This episode is mostly treading water for Jingjing as she pulls back within herself to deal with what happened and YuTu wanders about looking for a way to fix things now that he's starting to realize that it was HE that broke things. Not his job. Not his filial duty to his parents. Not anyone else but HE himself who was the jerk to both women in his past. He's starting to grow up emotionally first with realization that he has an impact on other's emotions and now he needs to find a skill with which to try to fix things. Because up to now, he has no such skills. The best, most powerful moment is when he visits his home and revives and old computer and looks at old group chat messages by Jingjing from way, way back that reveal how hard she was trying to bridge the gap between her and him. The picture those chats paint is a brutal, painful indictment of what a total jerk he was to her and, well, to others as well.. This is a painful moment of enlightenment that he has been an emotional cripple and that he has hurt people because of it. The next powerful moment is a great conversation with his mother who gives him some powerful wisdom by simply reminding him that he doesn't have to be the best at everything.
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A lot of the stuff related to YuTu's job is ultimately irrelevant to the plot. Some of it is based on real technological issues and other stuff is just hand-wavy tv-show nonsense. Ultimately this episode is just filler with YuTu burying himself in his work to avoid thinking about Jingjing while every 10 minutes something reminds him of Jingjing. Even the arrival of his annoying ex-girlfriend ultimately accomplishes nothing but reminding him of Jingling. The key event in this entire episode is that, upon sitting down to talk with Xia Qing, YuTu finally realizes that he had been a complete jerk to her. That the only reason he had gone out with her when they were in college was because he was 'comfortable' with her. She was 'smart and capable' and he foolishly thought that was what he wanted. Now, finally, after having been with Qiao Jingjing, realizing that there is so much more that binds two people together, and thinking about his past with Xia Qing, he finally realizes that he was the asshole. And he apologizes to her for that. This is a major moment of emotional growth for YuTu as he realizes that he has been a jerk to both women in his life. If you have nothing else to do, watch this episode. Otherwise, just skip to the last few minutes. Nothing else all that important happens.
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Well, as I predicted while enduring the over-the-top sad mess that was the Guan Zai gets sick plot line, the writers turned the supposedly brilliant Yu Tu into a complete idiot who learned the completely wrong lessons from watching what his friend's family went through. He should have learned that it is a mistake to bottle things up and hide things from your loved ones. He should have learned that it is your loved ones who will be there for you to help you when you are in trouble. He should have learned that loving someone isn't about avoiding the pain but rather enduring it for the sake of love. Because all those things were actually on display in the Guan Zai plot line. But the writers contrived our hero to become an idiot who only noticed the pain and sadness that Shen Jing was experiencing. Never did he ask her if she would choose otherwise because if he did, she would have told him, "No". And the idiotic inability to understand how to balance work and life is just stupid. Yu Tu has turned what should be a plus-plus combination into a ridiculous either/or equation. The writers have made YuTu into someone who is so self-absorbed that he fails to have the empathy that would guide him to NOT HURT THIS WOMAN THAT HE CLEARLY LOVES. He seems oblivious to just how much pain he just caused her this night, which should have been her happiest. I get it. This is episode 15 and the show wants to keep the lovers separated for a little longer for 'dramatic purposes' and now we will have an arc that eventually brings them back together. But I just wish the writers would not resort to making characters be so absurdly stupid in order to do that. Because the YuTu that the writers have created is simply not an attractive, healthy human that any sane woman should want to have a relationship with. Now they have to contrive ways to completely transform him from this jerk back into a likable human. And that contrivance will likely be as hard to believe as the above transformation that got him here.
