These two episodes are making me like all four leads (maybe not as much for Fei Fei). They all get a little bit more mischievous with one another, mostly involving Jiang Yu though.
♦ ♦ ♦ Episode 5 ♦ ♦ ♦
After fainting at the factory, Cai Hong is resting at home
under Shao Tian’s care. Stepmom comes in and reprimands Shao Tian for being in
Cai Hong’s room in the middle of the night. Ma’am, why not care for you daughter first? When
Shao Tian excuses himself, Stepmom advises Cai Hong that a man like Shao Tian
isn’t any good because they Cai Hong needs someone rich to rely on.
The next day at work, Cai Hong offers to help with
soliciting the roses to save their batch of dye since Jiang Yu and Fe Fei
failed to do so. Jiang Yu lets her have a try on one condition: if she fails, she’ll have to
resign. She's helping you and you're threatening to fire her? So off they go to Old Lady Jiang’s. On the way there, Cai Hong prepares
tea for him but because they’re on a ship, an unexpected wave forces Cai Hong
to lose her balance and spill the tea on Jiang Yu’s clothes. Is this scene's purpose to take revenge on Jiang Yu for splashing water at Cai Hong in the face? If so, that
was too weak! When Jiang Yu goes to the back of the ship to fix his
attire, Cai Hong sneaks into his accounting book and rips out a random page.
Lady Jiang’s face turns sour upon seeing them. Neither Cai
Hong nor Jiang Yu leave though. They’re planning to stake the night if they
have to. However, they both take a moment to absorb the beauty of the flowers
at the exact same time. I
like subtle moments like these. This show
seems to have a nice balance of them. Other than smelling flowers, Jiang
Yu really is useless there while Cai Hong does all the work. However, being
useless isn’t the problem, his presence is the problem. Old Lady Jiang hates seeing him smile and refuses
to even talk if she sees catches sight of Jiang Yu.
I actually lol-ed when Cai Hong obnoxiously tells him to
screw off. Haha. The art of
ridiculing someone without the use of words is satisfyingly rewarding. Amusingly,
Jiang Yu obeys. With just that short moment of his absence, Cai Hong successfully
convinces Old Lady Jiang. Her secret tactic? She finds out what a person needs
instead of their weakness, unlike a certain someone (Jiang Yu). Cai Hong’s
promise to Old Lady Jiang was that she’ll return every year to help maintain
her flowers in memory of the lady’s daughter. Jiang Yu is once again impressed
but more than impressed, he’s falling harder and harder for her. His eyes are
drawn to her and they would have stayed longer if she hadn’t caught him
looking.
Their lovely world gets interrupted by Shao Tian’s
appearance. Not that he suspected Cai Hong’s ability in persuading Old Lady
Jiang but a guy, a successful guy, needs to be equipped with backup plans. He
used his money to buy these fake flowers that have the dye colour they need,
although they’re now useless, Cai Hong is thoroughly impressed with his brains.
She also worries that she’s used up his money. He's the least bit worried as he (romantically) assures her, “I’ll just sell my winter coat; I’ll be warm next to you anyways.” Jiang Yu
purposely walks by and tells them not to flirt and how “cold” his pickup line
was. LOL. However,
the clear winner is Shao Tian in this battle just because he gets to wipe Cai
Hong’s sweat. The drama
needs to stop making her look like some sweaty girl.
As they're busily gathering the roses, they don’t realize that
the last ship out of this island has left. Old Lady Jiang only has two rooms,
which will mean Jiang Yu and Shao Tian have to share one. And there’s only one
bed. The two men declare war for this sacred resource. Jiang Yu cautions Shao
Tian his snoring is out of this world; he’s even famous for it. Shao Tian
dismisses that claim and then they both dash to the bed. And then there were
two on the bed. With the exact same pose. Cute.
Neither of the men budge but Jiang Yu proceeds to his famous
snoring. How one becomes famous with snoring: snoring with your eyes wide open
and directly into the ears of the person next to you. Unfazed, Shao Tian flips
Jiang Yu to the other side with one fell swoop.
Then they embark on a battle of legs. It was a fair fight
until Jiang Yu’s foot slams on a man’s most prized possession. Shao Tian loses
in this childish battle but he gets the better prize: Cai Hong.
When he heads out the room, he spots Cai Hong star gazing.
She’s reminiscing her parents. I’m thinking Jiang Yu overhears their
conversation which is why he barks at Shao Tian to sleep already, otherwise I
don’t understand why he would leave the sacred bed.
