A pretty good episode to start the 2nd week of this wonderful drama’s airing! When people were watching this live, they were saying that they just wanted to skip through this episode. I expected that it was going to happen to me too but good thing, it didn’t! Although I did not exactly dislike this episode, there were some aspects of it that disappointed me while some feels just melted my heart. Come join me here to find out why!

We started this episode by Shancai looking for Thomas. She (un)luckily bumped into Dao Ming Si who trapped her into eating lunch with him. Don’t you just love how he gave a compliment to Shancai? The old Dao Ming Si would not really do it so casually.

This had me smiling when Meizuo and Ximen said this about Ah Si. Isn’t is so nice to have a cool guy change into a caring and considerate man?

But you guys aren’t really dating yet… but okay, I always love a jealous Ah Si!

Ah Si saw Shancai talking to Thomas so of course, he had to intervene.

The look of disappointment in his face 😦 then he stormed out of the scene.

Dao Ming Si saw Shancai as a rare gem because no matter how hard he tried, he just could not get it. This is one of the qualities of Shancai that made him so attracted to her. He has everything that he wants in life and if he does not have it, it’s just so easy for him to buy it. All the girls seem to be so easy to get that they would easily call him/any of the F4 back. It was definitely not the case with Shancai.

A photo of Shancai with Thomas was circulating online. Ah Si’s best buddies pushed him into the pool so he would not be able to see the post. Love these boys!

His best buddies could not keep the secret for long so Ah Si eventually found out. He confronted Shancai and here are the feels…

I felt this in my heart, ladies and gentlemen! 😦 I feel like their relationship was still confusing and not really as stable to have a definition. However, hearing from this Shancai just melted my heart.

This was just so funny haha! You guys are still the best brothers that Ah Si could ever have.

Ah Si suddenly disappeared and went a trip down memory lane. This was where he was waiting for Shancai for four hours during their first date. Ugh I never got over that scene actually 😦 so I could really feel you here, Ah Si!

My disappointment towards how they remade the following scenes started here. If you remember from the 2001 version, Shancai was beaten up by some random guys in school since they were loyal to Dao Ming Si. In this version, they were the guys who tried to harass Shancai after she had a fight with Dao Ming Si. Shen Yue’s acting here was commendable but I still wanted more emotions from the whole scene. Dylan’s acting was pretty lacking here and the fighting scenes were cringe-worthy. The original version had me tear up when Dao Ming Si told Shancai that he believed her while this one just had minimal effect on me. I could probably blame the dubbing, acting, timing, or whatever but yes, this scene disappointed me.

Another disappointing moment for me here: I disliked their first real kiss so much that I did not even get a screencap of it… Come on, China! You could do better than that, right? The kissing scene was not only taken with a bad angle but I felt that it was just a camera trick. Some people have told me otherwise but really… May it be a camera trick or not, it was quite disappointing. I understand that it could have been part of China’s regulations again and that a large population of the audience are the younger ones. It is definitely inevitable to compare but look at how Jerry Yan’s Dao Ming Si gave Barbie Hsu’s Shancai their real first kiss here. When I rewatched it a few years ago after 11 years, I could not believe that I watched that scene as a 7 year-old lol

I mean it too, Dao Ming Si!! He looked really handsome here that I just had to say it…

Ugh how could you not have realized that? By the way, the episode did not end here. It ended with the drama between Li Zhen and Shancai’s friendship but I felt there was really nothing important. The most important part of it was that F3 was the one who helped Shancai figure everything out.

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In a nutshell, 

• We saw a more vulnerable and emotional Shancai (great acting by Shen Yue!) in this episode. She was cyber-bullied and ostracized here thanks to her very good friend, Li Zhen. The old Shancai experienced worse and I actually don’t know how she managed to survive that. To be honest, I am not so fond of this new Shancai’s EQ but it is part of the changes of this version so I will just keep embracing such changes.
• Dao Ming Si, you adorable thing. You just keep getting better and better and how many times do I have to say that?!
• Again, I am not letting go of that first kiss. Dao Ming Si even assured that it was only going to take 0.5 seconds… Meanwhile, 2001 version reached 50 seconds to a minute *sighs*
• The “I believe you” scene of Dao Ming Si and Shancai may have been lacking in the feels and acting department due to the actors’ disadvantage of being inexperienced actors. It’s fine, I will still support them! 😉
• It wasn’t such a bad episode and I was expecting worse given that people were complaining that it was too centered on Li Zhen. I didn’t really feel it, it just felt like nothing really happened haha!

As you could see, it was probably the first Meteor Garden 2018 recap that made me disappoint for a few times. So what did you think about this episode?  Hope you can tell me in the comments below!