Sunday, April 7, 2013

Final Thought, Highlights, Review, Cast, Comments: Gloomy Salad Days


So I just finished this drama and I don't know how I feel. Part of me liked it and part of me didn't and another part just didn't care. It was definitely one of those in between dramas.

For a High School drama, it hits points that usually aren't touched in this industry at all and are pretty common. Problems like Homosexuality, Transgender, Trust, Betrayal, Love, Teenage Pregnancy,abandonment and blah blah blah. You guys understand where I'm going right? Some stories, they knocked it out of the ball park, while others, in my opinion, were just there as a filler for the next story to start. I liked how it was kinda cohesive and everyone knew each other.

As it is prominent in almost everything we watch, the guys always outshines the girl. This is very true. You can notice it quite clearly when you compare all of the characters and stories next to one another, except for one girl. Ok I'm getting a little too ahead of myself.

So when I first decided to watch this, one question constantly popped into my head. "Why the heck is this drama called Gloomy Salad Days?" Well, I have somewhat of an answer to that question. Gloomy Salad Days is a compilation of student's stories in Shi Yu High School and the "salad dressing", or the thing connecting all the stories together is death, Du, and a rock.

Because this is a series of stories, I find that it would be easier to critique each story and cast separately as opposed to doing the whole thing together. Boy oh boy. You guys ready?

Spoiler Alert!!

Main Characters
Aaron Yang
A guy who has a tumor in his brain allowing him to see and talk to Du aka Death.

Serena Fang as Du aka Death
Must I really explain? Basically whenever someone calls for death and has a rock from the Bridge of Helplessness, she only grants them the death wish but in return they must become a rock for her bridge. She usually doesn't kill them until it's necessary, all hopes are gone and that they can't solve their conflicts.

Story Number One
Huang He/Xiao Qing
Wang Zi/ Prince as Huang He
An honor student who has it all. Money, brains, good looks, and a gang. Yep a gang.. and an affair with his chemistry teacher.
Teresa Meng as Xiao Qing
Another honor student who beat Huang He in a debate.
Lin Chen Xi as Zeng Nicole
Originally girlfriend of the leader of the Cola gang but ended up having to work for Huang He.
Mao Di as Ah Pang
Just an annoying guy who likes Xiao Qing.

Construction was going on at the school causing an earthquake. The earthquake caused Shen Qi to faint and ever since he's been able to see Du. The next scene is Huang He walking into a room and then Du says she smells death in the room. He says he's not dying soon but she says she'll be waiting for him. Some minor stuff happen such as a coke incident then Huang He becoming "president" of the new gang and then they have a debate. Huang He is supporting the belief of Science whereas Xiao Qing is supporting supernatural beliefs. Xiao Qing wins the debate. Huang He isn't upset losing but is rather intrigued by Xiao Qing, even saying she was cute drawing cough cough hints about her. Remember he is basically a facade in this. To get Xiao Qing to talk to him, he threatens her brother. Her brother slept with Nicole and still owes Huang He 6000 twd for doing so and that he needs to pay him back tomorrow or have his sister meet him on the roof at lunch. As he was trying to steal the money, Xiao Qing caught him red handed and then he explained the situation to her. Before Huang He went to talk to Xiao Qing, the teacher he had an affair with handed some of the ashes from their dead baby. Crazy right? Before Xiao Qing went to see Huang He, she borrowed Ah Pang's pocket knife. She goes to the top of the roof and talks to Huang He, to which he replied with is I want to be friends. But of course things like how do you want to repay me and you're here right now gets combobulated into the conversation then ba bam. They then skip to Ah Pang and sees that he just found out Xiao Qing is meeting Huang He. He runs try to run to the roof but it was guarded. He then ran to the top of the roof of a building nearby and sees that Huang He is raping Xiao Qing. He throws things out of furiosity, one happens to be Du's rock. As he kept screaming for Huang He to die, Du shows up asking is he sure about that. He says yes and she tells him he must become a rock for her bridge. The next day Huang He is dead. Ah Pang finds Xiao Qing in mourning in the roof that she and Huang He was at the day before. He asks why is she grieving after everything that he did to her. She asks what and he says taking advantage of her. She tells him that he is mistaken and what really happened was that they got in a fight but then Huang He stopped her and then they spoke for the rest of the day until nightfall. They talked about how he was only trying to be smart to challenge himself and have a gang so people can also fear him, the affair he had and how he wishes he can just wash away all his sins and that Huang He probably killed himself to wash his sins, that it wasn't Ah Pang's fault. Ah Pang feels miserable afterwards, I mean who wouldn't. He went to the room and left the rock on Huang He's seat. On his desks are a lot of letters and notes from classmates but one of them is from Huang He's chemistry teacher. She tells him how she is proud of him but that the baby wasn't his, he isn't dead and that she was only using him as a way to get away from her crappy marriage.

