Dear drama gods: I am not in any position to pray for a guy like Jie Xiu, cuz I have one already, but on behalf of ALL my drama sisters who are still single, can you clone this man and distribute him to every single woman out there? Every single one. There is not a woman in her right mind that he is not right for, because he is simply fucking perfect (credit: Pink). Drunken to Love You ought to be called: The Song Jie Xiu One Man Show. It’s a credit to Rainie Yang, and how awesome her performance and chemistry is with Joseph Chang, that she doesn’t completely get sucked into the background the second these two have a scene together.

At this point, the second Jie Xiu shows up in any scene, vroom my eyes goes directly to him. DTLY is rightfully being called by the Taiwan media as “the drama that is making Joseph Chang a reluctant A-lister”, because when all is said and done, this is his drama from beginning to end. I don’t feel bad for Rainie, because she singlehanded carried Hi, My Sweetheart and bagged herself a Golden Bell for it, so she knows stuff like this happens. When the right actor meets the perfect character, the rest is for history to remember as an unforgettable maybe once-in-a-lifetime performance.

Cup 13 recap:

Jie Xiu performs CPR on Xiao Ru, silently willing his wife to come back to him, telling her that she can’t die when she hasn’t returned the borrowed happiness yet. Jie Xiu hasn’t worked hard enough to make her fall in love with him. He wants to make pudding bread with her and hear her call him Ma Bo Han. She of all people knows exactly what he wants and needs in life, and he can’t allow her to abandon him like this.

Suddenly Xiao Ru starts coughing and asks Jie Xiu if he was the one who saved her? Jie Xiu pulls her into his embrace and holds on tight, looking like he never wants to let go. Daniel just stares at them in stunned shock.

Xiao Ru laughs at Jie Xiu, who has changed into a chef’s outfit while his clothes dries. He tells her to stop laughing and pulls out his phone to show her the image Kelly sent to him of Xiao Ru sleeping on Daniel’s shoulder. He asks her what the picture is about. We see Daniel drop a vitamin C packet into a pitcher of water. Xiao Ru tells Jie Xiu that the picture must be yet another prank of Daniel, who she calls the prankster devil. She doesn’t know why but the guy has it out for her.

Jie Xiu wonders why she’s sleeping on the shoulder of a guy who likes to prank her? If she likes to sleep on shoulders, then his shoulder is available for Xiao Ru anytime. Xiao Ru explains that she was just looking for the ring, to which Jie Xiu says she needs to wake him up to look for it, since his most favorite pastime to do growing up was looking for rings. Xiao Ru says Jie Xiu was sleeping too comfortably and she didn’t want to wake him, plus she lost the ring so she should get it back. Jie Xiu smirks and says if she can’t find the ring, and a ring looks like it can’t bind Xiao Ru forever, then he’ll simply extend their contract indefinitely.

Daniel watches Xiao Ru and Jie Xiu talking while holding a thermos. Meng Jun walks up and he hands the thermos of cold medicine to Meng Jun for her to deliver to Xiao Ru. Xiao Ru rushes off after Daniel, asking him to tell her when she did something wrong. Why’d he have to make her fall in the pool. Daniel makes no excuses and simply apologizes directly to Xiao Ru and Jie Xiu, promising this will never happen again. Xiao Ru runs to the kitchen, telling Jie Xiu not to make a big deal since Daniel apologized.

Jie Xiu refuses to back down, asking for an acceptable reason from Daniel. He explains that Lin Xiao Ru has the same name and face as his ex-girlfriend, who really hurt him. He can’t help it when he sees her. He understands that he can’t live in the past and needs to let it go. He tells Jie Xiu to go ahead and report him or ask for compensation, either is fine with him. Jie Xiu snarks to himself that just because Lin Xiao Ru’s name is quite common and she has a very average face doesn’t mean Daniel can take out his frustrations on her.

