Episode 19 of In a Good Way felt a little wonky, but in ways that were amusing rather than disappointing. It’s very college-era daily life construct makes for lulls in conflict and challenges to interject a bit of off kilter entertainment, and this episode was all about the random stuff. In terms of everyone’s cutest couple of Jia En and Liu Chuan, they made up just like that with a kiss on top, and I have to say the kiss was really really solid stuff. In watching the BTS of Kirsten Jen and Lego Lee filming and discussing how to stage it, they teased about having a French kiss but beyond all the joking there was a lot of thought put into electing to go a more chaste route with a closed mouth kiss. But it wasn’t a dead fish press at all, and we saw there was heady but restrained lip movement from the both of them, and afterwards Kirsten complimented Lego on being a very good lead when it comes to even kiss acting. I can make a joke about the boy having a lot of practice, but it really comes down to their built up chemistry over four months of filming as well as a great understanding of their characters and how a more passionate kiss wouldn’t be realistic to their more slow burn natures. This episode dealt a lot with the unknown, and it’s less unknown about the future as it is about things that are impossible to discern or hard to explain.

It’s Summertime in IAGW land and the story heads into August (or July in the lunar new year calendar) which encompasses both Ghost Month in Chinese culture as well as Chinese Valentine’s Day which is 7-7 to represent the one day of the day that the weaving girl and the cowherd boy stars can meet in the Milky Way. We got to see the kids get excited about personality tests (who hasn’t been there) and the girls taking it a step further and playing urban legends to try and scare and excite each other. The girl friendships in this drama are truly extraordinarily in drama land and will forever remain a shining example of how to do it right. The guy friendships remain solid as well and I had a good laugh with the Three Musketeers all in relationships but dealing with their own girlfriends creating unique challenges. I worry that Ri Qi and Xiao Wei will be walking down the aisle and she’ll still never get a clear “will you be my girlfriend” question out of the just as shy Ri Qi. I quite enjoyed the foray into a bit of horror story territory, not that there really is anything to get scared about, but it was entertaining watching Jia En get scared and seeing Liu Chuan being all coddling of her. Speaking of which, Liu Chuan finally gets jealous of Ren Wei and puts a kibosh on Jia En turning to others for reassurance and comfort and makes it clear he’s her number one option.

Episode 19 recap:

Jia En storms home after her fight with Liu Chuan and totally brushes right past the concerned Ren Wei and rushes to her room to sob on her bed. Very typical girl reaction after a fight. Ah Qing is interning at his dad’s law firms and keeps calling Tracy at her Summer job to keep apologizing. Ah Qing continues to apologize but their fight stagnates on who was at fault that day on the missed date. Tracy tells Ah Qing to learn how to say no to other girls before trying to be nice to her. Ah Qing gets hung up on and then his dad calls him to grab some documents from the file room. His dad notices that Ah Qing’s attention is on the phone and it has to involve a girl. Ah Qing promises to do his job at the firm but his personal life isn’t up for discussion. Ah Qing sees being a lawyer as a way to maintain his lifestyle and his dad snarks that Ah Qing’s lifestyle up until now has been maintained solely by dad’s hard work. Ah Qing notices a file with Liu Chuan’s dad’s name on it while his dad chews him out for not taking being a lawyer seriously and he’ll learn the hard way that he needs to focus on this job when he does it full time. He also reminds Ah Qing the lawyer’s duty of confidentiality to the client so Ah Qing is not to divulge anything he learns while on the job.

Ah Qing then toddles right off to see Liu Chuan to share what he read in that file which contained Liu Chuan’s grandfather’s will. He left his ideals to his son Song Heng and his wealth to his grandson Shan Feng, towards the road the freedom it will be the ignition. Liu Chuan’s dad walks over and hears they were discussing Liu Chuan’s grandfather and the painting he left in the Treasure Hunting club. Liu Chuan continues to want to suss out the meaning hidden in the painting but Liu Chuan’s dad shares his view that the grandfather isn’t a hero like Liu Chuan thinks but rather a man who lived a very idealistic and rather useless life. In Liu Chuan’s dad’s eyes, the grandfather didn’t do anything valuable in his lifetime. His desire for Liu Chuan to seek freedom is just a pointless task. Liu Chuan asks if his grandfather left anything to his dad and hears that he left the keys to the study. His dad doesn’t see it as any “inheritance” and offers to give it to Liu Chuan if he wants it.

