May 29, 2016

With You Episode 3

Episode 3: “Why aren’t you waiting for me to be prepared?"

This episode we’re introduced to the second leading man, Lu Xing He. Don’t be tricked by his playful façade, he’s surprisingly wise.


After an early morning race between Lu Xing He with his motorbike and Yu Huai with his bicycle, Yu Huai ends up losing. It’d be a miracle if he won that race. Losing wasn’t enough, he gets splashed by a puddle of water. Not being the winner really doesn’t matter because he gets Geng Geng’s tender care in the end. From her backpack she neatly takes out napkins for Yu Huai to dry his dripping wet hair.

Their cute moment blinds Lu Xing He as he comments: So caring (with sarcasm).

Lu Xing He = Huge light bulb
(He’s got that awkward seat behind Yu Huai and Geng Geng because he went head to head with his home room teacher, Zheng Feng. the mean one. After the dispute Lu Xing He transfers himself, carrying his own desk all the way from his Class II to Geng Geng’s Class V to end the squabble. By the way, classes are assigned based on marks so Class II = smarter than Class V.)


Next day of school Geng Geng begs Zhang Ping to let her have a copy of the entire school’s ranking on the last test. Zhang Ping, despite being known for his kindness, mocks Geng Geng that it’s better she not discourages herself by knowing her poor rank, haha. However, she finally fesses that it’s to encourage "someone else" and immediately Zhang Ping smiles and hands over the ranking sheet. 
Amusingly, when Geng Geng proudly presents Yu Huai with the school ranking, Yu Huai does the exact same thing Zhang Ping did, playfully mock her low rank (btw, Yu Huai is ranked 15th in the entire school). Yu Huai shows interest in the ranking sheet later on but Xing He snatches it from him behind but he accidentally rips it. That earns him some mean glares from Geng Geng and Yu Huai.

Zhang Ping catches Geng Geng sleeping in his class but instead of smacking her desk, he makes a lighthearted comment to Yu Huai, advising him he shouldn’t let Geng Geng sleep like that and catch a cold, implying he should wake her up.

Zhang Ping: With your desk mate like that, shouldn’t you care for her a bit?

Yu Huai blankly nods. 
Then he stands up and closes the blinds for Geng Geng so she can sleep peacefully. Haha.

Yu Huai in his serious tone: Mr. Zhang, I can only help to here. Lol
Zhang Ping is speechless.

Then there’s Zheng Feng’s class; he's teaching at light speed and Geng Geng doesn’t understand a thing. Seeing her struggle, Yu Huai raises his hand and confidentially tells Zheng Feng he doesn’t understand. This simple gesture is simply heroic. He then gives Geng Geng a sweet lopsided smile. Swooning~. Then the entire class pours in and complains they don’t understand either. Yu Huai whispers to Geng Geng it’s no big deal to admit she doesn’t understand during class. Yu Huai has no idea the struggles of commoners.

Geng Geng passes a note to Yu Huai: “If I don’t understand I will ask the teacher and if I still don’t understand I will ask you :D. You speaking up for me, was it worth it to let Mr. Zhang misunderstand that you were disturbing the class?”
Yu Huai smirks at her note. Totally worth it.


Geography class is up next and it would have been a boring class if not for Yu Huai and Lu Xing He’s heated debate. Lu Xing He is saying geography is really about “eating, drinking, shi*ting, and pissing”. That’s what my translator gave me. It’s an actual saying to describe the ordinary routines of life. His logic: geography determines what we eat (i.e. we mostly eat what our land harvests). Meanwhile Yu Huai is arguing that geography is based on physics. Yu Huai lost me the moment he stood up to explain.
Essentially, Yu Huai and Lu Xing He are polar opposites; one has a scientific approach, the other has a humanistic approach but neither are wrong. (However, just based on the speed of dialogue delivery, I think Yu Huai won the debate...)

On the other hand, Geng Geng has zero conception of what nonsense these two were sprouting.
Yu Huai doesn’t like Xing He’s perception at all which leads to him giving Geng Geng his earnest advice: don’t go into humanities. Lu Xing He butts in and tells her to choose whatever she wants. The contradictory opinions stress her out even more. As much as I love Yu Huai, I have to agree with Lu Xing He.
When school ends, Lu Xing He passes by Geng Geng and stuffs her somethings: the ranking roll he ripped up earlier. Now it has a picture of her stressing out earlier. It’s cute but I will not be swayed from Yu Huai.

