First Love Again Episode 22 Recap
> First Love Again Recap
Ye Youning, determined to finally change Xia Wenxi's fate, had returned to the past, resolved to have no interaction with her. Before this attempt, he had even written down many unfortunate events Xia Wenxi would encounter. He observed from a distance as she struggled in chemistry class with an experiment, narrowly avoiding an incident that could have caused a fire. Though he wanted to intervene, he restrained himself.
Despite his efforts, other classmates, still calling Xia Wenxi a jinx, ridiculed her after the near-miss, and the teacher sent her to the back of the class. Later, as Xia Wenxi hurried down a corridor, she tripped and fell, hurting her tailbone. Lin Jiaqi and Chen Tingting rushed to her aid, carrying her to the infirmary while she cried out in pain. Lin Jiaqi even promised to push her in a wheelchair for life if she became disabled.
From afar, Ye Youning watched, agonizing over her suffering. He acknowledged that while he had avoided direct interaction, he could not simply stand by and watch her get hurt. Upon returning to the future, Ye Youning discovered that this attempt had still failed to change Xia Wenxi's destiny. Upon returning to the future, Ye Youning faced the consequences of a failed modification, which the system designated as the "second modification failure." This time, the price was his company.
His secretary, Siyong, arrived to inform him of the business's failure. Siyong also took this opportunity to confess her long-held feelings for Ye Youning, admitting that she had always found happiness just being by his side, but now she had an overwhelming intuition that they could never be together. Ye Youning apologized for neglecting her feelings, but Siyong reassured him that it was her own choice to leave.
She wished him well and left, planning to build a new, simpler life for herself, mentioning her parents had left her a house in her hometown. With another chance granted, Ye Youning returned to 2006. He secretly entered the school before classes began, tampering with the clock to set it back, ensuring Xia Wenxi would not be late. On the morning of Xia Wenxi's eighteenth birthday, he left a poem on her desk as a subtle gift.
Later that day, during chemistry class, Xia Wenxi successfully performed the experiment, a clear sign of his indirect intervention. He then deliberately chose a different route after school to avoid encountering Xia Wenxi on her way home. His plan appeared to be working, as Xia Wenxi's parents and friends surprised her with a birthday celebration, which Ye Youning, in the form of his younger self (Ningning), watched from his home next door.
He felt relieved, believing he had successfully altered her destiny and that if he could just make it to the next thunderstorm, he would be able to return to his own time, his mission accomplished. The following day, a challenge letter from Class 8 was presented to Mr. Wang, proposing a basketball match.
Mr. Wang, prioritizing upcoming exams, decided to put a difficult math problem on the blackboard, promising to accept the challenge only if a student could solve it by the next morning. Ye Youning secretly solved the problem and gave the solution to Mr. Wang, asking him not to reveal his name, stating he was too shy. Mr. Wang agreed, announcing to the class that an anonymous, shy student had solved the problem.
The class erupted in cheers, demanding the challenge be accepted. While Mr. Wang kept his promise not to name the student, the classmates, through deduction and comparison of handwriting by Chen Tingting (who secretly took his math homework), quickly suspected Ye Youning. Lin Jiaqi and others planned to invite him to the basketball team, but Xia Wenxi volunteered to approach him alone. She slipped a note to Ye Youning, asking him to meet her on the rooftop.
However, when Ye Youning went to the agreed spot, he found not just Xia Wenxi, but her entire group of friends waiting for him. They collectively thanked him for solving the math problem. Xia Wenxi then directly asked him how he knew her birthday and if he was the one who sent her the poem. She added that she felt he understood her from the first time they met and wondered if they had met before.
Unable to provide an explanation, Ye Youning realized his efforts were futile once more, as he had once again interacted with her in a significant way, leading him to leave abruptly. Upon returning to the future, Ye Youning understood that this third modification had also failed, concluding that leaving the "draft" (the calculation paper) had been his mistake.
He paid the price again to return to the past, but this attempt, referred to as the "fourth experiment," also failed when he caught Zhao Bin's basketball from Class 8. This continuous cycle of attempts and failures led to a gradual depletion of his assets, as he repeatedly paid the price to return to the past. He undertook a total of thirty-nine experiments, each one ultimately failing.
He realized the core problem: every time he returned to the future through a collision, his younger self in the past would suffer injuries and memory loss, inevitably leading to a new form of interaction with Xia Wenxi. He concluded that modifying the past was futile under these conditions. The only solution, he determined, was to destroy the time machine before its creation, thus severing all ties between him and Xia Wenxi and restoring the original timeline.
To do this, he needed a different method of time travel, one that didn't involve the destructive impact that caused his younger self to suffer and interact with Xia Wenxi. Ye Youning began to research historical locations rumored to have time travelers, realizing these sites were geographically disparate. He even consulted a professor via phone, who dismissed his "superstitious" research, but Ye Youning insisted he was seeking an understanding beyond modern physics, all for a girl.
While researching coordinates, his old push-button phone automatically initiated a factory reset. Fearing the loss of his research data, he quickly removed the battery. When he reinserted it, the phone powered on but required a password, with a prompt: "the most important day in your life." After several unsuccessful attempts, including his own birthday, Xia Wenxi's birthday, and the date of their first text message, he recalled the day the results of the 2006 Jiangcheng second mock exam were released.
Calculating a two-day delay for grading from the exam dates (April 18-19), he arrived at April 21. Entering "0421", the phone unlocked, revealing his records intact. This breakthrough led him to a profound realization: time travel required considering not only spatial coordinates but also the temporal dimension. Using this new insight, Ye Youning recalculated the coordinates, pinpointing a location in Jiangcheng.
He traveled there and found himself in what appeared to be an abandoned area, not the modern CBD he expected. Following the coordinates, he discovered a mysterious mask. Donning the mask, he was instantly transported through time and space, finding himself in a swirling void where he encountered the legendary Priest. The Priest, observing Ye Youning, acknowledged his journey and asked if he now understood the message the Priest wanted to convey to the world.
Ye Youning, intent on his mission, declared his sole desire was to destroy the time machine and restore the world to its original state. The Priest then posed a final, pivotal question: given another chance, would Ye Youning still choose to modify space and time?
As the question hung in the air, Xia Wenxi's voice echoed through the void, pleading for his help, followed by a somber pronouncement from an unseen voice that they were parallel lines, never meant to love, and that Ye Youning alone must bear the consequences of his temporal interference.
