I’ll combine two episodes because they deal about the break-up. Plus, I’m a firm believer that band-aids, and most things painful, should be ripped off as fast you can, so the discomfort is over fast, too.

1. She thinks/He thinks

Their break-up hinged around this moment:

It amuses me that such an innocent hug could be considered life-changing. Both Nian’s and Shanyang’s worlds were shaken the day after their hug and they felt extremely embarrassed… but for different reasons.

Shanyang was EXTRA grumpy during his morning conference with the K&K kids. None of their written assignments could pass his muster. In between his critiques of their works, he had flashbacks of Nian.

“Too many wrong characters. Write it again!”

“Mixed English and Chinese. Can you speak a language?”

“There’s not a bit of literary grace. It’s dull and trite.”

The viewers assumed that he was upset with Nian for behaving indecorously (or sluttish). It only became clear, after his phone call with his stepmom, that he was temperamental that morning for a different reason.

THE reason: he was embarrassed that he couldn’t pay for the jewelry he gave her. lol.

Remember now. This is the guy who prides himself in being a man of action, “I only believe in doing it or not doing it. I don’t think about whether I can do it. If you don’t do it, then you have nothing. Isn’t that so?”

Welllll…as 97 said, he “hit a wall.” He could nod DO it because his bankbook couldn’t do it. lol. Our loverboy should have thought about his financial situation before giving Nian the jewelry.

But his judgment was impaired because all he could think about was this:

And the reason he didn’t think of his money was because he was moved by this:

He wanted to give it to her because she thought it was hers. She said, “Thank you. I like this. It’s so pretty. Thank you.” In his romantic state of mind, what Nian wants, Nian gets. I agree with @agdr03, he went gaga over her.

If he had been “chill” like Wu Bai, he would have stopped and considered that Nian was drunk. She wouldn’t remember what she said. He was off the hook for promising to “give her a gift” so she’d release him.

SY: It’s…Auntie’s necklace she had me buy last time. I accidentally gave it to Tong Nian.
Bai: Accidentally gave? Then just ask for it back.
SY: I already gave it away. How could I be so shameless to ask for it back?

See? He thought it would be SHAMELESS of him to ask for it back, and so he chose to dig himself a hole. He knew the necklace wasn’t his to give and he was strapped for cash to pay for it upfront.

In other words, he was embarrassed. This is a guy who prided himself in being self-sufficient and self-determining. Remember his speech before he retired from Team Solo and CTF about forging their own destiny and not answering to anyone? lol. This guy who prided himself in his independence had to swallow his pride.

All because of drunken Nian.

Now, if you replay that whole scene, you’ll see Shangyan face-palming or face-fisting

as he remembered their hug, THIS hug.

Meanwhile, somewhere in dreamland, Nian remembered the same hug, too. She awakened and wondered “Is this real or a dream? Was he very close to me? What happened?”

Now, with Nian, it was easy to see why she was mortified.

Being a good girl, she was embarrassed at the way she behaved when drunk. She wouldn’t have remembered much of the incident had it not been for the jewelry she found in her backpack. When she saw the necklace, the image of her toying with it immediately flashed in her mind, and she was embarrassed.

To make matters worse, when she called her friend Meimei to ask what happened the night before, Meimei scolded her for being drunk and creating a big trouble for “God Gun,” the idol of her husband.

MM: Right. Her Highness Squid, you’re too embarrassing. You only drank one or two and you already got so drunk. Did you do anything before you got too drunk? Answer honestly. If you confess, the sentence will be lighter.
Nian: I won’t talk to you now. I’ll hang up first.
Nian: My god! What on earth did I do yesterday? So embarrassing.

 

She immediately texted Shangyan to apologize. “I’m sorry for yesterday. I troubled you again.”

When he didn’t respond, she thought, “I definitely scared him yesterday. He hasn’t replied. Must be unwilling to forgive me. I deserve it. How could I let him see such a messy side of me? This time it’s probably the end of all hopes.”

But as she was berating herself, Shangyan was leaving his room in search of Wu Bai for a loan. That’s the reason he didn’t see her text and didn’t get to respond right away.

