Deep Affection Eyes Episode 3 Recap
> Deep Affection Eyes Recap
After Li Jinyu finished his part-time work, Ye Meng quickly approached him to apologize, feeling responsible for his job loss. Li Jinyu remained distant, stating he simply wanted to live in peace and care for his grandmother, expressing no desire for romantic complications or to offend Cheng Kairan. He implied Ye Meng's intentions were merely to "play around" and asked her not to bother him again.
Back home, Fang Ya’en sent Li Jinyu’s contact information to Ye Meng, subtly encouraging a connection between them. The following morning, as Ye Meng carefully assisted Fang Ya’en, who was recovering from a leg injury, they unexpectedly encountered Cheng Kairan. Ye Meng quickly excused herself, leaving Fang Ya’en to handle Cheng Kairan, who immediately inquired about Ye Meng's whereabouts. Later, at the hospital, Ye Meng met Li Jinyu’s grandmother. Feeling restless, the grandmother expressed a desire to leave the hospital.
Ye Meng, unable to refuse, offered to accompany her. As they chatted, the grandmother spoke highly of Li Jinyu, affectionately calling him "Badou," and openly suggested he would be an ideal son-in-law for the Ye family, capable of meeting all their expectations. She also revealed that Li Jinyu took his mother's surname and grew up abroad after being abandoned by his mother, a detail that piqued Ye Meng's sympathy for his tragic childhood.
Unable to refuse the grandmother’s plea for an outing, Ye Meng secretly took her to a coffee shop. There, they coincidentally saw Li Jinyu engaged in a conversation with a woman named Sister Li. Ye Meng overheard Li Jinyu asking for a higher price for a "hand model" job and mistakenly concluded he was pursuing disreputable work as a male escort. She immediately intervened, accusing him of illicit activities behind his grandmother's back.
Sister Li, however, clarified the situation by showing Ye Meng a legitimate model agency contract, explaining she was a serious businesswoman looking to hire Li Jinyu. During the misunderstanding, both Sister Li and Ye Meng noticed a distinct scar on Li Jinyu’s wrist. Sister Li stated that such a scar made him unsuitable for hand modeling and advised him to address it before reapplying.
Ye Meng observed the scar with concern, recalling the antidepressants she had seen at his home and wondering if he had once contemplated suicide. With his grandmother's subtle encouragement, Ye Meng found herself alone with Li Jinyu.
As they left the hospital, the grandmother further recounted Li Jinyu's tragic childhood, detailing how his mother abandoned him abroad at a young age, how he lived like a "left-behind child" knowing only his father's kindness, and how he nearly died after his father's passing. This deeply moved Ye Meng, solidifying her sympathy for him. She then took Li Jinyu to her friend Shi’s studio, where she offered to treat his scar.
While applying the treatment, Ye Meng probed the origin of his scar, and Li Jinyu admitted it was "because my mom." Ye Meng then shared her own painful past, recounting how her mother, despite being loving, struggled with depression and eventually committed suicide. She spoke of how she named her mother "Wyatt" after a strong character in a movie, hoping to live with similar energy.
As she treated his scar, Ye Meng reassured him that "scars can be smoothed out, as long as you are willing," drawing a parallel between physical and emotional healing. Their shared experiences of parental struggles and loss subtly brought them closer. On their way back, Li Jinyu hesitated before asking to exchange contact information. Ye Meng initially playfully refused, teasingly asserting her "big sister" status, before agreeing.
She immediately made herself his top contact, asserting her priority, to which he playfully called her "boring." Ye Meng then picked up her pace, walking quickly. When Li Jinyu seemed to struggle, she playfully challenged him to keep up. Meanwhile, Cheng Kairan was accompanying Fang Ya’en while waiting for children after school. He confessed to Fang Ya’en that while he still considered her a sister, his feelings for Ye Meng, which had spanned over a decade, remained unchanged.
He clarified that he sought her out not for revenge, but simply to see how she was doing. Fang Ya’en, however, urged him to accept reality, firmly stating that Ye Meng only saw him as a younger brother. Cheng Kairan, in turn, questioned Ye Meng’s feelings for Li Jinyu and angrily pointed to a scar on his own arm, asking what made him inferior to Li Jinyu.
Fang Ya’en, frustrated by his persistent infatuation, advised him to stop dwelling on it. Ye Meng, feeling rusty after a long break from driving, asked Li Jinyu to accompany her to retrieve her car. She struggled with the controls, humorously mistaking the clutch and forgetting to release the handbrake. Despite her initial fumbling, she eventually drove them to the seaside. She tried to take pictures of him, but Li Jinyu refused, saying it was "meaningless."
Ye Meng countered by encouraging him to live in the present and appreciate what he had. She then definitively told him that there had never been anything romantic between her and Cheng Kairan, assuring him that Cheng Kairan only considered her a sister. Later that evening, a heavily intoxicated Cheng Kairan arrived at Fang Ya’en’s home, attempting to express his unresolved feelings for Ye Meng and even tried to carry Fang Ya'en home.
Fang Ya’en sternly rebuked him for his drunken behavior in front of her son, Jiayu, telling him to stop being petty about Li Jinyu. Just as Cheng Kairan was leaving, Ye Meng and Li Jinyu arrived together. Seeing their close proximity, Cheng Kairan displayed obvious displeasure and criticized Li Jinyu as a man with "no money, no power, and no status."
Ye Meng, seizing the opportunity, declared her choice, stating that she chose Li Jinyu, even if he fit Cheng Kairan's description, simply because she liked him. She emphasized that she was finally clarifying their relationship because Li Jinyu had been pushing her away out of fear of offending Cheng Kairan. Cheng Kairan, faced with this direct confrontation, had no choice but to accept the truth.
After he departed, Ye Meng turned to Li Jinyu, seriously telling him he wasn't merely a "shield," and that if he were to be harmed because of her, she would "marry him." Later, as they scrolled through each other's WeChat Moments, Li Jinyu's feed was dominated by liquor advertisements with very few personal posts.
A flashback revealed the circumstances of his bar job: during his interview, Cheng Kairan, who was initially disinclined to hire him, changed his mind, impressed by Li Jinyu's good looks and his potential to attract female customers. Cheng Kairan then gave him a strict quota—he had to add ten new WeChat contacts daily and post regular liquor promotions on his Moments to meet sales targets.
