Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen go their separate ways this episode. Originally, Li Hui Zhen had planned to go to the States with Bai Hao Yu with the hopes of discovering her dreams and future path. But, an invitation from an impressed children’s writer (and Li Hui Zhen’s very first magazine interview), Teacher Zhang, changes their plans. Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen now face a year apart as they follow their own goals and dreams before reuniting to marry each other.
Before this all happens, though, Li Hui Zhen is allowed the opportunity to say a proper goodbye to Lin Yi Mu before he truly exits.
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 39 Recap
Dressed in black, wearing a cap to hide his face from full view, Lin Yi Mu appears before Li Hui Zhen (for the final time maybe?) during a walk through the streets. The reception he gets isn’t a nice one. Being still pretty sour about him not saying goodbye, his “it’s been a while” greeting is given the cold shoulder as she turns on her heels to walk away from him.
Li Hui Zhen is pulled back toward him where he points out the outing they went on was the time he had said goodbye to her. It surprises her to realise he had made his decision to leave as early as then.
Li Hui Zhen:
“Can you not go? Must you leave? Forget it. Why am I saying this? If you wanted to stay, you wouldn’t have exposed your real identity. But must you really go?”
Tears having welled up in her eyes, Li Hui Zhen asks Lin Yi Mu to stay. She knows very well he’s made his decision to leave, but she still asks him, wanting him to change his mind.
Lin Yi Mu stays firm. Seeing her being like this because of him was enough for him to be satisfied. He wishes her happiness before he gave her that goodbye Li Hui Zhen thought he hadn’t given before.
Li Hui Zhen:
“You must also find happiness, Lin Yi Mu. My best friend, Lin Yi Mu.”
Teacher Zhang:
“Our group is currently looking for an assistant writer who will be responsible for designing the plot.”
“Although last time was just a simple interview, your writing is full of feeling Hui Zhen. Furthermore, whether it’s gathering material or making comparisons, your key point is very accurate. Most importantly, I really admire your enthusiam. I’m also very touched by your love of children stories.”
Li Hui Zhen was missing a dream to work towards last episode after achieving her initial goal of becoming an official employee at the company. This episode, she discovers it following a call from Teacher Zhang, a children’s book writer who she did her first article on for Immortal.
Impressed with Li Hui Zhen’s work, Teacher Zhang invites her to take a visit of the place she and fellow writers gather together to produce the children’s books. It’s gladly accepted and Li Hui Zhen shows up next morning where she meets the whole team and gets another invitation: an invitation to join the group as an assistant writer of a 30-book series they’re working on.
It wasn’t only the Immortal article that had Teacher Zhang think of having Li Hui Zhen join them, but also the passion and love she could feel Li Hui Zhen have for children’s stories that got Teacher Zhang considering Li Hui Zhen. Her writing is full of feelings, too. Aside from that, she and her skills are exactly what the group needs.
Working at such a place and creating children’s stories with a group of fellow enthusiasts attracts Li Hui Zhen. Her childhood dream was to become a children’s book writer, and this visit to Teacher Zhang’s place has Li Hui Zhen eventually realise it’s a dream she still wants to make come true.
The sight of Xia Qiao studying diligently for her doctorate the next morning was what had her thinking about wanting to give things a go. The happiness Xia Qiao had on her whilst reading her books, working towards her goal and doing something she really likes has Li Hui Zhen want to experience this kind of feeling herself.
While Li Hui Zhen is thinking over going abroad, Bai Hao Yu is at the jewellers shopping for a ring. Bai Hao Yu might be in for disappointment if Li Hui Zhen decides to hold off marrying to go after her childhood dream. But, as it turns out, his thoughts are exactly the same as Li Hui Zhen’s.
Standing outside Li Hui Zhen’s family home Li Hui Zhen beats Bai Hao Yu to it, proposing they get married. Not only does she propose to him, she presents him her grandparents’ rings as engagement rings.
