You know you really like a person when your first date with them went horribly wrong, but you still end up marrying them.
This was exactly what happened to veteran Mediacorp actress Jin Yinji and her late husband of 51 years, Anthony Lee.
He died of a heart attack at home last October at the age of 85.
In a recent episode of Just Swipe Lah, the 76-year-old actress, who moved to Singapore from South Korea in 1972, recounted her first date with her hubby to host Xixi Lim.
Anthony took her to an old scenic spot, known as gao zhup gao wan (Hokkien for “99 bends”), which was located at South Buona Vista Road.
Back in the day, 99 bends was considered one of the most dangerous roads in Singapore due to its many blind corners and roadside ditches.
When they arrived, Anthony warned her: “We have to move once there are no cars in front or behind us, or else we’d get robbed.”
The actress, who was then still unfamiliar with Singapore, did not believe him at first.
“What do you mean by ‘robbed’?… This is a scenic spot!” she scoffed.
But she spoke too soon.
Just as she glanced back, a car suddenly appeared, and three robbers emerged brandishing drills.
“Before [Anthony] could tell me they were robbers, two drills [were pointed at us] and [the robbers] told my husband to go to the back,” she recalled.
Apparently, money was not the only thing the robbers were going after.
“I was wearing hot pants at the time and they touched my thighs. I almost wanted to jump out of the car,” she said.
Jin jie even thought of leaving Anthony to fend for himself while she escaped.
“I thought since I barely knew [him] then, I should just jump out of the car and let him be the sacrifice ‘cos we weren’t even that close,” she said unapologetically.
When Xixi reacted in disbelief, Jin jie explained: “I wanted to live! We were just friends then!”
Um, ok.
Fortunately, neither of them ended up being the sacrifice because Anthony managed to talk their way out of the terrifying situation.
“My husband was very good with his words. He used to be a policeman, so he told them: ‘I know we are unlucky to encounter you today, but don’t be rash. I was young once and I know what you guys need,'” she recounted.
He assured the robbers they could take whatever they wanted, as long as they didn’t harm them physically.
Xixi then asked if that was the moment when Jin jie decided she wanted to marry Anthony.
Her answer? A straight-up “no.”
“I was more concerned about getting out alive,” she said, shaking her head repeatedly.
Furthermore, she didn’t understand anything Anthony said to the robbers as they were speaking in Teochew.
In fact, all that was going through Jin jie’s mind was jumping out of the car.
She even confessed that she didn’t think of going back to rescue Anthony if she had managed to escape.
Thankfully, the robbers eventually decided to let them go.
“They said: ‘We’ll wrap your car keys and throw them into the forest. You can go search for them half an hour later,'” said the actress.
“When we safely returned to the hostel, I finally broke down in tears,” she added.