Crazy epic stuff right? I really enjoyed this story. So much that I actually wished that they could've just taken their story and expanded it into an actual drama and go on, but without him dying of course. He is so cute, Prince. He kinda has qualities of a Korean Flower Boy dontcha think? except his face is kinda round. My sister doesn't like him and neither does my friend Tina but I don't find an issue in him. I enjoyed his character, his acting, his face, his heartfelt actions, sincerity in his role. It was overall done well. I don't know if I want to listen to any of his music yet, maybe one day but I'll keep remembering him as Huang He. Random moment, but who else believes that Wang Zi/ Prince is actually going out with Rainie Yang? Idk, but he had nice hair in this though. The girl who played Xiao Qing is adorable. I really liked her. The guy who played Ah Pang, I honestly don't care about him. 

Story Number Two
Ye Xiao Lin 
Zhang Jun Ming as Ye Xiao Lin
Xiao Lin is a girl who is extremely neglected by her parents.

Ao Quan as Jin Jie Shu, with Xiao Lin


Xiao Lin is a new girl who just was forced to transfer schools because he last school accused her of stealing and her parents are separated. She came to the school with her aunt and uncle, but like her parents they are very distant. *Note* she now sits in Huang He's old seat and finds the rock that Ah Pang left there. She lives in the dorms because he aunt and uncle doesn't want her to live with them. She is very quiet, distant, and always putting up a face for everyone. For example, she has a credit card that her dad puts money in every month. However, she never visits home, no one visits her, let alone leave her dorm besides classes. During winter break, she convinces her aunt to let her stay with them over break. They neglect her because she is, in a way, neglecting them. She snuck out in the middle of the night, stole some money, and a beer. That night she met a guy, Jin Jie Shu, a freelance graffiti artist who hates calligraphy; his dad wants him to do calligraphy and would object to him doing anything besides it, cough cough graffiti. They really hit it off and became great friends until some gang members find that they've been trespassing and that they need to pay a fee for their graffiti. After that ruckus, he gave her his phone number. When she came home, her aunt and uncle found out she was the thief in the middle of the night and left home. She called her dad, who was in Hong Kong with his mistress and wouldn't be back for a few months, and then her mom who is a big ball of crazy who also happens to be drunk; she is drinking away her life after finding out Xiao Lin's dad had an affair. Both parents abandoned her, her aunt and uncle abandons her; she then calls Jie Shu but he was angry with her because she wrote his name on his graffiti causing his dad to find out and make him quit. He tells her that he can't meet her anymore and that graffiti was just a pointless hobby causing her a lot of guilt and pain. During Lunar New Year, as everyone was going home, she was in the dorms because no one came to pick her up. She called her dad to ask if he was going to pick her up but then his mistress picked up the phone and told her that he was arguing with her mom. She decided to starve herself until they cared and before she died, she asked Du to take her parents along with her so she wouldn't be alone.

