The Early Spring
THE EARLY SPRING
You don’t have to be perfect to be worthy of love
You don’t have to be perfect to be worthy of love
A ten-year story — from one person looking up, to two people meeting at eye level.
Read on
This isn’t a story about love.
It’s a story about how looking up becomes looking across.
On her first day, he told her to quit
Shang Zhitao’s résumé was ordinary, yet she landed an offer at a top advertising agency. On her first day, creative director Luan Nian took one look at her and told her, plainly, not to bother.
That moment fixed their heights. One of them hands down the verdict; the other waits for it.
How the scale tipped over ten years
On one side, a peach — táo, the last character of Shang Zhitao’s name. On the other, an L, for Luan Nian. On a scale the heavier side sinks: first the L, then the peach, and at last the two weigh the same. Drag the slider, or tap a stage.
One sentence of his outweighs all of her
On day one, a creative director’s “don’t bother” is enough to decide whether she stays. His side sinks all the way down.
Not one of the best moments is a confession
This love story barely relies on dialogue. The evidence hides in actions, in schedules, in the sentences nobody says out loud. Open the seven below.
Except where marked as a quotation from the novel, the above paraphrases events from the book and the series. Please read the original through official channels.
A grand retreat
“Retreat” is military language: planned, commanded, forces preserved. It is fleeing that is a rout. She gives her leaving a proper name first, and only then says goodbye.
She didn’t say goodbye. She just dropped the ticket in.
Meeting again, for the first time
Back then she posted a one-way ticket. Now it’s his turn — flying north, trip after trip.
Trip 0
She never looked back. So this time, he takes the route.
By the time he came looking, she no longer needed him
Years later Luan Nian travels north. By then Shang Zhitao has long left the grind behind, has opened her own shop back home, and her days belong to her.
The order is what matters. She wasn’t waiting where he left her — she had finished rebuilding her life before he showed up. The grovelling-ex arc only works on that condition.
Three lines, and exactly three turning points
The following are quoted from the novel, not spoken on screen. Open each for a reading and what to watch for.
Ⅰ
May your life be free of worry, and may you always have the courage to break a deadlock
A blessing ・ Opening
The weight is in the second half. “A life free of worry” is the polite thing anyone says. “Courage to break a deadlock” isn’t a wish for smooth sailing — it assumes the deadlock is coming.
Deadlock is daily life in advertising: a pitch stalls, an idea is killed, the client won’t nod. Put it back on the romance and those six years are a deadlock too, one neither of them will break first. What the line wishes for isn’t that nothing happens — it’s that when something does, you can still move.
Watch for: if this becomes a generic well-wish on screen, the character’s whole undertone changes.
Ⅱ
This isn’t fleeing. This is a grand retreat. Goodbye, Beijing
Leaving without a word ・ Development
“Retreat” is military language, not a loser’s word — planned, commanded, forces preserved. Fleeing is the rout. She gives her leaving a proper name first, and only then says goodbye.
The crucial word is “grand.” A departure with no one to see her off, one he doesn’t even know about — and she insists on giving it a scale. Not for anyone else to hear, but so she remembers: I chose this. I didn’t lose.
Watch for: a novel can write interior monologue; screen can’t. This feeling has to be carried by image or voiceover.
Ⅲ
Let’s meet each other again — starting from the first time we met
Reunion ・ Resolution
He isn’t asking to get back together. He’s asking to start over. The difference matters: getting back together returns to the old relationship; starting over admits the old starting point was the problem.
Their first meeting was him, as creative director, telling her to give up the job. The heights were set in that instant. So “from the first time we met” isn’t a romantic flourish — it’s him finally realising that the only way to reach eye level is to void the starting point where she had to look up. The whole argument of the work lands in this line.
Watch for: keep this line, put it in the right place, and the adaptation is more than half won.
Early spring isn’t a season. It’s a temperature
The snow is loosening, but there is still ice underfoot. The phrase holds Beijing’s winter, Harbin’s snow, and a relationship that stayed for years on the edge of thawing without ever fully melting. The title is the largest image in the whole work.
Not spring yet — but no longer winter
Browse all worksBeijing to Harbin
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The Early Spring — key facts
- Title
- 早春晴朗 (The Early Spring)
- Episodes
- 24 episodes, about 45 minutes each
- Airing
- Premiered 26 Aug 2026 on Youku and Kumiao TV, updating daily at 12:00; simulcast on Netflix in Taiwan
- Crew
- Directed by Jiang Jizheng ・ Written by Gao Xiaoxian
- Cast
- Jing Boran as Luan Nian ・ Sun Qian as Shang Zhitao
- Source
- The Early Spring by Guniang Biekun (JJWXC)
- Theme song
- “Luguo Qinglang” by Silence Wang, who wrote, composed and produced it
- Locations
- Beijing and Harbin
This page is a reading of the story and the novel, and contains spoilers. For the release calendar, the daily update table and the finale estimate, seeThe Early Spring release calendar。
Passages from the novel are paraphrased, not quoted verbatim.