JoleCole's Station

Turbulence of the Mu Clan evolves heavily around family politics and revenge. The constant plotting and traps can get tiresome, but the series still provides enough surprises and excitement to make the story engaging, I'm mostly intrigued by the main love story and perhaps the development of the Mu Zeng's character. Though Aleqiu is the #1 central character that connects everything together, I feel her character can get too goody two shoes for my liking. She has both good and annoying moments, so I have mixed feelings about her in general. Anyway, I'm planning to do some recaps focusing mainly on the OTP.

After Tong Xue sees the white Origami crane left on her desk, she can’t help but ponder all day about the person who folded it.  She gets lost in her own world until Song Yi interrupts her. He gets curious and asks why she would settle for such a “minor” design project with her impressive qualifications. Tong Xue refutes, “There’s nothing wrong of this type of design. Hard work should not be judged on such basis.”  She goes on to confess that she came to wait for someone but unfortunately, he’s not there. She tells Song Yi, “We have missed each other too many times. I don’t want to lose him again. I’m determined to wait till he comes back.”

Episode1 unveils with Mo Shaoqian at a park and his assistant, Wenhao comes to report to him that Tong Xue is back. Surprisingly, Shaoqian doesn’t show any interest to see her again. In the car, Wenhao and Shaoqian discuss some business matters. It seems Shaoqian is still “Director Mo” or “CEO Mo.” He has definitely managed to keep his wealth and went off to do his own business after his fallout with the powerful Mu family. Shaoqian then starts to cough uncontrollably and takes his medication. Wenhao watches with worry. As they are about to leave, Shaoqian sees Tong Xue walking across them and still refuses to seek contact with her.

Shaoqian’s mother, Jiang Yun, seeks to befriend the injured Tong Xue as they share the same hospital room.  In contrast to her stern and serious son, Jiang Yun is a vivacious and fun-loving middle-aged woman who loves to play video games. Tong Xue seems to really enjoy her company because her spirited personality definitely helps to brighten Tong Xue’s melancholy.  Jiang Yun confides to Tong Xue that her husband has already passed away and she rarely even sees her son.  As they chatter, Tong Xue begins to reminisce about her own parents. She reveals that this coming hour of midnight is actually her lunar calendar birthday, the day her late parents usually celebrate with her.  Jiang Yun tries to comfort her and rocks her to sleep.  On Jiang Yun's cellphone, she reads an email message from Shaoqian saying “Today, I did something wrong again” and she replies, “Then, don’t do it again.”

Since Mu Zhenfei had offered to help his sister dig out Mo Shaoqian’s dalliances, Yongfei calls him to check on the progress on of his investigation. Mu Zhenfei, who is fully aware of his sister’s erratic and uninhibited behavior, cautions her not to go too far.  He fears his sister will do something crazy and hurt another innocent woman like Su Shanshan. He warns, “The more you pressure a man, the more he will resist you. Your tactic won’t work.” Ignoring Zhenfei's advice, Mu Yongfei shoots back saying that after their father suspended his hospital construction project, Mo Shaoqian has been a very “good husband” recently and has even moved back home to spend more time with her.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all get some good Black Friday deals. I'll be doing some midnight shopping too, so hopefully the crowd won't be too crazy. Anyway, I finally finished recapping Episode 4! No idea why it took so long. I guess there are so many memorable scenes in this episode that I kept on trying to snap the right moment for screen captures. Feeling like a piece of chattel, Tong Xue devastatingly thinks that Shaoqian is passing her over to other men. She feels her life will be ruined after she consents to Shaoqian's "request." She recalls her parents' desire to send her abroad to study and their hope she'll explore her artistic talent to become a great interior designer. Shaoqian, who seems completely unaffected, leaves his house and calls his assistant, Wenhao, to investigate the mastermind behind the trailing of Yueying. He then gets a phone call from Yongfei and the first thing he hears from her is "Do you know how I deal with...

On stage, Shaoqian gives Yongfei a kiss on the cheek to to show his love for his "wife," and of course, give reporters a good opportunity to snap "loving" photos for publication. A reporters asks Shaoqian if he prepared an anniversary gift for Yongfei. He replies jokingly, "Of course. Otherwise, I'll be dead meat when I go home." When Yongfei sees the giant triple-tier ruby diamond necklace, she feels incredibly disappointed and says "This is not what I want."

As Shaoqian gets occupied with corporate matters elsewhere, Tong Xue aborbs in her design work. Yueying becomes very curious about her boyfriend since she senses fear in Tong Xue whenever he gets mentioned. Under Yueying's interrogation, Tong Xue finally yields and describes him as a "good man." The "good man" that Tong Xue describes is not Shaoqian but her first love, Xiao Shan. Tong Xue met her first love on her first day in college while she was still crying over her parents' death and he handed her some tissue paper to wipe her tears. Gradually through Xiao Shan's consolation, Tong Xue recovers from her mourning and they shared many happy memories together. Yueying asks Tong Xue why she didn't marry him if  she loves him so much, but Tong Xue refuses to say more.

I know some viewers felt the first episode of SWAK was too fast and a little incoherent, but I personally love Episode 1. It sets up the intricate relationship between the different characters and shows the inner turmoil Tong Xue faces as the secret mistress of a rich married man. The drama begins with a dream of Tong Xue walking into a blue-roofed beach house and a man inside the house orders her to strip naked in front of him. Before anything else is shown, she wakes up from her nightmare in cold sweat. When she steps out of her room, we see that Tong Xue lives quite luxuriously in a nice house with cleaning maids, a housekeeper, and a dog caretaker. She asks Housekeeper Ding when Mo Shaoqian plans to come back. Ding replies that she doesn't know since he hasn't called to inform her.