Summit of Our Youth Episode 1 Recap
> Summit of Our Youth Recap
Gu Xuejiao, who had always dreamed of excelling academically and attending Capital University, found her aspirations challenged as her grades consistently fell short, leading to disappointment. Even in her professional life, it took her five years to secure a full-time position in the core tech department, a role many fresh graduates entered directly.
On September 5, 2024, her 28th birthday and the day she was set to sign her full-time contract for the core tech department, her excitement, having just resigned from her previous position to take this new role, turned to dismay when she was informed that her submitted program contained a critical bug.
Despite the general manager, Lin Zhihua, offering to re-submit her for a full-time position in her original department, Gu Xuejiao, in a fit of pique, refused and immediately quit, regretting later that she hadn't negotiated her severance first. As she prepared to leave the office, her ex-boyfriend, Yi Tianyu, approached, pleading for reconciliation. He claimed he hadn't played games for two weeks for her.
Gu Xuejiao, however, recalled how she had once changed her college application and rejected two overseas promotion offers for him, recognizing that she had been the only one sacrificing in their relationship. She inwardly chastised herself for being "blinded by love," a path that led to being "broke by choice and die young." Soon after, at the stairwell, she overheard a conversation between an HR manager and Zhou Shiyun.
The HR manager was thanking Lin Zhihua for walking him out, revealing that he had to remove a contractor to make room for Zhou Shiyun in the tech department, and confirming that a critical bug had been intentionally planted in Gu Xuejiao's program, an order that came directly from Lin Zhihua. Enraged, Gu Xuejiao resolved to confront Lin Zhihua. She followed Lin Zhihua into the elevator.
With just the two of them inside, she demanded to know why he had sabotaged her. Lin Zhihua, in turn, criticized her, stating he didn't hire her because she lacked priorities and cracked under pressure, traits he believed would make her a liability in the tech department. She shot back, accusing him of planting the bug solely to get his "precious Zhou Shiyun" hired. Before their argument could escalate further, the elevator malfunctioned, plummeting erratically.
As she hit the alarm button, Gu Xuejiao wished she could go back ten years and "slap herself." She awoke to find herself in a high school classroom. Yi Tianyu was sleeping at the desk opposite hers. The setting, Jinghai No.7 High School in 2014, with "Senior Year" on a blackboard, felt incredibly real. To confirm she wasn't dreaming, she pinched Yi Tianyu, and they both felt the pain.
She realized she had indeed traveled back to her regret-filled eighteen-year-old self. Determined not to repeat her past mistakes, she scribbled a note for Yi Tianyu, submitted her exam early, and ran out. Later, Yi Tianyu met her at the pedestrian bridge, confirming her note and her presence. Her first thought was to get rich by remembering lottery numbers. However, at the lottery station, she couldn't recall the winning numbers for that day.
She then remembered it was September 5th, her 18th birthday, a day that coincided with a crucial turning point for her father's job. A news report on a nearby TV announced that Yano, a famous button-phone brand, had declared bankruptcy, causing massive cancellations for its largest component supplier, the South District Component Factory, which had now ceased paying salaries.
Realizing this was the event that sent her family's finances spiraling for the next decade, she vowed to stop her father from signing a detrimental contract he had chosen over severance. Returning home, she found her father looking younger, having just signed the "Intention Form" to stay with the factory. She tried to convince him to reconsider, arguing that everyone was switching to smartphones.
Her father, holding up an old phone he won for her tenth birthday, explained that some things, like people, could stand the test of time. He also told her that Mr. Sun from the canteen had made her a large birthday cake. That night, after her parents were asleep, Gu Xuejiao secretly took the contract and modified it. Her brother, Gu Mingze, attempted to sneak out to play the beta version of "Roller Blast" at an internet cafe.
Gu Xuejiao intercepted him, locked the door, and hid the key in her sock, determined to prevent him from leaving. The next morning, Gu Xuejiao found herself asleep on the living room sofa, having apparently failed to keep Gu Mingze contained, as he was now at an internet cafe. Her parents, unaware of Gu Mingze's whereabouts and believing he had gone to buy breakfast, hurried off to work.
Before leaving, her dad informed Gu Xuejiao that Mr. Gao, a Capital University student, was coming to tutor Gu Mingze and insisted she join the lessons, hoping both siblings would get into Capital University. Inspired by this, Gu Xuejiao resolved to achieve her academic dreams. She cleared her desk of cosmetics and magazines, replacing them with motivational maxims, vowing to focus solely on her studies. Later that morning, the tutor who arrived was none other than Lin Zhihua.
He explained that Mr. Gao had a family emergency and he was covering all his tutoring gigs. Gu Xuejiao, still resentful, tried to provoke him, questioning his teaching abilities and demanding his resume and diploma, noting he was just "barely twenty." Lin Zhihua calmly stated he was a direct-entry Ph. D. student who hadn't graduated yet, thus lacking a diploma.
Seeing her uncooperative demeanor, he simply turned and left, ignoring her pleas to stay and tutor her, reiterating that his student was Gu Mingze and Gao Rui would return. Back at school, Zhou Shiyun feigned sadness about not being in the same class as Gu Xuejiao, claiming she would miss her. Gu Xuejiao dismissed her insincerity, pointedly stating, "who'd fall into the same trap twice?" and declared her world was now solely focused on studying.
She also directly confronted Chen Xiao, a known school bully, telling her that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend." Gu Xuejiao and Sun Tiantian, a daughter of her father's co-worker, were assigned seats together in Class Eight.
In class, Sun Tiantian, holding a small photo of Lin Zhihua, explained he was known as the "Class 7 Study God," who went from being a failing student to a top scorer in just one year, eventually getting into Capital University despite a fierce competition with Tsinghua University. Sun Tiantian claimed she had prayed to his photo for three days before a math exam and scored above 80 for the first time.
Gu Xuejiao scoffed at the idea of a "study god," attributing Sun Tiantian's success to mere luck. After school, Gu Xuejiao found Lin Zhihua working part-time at a coffee shop. She approached him, apologizing for her previous behavior and earnestly asking him to tutor her, even offering to buy him a sugar-free cappuccino. Lin Zhihua remained indifferent, simply pointing to the menu or the door when she wasn't ordering.
As he left, Gu Xuejiao followed him on her bicycle, persistently trying to convince him, explaining their shared goal of getting into Capital University and her desire to replicate his "comeback legend" from flunking to becoming a top scorer. Lin Zhihua, however, claimed there was "no legend," and that he merely "managed his scores," achieving top results whenever he desired. He sped away on his bicycle, exasperated by her persistence.
Later, Zhou Shiyun, having secretly gone to an arcade, met Gu Mingze on her way home. She had taught him a "claw machine hack" and slyly revealed that Gu Xuejiao had scored dead last in her recent monthly exam, even lower than Yi Tianyu. Gu Mingze, returning home, used this information to tease Gu Xuejiao, demanding snacks in exchange for not telling their parents. Their argument escalated into a playful tussle over the snacks, attracting their mother's attention, who emerged to ask about the commotion.
