My Calorie Boy Episode 8 Recap
> My Calorie Boy Recap
Xu Jingjing invited Gao Zhan to tutor her cousin in Taekwondo, but upon their meeting, she claimed her cousin had a last-minute school event. She then asked Gao Zhan to teach her instead, showing him questions on her phone which he identified as being about Judo, not Taekwondo. Though he was hesitant to teach without her cousin present, he agreed to show her a few things after she insisted, revealing her real motive was to spend time alone with him.
Just as Gao Zhan was demonstrating a hip throw to break a waist lock on Xu Jingjing, their friends Kang Jiawei and Xu Jingjing arrived, determined to interrupt the potential date. Having overheard that a confession might happen, Kang Jiawei, regretting his prior advice to Xu Jingjing to keep her crush a secret, quickly suggested a group outing to the Tom's World arcade, an idea Xu Jingjing eagerly supported.
At the arcade, after Xu Jingjing asked Gao Zhan for basketball pointers, Xu Jingjing interrupted by asking Gao Zhan to open a supposedly faulty water bottle for her. When Xu Jingjing later mentioned having a two-person dinner reservation, Kang Jiawei and Xu Jingjing immediately proposed going to a hotpot restaurant as a group of four, successfully foiling her plan. At the hotpot restaurant, Kang Jiawei and Xu Jingjing continued to prevent the other two from being alone.
Kang Jiawei impressed Xu Jingjing by expertly explaining condiment pairings for different meats, and she asked him to prepare a special sauce for her. While trying to be helpful, Xu Jingjing attempted to squeeze shrimp paste into the pot but accidentally squirted it on her face, dislodging her wig in a moment of public humiliation. She privately blamed her friend, Lu Xiaobai, for making her wear it.
Later, Kang Jiawei and Xu Jingjing reflected on their failed and "despicable, pitiful, and comical" mission. Afterward, Xu Jingjing asked Gao Zhan about his academic plans, expressing her hope to attend the same university as him. However, Gao Zhan, oblivious to her romantic intent, pointed out that she would likely attend a dance academy and that he couldn't dance.
Later, while Kang Jiawei and Xu Jingjing speculated that Gao Zhan had rejected Xu Jingjing, Kang Jiawei received a message from his online friend, "Mayonnaise," asking to meet. They celebrated, assuming this confirmed the rejection. The next day, Kang Jiawei went to the meeting spot only to find Gao Zhan waiting. Horrified to realize his online confidant was Gao Zhan, he fled.
He later explained to a greatly amused Xu Jingjing that his long-term observations—that Gao Zhan loved American shows like "Stranger Things" and "Friends"—all pointed to him being "Mayonnaise." Kang Jiawei then spent days avoiding Gao Zhan, but was unable to escape being paired with him for sit-ups during PE class. Meanwhile, Xu Jingjing confided in a friend, feeling her "vague" approach and Gao Zhan's "straight-laced" nature meant he only saw her as a classmate.
At home, Xu Jingjing's mother found a video on her phone of their homeroom teacher, Miss Chen, speaking to the class about cherishing "seventeen-year-old crushes." Taking the video out of context, she led a group of parents to the school to complain. Gao Zhan's mother defended Miss Chen, arguing that the teacher's full message—to channel those feelings into self-improvement—was valuable. However, other parents remained unconvinced and demanded an explanation from Miss Chen.
Upon hearing the news, Xu Jingjing, Kang Jiawei, and Xu Jingjing rushed to the office, where Principal Shen had also arrived. Xu Jingjing's mother confronted Miss Chen, who was defended by Xu Jingjing, explaining her teacher’s intent was to foster a love of learning. Kang Jiawei also spoke up, accusing the parents of being overbearing. When a school director tried to apologize for Miss Chen's inexperience, she refused, insisting she had done nothing wrong.
Xu Jingjing's mother then accused her of encouraging early dating. Overwhelmed, Xu Jingjing tearfully begged her mother to stop, offering to take any punishment herself. Her mother then pointed to Class 3's consistent bottom-ranking exam performance as proof of Miss Chen's incompetence. Principal Shen intervened, proposing a challenge: if Class 3 could rank in the top three for the entire grade on the upcoming midterm exam, Miss Chen could remain their teacher.
Miss Chen accepted the challenge, and her students, though initially daunted, rallied behind her, determined to succeed. Miss Chen later expressed her self-doubt to a colleague, Mr. Zhao, who reassured her that her methods would unlock the students' potential. In class, Gao Zhan strategized that their success depended on raising the scores of the entire class, not just the top students. He and Kang Jiawei volunteered to lead tutoring sessions, with Miss Chen handling Chinese.
Xu Jingjing offered her family's milk tea shop as a free study venue. The plan was met with some resentment, as one classmate, Ni Dapeng, blamed Xu Jingjing’s mother for creating the situation. At home, Xu Jingjing confronted her mother for invading her privacy and harassing her teacher, declaring she wouldn't speak to her until she relented.
Her mother was dismissive and became controlling, revealing that her own dream of attending a dance academy was ruined by an injury and implying that Xu Jingjing was a vessel for her unfulfilled ambitions. The students gathered at Xu Jingjing's milk tea shop, where her mother provided free drinks. Kang Jiawei proved to be an excellent tutor, devising clever mnemonic devices to help Xu Jingjing, whose grades began to improve.
As they studied, Kang Jiawei received a message from his online friend and grew visibly nervous. Later, while talking to her mother, Xu Jingjing expressed sympathy for Miss Chen and noted her mother's unusual use of perfume, comparing it to her own changing interests. Her mother, however, deflected the observation.
