Episode 3 opens with the camera focused on a wall clock.

The time is 2:15. It’s 2018. The door opens and she peeks in. He watches her from the dining table.

QY: Why are you still awake, sweetheart?

He doesn’t answer so she begins to regale him with her story — or rather her excuse — for coming home in the wee hours of the morning.

QY: My girlfriend broke up with her boyfriend. (he stands up from the table and leaves the room) I ran to the bar and drank wither as soon as I finished work. She said that they had been together for three years, but they still broke up. She thought that love couldn’t be forever. I’m not a lucky girl. But I think that the luckiest thing in my life is to have you as my husband.

Her voice increasingly sounds agitated. She must be feeling guilty and trying to placate him. He returns to the room with a glass of water.

YM: I’m really touched that you think this way (i.e., lucky to have him as her husband). But don’t think I can forgive you for coming home at 2am in the morning. Drink this and go to bed.

If you rush through this prologue, then you’ll fail to notice that it sets up the whole episode.

Here’s the recap.

As QiaoYi mentions in the prologue, she’s unlucky. Her trouble begins because of a botched attempt to prank the principal and steal his dentures. To cut a long story short, she and her fellow classmates, Hao Wui and Dachuan have to score high marks in the next text to avoid getting expelled from high school.

However, QiaoYi is also very lucky because Yan Mo becomes her tutor. He’s Dachuan’s uncle so Dachuan has no compunction demanding that he tutor the two of them. He summarily rejects Dachuan’s demand.

When QiaoYi meekly accepts his refusal and apologizes for troubling him with their problem,

he capitulates. He lays down his ground rules as their tutor.

He says, “I will use my weekend to help you. You can only stay in the living room. Don’t be late and never leave early. No one is allowed to speak without my permission. And the most important, take off your shoes.”

On a side note: he calculated their chances. He determined that there were 739 students with Zhao Qiaoyi ranking last after the test and his uncle Fei Dachuan ranking 714. It would be quite easy, he said. According to his conservative estimate, they’ll meet their goal if their average score reaches 56. They have 21 days to implement the review plan he made for them. See that? He does calculate his plans.

He spends his weekends making their review notes and exercises, and practice tests. Their teacher, Mr. Gao warns him not to spend too much time tutoring the two kids. He shouldn’t let his own studies be affected.

YM: Zhao Qiaoyi doesn’t have a weak foundation. She just prefers certain subjects.
Mr. Gao: (looking surprised at his defense of Qiaoyi) Seems like you two get along well.
YM: I just stick to the facts.

I presume Mr. Gao knows that Yan Mo doesn’t go out of his way to maintain social ties with the other students.

Yan Mo doesn’t get paid monetarily for his tutoring service, unlike QiaoYi’s brother, Guanchao, who charges Hao Wui exorbitant rates for his tutoring service. Yan Mo also provides his tutees sandwiches and water with them, gratis.

I guess it can be said that the compensation he gets for his service is not financial, but emotional. He learns what a friend is, according to Qiaoyi. One late night after their tutoring session, he walks her home for safety.

QY: Do you think that person earlier just happened to be walking in the same direction I was?
YM: I don’t know.
QY: That’s right. Why are you here?
YM: I’m walking the dog.
QY: (teasingly) You walk the dog like this?

YM: Grandpa suffers from kidney stones.
QY: Dogs also get kidney stones?
YM: Dogs are the same as people. In human age, he’s about 70 years old now.
QY: That’s why he’s called Grandpa?
YM: No. Because his character is like my grandpa’s.

And I would say the dog’s character is like his, too.

QY: You usually live by yourself?
YM: Yes.
QY: Do you have friends?
YM: Does Grandpa count?

QY: Actually, it’s quite easy to make friends. You can go to school together, leave school together, and go home together. Remember to take one for your friends when you buy snacks. Remember your friend’s birthday. Remember to take one for your friends when buying food and drinks.

She mentions the sharing snacks, food and drinks twice on her list of qualities.

YM: It’s so troublesome.

QY: Also you don’t even think that it’s troublesome.

Meaning, this is another quality of a friend included in her list.

YM: That’s one you just added.

He’s accusing her of making this one up on-the-spot, probably to chasten him for grumbling that the making friends was troublesome.

QY: (smiling) No, it’s always been there. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Hao Wuyi.

He doesn’t say anything, just hugs his dog closer.

