Asian Addicts Anonymous

This show is moving at the speed of light in regards to plot. The first episode had our two leading ladies meet, become friends, Ai Jing’s mother dies and she moves in with Uncle Du, his grandson Tian Ze runs away from home after getting kicked out of law school and falls for Jing Jing who falls for him and the two share a passionate kiss after jumping into the ocean. This episode is no exception. It continues to go fast. I wonder if it will end up like Down With Love which had a lot going on in every episode.

Ai Xing worries when Jing Jing doesn’t come for the exam. Is her friend sick? She “borrows” [more like forcibly takes the bike and asks for permission after she had possession] a bike from a classmate and is on her way to visit Jing Jing when she sees Tian Ze and Jing Jing on his scooter. Ai Xing is about to go over to him and giver Tian Ze a piece of her mind for kidnapping Jing Jing, but then she sees their smiles and kiss and she can’t do it. She turns around and goes home instead. A decision she will regret for the rest of her life. Why? After the light turns green and Tian Ze takes off, the scooter gets hit by a truck.

A week passes and when Tian Ze wakes up he immediately asks about Jing Jing. She is gone. Her parents took her out of that hospital. They refused to let Ai Xing or Tian Ze see Jing Jing and before you know it, the Meng house is up for sale and Jing Jing and family have returned to the states. I have to say that this part of the drama makes no sense to me. Just what were the Meng parents thinking? It’s not like Jing Jing had completely fallen in with a bad crowd and she had just started falling for Tian Ze so they didn’t even have that to disapprove of yet. This part of the drama is stupid. I mean it. There really is no logical explanation for what was done.

4 years pass and Ai Xing works for a realtor and has just transferred to the sales department. Her boss is a coy woman, Zhang Ling Li [Hu Ying Zhen], who believes in using feminine wiles to help sign the contracts. For whatever reason, this makes Ai Xing admire the woman. It seems a bad reason to admire her. Ai Xing is also working with her poor friend from college who has a very obvious crush on her. Just as he is about to ask her out, she gets a call from Tian Ze reneging on a deal. Thus Ai Xing has to go and take care of it herself. Outside she hears a woman yell thief and throws off her high heels to pursue the thief. It turns out that the supposed thief is really Meng Jing Jing. Ai Xing is completely floored. Is it really her after all this time?

Everyone ends up at the police station where Ai Xing interrogates Jing Jing about what happened during the last four years. This annoys the policeman who is trying to sort things out and the man that Jing Jing is with. Needless to say Jing Jing and her companion are free to go as there is no evidence and the shopkeeper only suspected Jing Jing was an accomplice. Ai Xing quickly writes down her number on a tissue and gives it to Jing Jing so that the girl can call Ai Xing when she remembers who Ai Xing is. This really makes Jing Jing curious as to who Ai Xing is and why the girl seems to know her. Her male companion Jerry [the egotistical ass she is supposed to marry as agreed upon by their parents] tells her to forget about it as it is probably because Ai Xing is a tacky salesperson trying to score some money by pretending to know Jing Jing.

When Tian Ze arrives at the station too late, Ai Xing scolds him and tells him that he should have gotten their earlier in order to stop Jing Jing from leaving. Tian Ze cannot believe it when he registers that Ai Xing said that Jing Jing has resurfaced after four years and no contact.

Tian Ze had a fight with his father and is now living with Ai Xing once more. Ai Xing wants him to move out as it was only supposed to be for a week and now it has been months. If he refuses to reconcile with his dad and movie, then can he at least contribute money for the rent? Ai Xing is perpetually behind on this even though she has tons of money saved in piggy banks [she cannot spend it as that money is what she owes to Jing Jing and must repay at all costs]. Ai Xing tires to throw her landlady off by saying her brother’s condition relapsed and that medication and treatment is expensive. The landlady doesn’t quite believe this, but Ai Xing manages to hold her off and hide the fact that Tian Ze is living with her.

Meanwhile, Jing Jing joins her parents and Jerry’s [the arrogant ass] parents for dinner sans Jerry as he doe as he pleases. After dinner, Jing Jing asks her mom about meeting Ai Xing. Her mom reluctantly tells her that she studied in Taiwan briefly four years ago. Why hasn’t her mom said anything then? Her mom chose not to as the doctors said some memories could make the headaches worse. Oh, seriously. Her mom won’t go into too many more details saying its best to leave the past alone.

