Recaps

Lin Jingchen explained his grandmother Ci Qing’s plant handbook to Bai Chen and recalled how his grandparents’ mutual love shaped his hopes for marriage. After Bai Chen fell asleep, Milne and his mother arrived at a café to meet Xiao Zhao.

• Bai Chen asked Lin Jingchen about his earlier errands, then asked him to explain several unfamiliar methods in the handbook.
• Lin Jingchen remembered how Ci Qing had studied and traveled before marrying Lin Xuan, and how they continued to cherish one another after returning home.
• Lin Jingchen recalled rejecting his arranged betrothal and his father’s advice to control someone he loved, because he wanted a freely given love like his grandparents had shared.
• Lin Jingchen spent the morning explaining the handbook to Bai Chen, then left him to sleep while he reviewed documents nearby.
• Milne arrived at a café with his mother, who pointed out Xiao Zhao, and he followed her toward the girl reading in the corner.

Xiao Zhao met her arranged fiancé, Jim Milne, who tried every argument he could think of to end their engagement. When she accepted his excuses and kept insisting she wanted to marry him, he claimed he liked men, leaving her startled.

• Jim Milne arrived with his mother to meet Xiao Zhao, who greeted him coyly as “Milne dear.”
• After his mother left them alone, Milne said he wanted to call off the engagement and claimed they did not like each other.
• Xiao Zhao insisted she liked him and answered his objections, even after he said he had slept with another woman and might cheat again.
• Unable to persuade her, Milne claimed he liked men and had no physical response to women.
• Xiao Zhao’s pupils contracted, and she tentatively asked whether he really liked men.

Xiao Zhao revealed that Milne’s grandfather had bound him to the Xiao Family through an old deal, then offered him a one-year sham marriage and a chance to return to the Kim Family in exchange for help. Meanwhile, Lin Jingchen brought Bai Chen to his seaside hideout and shared memories of how he had made it his own.

• Xiao Zhao told Milne that his grandfather had effectively sold him to the Xiao Family, making him its live-in son-in-law.
• After receiving messages and learning more about his situation, Milne agreed to work with Xiao Zhao if his personal freedom remained unrestricted.
• Xiao Zhao promised to help Milne return to the Kim Family after a year if he helped accomplish a task, and the two agreed to a sham marriage and shook hands on their partnership.
• Lin Jingchen took Bai Chen to the seaside, where Bai Chen admired the view and the calming sound of the waves.
• Lin Jingchen showed Bai Chen the house he had bought with money from his first business deal and explained how he had chosen its furnishings and designed its layout.
• Lin Jingchen recalled reading domineering CEO novels after Bai Chen had once called him a domineering CEO.

Lin Jingchen gave Bai Chen access to his family’s rare botanical research materials, then drove him back to see Gu Yun before his sudden departure overseas. As Bai Chen said goodbye, he helped Gu Yun realize that his feelings were for his childhood friend Li Xingzhu.

• Lin Jingchen showed Bai Chen Professor Askoda’s original notebook and other rare research materials, then gave him the key as a token of his love.
• Gu Yun told Bai Chen that he was leaving for several years, and Bai Chen asked Lin Jingchen to drive him back to G University to see him off.
• Lin Jingchen revealed that Gu Yun had recently been acknowledged as Gu Zhengde’s illegitimate son and warned Bai Chen not to interfere with the dangerous family conflict.
• Bai Chen agreed not to get involved and returned to the dormitory, where Gu Yun asked him to take a walk before his flight.
• Gu Yun admitted he had once had feelings for Bai Chen, but Bai Chen said he would never have returned them because he loved Lin Jingchen.
• Bai Chen asked Gu Yun how he would feel if Li Xingzhu gave his affection to someone else, and Gu Yun realized he might be in love with Li Xingzhu.

Gu Yun left for a dangerous trip alone, while Li Xingzhu arranged to follow him with Lin Jingchen’s help. At the Xiao Family residence, Milne arrived believing Xiao Zhao’s joke about the family’s debts and quickly befriended Keke.