Jie Xiu sees Xiao Ru sticking her hand into a ice box filled with fresh fish. He quickly runs over and pulls her hands out, saying he just got her dry and here she is getting her hands cold again. Xiao Ru says she’s helping the kitchen staff, but Jie Xiu doesn’t want to hear any of this. To him, Xiao Ru always puts others above her own well-being, and he wants her to please focus on herself for once. Xiao Ru and Jie Xiu start bickering in front of Meng Jun and the chef.

Jie Xiu asks when she developed such a weird habit. She tells him to just ignore her, but he asks how he can possibly ignore her. Meng Jun pushes him out of the door to stop the fight from continuing. Outside, Meng Jun tells Jie Xiu to stop bugging Xiao Ru. It’s because he’s so persistent that Xiao Ru went to the Temple to sever their intertwined destiny. Jie Xiu is shocked that Xiao Ru went to the Temple to sever their relationship. He demands to know why Xiao Ru is this adamant about not accepting him? Why can’t she allow him to like her, since he’s not forcing her to accept him at this time and will wait until she’s ready.

Meng Jun stammers out a few possibilities: Xiao Ru was struck by lightning when she was born, Jie Xiu is too amazing so Xiao Ru has no security with a guy like him, when Xiao Ru was small she caused an accident that injured her younger sister. Jie Xiu wants to know what the accident was so that he needs to know how to help her get over her hang ups. Meng Jun says that Xiao Ru is living with a lot of guilt, so she cannot accept Jie Xiu when she knows the pain it will inflict upon Avril.

Jie Xiu walks and sketches another wild boar girl picture, thinking back to Xiao Ru and realizing that she doesn’t dislike him. She likes him, but is afraid to accept him, otherwise why would she go to the Temple to sever their destiny. Jie Xiu calls the orphanage to get a contact number. Daniel takes out a picture drawn by a little girl, clearly it was given to him by a childhood Xiao Ru. He tells the picture that he thought getting revenge on her would make himself feel better. But it doesn’t, and he still cares about her. Daniel asks himself to perhaps admit that he still has feelings for Xiao Ru.

Xiao Ru is delivering an order when Meng Jun offers to deliver it for her. Xiao Ru says she’s feeling much better after eating the croissants left by Meng Jun, who says she didn’t leave any croissants for her. Xiao Ru doesn’t care, she just wants to keep busy today so she doesn’t think about Jie Xiu and upset herself more.

Samantha is enjoying an alfresco lunch with Lee Da Fu. Samantha thinks he’s going to confess his feelings for her. But she’s eating a squid ink pasta and her mouth is all black. Lee Da Fu tries to use his tongue to tell her she’s got a dirty mouth but she thinks he’s being disgusting and crass with her. Samantha rushes to the elevator and finally sees her own reflection. Lee Da Fu catches up with her and finally confesses that he’s really happy around her.

Daniel sits down to lunch where Xiao Ru is getting ready to serve him. She pretends that she’s not angry at him anymore but inside she’s still seething. Daniel asks if her husband has a bad temper since he saw Jie Xiu yelling at Xiao Ru earlier. She says Jie Xiu has such high standards that she can rarely meet, hence he gets mad at her, so she’s partially responsible as well. Xiao Ru overly sprinkles salt on the meat and vows to salt him to death. Daniel asks if the ring she was looking for was a wedding ring? Xiao Ru hands him a steak covered in salt. He sees it clearly but eats the meat nonetheless. Poor Daniel chews and swallows. Xiao Ru asks if it tastes good. Daniel says that for the things he likes, he can endure it. Xiao Ru asks out loud whether Daniel really likes her…..special steak that much?

Daniel gets out of the elevator and runs into Samantha, who recognizes him as the son of her friend. Daniel also remembers Samantha. Suddenly Samantha starts bragging about her son, and Lee Da Fu pipes up that her son is the top interior designer at his firm, Song Jie Xiu. Daniel’s eyes widen to realize just how small this little DTLY universe is.

The papparazi sneaks into Jie Xiu’s home, just as Avril has packed her bags and is getting ready to leave. She wonders if she really has no other reason to stay? Suddenly Avril hears the paparrazi downstairs and he’s talking out loud about looking for the fake marriage contract. Avril initially wants to hide it, but later decides to leave the contract in a place where the papparazi will be sure to find it. She thinks to herself that this is her last chance to be with Jie Xiu. OMFG, Avril, you are officially batshit insane now. You want to ruin your own career to get a man who has said he is in love with another woman.

