The Early Spring Episode 13 Recap
**SPOILER ALERT**
Table of Contents
TL;DR (Quick Overview)
Alex’s sudden resignation and a job offer to Zhitao trigger the couple’s worst fight yet, an argument so cruel it drives her to block him entirely. But beneath the explosion lies a real reckoning, Luan Nian finally confronting the fact that he’s turning into the father he despises.
A Day on the Beach
At the beach in Phuket, Lumi and Zhitao settle in beside a stranger who won’t move, hoping to relax and maybe practice a foreign language or two, before Luan Nian reveals himself under the newspaper covering his face. Lumi isn’t impressed he’s there, insisting Lime’s female employees are out representing the company as capable and beautiful women, and he humours her sarcastically before reminding her they’re not at work, she doesn’t need to flatter him.
Lumi asks him to fetch coconuts, and when he refuses, the two girls go themselves, drawing attention from a few men trying to charm them along the way. Back with coconuts in hand, Luan Nian still won’t accept one, admitting flatly he refuses to drink anything bought by another man.
Lumi drags him shopping instead, insisting he needs to loosen up on vacation, and at a small hut store, Zhitao looks stunning in a slightly sheer beach dress. He can’t stop watching her.
A Possessive Confession
Later, walking back to her room, Luan Nian intercepts her, pulling her into his own room and embracing her from behind, insisting she never wear that dress again. She turns to look at him, stating that she likes it and wants to wear it. She asks if he’s always this controlling, and he admits it outright, he doesn’t care what other women wear, but she isn’t allowed to dress this way, because he can’t stand other men looking at her. They start kissing, moving toward the bed, until the phone rings.
Alex is calling, asking her to come down and meet him. Luan Nian, frustrated, asks what colleague could possibly matter more than this moment, and she explains plainly, Alex is her direct boss and wants to see her now.
A Resignation, and an Offer
After she leaves, Luan Nian gets a call from Tracy, Alex has just resigned, effective end of month. Furious, he demands to know how HR missed this coming, and insists she keep it quiet for now to avoid panicking the team, warning her Alex will likely try to poach people. When she asks who he thinks Alex is targeting, he doesn’t answer directly.
Downstairs, Alex tells Zhitao he’s leaving for an advertising startup and wants her to come with him. Surprised, she asks why her specifically, and he explains, she’s hardworking, produces real results, and learns fast. He offers to double her salary and make her Account Manager on the spot. Tempted but cautious, she asks for time to think it over, and he agrees.
A Sunrise, and a Confession Unanswered
That night at the beach buffet, Alex approaches Zhitao again, and Luan Nian notices from across the party. When Alex is called away, Luan Nian comes over to ask what they discussed. She tells him it was just work. He toasts her and lets it go.
The next morning, waiting to watch the sunrise together, Luan Nian recalls his conversation with Tracy, convinced Alex is going to try poaching Zhitao specifically, and reminds himself it’s on him to find a way to make her stay.
Standing beside her, he asks how she’s felt working at Lime all these years. She thinks to herself that she’d expected them to simply watch the sunrise together, not talk about work. Out loud, she says she’s grateful for the opportunity, grateful his strict guidance pushed her to grow so quickly. He presses further, clearly wanting more than gratitude, asking if there’s nothing else she wants to tell him.
She hesitates, then tells him she’s happy they get to watch the sunrise together, but she hopes it isn’t only sunrises, she wants to watch sunsets with him too. His expression stays unreadable, and he simply turns to watch the sunrise instead.
She looks at him a moment longer before turning to watch it too, met with silence. As the sun rises, she reflects privately on how beautiful the moment feels standing this close to him, half of what she feels for him is love, the other half admiration and respect, and it’s something she can neither say fully out loud nor fully hide.
A Farewell Announced
Back at the office, Tracy and Alex enter the boardroom together, and Alex announces that today is his last day at Lime. The room is stunned into silence. Luan Nian stands to thank him for everything he’s contributed, wishing him well, and though the mood stays heavy, he insists there’s no need for sadness, suggesting a celebratory dinner instead.
