Chinese Drama Review: You Are My Glory

This drama adaptation of Gu Man’s novel of the same name followed the book very closely. Which I’m actually a little surprised because Gu Man also wrote the novel versions of Love O2O and Boss & Me, both of which I felt added a bit more drama to the storyline. For example, the love rivals in Love O2O played a much bigger role than in the book.

There are a total of 32 episodes and next week, the final 6 episodes will air. I’ve only watched up to Episode 22 and will most likely wait until all of the episodes have aired before binge-watching. The rest of the episodes are from epilogues anyways.

I had been looking forward to this drama for a long time as I was very much excited about Yang Yang’s comeback to melodrama. It’s a pretty good drama nonetheless but it didn’t give me the feels like Love O2O did. I wonder if it’s because I had read the book first and had an idea of what was to come so the element of surprise was missing?

The MC is Qiao Jingjing. She is a big star. In high school, she was in love with Yu Tu (ML). She confessed to him but was rejected. She had created an alt QQ account to “catfish” him (aka pretend to be someone else). Knowing that he’s interested in space, she purposely chat with her about space and told him she got his QQ info from a forum. Although his answers are short, she still felt happy to get an answer from him. MC decides to work hard in high school to get into the same college as ML so that she could be worthy of him. Although she did well, she didn’t get into the same school. Later when they were all in college, she found out that ML was dating another girl from their high school who’s pretty and have good grades.

Fast-forward to the present and there are gossips surrounding big star MC and how she was rejected in high school. When her manager asked if that’s true, she confirmed it. However, this news took a backseat as a video clip of MC playing an online game poorly surfaced. This is catastrophic as MC is the spokeswoman for the online game. Thus, the gaming company asked that MC plays in a tournament to prove that she doesn’t suck at gaming. She had a month or so to become a top player or at least a good enough player. MC decides to use her alt QQ to play so that no one knows it’s her when she practices. However, ML accidentally invites her to join a game because she showed up in his QQ list. Eventually, she gets ML to become her instructor.

ML took a long vacation from work as he contemplates resigning from the Aerospace industry and getting into finance. ML felt unfilial because his mother had a health scare and his parents came to the city for a checkup without telling him. They stayed at a rundown motel to save money. He felt awful that he couldn’t take care of his parents on his low salary. He had actually graduated with a finance degree because that’s what his parents wanted him to go into but he also double majored in Aerospace engineering as well and went on to get his masters. He loves the sector but feels burned out from the issues and low pay. He also sees the toll the career has on his colleagues’ health and relationships.

Thus, during ML’s long vacation, he starts playing the online game. He agreed to train MC until the competition. Right before the competition, he was called to go on a business trip as one of the satellite he worked on was malfunctioning. During that time, he decides to return to the Aerospace industry and not go into finance. He also decides that he has nothing to offer MC so after the competition, he will no longer keep in touch with her. He had already planned his goodbye. At the competition, MC proved that she’s a great gamer and ML also gets to play with her. That night, she confessed to ML who rejects her again.

A trip back to his childhood home, ML dug out his old computer and read through the chat logs. He realized how much MC had liked him in high school. He also gets some clarity from his parents and colleagues. While on a business trip doing some testing in the desert, ML starts writing letters to MC answering all the questions she asked in details. Despite all of his, MC is not willing to forgive him. She sends him a text message that those letters no longer mean anything to her.

MC is returning to her home town for the Lunar festival. Outside her car is ML. He’s here to catch a ride with ML as they’re both from the same home town. She sits in the back while he drives and pretty much ignores him. He tells her he needs to stop for gas so she goes to the bathroom. When she comes out, he “kabedons” her against the car to ask if those letters really mean nothing to her. She tells him that her heart hurts if she forgives him. I think what she means is that she’s loved him for so long and he not only rejected her once but several times. And if she easily forgives him, all that hurt was in vain. He asked her for a chance. Although, she finally sits in the front with him, she’s still intent on giving him the cold shoulder for at least 2 months.

Back in their home town, ML tries calling her but MC won’t pick up. She meets up with her high school bestie and the two starts talking about gaming. Her bestie had gotten into gaming because of her and the competition that went viral. She asked MC if she can use MC’s account to play because she wonder how it was feel like to use a top gamer’s account. Her bestie was shocked to see that MC had 2 pentakills. MC hadn’t logged into her account since the competition. She checked the dates of those pentakills and realized it was the day of the competition. She remembered giving ML her phone while she had an interview. Prior to this, he had asked her what she wanted for her birthday so she asked that he gives her a pentakill. She hadn’t seen it until now as she was too depressed about his rejection to log in. She questioned why someone who was planning on leaving her would work so hard to get not only one but two pentakills for her before he left her. She realized that he cared a lot about her.

The two met up at a KTV where their high school class reunion was going on. He kissed her in front of everyone and the two leaves. They are officially together.