Jia En is in the Treasure Hunting club with Tracy and the Men of Steel and she remains moping about her fight with Liu Chuan. Tracy reads the personality test in a magazine about a person walking in the desert with a backpack, a snake, a gorilla, and a bird and asks how everyone will make the journey. The Men of Steel each have their own opinion but Tracy says their views aren’t accurate since they don’t have any significant others. Jia En is asked how she would make the journey? Ah Qing arrives and is tossed the test and his answer is to have the snake wrapped around the gorilla and the gorilla would carry the backpack, and the bird is put in the backpack. Tracy is pissed and says Ah Qing is a horrible future husband. The person is himself, the gorilla is his spouse, the snake is wealth, the backpack is responsibility, and the bird is children. So Ah Qing would tie his spouse down with wealth, then shove all the responsibility on her, while locking their kids up in responsibility. Ah Qing thinks this isn’t accurate but Ren Wei thinks it’s accurate because his answer was to carry the backpack himself while holding the gorilla’s hand, hence he’s a very good husband who takes on responsibility. Jia En is asked her answer but she wrote it down already and won’t share it. Tracy asks where Liu Chuan is and Jia En reveals she hasn’t seen him in a few days. Ah Qing brings up seeing Liu Chuan recently and all Liu Chuan spends his time on is trying to figure out his grandfather’s painting hidden message.

Liu Chuan sits in his room staring at the little bottle with the gold flakes they panned in Jiufen together. He remembers the fight with Jia En and mutters about how frustrating she’s making him. He puts the bottle down and grabs his motorcycle keys. Jia En walks up to Liu Chuan’s front door but mills around outside unable to bring herself to ring the bell. Liu Chuan walks out clearly on his way to see Jia En. The moment she sees him walking out she blurts “Where are you going?” Liu Chuan was going to see her and that makes her smile. He asks why she is here and Jia En admits it’s because she hasn’t seen him in a few days. She brings up the fun personality test Tracy shared with everyone today and she wanted to do it with him. Liu Chuan hears the test and his answer is that he will put the snake in the backpack and then carry the backpack, then carry the gorilla in his arms, while letting the bird fly free in the sky. Jia En can’t control her smile and reads her notebook and Liu Chuan reads it to discover that his answer was exactly like Jia En’s answer.

Liu Chuan points to the gorilla and says that he will carry her in his arms because she is his most important other half. He doesn’t want to fight anymore and Jia En nods her head with tears falling. Liu Chuan holds her face in his hands and leans in for a very sweet kiss. Awwwww forever and ever. The camera pans out and twirls around them as he kisses her so very tenderly. After they break apart, Liu Chuan touches foreheads with her and then Jia En pulls him in for a tight embrace. Liu Chuan’s entire mood relaxes and he holds her in his arms to reveal that he changed his mind. He’s not going to Germany to study law anymore and will go to England with her. They can pursue their overseas in the same place. Jia En’s face lights up and she asks him to say it again. Liu Chuan says it again and ends with “We won’t be apart.” Jia En is so happy she runs into his arms again. Liu Chuan asks her to promise that she not keep things inside from now on. He doesn’t like hearing things through another person, or having someone else comfort her. Heh, jealous Liu Chuan is jealous. Jia En smiles and realizes that he’s jealous and pulls back to smile at him. Liu Chuan tries to avoid her giggly stare and she agrees to his request since he’s decided to go to England with her.

Liu Chuan shares that his dad got the keys to the study as an inheritance and gave it to Liu Chuan so he asks if Jia En wants to go to the study with him now to investigate. They go inside and peer around. Liu Chuan shares the inheritance message left by his grandfather and thinks his grandfather encouraged him to go to CDU for the purpose of finding that painting. Liu Chuan takes out an old suitcase and opens it to reveal lots of knickknacks inside which are all treasures he found in hunts devised by his grandfather. The necklace he always wears was the first ever treasure prize he found, and he recollects that before that hunt his grandfather disappeared for a period of time. After he came back and Liu Chuan pestered him about where he went but he never told him. But after that he started teaching Liu Chuan about treasure hunting. Jia En points out that the disappearance and treasure hunting appear connected, and his necklace design is the same as the club emblem. She assures Liu Chuan that she will continue to help him until he uncovers the hidden message. Liu Chuan smiles and kisses her on the forehead.