• Bai Chen reassured Gu Yun that Li Xingzhu would accept his feelings, and Gu Yun decided to ask him after returning.
• Gu Yun said goodbye to Bai Chen and left for the Gu Family’s destination without telling Li Xingzhu.
• Lin Jingchen revealed himself to Li Xingzhu, offered help getting inside the destination, and took him toward the airport.
• Xiao Zhao showed Milne his packed luggage and tricked him into believing the Xiao Family was deeply in debt and needed his money.
• Keke knocked Milne down, then eagerly approached him and let him pet its belly, surprising Xiao Zhao because the dog was usually fierce toward strangers.

Milne moved into Xiao Zhao’s home, where he discovered that the fridge held only beer and the backyard pond contained a giant black caiman. Xiao Zhao returned with food and explained that she had raised the caiman, Keduo, since it was little with her brother.

• Xiao Zhao left Milne at her home and told him to choose a room while she went out.
• Milne picked a room far from Xiao Zhao’s, saw a photograph of Xiao Zhao with her deceased twin brother, and found no food in the fridge.
• Milne fed Keke and Duoduo, then discovered a huge black caiman in the fenced pond and backed away in fear.
• Xiao Zhao returned with two men carrying Chinese food, and Milne asked why she kept a crocodilian at home.
• Xiao Zhao said the caiman was named Keduo and that she had raised it since it was little with her brother.

Several months after Gu Yun and Li Xingzhu left, Bai Chen considered joining an exchange program but worried it would strain his relationship with Lin Jingchen. When Lin Jingchen promised to return for Valentine’s Day, Bai Chen hesitated to tell him about the opportunity, and Lin Jingchen asked what was wrong.

• Bai Chen learned that Li Xingzhu had left with Gu Yun and wondered how they were doing abroad.
• Bai Chen prepared a plant as a Valentine’s Day gift for Lin Jingchen, who had been away on business for two weeks.
• Professor Wang selected Bai Chen for an exchange program, but Bai Chen worried that being apart from Lin Jingchen would harm their new relationship.
• Bai Chen called Lin Jingchen, admitted that he missed him, and heard that he would return in time for Valentine’s Day.
• Bai Chen hesitated to mention the exchange program, and Lin Jingchen asked whether something serious had happened.

Bai Chen told Lin Jingchen he was considering an exchange program in B Country, and Lin Jingchen encouraged him to go while suggesting they visit the country together first. On Valentine’s Day, Bai Chen prepared flowers for Lin Jingchen and rejected Xia Wangqiu’s continued advances, leaving Xia to withdraw his hand after Bai Chen warned him about Lin Jingchen.

• Bai Chen told Lin Jingchen he wanted to join an exchange program in B Country but feared distance would harm their relationship, and Lin encouraged him to go.
• Lin Jingchen proposed that they visit B Country during the New Year break to check the environment before Bai Chen’s exchange.
• Bai Chen transplanted the flowers he had grown for months into a pot and left the laboratory to give them as a Valentine’s Day gift.
• Xia Wangqiu ran into Bai Chen, called him Xiao Bai, and confessed that he still liked him despite Bai Chen’s objections.
• Bai Chen rejected Xia Wangqiu’s advances and warned him not to pursue Lin Jingchen’s boyfriend, prompting Xia to lower his hand.

Bai Chen collected the handmade tea set he had made for Lin Jingchen and went to the seaside villa, where Lin played a piano piece composed especially for him. Bai Chen named the piece “New Life,” exchanged gifts with Lin, and joined him for lunch at a mountain estate.

• Bai Chen picked up his pottery tea set at the Morning Breeze Teahouse and packed it in a gift box for Lin Jingchen.
• Assistant Wang drove Bai Chen to the seaside villa, where Lin Jingchen was waiting in the study with a piano.
• Lin Jingchen played a piece he had composed for Bai Chen, and Bai Chen recorded it and named it “New Life.”
• Bai Chen gave Lin Jingchen the tea set, and Lin accepted it without opening the box.
• Lin Jingchen took Bai Chen to a private kitchen restaurant at a mountain estate, where their meal was ready.

Bai Chen and Lin Jingchen shared a meal with Xiao Li and her fiancé, Jim Milne, where Lin Jingchen revealed he could eat spicy food and Xiao Li admitted she was only pretending to care for Milne because he was useful to her. After Bai Chen’s family invited Lin Jingchen to meet them for New Year, the chapter left their relationship poised for a family visit.

