Tang Xue prepares for the singing competition with the help of Yu Bing and Yu Yan, but it’s going to be an uphill battle because she cannot sing in tune and Zhou Ran will be her competition.
Recap
Jian Guo shows off his dance moves to Zhou Ran, but she gets a text and tells him that another student, Yang Li Ping, has already agreed to be her dance partner. She hurries off.
Liu Ying was eavesdropping from behind a column. When Zhou Ran is gone, she scurries over to Jian Guo and tells him that Zhou Ran doesn’t like him very much. She’s just using him because he’s friends with Yu Bing. But Jian Guo doesn’t see anything wrong with that. Being used means he has value.
Huan Huan and Zhen Yu worry about whether Tang Xue will be able to win the competition instead of studying. Liu Ying analyzes the situation and says that her biggest competitor will probably be Zhou Ran. Zhou Ran is an average singer, but still better than Tang Xue. Plus, she has Yang Li Ping on her side. In the end, Liu Ying determines that the biggest deciding factor will be fate.
Tang Xue spies on Zhou Ran practicing her dance routine with a squad of classmates. Zhou Ran spots her, and Tang Xue is forced to paste on a smile and act casual. Zhou Ran manages to insult her a couple of times, all with a smile on her face, but Tang Xue keeps her cool and instead casually brags about how Yu Bing insisted on helping her.
Tang Xue is painfully bad, both off-key and off-tempo, during her practice session with Yu Yan and Yu Bing. Yu Bing tries to ignore her until he can’t anymore. He criticizes her singing, which she doesn’t take very well. She says she’ll start calling him “Ice Dog” now. She turns to Yu Yan, who diplomatically says that what’s important is she believe in herself.
They try again, but Yu Bing soon gets jealous when he sees how Yu Yan and Tang Xue are smiling at each other and having a good time, and purposely plays wrong notes, making them stop. But when Tang Xue starts teasing Yu Yan, he gets jealous again and makes them rehearse again.
The day of the competition, Tang Xue gets dressed up and wears makeup. Yu Yan beams when he sees her and openly compliments her on how pretty she looks. Yu Bing says nothing but smiles at her.
Zhen Yu, Huan Huan, and Liu Ying find seats in the audience. Liu Ying ends up sitting next to Jian Guo, and neither seem happy about it. They bicker before the show starts. Jian Guo’s words sound familiar and Liu Ying has a fleeting suspicion that he’s the person she’s been talking to online, but she doesn’t like that, so she just argues with him even more.
Bian Cheng shows up and sits behind them. He greets Zhen Yu, who teases him about Zhou Ran. Bian Cheng says he’s not there for Zhou Ran. Zhen Yu frowns, hoping he’s not going to mess with Tang Xue again. Yu Bing is never going to have a chance with Yu Yan and Bian Cheng in the mix. Zhen Yu is determined to do something about Bian Cheng.
Huan Huan brings cotton balls for everyone so they can plug their ears when it’s Tang Xue’s turn.
Backstage, Tang Xue starts to get a little intimidated hearing the other performers. Zhou Ran notices and tries to throw her off by reminding her to not get nervous, otherwise she’ll start singing out of tune. Tang Xue doesn’t even have to respond, because Yu Bing backs her up.
Liu Ying and Jian Guo both sway to the performance of one singer and accidentally bump heads. They quickly jump away from each other.
Zhou Ran calls Yang Li Ping, asking where he is. He says he and his dancers can’t make it anymore. She’s forced to go on stage alone. But she rocks her performance and even Zhen Yu is forced to admit that Tang Xue has already lost.
Tang Xue looks terrified as she takes the stage, but when the music starts, she sings hesitantly but on-key. Her singing only gets stronger as the song goes on and Yu Bing joins her to harmonize at certain points. Liu Ying removes her ear plugs and motions to Huan Huan and Zhen Yu that it’s safe to listen. The crowd loves their performance.
Jian Guo waits for Zhou Ran to leave backstage and invites her to dinner. She tries to make excuses, saying she has her class reunion, but he’s persistent. Bian Cheng shows up and saves her.
Zhou Ran warns Bian Cheng that he’ll have to step up his game if he wants to pursue Tang Xue. Bian Cheng isn’t concerned about Yu Yan, recognizing that Tang Xue treats him like a kid. But Yu Bing, on the other hand, might be a challenge. Still, he’s confident in himself. No one can stand in the way of his goals.
Zhen Yu, Huan Huan, and Liu Ying heap praise on Tang Xue as she exits backstage. They never knew she could sing so well. She and Yu Bing exchange a secret smile. Her sudden singing skills are the product of Yu Bing painstakingly teaching her how to sing in tune, note by note.
