Irreplaceable Episode 9 Recap
**SPOILER ALERT**
Table of Contents
TL;DR (Quick Overview)
Ma Ke passes off Xu Chi’s value tree as his own in front of Mr. Pi, but after a nosebleed, a good cry and some insider tips from an ex Celestial salesman turned real estate agent, she discovers why Celestial’s staff keep rejecting every proposal. She shadows the sales team, gathers proof of Ma Ke’s theft, and stakes her job on presenting her own plan directly to the client, winning them over. Meanwhile, she learns Unit 201 has been sold, and Ye Xinzhi, pushed by Du and stung by seeing her out with Yang Rui, finally can’t hide his jealousy.
Credit Stolen in Plain Sight
Mr. Pi presses Xu Chi on her numbers. Celestial Insurance earns nearly 100 billion yuan in annual premiums, so even a dozen or two pet insurance scenarios would barely make a dent. When she admits she hasn’t gathered enough material, he asks why she told Ma Ke she was so confident.
The project has dragged on too long, and after the client rejected the first version, they can’t phone in the second. Her slides are purely descriptive, with no hard data and no holistic view from the client’s side. That isn’t Maxmise’s standard. Xu Chi asks to explain, but Mr. Pi says he doesn’t want to waste everyone’s time and turns to Ma Ke.
Ma Ke presents a value tree built on the key value drivers of Celestial’s existing business, focused on using AI to optimise current processes. Xu Chi recognises every slide as the proposal she showed him the night before, the one he dismissed as far too complicated. She starts to rise, but Yang Rui holds her back. Mr. Pi praises Ma Ke for a great job.
Wrapping up, Ma Ke shares a story Mr. Pi once told him. A man in a shirt and tie approaches a herder on the grassland and offers him a premium service, announcing that he has counted the herder’s 548 sheep using satellites, and takes one sheep as his fee. The herder asks if he’s a consultant.
Puzzled, the man asks how he knew. First, he turned up uninvited. Second, he told the herder something he already knew. Third, that isn’t a sheep he’s holding, it’s the herder’s dog. Ma Ke says this is how ordinary people see consultants, as smooth talkers, and warns everyone not to become the man in the story.
The Truth About Ma Ke
Yang Rui brings Xu Chi a hot chocolate and tells her it happens. It has happened to him too. Ma Ke used to be good at his job, but with more going on at home these last few years, his focus has slipped and he often takes credit for his team’s work. He stays at the company because he’s great at networking, and most of Celestial’s projects came from him drinking with clients.
With the project going badly and Mr. Pi likely back early, he probably passed off her proposal as his own. When Xu Chi asks if nobody ever pushed back, Yang Rui says those who did were quickly pushed out. He has been with Ma Ke since he joined, and while Ma Ke isn’t a good person, he gives generous bonuses.
He wouldn’t dare touch Bu Tianna, so he targeted Xu Chi, humiliating her publicly and then taking her idea to Mr. Pi while she was still reeling. Most people would just swallow it. Xu Chi says she doesn’t want to be one of the silent majority. Yang Rui apologises for not warning her sooner, but reminds her that you bend or you break.
With Lin Long on leave, who does she think the company will side with if she goes to war with her direct supervisor? Knowing Ma Ke, he left no evidence. Xu Chi realises he’s right. That night, everyone had gone home, so there were no witnesses, and he never asked for her original slides, so there’s no file trail.
If she made a scene, he’d say they arrived at similar ideas through team discussions. Yang Rui tells her the world is just that harsh, and they can’t lose their jobs over a moment of anger. Bu Tianna notices Xu Chi’s slides were unusually simple and not her style. Xu Chi brushes it off as a stumble.
The final team review hasn’t happened yet, so she’ll rebuild the proposal from a new angle and might still beat her. When Bu Tianna asks if Ma Ke did something, Xu Chi insists she just wasn’t good enough. Bu Tianna dares her to outdo her then.
A Nosebleed and an Unexpected Ally
Xu Chi interviews Ms. Yu, a Celestial director who has been called in from her branch. As Yang Rui and a colleague watch, the colleague remarks that of everyone Ma Ke has wronged, Xu Chi has bounced back fastest, and she’s someone who will achieve great things.
Ms. Yu is irritated and plays video games on her phone. Her team already sent reports, and the real pain point is consultants constantly pulling frontline staff away from branches for interviews, meetings and training when they all have sales targets.
Xu Chi asks for half an hour, and Ms. Yu gives her ten minutes. When Xu Chi asks which areas most need digital transformation, Ms. Yu says she wouldn’t know, since branch staff aren’t highly educated and wouldn’t understand digital matters anyway.