• Xiao Li and Jim Milne approached Bai Chen and Lin Jingchen, introduced themselves, and joined them for a meal at the crowded mountain resort.
• Lin Jingchen called Bai Chen his boyfriend, and he shared the spicy dishes with Bai Chen while Xiao Li and Milne waited for milder food.
• When Milne left the table, Xiao Li told Lin Jingchen she did not like Milne and was keeping up her affectionate act because he was useful to her.
• Bai Chen took a call from his family and asked Lin Jingchen to meet his parents for New Year.

Bai Chen recognized Milne as the doctor who had saved a man on their flight, and the two groups parted after dinner. Bai Chen and Lin Jingchen spent their date walking through a park, where they joked about jealousy and keeping each other tethered.

• Bai Chen recognized Milne’s blue eyes and recalled meeting him on a plane, where Milne had saved a passenger with a collapsed lung.
• Milne explained that he had studied medicine privately despite his family requiring him to major in finance.
• After dinner, Xiao Zhao and Milne went to see a movie while Bai Chen and Lin Jingchen walked around a nearby park.
• Bai Chen and Lin Jingchen watched a young boy’s mother wait out his tantrum until he gave up and said he was hungry.
• Lin Jingchen offered to toss rings for Bai Chen, and the two exchanged jokes about jealousy, ropes, and chains.

Bai Chen and Lin Jingchen played ring toss, and Lin Jingchen won the stuffed bear Bai Chen wanted before giving it to him. After taking Bai Chen back to G University, Lin Jingchen opened Bai Chen’s gift and discovered handcrafted pottery and a glass vessel holding dark red roses and pale blue baby blue eyes.

• Bai Chen told Lin Jingchen he had first been drawn to his mature charm and had admired him.
• Bai Chen won three plush toys at ring toss, then tried and failed to win a distant bear holding a heart.
• Lin Jingchen kept trying until he won the bear and gave it to Bai Chen, who accepted it happily.
• Lin Jingchen drove Bai Chen back to G University, then returned to his apartment and opened Bai Chen’s gift.
• Lin Jingchen found pottery Bai Chen had made and a glass vessel containing roses and baby blue eyes that could not grow locally in that season.

Lin Jingchen learned that the woman who had abandoned the Lin Family had returned and went to the old family residence. Lin Xiaoqian recalled how she had once fled with her younger brother to protect him from their father, leaving their past and the woman's return unresolved.

• Lin Jingchen admired the gifts in his room until Lin Xiaoqian told him the woman had returned to the old family residence, and he set out to go there.
• Lin Xiaoqian remembered the woman’s abuse during their childhood and how their father had allowed it.
• After the woman left, Lin Xiaoqian’s father became cruel and beat Lin Jingchen while searching for the woman.
• Lin Xiaoqian overheard her father planning to use Lin Jingchen to force the woman to return.
• Lin Xiaoqian secretly escaped with her brother and pleaded with their grandparents at the ancestral residence to take him in.

Lin Xiaoqian and Lin Jingchen confronted their returning mother, Tan Xin, and rejected her attempt to rejoin the Lin Family. Lin Tai chose Tan Xin over his family and was struck from the family register, while Lin Xiaoqian learned that Lin Jingchen and Bai Chen had gotten together.

• After receiving Tan Xin's message, Lin Xiaoqian went to the Lin Family Ancient Residence with her actor husband, who stayed outside to avoid paparazzi.
• Lin Jingchen refused to acknowledge Tan Xin and ordered her and her son to leave, while Lin Tai defended them and argued with his son.
• Lin Xiaoqian arrived, slapped Tan Xin twice, and condemned both her and the son she had with another man.
• Lin Jingchen told Lin Tai that he would lose his family membership and most of his assets if he accepted Tan Xin back, and Lin Tai agreed to leave the family for her.
• Lin Tai offered incense to his father before leaving, and Lin Xiaoqian later told Lin Jingchen that she and her husband were going to dinner.
• Lin Xiaoqian asked about Lin Jingchen's relationship with Bai Chen, and Lin Jingchen revealed that they had gotten together recently.

