Drama: Knock Knock Loving You Episode 1 Recap

The drama starts with a bespectacled Yao Zi Wang (Maggie Wu) walking a college campus in Shanghai. Then we hear the sweetest music there ever was coming from a violin. The violin player is our
out-of-this-world handsome male lead,Cheng Xue Ge (Dylan Kuo) ,who has taken it upon himself to play the violin on the balcony overlooking the entire campus. Then, because this is a drama, a piece of his sheet music flies out and swirls around but he doesn't notice because he has his eyes closed playing his music. Zi Wang snaps herself out of staring at Xue Ge in awe and runs to get the music sheet which has landed into some kind of pond. She gets wet from the dirty water and passes the music sheet to a classmate and tells her to give it back to him. The classmate flirts with him when she sees how handsome he is. 

Zi Wang then goes to a restaurant to dry out and asks a chef for coffee. The chef is Zhao Guan Xi (Ming Dao) who tries to get all up on her business  by trying to find out why she is so pissed. She gets annoyed when he tries to get her to wait 30 minutes so that she can take advantage of a special sale and can get dumplings for free with her coffee. He goes to get her coffee and his coworkers form a circle and complain about the fact that the boss isnt paying them overtime and Zi Wang can't mind her own business and starts spouting a law that will help them get their pay. She then stumps out of the restaurant without her coffee since Guan Xi was taking his sweet time. He looks at her retreating form with amused interest. Ruh-oh. I'm comforted by the fact this drama is only 13 episodes.

Note: I hate Ming Dao because he just looks like a bootleg version of Ethan Ruan (Fated to Love You) and an uglier version at that.

Some time passes and we see Zi Wang driving her moped to a recital hall where ten daughters from the ten richest families have come together to perform an orchestral piece. Guess who the conductor/composer is? Yep you've nailed it, is our own Xue Ge. And he's late. This is more than these rich girls can bear after finding out that he's not even THAT rich. Suffice it to say Xue Ge arrives in a cab that almost runs over Zi Wang and then once again drops his sheet music. Zi Wang rushes into the building after him to give him his sheet music.

Inside, the obnoxious leader of the group of women, Zhao Guan Lin ,the daughter of the most powerful family gets tired of waiting and decides that she is leaving. To show that she is the queen bee in this town she tells the girls "lets go" and like puppies they follow her up the aisle. As they are walking up, Xue Ge comes racing down apologizing profusely. The woman  (Wu Wen Xuan) that is organizing the charity event, reprimands Xue Ge for being so irresponsible. He murmurs that he had another performance and that he is sorry. He then looks through his bag for his sheet music and can't find it so he rushes out again. I should mention that by this time Guan Lin has fallen completely in love with this guy and changes her mind about leaving.

Warning: Everyone falls in love with this guy he is smoking hot. Hot enough to give Mike He some competition.

As Xue Ge rushes out he once again bumps into Zi Wang and makes her nose bleed. She gets mad and says that she has bad luck either with him or his sheet music. He doesn't get it as he never found out she was the one who recovered his music sheet back in college. He offers to take her to the hospital and reinburse her for her glasses. Sweet much? This guy is a gentleman which ends up being the problem but we'll get to that later.  Zi Wang then tries to step up to one of the girls and hands her the flute that she left at home. We later find out that they are sisters from different mothers. Surprises of surprises Wen Xuan is the mother of the girl and Zi Wang's evil stepmother. Guan Lin assumes that Zi Wang is a servant and immediately dismisses her while keeping Xue Ge in sight.

Zi Wang leaves and in the parking lot sees Guan Xi being a player with a russian girl and a chinese girl. He tells the russian girl that the chinese girl is his cousin and he tells the chinese girl that the russian girl is just a friend. Zi Wang knows different since she saw Guan Xi making out with the russian girl and immediately tells the russian girl that he is playing her. I really hate that she cant mind her own business because i want her to stay out of his radar so that there is no obstacle in her getting with Xue Ge but alas this is a drama and i must endure.

