Love Formula: Couple Moments (Part 1)

Introduction

I don’t usually watch school/youth romcom dramas, but Love Formula offers a fun escape and stress release after watching several deep or dark dramas. I also haven’t seen the leading actress for a while, and her dramedy (drama comedy) acting is always enjoyable and exceptional.

This drama is also lighthearted and entertaining. However, since it was filmed in 2022 and adapted from a 2017 web novel, it has the usual tropes from those years: enemies-to-lovers, cold man-warm woman, the stereotyped green tea villain (绿茶婊), and tons of misunderstandings. While misunderstandings are used to bring the main couple closer to each other, it can be frustrating for viewers when the misunderstanding is prolonged unnecessarily.

In this case, I decided to make two-part articles that highlight the couple moments that define and strengthen the bond between the drama couples. This part consists of the moments of the main couple, and the second part consists of the main couple (continuation), and two side couples. If you watched the drama, you may agree that these highlights are memorable. If you haven’t watched it, these articles may save you from watching some lame scenes.

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Drama Info

Drama title: Love Formula (Native title: 爱的方程式 )
Alternative title: Qin Ai De Xi Bo Di Ya, Dear Miss Hypatia
Genres: Youth, Romance, Sport
Aired: Jul 16, 2025 - Jul 27, 2025
Episodes: 24 |  Duration: 35 minutes
Director: Liu Tian ( 刘坦 )
Screenwriter: Chu Li ( 楚鲤 )
Where to watch: WeTV, China Huace, and Viki
Adapted from the novel "Master Devil, Don't Mess With Me" (恶魔少爷别惹我) by Jin Xia Mo (锦夏末)
OST: Fan audio (full album)

Trailer: 

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Synopsis

A simple rural girl, Jian Dan, meets the mathematics prodigy Han Yan Sheng at university. Due to an accident, Han Yan Sheng develops a swimming-related stress disorder. With kindness and perseverance, Jian Dan stands by his side and helps him overcome his inner fears. With support from their friends, the two grow together, finding both love and courage along the way (source: WeTV).

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Characters

Main Characters

Supporting Characters

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Han Yan Sheng ❤︎ Jian Dan

The first meeting, the first misunderstanding

To avoid Yue Tang Tang, a fan girl, Han Yang Sheng knocked over Jian Dan with his scooter. He thought Jian Dan and Tang Tang were in cahoots together to corner him. He left in anger and shouldered Jian Dan’s way. She knocked over the cake in Tang Tang’s hands, sent it flying, and landed on Yan Sheng’s back. What a (not) sweet moment to meet for the first time! ➤ Episode 1

Don’t we love campus paparazzi???

Jian Dan bought a used textbook online, and the seller was Xia Hou Ling, aka Monkey. They agreed to meet at the university’s swimming pool to complete the transaction. Jian Dan went there and grabbed her ordered book, which turned out to be Yan Sheng’s textbook. After a scuffle for the book, Jian Dan accidentally pushed Yan Sheng into the swimming pool. Upon realizing that he couldn’t swim (he actually had aquaphobia), she (with others) rescued him and wanted to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (the usual romance drama trope!). A campus paparazzo snapped photos of them together, and the incident went viral! ➤ Episode 1

Honestly, I would love if there were campus paparazzi back in my university days. Campus life is hard with academic stress, social pressure, and homesickness. It would be nice to hear/see some informal campus entertaining news and gossip to release stress.

Kabedon at the basketball court

Jian Dan wrote a letter of apology to Yan Sheng because she accidentally pushed him into the water. The jealous Cake Girl, Tang Tang, replaced the letter with an insulting note and a picture of him drowning. Upon receiving Jian Dan’s ‘letter’, he cornered Jiang Dan with the famous kabedon drama trope at the basketball court. ➤ Episode 1

What is kabedon? Kabedon (壁ドン) is a Japanese term referring to the action of slamming one’s hand against a wall, often done to corner or trap someone, especially in romantic contexts within anime and manga. As many anime and manga were adapted to live-action series, since then, not only Japanese dramas, but dramas from other countries use this trope.

One-on-one training

Jiang Dan joined the Swimming Club to get credits for the next semester’s full scholarship. The club president was Yan Sheng, who approved her on the spot and even chose her to have one-on-one training with him. Of course, his motivation was to get back at her. ➤ Episode 2

A beauty arrived

Yue Tang Tang, the Cake Girl turned Dormmate Villain, was angry that Jian Dan beat her in the swimming challenge, so she replaced Jian Dan’s shampoo with rainbow hair dye. Jian Dan ran to the hair salon, not only to flush out the rainbow dye, but also to straighten up her hair and wear contacts. I disliked her unruly curly hairstyle, so it was good that it only lasted for one episode!