Bai Chen left for his exchange studies abroad, and Lin Jingchen saw him off at the airport before he arrived in B Country and met his new classmates and roommate. The chapter ended with Bai Chen settling into his dorm as he and Lin Jingchen began a year apart.

• Lin Jingchen accompanied Bai Chen to the airport and struggled to hide how much he would miss him.
• Bai Chen and Lin Jingchen reminded each other to stay safe and take care of themselves before boarding, and they promised to miss each other.
• Lin Jingchen watched Bai Chen's plane take off and left the airport feeling downhearted.
• After landing in B Country, Bai Chen met the students sent by his professor to pick him up, including Andy Jonah.
• Bai Chen told the students that he had a boyfriend, and they welcomed him without fuss.
• Bai Chen reached his dorm and met his friendly, stocky new roommate.

Bai Chen joined Professor Jerry’s weeklong rainforest field trip, where their guide Jem warned the students about dangerous plants and animals. When a venomous Blue-Scaled Purple-Tailed Snake coiled around a girl’s neck, Jem told everyone not to move and cautiously approached her.

• Bai Chen settled into life abroad, recovered from an upset stomach, and kept in daily contact with Lin Jingchen.
• Professor Jerry took Bai Chen and nine other students on a weeklong rainforest field trip with the local guide Jem.
• Jem led the group deeper into the rainforest and marked their route with red cords while warning them not to touch unfamiliar plants or creatures.
• Several students were bitten by insects, and Jem and Professor Jerry reprimanded them for ignoring safety instructions.
• A girl screamed when a Blue-Scaled Purple-Tailed Snake coiled around her neck, and Jem ordered everyone to stay still as he approached.

Jem rescued a student from a venomous snake and warned the group that her perfume could attract dangerous animals. The group continued deeper into the rainforest, but a swamp created by the recent storm blocked their route.

• Jem lured the Blue-Scaled Purple-Tailed Snake away from the girl with meat coated in medicinal powder, then grabbed it and threw it aside.
• Jem checked the girl's perfume and warned her that its scents could attract insects and wild animals.
• Jem led the students onward through the rainforest, where they observed plants and animals while avoiding monitor lizards.
• The group came upon a vast swamp that had formed after the rainstorm and blocked their way deeper into the forest.

Jem proposed climbing a cliff so the group could continue through the Rainforest, prompting the students to argue over whether to proceed or turn back. The professor decided that those wishing to return could leave with Jem’s son, while he continued the research expedition with those who wanted to go on.

• Jem suggested climbing the ten-meter cliff and securing a rope, but the professor initially urged the students to turn back because of the risk.
• The students argued over whether to continue, while Bai Chen avoided choosing a side because he could not follow their rapid conversation.
• After the professor asked Jem about the danger and the return route, Jem said his son could guide students back safely.
• The professor offered the students a choice: return with Jem’s son or continue with him into the Rainforest.
• The students were surprised when the professor revealed that he intended to keep going despite his age.

The students chose whether to continue through the Rainforest, and most decided to go on despite their fear. When Jem needed someone to climb the cliff with him before dark, Bai Chen volunteered, and Jem prepared to lead him up the rope.

• The professor told the students to decide whether to continue, and seven chose to go while three initially chose to turn back.
• One girl changed her mind and joined the group going onward, persuading the girl who had nearly been bitten by a snake to go too.
• The bespectacled young man agreed to continue after the stocky young man taunted him for being a coward.
• Jem explained that his thin polyethylene rope could support three adults and asked for someone with stamina to help him cross the cliff.
• After Sheng and the other students refused, Bai Chen volunteered to follow Jem up the cliff before nightfall.

Bai Chen and Jem helped the group cross a cliff, but a hornet attack and thick fog separated Bai Chen from the others. He camped alone in the rainforest overnight, worried about the danger and thinking of Lin Jingchen.

• Jem guided Bai Chen up the cliff, then secured a rope so the professor and students could climb to the top safely.
• After the group descended and continued through the rainforest, a disturbed hornet nest sent the students fleeing into thick fog.
• Bai Chen ran through the fog and emerged alone, then searched and called for the others without finding anyone.
• Bai Chen decided not to risk returning through the fog and made a camp with a fire, food, and a stick for protection.
• Unable to sleep, Bai Chen reread his messages with Lin Jingchen and realized how deeply he cared about him.

