Recap: Skate Into Love (Ep. 39)

Tang Xue tries to look out for Yu Bing’s best interests, but he keeps pushing her away, frustrated by his slow progress and worried that he’s holding her back.

Recap

Yu Bing practice his shooting, against his doctor’s orders. His accuracy is terrible and he notices his hand trembling, but he pushes through, until Tang Xue finds him in the training room and storms in, yelling his name.

She asks him not to make her worry. He looks at his trembling hands and bitterly admits that he can’t even hold his hockey stick; he’ll never be the player he once was. Tang Xue tells him that he needs to focus on recovering — that’s all his teammates and friends want for him. If he does, she promises he’ll be as good as he once was.

But Yu Bing doesn’t like the sound of that. She promises? With what? He lashes out, saying he doesn’t want her comfort or her sympathy. He just wants her to leave him alone. She should worry more about herself.

Tang Xue throws his hockey stick back at him and storms out as quickly as she came in.

Yu Bing shoots a few more pucks before giving up. He goes outside and sees Tang Xue lost in thought, holding onto her national team invite. He asks why she didn’t tell him about it. Is it because she wanted to keep him company?

Tang Xue says she plans on joining the national team next year instead. They start arguing. Yu Bing thinks she’s doing it because of him. What if he never gets better? He doesn’t want to become the reason she gives up on her dreams. But Tang Xue says she’s confident she can make the team again next year, and even if she doesn’t, there are other ways for her to keep speed skating in her life. She just doesn’t want to see Yu Bing be defeated by his injury and give up on himself, because she had been there before. Even if Yu Bing faces the worst-case scenario, she insists on being by his side.

Yu Bing lets out a self-pitying laugh and starts to walk away. She grabs his wrist to stop him, but he pulls away and keeps walking.

Yue Wei tells Da Jiang about how Tang Xue decided not to join the national team anymore and how she and Yu Bing had a big fight about it. Yue Wei muses that perhaps sacrifice is a sign of really liking someone. Da Jiang blurts out that he’s also willing to do that. There’s a long pause where neither of them say anything. Then Yue Wei asks Da Jiang if he’ll accompany her somewhere before she leaves for the national team.

Yue Wei takes Da Jiang to visit her grandmother’s grave. She shows her grandmother her national team jacket and asks if she’s proud.

Yu Yan checks in on Yu Bing to see how he’s doing. The two are on friendly terms now. Yu Bing shares how he’s worried he’ll hold Tang Xue back, something that Yu Yan understands from when he went through his own anxiety. Yu Yan tells Yu Bing that he has to let people in in order to reassure them that he’s okay on his own. If he could do it, he’s confident that Yu Bing can do it too. He also gives Yu Bing two tickets to his upcoming national competition.

Yue Wei thanks Da Jiang for visiting her grandmother with her, then brings up something he said before: what if they weren’t the Iron Triangle? Da Jiang smiles awkwardly and says that he’s fine with the three of them staying friends. Yue Wei looks at him for a long moment, then presses a scratchcard into his hand, saying that’s her answer, before walking off.

Yu Bing goes to his tree light clearing where he talks to his inner child. Tang Xue is only getting better while he’s getting worse, something that may drive them farther apart, but Yu Bing is all too willing to help send her on her way if it means she can be great. But in order to that, he decides that he needs to listen to what Yu Yan said: he needs to focus on recovering so that Tang Xue feels comfortable letting him be on his own.

Yu Bing finds Tang Xue meticulously wrapping his hockey stick with tape. She stands up to admire her handiwork and turns and holds it out — pointing straight at Yu Bing — in an unintentional echo of his very public display of affection in the beginning of their relationship. Yu Bing pulls her into a hug, saying he realized that he’d been so focused on hockey and himself that he lost sight of her. He promises to focus on getting better, if she will promise to go to the national team this year. They will meet at the Beijing 2022 Olympics.

Tang Xue and Yu Bing watch Yu Yan’s competition, where they sit next to Yu Yan’s mother who jokes about how Tang Xue could’ve been her daughter-in-law, if only she hadn’t forbidden Yu Yan from dating.

Yu Yan delivers an outstanding performance and wins the competition. In a post-competition interview, he’s asked who helped him get to where he is today. He thanks his friends and coaches, but says there’s one person who has stuck with him through everything. Yu Yan’s mother and Yu Bing both look at Tang Xue, thinking it’s her. Yu Bing looks slightly uncomfortable when Yu Yan says, “I love you.” But then Yu Yan finishes his sentence, “Mom.”

Yu Yan’s mother looks stunned as a spotlight shines down on her, but she holds back her tears and gives Yu Yan two big thumbs up.

Coach Jin shows off Yu Yan’s performance to Coach Xu, then shows off the blades that Yu Yan gave him. If only Coach Chu would recognize his feelings for her, then everything would be perfect. Xu suddenly springs on Jin that he’s getting married. Jin is overjoyed and hugs him, then congratulates him profusely. But when Xu mentions that Chu is the bride and Jin is the best man, of course, Jin starts laughing uncontrollably at the irony.

The XDragons president informs Manager Ma that Yu Bing is to be fired. He’s of no value to the club anymore and is even costing them money for a breach of contract with an advertiser, because of his injury. Ma protests, saying he won’t allow Yu Bing to be fired, while Da Jiang and Jian Guo eavesdrop. Ma says that he will pay the contract fine as long as Yu Bing can continue to stay on. The president humors him, but points out that all of Ma’s money comes from him, and then tells his secretary to freeze Ma’s credit cards.

Ma, Da Jiang, and Jian Guo try to brainstorm solutions. Ma still has his car — but then his father’s secretary shows up and takes that away too.

Da Jiang and Jian Guo think that Yu Bing deserves to know what’s going on, but again, neither want to be the one to tell him. Jian Guo has a date with Liu Ying so he runs off, ditching Da Jiang.

Jian Guo is dismayed when Liu Ying shows up and starts crying. He tries to figure out what’s wrong and starts guessing different bad scenarios. But the truth is not so serious — Liu Ying is upset that she only got the second highest score on an exam. She’s never not been first before.

Jian Guo tries to make her feel better by saying that no one can constantly be number one. He uses Yu Bing as an example, saying that he’s about to be fired. That only makes Liu Ying cry even more.

Liu Ying rushes back to her dorm at night to break the news that Yu Bing is going to be fired.