Jian Dan was looking pretty when she arrived at the local cafe to find Mi Fen. All Yan Sheng’s guy friends praised her new look. Monkey said, “She looks good.” Su Li Shi said, “She’s cute”, and even the shy Yuan Sen said, “She’s not bad.” Yan Sheng was stunned, but criticized his buddies for losing their taste. ➤ Episode 2

Personal assistant for ten days

Jian Dan found out why Yan Sheng went overboard with giving her a hard time. Although she tried to explain that she didn’t send that belittling letter, he didn’t want to listen. When she asked him what she could do to make up with him, he told her to be his personal assistant, aka slave, for ten days. This included buying him food and drinks, and even took care of his fan girls. Jiang Dan got back at him low-key by reciting out loud a fan girl’s confession to him wherever they go, that he didn’t want to have her around. ➤ Episode 2

Their first secret: “What happened today stays between us.”

The Dormmate Villain sneaked into the Swimming Club office to give Yan Sheng a classical music concert ticket, but she accidentally broke his beloved swimming trophy. Of course, he accused his personal assistant of breaking it. Monkey advised him to attend the concert; the one who left the ticket must be the one who broke the trophy. Of course, it was Jian Dan who arrived and sat next to him. Tang Tang gave the other ticket for Jian Dan to take the fall. They didn’t have a chance to argue because the concert had started, and Jian Dan was tired from cleaning the pool that she fell asleep on Yan Sheng’s shoulder. Later, when the concert finished, he couldn’t get a ride, so Jian Dan took him back to the dorm on her motorbike. Yan Sheng was so ashamed that he asked her not to tell anyone!

On the sweet side, when the concert was over, Yan Sheng asked the cleaner not to wake her up and let her sleep a little bit more, awww! ➤ Episode 3

The swimming club: Difficult to join, even more difficult to leave

After they got back to the dorm, Jian Dan and Yan Sheng had a big fight over who gave the ticket = who broke the trophy. At least, they realized it was not Jian Dan, and she knew it was Tang Tang. However, Jian Dan felt enough being bullied by Yan Sheng that she declared right there and then that she would quit the club.

However, Yan Sheng didn’t want Jian Dan to quit the swimming club. He called her and said that she needed to write a 3000-word withdrawal letter to quit. Determined, she made one, no more, no less than 3000 words! When Yan Sheng wanted her to rewrite, she said she wouldn’t come back. ➤ Episode 3

The first gift

When he was angry at Jian Dan the other day and accused her of breaking his trophy, he accidentally broke Jian Dan’s phone. He felt guilty and bought a phone for her. When she refused to receive anything from him, he simply said that either she accept the phone or he would keep dragging her withdrawal. She finally accepted it, but would pay him back gradually. ➤ Episode 3

Brought together by Hypatia

Jian Dan officially quit the swimming club, so she and Yan Sheng didn’t want anything to do with each other, or so it seemed. Earlier in Episode 2, Jian Dan and Yan Sheng anonymously started corresponding with each other, solving math problems through a biography of their math idol, Hypatia. So close, yet so far. ➤ Episode 3

Hypatia (c. 350-370 – March 415 AD) was a renowned philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician in Alexandria, Egypt, during the late Roman Empire. She is recognized as the first female mathematician whose life is reasonably well-documented.

A new club: The Rock Climbing Club

Jian Dan was doomed. The school announced that club involvement would be included in the final grading. Jian Dan needed perfect scores for the scholarship credits. She didn’t belong to any club, and membership recruitment was closed. Jian Dan didn’t really want to return to the Swimming Club. However, she could start a new club. In Episode 3, Jian Dan found an empty room that used to belong to the Rock Climbing Club. This room was in the Swimming Club building. The club advisor told her that she needed an authorization signature from Yan Sheng, who was responsible for the building. Yan Sheng didn’t want to sign the authorization, since he thought Jian Dan was not qualified to be a club leader. She didn’t even know how to rock climb or even put on climbing gear. Yan Sheng challenged Jian Dan that if she could climb to the top, he would give her his authorization. Jian Dan started learning rock climbing by herself through theories, videos, physical exercise, and climbing practice. Yan Sheng secretly watched Jian Dan practice climbing. ➤ Episode 3 and 4