This story was just depressing. The worst part was that it couldn't be helped. The parents had their problems and she was just a victim and object that no one noticed or cared about. I think what I mainly felt was pity for her but I am also blaming her for not being out there enough. She isn't social, she's not that smart, and she also doesn't help her aunt and uncle around. I think if she would've fixed those problems and wouldn't have wrote Jie Shu's name, her life would've been fine despite her parents separation, but that wasn't the case and in the end she and her parents died. I still wonder if Jie Shu ever thought about her? If he'll ever find out that she died? If he really liked her, I think he did. Honestly, he seems like a good guy, it's just his dad that's an issue. They would've made a cute couple but that will never happen.

Story Number Three
Zeng Nicole/ Zi Qi
Lin Chen Xi as Zeng Nicole

Kris Shen as Tang Zi Qi

Zeng Nicole comes from a difficult situation. Her mother doesn't have a job and her father lost his a few months causing her to go get a job. She tell's her mom she's hostessing/ waitressing at a nightclub but she's actually prostituting to earn enough money to get away from her drunk dad. She's been prostituting under Huang He as a way of punishment and is still doing it. Tang Zi Qi is an honor student who has a rich background and just got admitted into National Taipei University, one of the best in the country. The funny thing is that he likes her so he always offer her some of his lunch, to pay for her class fees, to stop prostituting, to help her mom get a job, and everything in between. He's a total momma's boy but also a darn sweetheart. Nicole finds him to be a busy body but is still grateful towards him. This point in the drama Nicole has the rock because Xiao Lin gave everything she had to Nicole before she died. After months of prostituting, Nicole finally saved enough money in hopes of moving to Taipei with her mom and open a stall and have a new start. However her dad's debt collector told him he needs to turn in 150,000 dollars within a few days; He finds the money that Nicole and her mom's been saving up to pay for his gambling debt. After Nicole found out, she asked Du to take away her father. The next day, as Zi Qi is driving out from his house, he almost crashed into Nicole's father causing him to drop all of his money. As he was picking up his money unattentively, and with Zi Qi watching, her dad gets hit by a truck and dies later that day. Nicole blames herself for killing her dad but her mom found his life insurance policy and found out that he most likely died because of liver cancer. Nicole and her mom took the life insurance money and moved to Taipei. Before she left, she tells Zi Qi that when he's in Taipei to look for her so he can help be her tutor and other stuff. 

I'm pretty content with this story because in the end they did have a happy ending. Why Zi Qi likes Nicole, I don't know. I actually found this drama after looking up Kris Shen. I really enjoy his acting and through him, I found out about a bunch of talented stars.

Story Number Four/ Five
Li You/ Chen Guo Hao/ Chen Ke Ju/Yang Qiao Qiao/ Xiao Dao

Chao Yi Lan as Li You
An illegitimate child of a senator. She's also a transgender, well she's basically a guy stuck in a girl's body.

Tang Zhen Gang as Chen Guo Hao
Head of the basketball team and eventually Li You's best friend.

Jenny Wen as Chen Ke Ju
Chen Guo's younger sister who helps with the basketball teams a lot and likes Li You.

Zhong Yao as Yang Qiao Qiao
Qiao Qiao is an honor student at Shi Yu. She's also Chen Ke's best friend but likes her at the same time.
Chen Yi as Xiao Dao
A simple guy who loves his motorcycles and believes in loyalty.

