Just because a story is light and fluffy doesn’t mean the writer has forgotten her story arc. In fact, since this drama is simplified, it’s easy to notice an overarching thread and see how episodes are woven together. I’ll limit myself to one thread because I don’t want to bore you. I’m sure the other bitches around here can see other threads because that’s what we do best around here: obsess.

Besides, I’m playing catch-up with my reviews of the episodes.

Let’s go with the food. You can never go wrong when you follow the food line. 😂

At the beginning of Episode 3, we see our couple walking from opposite ends of the cafeteria and heading toward each other.

On one hand, Si TuMo’s holding her phone while she gabs away with her mom, and on the other, she’s balancing her lunch tray. She wobbles it and her soup spills. But Gu WeiYi neatly saves her tray with two hands, and wordlessly saunters to a table where he lay down the tray. He then proceeds to the food line without once greeting her.

She can only stare after him in amusement.

He gets the same tray of food and takes a sip of the soup. He takes a few steps and then he sips some more to avoid spillage. He’s slow and steady, and methodical.

He goes to sit at a table all by himself although he could have joined her. She smiles at him.

Later in the episode, we discover that Si TuMo has a penchant for river snail rice noodles.

BTW, can somebody tell me how this smells like? I read that it tastes like pork or chicken broth but there’s no description of its distinctive aroma. lol. Please don’t say that it smells like durian or stinky tofu because I’ve no idea what durian or stinky tofu smell like. 😜Does it smell like stinky cheese? Horse manure? Body odor?

Gu WeiYi is particularly sensitive to the stench of this river snail rice noodles. When they encounter each other at the library, he tells her to take a bath in the dorm as she came from a restaurant serving the stinky noodles. And when he discovers her living in his apartment, he doesn’t scold her for the big mess she made but he’s adamant that the stinky noodles be thrown away immediately.

It seems like he’s right to be wary of this river snail rice noodles since she gets gastroenteritis from eating a contaminated serving and has to stay overnight at the hospital.

An aside: I was expecting him to nag her about that stinky dish, but he doesn’t. Fu Pei is the one who tells her to stop eating it because it’s “dirty.”

Instead, Gu WeiYi wakes up at 5:38 in the morning to go to a nearby restaurant. He orders plain porridge for both of them, and a variety of breads. He explains to the restaurant owner that he’s up early because he’s worried that “she’ll be hungry after she wakes up.”

He returns to her bedside and lays out all his breakfast offerings on her hospital table (I don’t get why he bought so much food when he knows she can’t eat them. Perhaps to wake her up with the smell? Perhaps to entice her to eat? Or maybe to tease her?)

Si TuMo awakes and she’s excited to see the choices. As he expected, she’s starving but he sternly tells her to eat just the porridge. She tries to sneak a bread but the nurse warns her that her doctor won’t like it if she eats bread. After the nurse leaves, she tries again to take a bite of the bread and GWY spots her in time. When she finally succeeds in stuffing a sesame ball in her mouth, her doctor arrives.

To cover up for her, GWY pretends to be a jealous boyfriend and orders the doctor not to look at “his girlfriend.” His preposterous request causes her choke on her stolen sesame ball, and he quickly returns to her side and pats her back.

Later that day, at the end of Episode 4, we see our couple sharing a watermelon in their apartment. Fu Pei had come and gone and STM had cried and dried her tears. GWY returns with a bandage and watermelon.

He cuts up the watermelon and they eat together.

GWY: Your hand is still painful?
STM: No. (she digs into her half of the watermelon)
GWY: You and Fu Pei… (she takes a big bite of the watermelon)
STM: What?
GWY: (sighing and changing topics) Looks like your watermelon is sweeter. (smiles at her)

STM: I’m hungry. (and takes another bite)
GWY: Can the gastroenteritis patient eat watermelon?

STM: (hugging her watermelon close) I can.
GWY: It’s up to you. (she takes another big bite and he swallows a small spoonful)
STM: Do you really like to eat watermelon?
GWY: Yes.
STM: But you don’t look like you really like it.
GWY: (he takes a big mouthful) How about like this?
STM: I like watermelon. (and she scoops up a big chunk) more than you do.

And just like that, they have a watermelon eating contest.

A phone call from her office interrupts them and she goes to her room to leave for work. With her gone, GWY digs his spoon into her watermelon to taste a small bite. He smiles.

***************

lol. Do you see the flow of the story now?

If you follow the “food arc,” you’ll see the progression in their awareness of each other.

In the beginning, she’s just somebody who needs his quick rescue. He helps her out with her tray but it doesn’t enter his mind to seek out her company or sit with her.

With the stinky river snail rice noodle brouhaha, their differences come to the forefront. She’s messy and a bit reckless. She has a more earthy taste.