Jia En is woken up by an early morning page that is in Dutch and means library. She thinks Liu Chuan sure got up early to go to the library. Liu Chuan gets the same page which he thinks is from Jia En. They run into each other outside the library and both think it was a message from the other. Liu Chuan immediately takes her hand and then he fixes her hair for being such a pretty girl but so unkempt. Ren Wei is also there and reveals he got the same text. Jia En and Liu Chuan walk in and Ren Wei unhappily mutters that those two sure made up instantaneously. They enter the library to see Ah Di and Jacky there already and they sent the pages. Ren Wei grouses that they claimed to be too busy with their Summer jobs, how did they find the time to muddle in Liu Chuan’s family affairs. Turns out the two of them were reading old newspapers about Liu Chuan’s grandfather and he was a passenger on the infamous Taiping steamer that was transporting the final batch of KMT members and refugees from China to Taiwan in 1949 and sank in the Taiwan strait. Rumor had it that the steamer also had countless treasures in its hold.

The two decide to look for the “treasure” and if they find it then they don’t need to work so hard anymore. They tell Liu Chuan and Ren Wei that they just want to help and don’t reveal that they think Liu Chuan’s grandfather may have squirreled away the treasure on the sunken steamer. Ah Di and Jacky have copied down the numbers and used it to match with dates and pulled the old newspapers with the corresponding dates. They’ve pored over the prints and discovered one common news story involving mysterious disappearances of people, groups, or even bees. Some of the stories are from dates after Liu Chuan’s grandfather passed and Jacky says Liu Chuan’s grandfather can predict future disappearances as well. The next date is 20050110, which means January 10th, 2005. Jacky tells Liu Chuan to toss the painting before that date and they can dispose of it. Ren Wei chews them out for the lame plan to steal the painting and their stupid disappearance news stories since there are people disappearing all the time in the news. Liu Chuan is happy for them to help solving the mystery but cautions that the treasure is likely nothing of value.

Jia En’s parents are praying outside the teahouse because it’s lunar new year July 1 and the start of Ghost Month so the tradition is to pray to the wandering ghosts not to cause problems and also to bless the business. Ren Wei is in his room with Ah Di and Jacky and Ren Wei is cackling about how his latest popular CD players are selling well. They see a message asking for a refund and Ren Wei calls the contact number back and hears that he wants to return the CD player because it’s more expense. Ren Wei asks who the other seller is and hears it’s “koala with a tail” who is selling online the same items but undercutting their price. The competition is selling at NT1800 which is a price Ren Wei can’t match since he pays wholesale NT1200 already.

Suddenly Jacky yelps and everyone turns around to see Ren Wei’s dad standing at the door and he’s here to yell at Ren Wei for accumulating so much credit card debt. Ren Wei says debt is part of building a business but his dad warns him that credit rating is critical in his future endeavors and if he ruins his credit rating then his future is shot. Ren Wei’s dad wonders how much money Ren Wei will need to flush down the drain in learning a lesson the hard way. When Ren Wei’s grandfather was growing their business, it was by using family members to help and cut down on the operating costs. Ren Wei says he is doing online business and Ren Wei’s dad’s story isn’t applicable. Ren Wei’s dad knows he won’t listen anymore but hands him a blank check to go return the credit card debt now, but after this he and Ren Wei are through. They each go their own road and have nothing to do with each other!

Jia En’s dad is sitting in the all dark teahouse and watching a program on TV about supernatural occurrences. This particular scary story involves a group of hikers who came back from a hike where someone died after they got back. They watched a video they recorded to see there was a little girl with an old woman’s face wearing a red coat walking behind the person who later died. The rumor is that when the little girl in red shows up, people die. Jia En’s mom walks down and turns on the lights and scares the daylights out of Jia En’s dad. Mom asks where Jia En is since she always watches the show with her dad. He points to her talking on the phone in her room and Mom goes to pick up the other handset to call her down. She sees a note on the phone warning Dad not to secretly listen. Jia En is on the phone with Liu Chuan and wants to go see him later to give an egg she cooked for Momo.

Liu Chuan worries it’s a bit late and Jia En admits her Dad doesn’t like her going out at night during Ghost Month. She wonders if Liu Chuan gets scared and he explains that stuff like Ghost Monster are merely cultural designations. They discuss how Chinese Valentine’s Day is coming up next week on lunar new year July 7th. Jia En asks what he wants to do but Liu Chuan is busy with work but promises to make it up to her on the following Saturday. Momo starts barking at nothing and Liu Chuan explains that Momo hasn’t been sleeping well lately and barks at random things a lot. Jia En says animals do that when it sees spiritual things. She ends the call to go down and watch the scary show with her dad. When she goes down, the show is done and her dad explains the red coat little girl scary story. Jia En gets up to head out and screams when she sees her mom in red. She grabs the egg and rushes out, getting on her bike to ride to meet Liu Chuan. Suddenly a figure in red appears to walk past Jia En and it’s really eerie. She stops the bike and turns around but sees nothing.