Suddenly, Xu Chi’s nose starts bleeding. Ms. Yu hands her a tissue, tells her to keep her head down and pinches the bridge of her nose the way she used to for her own nosebleeds. As Xu Chi’s eyes fill with tears, Ms. Yu gently asks if she’s been wronged, at work or by a boyfriend.
She has been there. This isn’t just overheating; it’s being pushed around and holding it all in. Sometimes you just have to take it. Once the tears and blood are out, the anger settles, and there will always be a chance to get even later.
Xu Chi apologises for taking up her time and tries to continue, but Ms. Yu says she’s clearly unhappy and needs to get back to the branch, so Xu Chi should ride with her and they can talk on the way.
After the drive, Ms. Yu says she can tell Xu Chi doesn’t put on airs, so she’ll give her a heads up. No matter how many times Maxmise revises its proposal, it will never be approved, so she shouldn’t waste too much effort. She doesn’t explain why.
Unit 201 Is Gone
At her mother’s old building, Xu Chi tells her mother through tears that she was bullied at work and even cried in front of people. She asks her mother to go and beat him up for her. A real estate agent comes over to comfort her, then breaks more bad news.
The owner of Unit 201 agreed to sell, and it went last Tuesday. Huang, the agent who was supposed to keep her posted, took his commission and quit to go back to his hometown. Devastated, Xu Chi says it was the home she had been waiting for, her mother’s old apartment, and she never even got to see inside.
The contract is already signed online. The agent tells her the new owner will probably sell once his child gets into school, and since they’re the only agency at that entrance, he’ll have to list with them. With the market still falling, once she has the money he can offer a little above market and get it back for her.
She refuses to look at similar units upstairs. She only wants this one. In return, the agent begs her to join him on a few showings so he can hit his monthly quota and keep his bonus, and she agrees.
The Real Reason Nobody Says Yes
During the viewings, the agent mentions he thought real estate would be easier than selling insurance. He was once a top agent and deputy director of a sales branch, even qualifying for the Million Dollar Round Table, until he got caught running a slush fund and was fired.
When Xu Chi realises he worked at Celestial, she explains that the company and Ms. Yu keep rejecting Maxmise’s proposals without saying why. He tells her she’s come to the right person. The business side at Celestial will never agree. Seventy percent of the staff are field salespeople, and consolidating reports has already cut their commissions.
Going digital would mean sharing their hard won client data for free, essentially handing over their resources. On top of that, digital business would likely be moved into the Internet Business Division, which keeps separate accounts, effectively taking money from every other department. Apart from executives close to the CEO, most employees don’t want digital transformation at all.
Since the boss hired the consultants, nobody dares object openly, so they shoot proposals down in review meetings, one set of branches rejecting the first version and the rest rejecting the second. Xu Chi finally understands, and thinks she may soon take back what’s hers.
Learning From the Ground Up
Xu Chi returns to Ms. Yu and asks to work alongside Celestial’s staff, doing whatever they do. From field sales to internal claims and underwriting, she’ll spend at least three days in each department, because that’s the only way to uncover the pain points they can’t put into words. Ms. Yu warns her the work is tough and tells her not to come crying when she burns out.
Xu Chi replies that tears from pushing herself are better than tears from being pushed around. Ms. Yu agrees to have veterans show her the ropes, and Xu Chi is soon out handing out home insurance flyers and cycling around with the sales team.
A Phone Call She Can’t Finish
Xu Chi becomes so buried in the work that Ye Xinzhi can’t reach her. When they finally talk, she claims her phone died and that the project and internal review are going well. He notices she’s being evasive. She says she’s at the hotel eating chips and drinking cola, but he points out he has been to her place and she never keeps snacks, so is she lying?
Given her history of disappearing at night, her credibility is low, and he asks for a video call. After a delay, she shows him she really is at the hotel. He apologises, explaining he was worried because something sounded off, and asks if there’s a problem with the project.
Xu Chi admits there is, but she didn’t tell him because he would definitely try to help, and he can’t mentor her forever. This time she wants to handle it herself. When he asks if her wings are fully grown, she says she nearly had her feathers plucked a few days ago, and it was so embarrassing she didn’t want him to see.
Embarrassing enough that she cried in front of someone. But experience comes from lessons learned, and once she gets over this mountain, she’ll be unstoppable. Ye Xinzhi says he was worrying for nothing, but if she ever needs help, she can come to him anytime.
Xu Chi says she’d rather not be a third wheel between him and all those women. Just then, a call from Ms. Liu comes through on his phone, and Xu Chi quickly says goodbye. He asks if that’s why she hasn’t been contacting him lately. After a long pause, Xu Chi asks whether he really doesn’t have those kinds of feelings for her.
