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There is a brief stint in 2015 where they start the hunt for the missing boy. It then goes back to 1997. He and Ran definitely have different approaches to their work. He gives all the local miscreants posters of the missing father and daughter and makes them do the legwork. He even commandeers a ‘class’ and the captive audience are shown the posters and asked if seen or not. There are children chanting about 18th floor and 18 heads. Turns out there was a posting of rhyme on village board. The locals were treating it like a chain letter and spreading the verse rather than risk bad luck. Ran returns to the window where he noted the cigarette butts and sees many more. While trying to collect samples, he knocks out a window pane and almost takes out a local. He runs to her rescue and they have an interesting exchange in her apartment. He is very funny focusing everywhere except for the drying undergarments in her bathroom.😂Pagers are making timely communication difficult. The old man that took the poster to call is being followed by the missing thug brother who thought the old couple had witnessed what he’d done. Just when they are about to get knifed, Officer He shows up. While this is happening Ran does something new…he looks up rather than down and sees the rooftop but no access. He finally gets a criminal team there and on the rooftop they find out that the 18 heads refer to some slaughtered chickens. Ran stays behind because he considers the possibility of human blood being hid by chicken blood. Nobody takes him seriously. When samples are submitted at least He did not negate them, but he did change the request to Ran’s name. At the end of episode when the brothers reunite, knife brother is told to take them out and the picture is of father and daughter. Now we know something did happen and who we just don’t have the evidence to prove it because nobody believes Ran’s samples have any value to the investigation.
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He and Ran find themselves put together to investigate a case of 2 missing persons. Neither appreciate the arrangement. One is book smart, one is street smart. One is convinced something is wrong and needs investigated. The other thinks it’s a prank and not even a real case. The age gap between them doesn’t make for the best communication skills with each other either. He is very reluctantly drawn into the matter but still doesn’t think a real crime has taken place. End of episode we have a time jump and there’s another missing person at same place. This time Ran is the reluctant partner. The first case was never solved and he was so discouraged he went to educating rather than investigating. He knows Ran is the only one that will get it and ultimately gets him back to the site to investigate. Ya gotta love the hat gear comparison.😂I found this a fun and interesting premise to the drama.
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Today’s episode was all about the hearing aid. While it seems absolutely ridiculous how it is found, in college years I actually helped a friend find her contact at a hayride , so finding needles in literal haystacks can happen. 😂 This entire project was MiYu’s brainchild. She feels responsible for its outcome and has already surmised the poor kid has a less than ideal home situation with a loud obnoxious mom and an aloof father. She wants him to do well because that is simply who she is. She goes the extra mile and finds it. When Ji arrived the first words out of his mouth should have been, “You scared the hell out of me going off by yourself. Please don’t ever do that again” He berates her yet again and she’s had enough of his backhanded caring. She collapses and finds herself in the hospital. Her friend helps her out and gets leave for her so she can just rest. MiYu’s mom is truly a piece of work. But if MiYu can teach her the benefits of working and earning for herself rather than conning and manipulating, that is a step in the right direction. The mom believes MiYu prefers Mr Tang, while I believe she prefers Mr Tang’s manners. She gets him to accompany her to MiYu’s quarters and blindsided MiYu with unexpected company. They have a nice chat about food and art over noodles which led to an invite to an exhibit in HongKong. She was figuring out a polite way to decline when Ji asks her to a weekend exhibition. She got to turn the tables saying she already had plans and accepts Tang’s offer. She makes sure to minimize the ambiance with her room choice etc but she enjoyed the change of venue and did have pleasant company. When she returns to work she learns the boy did well on his exam and the mom is now overly attentive. She just needs to calm down and go home ASAP. I am hoping they give MiYu one peaceful day at work just so she can experience the novelty of it. Personally, I am enjoying this drama. I love MiYu’s character and think the actress playing her is both stunning and doing a magnificent job bringing this character to life. This is not majority opinion, but I rarely side with them. If anybody is familiar with the old Tammy movies, this is similar in style to those with a twist.
