Introduction
In the first part, Speed and Love: Drama Info and Highlight Episodes 1 to 9, we were teased a lot with flirty push-and-pull between Mumu and Jin Zhao. In this second part, the romance becomes hotter, as hot as the tropical climate in Thailand. You might wonder, how could a supposedly slow-burning development in the first part become strong with intense chemistry and frequent kissing? Let’s continue this part with “forbidden love” vibe as Jin Zhang and Mumu navigate complicated pasts and present challenges, blending with high-stakes racing action!
I purposely screenshot the featured image because the scene represents the “forbidden romance” and sensuality of their relationship. The scene itself is taken from Episode 15, how they’re both “out of their mind”. Enjoy!
Highlight Episodes 10 to 19
Episode 10
This is what’s in Jin Zhao’s mind when he found himself sketching Mumu:
I didn’t expect you’d really come. Your habits, preferences, and your tone, they’ve long become things I remember without even having to think. I don’t know why, but lately I can’t help thinking about you. Not because anything special happened. I just want to make sure you’re still there. And some words have been on tip of my tongue – it’s not that I don’t want to say them, it’s just I haven’t figured out how to tell you them.
Later, Mumu accidentally stumbled upon Jin Zhao’s sketchbook and took a picture of her drawing.
Jin Zhao better tell Mumu his unspoken words soon, since Mumu has started practicing driving a manual-shift car with Lin Sui. She wanted to improve her advanced drifting techniques. Lin Sui was impressed with Mumu, and even flirted with her. Nana thought that her cousin was interested in Mumu, but Mumu thought that he was just pretending to pursue her. Because she’s close to Jin Zhao, and Lin Sui wanted to give Jin Zhao a push to fight against Boss Wan. By making him jealous, perhaps?
Episode 11
Speaking of flirting, Mumu rather flirted with Jin Zhao. After caught in the rain in Episode 10, the two went back hand-in-hand. Things start with light-hearted and playful, with the must-have romantic trope in drama land, with the ML drying the FL’s hair. Then it gets serious, no, not what you think, but they’re discussing their parents’ divorce. Jin Zhao told Mumu that the cause of their parents’ divorce was their Dad smashing Mom’s cherished potted plants, deeming those things to be useless. However, in my opinion, that was just the tip of the iceberg. For example, Mom was already unhappy when Dad brought little Jin Zhao home, and their disagreements were never resolved. Later, Mumu slept in his bed, and Jin Zhao had a deep thought that they were no longer little and could sleep in one bed carefree. He acknowledged that he had been deliberately ignoring his feelings for a long time, but now he couldn’t.
Well, the push came soon. When Lin Sui taught Mumu driving last time, he asked Liang Yanfeng to record them. Now he asked Yanfeng to send it to Jin Zhao, who was clearly irritated with Lin Sui and warned him to stay away from Mumu. Lin Sui simply said he was not interested in her. Jin Zhao. realizing that he was Lin Sui’s target, asked what Lin Sui wanted, and eventually they settled with a race competition. The winner would celebrate with Mumu, while the loser would stay out of her life. Wait, did Mumu even know and agree to be the winning trophy? By the end of the race, not sure who actually won, Lin Sui shot the ultimate question: asking Jin Zhao to join his racing team to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France the following month. Jin Zhao declined, stating he would quit racing.
After the race, which was quite cool but dangerous, since it was held in the public streets, Jin Zhao went to see Mumu singing at a charity event for the New Year’s celebration. She sang the classic song “The Moon Represents My Heart” (月亮代表我的心), originally sung by the legendary Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng, back in 1977. Mumu is the moon. Later, he took her to the beach, where she kept singing the song, but now become personal. Mumu shouted: “My New Year’s wish is that the person in my heart can understand my songs, understand my feelings, and keep me in his heart as his moon for a lifetime!” Jin Zhao feigned not hearing her shout because of the sea noise. Mumu sang the iconic song again. Later, they were waiting for a meteor shower, but Mumu drifted off to sleep by Jin Zhao. He secretly made a wish for Zhao and Mu to never be apart and engraved a love declaration on the sand.