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At this point it is very, very clear that the other various Princes share almost no genetic connection with the Crown Prince because ... every single one of the other Princes is mentally damaged. Either they are simply dumb as a post such as Prince Lie, insanely insecure to the point of incompetency such as Prince Ning and Prince Yu or outright psychopaths the way power-mad Prince Ding and creepy Prince Xin are. The fact that Crown Prince Hua Yong is actually sane is strong evidence for the theory that HIS dad is perhaps NOT the Emperor, but rather his late Uncle, the true heir to the former Emperor. And that this may be why he was poisoned as a child.? At any rate, this episode features more evidence that Prince Ding (who wasn't actually poisoned in prior episodes) is freaking insanely jealous and power-hungry and orchestrates a betrayal and near slaughter of the Shen family. Interestingly his wife (played by actress Snow Kong, once again paired up with an absolute psycho after having been stuck with one in Pursuit of Jade) is showing to be not the nutcase displayed earlier and tries to talk him out of his power-mad pursuits. One wonders if she will act against his insane actions later? And finally we get to the absolute creepiest, obsessive psychopath Prince Xin, who has resorted to following and literally hanging around outside the Crown Princess' room at night - even when he knows the Crown Prince is inside WITH her!!! He has become an outright stalker and is not hiding it. His stated strategy is that he will wait for the Crown Prince to die and for her to change her mind and accept him? It's truly insane because if the woman truly is his former wife returned he should know that she already killed herself once rather than stay alive as his wife!!! She's told him again and again that she will NEVER be with him. Yet he obsessively persists. Clearly at this point the only way to get rid of this psycho is for him to die. The story will probably drag that out to the very end so it has a disgusting creep to taunt us viewers with.
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and deal mainly with the impact of Guan Zai's health problems on his family. While the performances are excellent, it's a real downer plot-line and I worry that the point of it is just to paint all the negatives that can happen to someone working in Yu Tu's field who tries to have a family. And that he will use this as an excuse later to reject Jingling. But it's kind of over-the top and frankly there are a lot of flaws in the storylines the last few episodes. Assuming China's rules around who can get clearances for confidential work are at least remotely similar to those of other countries, one of the requirements is disclosure of things like, well, financial problems and severe health issues. The requirement to disclose these things is not to be punitive, but rather to protect the employee from becoming vulnerable. It's just not credible that YuTu would not have informed the Institute of the stressors on his financial situation and if he hasn't then he's probably in violation of his contract. So the storyline has been very irritating that so many of YuTu's colleagues and superiors are pressuring him about work .... when Yu Tu himself has simply not been honest and fully disclosed his financial worries stemming from his mother's health. And similarly, Guan Zai fails to disclose his obvious health problems to anyone until he ends up collapsing. Avoiding problems like these are why disclosure rules are put in place. So your employer and colleagues can help. or at least be understanding. The last couple of episodes are overall extra frustrating because of the many points where the righters have characters (mainly YuTu and Guan Zai ) purposely withhold information or outright lie to others about various problems in their lives. And Shen Jing also does it to hide things from her son. And later, when YuTu finally joins up with Jingling again, does he bother to let her know at all about his sick friend and how he's been spending time in the hospital with him? No. He keeps it to himself and says nothing about it. AAAAGH!!! This is simply not how real adults interact. It's like the last two episodes are a celebration of lies, half-truths and misinformation among friends! WTF are the show writers doing here? I really hope this isn't something the show keeps using as a plot device.
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Yu Tu was sort of sleep-walking through much of this to this point, clearly lost in his thoughts about whatever is going wrong in his career. Even seems depressed and vulnerable about it - which comes to a head at the little 'reunion' dinner where he gets ridiculed about it. But after his magical rescue from that situation by Jingling's clever wine trick she not only saves him from that awkward situation, but also just lights up his admiration for her. She's so sensitive and responsive to his emotional state that he clearly starts falling hard for her. I mean, yes, he's a math/science/tech/gaming genius (oh, and basketball stud, apparently) ... but she's clearly the master of people skills between the two of them and her game is in high form as she draws him into her web.
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The chemistry between Dilraba and Yang Yang is immediately do cute. Their back and forth quickly hinges off their each having certain strengths - his being intellectual and her's being socio-emotional. There is an undercurrent of tension running though, with Yu Tu clearly at some sort of career crossroads that is bothering him.
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Yu Tu's obvious struggle with what life goals to pursue - his science ideals versus practical $$$ concerns - really touch home. The different ways society values careers is just as problematic in the West as it is in China. And the dichotomy between his math, science & technical genius against her obvious emotional / social genius plays out quickly as she starts to manipulate him into helping her.
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She not only orchestrates the loss of her own pregnancy, but then poisons her husband? How is this supposed to help her positioning in the palace? And can we at least get a hint was to who the mastermind is behind her?
