Genius Girlfriend - Episodes 17 - 18 Discussions
Hello hello, i am your co-host Rebelarkey, you may call me Shale or Larkey if you want. ( u/akiceman has so generously let me host with them).
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🪴A few housekeeping rules!
- We bash characters and not actors! If a character does something stupid, it's not the actors fault. this is not the place to complain about actors or ages, or acting choices
- Spoilers need to be under the cut OR put in it's proper post. We are currently on a 1 day delay from Iqiyi, we'll do our best to catch up.
- Have fun! Dramas are supposed to be entertaining and enjoyable. If you're not enjoying it, it's okay to duck out and drop.
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Masterpost - Table of Contents - Airing Schedule
15 - 16 || 17 - 18 || 19 - 20
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Buckle your seat belts, make sure your hands, feet, arms, legs, head, and hearts are inside the ride at all times. And there are tissues at the end for anyone who may need them.
EPISODE 17 - The Fluff Before
They go camping. They all go to college and live the dream.
The End.
kidding
Class Break + Brother goes camping but Shen Fuxuan is missing. They're missing their friend and are hoping he'll show up.
Jiang Yubai crushes their hopes when he produces the letter Fuxuan wrote to them. Shen Fuxuan is going abroad to study, put in a 5 year program set up by his parents. He will miss all of them but hopes the next five years goes as everyone hopes.
The group set up tents, and try to go to sleep. Both Jiang yubai and Lin Zhixia can't seleep so they go for a walk. They find a piece of glass in the stream that looks like an emerald. She has Jiang yubai keep it. She will miss all her friends, but Yubai is different to her. She compares them to Binary Star Systems, where they both have their own orbit but revolve around the same center. Awwww she's so attached to him.
The next day theres' mroe walking and hiking. Jiang Yubai gathers flowers for everyone and gives them to each friend. Each flower means something different. That way they can all keep them and remember this happy time before college.
Duan Qiyan plays this game where only if you make eye contact with someone can you start eating. Zhixia and Yubai both pass but the girls get grumpy with Qiyan. It's a stupid game. the girls agree with me.
The four younger kids go off and mess around, leaving Lin Zequi and Jin Baihui tending the fire. They bond over being the same age (ohhhh i forgot she got held back a year) and hanging out with the others. I'm still shipping them.
That night they summon the shooting stars by each declaring what their dreams are.
- Tingting wants to be a manager. She wants to get into Qingbei university with her friends, and to travel extensively.
- Qiyan wants to make a mark on the world.
- Lin Zequi wants to be able to see the person he wants to see. Whether that's his parents, his sister, his friends, ect.
- Jin Baihui wants to be further from her parents.
- Jiang Yubai wants to attend Qingbei University with Lin Zhixia.... and watch stars with Zequi, play ball with Qiyan, go to the Library with Baihui, and share stories with Tingting AND Shen Fuxuan. yay! Jiang Yubai remembers their friend that's missing
The shooting star shows up after Lin Zhixia prays silently for it to show itself. Everyone gets excited and runs to make a wish on the shooting stars.
They take a photo, leaving room for their missing friend, to commemorate.
Our 3 couples but missing Shen Fuxuan
They return to their home city. Yubai offers to teach Zhixia how to skateboard. She's scared of falling but he will by protective equipment to keep her safe. They make plans to meet up the next day.
Meanwhile, the banker lady, Ms Guan (aka, Jiang Yubai's mom) realizes that her investment project has gone bankrupt. The police question her, and insist that she make restitution to the victims.
She calls Mr. Jiang to see if he will lend her money. All during the phone call she's rubbing her chest. When Mr. Jiang says that all his money is tied up in real estate and that he's lost money too, she collapses.
When Jiang Yubai gets home, after promising to see his friends again, he discovers his home dark. He finds his mom prone, on the ground, and calls an ambulance.
End of Part 1
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EPISODE 18 - Five Years Later
y'all i'm a little shook. I was expecting a little mess up, not FAMILY TRAGEDY KEPT LOVERS APART.
