“Please leave. Don’t appear in front of me again!” Things reach boiling point with Bai Hao Yu. Li Hui Zhen’s gone and made an error of judgement when she decides to tend to yet another one of Han Xue’s requests instead of staying at her post to guard a very important dress needed for the shoot. The dress suffers damage whilst under Li Hui Zhen’s watch, causing Bai Hao Yu to send her on her way.
Li Hui Zhen’s negligence in her duty might only be partially to blame for Bai Hao Yu’s strong reaction. Li Hui Zhen is reminding him of his childhood friend again, which has him wanting answers from Li Hui Zhen again. But she’s again not cooperating—which, together with mounting pressure from Headquarters to perform, looks to have finally caused Bai Hao Yu to snap.
If only this incident at the shoot didn’t happen and he didn’t send her off packing, he could have found out everything by the end of the night. Li Hui Zhen had originally settled on revealing everything to him after the shoot, but with the way things turned out, he may never find out if Li Hui Zhen plans on doing as Bai Hao Yu asked to never appear before him again.
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 21 Recap
Episode 20 left off with Bai Hao Yu lost in thought as he thought about Li Hui Zhen. Leaving the theatre, Bai Hao Yu continue to be lost in thought, barely catching Xia Qiao’s conversation about how touching she found the movie.
He’s there, but he’s not really there. A visit from his friend, Eric, reveal what is very clear already: Bai Hao Yu is forcing himself to be with the one he believes is Li Hui Zhen. He just can’t bring himself to reject her. Seeing the wall drawing and mistaking Xia Qiao as the one who had watched over it all these years had added to his obligation to keep his promise to stay by her side:
Bai Hao Yu:
“How can I reject her? I returned because of her.”
“Only recently I discovered she’s been silently keeping watch of our promise.”
“A girl being was able to do all of this for me, but I never put in any effort. I never did anything. If I reject her, wouldn’t I become a heartless man?”
Eric tries to have Bai Hao Yu see again that love can’t be forced. As long as there is doubt in his feelings—even if only a little—then he should stop and think why he has doubts. Maybe it’s because they aren’t suited to each other or he doesn’t like her all that much. This has Bai Hao Yu make sure his friend is aware that his heart has never changed. There is only one Li Hui Zhen in his heart.
This response of Bai Hao Yu sounds right, too. It could be seen that Bai Hao Yu’s heart can feel who the real Li Hui Zhen is, just that his eyes won’t listen to his heart. Either way the advice to follow his heart is still the best thing to do if he wants to find the real Li Hui Zhen.
Eric:
“Bai Hao Yu, you can do this to yourself. If you want to be irresponsible, fine. But the hotel manager Li Hui Zhen is quite pitiful.”
“You don’t love her. You’re just forcing yourself to be with her. Are you able to give her happiness?”
Eric tells Bai Hao Yu that forcing himself to be with someone he has even the slightest of doubt is not only irresponsible to himself (which is fine if that’s how Bai Hao Yu wants to treat himself) but it’s a pitiful existence for Xia Qiao.
Eric:
“Intern Li Hui Zhen is more pitiful.”
“In your world, the person that you love can’t even get a supporting role. Is she some extra who can disappear anytime?”
Li Hui Zhen also has quite a pitiful existence. In Eric’s eyes, Li Hui Zhen is the most pitiful out of the two. She’s supposedly someone he loves (at least that’s how Eric seem to see things), but because of some childhood memories she’s been written off. She doesn’t even get a supporting role in his life. It’s no way to treat someone one loves.
Meanwhile, over at Li Hui Zhen and Xia Qiao’s apartment, Xia Qiao uses Li Hui Zhen first credit on an Immortal issue to try get Li Hui Zhen to reconsider telling Bai Hao Yu the truth.
The credit is celebrated with a congratulatory dance at first. But then as they sit down to enjoy a glass of celebratory wine, Xiao Qiao starts using Li Hui Zhen’s rising success as reason to stop going through with her decision:
Xia Qiao:
“Your career is getting better and better. You also got your name published in a magazine. If you come clean about this matter with Bai Hao Yu, if he gets angry, you could destroy everything you’ve achieved thus far all in one moment.”
Xia Qiao tells Li Hui Zhen could lose it all if she were to go ahead as planned. Li Hui Zhen maintains that she has faith in Bai Hao Yu. She has faith that he’d be able to separate work from personal matters. He may get angry over her deception, but he wouldn’t let a personal matter affect their work.