The signal drops, and Ye Xinzhi asks what she said. She covers by joking that if he keeps ruining people’s plans, karma will come for him, and she wouldn’t want that messing up her own love life. She adds that she’s busy working with Celestial’s salespeople, so she can’t take on his work for now.
He says he’ll be away on business for a few days anyway, so she can have some time off. After hanging up, Ye Xinzhi repeats the words “love life” to himself, while Xu Chi tells herself she can’t keep going like this.
Plan B for Celestial
At the internal selection meeting, Zhou Sen gets one vote, Yang Rui two and Bu Tianna four. Her colleagues chose her proposal because the data is detailed and it cuts the overall digital transformation budget by thirty percent, addressing one reason Celestial rejected the previous version.
Bu Tianna presents her intelligent underwriting and claims solution to Celestial, and Mr. Zheng responds positively. Before Ma Ke can wrap up, Xu Chi stands and announces she’d like to present Plan B. Ma Ke tries to stop her, but Mr. Pi tells her to speak up so the people at the back can hear, because a good proposal should be heard by everyone.
Xu Chi says she’ll keep it plain. The old proposal could have grown Celestial’s annual premiums by twenty percent, but it would have halved commissions for agents and salespeople with below median KPIs. Her proposal aims for thirty percent premium growth while increasing salespeople’s income by ten percent a year.
She knows they probably think she’s selling a pipe dream, since many people see consultants as smooth talkers, so she asks for half an hour before they tear into her. She explains that previous versions weren’t bad, yet acceptance stayed low. After on the ground research, the team realised why.
Accepting the proposal would mean opening all of Celestial’s business data to Maxmise, a big win for Maxmise but a real risk for Celestial and a hidden worry for its leadership. Meanwhile, salespeople feared losing profits to the Internet Business Division and losing their own clients. This time, the plan isn’t about subtraction but addition.
The new app, the digital marketing content centre and the Agent Cooperation Network on the middle platform are all tools frontline salespeople can use to win customers and work more efficiently. In short, this transformation isn’t about making life harder. It’s about helping them close deals and make money.
The room is won over, with one Celestial staffer saying the earlier proposals sounded like Greek by comparison. Mr. Zheng tells Mr. Pi the proposal was excellent and promises a prompt response after review, singling out Miss Xu’s solid work. Xu Chi says the proposal reflects the whole team’s consensus and she was only the presenter.
Ms. Yu points out she spent more than two weeks working alongside their salespeople, more hands on than any consultant they’ve seen, and she speaks in plain language everyone can understand. Xu Chi says she’s just a translator, putting Mr. Pi and Ma Ke’s ideas into simple terms. Ma Ke reminds her this is only the first step and nothing can go wrong. Mr. Pi agrees, adding that if anything does go wrong, they’ll dock Ma Ke’s pay.
Twelve Hours Earlier
Xu Chi thanks Mr. Pi for the opportunity, and he says she earned it herself. We then see how she got it. The night before, she went to Mr. Pi and told him the slides he praised Ma Ke for were nearly identical to what she showed Ma Ke the previous night, and that Ma Ke then reassigned her to an unfamiliar proposal, which is why she performed so poorly.
To gather evidence, she pretended she had lost a yellow USB drive and asked Security for the office footage while Ma Ke wasn’t on guard. That same footage caught Ma Ke smugly dismissing her as a girl who panics over a little criticism and is even more timid than he thought.
But she told Mr. Pi she wasn’t there to complain. She was there to fight for a chance. She handed him the first draft of a proposal she developed independently and asked to skip the internal review and present directly to Celestial. If Celestial rejected it, she would resign.
Mr. Pi asked if she realised she was gambling with her career. Xu Chi said she wasn’t gambling, she was taking control of her own destiny. He awarded her the Yangfan Cup, so he knows her abilities better than anyone, and Sha Sha, whom he promoted, loves ambitious, capable subordinates. She believes he does too.
No Reward, No Punishment
After the presentation, Mr. Pi congratulates her on winning her gamble and says her delivery was even better than the slides. Consultants used to take a disruptive approach, constantly challenging clients’ systems, but most people resist having everything overturned. They prefer validation and consensus.
Xu Chi finishes his thought: what they really want is a solution that eases their anxieties. Mr. Pi agrees, then makes it clear that because this is a normal outcome that benefits Maxmise as a whole, there will be no bonus for her and no penalty for Ma Ke.
Xu Chi says she understands. Company management is complicated, and a system that’s too clean leaves no room for flexibility. That’s why she made a point of crediting Ma Ke and the whole team. Mr. Pi says Ma Ke is a smart man, and since she helped him save face, he’ll return the favour.
