A marketing newbie falls in love with her boss who unfortunately has a mouth.
Notable Actors/Actresses
Notable Actors/Actresses
Director
Screenwriter
Chinese Title
ćŠćĽć´ć
Early Spring, Bright and Clear
Network: Youku
Recap Grade: D
First Impression: 3.5/5
First Impression: 3.5/5
Cast
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| Jing Bo Ran: Luan Nian Luke |
Sun Qian: Shang Zhi Tao Flora |
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| Zhang Ye Zi: Lu Mi Lumi |
Peng Yang: Liang Xin Tracy |
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| Liu Xiao Bei: Sun Yuan Zhu |
Qi Tian Qing: Sun Yu |
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| Guo Xiao Ting: Zang Yao |
Mini Recaps
Could Luke (Jing Bo Ran) have fallen for Shang Zhi Tao (Sun Qian) right here right here, when the elevator doors opened? Others said good morning to him too, but when she did, he swivelled that lean neck toward her, matching the voice to the face.
The spot-on descriptions of Luke by Lumi (Zhang Ye Zi)
Lumi: My boss has such a good face. What a shame he has a mouth.
And she goes on to describe this donkey.
Lumi: This is the goddamn charm of this stubborn donkey. First, he’s ruthless. Second, he's smart/far-sighted. He knows when to advance and when to retreat. Third, he’s cold, so cold that you can’t figure him out. And somehow, that just makes you want to conquer him. Doesn't that sound twisted?
Given the shape of his face, belonging to the equine family seems about right. LOL.
The rolled-up sleeves. The V. The bent leg. Everything. I would go with you, you should know! KNOOOOOW!! I know that's not his voice, but try telling my ears that when my eyes are blocked.
April 12, 2013. The first time…
Romance Checklist: Kiss, but not officially together.
Luke smirking… (it was the smallest little twitch!) because Shang Zhi Tao stayed the night with him, he schemed to let her know his home’s passcode, and she stole his heart suit in the morning? All of the above. But mostly because he just learned his washing machine is currently washing both their clothes. :D He’s more interested in the feeling of having a shared life than he lets on.
Jing Bo Ran, can you glare at me too đ
This expression of bemusement and helpless love for the woman ringing his doorbell. Is devastating. đŤ đŤ
Shang Zhi Tao's birthday wish is for everyone she loves to always stay in Beijing. "I also want to catch(/hold onto) what I can catch – like my work. I also want to become a better version of myself. And… I also want to catch(/hold onto) you, Luan Nian."
Luan Nian: "Mm." Luan Nian, she wants to keep you too!! Now maybe reflect on yourself for being so petty about wishing her a happy birthday. But damn, you're so handsome.
Ok. I just had to include two instead of one because really important things happen in this ep: đđđś. But.
It's the hand holding in the parking lot. Her birthday wish was to hold onto him. He makes that wish come true:
And the milkman. MILKMAN.
Romance Checklist: Kiss, and officially together. But shhh!
đ¤¤đ¤¤đ¤¤đ¤¤
Did she sneeze or did she choke – on her saliva before it drooled? LOL. I need an answer.
(There's a bit of a spoiler for Ep14.)
đ¸đ¸♪You should knooo-o-ow!♫
If a Luke look could kill.
(Luke is so Lu Ke! No wonder she named him that)
We wouldn't have a relationship if not for this hero: Lao Tan (Tan Mian).
"Work or love? Tell me which is it."
It's meta that Lao Tan is complimenting Luan Nian's renovation because that's also what JBR is known for. His home reno, and everyone (Bai Jing Ting, Li Rong Hao, etc) wants his recommendations.
I'm in love with Lumi. With her leopard dress. Hahahaha.
Gunainai energy.
I love her line from earlier:
The police are the police. ĺ§ĺĽśĺĽśgunainai is gunainai.The police are the police. Yours truly is yours truly.
However, ĺ§ĺĽśĺĽś (gĹŤ nÇi nai) means “your father’s aunt.” But this title has evolved into this cheeky self-reference for women who answer to no one but themselves. I'm still in search for a better translation that's accurate and concise.
“Did I let you talk?!