Xia Qiao:
“Uncle and Auntie are also so happy with you’ve achieved. Are you really willing to bet all of this just to come clean about this with Bai Hao Yu?”
Seeing Li Hui Zhen still quite determined, Xia Qiao brings into the argument Li Hui Zhen’s parents and disappointing them. This seem to have some effect, but Li Hui Zhen still isn’t willing to say for certain she’d rethink her decision. It’s not until Xia Qiao presents Li Hui Zhen a couple of scenarios with rather pessimistic outcomes does Li Hui Zhen agree to think over her decision again.
The first scenario Xia Qiao presents is that Bai Hao Yu could forgive her and they could go back to how they were in when they were children. But they could become separated again if Immortal shuts down and he returns to the US. The 2nd scenario: Bai Hao Yu won’t forgive her. He gets angry for having been lied to and she is fired because of it. She would not only lose the possibility of being good friends, but her job, too. Things could then revert to the state it was before she entered Immortal.
Li Hui Zhen:
“Do you really think that if I tell him I would lose all of this?”
Xia Qiao:
“I feel that he won’t forgive you.”
Li Hui Zhen gets Xia Qiao to offer her honest opinion on whether she really believes she’d lose all the things she mentioned. Xia Qiao looks away, clearly not really believing it. But, she needs to buy time; so, of course Xia Qiao tells her she believes Bai Hao Yu wouldn’t forgive her and it would be better to wait till the outcome of Immortal is known in two months’ time.
Why Xia Qiao is trying to buy another two months is unclear, but it might be that two months is how long it’d take for her to finally settle her feelings, come to her senses and give up Bai Hao Yu; or it could be that she hopes this amount of time would allow her to build a strong enough relationship with Bai Hao Yu for him to forgive her for the act she’s been putting on in front of him.
Li Hui Zhen:
“Do I tell him or not? Green for telling. Red for not telling. I’ll count to three. One, two, three! Green light. I have to tell.”
Rethinking her decision is what Li Hui Zhen does, but as she finds herself unable to reach a decision the following morning, Li Hui Zhen puts her decision down to the colour the pedestrian lights turn on the count of three: green to tell, red to not tell. It turns green. She’s going to tell him.
Li Hui Zhen:
“Safe! Let’s go!”
Bai Hao Yu:
“What did you say just now?”
Settled with her decision, Li Hui Zhen makes her way across the pedestrian crossing, but not before making sure it’s safe to cross before shouting out her trademark “Safe!” before she steps into the road.
Unknown to her, Bai Hao Yu is right next to her and has clear view of her. Her use of “Safe!” creates another incident whereby Li Hui Zhen is caught by Bai Hao Yu for being so much like his childhood Li Hui Zhen. It has Bai Hao Yu stride up to her and pull her back towards him, stopping her midway across the pedestrian crossing.
Bai Hao Yu had previously made peace with his suspicions over who Li Hui Zhen is, but his talk with Eric the night also had him advise finding the reason for Li Hui Zhen’s similarities to Bai Hao Yu’s childhood friend. (This topic presumably came up after Bai Hao Yu brought up the events of the business trip which was hinted at the beginning of their talk.) Eric now believes the coincidences are too many and too impossible for it to be just that and had encouraged Bai Hao Yu to find out what that reason is behind these “coincidences” because there had to be one in order to make sense of these similarities.
So, it’s back to the questioning and wondering who Li Hui Zhen is. She provides nothing when asked about it. Maybe Li Hui Zhen genuinely doesn’t know what he’s referring to or maybe she’s pretending, but she gives him the “I didn’t say anything” response again before standing there not knowing what to say or do next. Fortunately, a phone call from Xia Qiao allows Li Hui Zhen to leave Bai Hao Yu and go in her way.
The day develops into a not so good one for Bai Hao Yu. On top of a call from Headquarters telling him Immortal’s latest issue hasn’t met targets and wanting him to deliver, Immortal’s hit a snag with the cover shoot for the special issue. The models they must have for the next day aren’t available. Seemingly running a tight schedule, booking them in any later than tomorrow would mean a delay of one week—which can’t happen. Seeing they have no choice, the already very stressed Bai Hao Yu orders the shoot to happen today.
