MadelineMaureen

That's because we were 6 episodes in.....on a 32 episode show. Duan Jai Xu didn't even she Sang Zhi as a woman until like episode 11 of 25...seriously what are you on about?

Again for the people just joining us in the chat....3 act structure of stroytelling...we are in act 1 aka the "introduction/set up" phase of the story. 2nd act will be the "confrontation" phase. Then finally the 3rd act will be the "resolution". Character changes/growth happened most in act 2 and 3. It's 32 episodes. Let them cook.

So this is the winter before Sang Zhi sees Duan Jai Xu at the Karaoke place during her freshman year of university. I believe we should be getting her flying to see him soon...cause I remember Sang Yan freaking out and having to pick her up in TFF novel...though I can't remember if it was mentioned or if he did it while living with Wen Yi Fan...I could have sworn she was on "lockdown" by this point....it appears I just need to reread the web novel or find a copy of the manhua.

From the source material she has to woo him for a few months first. I know they are together by summer time next year aka the summer between Sang Zhi's freshman and sophomore year of university. But I can't remember the actual date that the two make it official as he patiently waits for her to woo him. I remember it being around one of their birthdays so sometime in fall/winter...They might change that timeline for the show though. So your guess is as good as mine. So it's going to be a while unless they speed through a few months.

also another food analogy is
first act is prepping the raw ingredients.
second act is cooking the ingredients, thus changing the flavor of the raw ingredients.
third act is plating & consuming the meal that was made.

has he been unblacklisted. I see he has recently had a show & movie come out

oh. no. Jai Xu kissed Sang Yan in University on a dare.

Okay, I feel like some people need to learn what the three act structure is in storytelling. This is a 32 episode drama. Most storytelling is broken down into a 3 act structure...the setup(introduction), the confrontation, and the resolution(climax)
The first act is to introduce everyone to the characters and set up the premise of the story. WE ARE STILL IN THE FIRST ACT. The main bulk of character growth happens in acts 2 and 3. The water has to boil before you can cook the damn noodles. (they are the noodles....I am tired, and I am hungry)

huh? I am confused by the sentence....help

Because we are 6 episodes into a 32 episode drama...we haven't even exited the first act of the show yet.

You know in Hidden Love when Sang Zhi is on the phone to Sang Yan and he says that someone is pursuing him and she doesn't believe him....that someone is Yi Fan. She DOES pursue him. Quite epically actually. But she has always been a quiet and shy person unless someone else is in danger. So it takes her a moment to believe that she deserves his love.

Also, how a little sister sees a brother is not the same way a woman sees a lover. As the two stories are told from the two women's perspectives it makes sense that Sang Zhi only sees "family version" Sang Yan. It's mentioned multiple times to Sang Zhi's face that her brother is cool and popular, he tells her multiple times that someone is pursuing him, but every time she brushes him off with a "sure bro" like attitude, as a little sister should tbh.

During the truth or dare. His friend says "come on you've kissed Jai Xu in college before for this game" when trying to land a kiss on Sang Yan.

There is no love triangle in the novel so I don't know what they are doing in the show with his character atm tbh.

This^ I was trying to explain this to someone yesterday when they were victim blaming and saying she was weak for not learning some sort of self defense and reporting on the crimes against her as a journalist.
Yi Fan's story is also to bring awareness to the fact that the justice/legal system continuously fails victims of sexual crimes. Even when she continuously reports the crimes against her she is told to cover it up or think about the family, or "blacklisted". Or so sorry but we can only hold him for so long because he didn't actually hurt you.

It's her mother

Thanks I never had access to the manhua so I'm going based off of my memory of the web novel

The first apartment we see her in is a share house. She isn't related to anyone. The landlord rents by the room not apartment.
Her father dies during her first year of high school. Her parents were already divorced at that time and her mother had married a man with a younger daughter. The daughter didn't like attention being taken from her and refused to let Yi Fan stay with them.
The mother wanted a fresh start from her first marriage. The step-father, if memory serves wasn't a horrible person. I think he was under the impression that a lot of things where Yi Fan's choice. (Someone correct me if i'm wrong)
She first moves in with her paternal grandmother, but she passes away. She then moves in with her paternal uncle and his family. His wife is a piece of work. It's that woman's(her aunt by marriage) brother that sexually assaults her in high school. I believe her son steals from Yi Fan if I'm not mistaken, I can't remember if he skeeves on her though. I just remember that he was treated like a little prince that could do no wrong and she was treated like a heavy burden draining the family funds. Her Uncle is a bit of a pushover and can't stand up to his wife. The uncle-in-law, is a parasite but again, men can do no wrong in the eyes of her aunt.

Most basic beginning timeline without year date and going only off of my memory of the novel I read over a year ago...
Hidden love starts about 2-3 years after Sang Yan & Yi Fan's first day of high school.
They have about a year together at the same school. He travels back and forth to see her in the new town she stays in for the rest of high school.
End of their Senior year before graduation Yi Fan ends things with Sang Yan.
Sang Yan meets Jai Xu his first week of University. Helps him pay for his mother's hospital fees and then funeral. Sang Zhi meets Jai Xu for the first time, and her crush begins.
4 years later they graduate...(no real contact for Yi Fan and Sang Yan....he goes to the city she is in regularly, but doesn't make contact. He collects her articles from the student newspaper & then her first job.)
1-2 years after Yi Fan, Sang Yan, and Jai Xu graduate university Sang Zhi is in her final semester of High school and Yi Fan walked into Overtime and runs into Sang Yan. I believe she had been in the city for about 3 weeks or months(again memory, not looking at the novel so vague about this timeline) prior to their first run in. He was shocked to see her because she had still been working at the newspaper the last time he went to the town she was living in.
Once Yang Zhi starts university the stories begin to parallel/overlap each other.
January/February Sang Yan moves into the apartment saying it will take a year for the repairs to be done with his apartment.(seems they changed that in the live action)
By his next birthday(Jan 2 they(Yi Fan and Sang Yan) are on the same page about being together, and Jai Xu is now seeing Sang Zhi as an adult and is interested in her after she defends him in the restaurant on New Years Eve.
Minutes after Jai Xu and Sang Yan leave the wedding reception of Sang Yan & Jai Xu's roommate, Yi Fan shows up as Sang Yan's girlfriend and is introduced for the first time to the college friend group as his SO.
Summertime Sang Yan catches his bestie dating his little sister. That morning he and YiFan get in an argument and he leaves his luggage in the back of his car in the parking garage and takes a taxi to the airport instead.

ask away.