The men go back in to their room but as Jiang Yu sips his
tea, Shao Tian suspiciously sniffs its aroma. They share a sweet awkward moment
here but it was all a pretense for Shao Tian to hog
the bed all to himself as he dashes to the bed first while Jiang Yu's still holding his tea. Lol.
The next day, there’s a dilemma: only one person can board
the boat. Shao Tian is quick to push Jiang Yu onto it because (he claims that) he and Cai Hong
are just lowly employees that cannot take the responsibility of losing the
roses if they were to drop them into the water. I like how Shao Tian knows exactly how to provoke Jiang
Yu. It's okay Jiang Yu, they don't do much on the island. Cai Hong takes this opportunity to update Shao Tian on her search for evidence: she's found nothing; that the paper she
ripped from the accounting book was useless.
With everyone back in the city now, there’s a meeting at
Ling Long. Being the secretary, Cai Hong’s main duties includes brewing tea for
her boss. This time she brings in three cups of tea each at three different
temperature. LOL. First, she gives the medium one but he complains it’s too cold.
Brilliantly, she adjusts the temperature by pouring hot water into his “warm”
cup from the other cup. She returns him the same cup and they have a little
staring contest in front of all the staff. And is it just me or is Fei Fei holding back a smile?
Jiang Yu is peeved but that doesn’t mean he’ll let her win: he knocks the cup
over, spilling the water all over the documents. Cai Hong is one step ahead of
him this time. Like a magic trick, she lifts the tray and underneath it is a
copy of the document he just wrecked. Jiang Yu is thoroughly peeved. I LOVE this. Jang Yu is losing a lot in his
petty battles.
But let’s not underestimate Jiang Yu too much because he
knew all along that Cai Hong stole a page from his accounting book back on that boat. Her search
efforts have piqued his interest in finding the real culprit behind her
father’s death. He instructs Fei Fei to look into anything suspicious in Wu
Hong Da’s finances. Disgruntled, Fei Fei can’t refuse her brother’s orders. However,
somewhere in Fei Fei’s consciousness, she actually suspects her brother having
part in Wu Hong Da’s death but she quickly tries to shake that scary thought away.
Later that day, Jiang Yu heads off somewhere suspiciously
with a document. Cai Hong was ordered not to follow him, instead she stealthily tails him. She
finds out he went to Ling Long’s dye warehouse to leave the document there.
Back in the office, silence envelops the two. However, this silence seems to enhance their awareness of the other. Needing
something to do in the heavy silence, Cai Hong feeds the fish and dusts his
office. Once again, Jiang Yu’s eyes are inexplicably drawn to her and all the
memories of her surge in, from her being cheery to being bratty to being phoney.
He’s in love. Cai Hong’s sixth sense is sharp when it comes to stares (while
other things, she’s quite blunt). She turns to catch his stare but he flicks
back his head. I’m not sure if she caught him but she does stare (openly) at
him for a while. He certainly feels it as he blinks awkwardly for a few seconds. He’s probably feeling more emotions
swelling on the inside than he’s willing to show us.
Later that night, Shao Tian tells her he can’t walk her home
tonight because he arranged dinner with a friend. This friend is Lu Man. Her motive is either one or all three of these: seducing Shao Tian, hiring him, and/or investigating about that secret formula. There is no
end to her obsession with the secret formula. In the end, she gets none of what she wants. Shao Tian doesn’t know anything about a secret
formula and he's been there for a decade. Also, he isn’t one bit
fazed with her offers or her seduction. The dinner’s over and he goes to make
sure Cai Hong is safe at home. But she’s not.
That night Cai Hong went to the warehouse to find that
document Jiang Yu was holding this afternoon. It’s déjà vu but reversed because
Jiang Yu’s the one tailing her. Basically, everything was his scheme to catch
her in the act of spying on him. Once she's inside, he locks her in the warehouse but that’s not enough, he also
cuts the electricity in that room leaving Cai Hong locked in complete
darkness. She screams as she accidentally grabs a handful of bugs (which are
dye ingredients, I suppose). His prank doesn't end there: he grabs a rocking chair and rocks and
forth just to create these squeaky noises. What a mischievous boy. With the
added touch of ringing his keys, he successfully scares the wits out of Cai
Hong. Poor girl must think there’s mice all over the place.
♦ ♦ ♦ Episode 6 ♦ ♦ ♦
Jiang Yu enjoys his bullying but his amusement comes to a
halt when Cai Hong cries for Shao Tian’s help. Whether he’s jealous or
genuinely worried, I can’t tell, but he opens the door to relieve her fear. (I was sort of expecting an
embrace from Cai Hong but) She yells at him for his cruel joke. Shao
Tian comes in now (how he knows she’s here is beyond me) to protect her. Jiang
Yu’s mischievous act is a warning towards Cai Hong to stop her from being mischievous.
