Yu Bing uses the hockey game to make a very public display of affection for Tang Xue. Yu Yan returns to campus, but struggles physically and mentally with his skating after his disastrous competition and after finding out that Yu Bing and Tang Xue are dating.
Recap
The hockey teams take to the ice. Everyone immediately notices the pink-colored tape wrapped around Yu Bing’s hockey stick. He skates over to the boards and makes a big show of pointing his stick straight at where Tang Xue is sitting. The camera zooms in on her face. When she notices, she hides her face.
Yu Bing boldly shouts to Tang Xue to remember their promise. He will win. The crowd goes wild. Tang Xue stands up and yells back, “You’re my champion!”
Yu Bing’s teammates, and even Song An Jie, all grin. Even Yue Wei half-smiles at this cheesy display of affection. Zhou Ran is the only one who seems disgruntled.
When Yu Bing and Song An Jie face off at center ice, Song An Jie nods toward Tang Xue and says, “It’s her, right?” (Referring to their last conversation about the special person in Yu Bing’s life.) Yu Bing just smiles in response.
The XDragons win the game with a flashy game-winning score from Yu Bing. Yu Bing skates over and stares at Tang Xue in the stands. Tang Xue is so overcome with emotion that she rushes out of the stands down toward the ice. Yu Bing meets her and picks her up onto the ice. As he carries her toward the center of the rink, the lights turn off, the rest of the players clear out, and a spotlight shines down on them.
Tang Xue seems embarrassed to be at center ice with everyone staring at them, but Yu Bing is unashamed. He grabs Tang Xue and pulls her into the “Victory Kiss” in front of everyone. The crowd cheers. Manager Ma looks like he wishes this would all just go away.
Yu Yan is back on campus, sitting in the dark in his room. He watches the video of Tang Xue cheering for Yu Bing and looks defeated. He lost his competition and he lost her.
The hockey team and their friends exuberantly party it up after the victory. Jian Guo tries to cozy up to Zhou Ran, who ignores him and beelines toward Yu Bing. He tries to follow, but bumps into Liu Ying, who is pretty drunk and greets him with a hug. He pushes her away, asking why she’s always in his way. She doesn’t… like him, does she? Liu Ying just pinches his cheek, musing that it is pretty thick (implying that he’s thick-skinned, since in Chinese it’s literally “thick face skin”), then balances her beer mug on his head and walks away.
Zhou Ran finds Yu Bing and Tang Xue, and tells Tang Xue some good news and bad news: Yu Yan is back, but he didn’t do well at his last competition. The mention of Yu Yan seems to put both Yu Bing and Tang Xue on edge, but Zhou Ran acts like she doesn’t notice. Tang Xue abruptly leaves, but Yu Bing can’t follow because Zhou Ran keeps talking to him about her club’s interest in covering campus ice sports and how she wants to do an exclusive interview. Yu Bing spots Manager Ma nearby and quickly drags him over, telling Zhou Ran that she can talk about the interview with him. Before she can get another word in, he slips out to follow Tang Xue.
Tang Xue is outside, looking serious as she scrolls through a post describing Yu Yan’s abysmal performance. When Yu Bing finds her and asks what she’s doing, she puts her phone away and instead makes fun of how Zhou Ran talks to him. He hugs her from behind and they joke around for a bit. It works to cheer her up.
Huan Huan and Zhen Yu interrupt them with some chicken wings. Tang Xue follows the chicken wings back to the party, dragging Yu Bing with her. They head back up on stage to sing some more when they get back. Meanwhile, Da Jiang spots Yue Wei sitting by herself at a table on the fringes of the party and hops over to distract her and cheer her up.
Jian Guo ends up sitting down at the same table as Liu Ying, who hugs the book she always carries around. He looks uncomfortable, but she pours half her beer into his empty mug. When she drains her cup, he follows suit.
He asks her why she’s always carrying a book around. She tells him that he wouldn’t understand. As people who are about to enter the real world, they should understand themselves. He clearly doesn’t, otherwise he wouldn’t be so thick-skinned — she pinches his cheek again. Then she shoves the book at him, telling him that she’ll give it to him so he can read it and better understand himself.
Jian Guo looks uncomfortable, but Liu Ying starts chanting encouragements at him to improve himself, and he can’t get a word in.
The president of the XDragons is unhappy that Yu Bing is in a relationship and expresses his displeasure to Manager Ma. He wants Manager Ma to break up Yu Bing and Tang Xue, but Manager Ma is reluctant to do anything about it. He believes Yu Bing and Tang Xue can balance their relationships with their sports careers. The president tells Manager Ma it’ll be his responsibility if anything happens. It turns out Manager Ma is his son.
Manager Ma brings up Yu Yan’s poor performance with Coach Jin. Jin reassures him that Yu Yan will bounce back, and when he does, he wants Manager Ma to make sure the president is there to see it.
