Irreplaceable Episode 10 Recap
**SPOILER ALERT**
Table of Contents
TL;DR (Quick Overview)
Ye Xinzhi admits to a friend that he has fallen for someone, while Xu Chi tries to move on by agreeing to date Yang Rui. Bu Tianna discovers her father secretly had her proposal rejected to push her back into the family business, and after she collapses from overwork, she and Xu Chi bare their hearts, with Xu Chi finally admitting she loves Ye Xinzhi. Zhao Heng wins Bu Tianna over in a ridiculous mascot costume, Ye Xinzhi sends Xu Chi a postcard of her mother’s old home, and Yang Rui’s reckless IT proposal leaves Xu Chi banned from Celestial’s IT department.
A Quiet Confession
Still shaken after running into Xu Chi, Ye Xinzhi takes a call from a former classmate who offers to send him a report on Bangladesh’s petrochemical industry. She calls him by his old nickname, Xiaoyezi, and when he answers with a loud “here,” she laughs that it feels like she’s back in school taking roll as study committee member.
Then she notices how muffled he sounds and hears him fidgeting with his periodic table collection. Ever since his father died, he has been collecting the elements, saying that having lost his dad, owning them all made him feel like he owned the world. He only fiddles with them when something is really wrong.
Ye Xinzhi finally admits he has fallen for someone, but it was over before it began. He says he has come to terms with it. Like peering into the giant eye of a deep-sea blue hole, all the beauty was just an illusion. His friend takes the news quietly, hiding how it affects her.
Yang Rui Makes His Move
Xu Chi can’t focus either, wondering whether Ye Xinzhi is working or just as distracted as she is. She decides she has to do something. Yang Rui texts to check she got home safely, then calls. He tells her he likes her. He knows she takes time to warm up, so he held back, but when she pulled her hand away earlier, it really hurt.
He asks if there’s nothing about him that attracts her. She says that isn’t it, he’s great. He asks her to give it a try, and she can call it off anytime. After a long silence, Xu Chi agrees. Delighted, he says that tomorrow when he holds her hand, she can’t pull away. She tells him they’ll talk about tomorrow when it comes, admits she’s a bit confused, and says good night.
The next morning, Ye Xinzhi sends her materials on executing her proposal, reminding her to organise the documents and confirm timelines that week. His tone is completely businesslike, and Xu Chi tells herself he’s totally fine and she should stop overthinking. She replies with a short note saying it’s well noted.
Plan B Wins
Ma Ke gathers the team to announce that Celestial Insurance has officially adopted Plan B. The office breaks into Maxmise’s signature celebration, reserved for big wins, and Ma Ke says Xu Chi deserves the most credit.
She modestly says she only threw out a rough idea and still has much to learn as they refine it, but a colleague tells her she’s an SBA now and can’t pretend to be a rookie. Bu Tianna, though disappointed her own proposal was passed over, cheers for her.
Detective Zhao Heng
Zhao Heng offers Xu Chi a lift to Celestial’s branch and asks why her new boyfriend isn’t driving her. She says Yang Rui is going to headquarters. When he pounces on her calling Yang Rui her boyfriend, she tells him to just ask about Bu Tianna if that’s what he wants. He admits he saw Bu Tianna staring at her desk for ages after the meeting and wonders if she got scolded.
Xu Chi says no. Ma Ke is too smooth for that. Whether he wrongs someone or gets wronged, he acts as though nothing happened. He comforted Bu Tianna, gave her the same workload as Xu Chi and made a show of his high regard for her. Zhao Heng is relieved, then realises the rumour must be true: Ma Ke did steal Xu Chi’s proposal.
Is she just going to finish the project under him politely? Xu Chi says you can’t go through life without taking a few hits. She got bitten, so she showed a little fang to make sure he won’t try it again. Mission accomplished. Zhao Heng says something is off. She has someone she likes and just won a project, yet she doesn’t seem excited at all.
When he chases Bu Tianna, he worries about her every second and cares about the tiniest details. Xu Chi, on the other hand, is completely calm whenever Yang Rui comes up, and despite Zhao Heng being close to him, she never asks about his likes or habits.
Doing his best detective impression, he declares there’s only one truth: she doesn’t like him that much. Xu Chi says they’re just giving it a shot and might grow on each other. Zhao Heng replies that love is a spark, not something you force to fit.