Make sense? Anyways, she promises not to commit something like this again. I think it’s more like she promises not to get caught again.
I don’t remember when the accounting book became the focus
of this murder mystery but she’s right on the money. Shao Tian tries his best
to discourage Cai Hong from looking into it but she’s adamant on it. Even Jiang
Yu is zoning into that accounting book and he’s actually starting to suspect
that the henchman (who has a title: Mr. Cai or I’ll call him Lao Cai) couldn’t
have embezzled such a large amount on his own.
Unfortunately, Wu Hong Da’s original accounting book (which
was held by the police all this time) is burnt by an unknown man in black.
Jiang Yu even gets into a fight with him but the man runs off. Picking up the
destroyed accounting book to examine its remnant, Cai Hong witnesses this exact
scene. With that, she assumes he burnt the book. It’s one thing
misunderstanding that scene but another thing claiming she saw him burn it with her own eyes.
Despite the burnt book, Cai Hong isn’t completely
disappointed because there’s still hope in finding Lao Cai in his old village, ‘Xiao
Shan’. She requests a leave from Jiang Yu (she claims it's to visit her sickly cousin) which
he grants her all too easily. However, Shao Tian delays her trip to the next
day because he won’t be able to accompany her today since he needs to care for
his sickly mother. This buys him some time to stop her from finding Mr. Cai
successfully. Here’s his plan: he finds his buddy, Ah Li, to pretend to be a
horseman to take Cai Hong to Xiao Shan but obviously he purposely goes in the
wrong direction. If she was
going to go without Shao Tian, I don’t get why the trip was delayed in the
first place…
Oddly enough, Jiang Yu is completely aware of her plans. He
even goes out of his way to
search for Cai Hong. On his horse, he follows the trail the carriage left
behind. When Jiang Yu catches up with the carriage, he discovers a battered man (it’s
Ah Li). Jiang Yu laughs when he finds out Cai Hong was the one that beat him to
a pulp.
Following Ah Li’s direction, Jiang Yu searches on foot. You’re really going out of your way, Jiang Yu. It takes some effort, but he finds her.
Notice the first thing he does is assess whether she’s okay (she’s limping).
For her though, she’s puzzled as to why he’s here but he diverts that question
back to her.
Jiang Yu: You’re
cousin lives here, huh?
Cai Hong can’t fess up to her lie.
Jiang Yu yells at
her: Is your brain okay? You obviously went the wrong direction but you still
continue heading down that road. You’re not afraid to be sold off?
Cai Hong’s eyes
are red: You came all the way here to purposely yell at me, didn’t you?
Jiang Yu: I’m yelling
at you only for one reason, because I care about you because you’re
stupid.
Cai Hong fires
back at him: You’re the one who’s stupid!
She limps away from him now.
Jiang Yu: Where
you going? There’s lots of wolves nearby ~ The biggest one is you, Jiang Yu.
And that gets Cai Hong to obediently follow him. But the
girl is still limping and eventually falls once more. Being our hero, Jiang Yu
forcefully carries her on his back. The sun’s setting and they’re still lost.
They settle down to make a bonfire since it’s too dangerous to wander around at
night. Jiang Yu leaves to find food but Cai Hong doesn’t want to be alone.
Jiang Yu (seeing
her being sort of clingy) asks: If your boyfriend found out you and me (a man
and a woman) stayed overnight in the middle of the woods, what would he think?
Innocently, Cai Hong
answers without hesitation: But I don’t have a boyfriend.
Jiang Yu lingers on that clarification before he leaves.
Cai Hong: Don’t
go too far!
When Jiang Yu returns with the food, he accidentally scares
her. She got so frightened that from sitting she went to standing and almost falls. Right before she falls though, Jiang Yu catches Cai Hong and they end up in another accidental
embrace. Again, they both feel the sparks. It takes a while for them to separate
but after they do, he shoves the fruits in her hands with the excuse of them
tasting nasty. I don't think Jiang Yu ate...
Turns out the fruits were delicious as Cai Hong nibbles away
and even smiling at the sweetness of the fruits while stealing some glances at
Jiang Yu. When she's asleep, Jiang Yu covers her with his vest. He stares at her sleeping
face without any reservation now and smiles.