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It starts off with the aftermath of Cui Jun Bai and Bu Shu Lin spending a night together, drunk at the nightclub. He wants to go further but she rejects him. This seems realistic because she has spent her whole life playing this particular role and her very life depends on sticking to it at all times so it's not surprising that she pushes him away for both their own good. Unfortunately, bad folks (2nd Prince and the younger Gu sister) have started to figure out Bu's secret and plot to use it with a nasty honey trap plot. The good guys foil it but there are sad consequences. Xi He finally has had enough and draws a stark, cold line in the sand in front of Gu Qing Shu, but it's not clear if the latter is smart enough to understand and stay in her lane. And finally, Xi He starts to finally melt and show softness and concern towards Hua Yong.
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It's such a tired, over-used plot device where C-Dramas spend all this screen time giving us the maudlin, sad sob-story history behind some psychopathic unrequited love interest, as if to make us feel sorry for him (or her). I absolutely hate this trope because it is so disingenuous. In almost every case whatever trauma they have endured is nothing compared to that which millions of others have endured and yet THEY didn't turn into obsessed psychopaths. So it completely fails as an excuse for their behavior. And even in the (rare) c-drama cases where the character goes through redemption and turns into someone who isn't a villain and maybe even helpful, it's just not that interesting because we _know_ that this character is NOT going to end up with the lead and so it all feels like a giant waste of screen time. Love triangles in general are almost always nothing but a plot drag. All that said, Jeremy Xu is doing a masterful job of playing a creep. He's being so good at this role in this show that I think I need to go watch one of his dramas again where he played a sincerely good guy just to wash this icky feeling away. Time to rewatch Legend of the Phoenix.
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Man did his presence just drop a load of fun into the show! Really love his protective attitude. And the interactions between he and Hua Yong as dad sizes up his prospective son-in-law skeptically are just golden! On the subject of fathers, this episode also gives strong hints that maybe things aren't as we were first told with respect to Hua Yong's father.
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Most of the basic exposition is in place and as far as the romance storyline, we are set with the basic conflict as follows: Shen Xi He is (understandably) emotionally guarded to the extreme due to her traumatic experiences. In her past life she watched her family get caught up in evil palace politics to the point where even though she sacrificed herself to loveless forced marriage to the psycho 5th Prince, still watched them all get slaughtered and then only managed to get revenge on the Fan family (but not her husband) by committing suicide. And then she came back to life in the body of a girl, Shen Xi Hi, who had just been murdered! So she is understandably very reserved and cautious and has sworn off getting remotely close to fooled by love or married to someone who could do to her family what 5th Prince did. Fine. So this is the wall that the already love-struck Xiao Hua Yong has to overcome. So what has to happen is Xi He has to eventually heal enough from her trauma to be able to open up emotionally again. We still have 21 episodes to go so I think it may take a while. Oh, and we need a cure for Hua Yong's poison while we are at it. That also probably won't happen right away.
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We get Xi He trapped in a fire by assassins (who weren't actually after her!) and rescued by The Boy Idiot, Prince Lie. We get a steamy yet also frosty interacting between Hua Yong and Xi He. We get a tense face off between Hua Yong and the two Rong Princes. Then we get a whole SML & SFL side quest started as Bu Shu Lin and Cui Jin Bai both go on undercover missions on the same case. And their convergence naturally brings Xi He and Hua Yong into convergence as well. The only dumb glitch in the episode is the bizarre leap to conclusion that 5th Prince makes that ML & FL are having relationship issues. That extreme jump to a conclusion is almost as bad as the earlier one he made about his dead wife coming back to life as Xi He. Regardless of whether he's "correct", there is just no way he should be making these conclusions. It's absolute plot contrived silliness.
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Any experienced c-drama watcher would expect a downturn about now and the writers have delivered, with finally revealing to Xi He that Hua Yong is the "Tagara Incense". Given her past life experience of being forced into a loveless marriage to a man that ultimately wiped out her whole family, her subsequent suicide and then being reborn as a woman who was just murdered due to court schemes, she just does not want a part of any marriage where she is the weaker party. Plus she's probably a bit angry at being deceived. However, one has to hope that she will ultimately come to the realization that even though CP's capabilities are far more terrifying than she had realized, he is still her safest bet. Might take an episode or two. Or three. Hopefully not too many.
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