It’s morning and Qi YI wakes up to find Mrs Cheng exercising downstairs. Liang Liang and her dad had gone out to the flower markets but Mrs Cheng stayed behind because she wanted to make breakfast for Qi Yi.
As he’s eating, Mrs Cheng is staring at him. He feels a bit uneasy about it so she finally asked – is it okay if I call you Xiao Yi? Calling you landlord is just kind of hard to pronounce. Qi Yi is a bit unsure at first, but gratefully accepts since Liang Liang’s parents have been so kind to him.
When Liang Liang and her father returns from the flower markets, Mrs Cheng starts fussing over Liang Liang – telling her she’s sweating so much etc etc… Qi Yi watches on with a hint of sadness in his eyes. (awww I want to hug him.)
Mrs Cheng decides to do the laundry and takes some of Qi Yi’s clothes for washing too. When Liang Liang hangs the clothes out to dry, she’s horrified to find some of Qi Yi’s clothes there – including his underwear! So she tries to dry them with a blowdryer and when Mrs Cheng finds out, she wonders what the heck Liang Liang is doing with a man’s boxers!
Liang Liang explains Qi Yi is a clean freak and if he finds out, he will go crazy. After Liang Liang dries his clothes, she tries to sneak into his room to return them while Mrs Cheng is outside keeping watch. When Qi Yi wants to go into his room, Mrs Cheng tries to stop him but she couldn’t.
Mrs Cheng and Liang Liang apologise that they shouldn’t have touched his clothes, and Mr Cheng even offered to buy him new shirts. However, after some thought Qi Yi actually said thank you and wasn’t angry at them at all. As Liang Liang and her parents are upstairs happily chatting, Qi Yi takes photos of the house and sends a message…
Father, do you still remember this house?
Then Qi Yi speaks to Liang Liang privately about her proposal. Basically, he tears it apart and thinks it is unusable. Liang Liang is dejected and talks to her parents about it. When she asks them whether they know the coffee plantation owner, her parents reveal the owner used to have another name. When Liang Liang searches for information under this name, she now has more information to improve her proposal.
Liang Liang stays up late to amend the proposal and (almost) show up late for work.
Liang Liang: YES! The boss said if arriving to work five minutes prior to the start time is being late. I arrived five minutes and three seconds before 9am. Safe!
Liang Liang’s colleague: Everyone should have this basic level of professional work ethic. Is there a need to be so happy about it?
Liang Liang: No… it’s because…
Qi Yi: Please don’t waste our meeting time to discuss such ridiculous matters.
During the meeting, Liang Liang wants to interrupt to show Qi Yi her revised proposal. Qi Yi is annoyed, and asks her whether she is willing to stake her career on it. (If the proposal is unacceptable, she will go back to the administration department) Liang Liang says she’s confident so Qi YI reads it. Finally, Qi Yi thinks Liang Liang is using her brain to do her work.
Qi Yi sets up a meeting with the coffee plantation owner to discuss the proposal. As he is about to drive away, Liang Liang rushes down to bring him breakfast. He resists, since he doesn’t want any liquids (other than water) in his car.
Qi Yi: Don’t leave your fingerprints on my car!
As they struggled – Liang Liang insists he take the coffee while he doesn’t want it at all, Liang Liang drops her previous proposal on the passenger seat. (Why is she holding that in the first place?) She nearly spilled the coffee but he managed to keep it save, but as she leaves, Liang Liang took the wrong proposal so the old one is left in Qi Yi’s car.
Liang Liang goes back to her desk and realises the mistake. She tries to call Qi Yi but he’s on the phone. So she takes a taxi to chase after him. At a rest point she sees Qi Yi’s car so she gets out of the taxi to run after his car, but Qi Yi doesn’t see her… and the taxi had left. So she borrows a bicycle to chase some more.
Qi Yi tries to go back to look for Liang Liang but without success. So he has to go to the coffee plantation with the incorrect proposal. When he arrives, the owner comments he is only three minutes early, which means he had to wait for him.
During the meeting the owner gives some reasons why he doesn’t like working with large corporations – mostly because his coffee beans are focused on quality not quantity so they cannot mass produce. Also, he thinks the large companies cannot bring the best out of his coffee beans. Unless Qi Yi has a brilliant proposal, it is unlikely he will work with them.
