Scene ∣ 41 Time ∣ Day Setting ∣ Baisha Fishing Harbor Pier
Characters ∣ Cai Shinan, You Sihai
△ At the Baisha Fishing Harbor pier, a brand-new sightseeing fishing boat is docked.
△ Inside the cockpit, You Sihai is instructing Cai Shinan on how to operate the instruments on the control panel. Shinan listens while taking notes, his attitude extremely earnest.
You Sihai: In the “Seamanship and Boat Handling” examination subject, the test items include departing from shore, straight-line forward movement, reversing, turning, S-shaped forward movement, reversing into dock, and seven other items. But these are only the most basic boat-handling skills.
Cai Shinan: Oh? I know there are many conditions on the sea surface, such as how to avoid vessel collisions, and how to keep the hull stable when the wind and waves are strong. These all require on-site learning.
You Sihai: Brother Shinan truly is an educated man. You understand the key point in what I’m saying. After you pass the commercial-class license examination, I’ll have Mingde accompany you out to sea for a month. He’ll teach you many methods of handling situations on the spot.
Cai Shinan: Thank you so much, Sihai. In the past, I really did have some prejudice against you. Please don’t mind it.
You Sihai: Brother Shinan, I truly do like your younger sister and want to pursue her. Besides your permission, she also has to be willing to accept me. Feelings are a two-way matter. Although I haven’t studied much, my sincerity is absolutely passing grade.
Cai Shinan: Hearing you speak so frankly, Sihai, I won’t stop you anymore. However, I hope you stay grounded and, in the future, build up a career just like your father did.
You Sihai: I will, Brother Shinan. Next month I’m going aboard ship. This is not only my father’s arrangement, but also the first step toward my career.
△ Cai Shinan pats You Sihai on the shoulder. The misunderstanding between the two dissolves, and they begin to appreciate each other deeply.
Scene ∣ 42 Time ∣ Day Setting ∣ General Manager’s Office, Focus Fashion Company, Songren Road Office Building, Eastern District, Taipei City
Characters ∣ Shi Meilin (Design Department Director), Zhao Junting (Marketing Manager), Su Mingyu (General Manager)
△ Inside the office of “Focus Fashion” company in the Songren Road office building in Taipei’s Eastern District, Shi Meilin and Zhao Junting are arguing over the direction of fashion design. The tempers of both sides grow increasingly heated, and General Manager Su Mingyu quickly mediates between them.
Zhao Junting: (pointing at the sales data on the projection screen) Director Shi, in your first quarter at the company, the first batch of fashion collections you designed received poor market response. The data speaks for itself. I’m not wronging you.
Shi Meilin: Manager Zhao, before these fashion design drafts were sent to the factory last month, I already explained beforehand that they were experimental works to test the market. If the market response is poor, I will quickly find out the reasons and organize next season’s spring fashion exhibition and runway show to increase visibility and boost sales performance. Why are you so impatient? At least give me some time to review and adjust things.
Zhao Junting: General Manager Su, our company originally focused mainly on low-priced fashion products. There’s nothing wrong with taking the mass-market route with small profits and high sales volume. As soon as Director Shi entered the company, she insisted on taking the mid-to-high-end route, saying things like “aligning with European fashion trends.” Now look what’s happened—the sales volume has plummeted off a cliff. If this continues, everyone will just be waiting to starve.
Shi Meilin: (anger rising) Manager Zhao, wasn’t I brought in by General Manager Su to steer the design department precisely because the company wanted to change its operational direction? If we don’t design our own brand, then we might as well become an agency distributor. In every street and alley of the Eastern District, what’s least lacking are fashion and cosmetics agents. If we continue taking the low-priced fashion route, competing with street-stall goods and relying on tiny profits, then the company will remain the same as always.
Su Mingyu: Manager Zhao, I brought Director Shi here because I want to change our company’s product style. I understand the pressure on your sales department. This is the unavoidable painful adjustment period during reform. Meilin, I’ve already submitted the proposal to renovate all the branch stores to the board of directors for discussion. Just focus on preparing the spring fashion exhibition and runway show. I’m looking forward to you bringing a whole new atmosphere to the company.
Scene ∣ 43 Time ∣ Day Setting ∣ Design Department Office, Focus Fashion Company
Characters ∣ Shi Meilin (Design Department Director), Su Mingyu (General Manager)
△ Returning to the design department office, Shi Meilin’s anger has still not subsided. At this moment, the desk phone rings. It is a call from her mother, Shi Yuhua.
Shi Yuhua: Darling, remember to bring your boyfriend home at the end of this month, otherwise I’ll arrange a blind date for you.
Shi Meilin: Mommy! I’m already annoyed enough. Can you stop putting more pressure on me?
