Shine On Me Discussion - Eps 24&25
Links to episode discussions: Masterpost | Ep 5-8 | Ep 9-10 | Ep 11-12 | Ep 13-14 | Ep 15-16 | Ep 17 | Ep 18 | Ep 19 | Eps 20 - 21 | Eps 22-23
Time for the recap!
Episode 24:
We start the episode with Yusen sending a letter by post, then we quickly cut to Xiguang having a meeting with the PV Garden team. It is the weekend but they’re still hard at work. Mr Hua (one of the colleagues) tells her about a seminar happening Sunday at Soochow University. They ask about what to name the garden and she says ‘Mr Lin already named it Liuguang’
It’s the weekend, so Xiguang is on the way to Wuxi. She holds onto the letter as she keeps thinking of all she knows and heard about Yusen’s car crash.
Xiguang Inner thoughts: What was crossing his mind when he drove me home that last time and he passed this very spot? because at that point, he was convinced I had lured him here and turned my back on him. He truly believed I was the reason he’d never get to pick up the scalpel again.
Her thoughts come to an end as she opens the letter. We see the postcards Yusen got on his trip and finally the letter (I will post the full text of the letter in the pinned comment)**. Yusen’s letter tells the details of how he first met Xiguang. As his voice starts narrating the content, the scenes change into a flashback of Ms Yu’s banquet.
Flashback to Xiguang getting ready for the banquet:
Through her conversation with her mom, we learn that Xigua went to Ms Yu’s party on behalf of her mom (who was held up by business).
Xiguang arrives looking pretty. She greets the host, explains that her mom is held up by business and the she conveys her apologies and messages. Ms Yu looks for Jiaqi to keep Xiguang company but he is nowhere to be found. (Jiaqi is currently catching up with Yusen).
Xiguang finishes the pleasantries, gets herself a nice plate of food and drinks and decides to idle away for 30 mins before leaving.
Chengyuan makes his entrance (with NY by his side). The old men sitting behind Xigua gossip about CY’s ‘good friend’.
he'll be referred to as Misogynistic Suit or MS
This old man in particular insults Jiang Yun, calling her a failure wife, that she wouldn’t let CY have any face even in meetings, that she regretted divorcing him, that she begged to go back to CY but was humiliated and he bets she wasn’t even invited to the banquet. Xiguang listens to all this. Misogynistic Suit then gets up to go greet CY.
Xiguang puts down her glass and goes to confront Misogynistic Suit. Snatching the business card he wanted to give CY out of his hand.
Xigua tears into MS. She reads his business card then says “I can tell you and my dad aren’t close, but the way you were holding court over there was as if you were an old friend of his, as if you had all the business of our family figured out” you go my darling, let him hear it all!!!
MS tries to calm the situation as a misunderstanding but Xigua is undeterred as she goes on “When someone spends their time spinning tales about other people’s families, it makes you wonder about the authenticity of their materials.” She then smoothly brings up his misogynistic remarks, saying that with his views, why does he bother showing up at the banquet of one of the female powerhouses of Wuxi.
https://i.redd.it/gf7d50hzn6bg1.gif
Flashback ends to the rest of Yusen’s letter narration.
Xiguang sits on the bus thinking back to that moment with Yusen in the wedding. “When did you meet your wife?” and she now realises the significance of his answer. Yusen’s narration is accompanied by his memories of the events.
But Xiguang, everything I’ve ever done has always been for you.
Xiguang seems shaken by all she read and in the next scene we see her enter the house in a flurry of movement, heading straight to her room.
Xiguang’s room
Xiguang spends some time staring at the letter then picks up her phone and calls Yusen. They are both silent on the call, eventually Xigua speaks firsts. “I got your letter” “hm” “the postcards are pretty” “I am glad you like them”
my heart can’t take how soft and pained Yusen's voice sounds, I don’t know how he managed to stay strong, I am just a spectator but my heart breaks for him.
She mentions the places he’s been to, asks him when he is coming back. He says he was in Beijing, visiting a medical field senior and that he will be catching the night train express.
https://i.redd.it/tm7f8r87o6bg1.gif
I am so emotional over this scene. Xiguang takes the first step despite her anxiousness and Yusen the evergreen that he is asks her if she is sure first. He always wants to make sure that her decisions are made by her alone and not some momentary decision. His voice in this scene hurts me but at the same time I am smiling at the both of them slowly making their way to each other.
Next morning: Xiguang arrives in front of the train station
Xiguang arrives earlier than planned and decides to go get snacks and waits for him on the platform.
Xiguang Inner Thoughts as she paces back and forth on the platform***: won’t it be super weird if Lin Yusen sees me waiting right here on the platform? Coming all the way here to meet him might be total overkill. Should I run back to the exit instead?***
Inner thoughts are interrupted as the train slows to a stop. Her eyes are looking for Yusen as the train passes by, and the moment she spots him, she goes and hides behind the pillar. Yusen gets off the train but heads in the opposite direction.
Xiguang Inner Thoughts: Ah! The exit is the other way!