"Just because I said not to talk, you’re not talking?"
"You're that obedient? Talk then!"
"Talk ah…"
Hahahahaha
And then, still angrily, he’s worried about her face.
“Does it hurt?”
“If you ĺżçź xinteng me, then I’m not hurt.”
“ćťžč gundan.” (Go roll yourself out.)
(ĺżçź means the heart is hurting for someone, so she's saying if you hurt for me, then I’m fine ćťžč generally means "Get lost." but in Chinese there's a rolling motion in that verb.)
Romance Checklist: They adopt a kid: Lu Ke.
Introducing Lu( )ke! You know how Luke is basically perfect, except for the unfortunate fact that he has a mouth? This Lu Ke solves that problem. The same softie. No human mouth. Hurrah!
When Shang Zhi Tao figured out how to raise a Lu Ke I swear she got better at raising coaxing Luke
Tell me how is she not raising two XD
But this Luke isn't always that easy. Hehe.
"This trick won't work on me, Shang Zhi Tao."
Hmmmmmmm.
Content warning: This episode contains scenes involving sexual assault.
Him: I’m going to make a dish or two.
Her: How about add a glass of osmanthus milk?
Him: You want to drink it?
Her: Yes.
Him: If you want it, then come home sooner.
Her: Then wait for me for a bit.
*Beep beep beep*
She was right in front of his door!! SNUGGLE.
Content warning: This episode contains scenes involving sexual assault.
WHO. ARE. YOU.
Luan Nian: I'm not in a rush. Come down slowly.
HOW. CAN. SHE. NOT. RUN. AND. CONFIRM. YOU'RE. REAL.
Not all my highlights are good ones. This breakup hurts them and me. Shang Zhi Tao proposes to Luan Nian, essentially saying, I have chosen you as part of my future. She is proposing a relationship that points toward marriage.
But then Luan Nian answers with:“I never thought of any of this. I also don't have something like a Wishlist.” OUCH. She has been using her list to articulate the life she wants to build, and the man she's asking to build that life with her is basically saying he never even considered any of it. It's because for Luan Nian, this man is still furious about the other men in her life: Sun Yu's fake blind date situation, Sun Yuan Zhu and that ambiguous relationship, the ex-boyfriend... I don't think he's completely unreasonable to be angry. He's childish about it, absolutely, but Shang Zhi Tao was also angry about Zang Yao. They simply have very different conflict styles. He gets mean. She withdraws. He throws verbal daggers; she starts preparing the emotional escape route and can go cold enough to drop the relationship altogether.
These two have different ideas about this relationship right now. She thinks it’s okay because the date (for Sun Yu's business) isn’t real. As for the other men, she thinks she knows the romantic intent isn't there – at least on her side. For him, that's almost beside the point. a serious relationship as one-to-one, with no ambiguity whatsoever. If you're together, you don't participate in something that even resembles romantic availability. (And you reject her marriage proposal when you want something so serious with her? But maybe that's why he's even more offended.)
My take home message: I don't think Show is necessarily saying only one of them is right and one of them is wrong. This is just their complex relationship. Especially now that Shang Zhi Tao seems much more conscious of the superior and subordinate (ä¸ä¸ç´) dynamic in their relationship. Until they're equals, any relationship between them still contains ä¸ä¸ç´, even if they're lovers.
Romance Checklist: Mini breakup* (4th year)
I am tickled by these bros (Jing Bo Ran and Bai Jing Ting) doing the same thing:
Romance Checklist: Makeup
Content warning: This episode contains scenes involving suicide.
Zhu ge is not okay đđ. They thought he was happier, and then he just left all of us.
In the BTS, to make Sun Yu cry even harder (UGHHH), they had Liu Xiao Bei (Sun Yuan Zhu) show up right in front of her after he "died."
Sun Yu knows Zhu ge loves Shang Zhi Tao, but even then she wishes she met him when they were 17 years old, so she can give her whole lifetime of love to him.
Sun Yu: The person I fell in love with was an angel. So are you, Sun Yu T_T.
𼺠Lu Ke running out after Shang Zhi Tao. Luan Nian sent him to her.