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Officer Park wins the soccer match but eldest son wins Bo Mi’s affection. There are some sweet moments watching these two try to communicate. Eldest son finally gets brave when officer Park was visiting. He made his feelings clear after some missteps. Their fathers are at each other’s throats literally because of the company desertion of village and Mr Seong getting the backlash. The village chief threatens to trash Mr Seong’s field and when it happened Mr Seong concluded it was the chief that committed the crime. After some investigating, it is clear it isn’t the chief, but is it a local or a plant from the company sabotaging Mr Seong’s efforts. The village chief finally looks at the footage and Mr Seong catches somebody in his field. It also seems like the wife came to the village from Seoul to hide from somebody. Since she can’t stop posting to her phone, she has been found out. At episode end there is a knock at the door and she is scared to find out who it is. There was a lot of slapstick humor with the dads and a learning experience for Mr Seong as he finds himself shelling peanuts and hearing from ladies why a farmer would not trash his fields. There is something flakey with his company and it is about to be revealed but the bosses are holding out a bit longer. This episode was mostly filler to set up next events but still a fun watch.
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In this episode Yan Ling is making slow progress with ChangNing. She does some purging on the beach to literally erase Feng’s name from her thoughts. While she is not even close to being done with the trauma from him, she has stabilized enough to move out of his apartment and start breaking ties. For her, this is a huge step in the right direction. Knife girl is also making progress and her future seems brighter as well. Yan Ling pushes her acting limits after a comment from Dr Luo. She finds herself in a cheap hotel with a younger guy there for one reason only. She ends up getting picked up at the police dept by her ex. This was so dangerous. She did not make a backup plan for either herself or her son. Her young son was the adult in the room getting his own ride to school and letting the dad know something was up with Yan Ling. What is surprising is that he ends up investigating with her. They track down Eric and then get a lead to a PUA love course. They openly say they are out to manipulate women and show men steps on how they can get what they want from them by using pickup artist techniques. This is not even illegal because it is viewed as dating aids. 😝😡 The ex husband agrees to go undercover to see what they can learn about their dead friend and the correlation with the tattoo. Feng pays a professional visit to Dr Luo. He actually received a lesson if he’s smart enough to understand the doctor’s more subtle implications. He was encouraged to increase his diet to different types in response to the question he asked. It is really disgusting how willing one was to learn and the other teach. Dr Luo is browsing through the upper echelons of classes at this love institute course, so is he an observer or teacher? I think the reason he is going through lower course is to see what Yan Ling is learning rather than seeking guidance for himself, or maybe as a study in aberrant behavior which aligns more with his personal view of things. The ex is far from cool no matter what they try to do with him at the class. He is different in that he has morals with women. While the class are all cheering the instructor, he is paying close attention to the details. I am hoping he is disgusted with what he has just seen. The episode ends with ex hubby’s gf noticing his new hair color. This story is so dark that I appreciate the moments of levity to just get a break from the manipulations and machinations of this group and like ilk. The scariest part of this story is it could be anybody that just happens to have that tilted perspective to use their contacts with people for selfish motives rather than true interest, empathy and concern.
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This episode finds Mr Seong between a rock and hard place with his sons. He has played back how often he tossed everything to his wife to handle and now his boys want him to continue on with that. His wife, bless her heart, lost any ground she had made with the women of the village with her ‘kindness’ in pointing out their antiquated hairdos. Sometimes less is more when trying to ‘compliment’ in a backhanded way. She has not had a village epiphany yet where she really hears how condescending she sounds. Bo Mi and eldest son are making progress while their dads have reverted back to resenting each other full tilt. Mr Seong’s company is acting weird and who knows what will really happen to all those seedlings or what the real reason is for their projects disappearing. And what plans, if any, does the company plan with the village that it is still kept in the books tho distantly? And who is the spy guy and what are his intentions? Mr Seong is making very slow progress with his sons, but they are being less resentful of accepting his gifts and presence. The oldest has finally told his father what happened and that he even tried to call but as usual, his response was talk to mom. He has finally reflected on everything he has missed under the excuse of working for the money to get the family what they need. This is definitely necesssry. But the bigger issue he forgot about is that they might have been happier with less and appreciated his being with the family more. This drama gives us the stereo types of city vs country and each having deserved biases and flashes of seeing each other as real people and not obstacles when those biases get pushed aside. Hopefully another crisis won’t be required for understanding and respect to go both ways between villagers and company visitors. This is still a good watch and enjoying the misadventures of the Seong family.