We get a cute moment of her following behind Yusen, watching his side profile. Feeling watched Yusen turns around
https://i.redd.it/p4wuab8ao6bg1.gif
She asks Yusen why he told her to wait for him at nine when the train gets earlier, and then is happy to having successfully guessed his thoughts as he replies “I was worried [If I had said seven] you’d say, forget it Lin Yusen, I can’t get out of bed that early”
Xiguang smiles, gives him food that she picked on the way. They smile and leave the train station. On to the …
Coffee Shop
She watches his reaction as he eats the Xiaolongbao, and then talks about where they could go after this, mentioning multiple places but Yusen just replies with a “I always thought you’d take me to see the plum blossoms”. I Pause and clutch at my heart. He said it so sweetly too. Lin Yusen <3. Xiguang looks at him for a second and then says “Alright! To Mei Garden then”
As Xiguang is driving, Yusen points out that she missed a turn. She asks him why he didn’t say anything earlier and he counters with “I figured a discredited driver like me had no right to give directions.” Xiguang is left speechless, as she goes to get back on the road, Yusen points out the plum blossom trees saying that there is no need to go any further, this is already a good spot.
A Walk Among the Plum Blossoms
Xiguang brings up the his story and asks him “you believed deep down that I had abandoned you so why did you…” Yusen replies with a simple “I couldn’t help myself”
“I kept coming up with excuses, maybe Jiaqi didn’t make himself clear, maybe you were too young to face something so heavy so you blocked it out…. Or maybeyou just didn’t know my Chinese name, or that you forgot what I looked like so you never connected me with the person from two years ago. I found so many reasons but every one of them was full of holes. But I forced myself to believe each one of them becaus otherwise how could I let myself pursue you again?”
Xiguang says that he should’ve asked her about the whole thing before pinning it down on her. “Am I really that kind of person?” Yusen counters with a ‘No you’re not’.
“But Xiguang I never imagined it could be anyone else but you….. From the very beginning….it never crossed my mind that it wouldn’t be you… I am sorry.”
Xiguang asks him if not for her dad, was he planning on keeping the whole thing to himself forever, he explains that he was planning to confront Jiaqi about it before her dad got in the picture. She asks him why he went so far away these past days.
“How was I supposed to face you? …..I lived my life believing because of you I’d never pick up the scalpel again, I had finally made peace with that…only to find out…. It was all because of a stranger. Because of a lie. I don’t even know how to process that. My life is nothing but a joke”
He asks her when she first met him, and she replies right after the banquet. His smile is bittersweet as he realises that she met Xu later than him. He tells her that he kept thinking about her words ‘I wish I’d met you first’ He says
“I wish I’d had met you later, then I wouldn’t feel this resentment that if it weren’t for this cruel twist of fate we would have been together a long time ago. But….it turns out I met you first”
Xiguang says ‘We are together from now on’.
https://reddit.com/link/1q33fnw/video/walt7k7oo6bg1/player
They walk back to the car smiling to each other all cutely. Yusen convinces her to let him drive (because she missed a turn) and she asks him if he still wants to go to Mei Garden and he just replies “No plum blossoms will ever top these”
Episode 25:
We start this episode in the hospital as we check back in on Kevin. Huaya Squad are visiting. We learn that he is getting discharged soon and that he has retrograde amnesia. There is a brief moment where Xu and Kevin are left alone in the room, and he asks “do you really have no memory of Dr Lin?” Kevin affirms. Now that our couple is official, and we met much more hate-worthy characters, I can’t help feeling bad for Zhuang Xu. I mentioned it in a discussion before but he is a good hardworking kid, his hesitancy however is his downfall. Not that I blame him much for it anymore, since everyone is shaped by their environment.
Xu continues trying to jolt Kevin’s memories to no avail. Chris stands by the door watching the exchange.
Back to our darlings in the car
There is a brief moment of silence before Xiguang proposes just going straight to dinner then. If there is ever a love rival for Yusen in their relationship, it will be food. Yusen reminds her of the promise of a Nancheng Street food crawl and Xigua jokes about how Yusen remembers all their accounts. She decides to call her mom only for her phone to ring. Her mom called her to ask if she is with Lin? Xigua is surprised but her mom just says ‘I gave birth to you after all’.
Xiguang tells her mom that she and Yusen are dating, and the mom counters with a “you guys just starting out?” Their families are as big shippers of the both of them as we are. Jiang Yun tells her to enjoy dinner and that they’ll talk later.
After the call, Yusen asks her “since you’ve told your mom, can I go public with this now?” she says no and he replies with an ‘I understand’. Both of them smile.
Nanchang Street: Food and Walks are Back in the building!
Yusen asks Nie Xiǎojiě to lead the way as he has phone calls to make. He calls Shengyi, invites him to an all out dinner which bill he is splitting with Xiguang. Our quickwitted doctor is quick to grasp his meaning as he says “you went home for chinese new year and came back off the market? That was fast” Yusen is all proud of himself as he says they already met each other’s parents, Shengyi is impressed and Xiguang is embarrassed as she rushes to go inside a Plum Cakes shop.
https://i.redd.it/1f1uai6xo6bg1.gif
Shengyi asks Yusen to pass the phone to Xiguang, he obliges and our Dr is quick to complain about his friend rubbing their relationship in his face in broad daylight. Xiguang just counters with ‘what, was he supposed to wait until it got dark?” Shengyi is complaining about her taking Yusen’s side, he is still complaining about Yusen being smug and bragging when Yusen puts the call on speaker.