Shang Zhi Tao: Lu( )ke, thank you.
Romance Checklist: Big breakup* (6th year)
JING BO RAN đđ Why are you so good at crying?! The camera was. In. His. Face. The show has no problem shoving all these... beautiful angle at us all the time, but the raw emotion was so good.
Luan Nian: “I’m sorry for everything. I really am very çłçł zaogao (messed up). I don’t deserve to be loved. But I just wanted to tell you I miss you. I really miss you. I love you. I love you! I love you! I love you!" Luan Nian, "you don't have to be perfect to be worthy of love." T_T
Chinese. In the epilogue. Luan Nian: "ĺąąä¸ĺ°ąć，ćĺťĺ°ąĺąą. The mountain isn’t going to come to me. I’ll go to the mountain.” It means when the surrounding isn't changing, I will. This means this stubborn mountain (Luan Nian) is going to change, adapt, and meet Shang Zhi Tao on her (also stubborn) ground
But plot twist. Luke isn't a dog. He's a fox.
Luan Nian completely dupes his future father-in-law with the drunk act. He gets himself escorted out, receives praise from the parents for his “drunken ethics,” and then comes back a few hours later completely sober, asking Tao Tao for somewhere to sleep. The couch will do. Anywhere near her will do.
A recap.
Here I thought startups were easy for everyone except Luan Nian. But Shang Zhi Tao is running into problems too, to the point where she has to mortgage everything she owns to keep the company going. She refuses Luan Nian's money, so he offers her something else. Himself.
Luan Nian: I'm here to apply.Shang Zhi Tao: Apply for what?Luan Nian: Driver, secretary… boyfriend. I'm okay with anything.Shang Zhi Tao: You're unsuitable.Luan Nian: How am I unsuitableas you boyfriend?Shang Zhi Tao: Everywhere you're unsuitable.[…]Shang Zhi Tao: Director Luan. This is a startup company. The temple is small. I cannot fit a big god like you.
Thisdoggod is serious about it though. He offers to quit his job, come work for her for free for six months, the amount of time she needs to train someone new. It's an annoyingly tempting proposal. She really can't win. But…
Shang Zhi Tao: Why don't you drive first. LOL. Of the three options, she picks the least committed one.
So for the next six months, Luan Nian keeps travelling between Beijing and Harbin, cooking for her, dropping food off for her parents, presumably driving her around, and generally inserting himself into her daily life until he has basically become part-time boyfriend. And when Lu Ke gets sick, who does Shang Zhi Tao call first? Daddy. Luan Nian.
Luan Nian shuts the door. What was I complimenting about the open door. I forgot. Give me more of this!
He reins himself in.
Because he needs to prove that what he wants from her isn't just this moment. He wants 夊éˇĺ°äš (tian chang di jiu), Forever. As long as heaven and earth. If he hadn't been so determined to prove that, he could absolutely have used this opportunity to make her pay for all that accumulated ćĄć°Ł (e qi). ćĄć°Ł means "resentment," which you would hear in xianxia dramas – that black force. But he uses it as a hyperbole. To represent all the frustration and grievance he's been swallowing like “I have been sexually frustrated by you for an unreasonable amount of time.”So instead, he offers to sleep in the guest room. So we're supposed to praise him here for his etiquette.
Because he needs to prove that what he wants from her isn't just this moment. He wants 夊éˇĺ°äš (tian chang di jiu), Forever. As long as heaven and earth. If he hadn't been so determined to prove that, he could absolutely have used this opportunity to make her pay for all that accumulated ćĄć°Ł (e qi). ćĄć°Ł means "resentment," which you would hear in xianxia dramas – that black force. But he uses it as a hyperbole. To represent all the frustration and grievance he's been swallowing like “I have been sexually frustrated by you for an unreasonable amount of time.”So instead, he offers to sleep in the guest room. So we're supposed to praise him here for his etiquette.
Then, at night, Shang Zhi Tao wakes up.
Because she's thirsty.
Literally.
She comes out for water hahaha, but we also this means something else. Water is not just water!
Luan Nian emerges almost immediately after her, like he can smell her hormones. LOL.