At dinner, Zhitao asks Lumi why nobody tried harder to keep Alex. Lumi admits they did try during the retreat, Luan Nian himself attempted to talk him out of leaving, but it didn’t work. Sometimes, she says, there are simply greener pastures. Lumi then reveals Alex is also taking Annie and Li Tianran with him, calling both of them fools who’ll realize too late how much of their success actually came from Lime’s platform.
Zhitao asks Lumi directly whether she’d ever leave. Lumi laughs the question off entirely, why start over somewhere new when she’s already comfortable here, adapted, trusted to do things her own way?
Zhitao nods, weighing her own situation. Lumi continues stating that job-hopping carries real risk, tying yourself to someone else’s success or failure entirely, while staying means facing a new boss with no guarantee of standing. But as long as she stays at Lime, she reasons, Luan Nian will protect her, given how well she knows the Yueteng account. Zhitao agrees.
Watched From the Car
Outside after dinner, as everyone says their goodbyes, Alex catches Zhitao alone and asks if she’s thought more about his offer, adding that beyond her obvious talent, there’s also a more personal reason he wants her to come with him. They talk quietly out of earshot, then shake hands as his car arrives.
Luan Nian watches the entire exchange from his own car. Once Alex is gone, he turns on his headlights, letting her know he saw everything, then sends her a cruel text, if Alex wants her to come along, it’s only for two reasons, because she’s cheap and obedient. She reads it standing right there, watching him watch her, and thinks bitterly that even now, that’s how he sees her.
An Explosive Confrontation
Furious, she walks off, refusing to meet his eyes as he follows. He drives ahead and blocks her path directly. Both of them are angry, and she’s clearly hurt underneath it.
He tells her coldly that if she’s leaving, she should tell him beforehand so he can process it properly through HR and secure her severance. When she doesn’t respond, he presses harder, accusing her of taking Alex’s offer, listing off exactly what Alex must have promised her, doubled salary, a promotion within the year, success guaranteed.
He asks, cruelly, if she even has a brain. She fires back, asking if he’s trying to fish a confession out of her. He insists he wouldn’t have to do any of this if she hadn’t already lied to him, that he’d given her two chances to be honest and she chose to lie instead, demanding to know if she’s really this eager to leave with Alex.
She points out that Alex isn’t even his direct report, going to Luan Nian about this would mean going over her actual boss’s head. He counters by citing company policy outright, management-level staff can’t poach employees, it’s unfair competition, and she’s signed a non-compete besides, warning that their legal team would have plenty to say if Alex wants to play dirty.
Then he turns the knife further, telling her plainly that her fundamental problem is having no real principles, that she’s young enough to be swayed by small, immediate gains without ever thinking about her actual future, calling her short-sighted for only seeing whatever benefit sits right in front of her.
That’s when something in her finally breaks. She tells him that if she wants a future, she needs money, that she isn’t like him, comfortable and secure enough to think about the future in the abstract. She reminds him she came to Beijing completely alone, shares a rented flat with roommates, spends three hours a day commuting, and that her happiness is decided by things as small as her paycheck and her travel time.
Alex’s office, she points out, is close to home, how could that not be tempting? She asks him directly whether he could ever understand her situation, whether he’s even capable of that kind of empathy, and reminds him plainly that this is her private matter, not his to intervene in.
He snaps back that he doesn’t even want to care this much, that he wouldn’t have had to say any of this if she’d simply used her own judgment to begin with. She tells him she never asked for his advice, and if he truly wants her answer, then fine, she’s leaving with Alex, because he supports her, speaks to her with kindness, and treats her with respect. He tells her, through gritted teeth, that he wishes her all the best. She tells him she’ll do her best, and walks away.