Xu Chi fires back that if he’s so clear headed, why is he still barking up the wrong tree with Bu Tianna? He insists she isn’t a wrong tree but a prized orchid. When Xu Chi threatens to record that and send it to her, he quickly backtracks, then jokes that maybe he and Xu Chi should get together instead.
They come from the same background, have the same goals, are both good looking and capable, and he has a car while she’s buying an apartment. Xu Chi tells him he’s like a werewolf and Bu Tianna is his full moon. The moment she’s mentioned, he transforms and starts talking nonsense.
Bu Tianna’s Family Secret
Bu Tianna goes home to stay and is startled when the housekeeper walks into her room uninvited to fetch a toy for her little brother, Xiaojie. She reminds the housekeeper never to enter without permission, then asks her mother why his toys are in her room when they have so many others.
Her mother says the room gets the best sunlight, so Xiaojie plays there sometimes. Bu Tianna asks if that means she won’t even have a room once she’s married. Her mother tells her she’s overthinking. When Bu Tianna was little, she took over her father’s desk for homework and nobody minded.
She had Xiaojie so Bu Tianna would have another family member, not an enemy. To smooth things over, she mentions her father has been looking at a villa in Sanya with an ocean facing round room for Bu Tianna and her future husband.
That night, Bu Tianna’s father comes home and she rushes to grab him a slice of cake she bought for him. When she gets to their room, she overhears her parents talking. Her mother says the guilt trip worked, and she’ll drop another hint at breakfast about staying up rubbing her father’s back so their daughter feels bad and comes home more often.
Her father tells her mother to mention how many favours he called in for Bu Tianna’s insurance project. Their daughter is too naive to realise people only handed over such important internal research data because of his connections. When her mother asks why, if he helped her, he also had someone tell Mr. Zheng at Celestial to reject her proposal, he says Bu Tianna went into consulting without his permission and got too full of herself after Ande Energy.
A few setbacks at work and plenty of warmth at home, and she’ll soon burn out at Maxmise and come back to the family company. Her mother asks how he can use business tactics on his own daughter, but he insists it’s for her own good. Bu Tianna listens in tears and disbelief.
Running on Empty
Bu Tianna throws herself into work at Celestial, refusing to leave the actuarial department’s conference room for two days and barely touching the food brought to her. Meanwhile, Yang Rui brings Xu Chi homemade rice balls and suggests they plan something for the half day off they’ll get while Celestial holds a company team building weekend.
Then word spreads that a girl from the consulting firm has passed out. Xu Chi rushes over to find Bu Tianna has fainted from low blood sugar. She gives her juice, and Bu Tianna weakly asks how Xu Chi always happens to have juice whenever she collapses. Bu Tianna insists she can still work, but she’s sent home to rest, and Xu Chi is asked to take her.
Never the One Chosen
At Bu Tianna’s apartment, Xu Chi tells her there’s no need to put on a brave face, since she was breaking out in a cold sweat in the car. Bu Tianna asks if Xu Chi is happy to see her so pathetic. Xu Chi asks if Bu Tianna would be happy to see her down and out, and she admits maybe. Xu Chi says Bu Tianna wouldn’t push herself this hard just for work, so is it her family again? It’s not like she just found out they favour boys.
Bu Tianna says they don’t just favour boys. They team up to deceive her. Does Xu Chi really think her proposal was that good? It wasn’t. Bu Tianna’s father had Mr. Zheng reject her proposal, which is how Xu Chi got her chance. They want her back at Siwei Group early to watch over the business for Xiaojie until he’s old enough to take over, at least twenty years from now.
She chose consulting because it’s the fastest way to grow. If she becomes a partner at a top firm by thirty-five, nobody can question her ability to be the successor. But they won’t even give her that chance. They’re gaslighting her into becoming her brother’s stepping stone.
She mockingly repeats their plans: start her at the bottom of finance so she can never pivot, and if needed, trap her with a general manager title while keeping a CEO and chairman above her. Her mother already has her father taking her little brother to observe sales. Bu Tianna tells Xu Chi not to comfort her with flimsy words. She has no idea how painful it is to never be the one chosen.
Xu Chi says she does know. That’s why she let Ye Xinzhi go.