Shi Yuhua: I’m under pressure too! Your grandfather asks me about your lifelong marriage matters every few days. Arranging a blind date for you was also his idea. What can I say?
Shi Meilin: Alright, alright, I know already!
△ Su Mingyu knocks and walks in. Meilin hangs up the receiver.
Su Mingyu: Still sulking?
Shi Meilin: Being angry is useless, right? Some people crack an egg and immediately expect to see the yolk!
Su Mingyu: I understand you, Meilin. You do things with plans and steps. I support you in going all out. How about this—take a few days off and adjust your mood.
Scene ∣ 44 Time ∣ Day turning to dusk Setting ∣ On the sea, sightseeing fishing boat, Baisha Fishing Harbor
Characters ∣ Cai Shinan, Li Mingde, Shi Meilin, tourists
△ On the sea, the Cai family’s sightseeing fishing boat rides the wind and waves, chasing a school of dolphins. On the deck, tourists take out camera phones and V8 video cameras to film. Shi Meilin wears a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, holding a V8 video camera while busily recording.
△ At the helm seat, Li Mingde sits beside him, holding binoculars and observing the sea surface.
Li Mingde: (pointing) Port side thirty degrees, speed thirty knots, stay close behind that group of porpoises.
Cai Shinan: (turning the steering wheel) Okay, port side thirty degrees, speed thirty knots.
▲ Camera cuts
△ The fishing boat anchors in a shallow bay. The tourists each hold a fishing rod, fishing for squid, crimson snapper, bigeye herring, ribbonfish, and others.
△ Shi Meilin catches a squid. Cai Shinan helps her remove the squid from the fishhook.
Cai Shinan: Fresh squid is best made into sashimi and eaten with dipping sauce.
Shi Meilin: Boss, then I’ll trouble you.
△ Cai Shinan carries the squid into the kitchen and gives it to Li Mingde. Li Mingde has just finished filleting a crimson snapper. After rinsing the cutting board with seawater, he immediately uses swift knife skills to slice the squid into sashimi, arranging it on a plate. Together with the sliced crimson snapper plate, he hands them to Cai Shinan. Shinan adds two small dishes of dipping sauce before carrying them out of the kitchen.
△ Cai Shinan carries the plate of squid over to Shi Meilin’s side.
Cai Shinan: Miss, your squid sashimi. Give it a try. The taste is fresh, sweet, and lingering.
△ Shi Meilin picks up a slice with a bamboo fork, dips it in sauce, and places it into her mouth, covering her mouth while chewing delicately.
Shi Meilin: There’s a sweetness on the tip of the tongue. Delicious! Truly fresh and flavorful!
▲ Camera cuts
△ At dusk, Cai Shinan sits at the bow, holding a sketchpad and sketching Baisha Fishing Harbor. Shi Meilin returns from strolling around the streets, carrying several local specialty products onto the boat. Seeing Shinan drawing, she curiously comes closer to watch.
Shi Meilin: Boss, you like painting?
Cai Shinan: (raising his head with a smile) Yes. It passes the time when I’m bored.
Shi Meilin: You’re drawing the fishing boats in the harbor? The composition feels very professional.
Cai Shinan: I haven’t painted for quite some time. Painting was my interest and dream during my youth, but unfortunately dreams lost against practical reality.
Shi Meilin: Mm, same as you. I also shifted toward fashion design. Pure fine arts has difficulty surviving in the workplace.
Cai Shinan: Oh? You work in fashion design? It really matches your appearance and clothing style. Very trendy! However, the way you speak Mandarin feels like it has a foreign accent.
Shi Meilin: Ha! I only returned from Paris not long ago. I learned Mandarin from my mommy, and I haven’t had many chances to speak it, yet you noticed immediately.
Cai Shinan: Ha! Just about what I imagined!
Shi Meilin: The clothes I’m wearing are all designed by myself. You can’t find them on the market.
Cai Shinan: I believe that. My clothes are all ready-made items bought on the street. Convenience is enough for me.
Shi Meilin: You feel very artsy and literary, unlike someone who works in this line of business.
Cai Shinan: (bitter smile) You’ve got good insight. Previously I worked in the technology industry, as a software programmer at Hsinchu Science Park. Although the income was good, I wasn’t happy living that way.
Shi Meilin: So, you came back and started your own business?
Cai Shinan: Yes. Here in Xiaoliuqiu, besides the fishing industry, there’s only tourism left.
Shi Meilin: It was very pleasant chatting with you. My surname is Shi. Earlier, I left a makeup case in the lounge seat. I’ll go inside and get it.
