It’s the final episode for Pretty Li Hui Zhen and Bai Hao Yu’s been and returned from the United States. Five months short of the amount of time Bai Hao Yu had said he’d spend in the United States and wait for Li Hui Zhen, he’s back by her side—to Li Hui Zhen’s happy surprise. Prepare for an all-round happy ending, although not the most exciting or entertaining one.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40 Recap

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

It’s been seven months since Bai Hao Yu left for the US. With the huge time zone differences, the online meets has them catch up when the other’s getting ready for work or about to turn in for the night.

Bai Hao Yu catches a cold during this time, which has Li Hui Zhen nagging and scolding him over the phone about not taking better care of himself. This cold of Bai Hao Yu’s sets up a surprise return to China.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Following Li Hui Zhen’s last call to Bai Hao Yu, she is met with unanswered calls, which has her thinking the worst. Sitting with her co-writers, she stares at her phone wondering why she’s not being able to get through to Bai Hao Yu. With the last call giving her the impression he’s not looking after himself, her mind can only think that something’s happened to him.

Bai Hao Yu:

“I wouldn’t be able to do anything else if I didn’t come back to see you. Whatever I looked at, all the thoughts in my mind were of you. So, I finished things up ahead of time and returned.”

Nothing’s happened to him. Seven months away from her is his limit apparently. He decided he could no longer be apart from her and needed to return to her. He ended his classes early and was on the plane back to China. This was why she hadn’t been able to contact him.

When they meet face to face, Bai Hao Yu tells Li Hui Zhen that not only did he end his classes early to return to her, he had sold his house in the US and left his job, too. He had given up everything to return to her side permanently.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Bai Hao Yu:

“Hello, everyone. From now on, I will be assuming the role of Editor in Chief.”

Bai Hao Yu becomes the new Editor in Chief. He takes over the role after the Editor in Chief (Vivian) announces her engagement to an Italian model 15 years her junior.

In the position of Bai Hao Yu’s old position, Zhu Ying takes over as Deputy Editor in Chief.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Han Xue:

“I’m so envious. Even Editor in Chief is getting married. When will I get married.”

Lin Hu Sheng:

“Whenever you want.”

Han Xue’s feeling jealous and wondering when she will get married following an introduction of the former Editor in Chief’s fiancé. Good thing she doesn’t need to wonder much as Lin Hu Sheng tells her it’s up to her when she wants to get married because he’s ready to marry her any time she’s ready.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Bai Hao Yu returns to Li Hui Zhen’s family home at the end of the work day. This is his new home, and it was meant to be kept a secret from Li Hui Zhen. The family thinks that had they let Li Hui Zhen know about this fact, they wouldn’t hear the end of it. Being the nag Li Hui Zhen is, she wouldn’t agree to it and she’d go on and on about it. (She does come off as quite a nag: she does it to Bai Hao Yu and Xia Qiao.) So, they asked Bai Hao Yu to keep it a secret from Li Hui Zhen. However, it gets revealed when Li Hui Zhen drops by and see Bai Hao Yu walk through the door with her father.

After the little secret is out, they all enjoy a family dinner together where Li Hui Zhen tries to help her parents buy a new printer to replace their broken one which was seen to have caused them to lose some business earlier in the drama. Li Hui Zhen’s parents are reluctant to accept it: they think she should save it towards things like their marriage, children, house and car.

They forget who Li Hui Zhen is marrying, though. Bai Hao Yu earns a high salary being an Editor in Chief of top performing magazine, so the money isn’t needed to go towards things like that. Bai Hao Yu tells his soon-to-be in-laws that he only needs Li Hui Zhen to bring herself as he’s prepared all of that.

Li Hui Zhen persuades her mum to accept it again. It’s accepted, but it gets cancelled out when her parents sneak into Li Hui Zhen’s bag her dowry: money they saved over many years. Tears flow as Li Hui Zhen thinks about how this amount of money could have helped them buy that printer, food or some nice things for themselves.

Bai Hao Yu tries to calm her, telling her he’d not only make sure her parents get their printer, he’d have the whole house renovated.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Lin Hao:

“These two people were actually dating right under our noses.”

