The end of the last episode had some clever editing. This episode, we see that Ah Wei’s confession isn’t quite so dramatic. He makes some silly excuses as to why he is up there to see her, then confesses that he likes Qing. She doesn’t say anything. He says he knows she treats him like family, but he wants more than she thinks. Ting En shows up, and Ah Wei quickly says some stuff about how Ting En’s La Mure experience will make him super helpful at Qing’s new restaurant. If she ever needs help with random chores like the dishes, she can call on him. He holds it together until he gets to the stairwell, where he breaks down.
The next morning, Ting En continues to press the marriage matter. He takes Qing’s flowers, chocolates, and gifts to heart but gets a little creative. He makes her some flowers out of food, which makes her smile.
Tian Zhi goes over to Ru Xi’s place but hesitates over whether he should ring up or not. She spots him and goes down to meet him. She tells him to go home, but first asks why he’s been following her for the past few days. She runs through a list of possible reasons and he denies them all. But she’s curious as to what he would do if she were actually pregnant. He says that he’d marry her.
She thinks he takes marriage too lightly. He was just about to marry Yu Qing not long ago, and now he’s quick to say he’d marry her? Is he so willing to go along with his mother’s plans? He must know that his mother and her father have been trying to push them together. But Tian Zhi gives a pretty speech about how his feelings for her are real, but if he’s making life difficult for her, he promises not to bother her anymore. She watches him go and mutters, “I never said you couldn’t chase me.”
The next day, Grandma Huo finds Tian Zhi fretting over the company financials. She surprises him by asking what he plans on doing about his mother. She knows all about the embezzlement. Tian Zhi apologizes, but Grandma says he isn’t the one who needs to apologize. She understands that he’s trying to take sole responsibility for everything and that’s why he kicked Ting En out. But the burden isn’t his to carry alone.
She asks him what solutions he’s thought of for getting Yanisi out of this mess. He explains that his mother bought a piece of land a few years ago, and its value has increased. He plans on using it as collateral for a loan. But Grandma thinks that a loan won’t be enough money — won’t it be more valuable to sell it? He shows her some documents revealing that they can’t sell the land because of its location (we don’t know where, but it’s significant to them), and it was originally purchased using a mortgage, so if they can’t sell it, then the loan won’t even cover the cost of the land. She frowns and mutters to herself as she leaves. It seems like the situation is worse than she expected.
Yu Qing shows up next. Tian Zhi doesn’t look happy to see her, especially when she asks him to take her back, saying that she’s realized she actually does love him. He tells her that’s not possible, but asks to walk her out anyway because he’s a gentleman like that.
Ru Xi waits around for Tian Zhi at her studio, but he doesn’t show. She goes to look for him at his office, and shows up just in time to see him walking Yu Qing out. She assumes he’s gotten back together with Yu Qing, and that’s why he didn’t follow her today.
Xiao Bin and Ting En meet up at a bar, where Xiao Bin tries out some disgustingly cheesy pick-up lines on a woman who seems to love it, and Ting En seems unamused. The main purpose of their meeting is for Xiao Bin to report what he’s learned about Yanisi’s situation. It’s not good. In fact, it’s much worse than what either of them initially thought. The company has been trying to sell stock like crazy because if it doesn’t, it’ll go bankrupt.
Xiao Bin can tell that Ting En wants to save the company, but he warns him not to. He’s finally free of Yanisi, and Xiao Bin says he should enjoy that freedom and live happily with Fen Qing. If he really cared that much about Yanisi, he should’ve married Ru Xi when he had the chance. That gives Ting En an idea.
Ru Xi finds out that Tian Zhi agreed to a business marriage with her and confronts him about it. Is the situation really so bad that his mother would agree to give her father Yanisi stock in exchange for her hand in marriage? Is Yu Qing’s family wealth not enough? Tian Zhi says that he already cut off all connections with Yu Qing yesterday, which seems to appease Ru Xi, and admits that Yanisi is in big trouble. But Ru Xi is still angry that she’s only a pawn for business purposes, and that he’s only marrying her because of her father. She says that she might as well go marry Ting En now, because it doesn’t matter who she marries as long as he’s part of the Huo family.