Jie Xiu goes to an elementary school and walks into a classroom looking for a music teacher. Jie Xiu walks into the classroom and sees a girl playing the piano. Suddenly the girl has an asthma attack and Jie Xiu helps her get her inhaler. The girl says she has to keep practicing, telling Jie Xiu that she has to get first place to make her mom’s dreams come true. Her mom walks in and asks what he’s here about? Jie Xiu says he’s here about Lin Xiao Ru.

Jie Xiu says he’s here because he’s Xiao Ru’s husband. Xiao Ru’s sister derides Xiao Ru as a thief, and she can’t believe that thief could possibly have a husband. Xiao Ru’s sister asks if Xiao Ru is looking for forgiveness? She refuses to forgive Xiao Ru because her actions have caused her to never be able to accomplish her own musical dreams. Xiao Ru’s sister walks away and tells Jie Xiu to please leave and never come back. Jie Xiu notices that the little girl left her inhaler on the table.

He grabs the inhaler and chases after the car, honking to try and get her to stop. But Xiao Ru’s sister refuses to stop, thinking Jie Xiu only to wants to bug her more about Xiao Ru’s business. Suddenly Jie Xiu has to pull over because he ran out of gas. Jie Xiu gets out of the car and finds an exhausted biker. Jie Xiu gives him some money and borrows his bike and starts pedaling feverishly downhill. Suddenly Jie Xiu runs off the side of the road. Xiao Ru’s sister considers going back to assist him, but decides to keep driving because her daughter needs to perform at 7 p.m., and she thinks Jie Xiu will be fine.

They arrive at the performance hall when suddenly the little girl starts having an asthma attach. Her mom can’t find her inhaler and is starting to panic when Jie Xiu arrives with the inhaler. He collapses on the ground in exhaustion. Xiao Ru’s sister asks why he was willing do go to such lengths to help them. Jie Xiu says that he knows Xiao Ru hurt her, but now her daughter has a chance to help her make her dreams come true, so this is the only thing he can do.

Xiao Ru’s sister asks why he would go to such lengths to help Xiao Ru? Is she worth it? Jie Xiu says he used to dislike Xiao Ru’s attitude, but because of her he’s changed and now he’s willing to help others.

Xiao Ru sneaks home and is relieved that Jie Xiu is not home yet. Samantha asks Xiao Ru for her help since she’s making a cake for Jie Xiu for his birthday. Xiao Ru just realized that today’s is Jie Xiu’s birthday, and that Samantha is actually making a cake to rectify all the cakes he never got. Samantha asks Xiao Ru what she’s going to do for her husband on his birthday? Jie Xiu comes home and Xiao Ru and Samantha walk out with a cake and singing happy birthday.

Samantha hands Jie Xiu a very old robot toy that she’s been holding onto for years that she never gave him. Jie Xiu thought his mom forgot, but turns out she did buy it for him that year. She was late coming home because of a work accident and Jie Xiu stopped speaking with her for half a month. And then she got accepted into a new dance troupe and she started missing all his events. Little by little they stopped talking because they each refused to budge. Samantha says she wishes she could go back to his 8th birthday and hand this present to him.

Jie Xiu apologizes to Samantha, who hugs him and tells him not to apologize because he’s done nothing wrong. She doesn’t know if she can become a good mom now, but she hopes they can finally let go of the past. Samantha says they need to thank Xiao Ru for allowing them to finally reconcile. Xiao Ru runs into the kitchen, allowing Samantha and Jie Xiu to embrace each other quietly.

Samantha wonders why Xiao Ru won’t even look at Jie Xiu tonight and is told the couple had a slight argument today. Jie Xiu makes his wishes out loud: he wants Xiao Ru not to be mad at him, so he’ll apologize to her; his second wish is to work on his temper and be a husband who supports his wife; and before he can say his last wish, Xiao Ru tells him to keep it inside and not say it out loud.