Xu Chi Opens Up
Bu Tianna immediately tries to storm off to C&C to deal with the scumbag. Xu Chi stops her, saying he didn’t do anything to her. Bu Tianna insists she knows these polished players inside out, since two of her college roommates were wrecked by men like that. Xu Chi explains nothing happened between them.
She just didn’t want to keep playing an ambiguous game, so she told him she had a boyfriend. Bu Tianna gets so worked up she feels dizzy again, and Xu Chi hands her more juice. Xu Chi admits it took her a long time to realise she likes Ye Xinzhi. Bu Tianna reminds her she warned her long ago that posers like that are pros at flirting.
Xu Chi points out she’s the one who’s upset, yet she’s stuck on the floor while Bu Tianna drinks her wine, eats her chips and lies on her couch, so could she just listen? She explains that at her current level, she feels she isn’t good enough for him and can’t control her feelings. He told her he has feelings for her, but not romantic ones.
She thought drawing a line would let her suppress her feelings and be content as an admirer, but every time she sees him with other women, she feels jealous and disappointed. Bu Tianna wants to go and beat him up all over again. When Xu Chi says she never knew Bu Tianna was such a hothead, Bu Tianna admits her parents are even worse, but she still loves them, so she takes it out on other people. Xu Chi tells her she still has her.
Bu Tianna then demands to know why Xu Chi never told her Ma Ke bullied her. Xu Chi reminds her she came over declaring war and swearing to hold nothing back, so why does she flip flop so much? They laugh and raise a toast. Xu Chi confides that she was torn that day, but when she saw how down Ye Xinzhi looked, she knew he’d seen her with Yang Rui, and for some crazy reason she said yes to Yang Rui.
She doesn’t regret it, because Yang Rui is a great guy and Ye Xinzhi has so many admirers. She wants to move on first and find her own happiness, so he will remember her and realise what he lost. Bu Tianna cheers her on.
Then Xu Chi grows serious. She has been hurting these past few days, a bitter, twisting pain that keeps her awake. That’s why she sympathises with Zhao Heng. He likes Bu Tianna the way she likes Ye Xinzhi. Maybe his reasons for getting close weren’t entirely pure, but his feelings are real. When Bu Tianna asks how she knows, Xu Chi says that at their core, she and Zhao Heng are the same kind of person.
Uncle Buka
Zhao Heng calls Bu Tianna in a panic, asking where she is and whether she’s okay, and demands to speak to Xu Chi, who has left by now. Bu Tianna says she’s home and fine. Relieved, he admits he’s at a construction site and ran down seventeen floors with no lift because there’s no signal or power up there.
Bu Tianna accuses him of guilt tripping her for sympathy, but he says if she still has the energy to snap at him, she’s fine. He admits he panicked and was about to drive over, then realised he only knew her building, not her unit, and security wouldn’t let him in anyway. He calls himself an idiot.
As the call lags, Bu Tianna tells him she wants ice cream. As a child, she loved fast food ice cream because it was sweet and there were lots of kids around, but her parents called it junk food and banned it. The more they forbade it, the more she wanted it. She tells him she’s in Unit 1902.
Soon there’s a knock, and in walks Zhao Heng in a mascot costume, introducing himself as her Uncle Buka, here to bring her joy and happiness. Bu Tianna laughs at how ugly the character is and asks what cartoon it’s from.
He admits he didn’t watch much TV as a kid, and when he went to borrow a costume, all the ones he knew were taken or had a wait, and he couldn’t wait a single minute. From now on, Uncle Buka will be her personal magic elf.
Overcome with gratitude but not wanting to show him, Bu Tianna hits him, accusing him of trying to win her over with such a cheap trick, since men are all the same. He warns that if she keeps it up, Uncle Buka might turn into the Big Bad Wolf. She dares him, and they end up in a warm embrace before he produces her ice cream and promises Uncle Buka will always be with her.
Not Friends, Not Enemies
The next day, Xu Chi teases Bu Tianna for letting Zhao Heng in. Bu Tianna accuses her of tipping him off and insists things aren’t what Xu Chi thinks. When Xu Chi points out that she let him in, hugged him and cried, Bu Tianna declares she’s all physical, no feelings, because she’s Bu Tianna.
Xu Chi calls her a cold-hearted player and asks if she isn’t afraid of falling for it one day. Bu Tianna says the same goes for her, and adds that even though the team used Xu Chi’s proposal, Xu Chi didn’t really beat her. Xu Chi wishes her good health, and Bu Tianna wishes her every happiness in love. Yang Rui jokes about their face-to-face showdown, saying his team’s fights are always far more civilised.