Episode 12
Girls drinking is not good, they always tell the truth, haha! At least, in this case, Mumu got to know what happened back then with Jin Zhao from Wan Qing. Snakey invited Mumu for a friendly drink, since now she no longer regarded Mumu as her love competitor, because Mumu was supposedly Jin Zhao’s ‘sister’. Snakey told Mumu that to help their parents pay for Jin Xin’s surgery, Jin Zhao accepted a customer offer to improve his car. Jin Zhao poured himself into researching, designing, and upgrading the car. Unfortunately, the customer was driving the modified car when he got the accident, and lost his leg. The victim’s family sued Jin Zhao. Jin Feng Zi and San Lai raised money to pay the settlement.
After this case, Jin Zhao quit school but kept working at Wan’s Auto Shop. Then he uncovered that senior mechanics had swapped old parts for new ones from customers’ cars and sold the new parts. Jin Zhao had been framed; his modified car for that unfortunate customer had been tampered with. Wan Qing’s father covered up the corruption for his business reputation and let Jin Zhao take the blame for his modified car.
When Jin Zhao arrived to take the drunk Mumu home, she promised him not to be separated again, since she was not there when he fell into the misfortune. At the auto shop, Mumu requested Jin Zhao not to like Wan Qing, even if she was nice to him. Still not sober, she said, “I’m grown up now.” She meant that she was available, which flustered Jin Zhao.
Episode 13
Remember, the “yearning day and night” key chain? Mumu finally found it when she celebrated New Year’s with Jin Zhao and his friends. She remembered San Lai told her that he seemed to have harbored long-time unrequited feelings for the girl connected to the key-chain, which was her. Therefore, while watching the fireworks, she took off the key-chain off his car keys and told him that he didn’t need it anymore, since she’s here, no more need of yearning day and night.
On New Year’s Day, the couple and San Li went to see the festivity. I could forgive San Li being their third wheel, since he practically was their Cupid and intermediary when Mumu wanted to know things about Jin Zhao but didn’t dare to ask him directly.
Unfortunately, their fun was interrupted by people from Wan Autoshop. Specifically, He Zhang acted like a thug because he liked Wan Qing, while she liked Jin Zhao. I didn’t know if they would be the third couple or not (for the second couple, I bet it would be San Lai and Nana), so I’d just put their picture together here. She vented her frustration on a sandbag and hurt her hand, and He Zhang bandaged her hand gently.
Episode 14
Lin Sui kept trying to persuade Jin Zhao to join his team, so he ordered food from his parents’ restaurant to be delivered by Jin Zhao. Jin Zhao still refused anything Lin Sui offered, but asked him to give a good review of the restaurant. When Lin Sui asked what he should write, Jin Zhao said, “Whatever.” So, the cunning Lin Sui praised that the deliveryman was damn hot, which caused a lot of comments. When Jin Zhao requested that Lin Sui delete that review of him, Lin Sui asked to meet for a meal ‘date’ at the restaurant, hahaha!
Episode 15
Remember, I wrote in Episode 13 that girls drinking is not good; they always tell the truth. In this Episode, not only tell the truth through words, but action, too! After a meal with Jin Zhao and their friends, Mumu was drunk. When they were alone, she asked about which school to apply to, since her language course was completed. He suggested that she ask her Mom, of whom she lamented would want her to go to Canada, and she wouldn’t be able to return for a long time. Will he miss her if she leaves? When Jing Zhao didn’t reply, Mumu started to kiss him. Shocked, Jing Zhao reprimanded that she was out of her mind. But then he couldn’t stand any longer and kissed her back, and stated that he was out of his mind, too! While they were hugging and kissing, unfortunately, as usual in dramas, San Lai interrupted them.
Well, Jin Zhao knew that Mumu was drunk the night before, so before he tugged her into bed, he told her they needed to talk the next day. After Mumu woke up, she was worried that Jin Zhao might think their intimate moment was because she was drunk. Although she admitted she started first was a bit impulsive, she knew she had been conscious. Therefore, when he asked if she regretted their kissing last night, Mumu said she didn’t regret it, though she admitted it was a bit hasty. Jin Zhao then gave her a pendant, the only thing left by his biological mother for him. He warned her that once he was serious with someone, he wouldn’t give her a chance to change her mind. Jiang Mu said she wouldn’t.
That coffee kiss, perhaps, you’d better watch it… He pretty much devoured her lips!