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Ya gotta laugh at the display of ‘the chips taste delicious’ typed repeatedly while the officer is eating chips. His sketch has moved him to the tactical team where he learns more. Dr Luo spoke up at the mediation hearing and the surprise of the lawyer spoke volumes. He had researched knife girl’s family history and it was pretty traumatic. At first Feng’s family had no intention of going easy on her, but a whispered comment by Dr Luo got Feng to agree. He was told to learn to drift if he wanted to avoid the consequences of his behavior. Otherwise he would never have a clue when or how death would find him. Ms Yu turned out to be the predator in a flipped account of what really happened. It is scary she let somebody beat the hell out of her just so she could fake domestic violence. Who would consider believing him after those photos. Something did trigger with the lawyer who had a gut feeling Ms Yu was not as defenseless as she appeared. It also led to a clue about an updated insurance policy. This led to a 3 yr old being beneficiary of a lot of money. This also caused Yan Ling to rethink some of her earlier thoughts about her friend. Here we learn that when YanLing was going to end it mourning her father’s death, her friend jumped in and rescued her. Yan Ling was too late to return the favor, but is determined to follow the case to the end. The tactical force has a skeleton diagram of a very intricate network of manipulating criminals. There are so many and it is so organized that it is like a large company with various depts of different scams. Our favorite potato chip eating officer got drafted for overtime to see if his memory could reveal any more clues. Dr Luo is encouraging a bond between him and Yan Ling. She is considering it.
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Yan Ling gets a colleague’s wife to take in Ms Yu’s case. She has been beaten head to toe and still just wants free of him without pursuing criminal charges or max benefits she’s entitled to. She gains her divorce but I want to see her on that plane and not nabbed at the airport by her ex. Feng and his harem are a lot to process. He manipulates them brazenly and has no remorse or concern for the damage he causes. Even when stabbed he uses it to continue his manipulation for no other reason but that he can. Dr Luo has a chat with him and Chang Ning. His chat with Feng is eerie as it’s more like an evil mentor guiding an apprentice in the art of manipulation. He mocks the kid for making his targets so easy and low standard. Feng is now researching Doc Luo and he will be all too willing to follow the doc’s ideas. Yan Ling is still being her students’ advocate but she is too closely involved, Chang Ning’s mom shouldn’t be calling her to take care of stuff the family should be doing. We get more of Dr Luo’s past but he uses it to become the father he feared. He brazenly tells Yan Ling about manipulation and is very directly outlining how he is drawing her in, but she sees it as a psychologist talking about a case study rather than her being on a web getting drawn in by a predator. He has even insinuated himself by requesting to be at Feng’s settlement hearing appearing to be an advocate for the students. Feng comes from a well to do family and none of those poor local girls stand a chance. They literally worship this guy and would do anything for them. I wish any of the adults would have noticed the jailed girl’s hand and understand why she had the knife. I am so disgusted by all these manipulators. The police officer’s blind date did help the case. She could identify the cosmetic surgery the unidentified bf had done. He then got the forensic artist to make a sketch of how he might have looked prior to surgery. It still can’t be used by facial recognition apps, but maybe will help figure out who this guy really is. Yan Ling finds herself triggered by those tattoos and knows somehow they are linked. That is why she will not let these cases go. All these aside cases are as surreal as Yan Ling’s friend. The manipulation and harm these victims endure just boggles the mind. That these predators are so easily inserted into one’s life and then given control is rather horrifying.
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Everybody finally met up and sorted. The grumpy old man again😝 it is hard to feel empathy when he is all about attitude before brain with his speech. This resulted in us getting to watch Shen flying over the top of a car rescuing the adult child. This was a very unnecessary device to let us get updates on everybody else. It served to let us watch Qin change flowers and stay by his side at the hospital, but there were so many better ways this together time could have been utilized. They did get around the useless dad and the three siblings will be together however they finally arranged it. Shu and Lian are in a better place and Fei is much better with crowds and communicating. Qin has opted to stay with non-litigation cases so that there will never be a job conflict between her and Shen. Her work in the legal aid office lets her work with people without gimmicks and lets her give back to the community as she chooses. Shen finally wakes up and we head to a retirement ceremony that felt like it lasted longer than Shen and Qin’s dates.😝🙄 It ended the way it should with the judges and that part was satisfactory. What was a bit annoying was trying to force a romance on us without giving it any real substance. They left hope in the future for them to become an actual couple and Shen made a good choice of staying with family court til he feels he has a more rounded sense of justice. He may never decide to move up but the option was left open. I think if they would have kept Qin and Shen bickering back and forth in how to settle court cases, it would have been a better fit for the drama. The tension would have stayed between them but the focus would have stayed exclusively on the cases. The forced couple issue was more a distraction since they were never allowed to be a couple on screen.