Wedding invitations are hand-delivered to the Immortal Team. Up till now, Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen’s relationship has been kept a secret from the whole team. So, it comes as quite a surprise to learn that the two had been dating, let alone get married. But, they all wish them well and hope they start a family soon. This has Bai Hao Yu quicken his steps towards the end of his ascent to his office on the second floor after holding his composure for most of the way.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Over on Xia Qiao’s side, life is great. Xia Qiao’s an Internet celebrity, she’s a top student and she’s finally got herself a job through her own efforts. Honesty and genuine desire to get through the interviewing process using only her efforts seemed to impress the interview panel. Probably with a little luck, too, Xia Qiao successfully passed the interview and got hired.

With little work experience on her resume, the interview panel wondered why that was. She wasn’t given the opportunity to answer this question as one of the interviewers suddenly recalls seeing her on a poster publicising her Best Employee award at the hotel she was a former employee. The omission of this noteworthy achievement and her reason for omitting this achievement (she didn’t get her previous job through her own efforts) allowed her to prove her seriousness about wanting to rely on her own efforts. This display of honesty and the want to progress through using her own efforts looked to have helped her secure the job.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Xia Qiao’s got herself an admirer, too: a student who’s a lot younger than her. She’s not interested, but he’s persistent. There’s no indication of this crush will be accepted anytime in the future, but it does show that no matter where Xia Qiao goes, men of all ages find her beautiful and it looks like there will always be love confessions and admirers for Xia Qiao.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Meili:

“Hao-ge, can you help me take a look at my chair for a bit? This chair of mine isn’t going up. Hurry.”

Lin Hao’s new position as Immortal’s direct superior hasn’t changed the way the team treat him. They go as far as getting him to look at their broken chairs. Now that they know he can actually afford shouting them, he gets teased about agreeing to shout them meals when he hasn’t.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen get married. It’s a curious scene as it doesn’t show any guests in their seats when Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen walk down the aisle. (Maybe this is a wedding rehearsal? Or maybe it’s an artistic way to focus in on the two and the momentous day.)

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

The couple move into their spacious, modern, expensive-looking apartment where Li Hui Zhen is seen with a copy of Lin Yi Mu’s/Diviner’s latest book which has a small dedication to Li Hui Zhen:

Lin Yi Mu:

“For my best friend, Charlie.”

Lin Yi Mu’s living in his usual carefree way. He looks to have left Shanghai for a short time before returning. It’s unclear if he came back to promote his book or maybe he came back for Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen’s wedding, but he seems to be able to roam the streets and bookstores with his identity in full view of the public without any trouble. It’s great to see his sacrifice for Immortal’s success hasn’t caused issues to his daily life.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40
Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

The episode draws to a close with a short montage of the time Bai Hao Yu returned to China and walked right past her as he’d mistaken someone else for her, of the time she made errors at an Immortal photoshoot, of the time she was given a chance to write for Immortal by Zhu Ying. Then, returning back to the present, her spending the day enjoying a picnic and a children’s book with Bai Hao Yu.

As these scenes play, Li Hui Zhen tells her thoughts about lead characters and supporting characters and whether some are destined to be one or the other. (And thus leading us into the drama’s theme and message.) Li Hui Zhen once believed it was predestined, but her thoughts have since changed. It’s people who make themselves supporting characters because of a lack of confidence and a fear of failure. She talks about how people often say that life won’t be as happy as those in children’s stories when one grows up. Her response to such words is to stay forever a child and not grow up, to maintain one’s original aspirations and chase that dream because one may find that something even better than what’s in children’s stories might happen. She refers to her childhood friend returning to her side again and realising her childhood dream as examples of such things.

Pretty Li Hui Zhen Episode 40

Fast-forward seven years is the last scene of the episode: a happily-ever-after ending where Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen walk hand in hand behind their young daughter. She seems to have picked up Li Hui Zhen’s safety rule: “Safe!” She repeats over and over again as the family make their way back to their home.

Comments

In the end, Pretty Li Hui Zhen couldn’t win us over. We knew this might be the case with the drama not being as funny as the original and the drama dipping in excitement earlier than the original did. There were no cute or funny scenes that helped change our minds about how uninteresting the main couple is. In fact, this episode managed to cause a decrease in the likability of Li Hui Zhen.