Li You transferred to Shi Yu in hopes of having a fresh start. During his tour around campus, he stumbled upon the basketball team practicing; there girls who ooohing and aahhing over him but the guys didn't favor her. She showed off her skills in a basketball PK against Chen Guo Hao. Even though she didn't win, they became friends became friends and went to get some shaved ice afterwards. One of the girls who liked Li You, I don't remember her name and could care less, is basically obssessed with her, but still think it's a he. She's supposed in the art club and really beautiful, she draws a picture of Li You and gives it to him and tells her of her feelings, which she/he rejected. After winning their first basketball game, Li You and Chen Guo celebrate and drank their livers out. As they were drinking they spoke of stuff, one happening to be Li You's parents. Chen Guo promised to keep his secret but that annoying girl who likes Li You overheard them. The annoying girl, Mei Li, began using this information to blackmail Li You, even saying that Chen Guo told her, to get Li You to date her. Mei Li convinces Li You to let her see her dorm room. She does but is eventually put under a difficult situation. Xiao Ju goes to Li You's dorm to return her shirt and see the situation with Li You and Mei Li and goes running off. Li You runs after her and confesses her feelings and they decide to start dating. While they were talking, Mei Li goes through Li You's things and finds out Li You's secret. Li You and Xiao Ju decided that they didn't care what others think but were going to wait for a while to tell Ah Guo. Eventually Ah Guo finds out they're dating through Mei Li; He tells Li You not to break Xiao Ju's heart or else. Before Li You was going over to spend Xiao Ju's birthday, Mei Li comes and tells Li You that they need to talk. They go to this coffee shop where Ah Guo is also happening to be buying the birthday cake. When he gets home, he tells Xiao Ju that Li You is cheating on her and that she needs to break up with her. After the break up, Mei Li is still trying to pursue Li You but fails so she posts Li You's secret everywhere. Ah Guo finds out and hates Li You from there for embarrassing him and his sister. They agree to have a fight later on in the gymnasium. Before the fight, Li You asks Du to take her away after the fight. They fight but in the end reconciled. Li You ended up transferring schools again but maintained the same relationship with Ah Guo and Xiao Ju. Before she left, Xiao Ju asked for the rock.

Six months passed and Li You and Xiao Ju are still together. Ah Guo graduated and goes to college. However, Li You and Xiao Ju are both becoming distant because long distant relationship doesn't work. To make up for time, Xiao Ju and Qiao Qiao began spending a lot of time together and begin developing feelings for one another. One day, Ah Guo is back from college and surprises Xiao Ju by bringing Li You home. Xiao Ju isn't ecstatic and keeps her distance from Li You. One day, Xiao Ju tries to avoid going home, even after Li You has been cooking all day. She runs off to Qiao Qiao's house but Qiao Qiao's mom told her to go home because her brother is furious. Qiao Qiao runs after her and they both decide to run away together. By this point, they have already confessed that they liked each other. They run away but their story is a hit on the news because of their blog which contains pictures of them together and a farewell note from Qiao Qiao which people takes it as suicide. Everyone, especially the media, isn't in favor of their relationship so they decide that since the world doesn't accept them, they should leave. Shen Qi, who is watching the news sense that Du plays a part in this and goes off to search of Qiao Qiao and Xiao Ju, bringing Xiao Dao for a ride. Okay, I need to take some time out to explain how Xiao Dao plays a part in this story. During an English competition, he and his friend Pei Pei were talking nonstop causing Qiao Qiao's mom to be furious and spoke to a supervisor. This lead to Xiao Dao and Pei Pei switching schedules and causing a lot of hatred towards Qiao Qiao. He tries to run Qiao Qiao and Xiao Ju over with his motorcycle but accidentally hit Shen Qi instead. Qiao Qiao then told the supervisor that Xiao Dao is a good guy that he even offered to help fix her bike. It sounds like it doesn't make sense because it kinda doesn't but Xiao Dao, Xiao Ju and Qiao Qiao became friends. Okay, Xiao Dao and Shen Qi are looking for Qiao Qiao and Xiao Ju and by the time that they arrive, Shen Qi picked up the rock in the sand and knew that they were too late. Also, as a way to dig up news on Xiao Ju and Qiao Qiao, the media questioned Li You and but brought up the topic of her idea of transgender surgery and who her dad is. This caused so much stress on her that Li You killed herself. The story ends with the media asking people at Shi Yu, the school, on their opinions of Xiao Ju and Qiao Qiao. One person they happened to ask was Xiao Dao who beat up a reporter and blamed the media for killing Xiao Ju and Qiao Qiao who were great friends of his.