Their meeting was interrupted by a phone call, Qi Yi steps away to talk. The owner sees the proposal and takes it. He will read it tonight and decide. Liang Liang finally arrives with the correct proposal and just as she’s about to take it out of her bag Qi Yi stops her. Qi Yi knows that the owner hates people who don’t adequately prepare, if they keep changing their information / proposal the owner won’t work with them for sure. So they have to come up with a plan to switch it…
They wait until night time but still couldn’t find the opportunity to switch the proposal. Eventually, the owner goes to bed so Qi Yi decides they should just go back to the car and find another plan. They end up in the car for the night and Liang Liang messages her friends to tell them about it.
Princess thinks it’s the perfect opportunity for ‘Operation Lion Hunt’ – Liang Liang can pretend she’s afraid of the dark / she’s cold to get closer to Qi Yi. But Qi Yi thinks there’s something wrong with her and they bicker again. Liang Liang is mad and gets out of the car to think of how they can switch the proposal.
She creates a distraction so the owner had to go out of the house to investigate. Liang Liang then successfully switches the proposal. The next morning, she shows up at the owner’s doorstep asking if he has read it. He smiles and says he read it over breakfast.
They takes a walk down the coffee plantation and they talk about plants and how they should be treated with respect. The owner is surprised that Liang Liang knows a bit about plants, she reveals her parents grow roses and met the owner before. Years ago, the owner wanted to make a rose coffee blend so he bought roses from Liang Liang’s parents. This immediately created a bond between Liang Liang and the owner.
Liang Liang: I believe life is eternal. If we plant the fallen seeds next to the coffee tree, one day they’ll grow again.
The owner admires Liang Liang’s respect for plants so he decides he can discuss more about the proposal with Qi Yi. As they leave, the owner reveals he knows about Liang Liang switching the proposal last night, and tells them they don’t need to be so sneaky in the future.
On the way back, Liang Liang receives a message from her friends reminding her about “Operation Lion Hunt”. Another way to catch a guy’s attention is when you don’t eat a lot, so he can take pity on you. But Liang Liang’s stomach keeps growling. When they stop at the roadside store so Liang Liang can return the bicycle she borrowed, the owner persuades them to stay and eat something.
Liang Liang initially declines the offer, saying her boss wants them to return to the office ASAP. But Qi Yi is okay with it, so they stay to eat a meal.
Liang Liang: He wouldn’t be worried… that I’m hungry right?
Later on as they go for another rest stop, Qi Yi returns to the car to find Liang Liang asleep. He adjusts the seat down for her, so she can be more comfortable.
Liang Liang is surprised when she finds he drove her home, thinking he gave her a day off. They both wanted to take a shower, but Qi Yi reminds her of the house rules – he always have to shower first. When Liang Liang’s finished, she was planning to go to sleep but finds Qi Yi all dressed up for work. He reminds her it’s work time and she needs to get there before he does.
At a work meeting Qi Yi reports on what happened. Even though Liang Liang made the mistake with the proposal she rectified it by persuading the owner. So she will only receive a minor warning…
*END OF EPISODE*
I included the screencap above because Puff Kuo seems to pull this same expression A LOT. Not a fan of it either. It does seem like I go on about her overacting in every recap but I am hoping for some improvement as the series goes on. That is the only minor gripe I have about this episode though, maybe I’m just used to it now.
Everything else about episode 3 I really enjoyed! (Maybe except for one illogical plot device – why did Liang Liang bring that incorrect proposal with her with she took the breakfast for Qi Yi? It doesn’t make sense why she would have it with her?) The majority of the episode focused on Qi Yi and Liang Liang so we got to see some nice development between this couple. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much. Liang Liang’s friends are a tad annoying for my taste. Kate is okay but Pincess is even more OTT than Liang Liang.
The beginning parts about Liang Liang’s family really made me smile. To classify Qi Yi as the cold hearted, conceited boss is really misleading because as a boss, (except for the office romance ban) I find him to be very rational, and agree with a lot of things he does. In the workplace, Liang Liang is the one who annoys me the most with her unprofessional behaviour.
As an individual, Qi Yi actually smiles quite a lot in episode 3. When Mrs Cheng washed his clothes he wasn’t angry with them at all. You can see how much he enjoys being around Liang Liang’s family because they welcome him with open arms. Apart from his compulsive behaviour he’s not a bad person at all. Can you tell I like Qi Yi a lot? And it doesn’t have anything to do with the actor who plays him! I think Aaron Yan is doing an adequate job in the drama so far, since this is the first time I’ve seen Aaron in a drama I can’t comment on whether he has improved or whether he keeps playing the same type of character over and over. I can only say in ‘Just You’, I’m enjoying his performance much more than Puff Kuo’s.
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