DIS OTP DOE

I am trying so hard to love this drama but I really can’t love Zheng Shuang and Hawick together right now ):. First of all, they didn’t really have many events leading up to ‘make them fall in love’ – all we get here and there are the generic asian drama cliches where the girl trips and the guy catches her and they stare deeply in each other’s eyes. Secondly, I don’t really enjoy Zheng Shuang’s acting. Seems like she only has a few reactions to everything, and her character isn’t the strong and smart female lead that they are trying to create – she just seems very whiny. Thirdly, I really don’t enjoy dramas with a love triangle because that seems really complicated to me BUT, Hawick is in this, and the producers behind this drama are so well-known that I’m gonna keep watching. That being said, I’ll still add my sarcastic and cynical commentary to every review/recap.

So anyways – picking up from last episode, Cai Hong sees her father fall out of his office window to his death.

At the same time we see Jiang Yu leaving the meeting from the (now dead) Wu Hong Da with this ‘secret method’ in producing top notch quality fabric, insinuating that he had something to do with Wu Hong Da’s death.

Not knowing that Wu Hong Da is Cai Hong’s father, Jiang Yu still heads to the bridge (their date, as agreed upon earlier), to return Oolong, her cat. Obviously Cai Hong doesn’t show up, because, well, her father’s dead.

Anyways, Shao Tian returns home and we find out that he’s quite the asshole to his mother because he witnessed her killing his father (which I mean, his illness looked pretty terminal to me, so it was more like an assisted suicide rather than a murder).

After Wu Hong Da’s death, all the lenders go crazy. Without the main stakeholder, they all wanted their money back, and Ling Long was going to go bankrupt. And plus, as revealed earlier, Shao Tian and Bookkeeper Cai had moved most of the cashflow out of the company and had manipulated the books. 

They kicked the Wu family out, and the Wu family (consisted of Cai Hong, Cai Hong’s sister, and Cai Hong’s stepmom) had to downgrade.

I mean, even though Jiang Yu had literally only met Cai Hong three times he already developed a crush on her, even though she proved to not have any decent redeeming traits every time.Being upset that she didn’t show up to their meeting, he reminisced about her through the pen and the cat.

He misses her so he goes back to the hazardous-looking bridge so he could wait for her. I mean, in Episode 2 he managed to bump into her just by sitting in a busy street in a carriage, so why not try that again right?

Well what do you know! This town must be extremely small that he could coincidentally bump into her again while walking home. She’s obviously very unresponsive since her father just died, and they set up another time for her to pick up the cat.

Even though I find Zheng Shuang’s acting to be really annoying – I must admit, she’s very pretty. Hawick really pulls off the whole ‘having a subtle crush’ act, but that good acting is really bounced off of Zheng Shuang. I really can’t see their chemistry.

BTW this annoying actress that I see everywhere is in it. I recognize her from Bu Bu Jin Xin as Ming Yue.  Her name is Liu Yu Xin, and her acting and her appearance really bothers me. Anyways, more on that later, but she plays Lu Man. She approached Wu Hong Da in the last episode to get the ‘secret method’ to creating top notch fabric, and now that he is dead, she is approaching Cai Hong about it. Unfortunately Cai Hong doesn’t know anything so Lu Man leaves.

Finally Ling Long nears bankruptcy and needs investors/a buyer. The most powerful buyer is Jiang Yu, which is the only person that has the money to buy it. During this meeting with all the stakeholders/shareholders, Jiang Yu finally realizes that Wu Cai Hong is Wu Hong Da’s daughter, and Wu Cai Hong finds out that Jiang Yu is the boss of Yao Sheng.

Jiang Yu only offers 50% of Ling Long’s selling price – obviously the stakeholders of Ling Long and Cai Hong are offended at this vulturous act but out of all seriousness, in a business sense – this is completely justified. This is what bankers do – they slowly circle in on the dying companies/stocks to pick it up to bring it back to life.

Being heartbroken and realizing that Cai Hong is his enemy’s daughter, Jiang Yu refuses to return her cat.

Anyways, finding out that Jiang Yu was at the Ling Long office during Wu Hong Da’s death, Cai Hong is convinced Jiang Yu was the person who committed the crime, and worked closely with the police to find evidence to point to him. Jiang Yu had an alibi though – he had two witnesses that could prove that he wasn’t there. Cai Hong – being a very stubborn and whiny person still insisted that it was him for some reason, and vowed to find evidence to prosecute him.

Still, the next day, Cai Hong goes crawling back and tries to accept the 50%. Jiang Yu, obviously pissed off from the accusations and her attitude (I would be too) offers her less and less. In the end, she sells Ling Long for 15%.

Except, Cai Hong had one condition – she was allowed to work at Ling Long. Jiang Yu initially declined, but said yes in the end because, I mean – how else would our OTP get together right? Realistically this would never happen after a takeover because she has absolutely no leverage BUT you know, drama.

Silly me actually thought that she would be placed as like a cleaning lady or a fabric factory worker because Jiang Yu said “I don’t ever want to see you again” but for some reason arranges her to be his secretary. Fine, how else are they going to fall in love?

Jiang Yu tries to make her life miserable and all, and tries to get her to quit but gets jealous every time Cai Hong interacts with Shao Tian. Let me tell you this – I am all caught up to Episode 8 at this point and this does not stop. At a certain point I want to shake some sense into Jiang Yu and say “Bro… she’s not worth it. Just drop it and move on”, but drama.

Anyways – this is the point in the drama where everything in the plot is to prove how the female lead is ‘special’, ‘one-of-a-kind’, and ‘worth-it-to-die-over’. This is normally bearable in normal cliche drama senses, but it’s especially unbearable with the character of Cai Hong because of her overall whininess.

Let’s create a tally for the rest of this post:

Event #1:There was this whole spectacle that Cai Hong had to clean Jiang Yu’s shoe, which she did slowly and pitifully. I guess the producers are trying to make her look resilient but seriously, it’s just wiping off a shoe.

Event #2: Now the producers are trying to sell to us that Cai Hong is intelligent, by having her to close a difficult deal. Jiang Yu was meeting an old client of Ling Long, who was unsure about the fabric quality because of the change in management, and pretty much Cai Hong just reassured him as a familiar face.

We get this excellent OTP moment where she ‘slips on water’ and he catches her by the waist. Normally I would’ve loved this but since this OTP hasn’t grown on me yet, I had this reaction:

Event #3:

Someone contaminates the dyes for the fabric – and this costs a lot of money because Ling Long has expensive dyes.

So, Jiang Yu sends Cai Hong to find out the culprit that ruined the dyes, or else she’d be fired. Cai Hong couldn’t find the culprit, so she had this whole resignation speech in front of the workers.

The worker that did it felt guilty for Cai Hong’s departure and confessed to the act so that Cai Hong could stay. Jiang Yu understandably fires that worker, and makes him compensate for ruining the dyes – I think that this is an absolutely just punishment. Just because of your moment of dumbness and wanting to seek revenge on a boss, you create irreparable monetary losses in the company – why should the company absorb the costs for your vindictive behaviour?

Oh our female lead is so kind hearted! Cai Hong kneels before Jiang Yu for him to revoke his decision to make the worker to pay for the damages. Jiang Yu refuses (justifiably) and Cai Hong decides to remain kneeling until he changes his decision.

She ends up fainting from kneeling for too long. I don’t know why dramas always making kneeling such an arduous activity, like I feel like I could kneel all day and not pass out, but then again, I’m not in a drama.

Episode 4 ends like this… so far, I’m waiting to start to like the OTP. I feel like Hawick is charming enough to compensate for Zheng Shuang’s lack of charisma.