Five years later we catch up with our protagonists. Let's just say the years haven't been super kind to them at all. Those dreams that they made have yet to come true.
Qiyan wanted to make a mark on the world. Well, he's having a hard time convincing people to sign up for his bike share services. No one is taking fliers, he has no investers, his small business idea is flopping, big time.
Tingting gets to be a manager. yay! but it's not all roses and sunshine. The one client she has is a C budget actor. She is trying to get him a good part, but the directors won't talk to her. The one script that her client is suited for, he hates. After a small card game, she convinces him to take the small role.
a straight is a stronger hand than an Ace high
Jin Baihui got into Qingbei university. But her parents are still meddling in her life. They have dinner with one of her classmate's parents probably arranging a marriage for her. Like yeeeesh.
They facetime her and sit there are ask 'are you eating okay, you've lost weight, girls shouldn't work too hard'. Um who pushed her to study? and work really really hard? And now you're upset that she takes university very seriously? Her dream was to be further from home, and she still has her parents micromanaging her life.
She looks exhausted my poor girl
Lin Zequi? Missing this entire episode.
Lin Zhixia seems to be succeeding the most. She's in post-graduate studies, giving lectures. However, she has rivals in the department, and inter-office politics to navigate. She is set up to vote on the best candidate for the research team. She has to choose the stronger candidate, but in turn ruins a mentee's best chances to graduate.
During her presentation later that day, her watch lights up, indicating that Jiang Yubai is close. He watches her through the window, but runs and hides when she comes out. When she can't find him, she resolves to fix her watch.
he's hiding omg look at him he looks like he's been through hell and back
She goes to many different watch repair shops but they all tell her the same thing: only the person who made the watch can fix it, since it's been locked by the creator.
Jiang Yubai, meanwhile, is a handyman, repair electronics man. He runs a shop in a garage, slowly paying off debt. Turns out that 2 million that his mom owed now falls on his shoulders. He wanted to get into Qingbei university with Lin Zhixia, but it seems that was impossible after his mom's death.
A colleague of Jiang Yubai, A Cheng, is in the fancy watch repair shop at the same time as Lin Zhixia. He offers to take it to a guy he knows aka Jiang Yubai, to see if he can fix it. She reluctantly agrees.
A Cheng takes the watch to Jiang Yubai. He refuses initially, saying he's super busy, and dismisses Cheng out of hand. I am SCREAMING for Yubai to just LOOK UP AT THE WATCH.
Finally, he does and he realizes it's the watch he made for Lin Zhixia. After listening to Cheng's story about a 'lady gave it to me' and 'we'll all get rich', he assumes that it's a random woman who wants it fixed, and gives the watch back to A Cheng.
i'mma bout to make a new whole in your face Jaing Yubai
A Cheng voice texts Zhixia back, letting her know that the watch is unfixable. Jiang Yubai realizes after hearing her voice and Cheng calling her 'Ms Lin' that it IS Lin Zhixia and she wants her watch fixed!
He stays up all night and fixes her watch. A Cheng delievers it to her the next day and she's so excited. She wants to meet Boss Jiang, since she has the hunch that it is her old friend.
her realizing that Mr. Jiang COULD BE Jiang Yubai her bff
When at the garage, Jiang Yubai refuses to come out as he has no face to face her. He has Cheng lie to her, saying he's 'out on a job'. She refuses to leave, and sits outside waiting for him to come back.
This girl is what we call Loyal
Finally, after hours, he slips out a window, and comes around front, calling her 'Lin lin lin lin Zhixia". She faints in his arms.
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Thoughts
- I know they're Chinese but JIANG YUBAI NEEDS A HUG. ZHIXIA YOU NEED TO HUG YOUR BEST FRIEND HIS LIFE HAS BEEN HELL. Sorry I'm yelling but i have Big Feels.
- Uh, anyone else love this new look of Jiang Yubai? Because hot damnnn. I have gifs spammed in the comments.
Posted Aug 8, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC