Xiao Xi’s boss happily reports that the cartoon she submitted won a competition. But there’s no prize money, so she doesn’t care. He says that they should get hot pot for dinner to celebrate. They run into Jiang Chen downstairs and he gets invited along as well.
Bo Song calls Xiao Xi’s boss at dinner because he can’t reach Xiao Xi’s phone. He invites Xiao Xi out to get dinner. Xiao Xi heads out early and Jiang Chen follows, waiting with her for Bo Song. Bo Song shows up and slides his arm around Xiao Xi’s shoulders, making Jiang Chen glare.
A patient, Mr. Hu, asks Jiang Chen to double check his test results. Jiang Chen notices that he works at a publishing company and asks him to take a look at Xiao Xi’s work. Hu is reluctant to publish an unknown artist, but Jiang Chen asks him to consider it. Jiang Chen says he’s willing to cover the costs if they help her self-publish a manga.
Jiang Chen gets Lu Yang and Jing Xiao to help him coordinate a meeting between Xiao Xi and Hu. But Hu rejects all her story ideas and instead suggests she focus on the school theme.
Xiao Xi decides to use her high school experience and friends as inspiration. She invites everyone over for a reference photo shoot. Jiang Chen shows up wearing his high school uniform and everyone teases him about it. Lu Yang makes Bo Song take his shirt off for his photos because he’s a swimmer and never wears a shirt anyway (lol). They even convince Jiang Chen to act cutesy, which he does very awkwardly. It’s painfully funny.
Bo Song also wants to help Xiao Xi get published. He meets with Hu and his publishing company to publish his own book, which will include photos and some drawings. The publishers tell him to look through a list of artists they work with. Bo Song notices Xiao Xi on that list and asks about her. The company tries to warn him away, saying she’s unproven, but adds that she does have a benefactor who sold his car to pay for publishing a manga of hers. Bo Song guesses that it’s Jiang Chen.
Xiao Xi gets called up to sub in for an actress in a commercial Bo Song is filming. She’s reluctant but is told that she’ll only have to say one line and that her face won’t be shown. In reality, it’s just an elaborate ruse for Bo Song to stage a proposal. He plays the piano for her, then strolls over and asks her to marry him. She says yes, because that’s her line, but then he asks if she really means that, deviating from the script. She looks around and sees the film crew has disappeared.
Xiao Xi doesn’t answer Bo Song, but he already knows the answer. He admits that initially he wanted to give her more time. He wanted them to date and for her to actually like him. But it seems like the return of a certain someone pushed him to act sooner because he knew he couldn’t wait around anymore. Even before he proposed, he knew what her answer would be, but he wanted to try anyway.
Afterward, Bo Song drowns his sorrows by drinking with Lu Yang. They call Jiang Chen out to join them.
By the time Jiang Chen gets there, Lu Yang has already passed out. But Bo Song is still going strong. He asks Jiang Chen if he can just let him have Xiao Xi. Jiang Chen responds, “She was always mine.” Hm.
Bo Song is upset that he’s been the one by Xiao Xi’s side through all her joys and sorrows, yet Jiang Chen is the one she continues to like. Jiang Chen admits that he’s not like them: he doesn’t need to be around people and is okay being just by himself. Or so he thought. He initially found Xiao Xi to be a bit irritating, but soon grew used to having her always follow her around. It wasn’t until she said “no” to seeing him off at the airport and he had to spend three years without her that he realized he couldn’t live without her. He says he’s willing to change whatever she dislikes about him, but he doesn’t have a clue what she liked about him in the first place.
Bo Song flips over his phone, revealing that he was connected to a call with Chen Xiao Xi the whole time. “Chen Xiao Xi, did you hear that?” he asks.
Jiang Chen, Bo Song, and Lu Yang all stumble toward home afterward. Jiang Chen is the least drunk of the three men. Both Bo Song and Lu Yang end up tumbling to the ground and clinging to his legs so he’s trapped. It’s at that moment when Xiao Xi comes walking up.
Jing Xiao takes the incapacitated Lu Yang and Wu Bo Song home, leaving Xiao Xi and Jiang Chen to chat. They sit silently together on a park bench, but don’t really say much to each other. She asks if he really sold his car for her, then says that he doesn’t need to do all that for her. He gets a phone call, and he’s reluctant to answer, but he’s an important doctor and she knows that, so she tells him to pick up.
Xiao Xi stands up and tells Jiang Chen to go take care of his patient. He grabs her hand to prevent her from leaving and buries his face against it, saying he knew he was wrong and asking her to forgive him. She sighs and pats him on the head, but asks him for more time so she can think about it, and walks away.
Jiang Chen goes back to his dark office after a long night of surgery, looking dejected. Then he notices that the light is on in the adjoining patient room. He goes in to find Xiao Xi dozing on the cot. He sits down next to her and smiles to himself.
Poor Wu Bo Song. I guess the one thing I can understand about Xiao Xi and Jiang Chen’s relationship is that there isn’t always a concrete reason for loving someone. You just do. And that can be mystifying to the people involved as well as the people around them, but sometimes there is just no explaining.
This episode was pretty satisfying because Jiang Chen finally spoke more than a few words, and finally acknowledged that he did take Xiao Xi for granted for so long. I hate to be a hater, but even though these scenes are supposed to be so high impact and meaningful, I just don’t think Hu Yi Tian’s performance is complex enough to hold up these scenes. Sure, I guess by now we can see that Jiang Chen is very much supposed to be an introverted, somewhat robotic individual. But that doesn’t mean that his character really has to appear so one-dimensional on screen!
The Drama Llama 