Spiderman kiss

Once Jian Dan thought that she was ready to take Yan Sheng’s challenge, she invited him and the swimming club members to watch. Jian Dan successfully climbed to the top indeed, and right after she declared her victory, Jian Dan slipped and fell down. Yan Sheng rushed over to catch her, and they accidentally kissed in the most bizarre position I have ever seen in dramas, a la Spiderman kiss. Does an accidental kiss count as a couple’s first kiss??? ➤ Episode 4

Even the scary Math professor was their matchmaker

Professor Wang, the Math professor everyone was scared of (he was famous for passing only 5% of the class), made the students write down anyone in his class they didn’t want to work with and actually assigned them to form a project group with the person they didn’t want to work with. Of course, Yan Sheng and Jian Dan wrote each other’s names, and they ended up in a group. Moreover, their assignment was a survey on university students’ views on romantic relationships.

Honestly, I didn’t like Yan Sheng’s attitude in teamwork. He was bossy and assigned Jian Dan to do a lot of things. But at least, it was a chance for them to spend a lot of time together. And of course, as usual, our troublemaker Tang Tang messed up Jian Dan’s final PPT, which caused problems with their presentation. Professor Wang gave them a C. Yan Sheng was angry with Jian Dan’s work, and Jian Dan was depressed because that meant that she wouldn’t be able to get enough credits for the scholarship.

Yan Sheng made it up by offering to help her with her math paper to get extra credit for the scholarship. They found out that Yan Sheng texted Jian Dan about the data error, but she never received the text; someone (we knew who!) deleted his final message on her phone! ➤ Episodes 5 and 6

Wasabi in the Coke

Thinking that she would lose the future scholarship, Jian Dan went to work at a bar to save money. One night happened to be the university’s Cosplay Club Eco-themed Show. The owner asked the employees to wear masks for the event. Yan Sheng was invited by the club to give a speech as the president of the most prestigious Swimming Club. By her petite figure and voice, Yan Sheng could identify Jian Dan immediately. She ignored him, so Yan Sheng complained to the bar owner and asked him to send Jian Dan to serve him. Jian Dan put wasabi into his drink, OMG! But somehow the drink got mixed up with others. Jian Dan frantically tried to find which drink she tampered with, and the bar owner saw her sniffing the drinks and scolded her. Eventually, someone else drank that wasabi-flavored Coke! Yan Sheng told Jian Dan that working at that bar was not worth it, since she had to wear such a short skirt. ➤ Episode 6

Don’t complain at a restaurant, or the staff will add something to your drink/food!

Private tutoring

When Yan Sheng heard from Monkey (bless his heart!) that Jian Dan would have to drop out next semester if she couldn’t get credits from the math paper, he offered to coach her an hour every day at the coffee shop until she submitted the paper. Yan Sheng had published a few math papers in the past. At the cafe, Jian Dan also found out from Li Shi that the phone she had was the latest model and hard to get. That was the phone Yan Sheng gave her. He also added a screen protector and a case. Jian Dan was babying the phone and kept cleaning it, which bothered Yan Sheng since she got distracted from his tutoring. After knowing from Li Shi that the phone was expensive, Jian Dan felt uncomfortable and transferred her part-time job money to pay Yan Sheng. ➤ Episode 7

The secret boyfriend

Yan Sheng was coaxed by his friends to find out who Hypatia was, since they had corresponded for some time. So, he asked her to meet with an excuse to borrow an old Math book. However, on the evening they were supposed to meet, he got a phone call from Jian Dan. No, it was not Jian Dan. Earlier, she lent her phone to Mi Fen, whose phone was dead, and she needed to meet a buyer downtown to sell her figurines. Mi Fen went to the meeting place with Yuan Sen. Once the transaction was done, they left the place, but Mi Fen accidentally left Jian Dan’s phone on the table. The buyer called the first number that showed up on the recent call list, which was Yan Sheng’s. He didn’t have much time, so Yan Sheng ditched his meeting plan with Hypatia and left for downtown. The buyer told Yan Sheng that the girl was with her boyfriend. When Yan Sheng said she didn’t have a boyfriend, the buyer insisted she did because of the way she and her male companion looked at each other. Yan Sheng was partly surprised and partly jealous upon finding out that Jian Dan had a secret boyfriend. He rushed to the library and bumped into Jian Dan, who left fuming because the guy she corresponded with stood her up. Earlier, Yan Sheng couldn’t help peeking into the recent calls and saw a triple heart on the list. That triple heart happened to call Jian Dan at the time, and she was happy receiving the call, leaving Yan Sheng thinking that the triple heart was Jian Dan’s boyfriend. It turned out it was her grandma. ➤ Episode 7