Li Hui Zhen:
“I have to tell him today.”
“The photo shoot date has been moved forward a day. That means I must tell him a day earlier, too.”
Hearing Bai Hao Yu make this decision has Li Hui Zhen realise that this also means she must bring forward the time she tells Bai Hao Yu everything. She had made the decision to tell him after the cover shoot (Episode 19). This would have meant tomorrow, but now it’s been moved to today, it means she must do it today also. It seems once Li Hui Zhen makes a bet with herself or makes a decision, she sticks with it. (Unlike Xia Qiao.)
Lin Yi Mu:
“Look at Deputy Editor in Chief. His mood is so bad today. I’m advising you better not tell him. Come eat hot pot with me. Today is my birthday. Are you going to just watch me celebrate my birthday alone?”
Lin Yi Mu is right beside Li Hui Zhen when she voices this decision. This has him try stop her. He tries to get her into joining him for hotpot. He uses Bai Hao Yu’s bad mood as a disincentive for going through with her decision. He uses his birthday. Nothing could get her to change her mind.
Lin Yi Mu:
“I thought about it over and over. The best way to reduce the pain to all three of you is for you to confess everything first.”
Unable to stop Li Hui Zhen, Lin Yi Mu leaves Immortal to urge Xia Qiao to reveal the truth first. He heads to the hotel and reveals to her his knowledge of her act before advising her to reveal the truth tonight before Li Hui Zhen does. He tells her that the only way for all of this to end well for all three involved, she must reveal the truth before Li Hui Zhen does.
Xia Qiao:
“Bai Hao Yu will understand me. He will forgive me because he likes me. I also like him.”
Xia Qiao genuinely believes Bai Hao Yu likes her, though. She tells Lin Yi Mu she’s the one Bai Hao Yu is with these days. She’s the one who he will do anything for. She believes that the Li Hui Zhen in his heart is her, and so, he will forgive her with an honest explanation of the situation.
Lin Yi Mu doesn’t agree and tells her that she’s only fooling herself. He urges her again to be brave one last time and reveal the truth. What her thoughts or actions following this is unclear. Towards the end of the episode, she does look to be taking some kind of action, but what it is isn’t revealed.
But, she doesn’t need to do anything. For the time being, Xia Qiao’s act is still safe, because whilst she and Lin Yi Mu are sitting outside discussing this matter and worrying about what was supposed to take place later that night, a situation is brewing which sees it not happen.
Back at Immortal, Li Hui Zhen has been tasked with keeping watch over a very important dress whilst preparations were being made for the cover shoot. This dress is so important to the shoot it’s already gotten two of Li Hui Zhen’s colleagues scolded by Bai Hao Yu for thinking of taking photos and touching it with long nails. Nothing can happen to this dress if Immortal wants the special issue to go out without problems or delay.
But, something does happen to the dress and the delay they were trying to prevent ends up happening. Li Hui Zhen makes the mistake of leaving it unattended to see to moving Han Xue’s car. (Han Xue has once again gone and taken advantage of Li Hui Zhen’s willingness to help and offloaded a task Han Xue should have done herself.) The time Li Hui Zhen was gone, the model’s assistant had gone and tried on the dress, causing a tear in the seams.
Bai Hao Yu:
“Who did it? Who was the last person in charge of keeping this safe?”
The damage has Bai Hao Yu angrily demand to know the person responsible for looking after the dress. Li Hui Zhen steps forward.
Bai Hao Yu:
“You again! Why are you really here? Who are you really?! Did you come here just to make a mess of everything?!”
Maybe if Bai Hao Yu wasn’t so stressed, maybe if he hadn’t caught Li Hui Zhen talk about her curls and how the rain caused it to frizz up just a moment ago, Bai Hao Yu might not have been so fired up. The pressures of getting Immortal to Number 1 in sales and his confusion over how it was possible Li Hui Zhen could remind him of his childhood friend seems to have him finally lose it with her. He tells her to leave the set immediately and to never appear before him again, right in front of all of her colleagues:
Bai Hao Yu:
“Please leave. Don’t make me say it a second time. Please leave. Don’t appear in front of me again. You also don’t need to show up at Immortal anymore.”
Li Hui Zhen does exactly that. She packs her things and prepares everyone thank you notes before departing Immortal.