Do you see how well the scenes were edited? Her voice-over, moaning about her “messy side,” was playing at the same time that Shangyan was taking care of his own “messy side.” lol. They BOTH had messy sides that they didn’t want the other person to see. For Nian, she didn’t want him to see her immature and childish side so her drunkenness embarrassed her. For Shangyan, he didn’t want her to see his immature (yes, he was) and incompetent side so his money woes embarrassed him.

2. Karma

Do you believe in karma? If you do, then you could say that Shangyan was “karma-ed.”

The necklace was his grandpa’s gift to his stepmom. Shanyan was tasked to buy it in Norway and give to his stepmom. The stepmom already wired him the money.

But it was actually his grandpa’s gift to his daughter-in-law as she was about to remarry and leave the Han family.

Now….do you remember this scene?

His grandpa ALSO bought Nian a necklace and he wanted Shanyang to pretend and give it to her as a New Year’s Day present from himself. He didn’t want to but he was forced to give it to Nian. He didn’t like that he was being “forced” by his grandpa, so to spite his grandpa, he outed him as the real giver of the gift.

Demo: (gawking) It’s the initial of Boss’ name!
SY: (looking at her excited face) Do you like it?
Nian: (nodding head excitedly) I like it. Thank you.
SY: I didn’t buy it. Grandpa did. (scowling at him for his interfering way)

He didn’t really want to ruin Nian’s romantic fantasies. What he wanted was to ruin his grandpa’s vicarious happiness from seeing him in a match with Nian. So, he told Nian that he didn’t buy it. His grandpa did.

Wellllll, karma struck.

This time, Shangyan couldn’t complain anymore that he did NOT buy Nian the jewelry because he was bankrupting himself just to pay for it.

Happy now, Shangyan?

3. The Break-up

Three things to note about their break-up.

Point One: It’s super quick and easy.

At 13:30 she texted him.

Nian: Let’s break up. It’s fake anyway.
SY: Have you thought this through?
Nian: Yes.
SY: OK.

By 13:33, it was over.

It took them 3 minutes, give or take a few seconds.

Here’s my “Agony Aunt” advice” to young single ladies out here: Unless your guy’s a stalker and/or a life is endangered, NEVER break up by phone. You owe it to yourself, him, and the Romance Gods who brought you two together, to end the relationship face to face. It’s courtesy and decency. It’s good to break up in a private place, but if you expect the break-up to be emotionally charged or to deteriorate into a physical fight, the a public place is better.

Anyway, I get why she broke up. She thought her drunk behavior so repulsed him that he didn’t want to continue with their relationship. However, she also thought he was hindered from breaking up with her, even when he wanted to, because he gave his word that the decision to break up was hers to make.

Remember this from Episode 7:

Nian: I want to ask you a question.
SY: Say what you have to say. (turning off the radio)
Nian: When are we breaking up?
Nian: Because we should set a time frame, right? So I can tell my parents.
SY: When do you want to break up? (she doesn’t answer) You haven’t thought this?
Nian: How about…how about next month? Breaking up during New Year’s is too fast. It’s not really good.
SY: How about this? You can decide. Whenever you decide to break up, just notify me in advance. Before we break up, you are still my girlfriend. Whatever you want, you say it. I’ll do my best to make it happen. I’ll keep my word.

And note this: When she talked about breaking up, both times, his follow-up question was “Have you thought through with this?” He wanted her to be sure of her decision and not break with him on a whim.

Point Two: They didn’t like the idea.

He looked hurt. He shook his after he sent the text, as if he had no choice but to agree to the break-up.

And she cried when she received his text.

Yang Zi’s acting was on point. But she looked cute. I’d like to have 16-year-old granddaughter like her.

Point Three: She was still concerned about his well-being after the break-up.

Nian realized that, while she was able to receive a lot of support from her mom and dad, from Meimei and her other girl bestie Yaya, Shangyan was all alone. I like that, even when things didn’t work out romantically between them, Nian could still wish him the best.

With Little Ai’s help, Nian sent him pictures of his former Team Solo with an accompanying message, “Han Shangya, I asked Little Ai to find some pictures that could motivate you. wrote him a letter. Although we split up, I still hope you can become happier.”

Point Four: Coping Skills

They couldn’t have been more different.

He was EMO!!! He stared into space,

listened to sad music, played the game she made, checked out her rest of the content of her USB.