When she learned about Bai Hao Yu’s cold, she nagged about almost everything: from not taking medicine, turning off the air conditioning, eating the wrong food, not eating the right temperature food, not filling his refrigerator to not cooking when she personally taught him to cook. Then after all this nagging, she gets fed up with his slack ways with his health and tells him she has to hang up (because she’s meeting Xia Qiao very soon). We can see she’s just super worried about him, but she nags like a mother nags to a child! In fact, she acknowledges it herself by noting how that conversation on the phone with him felt like she was raising a son.

Bai Hao Yu might be a bit slack with feeding himself, but does he need her nagging like that? We much preferred Kim Hye Jin’s calm enquiring and suggesting. There were no ‘I bet you are doing this’, ‘I told you to do this’, ‘why didn’t you listen?’ kind of sentences which Li Hui Zhen had in her conversation with Bai Hao Yu. Bai Hao Yu caught a little cold, just remind him and let him rest.

Then near the end of the episode, Li Hui Zhen shows her crabby side when Bai Hao Yu goes on a bit too long about being left feeling oh so lonely after getting married and not being clear with what he’s actually after. What he wants is to have his way with her in the bedroom, but this scene wants to play on her cluelessness, and we suppose we’re supposed to find this cluelessness and her crabbiness entertaining. Nope. We don’t. All we get is Li Hui Zhen gets crabby when she catches a bit of a cold. It makes us wonder what the drama is trying to do to her. She’s a nag when others get sick and a crab when she’s sick. The drama is supposed to increase her likability in the last episode not decrease it.

We’ve noticed a subtle technique Pretty Li Hui Zhen uses to guide it’s remake. This technique is ‘do what’s opposite to the original’. Li Hui Zhen being clueless about Bai Hao Yu’s wants is an example of this technique. In the original, Kim Hye Jin actually clicks on and playfully stops work to join Ji Sung Joon. Another example we can find within this episode is Bai Hao Yu not managing to land a kiss on Li Hui Zhen during his stay at her family home. In the original Ji Sung Joon manages to land a kiss on Kim Hye Jin in the same scene.

In scenes throughout the whole of the drama there is use of this ‘do what’s opposite to the original’ technique. The following are a few examples: She Was Pretty is hugely comedic whilst Pretty Li Hui Zhen’s toned it right down; Kim Hye Jin is loud and animated, Li Hui Zhen is quiet and subdued; Ji Sung Joon is detrimental and extremely harsh, Bai Hao Yu not so much; Li Hui Zhen opened the first episode as a supermarket worker, appearing in the daytime; Kim Hye Jin opened the first episode as a waitress in a nightclub; The Most Team isn’t told about its possible closure until it gets found out; the Immortal Editorial Team is told about the possible closure during a team meeting; and an example which doesn’t have as big of an impact on the story or characters as the other examples, day scenes take place in the nighttime. There are probably more examples if we go searching, but the contrast is probably not as much as the above examples.

The result, creating a drama which contrasts She Was Pretty, too. Overall, She Was Pretty is a fun, lively, hilarious, exciting, fast-paced drama while Pretty Li Hui Zhen is an overall slow, dull, and unentertaining drama. The story progresses so slowly despite the content being very similar, the lead characters don’t captivate and connect with us, and the humour in Pretty Li Hui Zhen just gets lost on us pretty much every time. (The scene where the Editorial Team sits watching the former Editor in Chief introduce her fiancé below the office is an example. We think they’re trying to make it like they’re watching a theatre performance, but are we supposed to find this scene funny or entertaining? We just didn’t get it. We just cringed at the whole scene.)

Of course, She Was Pretty being a much better watch is not only because of Pretty Li Hui Zhen having chosen to do things in this contrasting way. There is also this need to extend the drama to fill 40 episodes somehow, which played a part in making the drama slow right down. Very often, where the episode ends also doesn’t create a lot of anticipation for what’s next. The cuts aren’t as well planned which we suppose has something to do with the drama being made for two media outlets: TV and online streaming.

Having said all that, we still remember that we did like the first 23 episodes. The section featuring the business trip Li Hui Zhen and Bai Hao Yu went on is our favourite. We love all the Lin Yi Mu scenes, particularly the ones where he unselfishly pushed Li Hui Zhen towards Bai Hao Yu, and his reveal. There were pockets of goodness after the drama dived, like Bai Hao Yu personally apologising to Xia Qiao for his part in causing her to be mistaken as his childhood friend. The Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen wedding scene is also very pretty. So, it’s not all bad, but it’s not a remake we would have finished till the end if we were not recapping it. With us not shipping the main couple, the story becomes much too slow when all there is left is Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen getting together.