QY: I arrived at my home now. (he nods and turns to leave) Yan Mo…we walked home together. Are we friends now?

He doesn’t answer. He just looks at her then turns away. She smiles cheekily.

Soon, it’s the last day of tutoring.

QY: Did I make any progress?
YM: You’re already ranked last. Do you have any space to fall behind?
QY: Then, can I succeed in tomorrow’s test?
YM: You’ve done all the questions.
QY: What if you missed one?

Remember. She and Dachuan are studying Yan Mo’s prep tests. They’re only as good as the prep tests he’s made for them.

YM: Then you can only blame yourself for having bad luck.

Meaning, don’t blame him.

QY: Also, finish this sheet.

As she does the practice test, he falls asleep. QY observes him sleep.

QY: (whispers) You not only need to finish your own studies, but you also need to help tutor us with our studies. I thought you wouldn’t feel tired.

She reaches out to draw doodles on his face but she stops herself.

QY: (to herself) He’ll kill me then.

So instead she leaves him a note that he reads when he wakes up. “I’m going home. Thank you for your time and hard work these days. I’ve a gift for you.”

The following day is test day, and Dachuan brings an amulet of good luck to school. It’s Yan Mo’s picture. The students pray to Yan Mo’s picture for good luck, except Hao Wui. She has her own amulet with Guancho’s picture.

As expected, Yan Mo is the first one to finish the test. He goes out and buys himself water and notebook. The vendor tells him that, for an extra yuan, he can buy soda, too. He turns it down, but then, he must have remembered QiaoYi’s rule that friends take one for their friends when buying food or drink.

He returns outside the classroom to wait for QiaoYi.

As expected, too, QiaoYi is the last one to finish the test. lol. Yan Mo might have been first out of the door but he lingered till she’s done. She spots him and runs over to consult answers.

She’s happy to know that she got the right answers. She sees the can of Coke he bought for her.

QY: Didn’t you say you didn’t drink coca-cola?
YM: It was free.

No. It costs one yuan.

QY: Then, I’ll drink it.

She struggles to open it again and looks for the ruler to pop it open.

Hmmm… I wonder if she has some sort of finger/hand injury that makes it difficult for her to pull the can tabs? I noticed earlier that she had her right index finger wasn’t as dexterous and she had slight problem holding the pen to draw on his cheek.

Anyway, he opens it for her, then

hands it back.

She frowns at it then they look at each other. He leaves her.

The show ends with a flashback of Yan Mo reading the “Thank you” note she left him the day before. She wrote that she had a gift for him so he looked around him to find it.

It’s a drawing of a watch on his wrist with a sandwich in the middle. (BTW, the drawing’s not so bad considering she had to do it upside down with that weird index finger of hers.)

He smiles for a second, then dismisses it as “childish.”

Do you see it now?

The story ends in the same way that it began. There was the passage of time and the offer of a drink.

In the prologue, Yan Mo waited for her to come home at 2:15am. She chattered about how lucky she was to have him as a husband. He was sullen but he got her a glass of water before walking out away.

But twelve years previously, he did the same thing for her.

On exam day, he waited for her to finish with a can of soda to give her. He bought it for her but he lied that it was a freebie he happened to have with him. 

And she chattered too because she was excited that she knew the answers. She had been worried about her bad luck ruining the test for her but, with Yan Mo’s help and her diligent effort, she discovered that she needed not have worried.

And to me that’s the whole point of the episode.

The entire time that he had spent with her had nothing to do with luck. She credited “luck” for her good fortune. She was the “luckiest woman” to have him for a husband.

But…

he didn’t want to tutor anybody. He only relented because of her. She looked dejected as she headed for the door.

He didn’t want to walk the dog. He carried the dog because of her. He worried about her walking alone.

He didn’t like to make friends and thought it was troublesome. He did anyway because of her. She cajoled him.

He didn’t want to buy that soda. He gave in because she liked Coke.

He didn’t like waiting up for her till 2:15am in the morning. He said that he didn’t think he could forgive her for it. Nevertheless, he DID wait for her because she hadn’t come yet. And gave her water to drink before going to bed.

lol, she was smiling, though.

Luck had nothing to do with why he did things he wasn’t inclined to do in the first place.  He did them all because of love.

So no, she isn’t the luckiest woman. But she is, however, the only woman he’s ever loved.