A Reckoning
Walking home alone, Zhitao is completely undone, crying so hard she can’t compose herself, and blocks Luan Nian across every platform. At her building’s gate, a stray Samoyed puppy keeps approaching her, refusing to leave her alone, and she finally scoops it up, deciding to take it in for the night and search for its owner in the morning.
Across town, Luan Nian sits alone at his unfinished bar drinking until Tan Mian finds him, sensing instantly something’s badly wrong. Once he hears the full story, Alex leaving, trying to take Zhitao with him, Tan Mian tells him plainly that she’s being more rational about this than he is, and that mixing romance with authority never leads anywhere good.
He reminds Luan Nian that whatever their relationship is, she’s still a free employee entitled to choose where she works. When Luan Nian asks if he’s just supposed to stand by and watch her make the wrong choice, Tan Mian laughs, almost sadly, pointing out that she’s young and will naturally be tempted by whatever benefit is closest, a good position rarely just falls into anyone’s lap. Then he says it outright, Luan Nian sounds exactly like his own father right now.
He softens after that, pointing out that if she does leave Lime, Luan Nian will finally be free of the secrecy weighing this relationship down, and pushes him to ask himself honestly what he’s actually afraid of, losing her from the company, or losing her altogether. She’s an independent person, he reminds him, and if Luan Nian doesn’t want to lose her for good, he needs to actually win her back rather than keep pushing her further away.
The Sign He Kept
Alone at home afterward, Luan Nian finds the old, broken plastic sign from the advertising agency he once tried to build for himself, and the memory comes rushing back in full. He remembers the day his failed business finally collapsed, his father’s voice tearing into him over having spent the entire two hundred thousand yuan his mother had given him, mocking the fact that his ragtag little venture had even survived three months at all.
When Luan Nian couldn’t take the criticism quietly, his father pushed harder, questioning how anyone this sensitive thought they could run a business, accusing him of believing money simply grew on trees and refusing to accept how genuinely complicated the real world was.
Luan Nian had shot back that if profit was truly his father’s only measure of a person’s worth, then nothing he did would ever be enough. His father hadn’t backed down, insisting that profit wasn’t the only standard, but it was the bare minimum, and that a company running at a net loss gave his son no right to argue otherwise.
Furious, Luan Nian had accused him outright of lying about his mother being sick just to lure him home, a low blow that brought his mother rushing in to stop the fight before it went further. He’d told her plainly that from that point on, whether he lived or died was entirely his own business, and if he chose to spend his own money, that was his choice alone.
His father, unmoved, had sneered that all he actually had to show for himself was a box of failed dreams, and Luan Nian, refusing to let it go unanswered, promised to pay back every yuan of what he’d borrowed, with interest, before walking out and hurling the door sign to the ground, watching it shatter.
Sitting with that memory now, staring at the broken piece he’d kept all these years, Tan Mian’s earlier question echoes back at him, whether he’s afraid of losing her from the company, or losing her from his life entirely. He thinks again about what Zhitao had said, that Alex respects her, speaks to her kindly, actually understands her, and the realization lands with real horror.
He’d used those exact same words his father once used on him, and without meaning to, become the very person he’d spent his whole life resenting. He tries calling her, but her phone is off. He texts, asking where she is, only to discover she’s blocked him completely. In a burst of anger, he throws the broken sign across the room and drops his head to the table, asking himself quietly how he ever became the person he hated most.
A Different Kind of Response
The next day, now temporarily overseeing Alex’s old division, Luan Nian opens the team meeting on a lighter note before turning to Zhitao and asking how the global new media market research is coming along. She tells him it’s progressing well, that she’s adding new suppliers to the database.
When he asks how long it’ll take, she estimates a month, and he pushes for two weeks instead. She holds her ground honestly, explaining that with the team currently short-staffed, it simply isn’t possible, and she can’t commit to it.
Rather than escalate the way he normally would, he surprises the room by offering to bring in help from other teams while keeping the original deadline, and praises her openly for the depth of her planning and how hard she’s clearly worked.