1111 Wishes

It was November 11. In China, it was Singles’ Day, “Double 11” ( 双十一 ). Monkey organized a celebration, in which every single member in the Swimming Club and the Rock Climbing Club wrote down his/her immediate wish on a piece of paper and drew a lot on someone else’s wish and fulfilled it. He used this to wish for an expensive item. Jian Dan got his wish. Monkey got Yan Sheng’s wish, which was to solve a difficult math problem. Monkey didn’t like math, so he made Jian Dan swap with his own wish and bought the item himself. Jian Dan’s wish was written by Mi Fen, who wrote to meet her math pen pal. Yan Sheng got her wish and went to see Jian Dan at the library. Through the old math book Jian Dan borrowed, Yan Sheng confirmed that Jian Dan was indeed his math pen pal. He also found out that the triple hearts ID was her grandma’s. Moreover, Jian Dan claimed she didn’t have a boyfriend. What a happy 1111 day for Yan Sheng! ➤ Episode 8

Yan Sheng treated Jian Dan’s math notes like love letters

Free meal date

Jian Dan’s math paper would be published, and she got her extra credit, so Yan Sheng demanded a reward. She won a free meal from an expensive restaurant, so she treated Yan Sheng. Mi Fen insisted that Jian Dan wear feminine clothes because she would go on a date with the hottest guy on campus, so she looked pretty in a sailor dress. Jian Dan was so frugal, she called a ride-share taxi. The dinner date was hilarious. After finding out that it was a free meal, Yan Sheng ordered a champagne to celebrate their first ‘date’. Jian Dan tried to refuse the champagne because it was 698 yuan, but Yan Sheng paid for it. Upon knowing that the diner was free, Yan Sheng demanded another reward from her, haha! ➤ Episode 9

Jian Dan’s eyes were so big watching Yan Sheng poured a 698 yuan champagne

Taking full responsibility

Jian Dan helped with the Swimming Club with the public event. When she was guiding a group of elementary school kids, one kid fell into the lake. Yan Sheng was there, but he froze and couldn’t brace himself to jump into the lake. Jian Dan ended up rescuing the kid, but she sprained her ankle. Yan Sheng princess carried her all the way to the infirmary. He then rented a bike to take her back to the campus and picked her up the next day. Yan Sheng also packed her nutritious meal from the Nutrition Department (aka bland diet), and took over the rock climbing club training. ➤ Episode 10

A call in the dark

The mid-term exam was here. Everyone ended up studying together. Yan Sheng tried to reach Jian Dan again, who suddenly became lukewarm toward him because of En Tong’s scheme. During the break, he went to buy drinks and pulled Jian Dan to go with him. He didn’t go to buy drinks, though, but took her to the library, where the Hypatia book was. Suddenly, there was a power outage. While waiting for the power to turn back on, Jian Dan told Yan Sheng that her pen pal gave the contact number, but Mi Fen spilled her drink on the paper, so the last two numbers were illegible. Yan Sheng suggested the numbers, and when Jian Dan called, his phone rang. He told her that he felt lucky having her as his pen pal. ➤ Episode 11

Family photo

Jian Dan’s grandma gave her a surprise visit but got lost in the big campus. Of course, she met Yan Sheng, who patiently took her to the girls’ dorm. He also brought a pair of climbing sneakers that Jian Dan thought were for En Tong. Jian Dan took grandma to eat in the cafeteria. Mi Fen, Monkey, and Yan Sheng joined them later. It was also revealed that when Yan Sheng couldn’t pick Jian Dan up on the last day of her sprained ankle, En Tong purposely uploaded a picture of her with him in the background at the dessert shop. Grandma asked for a group photo, but Monkey offered to take the photo, and Mi Fen pretended to help him with the pose. So it ended up to be a family photo, lol. ➤ Episode 11

Wasabi breakup

En Tong lied to Jian Dan that she and Yan Sheng were childhood sweethearts, so Jian Dan avoided Yan Sheng at all costs. However, she and Mi Fen saw En Tong happily go shopping with Li Shi. Then she saw Yan Sheng crying at the Swimming Club office, so she thought he had cried from a broken heart. It turned out Yan Sheng ate a super spicy snack that Monkey bought him. Yan Sheng and Jian Dan ended up crying together from the wasabi. ➤ Episode 12

“My answer is: Yes!”