Gosh that was a long story. I decided to combine both stories together because it made more sense as opposed to doing it separately. My opinion is that Li You's and Ah Guo's story is good. It hits the topic of friendship and transgender well. As I was watching this I kept thinking how the annoying girl who liked Li You, Mei Li, is annoying as crap. Not only that but she looked like a dude. It's funny because they kept saying she was pretty. I'm dead serious when I say she looks like a guy though. There's this South Korean foreign exchange student in my Physic class and I swear, if you put a wig on him, he would look exactly like Mei Li. I swear, that's how she looks. And she's suppose to be very artistic but she sucks, I draw better than she does. She's just annoying. I don't understand why she keeps trying to pursue Li You even though she doesn't like her. Then she's just making everything worse. The friendship between Li You and Ah Guo was a very good one, until things happened of course. I still can't believe he hit her though. Like I understand he wants to take away his frustration and all but he knows she's a girl yet he beat the living crap out of her. To be fair, she got a few good kicks in his face, but he used a baseball bat which isn't fair. I'm just glad that they were able to make up in the end, even though I don't see why Li You still felt the need to transfer schools again.

I'm telling you, long distant relationship doesn't work. This is an example. I kinda find this story to be very boring and I could predict the whole thing. I just think it's sad how three people died in this one though. I also feel bad for Ah Guo because now he's all lonely. He just lost his sister and best friend. I should also mention he's one of my favorite characters in this. I'm also sorry if someone finds it irrelevant of me to include Xiao Dao in this but I find it necessary to include his story before going to the next story, his story.

Story Number Six
Xiao Dao/ Li Qiang
Chen Yi as Xiao Dao
A hot headed guy who likes motorcycles and believes in loyalty.

Jay Shih as Li Qiang
Xiao Dao's best friend whose family owns a fruit farm but is aspiring to be a musician
Luo Hong Zheng as Ah Jie
A friend of Xiao Dao but is constantly influencing him to do bad things.

After the ruckus with the media, Xiao Dao is now well know. Ah Jie tells Xiao Dao that a guy by the name of Ke Sang seeks interest in him and wants him to work for him. After seeing Ke Sang and hearing the benefits of working for him, Xiao Dao reluctantly agreed. His bestfriend, Li Qiang has plans of buying a motorcycle because his moped is old and crappy and he's trying to use it as a way to woo girls. Because of his longtime friendship with Li Qiang, Xiao Dao convinces his uncle to give a motorcycle to him at an extremely discounted price. After getting the motorcycle, Li Qiang begins spending some time with Pei Pei. He eventually confesses his feelings towards her and she allows him to go out with her, as long as she gets to ride his motorcycle sometimes; but they decide to keep their relationship a secret from Xiao Dao for the mean time. On Pei Pei's birthday, Xiao Dao bought Pei Pei a motorcycle figurine. He met up with her after class to hang out but she rejected him saying she had to finish her chores. However as chance would have it, she snuck out from doing her chores and met up with Li Qiang and Xiao Dao saw them together figuring out their secret. The next day Xiao Dao and Ah Jie scolds Li Qiang on how he's a backstabber for stealing his best friend's girl. Li Qiang replied by saying that it shouldn't even matter because he thought Xiao Dao only saw her as a mei mei, but Ah Jie points out that Pei Pei wouldn't even like him if he didn't have the motorcycle Xiao Dao gave him. Li Qiang returns the motorcycle to Xiao Dao's uncle and told him he'll pay him for it when he gets the chance and he later breaks up with Pei Pei. After Xiao Dao finished dropping Pei Pei off from school, she scolds him because it was his fault that Li Qiang broke up with her. Xiao Dao says that she's only dating him because of the motorcycle but she tells him that originally she did like Xiao Dao but likes Li Qiang now, even without the motorcycle. As all of this was happening, a riot between the fruit farmers and health code regulation has been breaking out after accusations of toxins in their soil and plants. During the nights, Ah Jie and Xiao Dao has been secretly dumping "disinfectants" into an old sewage well connected to the ground water. Li Qiang's dad becomes ill after eating one of the toxic pears. Xiao Dao visits Li Qiang's dad in the hospital; afterwards they made up. Li Qiang speaks of how he's looking for a job; Xiao Dao tells him to work for Ke Sang because of the good pay and easy work. As he was naming some of the jobs they do, it slipped that he "disinfects" and old well. Li Qiang figures out that it was Xiao Dao who ruined their farm and caused his father to become ill. Xiao Dao then finds out that Ke Sang has been behind the plot to destroy the fruit farmers in order to buy their land and build and amusement park. Xiao Dao knocks out Ah Jie then goes with another member to the well and pours more "disinfectant" into the well, but it's just milk. Ah Jie tells Ke Sang that Xiao Dao was the one who knocked him out and locked him in an abandoned shed. Ke Sang orders for Xiao Dao to be brought to him and force him to apologize, who also happens to be in the bushes eavesdropping. After they threatened him by destroying his uncle and his motorcycle chop, Xiao Dao decides to do whatever it takes to end everything. Xiao Dao chases Ke Sang on his motorcycle and crashes into Ke Sang's car, killing both of them. The story ends with Li Qiang and Pei Pei creating a motorcycle club in the school and speaking of Xiao Dao.