When Shengyi is done ‘advising’ Xiguang to reconsider her relationship, the latter just mentions that Yusen heard everything. Yusen picks the call back up, they joke some more, confirm vague dinner plans before Shengyi is called back to work, “Flex received, gotta go”
Nanchang Street : Plum Cakes shop
Xiguang asks Yusen to pay, then asks him when’s he calling Aunt Sheng. He says ‘No rush, I am not the flashy type”. I am grinning watching these two banter. He clarifies that he is dying to brag but his mom is probably still asleep.
Nanchang Street : Walk 1
They eat the cakes with Yusen telling her to just give him the flavors she doesn’t like. The small little things he does, i love him. They make plans to go to the Soochow Uni seminar together. She gives him the second cake she tries as she decides she needs to break the news to someone else.
Yusen asks her what’s the deal with the ‘Real Estate Scenery’ comment and she relays the origin of the inside joke: Back when Rui and her were travelling Europe, she reminisced over how none of these sceneries truly belong to her, and Rui replies that one day she’ll find her real estate scenery with her name written all over it.
Wuxi New Street:
They finish their date, and Xiguang drives him to the station, asking him to pick her up at the Suzhou Railway Station tomorrow afternoon. She tells him to get off before he misses the train but he hands her his hand. She is confused but he clarifies that ‘you told Jiang Rui you would write your name on your real estate scenery”
https://i.redd.it/fu8p85g3p6bg1.gif
Xiguang’s House:
Xigua comes back to her mom waiting for her to spill the whole story. She asks about where they went and Xiguang tells her about all the places they’ve been and even their plans for tomorrow. Jiang Yun fake sulks and Xigua acts all cute to appease her. She asks her “Are you happy with Lin?” and Xiguang is grinning as she replies “Yes”. Jiang Yun conveys her wishes for Xiguang to have the best luck in the world, and Xiguang replies that ‘having you is the best luck in the world”
Xiguang’s Room: They text back and forth.
this took me forever to edit ;-; read from right to left
Soon after they finish the messaging, Xiguang picks her phone again and sends an audio reminding him not to dress corporate. They end up continuing their chatting instead of sleeping. Their conversations are adorable, I love the reality of the fact that the good nights are never final and that they keep thinking about and messaging each other. Wholesomeness.
Soochow University: Walk 2
Xiguang is laughing at his hair style, and reaches out to fix it herself. I’d insert a gif but these episodes recaps I keep wanting to gif every cute moment that I don’t think reddit can keep up. I watch the whole scene giggling. The both of them are at ease with each other now, as Xiguang fixes his hair and then he naturally takes her by the hand as they head back into uni. They joke all the way into the lecture hall, only to find it full!
Soochow University: Lecture Hall
Xiguang blames Yusen’s hair for being late and how they now have to sit on the ground. Yusen takes off his coat, puts it on the ground for her to sit on, she goes to do the same for him but he just takes her coat in his hands and asks her to share a corner of his coat with him. I was happy to see her try to return the gesture and even happier to see the both of them cutely sitting so close together.
The professor lectures and Yusen and Xiguang listen as thy exchange remarks. My brain sadly zones out when the whole talk about PV and its market come up, i understand just enough to relate it to the plot and that’s it.
Soochow University: Walk on the campus
Xiguang mentions how she told their colleagues about the name of their garden, how Mr Hua said ‘our goal is to catch and keep as much light as possible” and Yusen counters by saying that “Mr Hua is modest, my goal is capture and keep all the light”. They talk some more about work and decide to go try the Soochow cafeteria.
Soochow University : Meal time
They banter a bit as they eat, over all having fun. Xiguang rambles on and on about how finally she feels at ease with her work, especially since she started working on the Liuguang Garden. He asks if he’ll get credit but she says that it was just trading one happiness for another. He sighs and replies “It’s so hard to get a compliment from my girlfriend”
aaaaaahhhhhh they are so adorable, the way she is constantly yapping and he is always just looking at her with a smile, how he knows to tease her enough to leave her smiling and grinning. Xiguang gives him one meat ball as a reward.
Shuangyuan Office: We see Yin Jie happy with the souvenirs from Yusen. She asks Xiguang if they’re finally together and Xiguang confirms that they are. Episode ends with Yusen smiling at Xiguang as he steps out of his office.
Some Extra Thoughts:
- **The whole walk through plum blossoms in episode 24 just made me grin. I didn’t want to write my thoughts mid-recap to not ‘interrupt’ Yusen’s lines. I am glad we got more insight into his thoughts in these recent episodes. He is even more sweeter, even more tragic. The fact that even after everything, he was still trying to make sure she wants to be together with him out of her own emotions and not some pressure from him. I am so glad they talked out every possible problem ahead of time. Now, we can enjoy the dating era stress free. (**Except for interference from the family maybe?)
Posted Jan 3, 2026, 7:20 PM UTC