△ The mixed-race Shi Meilin possesses delicate and beautiful facial features, carrying a bright European sunshine style. The two converse happily, leaving Shinan with a wonderful impression.
Cai Shinan: This girl is truly beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an excuse to ask for her business card…
Scene ∣ 45 Time ∣ Day Setting ∣ Courtyard of the Cai Family Japanese-Style Guesthouse
Characters ∣ Cai Shinan, Cai Shifen, Qiu Xiuduan, Shi Meilin, guests
△ In the courtyard of the Cai family Japanese-style guesthouse, Shifen pushes a handcart carrying a stack of clean towels and a stack of bathrobes. Shifen distributes towels and bathrobes room by room to the lodging guests. The handcart arrives in front of Shi Meilin’s room door. Hearing the bell, Meilin slides open the paper door and pokes her head out.
Cai Shifen: Miss, these are your towels and bathrobe. You may go to the women’s bathhouse to soak and enjoy the spa treatment.
Shi Meilin: (taking the towels and bathrobe) Thank you. The one steering the boat during the day was…?
Cai Shifen: That’s my older brother, the owner of this place.
Shi Meilin: (smiling) I see. I saw him drawing on the deck.
Cai Shifen: Painting has been my brother’s interest since childhood, but he knows it’s difficult to make a living from painting in the future.
Shi Meilin: That’s indeed true. I chatted with him a little.
△ Cai Shifen continues distributing towels and bathrobes.
▲ Camera cuts
△ Shi Meilin, wearing a bathrobe and holding towels in her hands, walks toward the women’s bathhouse.
△ Shi Meilin steps down into the bath pool, soaking the lower half of her body in the water. Resting the back of her head on a folded towel, she closes her eyes and enjoys herself.
Scene 46 Time∣Day Setting∣Shi Family Luxury Mansion Living Room by Sun Moon Lake
Characters∣Shi Meilin, Shi Yuhua
△Inside the living room of the Shi family luxury mansion by Sun Moon Lake, Shi Meilin sits cross-legged on the sofa, lazily flipping through a fashion design magazine. A large platter of fruit is placed on the table.
△Meilin’s mother, Yuhua, comes over and sits beside her.
Shi Yuhua: Don’t treat that matter Mom mentioned to you last time as if it’s nothing, okay?
△Shi Meilin puts down the magazine, reaches out to grab a small bunch of white grapes, and peels them while eating.
Shi Meilin: Mommy, give me a break, okay? What era is this already, and you still want me to go on a blind date.
Shi Yuhua: You complain to me, but what can I do? In another two years, you’ll already be thirty. Your grandfather keeps nagging me all the time, saying I shouldn’t neglect your marriage matters. My ears are practically growing calluses from hearing it.
Shi Meilin: I don’t need a man to support me. It’s not like anything terrible will happen if I don’t get married.
Shi Yuhua: Your grandfather doesn’t think that way. Your younger uncle suffers from infertility and never adopted any children either. Your grandfather is still counting on you to continue the Shi family line.
Shi Meilin: Oh please! Nowadays, what man would be willing to marry into the wife’s family? Grandpa’s wishful thinking is way too unrealistic.
Shi Yuhua: Your grandfather has adjusted his thinking a little. Now he only asks that the eldest grandson take the mother’s surname; he’s not demanding the man marry into the family anymore. Anyway, hurry up and bring your boyfriend home for Grandpa to see. As long as he’s satisfied, he won’t force you to go on blind dates anymore.
△A figure flashes through Shi Meilin’s mind: Cai Shinan.
Shi Meilin: (helplessly) Fine! Fine! It’s like the world’s going to end if I don’t get married. I’ll bring my boyfriend home. Let me arrange things with him first.
Shi Yuhua: (half believing, half doubting) Really?
Shi Meilin: Really!
Scene 47 Time∣Day Setting∣Shi Family Luxury Mansion Bedroom by Sun Moon Lake
Characters∣Shi Meilin
△Inside the bedroom, Meilin reclines against a beanbag propped up at the head of the bed, listening to My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion.
△Shi Meilin picks up the handbag on the table, takes out Cai Shinan’s business card, stares at it, and already has an idea in mind.
Shi Meilin: (OS) This Cai Shinan seems pretty decent. If he’s willing to help and temporarily “guest star” as my boyfriend, it should ease the pressure from my family pushing me to marry. Hmm… that’s what I’ll do.
Scene 48 Time∣Day Setting∣Focus Fashion Company Design Department Office
Characters∣Shi Meilin (Design Department Director), Su Mingyu (General Manager)
△Su Mingyu walks into the design department office holding a folder in her hands.
Su Mingyu: Meilin, I carefully looked through every page of the spring outfit designs in this draft. There’s a tropical ocean vibe to them! Fresh, passionate—it feels wonderful.