Yu Yan strolls through campus while reading comments about Yu Bing’s brilliant performance and Tang Xue’s relationship with him on social media. At practice, he pushes himself hard, but is frowning the whole time. Coach Jin frowns as he watches him. At the end of practice, he tells Yu Yan that he doesn’t need to push himself so hard. At Lin Da, he’s still the top skater, and his mother won’t have time to visit in the near future.
But the mention of Yu Yan’s mother reminds him how she said he was free to date after he became a world champion. Now, he has nothing left but skating. He heads back out onto the ice to practice some more.
He skates around doing some footwork before trying a triple loop, but he falls. He tries to collect himself by the boards as he remembers his disastrous performance in Canada. While he skated, his mind was full of images of Tang Xue and Yu Bing acting in love on the ice with him. In his imagination, he was trapped under the ice, drowning, while Tang Xue and Yu Bing watched him smugly from above.
Tang Xue overhears some figure skaters talking about how hard Yu Yan is pushing himself. She goes to the rink to look for him and spots him breathing hard by the boards.
Tang Xue tries to give Yu Yan some encouragement, saying that all skaters fall, and at least he didn’t get hurt. She shows him a photo of her career-ending injury. He shouldn’t fear failure. He should fear not having the courage to stand back up again.
Yu Bing’s teammates plan on going out to eat, but Yu Bing doesn’t go with them, saying that he has to meet up with Tang Xue later. They tease about his relationship and reenact their kiss on the ice. After they head out, Yu Bing checks his secret Weibo. He doesn’t realize that Da Jiang has stayed behind and is startled when Da Jiang comments on the screen name from over his shoulder. Da Jiang teases him about how he’s a secret romantic, but promises to keep the secret Weibo a secret.
Yu Yan notices Tang Xue’s necklace and comments that it’s pretty. He asks if she’s really with Yu Bing now. She says yes without looking at him.
Yu Yan looks at her, then silently says to himself that there are some things he probably should have said earlier. Tang Xue continues to look away and sighs as she silently says to herself that some things are better left unsaid.
Yu Yan forces a small smile and tells Tang Xue that he wishes them well. She looks relieved as she smiles back, saying that his well wishes mean a lot to her.
Yu Bing finds Tang Xue smiling at Yu Yan in the rink. He frowns. Once the two of them are outside, she teases him about being jealous. He says he just doesn’t like it when she smiles so sweetly at other boys.
Jian Guo approaches Zhou Ran and tells her that he’s been trying to lose weight. He shows her his running route, which traces out an R, for “Ran.” He confesses that he likes her and that’s why he’s trying to lose weight — so they can be better matched. Now that Yu Bing and Tang Xue are together, Yu Bing is off the market, so will she consider him? Zhou Ran looks uncomfortable and says she doesn’t plan on dating anyone, then scurries off.
Jian Guo sighs and sits down to text his internet pen pal, who he doesn’t know is Liu Ying, saying that he was just rejected. She responds that all secret crushes are bound to end in rejection, and rejection is just making way for real love. He asks what real love is. She responds that it’s loving and accepting someone for who they are.
Jian Guo hopes that he will be able to find such love one day. Liu Ying encourages him, saying that all he needs is sincerity. She trusts that he will find his real love and that it’ll be finding him soon.
Tang Xue’s father has taken up baking in his spare time and impresses Mama Tang with his skills. He starts talking about how much Tang Xue would love his bread and wondering how she’s doing. She must be busy with classes. Mama Tang looks conflicted and starts to say something, but he interrupts her.
Papa Tang shows Mama Tang an article on the XDragons hockey team that Bian Cheng wrote. He’s extremely impressed with Bian Cheng’s ability. He goes online to check Bian Cheng’s social media and suddenly frowns when he sees a photo of Tang Xue on the ice, wearing a speed skating uniform.
Papa Tang calls Tang Xue, but she’s working out and doesn’t pick up. He then calls Zhou Ran, asking her to tell him the truth. He already saw the photos. She acts hesitant at first, but then tells him how Tang Xue transferred to the athletics department and has been on the speed skating team since last semester. Moreover, she and Yu Bing are known on campus as the “Ice Lovers.” Zhou Ran says that she doesn’t want to have to tattle on her family in the future; she recommends her uncle check out the university’s social media app, where he can find all this news for himself.
After she hangs up, she smirks slightly and texts Bian Cheng saying that the plan is in motion.
Tang Xue’s father downloads the campus app and sees photos of Tang Xue and Yu Bing’s romantic moments during the hockey game. He looks furious.
Commentary
The first ten minutes of this episode were SO cheesy that I felt embarrassed just watching. And then it was complemented by Yu Yan’s dramatic imaginings of Yu Bing and Tang Xue flaunting their relationship in his face while he drowned beneath the ice. Dramatic, but the reality was pretty ridiculous too.
I continue to have very little respect for Bian Cheng and his methods. He clearly has little respect for Tang Xue and her wishes.
The Drama Llama 