Ai Xing takes Tian Ze to reconcile with his father. Tian Ze bursts into the meeting where Lawyer Du sends his staff away and meets with his son. Du immediately believes his son came because he has no money. Du is willing to give his son an apartment and to hand over the pro-bono cases and the like that his firm just does not have the time and staff to take on. This annoys Tian Ze. He refuses the help and the apartment. He didn’t come for that. He came to make up with his dad, but after this he just can’t. It seems like all his dad knows is pity and not love. He pitied his wife and that is why he married her, he pitied his father and that is why he sent him money, he pities his son so he wishes to give him cases. Tian Ze also slams his dad for taking on wealthy clients and pandering to them instead of fighting for justice for the poor people who cannot afford to pay for the help they need. Ai Xing is not happy to learn that Tian Ze will be returning to her place and tries to get her keys back, but to no avail.

Ai Xing goes to work where she gets put in charge of selling an apartment for a soon-to-be divorced couple. She is in ecstasy when she sees the high class place and she pretends to be the mistress. She gets caught by a strange man while she pretends to take a bubble bath. She freaks out until she learns that he’s a bigwig and is interested in the apartment. Remembering her manager’s words, Ai Xing tries to turn on her feminine wiles to lure the client into buying the apartment. This amuses the man, Ren Wei [Leroy Yang]. He invites Ai Xing out for coffee and she thinks her easily seen through ploy has worked.

Meanwhile, Tian Ze goes to the stock market to sell the stocks he’s been investing in for four years so that he can have money and help Ai Xing out. He ends up running into Jing Jing who has come to take care of some matters for her father. Jing Jing sees him and their eyes meet briefly, but she blows on by without saying anything. The stunned Tian Ze rushes after her, but loses track of her. Taking this as a sign, he rushes back into the building and stops his stocks from being sold. I guess its his way of gambling on Jing Jing’s return. Jing Jing returns home [after having a bad day at work since she was badmouthed for being a rich man’s daughter]. Mrs. Meng compliments her daughter on taking care of helping out Mr. Meng and then wonders why on earth her daughter is working when she should just be concentrating on marriage. Seeing how marriage didn’t make her happy, I don’t know why she thinks that’s the only thing a woman needs.

Jing Jing calls Ai Xing and the two arrange to meet. Ai Xing drags Tian Ze with her, however, she is called back into work to meet the new boss. She tells him to stay and wait no matter what. Tian Ze asks about the bathroom and Ai Xing holds up a water glass. LMAO. She rushes back to work where she learns that her new CEO is none other than Ren Wei. That means that he won’t be buying the apartment from her after all. This doesn’t depress her though as she starts fantasizing about becoming his woman and being wealthy. Thus she starts laughing and stamping her feet which earns her a big scolding from Ling Li.

Tian Ze leaves the coffee shop only to run into Jing Jing and Jerry. Turns out her “finance” stalked her from the office. Jing Jing tells him that she has plans for lunch with someone else, but he grabs her arm and pulls her with him demanding that she eat with him. Jing Jing sees Tian Ze and breaks free from Jerry to grab Tian Ze’s hand and the two run off together. When they finally stop running. Jing Jing shocks Tian Ze by saying she’s never ridden on a scooter before nor does she know why she grabbed a stranger’s hand. Ouch.

Ai Xing is waiting impatiently at work for an update from Tian Ze when Ren Wei comes up to talk. He apologize for the other day and then says he was just testing her since he had managed to inadvertently run into an employee. Ai Xing waves this off and when Ren Wei asks if he can talk to her again, she immediately says she will always answer his call since he is her boss. Ai Xing then gets the call from Tian Ze and feigns a rather obvious fake stomach ache to rush home to see Tian Ze and Jing Jing. After she leaves, we learn that Ling Li and Ren Wei know each other. Ling Li comes on strong, she wants to be Ren’s woman. Ren totally flirts back. Looks like he’s a player and is intrigued by the different Ai Xing. Go figure.

Back at Ai Xing’s Jing Jing and Tian Ze are awkwardly standing around. When Jing Jing asserts again that she doesn’t know him, Tian Ze recalls their jump into the sea and their kiss. She really doesn’t remember? He smiles and makes a joke about her forgetting a handsome guy like him. Jing Jing gets a brief flash of memories of their very brief romance. Will she remember already?

We’ll find out in episode 3.