Shi Meilin: (smiling) President Su really has a good eye. A few days ago I went to Xiaoliuqiu and took a sightseeing fishing boat out to sea. Seabirds and dolphins are still circling in my mind.
Su Mingyu: (happily) Every outfit in this design draft has its own unique character. I can’t wait to see the grand scene when they’re unveiled.
Shi Meilin: President Su, the copy I gave you is only the first draft. I’m still revising it these past two days.
Su Mingyu: Alright. Once you finalize it, I’ll instruct the factory to begin production.
Shi Meilin: Manager Zhao hasn’t complained anymore, right?
Su Mingyu: That’s just the way he is. He only cares about sales performance.
Shi Meilin: Understandable. Performance affects the bonuses for their department.
Su Mingyu: I know! That’s why this month I changed it to incentive bonuses, to stabilize morale.
Shi Meilin: I’m going to Xiaoliuqiu again this weekend.
Su Mingyu: Go ahead! Bring back more inspiration.
△Shi Meilin smiles without replying. She does not want to explain too much about her private matters.
Scene 49 Time∣Day Setting∣Baisha Fishing Harbor Pier, Coastal Ring Road
Characters∣Cai Shinan, Shi Meilin, Zhang Yahui, Tourists
△A heavy motorcycle rides up to the pier. Cai Shinan removes his helmet while still straddling the bike. Shi Meilin walks toward him.
Shi Meilin: Handsome guy, you’ve changed! You’ve become bold and very manly!
Cai Shinan: (smiling) You said I was artsy. So now I’m letting you see another side of me.
Shi Meilin: I just said it casually, and you took it so seriously?
Cai Shinan: (smiling) Get on. I’ll take you for a ride.
△Cai Shinan hands her a helmet. Shi Meilin gives Shinan a La Bise (note), takes it, puts it on, and nimbly swings herself onto the back seat.
Shi Meilin: Luckily I’m wearing long pants, otherwise…
Cai Shinan: Otherwise you’d be causing traffic accidents of all sizes along the way!
Shi Meilin: After not seeing you for a few days, you’ve become really humorous.
△Cai Shinan steps on the clutch, and the heavy motorcycle rides away from the pier. The motorcycle passes by Zhang Yahui’s car. Yahui catches a glimpse of Shinan’s profile.
Zhang Yahui: (OS) That’s Shinan, right? Could that red-haired girl behind him be his new girlfriend? When did he buy such a flashy heavy motorcycle?
Note: A French-style forehead kiss greeting.
Scene 50 Time∣Day Setting∣Lovers’ Temple beside the Coastal Ring Road
Characters∣Cai Shinan, Shi Meilin, Tourists
△The heavy motorcycle stops in front of the Lovers’ Temple beside the coastal ring road. The two remove their helmets and step off the bike, placing the helmets on the seat.
Cai Shinan: I’m going to fulfill a vow. Wait for me a moment, okay?
△Cai Shinan walks toward the Lovers’ Temple, clasps his hands together in prayer before the altar, and devoutly bows three times. He then turns around and walks back smiling.
Shi Meilin: What kind of temple is this?
Cai Shinan: A Lovers’ Temple. It’s very spiritually effective.
Shi Meilin: (curious) You said you came to fulfill a vow. What wish did you make?
Cai Shinan: You really want to know?
Shi Meilin: Tell me! I want to know.
Cai Shinan: I told the Matchmaker God: “I want to see that girl named Shi Meilin again.”
Shi Meilin: (skeptical, widening her eyes) Seriously? You just added that part in on the spot, didn’t you?
Cai Shinan: You don’t believe me? Fine, I’ll show you proof.
△Cai Shinan takes hold of Shi Meilin’s hand and leads her to the wishing plaque archway. Wooden plaques hang there densely at different heights. Shinan quickly finds the one he wrote and points it out to Meilin. Meilin bends down to read it: “Goddess of Love, let me see Shi Meilin again. Please bring her back to my side.”
Shi Meilin: (deeply touched, teasingly) Is this how you always chase girls?
Cai Shinan: (raising his right hand, expression serious) One must not lie before the Goddess of Love.
Shi Meilin: Alright, alright! But isn’t this a little too fast?
Cai Shinan: (scratching his head and grinning foolishly) Love at first sight. I was captivated by you the very first time we met.
Shi Meilin: (smiling sweetly) Don’t be like this! You’re making me feel pressured.
Cai Shinan: Up ahead is Beauty Cave. I’ll take you to walk around there. Hop on.
△Cai Shinan hands the helmet to Meilin, puts on his own helmet, and the two mount the heavy motorcycle one after another, heading toward Beauty Cave.