I didn't even know that this story could be so long. It's really simple, but I think it's just because I like to go into detail more than I should. Honestly, Xiao Dao is my favorite character in this entire drama. He's honestly not a bad guy, he just needs a better sense of direction and some common sense and definitely better friends. In the end he did the right thing but man he broke me heart. I was getting teary eyed. I love guys like him. Edgey, motorcycle loving (I like motorcycles even though I don't know crap), and is a good friend. Okay, I hope this isn't just me but his hair kept reminding me of Goku from Dragonball Z. Pei Pei is cute. Li Qiang is well, Li Qiang, good character. I like how they showed a lot of asian pear, not really. It just made me hungry and the worst part is that they're not in season right now.

Story Number Seven
Xiao Lun/ Zhao Da Dong
Ah Ben as Xiao Lun
An effeminate student who gets sexually harassed at school

Zhang Yong Zheng as Zhao Da Dong
A student who tries to prove his masculinity by bullying others, especially others. He lives under his brother's shadow who is a national boxer.

Da Dong is a bully who works under a bully. One of his jobs is to take money from Xiao Lun, an effeminate boy. Each month he has to take 1,000 dollars from him, but whenever he can't, Da Dong makes Xiao Lun sweep the floors in the woodshop class. Xiao Lun's family comes from a very poor background, they sell red bean soup for a living. After Da Dong harassed Xiao Lun, the head instructor beat the crap out of Da Dong. After a series of events they are forced to be the leads of a musical for the school. Afterwards at the carnival that the school puts on, Da Dong's friend forces Xiao Lun to enter the haunted house. Da Dong succeeds in scaring Xiao Lun and even goes as far as pretending to bite his neck (he's pretending to be a vampire) but then ends up sexually harassing Xiao Lun again. Xiao Lun then figures that Da Dong is like him, gay. Da Dong strangles him saying that he's not and as long as he's dead no one will ever find out. That's when Du shows up and was about to take Xiao Lun away when Shen Qi shows up but by then there was an unconscious Xiao Lun laying on the ground. Xiao Lun has been in a coma for a few days now. Da Dong, who feels guilty for what he did goes to visit Xiao Lun and begs Du to give him back and he will be a rock in return. Xiao Lun wakes up as Da Dong is crying in Xiao Lun's grandmother's arms. In the end of the story, Xiao Lun, Da Dong, and Shen Qi bury the rock in hopes that no one else will use it.