Episode 16
Now, with this kind of sensuality, sooner or later, their family and friends would discover. First was their little sister, Jin Xin. When Mumu accidentally (or intentionally?) spilled ketchup on Jin Zhao’s shirt, he pulled her onto his lap to change his shirt. Their little sister happened to enter the room, looking for her tablet, but pretended like she didn’t see anything odd between the two.
Next to discover was San Lai. Jin Zhao sent his mechanics away to have smoochie time with Mumu. But San Lai, their friend and Cupid, of course, could go in and out easily. At first they could trick San Lai by pretending Mumu looking for Jin Zhao’s gray hair. But eventually, they didn’t care with even San Lai there, and he just had to be self-conscious and walked away, haha!
The last but not least who discovered their budding romance was Stepmother Zhao Meijuan. It was when the drama started to incorporate the usual annoying trope in romantic dramas called misunderstanding. Jing Zhao went undercover for the police and was spotted by Mumu spending time with a white woman. Of course, since it was an undercover mission, he didn’t tell Mumu about the mission. Of course, the drama never mentioned that he had taken missions from the police before. Mumu was angry, and Jing Zhao had to explain the misunderstanding. Just when they reconciled and hugged tightly on the street, Stepmother discovered them!
Episode 17
After Stepmom caught the two, Mumu begged her not to tell Dad about this forbidden romance. Although Stepmom was moved by the long-standing love between these star-crossed lovers, Dad was not the reason she worried about, but Mumu’s mother! She knew from Dad that Jiang Yinghan hated Jin Zhao, she would never approve of their relationship.
We thought Dad was a threat, the bigger one was Jiang Yinghan, but the biggest threat was what was called the “Alliance.” While Stepmom confronted Mumu, San Lai confronted Jing Zhao about this alliance thing. Apparently, it was a criminal organization. He was involved in this gang as an undercover agent for the police. Not for money, but to have a good reputation. The reason San Lai confronted him was that Jin Zhao kept Mumu in the dark about his involvement. But as the story goes, it was not San Lai, but Wan Qing, who reminded Mumu about this gang. Wan Qing knew that her crush was involved in the gang, without knowing the undercover mission, so she warned Mumu. Since Jin Zhao didn’t want to reveal his involvement to Mumu, Mumu could only beg him to stay safe.
Mumu did her own investigation by tailing Jin Zhao, which eventually led him to tell her the truth. He explained that after the issue with the tampered car and his quitting Wan Autoshop, the Anti-smuggling Bureau had approached him to be their undercover agent. The police used the street racing organization as a way to infiltrate the Alliance, a big smuggling gang. Since the gang was involved in illegal street racing, the only way to get close to the gang was for Jin Zhao to earn enough points through racing to be noticed. By taking down the gang, Jin Zhao wanted to clear his past case. Although this revelation scared Mumu, Jin Zhao believed that he was the only one who could put an end to the gang’s crime.
Episode 18
As the romance started blooming, the thriller also escalated. No, not the thrilling romance, but the thriller with the Alliance. This episode ended somberly, with San Lai being kidnapped at the beginning of the episode, although Jin Zhao rescued him later. San Lai had been Jin Zhao’s benefactor to pay the settlement with the modified car’s victim. He sold his fast food franchise. Now, he was kidnapped in relation to his father’s debt. Although Jin Zhao rescued San Lai, I suspected this case would have a connection later.
Episode 19
OMG… this was crazily intense. The race Jin Zhao was involved in (as an undercover from the police) was finally today. He would be against He Zhang. Mumu begged Wan Qing to see the race, because she was an outsider, and only after kowtowing to Wang Qing did she let Mumu watch. And guess what, another tampered car! Of course, now it was Jin Zhao’s. From a distance, Wan Qing’s father used his phone remote control to short-circuit the braking system in Jin Zhao’s car. It fell down the cliff at a sharp turn and erupted in a violent explosion! Jiang Mu screamed and passed out.
The scenes with hysterical Mumu afterwards were all so heartbreaking. For example, in this scene, she cried and crawled like she was losing her mind because, physically and emotionally, she was exhausted. Plus, the OST lyrics fit the scene, asking us viewers if our hearts also ached watching her suffer. It was heartbreaking, indeed!
Conclusion
What a shocking scene to end this second part of the episode recap of Speed and Love (双轨)!!! We know Jin Zhao didn’t die, because we’re still in Episode 19 of 29. He was probably down the cliff somewhere, passed out, but still alive. Let’s continue to the final part!