Next day of school Geng Geng and Lu Xing He are cutting classes, which was completely out of Geng Geng’s own freewill. He lured her by stealing her beloved camera. What a plot driving device her camera is.
He bugs her to teach him how to use the camera only to get her right in his personal space. This guy is in love. Why?
They reach the harbour and he’s randomly snapping pictures of the scenery. Geng Geng complains he hasn’t even set up the camera properly.

Lu Xing He calmly replies: There’s a lot of beautiful things in life that won’t wait for you to be ready to appear. [Episode Title]

He points out to a man staring thoughtfully at the sea but Geng Geng thinks the man’s wondering how to abandon his daughter… uhhhhh. Then she interprets a lovely date by the sea as a breakup date. Finally, a cute little girl running about is the daughter the man (from earlier) wants to abandon, according to Geng Geng. Well, that was depressing.  He calls her “perverted”. No, not in that sense, more like distorted. 

Their next destination is a plane landing site that may possibly belong to his family. Oh wow, this rich kid. Here, he motivates her to let go all her academic stresses. Then he takes a bunch of pictures of her, which she shies away from. Still, Geng Geng is really enjoying herself.
Meanwhile lonely Yu Huai is at school sulking.
He's constantly looking at the door, waiting for her to pop up. 


Lu Xing He drops off Geng Geng at a fancy restaurant, which is where her dad is holding his (informal) marriage ceremony with another woman. Lu Xing He comes back to the restaurant to give Geng Geng her backpack, which he purposely went back to retrieve for her. How he knew her dad is getting remarried is beyond me but he comforts her saying his dad has done it three times already.
Geng Geng thanks him for retrieving her bag but also for helping her understand “things that suddenly appear may not be all bad, they may be pleasant surprises.”
At home, Yu Huai stresses out over a pen cap. Why is he so cute? It belongs to Geng Geng and he accidentally stepped on it. Unable to fix it he replaces her squashed pen cap with his. The next day he nonchalantly returns her pen cap, naturally going through her pencil case like it’s his. He does ask her where she went but she avoids answering, making Yu Huai drop the topic.

He is happy though that Lu Xing He has returned to his original class. Phew. I thought he was going to stay there forever. However, Geng Geng looks just a tad disappointed at the emptiness behind her desk. 

Lu Xing He did leave a little surprise for Geng Geng before he left, it's a drawing of her.


Later that night Geng Geng is going through all the pictures and indeed none of the ones Lu Xing He took were decent except the pictures of Geng Geng, oddly enough.
She then pauses at Yu Huai’s picture and smiles at how cute he looks.
Geng Geng: this one is handsome.

She puts Yu Huai’s picture right above the picture of herself.


Comments

I was really hoping for some more cute moments now that these two are desk mates. Oh well. Since we got more episodes to come, I can wait. Today’s episode was mostly an introduction of Lu Xing He. It surprised me how deep his thoughts were despite his playful appearance. It’s like he’s got all these worldly visions meanwhile our Yu Huai is still an immature boy. Still, I like Yu Huai.

The debate during geography class preludes to the future obstacles this love triangle will face in choosing courses. Yu Huai is definitely choosing science but I think Geng Geng will choose humanities along with Lu Xing He (she's into photography, while he's into drawing). 
For now, Lu Xing He definitely has an advantage over Yu Huai in this love triangle. He understands her family situation, which Yu Huai has no idea of. Geng Geng’s character is so bright and carefree, I forgot how traumatizing her parents divorce and her dad’s remarriage can be for her. Although her thoughts during the harbour scene were “perverted” I appreciated the extra depth added to her character. She’s one tough cookie but I'm glad someone is there for her, even if it’s not Yu Huai.

There’s nothing to fear though. Just like the beginning of this episode Yu Huai had lost the initial race to Lu Xing He, I’d say he actually won because in the end Geng Geng went straight to caring for him. So no matter how much Lu Xing He hogs up Geng Geng’s time for x amount of episodes, the final winner will be Yu Huai.

The title of this episode and Geng Geng’s newfound insight she learned from Lu Xing He relate: things in life don’t wait for you, they’ll just appear whether or not you’re prepared; however, these things that appear before you may not all be bad. My warped thoughts tell me this “pleasant surprise” is the appearance of Yu Huai in her life. (: [My logical side is telling me the title also refers to Lu Xing He and her new stepmom] 


The moments between Yu Huai and Geng Geng were subtle but I really liked them, especially that scene where Yu Huai raised his hand during class for her. I’m that student who’s afraid to ask a stupid question during class so that gesture he did really spoke to me. So envious of Geng Geng for having him as a classmate! Even the pen cap scene was cute.  Its the little things Yu Huai does that makes me so devoted to him. 


Related Posts: 
With You Episode 4

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