My Love, Out of Service

Episode 1

Finn Carter has spent five years playing a role no one asked him to keep playing. He tells Renee's mother that he stayed only because of the repayment contract, and now that it has expired—and Renee's first love has returned—he knows it's time to step aside.

So he performs his rituals one last time. At six, he cooks Renee's favorite six dishes and soup. At seven, he draws her bath and scatters her favorite roses. At eight, he sets out her slippers. Each time, the same quiet refrain: this is the last time.

Renee comes home late, already fed and showered, and brushes off his care. Finn doesn't argue. He gives her one final massage, reminding her of the leg she injured in a car crash rushing to see Mike Smith the day he returned. He waited three nights by her hospital bed while she called Mike's name. Tonight, he says, is the last time he serves her.

Episode 2

The whole city believed Finn Carter loved Renee Lane to the point of madness—and that his devotion had finally moved her. It hadn't. Renee's sister sneers at him as a penniless nobody who can't compete with Mike Smith.

Finn proposes anyway, offering everything he has to protect Renee. Renee's sister turns it into a cruel test, daring him to jump into a pool she claims is leaking electricity. He does it without hesitation. Renee pulls him out, shaken, and agrees to marry him—saying she'll try to love him.

Only later does Finn learn the truth. Renee said yes the same day Mike posted a photo kissing his wife under the aurora. Her mother's task was never possible: love is a heartbeat, not gratitude. No amount of kindness could ever move her heart.

Episode 3

Finn tries one more time. He suggests they finally watch the sunset at the mountain they once agreed on—the place he scouted across the whole city to find the most beautiful view. Renee says yes, then never shows. He waits all night. She was abroad, visiting Mike, who only had to say the word for her to drop everything.

The next morning, Finn cooks steak for breakfast. Renee complains she hates Western food; he tells her the fridge was nearly empty, and that yesterday was the last meal he'd make for her. When she asks for noodles, he still boils them and reminds her to drink brown sugar water for her cramps.

Then, quietly, he says it: Renee, let's divorce.

Episode 4

Renee barely reacts. Five years, and in her eyes Finn is still like air—even at the moment he asks for a divorce. She signs without reading, assuming he's talking about an orphanage donation he mentioned days ago. She's too busy dressing up to meet the person she actually loves.

Finn doesn't push. He just notes that she never really heard him, and tells her to be happy with Mike.

Then his phone rings. The Academy of Sciences formally invites him to join as chief researcher of a confidential national research project—three years with no contact with the outside world. He accepts without hesitation. The one-month divorce cooling-off period lines up perfectly with the project's start. For five years he stopped for her. Now he'll walk his own road.

Episode 5

Before leaving, Finn visits the orphanage where he grew up. The old director is delighted to see him, then stunned when Finn says he'll be gone three years. Finn explains he's joining the Academy of Sciences—the same invitation he once turned down for Renee, settling instead for an ordinary research job in the city.

The old director admits he always regretted that choice, then asks whether Renee agreed to such a long absence. Finn tells him plainly: they've divorced. The director isn't surprised—he says he always knew the marriage wouldn't last—and gently tells Finn it's time to live for himself.

Later, Finn gathers the gifts he spent years preparing for Renee, things she never once looked at, and sells the whole lot for 9.9 yuan. The payment notification comes through. It's done.

Episode 6

Renee's sister catches Finn selling what looks like scrap paper and mocks him for being a cheapskate from a poor village. When he ignores her, she's outraged—he used to grovel for their approval, and now he won't even look at her.

She threatens him: apologize today, or tomorrow she'll dump the breakfast he made, dirty the clothes he washed, ruin the floors he cleaned. Finn's answer is calm and cutting—hasn't that been exactly how things worked for five years?

She fires back that her sister's first love is back, so this replacement should get lost. Finn doesn't flinch.

Episode 7

Mike Smith moves in. Renee's sister gushes that Renee has been flying to see Mike, buying him gifts, calling to say she misses him—and that Renee would divorce Finn the moment Mike asked.

Renee claims Mike's house is being renovated and a hotel is inconvenient, so he'll stay "a few days." Mike plays the polite guest, worrying he's causing trouble between the couple. Finn tells him to settle in comfortably—sooner or later, this home will be his anyway.

When Renee orders Finn to carry Mike's luggage upstairs, Finn says he doesn't feel well and tells them to move it themselves. The first real crack in five years of obedience.

Episode 8

Mike and Renee's sister are hungry, and Renee tells Finn to cook—reminding him Mike can't eat spicy food. Finn refuses. It's the second time in one day he's said no, and Renee is thrown: in five years, he never acted like this.

Finn says his hand is injured and can't touch water for a while. Renee accuses him of faking, since he's used excuses before. Her sister suggests hotpot instead, and Renee lights up—it's the place they loved in high school, their youth.

They invite Finn along. He declines, saying he only owns two sets of clothes and the other is being washed. Mike notes he has hundreds of outfits Renee bought him abroad. Renee says she gave Finn plenty of money—but it all went to her sister.

Episode 9

At the hotpot restaurant, Renee orders a seafood pot, remembering Mike loves seafood. When she asks Finn if he has any dietary restrictions, he says no. The truth: she knows Mike's tastes by heart but has forgotten that Finn is allergic to seafood.

Renee and Mike trade old memories—sneaking out of school to eat here, climbing the wall, falling, and sharing their first kiss by accident. The nostalgia is thick, and Finn sits at the table like a ghost.

They urge him to eat. He watches the two of them sink into a past he was never part of, saying nothing. The pot bubbles between them, and the gap in that marriage has never looked wider.

Episode 10

The hotpot goes wrong. Hot soup splashes, and Finn is badly burned on the arm. A server rushes over, alarmed—the burn looks serious and needs a hospital.

But Renee's attention goes straight to Mike, who barely got a scratch. Her sister panics over Mike's minor injury, insisting he's always been sensitive and fragile since childhood.

Renee tells Finn to take himself to the hospital—it's not far, he can grab a taxi. She and her sister hurry Mike out instead. Finn is left standing there, burned and dismissed, watching the woman he served for five years rush off to tend her first love. He already knows this is the end.