I actually saw a video on their story before I even watched this drama. I do what I usually do and watch some videos on YouTube to see whether or not to invest time in it. I enjoyed this story for the most part, especially Da Dong's character. I know, what the heck is wrong with me for liking the bully who is mean to Xiao Lun, even almost killing him. But if you were to analyze his character, nothing is really his fault. He didn't choose to be gay for the first part, he only did what his superior bullies told him to do. And actually he was letting Xiao Lun off easy sweeping floors. He only did what he did because it was an impulse reaction but he later felt a wave of guilt and grief afterwards. I also found the musical they did in this story to be funny. I know, how very wrong of me. I just didn't understand it except that it was something the teacher did to get these kids to work together and yes the song they did was very catchy.

Story Number Eight
Xiao Ya Zhen/ Shen Quan
Bernice Tsai as Xiao Ya Zhen
An over-scheduled student who finds herself pregnant
Kao Ying Hsuan as Shen Quan
Shen Qi's older brother who works at the school as a student teacher. He is still devasated over his girlfriend's passing five years ago/
Xiao Ya Zhen and Wang Da Lu as Xiao Hai
Xiao Hai's parents are divorced allowing him to do whatever he wants. He likes Ya Zhen and later becomes her boyfriend.

Xiao Hai convinces Ya Zhen and her friend to skip school and go to the beach. As they were leaving campus, Ya Zhen and her friend bumped into Shen Quan. They told him false information bringing him to the abandoned side of the school. They go to the beach and have a fun day; Xiao Hai introduces the girls to his friend Guang Tong who gives them some taste of alcohol and hands Ya Zhen some pills. The next day Ya Zhen finds out that Shen Quan is her new English teacher. Ya Zhen and Xiao Hai begins spending more time together and grew a liking towards one another. When they were boyfriend-girlfriend, Xiao Hai brings Ya Zhen to his secret place, a cabin on the beach that is his hideaway from campus. He shows her around and they have sex, but before Ya Zhen took the pills that Guang Tong gave her, which is birth control. After a while Ya Zhen starts becoming distant is Xiao Hai because she finds out that she isn't the first girl in the secret place. During this time, Ya Zhen begins to see something in Shen Quan who just plants flowers all day. After a few bumps in the road, Ya Zhen and Xiao Hai breaks up leaving Xiao Hai furious and wondering why. Afterwards, Ya Zhen confesses her feelings to Shen Quan who turns her down. When she comes home and after puking her guts out, she finds out that she is pregnant. When he parents found out and threaten to sue the person, Ya Zhen shouted out that it was Shen Quan. Some stuff happen and Shen Quan decides that nothing he will do in this world will bring his girlfriend back so he asks Du to let the two of them meet again then leave together. I think I should take some time and explain Shen Quan's story. Shen Quan is a former student at Shi Yu. One time, his parents and his girlfriend Ruo Yao's parents found them together together in the art room. The parents forced their separation leaving Shen Quan to switch schools and Ruo Yao's mom chopped off her hair. Ruo Yao sneaks off to find Shen Quan. He says not to worry because her hair will grow out in six months and she says that by that time her stomach will be huge. They decide to run away together. When Shen Quan got home to take some stuff, his dad found out that Ruo Yao is pregnant and forces her to take an abortion. Shen Quan later takes Ruo Yao to a clinic to get an abortion done and promises that they will go to  college together and live together forever but sadly Ruo Yao died due to too much blood loss. This left Shen Quan to be in a lot of guilt and lived in depression and his dad orcing him to take crazy people medicine. At the end of the episode, when Ya Zhen's parents were at school to discuss the situation, Ya Zhen called Xiao Hai saying that she was wrong and that the baby was his and that he needed to go find her parents and explain everything.

Teenage pregnancies happen every day. I find the girl to be pretty stupid in this. Honestly the guy is genuine to her but she's just too blind to see it. Why is she wasting her time on a teacher who doesn't give a care about her while her boyfriend dotes her. She's just stupid. I don't have much to say anymore because at this point, this is just taking way too long.