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| Did she buy two pairs on purpose. |
The doggy slippers mingling with each other ~ Which reminds me: poor Lu Ke. Shame on you two for carrying on while Lu Ke is sick. LOL.
Then comes the morning-after chaos. Shameless Luan Nian walks out with Shang Zhi Tao right in front of her father, and Dad can only process one thing: “You two are wearing too little.”
Luan Nian – completely calm. If responsibility needs to be taken, he'll take it. "I can marry. I can do it anytime. I'm just waiting on Tao Tao." Once the parents – annoyingly/satisfyingly – leave, he checks on her.
Luan Nian – completely calm. If responsibility needs to be taken, he'll take it. "I can marry. I can do it anytime. I'm just waiting on Tao Tao." Once the parents – annoyingly/satisfyingly – leave, he checks on her.
Luan Nian: How are you, Flora?Shang Zhi Tao: What did you call me?So he corrects himself.Luan Nian: čĺŠ (lao po)? Wife?She just smiles and looks away. Yep. That's a yes in Shang Zhi Tao language.
Luan Nian updates his mother about marrying Shang Zhi Tao. Which brings me to something I find interesting about Luan Nian's relationship with his father. The show sets up this huge, almost unbridgeable gap between them, but it never lets that become a plot. Instead, Luan Nian gradually realizes how much he resembles his father. Eventually, he realizes the resemblance and makes the conscious decision that he doesn't want to become him.
Shang Zhi Tao's company has opened a new office in Beijing, so now she's also travelling back and forth between Beijing and Harbin.
Finally. It's time. The proposal. We're getting all the callbacks possible. But how did this man have pictures of everything? Unfortunately, fortunately, we live in the age of AI, so every impossible photograph now has a technological explanation.
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| Ep20 |
Luan Nian starts with their first meeting. Except it wasn't really their first meeting. He still hasn't told her that he turned around too.
Then the car meeting that wasn't a coincidence.
When he thought he was saving her, she saved him.
Then we get to the bags. One of Luan Nian's biggest misunderstandings about Shang Zhi Tao was that all women like bags because his mother loves bags. So when he bought them for Tao Tao, he genuinely thought he was giving her the best thing he could give her to express his feelings that his mouth could not. He never understood why she could experience that as him looking down on her. Now he does. And he apologizes. Not for buying the bags. For making her feel small.
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| Ep1 |
Then we get to the bags. One of Luan Nian's biggest misunderstandings about Shang Zhi Tao was that all women like bags because his mother loves bags. So when he bought them for Tao Tao, he genuinely thought he was giving her the best thing he could give her to express his feelings that his mouth could not. He never understood why she could experience that as him looking down on her. Now he does. And he apologizes. Not for buying the bags. For making her feel small.
Luan Nian apologies about dismissing her Wishlist too. And there's only one thing left on the list: Getting married. He wants to make that come true, and he also wants to be part of every wish she has from now on. I like her journal title: "My heart is a little larger than the entire universe.” And the typography makes “my heart is a little larger” bigger.
His lonely fish gets a partner. đđ
Of course, Shang Zhi Tao says yes.
The end!
Remarks
[First Impression (Ep1-5)] ML has a mean streak. But I am still so, so, so attracted! He's dangerous for
[Cast&Crew]
ćŠćĽć´ć stars Jing Bo Ran and Sun Qian whose birthdays are just a day apart. She's April 18, and he's April 19. Plus 8 years.
Directed by Jiang Ji Zheng, who co-directed Discovery of Romance and has also worked as part of the filming teams on Crush and The Eternal Love 2.
The screenplay is by Gao Xiao Xian (Moonshine and Valentine, Forever Love, The Sword and the Brocade, Rising Lady).
The screenplay is by Gao Xiao Xian (Moonshine and Valentine, Forever Love, The Sword and the Brocade, Rising Lady).
Therefore this team does (good?) romance(. Maybe).
Filming wrapped on November 26, 2025.
Happy.
[A Highlight]
I died multiple times in Ep12 because of Luke's puppy eyes.
[Review & Rating]
Recommendations
| Business | Romance | 2nd Chance? |
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→ Go to August 2026 post
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