Jian Dan helped Mi Fen confess to Yuan Sen by booking the coffee shop and decorating the place. Li Shi, who worked at the coffee shop, thought that Jian Dan would confess to Yan Sheng, so he told Yan Sheng and Monkey about it. Yan Sheng was so full of himself, he came to the venue while Jian Dan was busy decorating and Mi Fen was changing clothes. Yan Sheng accidentally released some balloons, and while Jian Dan frantically tried to save the balloons, he grabbed her and said that his answer was “Yes!” ➤ Episode 13

How do you know if the girl likes you back?

After Mi Fen’s confession at the coffee shop went viral, the owner promoted his place as a confession venue. He even printed fliers on how guys know that their girls like them back before they make confessions:

1. If they pick up your call right away
2. They will always change into something nice, something that is not their usual style.
3. When they are around someone they like, they will extra careful of their appearance.
4. The last and most important rule: Someone who truly likes you will always put you before themselves.

Yan Sheng tested Jian Dan, and accidentally and hilariously, she fit all four criteria! ➤ Episode 13

The mechanic girl

During New Year’s school break, Jian Dan went home to visit her grandmother and saw a package with medicines from Yan Sheng for Grandma. Because of En Tong’s scheme, Jian Dan made a video of Yan Sheng’s past that angered him, so they didn’t talk to each other. Grandma needed treatment, so Jian Dan went back to the city and worked a lot of part-time jobs. Since she didn’t have a place to go (the dorm was closed), she ended up working at a car shop and stayed with other mechanics, who were all guys. Jian Dan didn’t tell anyone about this, and Mi Fen went home, too. Li Shi, who took his boss’s car to the car shop, knew about it and told Yan Sheng. Yan Sheng was worried and went to see Jian Dan. He offered to employ her to clean and stay at his aunt’s house, who went overseas to study. Jian Dan refused. Yan Sheng bribed a mechanic to tell Jian Dan that she needed to share her little room with new male workers. Jian Dan didn’t have a choice but to accept Yan Sheng’s offer and move to his aunt’s house. ➤ Episode 14

Practice cooking for Grandma

Jian Dan brought some local specialties as Grandma’s gift to Yan Sheng. He doesn’t know how to cook the cured meat, so she cooked some dishes for him. He claimed that her cooking skills were average, and she needed to practice cooking perfectly for Grandma and use him as a guinea pig to eat her cooking every day. Furthermore, he even bought a lot of ingredients, as he knew that Jian Dan wouldn’t want to waste things and would use them. ➤ Episode 14

Spend the first snowfall with someone you love

Yan Sheng saw the winter poster at the mall with the above message. He asked Jian Dan if she knew what the meaning of the first snowfall was, but she didn’t know, not until Mi Fen texted her with the same message. She was so embarrassed when she realized that she had asked Yan Sheng to dine out during the first snowfall. After eating, they spent the night watching the snow and drinking wine. Yan Sheng told Jian Dan about his best friend Nan Yuan, who died tragically of drowning, and he claimed that it was his fault. They fell asleep on the couch because of too much wine, until the next day, Yuan Sen and Mi Fen came over to visit Jian Dan. Jian Dan was mortified; she didn’t want Mi Fen and Yuan Sen to get the wrong idea. She pulled Yan Sheng to hide, but he refused since he didn’t do anything wrong. Yuan Sen found the spare key (he and Yan Sheng used to play in this house when they were young) and opened the door. Yuan Sen and Mi Fen walked into this scene: ➤ Episode 15

Chinese New Year

Grandma passed out and was taken to the hospital. Yan Sheng was again pulled by En Tong away from Jian Dan to do volunteer work, but the evil plan didn’t work because he got a phone call about Jian Dan’s grandma passing out and rushed to the hospital. Yan Sheng and Jian Dan ended up spending the Chinese New Year’s Eve at the hospital, but Yan Sheng took Jian Dan to see the city fireworks display. Couples watching fireworks is a must-trope in dramaland! ➤ Episode 15

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Conclusion

Usually, in a romance drama, by the middle of the drama’s length, the main couple has already realized their feelings toward each other. In this drama, although the mystery of Hypatia was revealed, Jian Dan was still clueless about her own feelings, let alone confessing. Misunderstanding by misunderstanding, drag their relationship along. The second/last part should be their end game, right?