Shan Shan unknowingly trades her own “panda blood” for a lifetime(?) of free lunches. Who’s winning here?

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Anna’s Recap

Yay! Thanks for joining me for these recaps on the 2014 Chinese romcom drama, Boss & Me/Shan Shan Lai Le. I’ll be recapping each episode individually, and hope that you’ll stick around for all 33. If you’ve only heard the name of this drama, but have no clue what it’s really about or don’t know if it’s worth watching, then check out my first impression on it. Now, let’s get to talking about the drama and see if Shan Shan and Feng Teng will go together like the rice and chopsticks in their lunchboxes.

Xue Shan Shan receives a phone call in the middle of the night from a Shanghai hospital to immediately come to the maternity ward. She leaps out of bed, thinking that there must be some type of life or death situation happening. After a few minutes, she comes to her senses and realizes that the phone call can’t be about her parents since they live in a countryside town, and not in Shanghai with her. Regardless, she rushes downstairs to the car that’s already waiting for her to take her to the hospital. Once there, things are not immediately cleared up and a man rushes up to her thanking her for helping to save his wife and unborn son.

Before Shan Shan can figure out what’s happening around here, another man walks up to her and asks if her blood type really is “AB-HR,” and if she’s willing to donate blood to her sister who’s currently having a medical emergency from childbirth. Shan Shan quickly agrees to help save his sister and her baby, but can’t help but be mystified as to how they found her and knew her blood type. Right? That doesn’t seem like readily available info. Finally, a third man identifies himself as Zheng Qi, one of the directors at Windgroup, the corporation that Shan Shan works at. He then introduces her to the second man that asked about her blood type. He turns out to be the CEO of Windgroup aka her boss, Feng Teng.

Shan Shan is obviously shocked that he’s her boss, but doesn’t have enough time to really think about it because she’s rushed off to donate her extremely rare blood. Feng Teng’s sister, Feng Yue, and her newborn son survive the emergency, all thanks to Shan Shan. After the procedure, Zheng Qi comes by to tell her that she’s earned a day off from work the next day because of her help. Wow, that’s some cheap compensation. Just kidding! Feng Yue later asks Feng Teng how they should repay Shan Shan, and he coldly says that a check should do just fine. She scoffs at his shallowness, and says that she’ll come up with a better compensation than that. I dont know…a hefty check isn’t such a bad idea.

The next day, Shan Shan spends her earned day off from work chillaxing with her friend. On their way home from shopping, they pass by the nearby basketball court. And when one of the guys playing basketball sees them, he immediately hides his face and ducks behind his friend. Turns out that Mr. Scaredy Cat is none other than Feng Teng, who’s hiding behind Zheng Qi. When Zheng Qi makes fun of his awkwardness, Feng Teng claims that he doesn’t want people seeing this super casual side of him. Someone sure likes to keep up that cool image.

At Windgroup, they are trying to purchase a video games company. Because this is such a large acquisition, the entire company is making sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible. Right before the contract is signed between the two groups, the Financial Department’s Manager discovers that there’s a typo on the amount that Windgroup is paying. After seeing Zheng Qi thank Shan Shan earlier for helping Feng Yue, her coworkers in the department all think that she’s super tight with him and can talk to him about the mistake for them. Reluctantly, Shan Shan goes to find Zheng Qi but is instead sent on a wild goose chase around the different departments. By the time she does get to Feng Teng to stop him from signing the contract, she learns that the contract was signed long ago while she was running around.

Apologizing like crazy to Feng Teng for the mistake on the contract, Shan Shan tries to take all the blame for it but he just ignores her. Zheng Qi sees this all go down, and reassures Shan Shan that they caught the mistake before the contract was signed, so no harm done. Feng Teng is pissed that all of the upper management were afraid of taking responsibility for the mistake, and reprimands them for using Shan Shan as a scapegoat. After his little meeting with the boss, Shan Shan’s manager yells at her for not being able to even complete this small task and wonders aloud why the HR Department would make him hire her instead of the people he actually chose.

Shan Shan later hears her coworkers talking smack about her in the kitchen and discussing how someone as incompetent as her was recruited to work at Windgroup. She then finds out from her coworker, Du Fan, that they both started working at the company around the same time, so they should have been at the same 3-day training/orientation. When she learns that she was never invited to attend any training or orientation, Shan Shan comes to the conclusion that she was only hired because of her rare blood type that matches Feng Yue’s.

Disappointed that she’s only being valued for her blood, Shan Shan goes up to the building’s rooftop balcony to get away from all the gossip. She glances around to make sure that there’s no one else there, and sees only the mirrored wall of the building. Unbeknownst to her, that mirror is a two-way mirror where she can’t see anything on the other side, but anyone standing on that other side can clearly see the outside. As she’s on the balcony pondering her actual place at the company, Feng Teng is actually on the other side of the mirror wall in his office.

When he sees her still standing there while it’s snowing, he finally goes outside and puts his jacket around her. Startled, Shan Shan turns around and is shocked to see Feng Teng. He tells her that she’s not allowed to be up here because it’s considered the boss’s workplace. She responds that she didn’t know because she never attended the training/orientation. She then asks him why she was hired in the first place. Feng Teng tells her that she should be asking HR about this, and not him. Way to lose all the charm points you earned with the jacket move, Feng Teng!

Apparently, Feng Teng didn’t know about Shan Shan not being invited to attend any type of training or orientation. Later on at the basketball court, he asks Zheng Qi about Shan Shan’s job position at Windgroup and how her work is. Zheng Qi tells him that she’s only an assistant in the Financial Department, and that she’s not exactly important enough for upper management to know about her work performance. Feng Teng tells him that he thinks the company is still hiring specific people who share the same blood type as his sister, something that his grandfather initiated. Zheng Qi says that even if that was the case, there’s nothing wrong with his grandfather caring about his granddaughter. He urges Feng Teng to not dwell on the Shan Shan situation, and just let it be. If he does anything to correct it, then it might actually be harming instead of helping Shan Shan. Feng Teng agrees for now, but it looks like Shan Shan has for sure sparked his interest.

What Else is for Lunch:

Zheng Qi’s nickname at Windgroup is, “Qi Shuai or Handsome.” He’s mostly called this by the female employees. Hard to argue with it.

Shan Shan is still in her 3-months trial period at Windgroup, and is not an official employee…yet.

Shan Shan’s friend from her countryside town, Liu Liu, also moves out to Shanghai and is living with Shan Shan and her other roommate. This town must like to repeat characters in their names.