Introduction
In the second part of this article recap series, Love’s Ambition: Drama Recap Episodes 9 to 16, Xu Yan and Shen Haoming get a divorce in Episode 16. We learned about the 30-day cooling-off period. Let me inform you a bit about the divorce law in China.
China’s revised divorce law, effective February 1, 2025, introduces a mandatory 30-day cooling-off period before a divorce can be finalized and makes it harder for a spouse to claim a share of a partner’s assets unless they can prove financial or labor contribution. This law aims to promote family stability amid declining birth rates, but has sparked controversy and backlash, with critics raising concerns about gender inequality and the difficulty of exiting unhappy or abusive marriages.
We know that Xu Yan doesn’t want anything from Haoming’s money, so the “spouse to claim a share of a partner’s assets” part is not applicable in this drama. Let’s talk about the 30-day cooling-off period. The clerk at the Civil Affairs Bureau has already informed them about the procedure. The Chinese government introduced the law to address a rising divorce rate and to encourage traditional family values. The main goal of this period is to discourage couples from making rash decisions during moments of anger or conflict. It gives couples a mandatory period to calmly reconsider the divorce and its consequences, including potential issues like child custody and property division.
Regarding the shadows in the featured image, no worries, there is no love triangle from both parties.
Let’s continue with the third part of Love’s Ambition ( 许我耀眼 ) recap series to see how Xu Yan and Shen Haoming cope with their divorce.
Recap Episodes 17 to 24
Episode 17
Haoming and Xu Yan both start from the bottom.
They only said that Haoming is sent from the HQ, not that he’s the chairman’s son. Haoming goes to the construction site and talks to the workers. At first, they just ignore him. Eventually, one by one start talking to him and he finds out the problem.
Because Xu Yan doesn’t have a sales background, at first, she became the sales assistant. Later, Xu Yan becomes a live streamer, and people who know her start watching her and supporting her. Including the Shen family, incognito. During the chicken feet promo, Haochen beat Haoming (they both use ID aliases) as the top contributor in buying chicken feet. The kid used the family nanny’s money to buy, and will repay her later when he gets his allowance. Xu Yan’s boss thinks that Xu Yan has to meet this top contributor because the person is definitely her biggest fan. When Xu Yan goes to meet this “Warm Harbor”, it turns out he is her bro-in-law (soon to be her step-son). Haochen said that his teacher taught the students that home is a warm harbor, so he used the name. Xu Yan returns the nanny’s money immediately. Haochen expresses his missing Xu Yan. He also says that his mom (Yulan) is getting thinner, missing Xu Yan. Haochen told Xu Yan that her father (Jinsong) sent her Haoming to the countryside branch for months. Xu Yan feels bad for Haochen, so she allows the kid to call her anytime if he wants them to have an outing together.
Fang Lei wants to humiliate Xu Yan during a real sales event, and takes Yu Lan and the ladies in her circle of friends to the event. Yu Lan is stunned and feels sad seeing Xu Yan. When the other ladies talk down about Xu Yan, Yu Lan reminds them that they and their husbands all started from the bottom of their businesses many years ago. Later, she asks her secretary to buy Xu Yan’s products. Her friends also bought from Xu Yan.
When Haoming gets a chance to come back home, he meets with Xu Yan and offers her monthly spousal support in bank card form. Xu Yan refuses, telling him not to feel guilty since it’s only her doing, and now she starts anew. She wants them to be strangers and walks away from him.
Episode 18
When Xu Yan’s boss finds out that Xu Yan is the daughter-in-law of the Shen family, he wants her to use her connection with them for his business. Xu Yan sees that the boss is greedy and she doesn’t want to use the Shen family connection, so she resigns.
While visiting Qiao Lin, Xu Yan gets to know her two friends Guan Guan and Yao Yao. The ended up brainstorming to start an online fashion business. Yao Yao likes to design with an ethnic style. Guan Guan is very tall and slim; she can model for Yao Yao’s design. Qiao Lin is good at makeup. Xu Yan offers her program planning expertise. The Yan Studio is born.
Yu Yiming is so cute, he even wears their product to promote the business.
Episode 19
With the business comes a funding issue, which is what this episode is about. And can you guess who will fund their business?
First is Jiang Liang. Yes, that playboy and financial whiz. Xu Yan and Jiang Liang accidentally bump into each other. Xu Yan doesn’t see his playboy-ness, but Jiang Liang is good at finance and gives her some financial advice. Or, Jiang Liang just know how to approach women? Who knows… Definitely, he not only admires her for her wits and courage, but also is attracted to her beauty.
Second, you can safely guess it’s Haoming. He wants to get an investment from a Russian tycoon, but the latter highly regards family values, so if the tycoon knows that Haoming is getting a divorce, it won’t be good. Haoming asks Xu Yan for help. Normally, if Xu Yan isn’t in dire need of getting funds for Yan Studio, she won’t accept Haoming’s plea. Xu Yan agrees to help. They will approach the tycoon, who is vacationing with his wife. Although Haoming offers to invest ¥ 10M into the business, Xu Yan only wants ¥ 1M one time fee. She doesn’t want Haoming to be her investor.
Off they go with their partnership. It’s cute but cringy at the same time. Just look below at one of their cosplays in approaching the Russian couple!
Episode 20
This episode is dedicated entirely to Xu Yan and Hao Ming’s attempt to win over the Russian couple for the investment. It takes the whole entire episode, because there was a business competitor who didn’t want Haoming to get the investment. I won’t elaborate on it, but there is an honest convo between them when Haoming tells Xu Yan that his father downvoted the election of his chairmanship and sends him to the countryside to tackle the subsidiary problem. Hao Ming also tells Xu Yan about his ex-girlfriend and Haochen.
