The Early Spring Episode 11 Recap
**SPOILER ALERT**
Table of Contents
TL;DR (Quick Overview)
A misunderstanding over flowers and a childhood friend spiral into real heartbreak, exposing just how much this secret relationship is straining under its own rules. Zhitao spends the episode convinced those flowers went to someone else entirely, and by the end, a genuinely sweet gesture gone wrong has left her devastated, with the truth about who they were really meant for still waiting to come out.
Venting at the Restaurant
Still stung by Zhitao avoiding him since their falling out over the logo mistake, Luan Nian shows up at Tan Mian’s bar in low spirits. Tan Mian guesses the source instantly, and Luan Nian vents fully, this secret relationship is suffocating him, she treats him like a stranger in public and only allows weekends together.
Tan Mian defends her, arguing her caution comes from real self-respect and a genuine desire to protect what they have, but calls Luan Nian out for offering nothing but discipline and no warmth. Tian Man tells him that she is probably afraid that he will look down on her should this relationship ever come to light.
He feels that he hasn’t done anything wrong to warrant an apology but Tan Mian explains it’s just about making her feel better. His fix: send her flowers every single day until she forgives him, and he offers to arrange the deliveries himself.
A Case of Mistaken Bouquets
The next day, Zhao Yang, a wealthy childhood friend of Luan Nian’s Zhitao recognizes from the Guangzhou trip, visits the office. Lumi gossips that he’s rented Lumi’s grandmother’s courtyard house nearby as she has just returned to Beijing. When flowers arrive at the office, both Lumi and Zhao Yang assume they’re meant for her.
Watching From the Bus Stop
That evening, Zhitao leaves early and ignores Luan Nian’s text checking if she’s gone, only to watch, heartbroken, as he drives past in Zhao Yang’s car with Zhao Yang cradling the bouquet in the passenger seat. Sun Yu picks her up, and noticing her mood, promises to bring her flowers herself, with Lei Ge jokingly offering daily arrangements instead as it should come from a man.
Flowers With No Sender
The next morning, flowers start arriving at Zhitao’s desk, and keep coming for five straight days. She confirms they’re not from her friends, leaving her genuinely puzzled, while Luan Nian looks increasingly glum every time he passes her desk.
On Friday, heading out early for a hiking trip, she runs into him holding her latest bouquet. He demands to know why she’s sneaking off early and reminds her that it’s Friday. She informs him that she has clearance from Alex and that she won’t be back until Sunday. Angry, he coldly remarks the flowers don’t suit her, suggesting green foxtail instead.
A Confession on the Mountain
On the trail, Zhitao tearfully admits to Sun Yu that she’d only wanted flowers out of pure jealousy after seeing Luan Nian give them to someone else. Sun Yu reassures her that possessiveness is a completely normal part of love. At the summit, the group ties wishes to a tree overlooking a sea of clouds, Zhitao for her career, Sun Yuanzhu for his upcoming driving tests, before taking photos together.
A Text Left Hanging
Partway up the mountain, Luan Nian texts Zhitao to ask what she’s doing for New Year’s Eve, and she tells him she’ll be overseeing the ad launches at the office instead. He asks if she has a passport and a snowboard. She says no, and the conversation just ends there.
Sun Yuanzhu comes down to check on her, and the two get talking. He asks if the man who dropped her home the night before was her boyfriend, and she says sort of. She turns the question back on him, asking if he’s seeing anyone, and he says no, he doesn’t want to put another poor woman through suffering.
She tells him that’s ridiculous, whoever ends up with him would be lucky. He shrugs it off, insisting the real point of dating isn’t the label, it’s actually being together. His phone rings with a call from his mother, and he ignores it.
The group hikes on to the summit, and the view is stunning, a full sea of clouds spread beneath them as they huddle together in the cold, waiting for sunrise.
A Line Drawn in Switzerland
Meanwhile, Luan Nian’s off skiing in Switzerland with Tan Mian, Zhao Yang, and friends. When a friend teases that he and Zhao Yang should finally make things official, he shuts it down flatly by half-jokingly saying he already has a girlfriend. Zhao Yang, offended, dismisses it as a flimsy excuse.
