Yu Bing struggles emotionally with the slow pace of his recovery while Tang Xue tries to be supportive. Da Jiang finally gets the professional hockey opportunity he’s always wanted, but it comes at a price.
Recap
Da Jiang continues brooding in his room, where he’s now alone. He remembers the kid who called him “coach” and decides that being a coach wouldn’t be so bad. Then he gets a text from a club hockey team manager inviting him to come interview.
Yu Bing sits alone in his hospital room and contemplates a waste basket on a table. He remembers his accuracy issues before his surgery and decides to start trying to throw tissues into the waste basket. His doctor finds him trying and missing and reminds him that his recovery will take some time. He notices that no one is with Yu Bing. Yu Bing says that he told his parents to go home and rest.
He’s surprised when Tang Xue shows up, ready to spend the night. Yu Bing claims he doesn’t want company, but Tang Xue gives him no choice. The last time she was in a hospital was when she got injured in hospital. Now, Yu Bing will understand how she felt then. At the time, she felt like it was the end of the world, but in retrospect, she feels almost grateful for that time in the hospital. She feels like she came out stronger.
Tang Xue forces Yu Bing to rest early, following doctor’s orders. She insists on watching him fall asleep, ignoring his protests.
Tang Xue drifts off to sleep sitting at Yu Bing’s bedside. When she wakes, she finds that Yu Bing is clinging to her hand. She can’t move, so she falls back asleep. They wake up, still in that position, the next morning.
Da Jiang’s hockey team interview is at a fancy yacht club. He’s surprised when he finds out that it’s President Zhen interviewing him. He takes the opportunity to confront Zhen about his role in Yu Bing’s attack, but Zhen simply responds that he has no evidence.
Zhen wants to recruit Da Jiang onto the Black Scorpions and hands him a contract. Da Jiang says he would never betray Yu Bing, but Zhen points out that he’s not going to get an offer from anyone else, and there are no guarantees that he’ll be able to play with Yu Bing forever. Da Jiang takes the contract to review, but doesn’t look happy about it.
Da Jiang struggles to decide what to do about the contract. He doesn’t want to join a team like the Black Scorpions and knows Yue Wei and Yu Bing would judge him, but playing professional hockey is also his dream and he won’t get another opportunity like this one.
Yue Wei finds him lost in thought and asks what’s on his mind. He asks what she thinks he should do: he has an opportunity, but he knows that she wouldn’t like it. Yue Wei tells him that as long as he knows what he wants and feels confident in his decision, he should go for it.
Da Jiang then asks if she would think him useless if he were to not play professional hockey. Yue Wei responds that as long as he finds something more important and as long as he’s happy, she trusts that he has his reasons.
Da Jiang is worried that he’s too ordinary for her, but Yue Wei tells him that she doesn’t care about what’s ordinary or what’s great. She skates because it makes her happy, not because winning medals makes her extraordinary. Being great doesn’t always translate to being happy.
Yu Bing recovers well from his surgery. He’s raring to go back on the ice and train, but both Tang Xue and the doctor warn him to take it slow. Tang Xue tells Yu Bing that Song An Jie helped his own team to a solid victory against the Black Scorpions to win the hockey tournament and get revenge on Yu Bing’s behalf.
Yu Bing starts trying to do push-ups in bed, afraid he’ll fall behind if he doesn’t get to train. Tang Xue reminds him to take it easy. His phone starts blowing up with encouraging video messages from his teammates telling him that they can’t wait for him to come back. Yu Bing smiles as he watches the videos and thinks to himself that his teammates are the ones who make the XDragons the best in the country.
Tang Xue accompanies Yu Bing as he takes a day trip out of the hospital to visit his team. She gets called in to meet with Coach Chu and Yue Wei while he goes to his team locker room, where Coach Xu is introducing Song An Jie to the team as their new center. The team gives Song An Jie a lukewarm greeting and flocks to Yu Bing when he shows up. There’s an almost-awkward moment Yu Bing spots Song An Jie, but they end up smiling at each other.
Tang Xue and Yue Wei receive their official national team invites from Coach Chu. Tang Xue says to herself that she wants to tell Yu Bing ASAP. But Yu Bing is finding out that Song An Jie will be replacing him as a center. He accepts the situation graciously in front of Manager Ma and Coach Xu, but looks disappointed when they’re not looking.
He runs into Song An Jie outside. There don’t seem to be hard feelings between them and they both anticipate the day when they can play together again.
When Tang Xue spots the two of them, she immediately hides her invite letter. Yu Bing guesses that Coach Chu wanted to give her the official invite, but Tang Xue lies and says that Chu just wanted to praise her on her recent performance.
Da Jiang gets a call from President Zhen, asking to meet. Da Jiang goes there just to reject Zhen and warn him that he knows he was involved in Yu Bing’s attack.
Yu Bing gets discharged from the hospital, but his doctor cautions him to not train for a few months. He also can’t make any promises about Yu Bing being able to return to his old form.
At night, Tang Xue tries to feel out what Yu Bing is thinking when it comes to Song An Jie. He continues to put on a brave face, saying he understands why Song An Jie is there, and tells Tang Xue to head back to campus. Outside his hospital room, she turns to look back at him and sighs, wondering how she should tell him her good news.
Once he’s alone, Yu Bing’s inner child appears and starts vocalizing all of his insecurities and fears about not being able to recover and not being needed on the team anymore. Yu Bing tries to stay brave and reminds himself to think of the bravest person he knows, but he can’t help but break down crying.
Tang Xue continues to brood in her dorm room. Huan Huan asks what’s on her mind. She asks if, given the choice between her dreams and love, what would Huan Huan choose? Huan Huan chooses her dream, because then at least she’ll have her dream, whereas if she chooses love, then she might end up with nothing. Liu Ying cuts in, saying why choose? Why not have both?
Tang Xue agrees — she can have both. But right now, the most important thing is Yu Bing’s health.
Yu Bing is discharged from the hospital and goes straight to a celebratory team lunch. Yu Bing toasts his coach and his teammates.
At night, he walks through the sports center, reminiscing about his hockey career and the long hours of training he had put in.
Commentary
These last few episodes have been a slog for me to get through. This show isn’t bad by any means, but there isn’t quite enough left for it to hold my attention. It’s just too nice. I can only take so many inspirational monologues that don’t say much except emphasize how hard everyone works and how meaningful a team is and how the XDragons need to help push China to be a world power in hockey.
The Drama Llama 