Yu Bing learns how to be a better teammate and accept help from others. Tang Xue tries to find a way to get the remaining credits she needs in order to graduate and decides to participate in a singing competition. Zhou Ran starts making moves to get closer to Yu Bing.
Recap
Yu Bing is surprised to find Coach Xu waiting for him on a staircase in the sports arena where the national youth team trains. Coach Xu noticed how Yu Bing struggled to work together with the team and has come personally to help coach him. He’s analyzed all of Yu Bing’s teammates and gives him advice on how to best play with everyone else on the team.
Before he leaves, Coach Xu gives Yu Bing some presents: a box from Yue Wei, and an envelope from Tang Xue.
Yu Bing opens Yue Wei’s box first. Inside is a figurine that looks a lot like her, complete with a speed skating suit, and a note that says, “I will always be by your side.”
Yu Bing opens Tang Xue’s envelope to find the photo of them in elementary school, holding a first place award together. Back then, Tang Xue and Yu Bing had been assigned to participate in a bulletin board design competition together. Yu Bing wanted to work on his own, and Tang Xue let him, but eventually he admitted that he didn’t have any good ideas. Tang Xue came up with idea of using recycled items, and the creative design caught the judges’ eye. They won.
Now Yu Bing smiles and flips to look at the back of the photo, where Tang Xue has written, “Still up to your old habits!”
Yu Bing gets a phone call: it’s Tang Xue. He thanks her for the photo and they chat. She threatens to smack his dog head if he doesn’t figure it out and keeps trying to play hero, then shares that her times have improved drastically. She’s less than a half second away from the time she needs to hit, and even Couch Chu has praised her for her quick improvement.
Tang Xue asks Yu Bing to show her the snow. They switch to a video call and he runs out into the cold and spins around. They beam at each other through their phones. Yu Bing suddenly grows serious and starts to say something to Tang Xue, but then his phone dies.
Yu Bing runs into Song An Jie in the locker room. He decides to take responsibility for messing up at the game. To his surprise, Song An Jie invites him to sit down to chat and drink a beer. An Jie tells Yu Bing that he’s a very talented player and will definitely have a place on the national team one day. An Jie was like him once upon a time, wanting to show off and be recognized as a star. But right now, the most important thing is for the team to win. Yu Bing decides to refuse the drink, because they’re in training and he wants to wait until they are both officially on the national team.
Tang Xue signs up for a farm practical class with Huan Huan. The class involves catching pigs and injecting them. The hard part appears to be the catching. Tang Xue struggles and Hawkeye even makes a mocking comment about how she seems to be pretty slow for someone on the speed skating team.
When Tang Xue finally catches a pig, she struggles to get it under control and yells for Huan Huan to help. Huan Huan comes over and holds the pig down while handing the syringe to Tang Xue. Tang Xue closes her eyes and plunges the syringe down — only to stab Huan Huan in the arm.
Back in their dorm room, Tang Xue helps Huan Huan put some medicine on her arm while complaining about difficult it is to the extra credits she needs in order to graduate. They overhear Liu Ying singing, and Huan Huan has an idea. There’s an upcoming singing competition on campus. Participating is worth one credit. Winning is another credit. Tang Xue is immediately interested, but when she starts singing, Huan Huan encourages her to try something else. It’s too late — Tang Xue has made up her mind.
The national youth team plays another match. Song An Jie gives Yu Bing a word of encouragement while they’re in the locker room. As they walk out, Yu Bing reminds himself to trust himself and trust his teammates.
Yu Bing has the puck again in the final seconds of a tied game. He faces off against the goalie, then at the last moment passes Song An Jie, who has a wide open shot. They win.
This time, Yu Bing is included by his teammates after the game. They compliment him on his performance, then ooh when Zhou Ran suddenly appears with flowers for Yu Bing.
Yu Bing pulls Zhou Ran out of sight of the team, then politely rejects the flowers, saying he’s busy and that carrying a bouquet around would be inconvenient. She asks to at least take a selfie with him, and he obliges. Then she tries to guilt trip him into hanging out with her, or at least sending her back to her hotel, if it’s not too much of a bother. He responds that it would be a bother, he’s quite busy, and walks away.
Zhou Ran frowns after him, but then smiles, confident that she can make him hers.
Bian Cheng sees Zhou Ran’s social media post and selfie with Yu Bing and realizes that she has an ulterior motive for wanting to help him with Tang Xue. He calls up an old classmate, Wang Feng, and suggests that they hold a high school reunion at Lin Da.
Zhou Ran’s post about Yu Bing sparks rumors that she’s his girlfriend, which spread like wildfire across campus. Tang Xue doesn’t look happy about it, but tells Huan Huan that they’re clearly perfect for each other.
At night, Liu Ying and Jian Guo message each other using their online aliases.
Yu Bing’s time on the national youth team comes to an end. He says goodbye to Coach Wang, who praises him on changing himself. He looks forward to seeing Yu Bing on the team again next year.
Yu Bing strolls in the stands at the empty rink, where Song An Jie finds him. An Jie also looks forward to competing with Yu Bing again next year, while Yu Bing looks forward to finally being able to drink that beer together. An Jie asks when Yu Bing is heading back to Lincheng with his girlfriend. Yu Bing says that Zhou Ran isn’t his girlfriend. There’s someone else, and she’s even better.