Bai Chen wandered alone through the jungle for sixteen days, struggling with an infected hornet sting, dwindling supplies, and repeated failures to find his classmates. He finally found a student who had been brutally killed, leaving him terrified for the others and struggling to stay calm.

• Bai Chen pulled the hornet's stinger from his swollen arm and treated the wound with alcohol.
• Bai Chen searched the jungle for his classmates, found only a marker, and eventually waited four days for someone to find him.
• After his food and water ran low, Bai Chen found a stream and filled two bottles, then survived on foraged fruit and animals while trying to escape.
• Bai Chen narrowly escaped Senyu, a huge python, by throwing a torch at it.
• On the sixteenth day, Bai Chen found a male student who had been disemboweled and dismembered, checked for a breath, and collapsed when he realized the student was dead.
• Bai Chen feared his classmates were also in danger, then slapped himself to force himself to calm down.

After seventeen days alone in the Rainforest, Bai Chen heard a real cry for help and found a blonde girl trapped in a deep mud pit. He gave her water and went to gather vines to rescue her, but a mischievous monkey climbed onto him as he reached for them.

• Bai Chen chose a path through the Rainforest, tied red ribbons to mark his route, and focused on staying alive until help arrived.
• On day seventeen, Bai Chen heard faint cries and knocking, followed the sounds, and found a girl trapped in a five-meter-deep mud pit.
• Bai Chen tossed the girl his water and promised to find a way to get her out.
• Bai Chen searched for sturdy usnea vines and climbed a nearby tree to cut some.
• A monkey jumped onto Bai Chen's shoulder and tugged at his clothes and hair while he climbed.
• Bai Chen cut the vines and climbed back down with the monkey still pestering him.

Bai Chen freed a trapped monkey and used vines to pull Sha out of a deep pit. Sha told him she had been trapped for seventeen days after getting separated from Sally, and had eaten dirt to survive.

• Bai Chen caught the monkey, pulled some fur from its head, and let it go instead of killing it for food.
• Bai Chen tested a bundle of vines and lowered them into the pit for Sha to climb.
• Bai Chen tied the vines to a tree and pulled Sha up while she climbed the muddy wall.
• Sha reached the surface after two minutes, and Bai Chen checked on her as his palms bled from the vines.
• Sha told Bai Chen she had been separated from Sally in thick fog, fallen into the pit, and survived seventeen days by eating dirt after her supplies ran out.

Bai Chen reunited with Sha in the rainforest and searched for food while trying to keep them both alive. After he returned with a monitor lizard and told her that Kord had died, Sha panicked and became convinced someone was trying to kill them.

• Bai Chen found Sha weak and hungry after she had spent seventeen days trapped in the rainforest.
• Bai Chen gave Sha a sharpened stick and a fire to protect herself, then went to find food while marking his route.
• Bai Chen caught and killed a monitor lizard, filled their water bottles at a stream, and gathered wild pitcher plants.
• Bai Chen returned with the lizard, and Sha thanked him before he revealed that Kord had been found dead and partly eaten.
• Sha panicked, screamed about ghosts, and accused Bai Chen of killing Kord and wanting to kill them.

After the girl hallucinated and bit Bai Chen, the two continued through the rainforest and encountered their guide, Jem, who claimed he had found them and could lead them back to the others. Bai Chen grew suspicious of Jem and warned the girl to hide as they approached a steep slope.

• The girl hallucinated after hearing that Kord had died, bit Bai Chen, and came back to her senses after he splashed her with water.
• The girl apologized for biting Bai Chen, and later forced herself to eat the foul-tasting roasted meat he shared with her.
• The next day, Bai Chen and the girl encountered Jem, who said he had been searching for them and that the professor and other students were nearby.
• Jem led them over uneven ground beside a steep slope, and Bai Chen discreetly warned the girl that something might be wrong with him.
• Bai Chen shielded the girl and refused to approach the cliff while he tried to determine whether Jem was dangerous.