Team Leader Zhu Ying:
“Hui Zhen, we all know the danage to the dress wasn’t your fault. The model’s assistant owned up and apologised. It was all a misunderstanding. Hurry and come back.”
Despite being informed by Team Leader Zhu Ying that the model’s assistant had fessed up to being responsible for the tear in the dress, Li Hui Zhen believes she was still at fault. She had neglected to perform her duty of watching over the dress. Had she watched over the dress, none of this would have happened. She believes she played a part in the damage to the dress and delay to the shoot.
So, Zhu Ying’s request for Li Hui Zhen to return is met with a heartfelt thanks for all her Team Leader’s care and the things she learned from her. She then hangs up. Li Hui Zhen was not returning.
Li Hui Zhen:
“I can’t let my tears fall. Li Hui Zhen, why do you like to cry so much? Li Hui Zhen… Don’t fall. I’m begging you. Don’t cry.”
Tears start to flow then. It has her call Xia Qiao to come to her side. Xia Qiao, who was originally preoccupied with tracking down Bai Hao Yu on the phone, makes her way to the bridge overlooking a harbour where Li Hui Zhen stood.
Xia Qiao having arrived, she tells her best friend about her unemployment, about Bai Hao Yu’s harsh words and how she had wanted so much to tell Bai Hao Yu about who she was so they could go back to being how they were when they were younger. But now she sees that it was her own wishful thinking:
Li Hui Zhen:
“Bai Hao Yu, he scolded me so I left. He said I can’t do anything. I can only cause others in the company trouble. That’s why he made me leave and not appear in front of him again. Sure enough, I was right. This jinxing mouth of mine. When it comes to work, he definitely won’t be lenient. It doesn’t matter who it is. I even imagined that after the truth has been said, it’ll be like how we were when we were little. We’ll become good friends. It looks like I was wrong. I shouldn’t have thought like that. It’s my fault.”
It has Xia Qiao tear up and tell Li Hui Zhen that none of this was her fault. She tells her that Li Hui Zhen is a great person. Seemingly thinking this all happened because of her, Xia Qiao moves to apologise before telling Li Hui Zhen that she’s wronged her. Not knowing about the act Xia Qiao’s been pulling behind her back, Li Hui Zhen is of course clueless about why she’s apologising and tells Xia Qiao that it has nothing to do with her.
Things may not have gone Li Hui Zhen’s way with Bai Hao Yu, but she does see a silver-lining:
Li Hui Zhen:
“Actually, this is quite good. I feel that at least my mood won’t be dictated by this person anymore.”
So, although she is sad about them possibly never crossing paths again, she feels relief that she no longer will be affected by him anymore. In fact, despite the reunion with Bai Hao Yu being the centre of the talk, losing Bai Hao Yu isn’t actually what’s gotten her saddest. Losing her job and not being able to ever see her name on another magazine is what she feels saddest about.
Comments
That ends Episode 21. That was a sad last half of the episode! Bai Hao Yu finally couldn’t take it anymore and told his childhood friend to disappear! We think if he hadn’t discovered yet another trait of his childhood friend in Li Hui Zhen right before he found out about the tear in the dress, he might not have shouted at her like that. The way he reacted was exactly like the previous time he heard her talk about the Street Fighter game during their business trip. Back there, he also shouted at her, demanding to know who she really was. And just like that last time, Bai Hao Yu might be remorseful for his behaviour. After getting a confession from the model’s assistant she was in fact responsible, Bai Hao Yu was seen alone and pacing around the set.
Bai Hao Yu probably should have asked “who damaged the dress?” instead of “who was in charge of watching the dress?” Li Hui Zhen wouldn’t have been the one responsible then and then his scolding wouldn’t have been misdirected. Li Hui Zhen had said that she was right about Bai Hao Yu being able to separate work from personal matters. We think this time, personal matters definitely got mixed into his work.
It’s pretty cool to see Li Hui Zhen say she was saddest about losing her job and she wasn’t hurting because of Bai Hao Yu. He really doesn’t deserve being cried over like that after the way he sent her out of the cover shoot.
With Li Hui Zhen out and accepting the outcome of everything, we should be getting to the parts where it all should be heading upwards for Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen! (That would then also mean downwards for Lin Yi Mu soon, though. : o( : o (. So conflicted!) There should be some grovelling coming next and a transformation around the corner according to the original. We cannot wait!!
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