He tells her she’s bolder than anyone and has a clearer vision of the future, so from now on he’ll hold her to a higher standard. Xu Chi jokes that she supposes that means she can’t use GPS to count sheep anymore and should switch to BeiDou. Mr. Pi laughs that she knows that joke too, and tells her humour is a great weapon she should use more often.
Back at the office, colleagues congratulate her. Ma Ke returns, snaps at everyone to get back to work, then warmly invites Xu Chi into his office, telling her not to bother bringing her laptop. The office buzzes that she came back in Mr. Pi’s car, stole the show right after Bu Tianna presented, and absolutely crushed it.
When someone asks Zhao Heng if he’ll check on his princess, he says a princess doesn’t need comforting like weak commoners do. Yang Rui congratulates Xu Chi, admitting that watching her up there made him a little scared that if she gets too good, she won’t have dinner with him anymore. He invites her for a good meal.
Du Calls It
Over dinner, Ye Xinzhi tells Du he has handed Tianhe over to the project manager and will now focus on setting up his game with Wen Ruosen. Du remarks that Wen screwed him over nearly ten years ago and must never have imagined Ye Xinzhi would still be holding on to it.
When Du tells him to put his phone down, Ye Xinzhi explains Xu Chi has sent him a file. She ran into trouble on her project and wouldn’t let him help, and now she has sent word that she solved it perfectly, along with her project summary.
Du is impressed by her three-step strategy and calls her bold, smart and measured, saying Ye Xinzhi has basically raised a thoroughbred and should teach EMBA classes when he retires. He says teaching isn’t his thing. In all these years, he has only met one person like her.
He tells Xinzhi to wipe that satisfied look off his face. He finally gets why Ye Xinzhi likes her. They were both burned and betrayed by their bosses, and neither could let it go, so they went for revenge. Ye Xinzhi says she succeeded, but he hasn’t yet.
Du pounces, saying he just admitted he likes her. Ye Xinzhi tells him to drink and changes the subject, which Du says only proves it. He has clearly fallen for her but hasn’t realised it yet, and Du threatens to knock some sense into him. Then Ye Xinzhi looks up and sees Xu Chi out with Yang Rui, his hand on top of hers, and his face falls.
A Prize From the Beer
Yang Rui drops Xu Chi off near the underground car park entrance and drives away. Ye Xinzhi is standing there. He asks who that was, and she says a colleague on her project team. He says no wonder Celestial went so smoothly, it must be the power of love. Xu Chi says they just had a meal, at most a date.
Ye Xinzhi tells her there’s no need to be shy, since he finds ways to unwind in his spare time too. Xu Chi says that’s right, he once told her a good consultant needs an emotional outlet, so she learned fast. He calls her a good student. She says she still has much to learn from him, like how to… He cuts her off by handing her a little bear charm that came with the beer he just bought, says he has a meeting, and leaves.
Irreplaceable Episode 9 Recap: My Thoughts
Good for you, Xu Chi! You were betrayed, but you seem to be a lucky charm, finding both a former Celestial employee and a current one who took a liking to you. Even after her proposal was stolen, she didn’t waste time complaining. She let it all out in one good cry with Ms. Yu, then pivoted straight into a bold new plan.
Shadowing the sales team, handing out flyers and cycling around with them showed real workhorse energy. Understanding the grassroots problems and speaking in plain language helped her cause, and finding evidence while putting her job on the line definitely helped too. As Mr. Pi said, the gamble paid off. She’s a true example of a self-made female lead who fights back with competence.
I loved that Ye Xinzhi called to check on Xu Chi after not hearing from her for a while, and he was smart enough to realise something was off. Catching her snack lie because he knows she never keeps snacks at her place shows just how closely he pays attention to her.
Xu Chi is so ambitious, and using the excuse of wanting to make it on her own instead of always relying on him, while casually throwing in that she didn’t want to get in the way of his love life, was so good. She really has courage, asking him a second time if he truly isn’t interested in her. Too bad he didn’t hear it.
Dinner with Du and catching Xu Chi with Yang Rui was the wake-up call he didn’t know he needed. Uncontrollable jealousy is the purest answer you can get. He has fallen for her for sure, and we get that definitive answer this episode.
I loved seeing the cool, calculating consultant finally lose his composure, without it ever tipping into overbearing. Their little exchange at the car park, all sarcasm and unspoken tension, was full of great micro expressions from both actors. No doubt this will change things from here on, and it will definitely make work awkward!
Again, I really enjoyed this episode. It’s amazing how fast it’s flying by, which is always a good sign that the drama is good. I’m so hooked and can’t wait to see where the shift from mentor and trainee into something more takes them in Episode 10.
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