There is also a reconciliation? Or they’re acting it? Anyway, the competitor finds out that Xu Yan and Haoming are divorcing each other. So, he questions Xu Yan and Haoming’s the truth of their marital relationship, and the Russian couple finds out they are not wearing wedding rings. Haoming tells them that he and his wife are vacationing to get back together again. He takes out her wedding ring she returned when she left the house, apologizes, and proposes again. After hesitating, Xu Yan lets Haoming put on the ring again. Since the competitor is still not convinced, Xu Yan and Haoming kiss in front of the couple and the competitor… passionately!
Episode 21
This is another filler episode. Besides the business, Xu Yan gets closer to her investor Jiang Liang, Haoming tries his childish way to get close to Xu Yan again, but she wants them to go their own ways after the business with the Russian couple is secured. They end up fighting in the car like an old married couple, and being brutally honest with each other, haha!
Another funny thing in this episode is when Haoming successfully avoids the divorce after the one-month cooling-off period is over. Haoming pretends to be very busy with business and goes all over the world and takes selfies at attraction landmarks, although they are all miniature buildings in China. He even pretends that he has some health issues on the 8th, the date they were supposed to formalize the divorce. Xu Yan accompanies Haoming to see doctors, only to find that he’s healthy. They arrive at the Civil Affairs Bureau 5 minutes late, and the clerk announces that she can’t do anything because the computer system has shut off already. They have to fill in another divorce application and wait for another one-month cooling-off period. Xu Yan is not happy and gives Haoming her evil eye look, while he pretends to obey the regulation. Hahaha!
Episode 22
Some people push Xu Yan and Haoming’s relationship uncertainty in this episode.
Qiao Lin feels that Xu Yan is different after she’s back from dealing with the Russian couple. She questions Xu Yan, but her sister doesn’t want to reveal anything. Qiao Lin advises Xu Yan to be clear with Haoming if she really wants to divorce him. But Qiao Lin also remembers Xu Yan’s words in the past that she really loved him and wanted to have a family with him. Xu Yan actually has mixed feelings about Haoming now, ever since the vacation. However, business comes first.
Haochen wants to pick a horse to buy, so he asks his brother and Xu Yan to represent his parents. After that, he purposely leaves the two alone. However, Xu Yan feels awkward, so she leaves Haoming to go back to work. Haochen scolds his brother and says that Haoming has been putting on airs, so it’s difficult for Xu Yan to forgive him.
If Haochen is harsh, Yu Lan approaches his son differently. She regretted that she was partly in fault Haoming and Xu Yan getting divorced. Yu Lan acknowledged she disliked Xu Yan in the beginning because she thought they were not a match. That pushed Xu Yan to lie about her background. However, Xu Yan treated everyone in the Shen family earnestly, and Yu Lan could see Xu Yan loved Haoming and cared about the family. Yu Lan hopes her son can get Xu Yan back, because Xu Yan is fit to be the hostess of the Shen family.
The funny thing by the end of this episode is, Haoming and Yu Yiming team up to get the girls, hahaha!
Episode 23
Xu Yan got a call from Haochen’s teacher, asking her to come to the parents’ meeting next week. She asks Haoming to meet her tomorrow at the cafe. Yiming urges Haoming to go to Xu Yan’s apartment for a more private time instead of meeting at a public place. Haoming stops by and pretends he had a meeting nearby. Xu Yan is cooking, and it seems she will have a guest coming. He wants to know if Xu Yan has a man in the house and pretends that he’s searching for the Wifi. He wants to stay for dinner, since he’s curious about the guest. Turns out it’s Qiao Lin, and later Yao Yao and Guan Guan also arrived. They start talking craps about men, and Xu Yan has to kick Haoming out.
This episode is full of love competition between Shen Haoming and Jiang Liang. Although Xu Yan already made it clear with Jiang Liang that he’s only her investor, the playboy doesn’t accept a no, whether it’s directly or indirectly. He and Haoming end up competing with their business knowledge to advise Xu Yan.
Although I don’t cover Yiming and Qiao Lin’s romance, FYI, in this episode, they finally declare their love for each other and sleep together.
Episode 24
Xu Yan’s truck, carrying clothes to ship, broke down on the road. Haoming happens to bump into the panicked Yao Yao, and he takes this opportunity to bring another truck to help Xu Yan. Haoming even helps Xu Yan’s truck driver to unload the goods and load them into his truck. Xu Yan felt a little warm in her heart when she saw that Haoming had changed. However, she did not show any emotion on the surface, but gave him a bottle of water. On the way back after delivering the goods, Haoming is so tired that he falls asleep, lying on Xu Yan’s shoulder. Xu Yan originally wanted to push him away, but when she saw that Shen Haoming was very tired, she let her lie on her shoulder.
Yan Studio starts to encounter bigger problems, and it seems there must be something going on behind them.
Conclusion
I have to admit, I fast-forwarded several scenes on Haoming or Xu Yan’s business subplots, as in my opinion, they are repetitive fillers. I understand that a romance drama does not need to rely solely on romance, but the side plots focused on corporate intrigue and business ventures are boring. Chinese dramas feature female leads starting businesses to appeal to modern female audiences by showcasing female empowerment, ambition, and independence in a way that is both inspiring and entertaining. However, if they are always present in almost every romance drama, this subplot becomes an overused trope. Especially, the Yan Studio thrives in less than 30 days. That’s unrealistic for a startup business! Luckily, we won’t go too far with the business subplot, as we have the final part waiting for us!