Ting En schedules a meeting with Ru Xi. It sounds super sketchy, with talk about hotel rooms and showering right where Qing, Ah Wei, and Xiao Bin can hear. Qing glares daggers while Ah Wei interprets it as Ting En cheating on Qing… with his sister no less, and rushes out after him. Tian Zhi follows Ru Xi to the meeting.
But the meeting is purely platonic: Ru Xi connects Ting En with Mr. Su, a wealthy restauranteur. Su is willing to invest in Yanisi and make it a part of his restaurant group, but his main interest is in Ting En. It’d be even better if Ting En left Yanisi and La Mure completely and joined his restaurant group instead. He’s eager to open up a restaurant even bigger and better than La Mure with Ting En. Su steps out to take a call.
Ru Xi tells Ting En that he doesn’t have to accept Su’s investment, but he’s willing to consider it if that means helping Yanisi. She says that there are other options, like her father, but they would have to get married. Ting En starts to respond, but Tian Zhi barges in, yelling that Ting En can’t marry Ru Xi. He punches him before dragging Ru Xi out, passing by Ah Wei. Ah Wei looks ready to punch Ting En too, and goes through his usual spiel about not hurting Qing. Ting En starts to explain why he’s there, but is interrupted by Su coming out of the side room. Ting En and Ah Wei leave awkwardly.
Tian Zhi has to stop dragging Ru Xi by the hand because it hurts too much from punching Ting En. He admits that he only did it because the heroes always do that in idol dramas for the women they love, but he didn’t realize it would hurt so much. Ru Xi chastises him for hitting Ting En, but gently takes him by the hand and leads him away, saying that she’ll put some medicine on for him. He smiles like a young boy. Oh Tian Zhi, he’s so simple sometimes.
Ting En goes to the Huo family’s condo complex and stares up at the building thoughtfully. The Huos are in need, and he thinks it’s time that he step up and do something about it. But before he can do so, he makes a series of phone calls. First, he calls Mr. Su to reject his investment offer. His next phone call he struggles over a bit more, but eventually he calls Qing to say he has something to discuss.
Qing acts chilly toward him, suspicious about his meeting with Ru Xi. When he tells her he’s going to move out, she thinks it’s because of Ru Xi. He calls out how ridiculous that idea is: if he wanted to have something Ru Xi, he could’ve done so long ago, before he and Qing even got together. She tells him that she overheard his conversation with Ru Xi, but he laughs and says he was meeting a business client.
Qing asks if he has to go back to the Huos, and he says he does. He’s going back to help Tian Zhi, because they’re family. She nods and says that he should go back. Her mom once told her that men who put love first are unreliable, because there too many equally important things in the world. Qing thinks Ting En is very reliable, so he should go back and help his family. He looks at her, then smiles and buries his face. Perhaps he didn’t expect her to be so supportive and thought this would be a more difficult conversation than it was. He asks if they have to go back home tonight. Can’t they spend the night elsewhere? He points to some building off-camera (probably a love hotel?) “I heard it’s pretty fun,” he says. Too cute!!
Ting En goes to talk to Tian Zhi, asking when he planned on telling him everything, or if even planned to at all after kicking him out. He asks when he knew that Yanisi was in financial trouble. Tian Zhi admits that he found out about six months ago, after seeing one of his mother’s emails. On Yu Qing’s suggestion, she bought some land using company money. Now all of Yanisi’s money is tied up in the land.
Ting En asks Tian Zhi why he kicked him out. Tian Zhi says that he did it because they were brothers and because it was his own mother’s fault. He wanted to be able to do something for Ting En, for Yanisi, for their family. He wanted to be able to take some responsibility and take responsibility for himself. Ting En says that he will always be his brother, and he never should have left Tian Zhi alone. He knows that Tian Zhi is a kind soul and that’s why he did this, and because he’s his brother, he will come back and help him. But Tian Zhi shakes his head adamantly and tells Ting En that he can’t come back.