Note: Their break-up slowed down his reaction time by .001 second. lol.

Before:

After:

On the other hand, she cried buckets, but in between tears, she had a successful software demonstration and ate a dinosaur. Her friend called her an “Iron Lady.” She was heartbroken but she still functioned well.

lol. Her appetite didn’t diminish.

4. Where is the necklace?

His grandpa hounded him about the missing necklace. When he said that he lost it, his grandpa followed up and asked whether the club was losing money.

He admitted yes. His Grandpa immediately thought he sold the necklace because he was short of cash.

Shangyan replied that the other branches still made enough profit to cover up the losses. Grandpa told him if he needed money, he should just tell him. Shangyan railed against the assumption that he swindled his stepmom’s money. “What do you think of me?”

His pride was hurt of course. Straight away, He deposited $140,000 to his stepmom’s account and he’s left with $30 in his bank.

Oh no!!!! We have an impoverished hero!!! lol. Really. He was just cash-strapped.

But what pushed him over the edge was when he checked Nian’s account on NetEase. He saw her recent post. “The heart is like a rollercoaster. Rising, falling, and flipping. Currently rushing towards the bottom.”

And he got upset.

He got upset because he was the JILTED one. She dumped him. She was the DUMPER, and he was the DUMPEE. And he had this huge debt that he had to fix.

So in his mind, why was she talking about her life “rushing towards the bottom” when it’s his life that was going down the toilet.

That was why he went to the kitchen and started cooking up a storm.

Do you see the way he was cooking the dishes? He was venting. He was releasing his anger and frustration on the veggies, fish, and chicken.

He was doing a whole lot of knife action: cutting, slicing, mincing, paring, and chopping. hahaha. That’s probably how he felt. He wanted to chop off the memory his short-lived love affair with Nian from his brain…and heart.

So…it wasn’t at all surprising that all the food he cooked ended up spicy. With that much aggression in his body, of course, the food he ended up cooking would also be “hostile” to the taste buds, too.

Hot temper = spicy food

6. Singing audition

Nian was the favored one to win the audition. She introduced herself like this:

“I really like to sing. Moreover, I like to sing for the person I like. I hope after he listens to it, he can feel happy and be happy. I think songs are the best way to communicate feelings. I’ll put all my feelings into my singing. Even if he doesn’t like me, and I think there’s no way to insist, at the very least, I want to try. If I don’t put in the effort and sing to him, he might never know that I like him.”

Arriving late, Shanyang joined the panel of judges as she finished her introduction. But he heard every word she said, and he shot her an angry glance. Another judge asked him to give Nian a name of a song he thought was suitable for her to sing.

And striking back at her, he told her, “Then use that flowery method you just mentioned to sing, “Little Donkey.”

In other words, he was letting her know that he heard her spiel about doing every thing for love even if hers was an unrequited love … and he absolutely did NOT buy it. To him, she was all talk –“flower-y” and sentimental talk — but she couldn’t match actions to her words.

Remember: she said that, even when her love is unreciprocated, she’d sing her best to convince the man of the sincerity of her feelings.

Moreover, he was sending HER a message that he thought she was immature and childish. Hence, his choice of song for her to sing, “Little Donkey.” Ha! See how mean he was? To the other judges, he sounded like he was only challenging her to show her singing ability. On the surface, he was only challenging her to interpret this silly song as a love song for a guy she wanted to convince of her true love. The judges could then grade her on technique and credibility. That is, her singing technique should be able convince the judges of her sincere love.

However, both Shanyang and Nian knew that Shanyang was talking about something else. He was talking about their break-up. He was DARING her to convince him that she could be sincere even after she dumped him. He was practically telling her, “NO way am I going to believe your sentimental nonsense after what you did to me.”

But most importantly, Nian knew that he was still very upset about it. She knew that he was telling her that she treated him shabbily and childishly. She knew that he hadn’t forgiven her for breaking up with him.

Now, listen to the song again. First, she sang the song hesitantly. Her voice faltered at the last line. Then, when she repeated the song, her voice was stronger, more confident but still NOT as giddy as a children’s song should have been.

I have a little donkey that I never ride
One day it suddenly entered my mind
to ride it to the market
I hold a whip in my hand
My heart feels delighted.
I don’t know how
la la lalaa fell and got all muddy.