Liu Chuan goes to ask his dad if his grandfather disappeared for a period of time before? Liu Chuan’s dad is surprised he still remembers and then reveals that people during that time period would disappear for period of time. Liu Chuan tries to ask more but his dad says this is a prohibited topic.

Jia En arrives and they head out to the park so Momo can wolf down his egg late night snack. Jia En shares the girl in a red coat scary story with Liu Chuan and then how she thought she saw a girl in red on her way to see him but the girl disappeared. Liu Chuan tells her not to scare herself. Jia En wonders why there are recently so many disappearance discussions around her and how people can just disappear. Liu Chuan says there is always a logical explanation and people merely use supernatural things to explain it away. Momo suddenly starts to bark and Jia En appears to see a figure and then a pair of little girl slippers underneath a swing that is swinging on its own. She grabs Liu Chuan and he assures her that there is nothing going on. The slippers were left by someone at the park and the wind moved the swing. He then picks up Momo to ask why the little thing is trying to scare Jia En jiejie and tells Momo to apologize. Heh.

Tracy hangs out with Xiao Wei at the comic book cafe and gets an I’m sorry text from Ah Qing. She keeps track on a notebook and so far he’s text an apology 87 times. Xiao Wei wonders why it matters to Tracy whether Ah Qing is sincerely apologizing if their dating is just a bet. Tracy finds it amusing but Xiao Wei brings up a recent manga she read where the princess tries to test her suitor soldier and had him recite a poem under her room for 100 nights. He did it for 99 nights but died before he could make it 100. The princess waited and waited and he didn’t show up which is when she saw that he died. Tracy says manga isn’t real life and she has nothing to worry about.

Bai Xue comes back from the Venice Film Festival bearing presents for everyone and shows off her souvenirs including autographed movie posters. We also learn that Bai Xue’s English name is Janet. Heh – Joan and Janet, they can form a duo group. The girls ask if Bai Xue watched any interesting movies and Bai Xue says she watched a preview for a very scary movie coming out called The Ring. Tracy brings up a recent urban legend about peeling an apple at midnight in front of the mirror and if the apple peel doesn’t break then one can see the future spouse in the mirror. Xiao Wei is interested, and is strangely a fan of horror movies. Tracy isn’t scared of horror movies but is scared of actual ghosts. Xiao Wei makes a joke that she’s a poverty ghost and so poor that even real ghosts will be scared of her.

The girls are all gathered in Jia En’s room and rock-paper-scissors over who is going to do it. Tracy loses the match but is too scared, Xiao Wei isn’t scared but likes watching more, Tracy doesn’t need it since she doesn’t want to know who her future person is. They decide Jia En needs it the most so she runs into her room but locks the girls out to do it alone. Jia En sits down with an apple and a paring knife and starts peeling while staring into the mirror. She peels and stares and peels and stares and the peel remains intact. The other three girls remain huddled outside the door. Jia En gets closer to the end of the apple and she suddenly opens her eyes wide.

She opens the door and the other three girls ask who she saw. Jia En says the peel broke and invites the girls in to eat the apple. Xiao Wei thinks it’s not honoring the apple spirit by eating it so Jia En puts her apple down but she already took a bite. Xiao Wei says by not honoring spirits, weird things will befall that person like an accident or disappearing. The girls decide to wrap the apple up and bury it. They are so silly and cute. Jia En goes to grab a coat to head outside to bury the apple and Jia En finds her red jacket missing. Another look in the closet reveals that all of Jia En’s red clothing items are missing. Jia En brings up the urban legend of the little girl in red and then reveals she saw such a figure one night on the street. All four girls scream their heads off and then huddle together.