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Shen managed to create circumstances to make the elderly gentleman talk repeatedly and at length of the care he received from his wife. These tactics allowed for him to see how foolish he was being because of ego and how his wife had always committed to him no matter the circumstances. This resolved things but they did not have a caretaker for their son and he woke up to find parents gone. His travels have found the two missing twins but Qin has no idea who he is and he is a big man with a child’s mind. Mother in law won custody of the twins vicariously through her loser son. They could not even handle a grocery trip without the kids running away. I know Ma in law has the money, but all these Nannie’s and third party caretakers is not a loving mother. It is criminal that she was allotted their guardianship even tho sadly, it was the only logical for the court to decide compared to a single mom with three children and no secured stable income. The missing son and twins went to their secret base at the park and older sis has shown Qin where it is. Now there is a mess with the mom, ex and ex ma in law and none of these people know that the son is Shen’s case. This is a very heartfelt scenario of the fallout with children in divorce cases. There is no good situation once the family unit is not a single home base. It is whatever the law and finances dictate. Qin has opened the possibility of dating with Shen since she has been banned from litigation cases. This means no conflict when he is in high court. Shu is trying to persuade him to consider family court since he is so good at it now. This episode is a good one for case study, but we are not shown what is happening with Shu and spouse or getting resolution with Shen and Qin. Next episode is the last and there were more things to see with the judicial part of story that would have been more pertinent to main character growth than this aside. I do want to see end of the son’s adventure but the court was aware of the son and should have advised them to have a caretaker at the home if case time extended. Hopefully last episode airs tomorrow to wrap this up.
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Shen continues to urge the old man to mediate rather than divorce, but he is staying with his terms. Now they are in court and both refuse the house, childcare money returned, etc. He refuses to budge tho it’s clearly not what he really wants. The case with the three children shows what a manipulator the mother in law is. She was instrumental in urging more grandchildren, isolating the daughter in law from her mother, and taking charge of financing the grandkids. She is trying to vicariously make them her children because if her disappointment in her own sin. She should still get rid of him and keep all the rest of them.😝 She did not like that her daughter in law already had a job lined up and care planned for her children. She is still trying to control with money because that is all she really has to offer. If she truly loved them as much as she thinks she does, she would settle things more kindly and take their feeling into consideration instead of trying to bribe with treats. Shen’s friends do their best to get Qin and Shen together at the courthouse. Both try to pass by quickly and since Qin wavered on sending that text she, will be at the legal aid center meeting and Shen will think she’s with that guy again.😝 I wish these two cases would have wrapped up last episode and we would get more news about Shu and Lian. It is clear that Shen and Qin have a better chance than his friends did with the judge and lawyer conflict. Even his friend thinks so by trying to set them up after he disparaged Shen’s mourning over love that might have been.
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Qin meets someone at the event who has similar law interests. He is a fan of her videos and has offered her membership in a family aid program that exclusively works to help family legal matters. To avoid an outing with his parents, Shen tags along with his friend and finds Qin at the same event. Both are unhappy to see each other at a singles event as neither have really moved on. The irony with these two is they never started either. They are in limbo trying to determine where they are headed professionally and dealing with these choices forcibly keeping them from the person they care most about. Shen’s case is about a couple that have been together 40 years and the husband finds out their son is not his. He is hurt and angry and wants a divorce. The woman never told her husband she was assaulted when drunk and her consequence was an unexpected pregnancy. The son is disabled so that adds to the mix as he is a childlike adult and cannot support himself. Shen worries that the mother will opt for suicide for her and son and the husband benefits most from his wife’s care. Qin is continuing with her non-litigation insurance case and has asked about working with the family aid program since the firm lacked hours with this type of work. She was granted permission and bumps into the guy she met at the event who looks quite happy to see her there. Shen is walking outside the courthouse weighing his options. I think he is measuring the balance of good he can accomplish between family and criminal law. He sees the enduring effects of family law and mitigation and that there are no easy fixes. The consequences can be lifelong and while not as prestigious as the high court, argument can be made that society benefits more from family court decisions when judgment chooses the best welfare for the family.