In contrast, he’s orderly, methodical, with a more refined taste. lol. She’s already insulted him once about his “taste” when she described his house as being decorated like a model house. It’s stylish alright but it lacks personality. She feels like she’s sleeping in a mortuary because it’s cold, not cozy.

But after the food poisoning and the expired medicine incident, Gu WeiYi willing to overlook their differences. He’s become protective of her, even protecting her from the flying hospital tray lol. He’s stepped up to become responsible for her welfare. Perhaps he’s taken to heart the doctor’s advice to him. The doctor said, “If you love your girlfriend so much, please take good care of her….Don’t give her poison.” 😂

Don’t give her poison = Don’t let her enter toxic relationships.

He heeds the doctor’s advice very well. That’s why he covers her up with the blanket, brings her breakfast before she wakes up hungry, buys her an hair band as she requested, and is in a foul mood the rest of the day when it appears as if Fu Pei and Si TuMo are getting back together again. He knows Fu Pei will only cause STM more heartaches in the long run.

And so he sulks when he and STM return to the apartment. STM notices it and asks him.

He’s giving her mixed signals. After being so attentive to her in the hospital, he’s giving her the cold shoulder. He acts like he can’t wait to see her go yet he doesn’t want her to vacate his apartment and making absurd demands to detain her.

Did you notice how he quickly stood up to follow her as if he was about to chase after her? Lol. That was cute.

And didn’t you think he was just inventing silly excuses, like not knowing how to change his sheets? That was eye-rolling demand.

In a way, Fu Pei’s surprise appearance at the apartment is fortunate because it allows Si TuMo to begin the painful process of severing ties with an old friend.

GWY: Si TuMo.
STM: This fruit bowl really looks strange without any fruits in it. I’ll go and buy some.
GWY: (frowning) Si TuMo.
STM: I’m asking you, what fruits you do you like?
GWY: (sighing) Watermelon.
STM: Watermelon. I like watermelon, too. I’ll go and wash the bed sheet.
GWY: Si TuMo.
STM: It got dirty again.

Gu WeiYi knows that Si TuMo is hurting from Fu Pei’s totally unfair accusation that STM was cheating from him.

🙂 I don’t speak Chinese but I do read body language. Fu Pei’s jokes about the watermelon and the empty fruit basket are barbed comments. He’s making GWY and STM feel guilty by acting like a betrayed boyfriend or a cuckold husband.

You see, watermelon in Chinese (xigua) sounds almost the same as foolish in Chinese (shagua). And when Fu Pei wears the green fruit basket on his head, he’s alluding to a Chinese expression that to wear a green hat means the man’s being fooled or cheated on by his lover. (Ha! I learned this from Love O2O.)

Thus, when Fu Pei puts on the green fruit basket like a crown and draped the green bedsheet on his shoulder like a cape, he’s signaling to Gu WeiYi and Si TuMo that they played him for a big fool…or the King of all Fools. See that?

But how dare he pretend to be the only suffering one in this relationship? 👿

After Fu Pei leaves, it’s up to Gu WeiYi to comfort her and help her get back on her feet. When she hurts her finger on the laundry machine, he rushes in to check on her. We all know that they aren’t just talking about the finger.

GWY: Let me see. Is it painful?
STM: Yes.
GWY: You can cry it out, it’s alright.
STM: It’s painful but I don’t want to cry.
GWY: I’ll buy you a bandage.

He’s allowing her time to cry in private. So when he came back with the bandage and watermelon for her, she’s let out all her emotions and composed herself again.

That’s why for me, the watermelon scene at the end of Episode 4 serves a nice contrast to the soup scene in Episode 3.

Whereas before with the soup scene, Gu WeiYi and Si TuMo sat at different tables, they’re now sitting across from each other and sharing a watermelon.

Whereas before with the soup scene, GWY was very careful about not spilling the soup, he’s now engaging in a messy food eating contest with her and gobbling up the watermelon with great relish just like her.

And whereas before with the soup scene, it was STM who smiled at him behind his back, it’s now GWY who smiles after she leaves.

To me, they’re both smiling at each other’s peculiarities and they accept these quirks as something endearing. His standoffish ways don’t bug her, and neither does her tangled and chaotic relationship with Fu Pei bug him…as much.

Gu WeiYi is clearly NOT the type to stuff himself with mouthfuls of watermelon. He seems to be humoring her because he sees that she wants to forget Fu Pei. To me, getting a small piece of watermelon from Si TuMo’s half indicates that he’s no longer content with his previous solitary ways. Entangling himself with Si TuMo, who’s nothing at all like the genius scientist Madame Curie, may seem foolish and messy, but it’s definitely sweeter and better having her around him.

Next up: Eps 5 & 6.