Awww, I usually don’t feel the more dramatic, tear-filled moments of this show, but this moment between Tian Zhi and Ting En really touched me. Tian Zhi is just so pure and it’s so validating to get confirmation that he really is that selfless.
Yu-jie scrambles up to Qing’s apartment where the rest of the night market crew is hanging and reports that the night market is in trouble. Just now, some men came to tear down the night market so they could replace it with a building. The men were from Yanisi.
At the same time, Ting En finds out from Tian Zhi that the reason he can’t come back is that the only way of saving Yanisi is to utilize the land his mom bought. And that land is where Qing’s night market is.
🙃
The night market crew is quick to vilify Ting En, saying there’s no way he couldn’t have known about this. His departure earlier was also timed too well to be a coincidence. Qing is stunned and runs out to go find Ting En. Her mother worries what will happen to them if she can’t convince Ting En to save the night market.
Qing barges into Tian Zhi’s office and asks about the land. Despite her initial excitement, they have a very civil conversation. Ting En explains that the only way for him to protect his family is to sell the land. Qing says that the night market is her family and she needs to protect them too. They each have to protect their own. Ting En is obviously uncomfortable with this, but Qing repeats what she said earlier about men who only need love being unreliable. She would respect him less if he were the kind of person to throw aside his family for love. They reach a tense, but mutually respectful understanding that neither is intentionally trying to hurt the other with their future actions, but that they have to put their own families first.
Ahhhh! The drama! But also, I respect so much how they were able to see each other as equals and talk to each other as equals! I’m sure that there is more conflict to be had — a storm is brewing and a war is coming — but they really handled that like real adults.
Qing leads a series of protests outside Yanisi’s corporate offices while Ting En tries to find alternate solutions. But even if Yanisi sells all the assets they can, including La Mure, it won’t even cover a third of their debt. He pauses his work for a moment to go downstairs and check on the protests. Qing seems to lose steam when she hears her friends badmouthing Ting En and when she spots him at the door of the Yanisi office building. But he turns and leaves and she picks her chant back up.
At night, the protesters continue to sit in front of Yanisi. Nai Nai and Zhen Zhen come bearing food from some mysterious benefactor. Qing recognizes the currywurst from her night cooking with Ting En and knows that he was the one who made the food. One quote in particular sticks out from that night: Ting En told her that when fate hands you a dilemma, it’s not the dilemma itself that’s difficult, it’s making a choice. She looks up at Yanisi and silently sends positive thoughts toward Ting En, trusting he will find a solution.
Ting En and Tian Zhi seem to have exhausted all their options. Tian Zhi gets a call from the construction company interested in buying their land. They want to go under contract as soon as possible. He asks Ting En if this is really what he wants to do. Ting En repeats the same quote Qing was thinking of. He tells Tian Zhi that he’s been waiting to hear back from a friend, but at this point it seems unlikely that he’ll get a response in time. He says that Tian Zhi should go take care of the contract. There’s no point in waiting.
Outside, Qing paces and wonders if there’s something else they can do. They can protest all they want, but it’s unlikely to yield actual change. Ah Wei agrees that there’s little they can do but protest, unless… they can get Yanisi to hold an emergency shareholders’ meeting and reverse the decision. But the only way they can do that is if one of them is a shareholder. Qing realizes that she does own Yanisi stock.
There were multiple points this episode where I was worried that this would be the moment all goes to hell and our characters start going crazy. But that didn’t happen! Sure, there are all sorts of crazy drama happening, but everyone involved has been acting so mature and rational that it makes my heart rest a little easier. Ting En and Qing continue to be so reasonable and supportive of each other, despite being on opposite sides of this conflict.
The Drama Llama 