A Quiet Reflection
Afterward, Lumi pulls Zhitao aside, pointing out how much she’s changed, standing her ground with Luan Nian and receiving praise instead of pushback. Zhitao brushes it off, insisting she simply told the truth. When Lumi asks if that refusal means she’s decided to join Alex after all, Zhitao admits honestly that she hasn’t made up her mind at all, she’d only spoken up because the deadline truly was beyond what they could manage.
Lumi tells her plainly that personally, she doesn’t want her to leave, not as a colleague and not as a friend, calling her genuinely talented enough to shine wherever she ends up, and promises to respect whatever she ultimately decides. Reflecting quietly on how far she’s come since barely understanding a single piece of industry jargon, Zhitao’s thoughts are cut short by a frantic call from Sun Yu, something has happened.
A Small Peace Offering
Earlier in the trip, back on the beach, Zhitao had been finishing postcards for her friends while Lumi wandered off to shop. Luan Nian sat beside her and asked, teasingly, if she’d forgotten someone, prompting her to smile and ask if he meant himself.
He wrote his own message on the spot, wishing her happiness, admiring his own handwriting before deciding there was no need to actually mail it, he’d simply take it now and save the postage, telling her he liked her handwriting. Then he handed her one he’d already written in advance, telling her to always stay cheerful and true to herself. She looked down at it, clearly moved, as he walked away.
The Early Spring Episode 13 Recap: My Thoughts
The whole Phuket retreat was such fun to watch, and I thoroughly enjoyed a controlling, obsessive Luan Nian telling her she isn’t allowed to wear that dress because he can’t stand other men looking at her. Of course that’s not what anyone genuinely wants in real life, but in a fleeting moment of fantasy, there’s something appealing about a man that possessive of you, that unwillingness to share you with anyone else.
The whole Alex situation gives us yet another reason for these two to clash, and honestly, neither of them is being unreasonable in isolation. Luan Nian clearly knows Alex is trying to poach her, and Zhitao doesn’t tell him the truth despite having several real chances to.
But when he later texts her that the only reason Alex would want her is because she’s cheap and obedient, I was furious. For a man this intelligent, running a leading advertising company, he’s completely incapable of expressing himself on a personal level. Why would you ever say something that cruel to someone you actually care about? I fully support Zhitao for walking away and blocking him. I’d have done exactly the same.
Watching them fight it out, it’s obvious to us as viewers what’s actually going on underneath it. Luan Nian doesn’t want her to leave, full stop, and even if she does decide to go, he doesn’t want it to be with Alex, someone he genuinely believes won’t be good for her, especially trading a stable, established firm for the risk of an unproven startup, more money and a title or not.
Of course, none of that comes out of his mouth the way it should. Zhitao, meanwhile, is just as right in her own argument. She points out that he’s speaking from a position of comfort, watching from his lofty tower while she worries about things as basic as whether she can afford dinner or public transport that week.
So when someone offers to double her salary, of course she’s tempted, of course she needs time to think it over. Her question to him, whether he’s ever actually tried to empathize with her situation, is such a sharp, fair hit, and from there the argument only escalates, both of them hurling things they can’t take back before she finally storms off.
Lumi continues to be so sharp here too, knowing exactly what to say to keep Zhitao grounded without ever directly admitting she suspects Alex has made her an offer as well. Her point about every job change carrying its own pros and cons, and having to weigh what you can actually live with, is genuinely solid advice.
And once the dust settles, Luan Nian does what he always does, reflects, and this time it clearly devastates him. He realizes he’s becoming exactly the man he’s spent his whole life resenting, his own father, and the self-loathing that comes with that recognition is real.
Now he’s facing the possibility of losing a genuinely excellent employee and the person he cares about most in one go, and she wants absolutely nothing to do with him. He’s hit rock bottom, and honestly, if I were in her position, I’d have done the exact same thing and cut him off completely too.
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