Jie Xiu awkwardly blows out the candle and then starts telling jokes with Samantha. But Xiao Ru is not amused and walks away. Samantha thinks says she can work on resolving their issues. Suddenly Xiao Ru hears Samantha talking loudly about getting a divorce when the wife is so unreasonable. Xiao Ru walks outside to see Samantha and Jie Xiu looking at pictures of ladies for him to go on matchmaking dates with. Xiao Ru sees a picture and says that girl is wearing a push up bra.

Xiao Ru tries to walk away but can’t help and keeps butting in, finding faults with all the girls. Samantha tells Xiao Ru to go to sleep since she’s already decided to divorce Jie Xiu, so all she needs to do is sign the divorce papers. Jie Xiu loudly exclaims that he wants to meet this one girl tomorrow, and tonight he’ll put her picture in her left jacket pocket so she is closer to his heart. Xiao Ru goes upstairs and Jie Xiu and Samantha high five each other. Jie Xiu is in the bathroom pretending to be showering.

Xiao Ru sneaks into her bedroom to find the picture. Jie Xiu asks why she’s sneaking a look at the picture of the woman who will be Jie Xiu’s second wife? Xiao Ru smiles and asks if this is the woman Jie Xiu wants to marry next. We see Samantha is eavesdropping outside the door. Jie Xiu smiles and says that he fell in love with this woman a long time ago, which is when we see that Xiao Ru is holding not a picture, but a sketch of the wild boar girl. AWWWWWWWWWWWW.

He tells Xiao Rut that if she doesn’t believe him, he can prove it to her. Jie Xiu grabs his sketch book and shows her the succession of wild boar pictures he drew for her over the past few weeks. When he gets to the third picture, it’s a new picture of a wild boar girl with a boyfriend, a wild boar boy. All successive pictures are of the girl and boy boar doing various activities. Jie Xiu says he wants to thank this girl for bringing him so much happiness, and he wants to do many more things with her in the future. Samantha hears this and melts into a puddle on the floor.

The last picture is of wild boar boy standing against the wall while the wild boar girl throws knives at him like a carnival side show. Xiao Ru says if he wants to do something with her, they can do something he will never be able to forget. Suddenly Jie Xiu starts freaking out because there is a cockroach in the bedroom. Xiao Ru picks up her slipper to kill the cockroach, ending up smashing it on Jie Xiu’s face.

The paparazzi has handed the fake marriage contract to his editor, who promises to make this front page news. The paparazzi is angry at Jie Xiu, Avril, and Xiao Ru for making him the butt of jokes for so long. Tomorrow he’s going to ambush them all with the media present. Meng Jun’s oldest son comes to find Meng Jun to ask for more spending money. She tells him not to lie but he points out that adults lie all the time, such as Auntie Xiao Ru lying in her fake marriage.

Daniel arrives and catches glimpse of what the kid said. After Meng Jun leaves, Daniel asks him if it’s true that Xiao Ru and Jie Xiu’s marriage is fake and they even have a contract. Daniel finds Jie Xiu working on the interior design of the arboretum. Daniel realizes that Xiao Ru’s fake marriage with Jie Xiu is close to being done and he appears to decide to resume his pursuit of Xiao Ru. Daniel walks up to Jie Xiu and tries to be nice, asking to start over. Jie Xiu is not interested in making friends with Daniel since he’s just here to work.

Jie Xiu warns Daniel not to mess around with his wife again. Ooooooh, testosterone stare-off. This would have been a billion times more awesome if Yi Xian didn’t turn out to be such a turd and could actually fight for Xiao Ru with Jie Xiu. Daniel laughs about Jie Xiu being so hung up about what happened yesterday. He promises from now on he will treat Xiao Ru extra nice going forward.

Xiao Ru is overseeing the wedding preparations at the hotel garden. Daniel runs up to Xiao Ru and offers to help her move the flower arrangements. She declines when Jie Xiu runs up and offers to help her as well. He says he’s here to work today, and to keep the flies at bay, swatting around and almost missing Daniel’s face. He also tells Xiao Ru that he’s taking her on a date later to a mystery location. The manager asks Xiao Ru to act the role of the bride for a walk through.

