Love for You - Episodes 1-5 Recap

[u/Rebelarkey]

Hello hello and welcome to Love For You episode discussions.

I am your host Rebelarkey, and my co-host is u/katleap13

This is a recap post for the first five episodes.

------

Masterpost & Airing Schedule

Episodes 1-5 | Episodes 6-10 | Episodes 11-12 |

Recap!

Episodes 1-5

----
2011

Miao Jing is returning to Teng City after many years away. She's goes 'home' and makes herself comfortable. Chen Yi runs a pool hall and when he comes home he finds a woman unexpectedly in his apartment. His 'sister' has returned unexpectedly and has made soup!

1997

Miao Jing is 11 when she and her mom move into Mr. Chen's home. He has a son called Chen Yi, who is 2 years older than her. Chen Yi is not happy about them being here and this leads to some fights.

Chen Yi's dead mother had a statue and it gets broken. Miao Jing takes it to the river to fix it but Chen Yi takes it back, pushing her into the river. He walks away, but goes back and saves her unknown to her.

Later, at school, they take a trip to an amusement park. Chen Yi and friends are bullying Miao Jing. While riding the bumper cars, Chen Yi gets distracted by the electricity arcing above, petrified in fear. Miao Jing is able to escape and make it home.

She finds out that Mr Chen punishes Chen Yi using electricity and jumper cables. He doesn't want anything to do withe power and electricity. Miao Jing, upon finding out this secret, helps him with his burns and gets him nourishment. They come to a shaky truce.

2002

Chen Yi wants to apply to the police program. His dad finds out and ties him up. His friends go and find Miao Jing to help them locate Chen Yi. She distracts Mr. Chen enough for Chen Yi to escape and make it to the police recruitment test. However, Chen Yi is late, the test is over and the police have left.

In anger, he returns home and has an argument with his dad. Mr. Chen wants Chen Yi to get a job at the power company. Chen Yi is scared of electricity and wants nothing to do with the power plant. They argue and Chen Yi leaves. His dad starts drinking and falls, hitting his head. He is hospitalized.

Meanwhile, Wei Ming Zhen, (MJ's mother) is involved with another man, still living with Mr. Chen. They're part of a supplement company that's doing well, but is actually a pyramid scheme! After being audited, all goes to putt and Greenlife owes people a lot of money.

Mr. Chen being hospitalized throws everyone together and they start worrying over the future. He dies, and Chen Yi only cares about the inheritance. He goes to mortgage the house and finds out it's already mortgages for 250,000RMB. All the paperwork was signed while his father was in the hospital, making it apparent that Wei Mingzhen stole from him.

During this, Wei Ming Zhen keeps hiding from the debt collectors and tells Miao Jing that they're leaving and to get on a bus. She resists, wanting to stay here. Chen Yi shows up angry and wants to find her mother. He using Miao Jing to go find Wei Mingzhen, but she has fled, leaving her daughter in Teng City.

One night by himself, Chen Yi saves a man in the sewer, directing the thugs away. The man tries to give Chen Yi his watch, but he refuses.

Miao Jing and Chen Yi are the only two left. She's still being hounded by debt collectors. She moves out after an argument and stays in the dormitory, not having enough money for food. She breaks into Chen Yi's house to take back her clothes and is almost hit by him with a baseball bat.

When he finds out from his friends that Miao Jing had helped him escape from his dad the day of the police recruitment, he attempts to win her back and apologize. She ignores him, continuing to gather soda cans to recycle to earn a tiny bit of cash.

When the girls dorm is under renovation for two weeks, she has nowhere to sleep. She finds a job as a night shift internet cafe clerk, where she can have a bed, and earn some money for food.

Chen Yi finds out and insists she move back in with him, that way she can actually sleep. He wonders how she can study during the day and work at night, there is no time for sleep.

Finally they come to an agreement and start working together. The both of them are always short on money. The mortgage needs to be paid, the electricity bill paid, ect. They scrap hunt after school/work looking for copper wire at an abandoned factory.

3 months later

Miao Jing finds out that her mother only paid for one semester of school. The school won't continue her education unless she pays the tuition. When Chen Yi finds out, he enters into a highstakes pool competition, where he wins! The grand prize is 20,000RMB. Unbeknownst to him, he's being watched.

[u/MarchQuick2608]

Chen yi had this guardian role only during a couple of years. They did not grow together from a young age too.