Li Hui Zhen:
“Let’s get married. We’re going to marry sooner or later anyway. We’ve also agreed to be together forever. Since we’re going to get married sooner or later, then let’s just make it sooner.”
Li Hui Zhen tries to explain her rush to get married, thinking she needed to explain it for Bai Hao Yu to understand her. But, he already knows the reason:
Bai Hao Yu:
“You want us to get engaged first then I go abroad while you join Teacher Zhang in creating children’s stories. Then in a years’ time, we’ll come back and get married. Am I right?”
He knows it, because it was probably what he was thinking after hearing the excitement Li Hui Zhen had when she told him about the visit to Teacher Zhang’s. Either he knew she’d choose to remain in China to take Teacher Zhang’s offer or he was going to suggest she follow her dream.
With both of their thoughts in sync, they head in to Li Hui Zhen’s family home, where Bai Hao Yu seek the blessings from her parents for the marriage. They let them know their intention to marry one year from now. It has the parents wonder why the lengthy engagement. After Li Hui Zhen explains her desire to go after her writing aspirations and Bai Hao Yu assures he’s willing to wait for Li Hui Zhen, her parents give them their blessings.
A second kiss between Li Hui Zhen and Bai Hao Yu follows after Li Hui Zhen makes sure Bai Hao Yu really is okay with waiting a year before they marry each other. Driving back to Li Hui Zhen’s place, Bai Hao Yu assures her he is: he tells her that he’d be quite sad if she didn’t go after her dream just because of him. This has Li Hui Zhen express again the feeling of envying Xia Qiao again for having found something to work hard towards and wanting to improve her self-confidence.
Arriving at Li Hui Zhen’s place, Bai Hao Yu lets her know how much he can’t bear to see her leave and how tomorrow is a long time away. He wants her to stay with him. Li Hui Zhen is worried about the laundry still hanging outside, though, the dishes still in the sink and helping Xia Qiao with her studies. Li Hui Zhen makes a move to get out of the car, only to be stopped by Bai Hao Yu’s tug on her arm. He pulls her in towards her and kisses her. She kisses him for several moments before she breaks from him and leaves for her apartment. (She might not have made it back had she not. 😮 P : oP.)
Having chosen to take up Teacher Zhang’s offer, Li Hui Zhen must say goodbye to her colleagues at Immortal and leave the magazine. They’re sad to see her go, but are also happy she’s found a path she really wants to follow.
Reality finally sinks in for Xia Qiao. Watching Li Hui Zhen pack later that night has Xia Qiao realise that she and Li Hui Zhen are really parting ways. Xia Qiao finds it hard to bear since for as long as Xia Qiao remembers she and Li Hui Zhen have always been together. She tries to get Li Hui Zhen to stay, but Li Hui Zhen insists on moving to the workshop where everyone will be. In order to be a part of the group, she has to live there like everyone in the group.
Xia Qiao threatens to marry off to Africa and hide herself away from Li Hui Zhen, just to let her friend feel what she’s feeling right now. Li Hui Zhen’s answer to that is she wouldn’t let that happen. Li Hui Zhen would personally drag her back by her hair. Anytime Xia Qiao acts up, Li Hui Zhen will be on the plane to set her straight.
Hearing that, Xia Qiao settles with acting up twice a month so that it’ll force Li Hui Zhen to come visit. She argues that with Bai Hao Yu’s salary, he can afford the plane tickets to get Li Hui Zhen back to her that regularly. Li Hui Zhen isn’t planning on depending on Bai Hao Yu: when she becomes an author, she’ll be buying her own tickets to see Xia Qiao.
It’s a tear-filled goodbye the next morning between Li Hui Zhen and Xia Qiao. It’s a pretty sad scene seeing these two childhood friend go their separate ways. What had our attention though is the very brief focus on Xia Qiao and Bai Hao Yu.