Daniel runs up and says he’ll play the groom. We see Xiao Ru and Daniel walking down the aisle when Jie Xiu runs up and says that Xiao Ru is his real wife so he should play the role of the groom. Daniel says Jie Xiu is just a guest at the hotel and shouldn’t be bothered. The two men start arguing when Xiao Ru tells him to shut up and listen to her. Next we see Daniel and Jie Xiu walking down the aisle together, pushing the bouquet towards each other. Daniel tells Jie Xiu not to take it so seriously, since this is “fake” and will “end soon.”

Jie Xiu drags Xiao Ru off and takes her to remote mountain location. Xiao Ru asks if he’s bringing her here to a remote place to have his way with her. Jie Xiu rolls his eyes at her, saying that sometimes he thinks she’s more perverted than he is. He warns Xiao Ru to stay away from Daniel going forward. Jie Xiu asks Xiao Ru if he’s better looking than Daniel? Xiao Ru says objectively Daniel’s hairstyle is more innovative. Jie Xiu tells Xiao Ru not to cheat on him.

Xiao Ru says if she wanted to cheat, she won’t cheat with Daniel. She’ll pick Johnny Depp! Jie Xiu says there will be communication problems because he’s a foreigner. Jie Xiu suggests Joseph Chang, since people always say he looks like him. Mwahahaha, did DTLY just break the fourth wall! Awesome. We see Jie Xiu mimicking a Joseph Chang commercial line of dialogue. Xiao Ru says no, she doesn’t want to cheat on a guy who looks like Jie Xiu.

Jie Xiu and Xiao Ru arrive at the elementary school where her sister is a teacher. The sit in the audience in a classroom, where Xiao Ru is told a music performance is about to begin. The curtains opens and Xiao Ru’s sister’s daughter starts to play. Xiao Ru recognizes the song.

Thoughts of Mine:

I’ll dispense with the rundown of awesome-things-Jie-Xiu-did-in-this-episode since it’s a broken record at this point. Plus there are simply too many to count, and I’m not very good with math. All I know is that this man makes my insides turn into jelly, and my heart to expand about three sizes with his love and devotion to Xiao Ru. No wonder DTLY is so low on angst, because every obstacle that meets Song Jie Xiu gets vaporized. Not only is he dogged, he’s so smart he figured out exactly what needs to be done. But then he turns into a petty little boy and makes all of us laugh as well.

I have to confess being completely surprised Avril pulled this final stunt. I knew the paparazzi was going to find the fake marriage contract, but I seriously did think she finally got it through her thick head and thin skin that Jie Xiu is not coming back to her. Now she is going to force his hand? What a low down shitty thing to do. Avril, you are officially a piece of dog poo in my eyes. Maybe I should blame the screenwriter for turning Avril into such a caricature at this last minute, since I always saw her as selfish but never destructive and idiotic.

I’m pleased that Samantha and Jie Xiu worked through this issues, which really was a result of bad parenting and bad communication, compounded by two equally stubborn people. It was almost all Samantha’s fault, for sure, but at least she’s not the full blown selfish flighty mom we initially thought she was. I like how their mother-son breakthrough wasn’t made out to be such a big deal, but allowed them a lovely long hug that was much needed. I don’t think they’ve magically healed all wounds, but appear to have realized that they are both okay, and can move on and make the future time spent together different than the pain of the past.

I love how Jie Xiu takes the lessons he learned from Xiao Ru and applies it to healing her wounds. His love for her is so very easy to understand, explain, and quantify. It doesn’t mean it’s clinical, only that it makes sense for us watching it, and makes sense to Jie Xiu. Daniel still feels like a tacked on character, maybe because he is, but I wish the writer could integrate him better. While DTLY is really a drama about the little details in the journey of Xiao Ru and Jie Xiu from drunken strangers to forever-in-love-married-couple, I think this is one drama that will have quite a long shelf life as a drama that I can recommend many years down the line and it’ll still hold up to repeated viewings.