hui Zhen finds herself leaping back up from her seat in favour of surveying the surroundings. She had originally chosen to sit on the luohan chuang (a Chinese antique couch-bed), but seeing Bai Hao Yu about to seat himself there, too, she curiously decided against it.
Bai Hao Yu:
“Why are you standing there? Come sit down.”
Li Hui Zhen:
“It’s okay. You can rest there Deputy Editor in Chief. I’ll look around.”
Bai Hao Yu:
“Have a seat. What is it? Do you think I’ll eat you?”
Bai Hao Yu notices and calls her over to sit beside him. Li Hui Zhen hesitates behind a wall frame before she takes her seat at the corner of corners on her side of the luohan chuang. She only settles into her seat when Bai Hao Yu tells her that he won’t eat her. (Is this scene trying to be suggestive? We’re not sure if we’re reading too much into it.)
Tea is served next—which Bai Hao Yu poured her. Li Hui Zhen downs the cup and continues to down a few more before silence makes it’s way in. Bai Hao Yu speaks up at this point, asking about the call Li Hui Zhen apparently had with Zhu Ying:
Bai Hao Yu:
“Li Hui Zhen, when Zhu Ying spoke to you, did she say anything else?”
Bai Hao Yu calls Li Hui Zhen “Li Hui Zhen”! He’s never called Li Hui Zhen’s name by her name before this. It was always “Intern” or “Logistics Department” or just “Hey hey hey”. After reporting to him that Zhu Ying only told her to be attentive and careful, and complete her job well without a hitch, Li Hui Zhen smiles and call him out on it. Bai Hao Yu doesn’t seem to want to admit it, though.
Following that, the atmosphere between them seem to become a lot more natural. Li Hui Zhen notices the game controllers sitting between them. Both pick up the controllers with Bai Hao Yu switching the game on. A game pops up onto the screen which has both recognise it instantly:
Li Hui Zhen:
“It’s this game!”
Bai Hao Yu:
“I remember playing it a lot when I was younger.”
Li Hui Zhen:
“Me, too!”
Comments
And that closes off Episode 17. This scene at the hotel, we love it! We love how awkward and cute Li Hui Zhen was when she jumped out of her seat to look around when Bai Hao Yu took his next to her. We can’t figure out why she was so nervous, though. Was it because she found it awkward sitting next to him because he was her boss or was it the fact that she was at a hotel with Bai Hao Yu? Or maybe it was because of the fact that the piece of furniture she was sitting on historically was used as a bed as well as a seat.
We did a brief search on this luohan chuang. It looks like it was a piece of furniture that sat in living rooms centuries ago (back in the Ming/Qing Dynasties). It could be used as seating, as a place to sleep or a place to enjoy some tea with with guests. It’s apparently something not unusual for it to be used in places like hotels to receive guests nowadays.
So, we’re thinking it might not to be because of the luohan chuang, but then again, Li Hui Zhen’s behaviour was very strange. She was fine sitting in the car next to him during their drive. She didn’t have a problem sitting next to him when she was at the restaurant picking out dishes. We can only think it’s because of this type of furniture they were sitting on. She was looking at it stranged when she was hugging the frame of the wall. Bai Hao Yu’s “do you think I’ll eat you?” is very suggestive, too…
Pretty Li Hui Zhen vs. She Was Pretty
Pretty Li Hui Zhen reworked this episode quite a bit to what was in She Was Pretty, switching things around, changed things, cut things out here and there. Previous episodes had changes, but we notice these more because the original She Was Pretty scenes were quite memorable.
All the key developments were there, like Li Hui Zhen/Kim Hye Jin losing her employee badge and the part where Bai Hao Yu/Ji Sung Joon calls Li Hui Zhen/Kim Hye Jin by her name. Pretty Li Hui Zhen just misses the part where Ji Sung Joon opens up about what happened with his mother. Pretty Li Hui Zhen also misses the part where Ji Sung Joon goes and searches through cow dung to find the employee badge for Kim Hye Jin. Bai Hao Yu didn’t need to since Li Hui Zhen ends up retrieving it pretty quickly from the restaurant owner who had it around his neck.
Despite missing these scenes which are signs Ji Sung Joon is opening up to Kim Hye Jin and letting her in more, Pretty Li Hui Zhen doesn’t give off that they’ve miss out on such developments between Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen, though. She Was Pretty uses grand, obvious gestures (like the ones mentioned above) to show Ji Sung Joon’s change of attitude towards Kim Hye Jin, while Pretty Li Hui Zhen uses a more subtle approach: it adds in a playful tone in Bai Hao Yu, which, up until now, he’s never used with anyone save Li Hui Zhen.
Compare the restaurant scene in She Was Pretty to Pretty Li Hui Zhen: Ji Sung Joon was still pretty cold until he helped Kim Hye Jin retrieve her badge. He was still very curt and didn’t actually offer to pay or say she could pick whatever she wanted from the menu. He just ordered a whole heap of expensive dishes and didn’t stop Kim Hye Jin from eating what he chose. Bai Ha Yu actually offered to shout Li Hui Zhen lunch and allowed her to pick whatever she wanted after seeing her so hungry.
Between Bai Hao Yu and Ji Sung Joon, Bai Hao Yu actually comes off nicer. Bai Hao Yu is critical and scolds Li Hui Zhen a lot, like Ji Sung Joon does; he’s called Li Hui Zhen irresponsible and slack because of her mistakes at work, but never used descriptions like “mentally challenged” or “speech impaired” which Ji Sung Joon has been heard using in one of the earlier She Was Pretty episodes, all because Kim Hye Jin stuttered so much when speaking to him. Still love both Ji Sung Joon and Bai Hao Yu, though.
Pretty Li Hui Zhen is definitely more subtle, more down-played just like its style of humour, but it all still works. It doesn’t only work, but we actually find ourselves liking what Pretty Li Hui Zhen’s done with this part of the story a lot more. It makes us look forward to seeing what Pretty Li Hui Zhen will do with the later parts of the story.
Lin Yi Mu rejects invite from girls
This is what Lin Yi Mu said when a bunch of beautiful girls in bikinis approached him when he was at his location taking shots:
Lin Yi Mu:
I’d rather have hot pot with Charlie.
Lin Yi Mu likes Li Hui Zhen a lot! Can not wait for this part to come in, too!
This ends our Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 17 Recap. Super excited to see Episode 18! The discovery of their common interest in an old game should be interesting to see! Lin Yi Mu’s looking to be closing in on the hotel, too!
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