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Dr Luo gets bad news and after the nurse turns him down he call Yan Ling. I am wondering if he got the exact type of cake from her WeChat moments. It served as a trigger for her own grief. Now they seem to share bittersweet moments of their dead fathers. Hers was a loving dad and his became more and more abusive when a health issue kept him from returning to the city. He visits his mother and still resents their poverty. Yan Ling is passed over for promotion because she rescued her student. They are more than willing to let the best teacher have a fault denying her consideration. Her mother is like an incessant drip of poison. She won’t let you live or die. She sucks optimism and kindness out of you. It is most likely she turned her resentment to Yan Ling when she lost her husband. Yan Ling is willing to take the blame for anything she feels even remotely responsible for. It is really working against her currently. The abused wife has turned to her for support and Yan Ling takes it on because she reminds her of her best friend. After seeing the tattoo and hearing her story she is even more determined to find justice for her. The only good thing about Dr Luo this episode is his call interrupted the mother’s lament and fault finding. He is a lesser poison than she is. Dr Luo is finding a better urn for his father’s ashes. He and his mother can’t feel sorry that he’s dead but they can’t be at peace about it either. It is clear the women in his life tried to help him as best they could, but for whatever warped reason he wants to add to women’s trauma rather than help. The sadistic manipulation of people and circumstances are surreal in how easily accomplished with no backlash or punishment. The actors do an excellent job making you feel their characters’ situations. It is tense and oppressive.
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Yan Ling is taking her son home to have a proper goodby for his godmother. She calls Dr Luo about his pet because she doesn’t want to take it along. He pretends he is in another location still seeing patients. The cab driver looks at him telling bold lies. Yan Ling agrees to take the hamster and leave it with her friend’s parents. At the memorial service, the fake bf shows up. He has another story all set up to account for his fake name, profession, etc. Yan Ling doesn’t believe him but he has things too conveniently lined up in away that can’t be contested, even tho something feels off with all the new information. The friend’s parents have accepted their daughter’s house has been seized and have moved into a much older rundown place. I am glad that the more the cop investigates, the more ambiguous the bf gets. He can’t be tied down to any particular name and nobody has his photo. The guy they did track down with the right name has been in a coma over a month so it’s no way that he is the guy. There is a money scam being tracked down and the bf’s name has popped up with others who scam people out of their money thinking they are investing rather than simply transferring from their accounts to an offshore account. Waiting to see how this pans out when the officers swap information. Yan Ling’s mom is as bad or worse than Dr Luo. She forces her daughter to visit an ‘uncle’ that has been paying her pension but sexually assaulting Yan Ling. She is so disgusted she tosses her coat in the trash from him touching her. Dr Luo does this and does a deep dive into the uncle. He knows Yan Ling’s history but not the woman who beat her for being the mistress. It all revolves around whatever happened to her father when he was late coming home. There was an accident and what was once a nice family no longer stayed that way. The guy that had the same tattoo as Yan Ling’s friend beats his wife up for reasons unknown. He makes up lies to the police but she doesn’t bring up charges. He thinks if he is pissed off for any reason he can beat her because he feels like it. It’s revolting and unsettling to watch how these predators groom and take advantage of their victims. It is also disgusting to see how easily they get away with it while the victim is victimized a second time being found guilty of the predator’s crimes and/or actions. We are definitely shown the dark side of human nature and how it is so easily disguised as a professional, a partner, a family member. They look so normal and caring until hidden away privately where they let their dark side be seen.
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The middle son is determined to head back and has little brother in tow. Right before the bus had to leave, middle son notes the precious Carol headphones were left in the station. This separated the brothers who then went through a scary time trying to find each other. The ladies are more accepting of the mom after her panic attack. She had just recovered to find two of her sons missing and their passports. They finally find the boys and get them home. What was fun to see was the empathy and support from the locals. The village leader and wife each took it upon themselves to personally help the very ones they wanted to leave. The one thing they could all unanimously agree upon was the importance of family. This bridged a gap that added understanding and consideration. The eldest son has still not told his parents about withdrawing from class. This gets him a nice long chat with Bo Mi and a kiss in the apple orchard. I like how wise she is with common sense things. She looks at life with optimism and enjoys the work she does. The Seong family realize now that dad has been away too long and there needs to be more interaction with the family as a while. It was also nice to see the middle so. Praised for something. He is acting like an idiot, but he craves recognition from his parents, and when that fails to happen he looks to other more indulgent ways to spend his time and attention. The eldest son had the biggest surprise when he tells dad he dropped out of school because he killed someone. I am thinking it was a practice surgery and he failed it causing him to doubt himself and his chosen major. This should have been discussed a lot earlier, but now it has finally come to light for their family to deal with. The first thing they really need is just be a whole family from now. I enjoyed the village chief being won over by the littlest and cutest son. This drama lets us enjoy family in all its messy glory. It will be fun watching the Seong family become whole and the locals helping them figure out farming and family.
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