Back in Beijing, Zhitao learns from Lumi that he’s away for the holidays, and spends New Year’s Eve with Sun Yu instead, who’s nursing her own bad night after running into her ex and losing her year-end bonus over a work dispute. Sun Yuanzhu shows up with gifts to lighten the mood.
A Fish Tank and a Note
In Switzerland, Luan Nian pulls Zhao Yang aside to clear the air properly, apologizing if he ever gave her the wrong impression and reaffirming, he has a girlfriend. Hurt but gracious, she accepts it. As midnight nears, he calls Zhitao, and she wishes him a happy new year, telling him to enjoy the trip. Before hanging up, he asks her to check on his fish the next day.
She lets herself into his apartment and changes the tank filter under his phone guidance, until she overhears Zhao Yang’s voice in the background and he abruptly ends the call. For someone who clearly cares this much, he can be so frustratingly cold the moment it actually matters. She leaves a handwritten note wishing him and the fish a happy new year.
A Fragile Peace, Shattered Again
Luan Nian cuts his trip short and comes home early, smiling softly when he finds her note by the tank. But the peace doesn’t last, Zhitao stumbles onto Zhao Yang’s social media post from the Switzerland trip, photos of the two of them together, and it undoes everything. She breaks down to Sun Yuanzhu, calling herself foolish for staying in a relationship with no real future or place in the light.
A Painful Confrontation
When Luan Nian shows up with snowboarding gear as a gift, Zhitao confronts him outright, insisting they come from entirely different worlds, she can’t afford ski passes or trips to Switzerland the way Zhao Yang can.
She reminds him of their original agreement, that either of them can end things if someone else comes into the picture, and tells him plainly to be honest if that’s what’s happening. He assumes she means she wants to see someone else, and she clarifies, no, him, meaning Zhao Yang. Confused and hurt, he snaps back that he doesn’t sleep with every woman he meets, and not every woman wants him either. She walks away.
A Fever, and the Truth
Not long after, Zhitao falls seriously ill at work and is sent home. She ignores his worried texts asking if she needs a hospital, struggling even to get herself a glass of water, until her doorbell rings, Luan Nian, standing right there.
It’s only now revealed that the flowers delivered to his office all along were never meant for Zhao Yang at all, they were meant for Zhitao, complete with a confession card, and he’d stopped Zhao Yang from ever touching them. But Zhitao is still none the wiser.
The Early Spring Episode 11 Recap: My Thoughts
This whole episode is filled with misunderstandings and was frustrating to watch. I’m glad that Luan Nian was willing to try and smooth out the work situation by sending flowers even though he wasn’t in the wrong, it shows how much he genuinely cares about Zhitao. I did love that he considers this “not a normal relationship,” which tells me he wants more than what they’ve settled for.
His communication skills, though, are so frustrating to watch. I understand he’s upset too, but why bother calling someone you love on New Year’s just to grunt at them and send them off to feed a fish? The whole conversation felt so rude given the occasion.
For Luan Nian, actions really do speak louder than words, buying flowers, cutting his trip short, coming to find her, but when it actually comes time to say something, the words never quite match what he clearly wants to express. It must be frustrating for him too, carrying this reputation as some outrageous playboy when it’s so far from the truth.
Everything else is just one issue piling onto the next, and it’s pushing Zhitao toward believing she’s an awful person for even agreeing to a relationship she never expected to end well in the first place. Every insecurity she carries is surfacing at once. I’m glad we finally cleared up the Zhao Yang situation, and that it resolved amicably, but the misunderstanding never needed to escalate this far to begin with.
They’re both far too stubborn for their own good. Zhitao should have simply asked what actually made her jealous about that photo, and Luan Nian should have taken the opening to pull her close and explain himself properly. No relationship is perfect, but when the love and the intent are genuinely strong, admitting fault shouldn’t be this hard.
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