Liu Chuan, Ri Qi, and Ah Qing are coming back from a basketball pick up game and lamenting how they don’t have time to play these days since they are so busy each with their part time jobs. Ah Qing passes by a payphone and sends the other two off first so he can call in another apology to Tracy. Liu Chuan laughs and asks if Ah Qing is still the same guy who doesn’t want to be too nice to a girl so she crawls on top of his head. Ri Qi laughs that she’s already gotten the upper hand. Ah Qing reveals their dating bet is now for one hundred and thirty days but Ri Qi points that if they break up now then Ah Qing wins the bet. Liu Chuan asks if Ah Qing is serious about this relationship and he wasn’t initially but the more he’s with her the more he cares. It upset him that Tracy is unhappy these days.

Liu Chuan and Ri Qi laugh at Ah Qing for suddenly being unable to tell a girl he likes her. Ah Qing says Ri Qi doesn’t have a girlfriend so he doesn’t understand, which is when Ri Qi reveals that he has a girlfriend. Liu Chuan stares at Ah Qing and asks “who?” but Ah Qing doesn’t know either. Ah Qing picks up the phone to call and wonders if he’s in love or having the girl control his actions? He wonders if this is what girls who used to call him all the time feels? Tracy gets a page of Happy Valentine’s Day and she notches it as the 98th apology. She then gets a voicemail and listens to Ah Qing leaving a message where he wants to tell her something and gets cut off in the middle and the voicemail abruptly ends. Tracy remembers the manga Xiao Wei told her about and starts worrying about what happened to Ah Qing. We see the payphone dangling off the hook.

Xiao Wei is at her manga cafe and Ri Qi comes to see her. She’s putting mangas away and he follows her around like a little puppy. She chastises him for being in the way and asks why he’s here. He explains that he will spend this day with her because it’s Chinese Valentine’s Day. She asks why he wants to spend today with him and he says it should be obvious. She tells him that if he can’t just come out and say it, then stop bothering her because she’s busy. These two. Ri Qi slinks away and Xiao Wei looks sad and runs after him but he’s left the store. She wonders how he could leave just like that. Tracy comes by to return the manga she borrowed and they discuss the strange disappearance urban legend Jia En mentioned last time. Tracy doesn’t but Xiao Wei says a guest suddenly turned around and disappeared. Tracy can tell Xiao Wei likes the person since she cares.

Xiao Wei asks if Ah Qing paged her 100 times since today is Chinese Valentine’s Day. Tracy says Ah Qing left a 99th voicemail that cut off in the middle. Tracy asks about Xiao Wei’s situation which Xiao Wei explains as the guy is very good to her but never says directly that they are dating. She doesn’t like this nebulous relationship, does he think she’s easy? Tracy smiles and explains that this is flirting and it’s a very enjoyable part of date. Tracy calls this period “window shopping” where two interested people check each other out. Tracy tells Xiao Wei to use this time to determine whether she really likes an item and is willing to purchase it and also compare prices. After Tracy leaves, Xiao Wei is washing dishes dejectedly when a life-sized cow walks into the store and hands her a note. LOL forever! I can’t even. The cow walks back and forth in front of Xiao Wei and asks to read a comic book to stay here. She tells him to grab his own book and giggles at him.

Jia En finds her missing red jacket in Ren Wei’s room and there is a rip in it. Jia En starts freaking herself out. Ren Wei says strange things have been happening to him lately as well, he wakes up every day and his CD players are missing….and the reason is he sold them! Jia En beats him up for mocking her but he’s just surprised that she’s scaring herself over silly stuff like this. Jia En hasn’t been sleeping well lately and everything makes her jumpy. Jia En reveals the apple peeling urban legend and she did it. Ren Wei asks if she saw him and Jia En yells that all she saw was herself peeling an apple. Ren Wei suggests she not think of Ghost Month things and instead focus on Chinese Valentine’s Day which is so romantic. Jia En runs off to change since she’s meeting Liu Chuan tonight to celebrate.

Jia En is all dressed up to head out on her date and passes her dad singing outside the teahouse. Liu Chuan calls from a payphone and hears a voicemail from Jia En that she fell asleep on the bus and passed her stop. She’s at the end stop of the bus and there is no one around so can he come pick her up? Jia En gets a page from Liu Chuan telling her not to be anxious and he’ll come pick her up. He remembers there is a temple near there so tells her to meet up there. Jia En finds the temple and uses the payphone there to call him that she is waiting for him there and to hurry up. Jia En waits and waits and she suddenly sees a figure in red walking through the weeds. She covers her eyes with her hands and tells herself not to worry. She gets a page from Liu Chuan that he’s there but can’t find her. Jia En calls out “Liu Chuan! Liu Chuan!” She sees a shadow walking on the road and looks freaked out.

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