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6 comments
  1. It’s the end for me too, as soon as she chose Bai Haoyu, instead of Lin Yi Mu.
    How can a girl be so stupid??

    Li Hui Zhen does not need Bai Hao Yu. She has a loving family, her bestie Xiao Qiao and the handsome and cheerful man, Lin Yi Mu, by her side.

    During their childhood, Li Hui Zhen was the saviour, the role model and the guardian angel for Bai Hao Yu. As a child, Bai Hao Yu had many problems. He was bullied for being fat, and he has a PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder caused by the horror and shock of witnessing his mother getting hit by a car while crossing the road on a rainy day). Bai Hao Yu needed Li Hui Zhen, because he had no other friend. But Li Hui Zhen never needed Bai Hao Yu because she has always have Xiao Qiao as her best friend since birth, and she was doing great in school. Her family was also doing well when she was a kid.

    As a grown up man, Bai Hao Yu becomes the bully. He was arrogant and likes to put down other people. Many times, he publicly humiliated Li Hui Zhen, accusing her of being stupid and can’t get anything done. And he can’t drive when it rains because of his PTSD. When it rains, he gets a nervous breakdown, seeing flashbacks of his mom’s accident.

    As you can see, Bai Hao Yu was a childhood friend that received help and kindness from Li Hui Zhen. It is understandable why he couldn’t get over Li Hui Zhen. But Li Hui Zhen shouldn’t have such strong feelings towards Bai Hao Yu. She didn’t have to feel indebted to him. The horrible ways that Bai Hao Yu treated her as an inferior trainee should have erased all the childhood affection she felt for him. And the way he treated Xiao Qiao was disgusting enough– I just don’t understand how Li Hui Zhen can still tolerate Bai Hao Yu. And yet she insists on loving Bai Hao Yu. Duhh! Give me one reason…

    Lin Yi Mu helped Li Hui Zhen a lot in her work. He cheers her up. He loved her as she is. He appreciated her even when she was still ugly and clueless.
    But this Li Hui Zhen is so blind. There was Lin Yi Mu….. a smart, loving, sincere, happy and emotionally-stable man by her side, encouraging her with positive energy. But she chose that psycho Bai Hao Yu. I’m so mad.

    1. @sand Lin Yi Mu never had a chance from the beginning. Bai Hao Yu is the lead in the drama and it’s rare second leads get the girl. (We’ve only watched one drama that made the second lead get the girl, and that’s Taiwanese drama Princess Stand In.) But that aside, Li Hui Zhen’s first love looked to be Bai Hao Yu and till the present time, she still likes Bai Hao Yu and we guess she never changed.

      We’re not disappointed with the result of the pairings. For us, Bai Hao Yu and Li Hui Zhen wasn’t a great pairing. Neither was Lin Yi Mu and Li Hui Zhen. We just love Lin Yi Mu on his own. So, whichever girl he ends up with, that pairing will be the one we support. We’re just disappointed with Pretty Li Hui Zhen as a whole. It ended up being not so great (unlike the original). It makes us want a Taiwanese remake. They usually do great remakes. Their adaptations of Japanese mangas are the best. And we loved Taiwan’s take of Korean drama You’re Beautiful (2009), Fabulous Boys (2013). If only Taiwan would do a remake of She Was Pretty. We’d totally be in for that!

    2. So sorry, my previous comment was a bit harsh.

      It’s because I’m currently obsessed with Vin Zhang (Zhang Binbin). 😁

      I fell in love with him, as Li Jing, in Eternal Love -Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms. Since then I’ve been turning the Internet upsidedown searching for contents on Vin Zhang. Thank God, I found him as the adorable Lin Yi Mu in Pretty Li Hui Zhen, and as the gorgeous King Ying Zheng in The King’s Woman (King Ying Zheng sometimes go undercover as a stunning businessman Young Master Zhao….with more casual hairstyle & attire … my heart turns into jelly every time he appears on screen)

      I’m also done watching The Flame’s Daughter. But his character, Zhan Feng, is so lame. Then, I watch Love 020, where he was a hacker by night and a cook by day. His character – KO – did not have much screen time. Sometimes you see him, but most of the time you don’t.