We had expected maybe a glance, maybe a nod between them before Bai Hao Yu joined Li Hui Zhen, but Bai Hao Yu actually stops to let Xia Qiao wish him well and responds back quite nicely:
Xia Qiao:
“After going abroad, I hope it all goes without a hitch.”
Bai Hao Yu:
“You have to take good care of yourself as well.”
We like to think on some level Bai Hao Yu does care a little for Xiao Qiao, but maybe he said it because Xia Qiao means a lot to Li Hui Zhen, so she must look after herself for Li Hui Zhen’s sake.
Bai Hao Yu:
“I have to leave today. The study plans have been moved forward. I have to head over immediately.”
As Li Hui Zhen is being dropped off at the place she’ll be staying for the next year, she learns from Bai Hao Yu the flight to the US she thought was Saturday is actually today. He has to leave immediately as study plans have been brought forward. This has Li Hui Zhen realise this moment together would be the last time he and Bai Hao Yu will see each other for quite a while.
Li Hui Zhen can’t do anything about it, though. She can only offer to see him off at the airport, which Bai Hao Yu turns down. He tells her he’d be sad seeing her leave and will want her to go can’t bear to part with her and will want her to go with him.
Li Hui Zhen agrees to bid Bai Hao Yu farewell then and there, but it doesn’t settle well with her. After getting to her dorm, barely into her unpacking, Li Hui Zhen is back out flagging down a taxi to go to him. She initially went there to say a proper goodbye to him, but as she explained her reason for running to him, Li Hui Zhen expresses her worries and insecurities. She worries about his tendency to overwork himself and skipping meals—what if he faints again because of that? Her thoughts go off to towards his father—what if he thinks she’s not good?—then what Li Hui Lin said: what if he meets someone and takes him away from her?
Li Hui Zhen rethinks her wants after that:
Li Hui Zhen:
“I better go with you. I’m not going to write any fairytale books. I-I will go with you instead. How about I go to buy a ticket right now? Is there still time to buy a ticket?”
Bai Hao Yu pulls Li Hui Zhen in to kiss her before moving to reassure her:
Bai Hao Yu:
“We were able to wait 12 years. What’s another year to us? I’ll call you everyday. I’ll report everything I do to you. I won’t ever make you worry. You’ll always be able to find me.”
Bai Hao Yu then tells Li Hui Zhen he really loves her, which has Li Hui Zhen tell him she feels the same. The episode ends with Bai Hao Yu telling her to wait for his return.
Comments
Not a lot to say about this episode. Around this point in She Was Pretty, excitement levels also dropped, but at least we still found the main couple cute. It was really easy to follow She Was Pretty right till the very end because we were shipping the Kim Hye Jin-Ji Sung Joon pairing. Here, we’re rooting for Lin Yi Mu. It’s not Lin Yi Mu and Li Hui Zhen. We just like Lin Yi Mu. With him exiting, the drama pretty much ended for us last episode.
Pretty Li Hui Zhen, it’s more like, since we’ve come this far, we might as well finish it and see what the last episode has in-store for us. The only highlight in this episode was the opening with Lin Yi Mu appearing before Li Hui Zhen, and the little brief scene we mentioned about Bai Hao Yu asking Xia Qiao to take care of herself. We didn’t find the Bai Hao Yu-Li Hui Zhen kiss scenes all that great. We prefer the kiss scenes in She Was Pretty.
We also prefer the marriage proposal in She Was Pretty. Ji Sung Joon proposed whilst the two were working on the Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Dance in the Country puzzle: he had her look away briefly before placing the ring in the spot where the missing puzzle piece of the hidden girl was. It was a low-key proposal, but we like it. It’s great that Pretty Li Hui Zhen tried to change it up a little by having Li Hui Zhen propose, but we were hoping to see how Bai Hao Yu was going to propose as well as the surprise on Li Hui Zhen’s face when Bai Hao Yu proposes.
We’re not expecting much from the last episode. If the last epiosde does manage to save a drama which, on the whole, has been a slow watch, we shall eat our words. Doubtful, though.
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