Story Number Nine
Du He/ Gao Chao/ Du Ji/ Du/ Shen Qi
Serena Fang as Du/ Du He; Aaron Yan as Shen Qi/ Gao Chao

James Wen as Du Ji
Du He's brother who's been taking care of the both of them after their parents died.
Du and Shen Qi were talking which led to arguing and him saying why does she even exist.  That lead to a two episode flashback on Du's life. Five years ago when Du He was still a student at Shi Yu, she was president of the Manga Club and Gao Chao was an annoying rich guy who was vice-president. They both got nominated to compete in a manga drawing competition where winner gets a million twd and a chance to study in Japan. Du He hopes to win the million dollars so she will be less of a burden on her brother who works two jobs just to barely make it by. On one of Du Ji's delivery, which happened to be for Gao Chao's dad, he protected him from a bomb from a competitor. Gao Chao and his father felt greatly indebted to him so they offered him a job that was twice the pay. Gao Chao felt sympathy towards Du He so he submitted his weaker manga in the competition so Du He can win. Of course Du He won. When it came time to decide whether or not to go to Japan, Du Ji's girlfriend told Du He that she shouldn't go because she'd end up risking her brother's life trying to raise enough money. She ran out of the house and of course Gao Chao was there. She was still furious at him for dropping the competition allowing her to win so it was just worst that he was following. He told her that they should get engaged. Boy does he want to rush into things, LOL. But it's because his dad wants him to rush into things. He thinks that if they get married that it would allow for both of them to go to Japan, on his dad's tab of course, and it would be easier for them to go together with people they know. Du He agrees so her brother wouldn't have to bear the burden. Shortly after they graduated they got married on the wedding night, her brother was reluctant to let her go because he liked her. As Gao Chao and Du He were enjoying thei nuptial night, Du Ji threw a rock, the rock, at the window luring Gao Chao outside. I must also mention that Du Ji just injected some drugs so he's kinda loco right now. Anyways, when Gao Chao is outside Du Ji knocks him unconscious into the pool. Du He rushes outside trying to save her husband but her brother is trying to stop her. She tells him that she can't because it would be wrong to Gao Chao if she goes with him and it would be wrong to Du Ji if she goes with Gao Chao. In the end Du He jumps in the pool and ends up back in present day. Shen Qi is surprised by Du's life and doesn't want to leave her and finds that he's fallen in love with her. As his tumor is worsening from spending more time with Du, his life is more at risk. His dad forces him to get surgery but he doesn't want to because that means that Du will be alone. A few days or weeks before the surgery, Shen Qi finds that Du He is still alive but has been in a coma, Gao Chao is very successful in Japan and is actually engaged and that Du Ji and his girlfriend got married in jail. Shen Qi eventually got the surgery to remove to tumor. The last scene is of Shen Qi in college standing on a bridge and then Du He walking happily towards him.

I liked Du He's, Gao Chao's and Du Ji's story a lot better than Du's and Shen Qi's story a lot better. Even though the first one didn't have a lot of development, it was heck of a lot better than Shen Qi's and Du's. I mean they barely spoke and next thing you knew, he loved her. The heck? I don't know about the ending, at least no one died right? Well except Shen Qi's mother. 


Final Notes
OH MY GOSH. This review took way too long. I started Thursday at around one and I'm just now finishing it, Sunday. The thing about going into details when writing these is that you get bored very easily and distracted. I mean I ended up watching a few episodes of The Myth because this took so long. I know procrastinating is bad but it's kinda worse if you procrastinate on a post because there is no deadline, causing it to be pushed back. Like right now, I have ten drafts that I started on but am not even close to finished with and I know there will be more in the future. Note for anyone planning on starting a blog, never procrastinate. As for the drama, it's an inbetweener, some parts were definitely better than others. If you wanted to watch this, feel free.   





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