While these two are peaceful, there’s a search party for Jiang Yu and Cai Hong after
Shao Tian found out what happened from Ah Li. Fei Fei’s the one that organized
the search party. She’s worried for Jiang Yu and even threatens Shao Tian
if anything happens to her brother, Cai Hong is dead meat. Shao Tian throws
back the same threat at her instead it will be her brother that’s dead if Cai Hong's the least bit hurt. I’m sort of looking forward to how
these two will end up together. It’s not until morning are the Jiang Yu and Cai Hong found. They
share one more (sort of) sweet moment before they part ways: she returns him
his vest only to be refused by Jiang Yu because it’s dirty. (Still, Cai Hong should be grateful to him.) Even though they’ve
separated, Jiang Yu orders one of his men to follow Cai Hong. Meanwhile Cai
Hong (along with Shao Tian) continues her search for Lao Cai. The girl just doesn’t give up.
Unfortunately, her search leads her to a dead end. Lao Cai
isn’t there anymore. Fruitlessly, Shao Tian sends her home. As he watches her
go in, we hear his thoughts, “Cai Hong, there are things in this world that are
best left as secrets.” We also see flashbacks this time of a brawl with Wu Hong
Da. The flashback was so fast that I’m not certain the person that murderously jabbed
the pen at Wu Hong Da was Shao Tian but it does look like him.
On Jiang Yu’s side, he’s now completely updated with Cai Hong
and her findings from the spy he implanted near her. Jiang Yu now
orders his men to find Lao Cai’s mistress and offhandedly asks for Cai Hong’s
wound (remember her limping). Eavesdropping this whole time was none other than
Fei Fei. Previously
That night, Fei Fei can no longer control her hatred towards
Cai Hong, she barges into her brother’s room (and jumbles his beautiful
thoughts of Cai Hong), reminding him of the reason for their father’s death and
their family’s miseries. In other words, she's reminding him of why he should hate Cai Hong. If she loved him, she really
shouldn’t be reminding him of his pain… Angrily, he replies her he’s
never once forgotten, not for one darn moment. She requests for Cai Hong’s
dismissal but big bro has plans of his own. Or so he says.
Meanwhile, Mom’s looking for her reading glasses and goes
berserk when she sees Wu Hong Da on the newspaper (even though it’s news of his
death). She’s admitted to the hospital once again. This scene has one purpose:
to remind Jiang Yu of their family’s miseries because of Cai Hong’s father. Our boy just can’t love the girl
he loves.
Oh hi there Mr. Cat! Long-time no see. Seeing the cat, Jiang
Yu’s feelings for Cai Hong rush in. Cai Hong. Oh the turmoil. He tells
the cat it’s time he returned him back to his master.
The next day, Fei Fei helps her brother receive the note
detailing Lao Cai’s mistress whereabouts. She’s not exactly happy that her
brother’s involving himself in matters that matter not to him. I fear she won’t
give the note to him and this fear of mine worsen when she spots Cai Hong carrying
Jiang Yu’s vest on her arm.
♦ ♦ ♦ Comments ♦ ♦ ♦
Despite Cai Hong logically hating Jiang Yu, the hate doesn’t come across in her actions. She smiles quite a bit at him: first when they successfully convince Old Lady Jiang; then with the fruit scene. She also returns a thoughtful look at Jiang Yu in the office (before Jiang Yu locks her in the warehouse). Even Jiang Yu's hate towards her isn't obvious at all. I know most people shipping the two can claim that it's because they un/consciously love each other but I'd say it's a little hole in the plot. Despite saying that, I'll just brainwash myself that they un/consciously love each other. – Shrugs –
I also think the plot is a little weak when they obsess over that accounting book (and that secret formula!) for no clear reason. When Cai Hong steals that random page from Jiang Yu on that boat, it was a completely futile attempt. That accounting book wasn’t even her father’s to begin with so what on earth can she find in Jiang Yu’s accounting book page?
Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be this nitpicky if I weren’t recapping
because the general plot isn’t bad all, it's just when you dig into the details... Anyways, I am enjoying this and I quite adore the leads. I haven’t seen Zheng Shuang since Let’s Watch a Meteor Shower (lets
excuse her cameo in The Terrible Four) and this will be my first Hawick
Lau drama if I finish it. As much as I loved the two's interaction in these two episodes, my favourite scene has to be Shao Tian and Jiang Yu's physically intimate bed scene, lol.
These episodes made me
like Shao Tian more, or the actor behind him. He’s got these expressions that
are so animated at times but still fit so well with his stoic personality. He can also be a romantic. I hope there's a twist in this murder mystery so that he's not a murderer. I've grown fond of him.
And I'm so looking forward to these two!
She really is pretty and I especially liked her when she tried to contain her smile back in that tea scene. I guess she likes seeing her brother peeved too.
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