Guan Xi gets upset but is at the same time amused and my face droops with dread. I hate him. He is clearly interested and the word "no" is clearly not in his vocabulary. He smiles at her because clearly is no sweat off his balls if these girls dont want to be with him, there are plenty more where they came from. Zi Wang leaves in her moped.

Later we have conflict when Xue Ge pulls out of the charity event and Zi Wang is entrusted by the evil stepmother to convince him to come back.  Zi Wang's motivation? She wants Daddy's (Zhang Chen Guang ) approval. Oh no. This is bad. I really dont like leads who are looking for approval because i feel like that limits them, which frustrates them and in turn frustrates me. However, i have enough confidence in Zi Wang since she's no fool and she's got her eyes wide open when it comes to her father even though a big part of her wants his approval. To be fair i see why she wants to prove she can be useful. Her father, who is the CEO of Yao Shi Corporation, thinks that his daughters are only useful when he can marry them to potential business partners. Zi Wang wants to be able to pick her husband and so she seeks to prove she can be useful to her father in other ways. It is implied that Zi Wang has an excellent business acumen but at this point in the drama the father still doesnt recognize this.  Already her father married his two eldest daughters in order to have connections for business. He doesnt even care when his oldest daughter comes home from her abusive husband looking like he punched the skin off her face. Evil daddy tells his daughter to go back to her husband as she is bringing dishonor and shame to the family. At this point i have an image of Kevjumba imitating his parents, "Are you a doctor yet? You dishonor our family!" HA!

Back to regular programming, Zi Wang goes to visit Xue Ge's father, Cheng Zhi An (Liu Shang Qian) who happens to be the CEO of Wei Lin Resort. Unlike Yao Wuan Chuan (Zi Wang's father) Zhi An is a kindhearted person. Zi Wang tries to make him convince Xue Ge to come back but he tells her that Xue Ge doesn't like the people there and that his son makes his own decisions. I cheered. Finally a parent that doesnt force his child to do something he doesnt want to do. Zi Wang is discouraged and tells Zhi An that he should stop protecting his son and that his son needs to learn how to communicate and understand the people that he doesnt like. This once again hints at how weak Xue Ge is because he is so trusting and kindhearted and brings home how cynical Zi Wang is. I love this drama already.

To appeal to his kind heart Zi Wang drags Xue Ge to the mountains while a jealous Guan Lin watches. In the mountains they get lost and Zi Wang climbs a tree and falls once again into Xue Ge's arms. Okay i can see this is going to be a regular occurrence  It already happened three times in one episode. They find their way and we see that Zi Wang wants to appeal to Xue Ge's kind heart and introduces him to a a little village of uneducated kids. She then tells him that the money given to the charity would go toward educating these kids. He is won over and tells her he will do it as long as she protects him from the tigress Guan Lin and her claws. I cheered again. These leads are really aware of everything and everyone. They are nobody's fool.  Zi Wang promises she will protect him and they part ways.

However, when she gets home  evil stepmother informs her that she needs to apologize to Guan Lin for dragging Xue Ge away. She then thanks her for convincing Xue Ge and smirking asks Zi Wang if she used her body to convince him. Zi Wang tries to protest but the evil stepmother smiles and says that it doesn't matter how she did it and thanks her. Im not too concerned about the stepmother at this point. She likes to put Zi Wang down but Zi Wang is too cynical  to be put down by anyone. Have i mentioned i love this drama?
 
At the end of the episode the older sister tells Zi Wang to never let a men control her and like a beaten up puppy presumably goes back home to her abusive husband.
 
Thoughts: I love the drama so far. The main actor is surprisingly handsome and i love how different the main leads are. Xue Ge will teach Zi Wang that not everyone is bad and Zi Wang will teach Xue Ge to beware of the people who want to stab him in the back. I love the plot of the drama and so far the acting is holding up. Zi Wang is totally convincing in her motivations and her reasons for being the way she is. Her longing of the approval from dear old dad is something else I could relate to. Lets hope this drama doesn't fall apart.