Tang Xue stuffs her face after practice while Huan Huan and Zhen Yu stare at her. It’s the first time they’ve all eaten together in a long time, and Huan Huan and Zhen Yu have been feeling abandoned by her, but it’s short-lived. Zhen Yu asks if Tang Xue is going to their high school reunion –she says yes — then she gets a text and says she has to go. Zhen Yu and Huan Huan also head out, saying that they’re “going home” (their animal rescue home.) Tang Xue is now the one who feels abandoned by them and the fact that they have a “home” together.
Tang Xue rolls her eyes as she scrolls through Zhou Ran’s post about Yu Bing, then decides to practice her singing instead. It’s pretty bad. Huan Huan and Liu Ying hear her from outside their room, then decide to go for a walk instead of having to listen to her practice.
Yu Yan stares at his doll while brooding more over Tang Xue and how much she seems to care for Yu Bing. He gets a text from Huan Huan, asking if he’s willing to help Tang Xue in the upcoming singing competition. Maybe he could perform with her?
Huan Huan encourages Yu Yan and Tang Xue to perform together, while Zhen Yu tries to discourage the partnership by suggesting that maybe Yu Yan will be too busy training. But Huan Huan silences Zhen Yu by stepping on his foot, and instead, he sneakily texts Yu Bing.
Yu Bing is jewelry shopping for a necklace when he gets the text from Zhen Yu, telling him that Tang Xue is participating in the singing competition with Yu Yan. Zhen Yu invites Yu Bing to participate.
Da Jiang and Yue Wei go to the airport to pick up Yu Bing. Yu Bing pulls Yue Wei’s figurine out of his box, claiming that her support got him through. In the process, a jewelry box falls out of his bag. Da Jiang notices the figurine with a bit of jealousy.
Yue Wei picks up the box, hoping that it’s a return gift from Yu Bing, but he hastily takes it from her. Da Jiang snatches it out of his hands and opens the box, asking if Yu Bing got it for him. When he sees that it’s a necklace, he asks if it’s for Yue Wei. Yu Bing quickly closes the box and takes it back, saying it’s not the kind of thing one would give to a brother. Yue Wei frowns, which Da Jiang notices. When she asks which girl Yu Bing is giving the necklace to, he doesn’t respond and instead starts heading off.
Yue Wei and Da Jiang try to invite Yu Bing out to eat, but he takes a rain check, saying he has something he needs to do.
When Yu Bing gets back to his room, he sends a voice text asking, “Where are you?” He soon gets a response from Zhen Yu. They’re in the middle of practice.
Yu Bing acts like it’s a casual coincidence when he finds them in the practice room. Zhen Yu welcomes him in. Yu Yan doesn’t look happy to see him.
Yu Bing asks Yu Yan if he’s heard Tang Xue sing, surprised he’s willing to perform with her. Yu Yan responds that he’s heard her singing and that’s why he agreed to perform with her. (LOL.)
Huan Huan tries to get Yu Bing to leave, saying they’re busy, but Zhen Yu claims that they could use Yu Bing’s help, giving a pretty speech about how the three of them — Yu Bing, Yu Yan, and Tang Xue — would perfectly represent all the ice sports and balance one another out. Yu Bing also has a pretty useful skill. He can play piano.
Tang Xue smiles as she remembers eavesdropping on him practicing one day after school as a child.
Yu Bing tells Tang Xue that he’s helping her because she helped him when he was in Harbin. Yu Yan frowns.
Da Jiang takes out his frustration on a punching bag while jealously reflecting on all the ways that Yue Wei has so clearly shown her preference for Yu Bing. Next to him, Yue Wei is also angrily beating up a punching bag.
Da Jiang asks if she’s okay. She sighs and seems to be holding back tears as she asks Da Jiang what she should do if she likes someone who doesn’t like her back. Da Jiang says that he would silently protect the person he liked. But that just makes Yue Wei more frustrated, that she’s spending so much effort on someone who won’t even like her back.
Zhou Ran asks Jian Guo to meet up. He eagerly waits for her, but then is disappointed to hear that she’s only there to ask for a favor: she wants his help in asking Yu Bing to participate in the singing competition with her.
Jian Guo says that she’s too late: Yu Bing has already agreed to help Tang Xue. But Jian Guo can perform with Zhou Ran. He shows off his dancing skills. Zhou Ran holds back a laugh.
Yu Bing is so savage. I actually laughed out loud when he shot down Zhou Ran so casually after his hockey game. He’s never actually rude, but he’s excellent at shutting people down and leaving them miffed. Zhou Ran loves to beat around the bush with her words and tries to incept ideas into other people’s minds, but Yu Bing sees right through it.
Zhou Ran is clearly getting the “villainous” set-up of the romantic rival who tries to sabotage and undermine, but I find her so ineffective that she’s just minor entertainment instead of a real annoyance or an actual villain.
This episode mostly felt like it was setting the stage for some fun rivalries between Yu Yan-Yu Bing and Bian Cheng-Yu Bing what with the singing competition and upcoming reunion.
The Drama Llama 