      Feeling deprived and desperate for more of Vin Zhang, I searched every corner of the Internet for his earlier works. Sadly, there’s no English subtitles for V-Love, or for Angel Wings.

      Desperation
      + Hardwork
      + Perseverance
      => Happy Ending

      YES! I found a drama where Vin Zhang GOT THE GIRL and a HAPPY ENDING.
      He played the male lead, Qiao Ran, in a 16-episode drama titled BACK IN TIME: LONG TIME NO SEE.

      SPOILERS:
      Qiao Ran is generous, kind, romantic, loyal, caring, and loving. His family is rich and resides in the UK. He started an automative business to honour his mother’s wish, and then he went to Medical School to pursue his ambition to become a doctor.
      He is deeply in love with Fang Hui ever since forever. Unfortunately, his bestfriend was quick to confess his feelings for Fang Hui, and started a complicated on-off relationship for 10 years. Qiao Ran remained close to Fang Hui as her “best male friend”. After many episodes, Fang Hui realized that she loved Qiao Ran as a man, that he meant much more to her than just a best-male-friend. Together, they overcome obstacles, challenges, ex-boyfriend, their other good old friends, the boss, long-distance separation over many years, and other mandatory drama elements. What’s important is the happy ending….Yay!!!

    3. @sand 🙂🙂 Pretty Li Hui Zhen is the drama that introduced us to Zhang Bin Bin and we followed Zhang Bin Bin to his next dramas a little bit, too! Of the dramas we’ve watched Zhang Bin Bin in, our favourite would be Flame’s Daughter. Zhang Bin Bin wasn’t the lead in Flame’s Daughter, but we love it. The King’s Woman, we didn’t finish, but we did get up to the part where Dilraba Dilmurat’s character end up falling for Zhang Bin Bin’s character. All is right again when we saw that! Haha. We hear The King’s Woman didn’t end happily, though. 🙁🙁

      The drama, Eternal Love – Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, was airing on TV here so we caught a few scenes with Zhang Bin Bin in it. Pretty cool seeing him in a fantasy drama. We don’t remember seeing Zhang Bin Bin’s small role in Love O2O, though, despite watching the drama. We tried searching for V Love and Angel Eyes for English subs, and no, it’s sad there are no English-subbed version, just like you said!

      Thanks for the overview of Back in Time: Long Time No See! Haven’t come across this one! We will go search it up.

    4. Yes oh my god. Lin Yi Mu was so better for her. Who cares if Hao Yu is the main actor. It doesn’t make sense at all. Even if he was the lead or main actor, the logic would be that the girls falls in love with someone who cares about her and not obsess over someone who doesn’t appreciate her. Lin yi mu is the lead actor which loved, cared, appreciated and cheered Hui Zhen up when she was sad. But Li Hao Yu was bringing her down every day, making her sad and bullying her, how could she still love him?!?! It is obvious that Li Hui Zhen would fall in love with Yi Mu because he treated her better. Anyways this drama isnt logical.

  2. Haven’t seen the original to compare.

    The story started off being quirky and somewhat a romantic comedy, basically just becoming a romantic show.
    The transition from discovering to developing the relationship was the fun part of the show.
    Having watched Dilraba’s other shows prior to this one, shows her wide range of skills given the various roles shes performed.
    Usually with these dramas, theres a challenge to their relationship was vaguely explored by their brief longdistance+ time jump, which kinda made all the feel good for the first 20-25+ episodes dissipate.
    Personally I found Zhang Bin Bin’s character annoying, and too forceful, even if there was cultural differences his PDA in the office would get anyone in trouble in reality.. They eventually made a clean break eventually from his character with his sacrifice.
    Meanwhile, they somewhat left Peter Sheng’s character under developed, mostly using his past history to forge their relationship bonds, which probably just led people to favor Zhang Bin’s character because of the amount of time, attention he spend chasing Li Hui Zhen.
    If you haven’t met someone for over 12 years, which is half the characters lifetime, theres alot of catching up to do, while you can rely on old memories, quirks, relationships need to be explored/developed out. Theres a tendency in most of these dramas to rush the ending once couples get together, which hurts the story because it drags on with very minimal value.

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