A Postcard and a Disaster
Before a meeting at Celestial, Yang Rui tells Xu Chi to listen more and talk less. A package arrives for her. Inside is an old postcard of her mother’s apartment building with a note from Ye Xinzhi saying he came across it by chance and is returning the best times to her.
In the meeting with IT director Mr. Sun, Yang Rui proposes a microservices architecture, modelled on Ansheng, the Netherlands’ largest insurer, to replace Celestial’s existing SOA system. Mr. Sun is furious that he already told them Celestial uses SOA and asks what makes microservices better.
Xu Chi tries to soften it, acknowledging microservices are a more decentralised form of SOA, but Yang Rui presses on, insisting the change must happen and asking whether three or four months would work. Mr. Sun explodes. Microservices are lightweight and common in internet companies, while SOA is built for large enterprises. The Netherlands has a tiny population, while Celestial has hundreds of millions of customers.
Switching in three months would be like asking him to fly to the moon. He tells Xu Chi that he was moved by her presentation and thought she got things done, but now he’s reminded of the saying that someone seems impressive until they talk about your field. He bans her from the IT department.
Outside, Yang Rui says she’s probably just never seen someone blow a fuse before. Xu Chi asks how he could decide to replace the entire system without discussing it with her. He says he’s the team lead, the plan is his call, and using precedent cases is standard Maxmise practice.
Xu Chi says she isn’t questioning him, but if they had talked first, Mr. Sun wouldn’t have reacted so badly. She suggests revising the plan so Celestial doesn’t have to replace its whole architecture. Yang Rui refuses. The plan is solid, and if they give Mr. Sun the cold shoulder for a few days, he’ll come around.
Ma Ke then calls Yang Rui, who reports that Mr. Sun’s reaction to Xu Chi was so strong there must be more to the story. Ma Ke will look into it, and the work is on hold. Yang Rui assigns Xu Chi the requirements for the sales side app while he gathers feedback on the IT department from other teams and finds a way to pressure Mr. Sun.
Irreplaceable Episode 10 Recap: My Thoughts
This whole episode was pretty much dedicated to love, or the lack of it.
We finally get vocal confirmation that both leads have fallen for each other. I wonder whether, from Ye Xinzhi’s point of view, he truly had no feelings for her when she first asked and only developed them later. Du called it before he did. But he’s a divorcee, and I think he just wasn’t ready to go through all that again.
As for Xu Chi, she recognised he was jealous when he saw Yang Rui drop her off and made that dig about love making work easier. But if she recognised that, I’m still not 100% sure why she agreed to date Yang Rui to try and forget him.
She has asked twice now whether he really has no romantic feelings for her, which shows she’s more in tune with their chemistry than he is. Or perhaps she doesn’t think she’s good enough for him professionally. What a mess!
Bu Tianna’s storyline took such a dark turn. Learning that her own father had Mr. Zheng reject her proposal, all to wear her down and pull her back to play second fiddle to her brother, made me furious on her behalf.
Her toxic, manipulative family is such a realistic picture of the invisible ceilings many women face because of family bias. Her drive to make partner by thirty-five is all about proving she’s worthy of being the successor, and they won’t even give her the chance.
I loved seeing Xu Chi and Bu Tianna’s rivalry melt away in the face of genuine vulnerability. It’s so refreshing to see two women comforting and protecting each other from the harsh realities around them rather than tearing each other down.
And Zhao Heng and Bu Tianna… I’m loving this second CP! Love happens in the most unlikely ways. Someone with her personality can only be handled by someone as patient and loving as Zhao Heng. Despite being treated terribly, he just can’t help falling for her, and he’s everything she needs when even her own family won’t love her the way she wants.
It takes a strong man to put up with someone like her! I love that when she was upset, he did exactly the thing that would make her feel loved. He hit the nail on the head. She feels love through actions, not words.
Oh, and that postcard was such a nice touch. Come on, Ye Xinzhi, time to step up!
We’re halfway through the drama, and it has gone by in a flash! Everything about this show is fantastic, and I’m loving the maturity of it all. Just two very normal people doing their best to navigate their world, with the romantic pull kept tight and full of longing without rushing into anything unrealistic.
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