Episode Summary
Gu Xuejiao decides to enter a national competition to counter the pressure from Bochi Company. She faces resistance from her rival, Lin Jiadong, but successfully assembles a team. After uniting her initially fractured group by cleverly thwarting Jiadong's sabotage attempt, her team is ambushed by thugs from Bochi. Lin Zhihua intervenes to save them and their work, revealing afterward that he was already aware of Lin Jiadong's connections.
Spoiler Alert
"Summit of Our Youth" Recap: All's Fair in Love and Coding
Alright, so things are getting intense. Gu Xuejiao and Lin Zhihua are still dealing with the whole Bochi Company mess. Xuejiao decides she's done playing the long game. Her new plan? Turn this into a "blitzkrieg." She's going to enter a national competition, win it, and prove to everyone that her patent is legit, leaving Bochi Motors with nothing to say.
First, she needs to lead the team, which means stepping on Lin Jiadong's toes. He's furious and tells her she's biting off more than she can chew. Xuejiao, cool as a cucumber, basically tells him to spend less time complaining and more time studying with Professor Tan. But inside the lab, she's got no support. Everyone flocks to Lin Jiadong, except for Shu Lan, who's busy studying for her grad school exams. Meanwhile, Lin Jiadong's aunt, Zheng Qin, promises him that if he secures the team leader spot, she'll make sure they win the whole competition.
Xuejiao has to build a team from scratch. She approaches her friends Sun Feifei and Siqi, who are both busy preparing for the civil service exam. She cleverly points out that a national competition win would be a huge bonus for their applications, and just like that, they're in. She then uses a bit of reverse psychology to get Shu Lan on board. The final member is Wenbo, who was actually interested in her project from the start.
On the romance front, Xuejiao has been so busy she hasn't been home in three weeks. Her parents, Old Gu and Li Sitong, show up at school, convinced she's secretly dating someone. They bump right into Lin Zhihua, who confirms he's pursuing their daughter. They are totally thrilled. Later, Xuejiao and Zhihua talk about it. She's not ready to make their relationship public, but she's okay with what he told her parents, deciding they can tell everyone after her thesis defense.
The new team hits a rough patch immediately. Wenbo tries to assign tasks, but the three girls are not having it and walk out, leaving him ready to jump ship to Lin Jiadong's team. To make things worse, Jiadong books the lab during the day, so Xuejiao's team has nowhere to work.
Zhihua gives her some solid advice: you can't win over talented people with technical skills alone; you need to go through a shared hardship. This gives Xuejiao a brilliant, slightly evil idea. She posts on social media that her team had a "historic breakthrough." As expected, a jealous Lin Jiadong sneaks into the lab at night, dressed as a ghost, and cuts the power to scare them. But Xuejiao is one step ahead. She waits for him to turn on a computer and scares him right back, sending him running.
The next day, Xuejiao and her team go to Professor Tan and play the victims. Outnumbered, Lin Jiadong gets a harsh lecture. This whole incident lights a fire under the team. With the lab occupied during the day, they set up shop at a hot pot restaurant and manage to develop their source code.
That night, as they're heading back, a group of big guys in Bochi Company work clothes ambushes them, demanding their computer. A fight breaks out, and just in the nick of time, Lin Zhihua arrives. He handles the thugs, but in the chaos, Xuejiao tries to help with a wooden stick and accidentally smacks him on the hand. Luckily, they save the computer.
The episode ends with Zhihua in the hospital. While Xuejiao is feeding him, he reveals he knew all along that Zheng Qin was Lin Jiadong's aunt. He kept Jiadong around because, while he can be wishy-washy, he's not a bad person at heart.