Tang Xue thanks Yu Bing and Yu Yan for their help. Yu Yan responds that he should thank her, because she gave him another first in his life. Tang Xue struggles to zip up her hoodie and Yu Yan helps her. Yu Bing gets jealous so he suddenly covers her head with his jacket.
Tang Xue spins away angrily, but then freezes and suddenly helps Yu Bing put his jacket on, uncharacteristically attentive. She pastes on a smile and asks Yu Bing to help her, then clings onto his arm as Zhou Ran descends the stairs toward them.
They trade their usual false niceties that are thinly-veiled insults, then Zhou Ran brings up the class reunion. Bian Cheng will be there. Tang Xue’s face suddenly falls and her hands drop away from Yu Bing’s arm.
At dinner, Bian Cheng and Tang Xue are seated next to each other. Zhou Ran tries to set up multiple opportunities to push the two of them together, and Bian Cheng is extremely attentive toward Tang Xue. The classmates start trading stories about what Tang Xue was like in high school. Zhou Ran mentions how Tang Xue was always soft around Bian Cheng, and the classmates ooh. Tang Xue tries to change the topic and instead starts teasing and threatening her classmates with all the gossipy stories she has on them.
Zhen Yu livestreams the reunion to Yu Bing, who watches from his room. To Yu Bing, the conversation is just a reminder that there’s so much to Tang Xue that he has missed out on. He stares at the necklace he bought for her as he remembers how, back when he was picking middle schools, he intentionally picked a different school from Tang Xue.
At the end of the night, Tang Xue is left to find her own way home after Zhen Yu gets called away by Huan Huan. Bian Cheng offers to drive her back to campus, but she tries to dawdle for as long as possible, looking for an excuse not to be alone with him.
Yu Bing suddenly comes riding up on a bicycle. He stares down Bian Cheng, then tells Tang Xue that Coach Chu is looking for her. Tang Xue eagerly hops on his bike and he zooms off, forcing her to wrap her arms around him to avoid falling.
Zhou Ran comes out of the restaurant and frowns as she sees them ride off. Bian Cheng says that they will have to try a little harder in this battle, but he thinks they can both win. Zhou Ran is already Yu Bing’s girlfriend according to the campus rumor mill. It shouldn’t be too hard to make herself his real girlfriend.
When Tang Xue and Yu Bing get back to campus, she admits that seeing Bian Cheng reminded her of the girl she used to be and made her feel foolish. He tells her that she’s not foolish, she’s just — and they’re interrupted by her grumbling stomach. He’s prepared and pulls a snack pack out of his pocket.
Tang Xue teases Yu Bing as they walk toward her dorm, saying that his life must have been very boring without her these past six years. It’s a shame his parents divorced so that he had to go to a different school. Yu Bing starts to tell her the truth, but she gets distracted by the smell of rotten eggs. She wanders off to find the source of the smell and toss it in the trash, and they go off on a tangent about how they used to play house with an egg.
Yu Bing asks what happened to that egg. Tang Xue says that Zhou Ran lied and said chicks aren’t strong enough to break out of their shells, and tricked Tang Xue into smashing the egg. Since that day, Tang Xue has detested Zhou Ran, because she hates people who lie to her. Yu Bing suddenly decides that maybe it’s not such a good idea to tell her the truth. What if she hates him for lying to her?
He runs into Jian Guo outside his dorm and asks him for some advice: has he ever confessed to someone? Jian Guo asks him to describe his situation. Yu Bing tries to claim he’s asking for a friend who lied to a girl when he was young, but now his friend likes that girl. The girl hates people who lie. He wants to tell her the truth, but is afraid she won’t forgive him. Does he just keep the lie a secret?
Jian Guo says that hiding the lie isn’t a good choice, but timing is important when telling the truth. If the girl views him as a friend, she’ll probably forgive him. Then he recites some flowery quotes on love, making Yu Bing skeptical that he actually knows anything.
Once Jian Guo leaves, insulted that Yu Bing doesn’t treat his advice seriously, Yu Bing pulls out the jewelry box with the necklace. He stares at it and wonders what to do.
This episode was so cute! I love how Yu Bing is really stepping up his game, perhaps feeling the pressure from so many of Tang Xue’s other admirers. He doesn’t say much with his words, but all of his actions are so supportive. The best part by far is how he coached Tang Xue into singing the song in tune. Most of his other actions seem to be a direct response to feeling jealous or threatened by Yu Yan or Bian Cheng, but teaching her how to sing? That’s 100% for her.
I really hope we see more of what drama Zhou Ran and Bian Cheng try to spin up, because they seem so ineffective and all it’ll do is push Yu Bing and Tang Xue closer together!
The Drama Llama 