He avoided her eyes while she sang.

One of the judge asked her if there was any feeling that she wanted to express with this song. She answered, “Since the judge (referring to Shanyang) asked me to use the (sentimental and romantic) method of expressing emotions that I described, to sing this song, I imagined that the Little Donkey to be my lover and sang this song.”

He looked at her then.

The judge continued, “Then, what happened to your ‘Little Donkey’?”

Her eyes glanced at his direction, then she answered, “My ‘Little Donkey’ is gone….I’m sorry.” She quickly turned around and sat down.

Now, a lot of viewers (and commenters on Viki, lol) didn’t get this part.

They thought it was dumb that she had to sing the “Little Donkey” song and that her singing was UNimpressive.

But if I were the judge, I’d give her the full 100 points. You see, Shangyan’s challenge was to sing just like she said she would in her introduction. Remember: even when her love is unreciprocated, she’d sing her best to convince the man of the sincerity of her feelings.

And she did it! She expressed the feelings of a girl with unrequited love.

Look: the first time Nian sang the stanza, she sang very tentatively. Why?

This was to show how a girl sounds when she’s hopelessly in love and doesn’t want to insist on being loved back. She knows it’s futile.

That’s why Nian sang softly, sadly. Her voice almost faded at the ending line…to suggest insecurity. To me, this was brilliant because the happy lyrics of the song contrasted very well with her wistful voice.

The second time she sang the stanza, she sang louder. Why?

Again, she was only doing what she said in her introduction. Remember: she said she’d put in all the EFFORT in her singing so the guy would know without a doubt that she liked him.

Put in more “effort = sing more confidently

That’s why she was singing with more assurance although she was still singing softly. She wanted her guy to know that her love is real. She was being earnest in her singing.

Stylistically then she nailed her song. She was able to express the different moods in her voice.

But what I also like about this moment is that it backfired on Shangyan. He intended to embarrass her and pay her back for dumping him. But in the end, he was MOVED by her. And he understood her.

First, he knew that she called him a donkey, and he acknowledged that he was acting asinine. Two, she was singing that song for him and ABOUT him. lol. The song was all about him.

You see, the meaning of the Donkey song could be subverted to express her real feelings. Just like when he sent her a message when he chose the Donkey song, the judges and the other listeners were totally oblivious to the PRIVATE communication while they knew the hidden meaning. They were talking to each other about something only the two of them could understand.

The donkey lyrics — here, I’ll repeat the song —

I have a little donkey that I never ride
One day it suddenly entered my mind
to ride it to the market
I hold a whip in my hand
My heart feels delighted.
I don’t know how
la la lalaa fell and got all muddy.

could have a double meaning, like this:

I have an ass (or jerk) of a boyfriend who
I no longer meet
Until one day he shows up in front of me.
My heart feels delighted.
But I don’t know why he’s suddenly mean
and still angry with me.

Do you see it?

Shangyan understood then that she was heartbroken, too, about their break-up. She looked woeful when she said that her Little Donkey was gone. That’s why Shangyan looked away. He was feeling sorry, too.

7. The Make-Up

Nian KNEW that Shangyan understood her. She knew he wouldn’t approach right away after the auditions because HEYYY! The man’s got pride. lol. She knew she had to give him time (like a week’s time, lol). He was going to forgive her in due time.

The director did well here. The camera focused on Nian and Shangyan because they were communicating. If they could speak directly to each other, Nian would have asked him, “Did you understand what I was singing about? I don’t want this break up.”

And he would have said, “Mmm. Let me think this through.” lol. He always wanted her to think it through before acting.

But she was right that Shangyan got her “telepathic” message in the song because he waited outside in his jeep to watch her say goodbye to the others.

He made up his mind to see her in a week’s time.

That’s why she was waiting to see him at the recording studio.

She was so sure he’d show up that she was heartily disappointed when he didn’t. She couldn’t sing well; she couldn’t focus because she was waiting for his arrival.  Of course, he was outside preparing drinks for them.

When she saw the encouraging message on the juice bottle, she knew she was right.

He’d use the bottle marked “Confession” because she made a confession during the audition, and he got it.

*****

okay, this is rough draft (and will probably stay this way…) I’ve to run errands before the beach trip.