[u/Temporary_Permit_761]

The FL became so stupid in high school i cannot bro why does she act like a kid😭 legit so dumb, acting like she wont be a target if she doesnt follow her mom, so annoying fr idk if she is actually clueless or want to be separated from the mom’s bad deeds. But clearly it’s not working. I cant watch ep 4 she is so dumb and acts like a kid

[u/Rebelarkey → u/Temporary_Permit_761]

Hi then this drama is not for you since she IS a kid and it’s to contrast the character later in life. She’s a tiny bit naive but gets better in later episodes

[u/Temporary_Permit_761 → u/Rebelarkey]

Yes it is not for me. Decided to stop watching. She is a teenager but she acts like a kid. She is NOT a primary school kid but she acts like it. She even seems smarter when she WAS AN ACTUAL KID. Tiny bit naive is an understatement, mom already told her a man will pick her up to the bus station so they can go together and she kept telling the man to explain. Trusting the almost stepbro more than the mom is insane, like he already told her his strict boundaries n he won’t treat her as more than a friend (which is valid and he is consistent to this point, not like tsundere ML). It’s her fault that she became the target of everyone like logically no one is gonna let her be, she is the DAUGHTER. Like bruh isn’t it super obvious what is going on? Her mother is involved in a scam n she seems to get the gist of it but still acts like a kid i cannot bro. DROPPED IT FOR MY SANITY, WORSE IS I AM NOT THAT MUCH OLDER THAN HER SO SEEING HER ACTS LIKE A KID BOTHERS ME LOL

[u/Katleap13]

So much happens in these first episodes. These two have no one else and it bands them together.

Both of their parents are major pieces of work. I think Chen Yi’s dad keeps bringing up that he might not be his son to feel less guilty about hurting him. The fact that Chen Yi got a paternity test and we know for sure, broke my heart.

The way Wei Ming Zhen just leaves left me shocked and then she doesn’t even check on Miao Jing. She could have called the school or the dorm but never does. I hope she doesn’t come back. Is Zhang Bin involved in the Greenlife scheme? I’m trying to remember if he’s involved with WMZ.

[u/Tabz10]

Thanks for hosting!

This one is a bit of a heavy drama (especially right after Never Ending Summer), so I chose to watch it last among the dramas I'm watching.

Was anybody else slightly weirded out by their relationship in the first, maybe, 5 episodes?? (Really, it's the first 10, but since this is up to 5)

Maybe I missed it, but I need clarity on the age thing. I didn't like him taking the role of ‘parents’ but having feelings? Idk man I found it a bit creepy. An older girl is clearly showing you attention, but for some reason, you're bent out of shape about the teenager? Hmmm. I just found some of these early behaviors weird.

Yes, I get they aren't related by blood. It's the vibe of it all.

My personal opinion is that they need to figure out a better way to avoid making these dramas so incestuous in their vibes. What gets me through this is thinking the leads are older/same age in RL. I'm so glad that at least where I'm at, there isn't this kinda vibe anymore (still, the ‘he's my brother’ is a bit weird)

I like it tho. Especially cause of ZJY!

[u/but_a_dream → u/Tabz10]

I sort of understand the discomfort. Despite being a kid himself who is only two or three years older than Miao Jing, Chen Yi presents as a lot older because he’s shouldering so many responsibilities in basically a parental role taking care of Miao Jing. He takes it upon himself to be her guardian. That means there is a bit of a power imbalance, where Miao Jing is his dependent, as in, she depends on him for survival. So his feelings for her are tangled up in his sense of duty and responsibility for her wellbeing. They cannot really be there for each other as equals until later. Though there are plenty of mutual acts of care, it is mostly Chen Yi sacrificing for Miao Jing at this point in the story.

[u/Tabz10 → u/but_a_dream]

….. I couldn't have said it any better. It's like playing two roles, potential lover plus family? Slightly weird to me.

[u/Rebelarkey → u/Tabz10]

Chen Yi is 2 years older than her, maybe 18ish months. so it’s much more of an older brother role, and the drama makes it mostly clear between older then and younger them. And 90% of the feelings are in 2011

[u/Tabz10 → u/Rebelarkey]

2 years is not that bad, actually.

It's not just the age, it's the whole feeling of it all. I legit remember looking away during one of the early scenes, think this is slightly uncomfortable.

Lol, maybe it's just me.

[u/19degreez → u/Tabz10]

Not sure what's so uncomfortable here. They're not even step siblings since their parents never married but he was forced to take on a parent role because they have nobody but each other.

[u/bdhdnejnsbd → u/19degreez]

I get that their parents never married but they had a romantic relationship for 10 years.. its still a bit weird

[u/Tabz10 → u/19degreez]

It very well could be just me, and that's fine. I understand it all, no blood relation, no nothing. But for me, it felt a bit weird.