The Early Spring Episode 16 Recap
**SPOILER ALERT**
Table of Contents
TL;DR (Quick Overview)
THINKING OF YOU THIS SECOND SEEING YOU THE NEXT
Zhang Yao finally lets go for good, Sun Yu’s feelings for Sun Yuanzhu spill out only to be gently turned down, and Luan Nian’s investigation into Dony reveals a corporate power play with real teeth. Amid all the tension, a surprise homecoming gives Luan Nian and Zhitao their sweetest reunion yet.
A Guilty Dog, and a Wounded Paw
Luan Nian tries scolding the dog for trashing the apartment, but it turns on the charm instantly, cuddling up pitifully until he caves completely, even offering it a treat. That’s when he notices a wound on its paw and panics, calling Tan Mian in a fluster for advice. Just put some iodine on it, Tan Mian tells him, it’ll be fine.
An Unannounced Visit
While chasing investors in Inner Mongolia, Sun Yu decides on a whim to detour and see Sun Yuanzhu, since he happens to be working nearby in the northwest. They end up sharing dinner in his apartment, which has a broken window he’s patched with tape against the cold.
He asks what she’s doing there, and she brushes it off, claiming she was just in the area. He points out dryly that a twelve-hour train ride hardly counts as “in the area.” She laughs it off anyway, insisting she just wanted to see him. When she asks about a nearby hotel, he tells her the closest one is three hours away, so she ends up staying in his apartment, him on the floor, her in the bed.
A Final Goodbye
Luan Nian gets a call from Zhang Yao, she’s decided to leave Beijing for good, and asks if he’ll come say goodbye. He brings the dog along to the park, and she notices it immediately, asking whose it is. His, he says. She laughs, pointing out that in all the years she’s known him, he’s never once owned a dog, and if he had, she’d have pictured something like a Tibetan mastiff, not this. She guesses correctly that it’s actually Zhitao’s.
He asks why she’s leaving after only planning to stay two years, and she admits plainly that Beijing no longer holds her interest, the reason she came back has changed too much, there’s nothing left keeping her here. Even if he asked her to stay, she adds, would anything actually be different? The dog barks at her, and she laughs, pointing out that even the dog stays loyal to Zhitao, even when she isn’t around.
He wishes her a safe trip home to the UK, and she asks, quietly, if she could have one last hug. He gives her one without hesitation, says goodbye, and walks off with the dog. As he leaves, she snaps a photo of his back disappearing down the path, visibly heartbroken.
Walking on, Luan Nian glances down at the dog and murmurs, half to himself, that Zhitao isn’t even here and the thing’s still loyal to her, what does that even make him?
A Confession, Gently Refused
Unable to sleep, Sun Yu sits up and asks Sun Yuanzhu if they can just talk for a while. She asks if he ever misses home during his work trips, and he admits he does. She wonders aloud if his hometown is up in the mountains, and suggests he take her there sometime, she’d love to see it. He tells her, simply, that Beijing is home now, that she, Zhitao, and Lei Ge are his family, his closest friends.
She takes the comment somewhere deeper, gently pointing out they’ve lived together three years now, and asks, carefully, what he actually thinks of her. He realizes exactly what she’s trying to say, and shuts it down fast, telling her plainly she’s his best friend, someone he considers family.
He adds that he’s tied up with work for the next two days, so he won’t have much time for her, but promises to help her find a hotel for her remaining nights before she heads home.
Realizing he genuinely isn’t interested, she’s embarrassed, quickly insisting she’ll sort herself out since she showed up unannounced anyway, and that she’ll probably just book a ticket home. They go back to sleep, but she’s clearly hurt.
A Check-In From Afar
The next day, they talk again, lighter this time, him joking about how the dog’s doing, her asking how work in Hangzhou is going. When he asks for her honest opinion of Dony, she admits, somewhat reluctantly, that he’s genuinely good at his job, clear and direct about what he wants. He asks when she’s coming home, and she tells him as soon as the project wraps.
Back in the apartment, Sun Yu and Sun Yuanzhu lie there pretending to sleep, not speaking, both staring off into the distance.
Digging Into Dony
At the office, Tracy brings Luan Nian Dony’s CV and asks his honest opinion. He admits, begrudgingly, that Dony’s a clear, decisive manager, prompting Tracy to point out he’s actually complimenting the guy, then asks if they have some kind of history. He confirms they do, but makes clear he’d rather never discuss it, and honestly, never see the man again if he could help it.
Tracy admits that in all her years in HR, this is the first time anyone’s ever been hired straight through the board without going through her vetting process at all, and something about that feels deeply wrong. Luan Nian suggests she might find something worth knowing if she looks into his background properly. She assures him she’s already on it, and the two toast quietly over tea.
A Homecoming Surprise
Back home, Luan Nian’s cooking a meat patty with vegetables for the dog, and jokes to Zhitao over the phone about feeding her precious pet better than himself. She asks what he’s actually having for dinner, and he says probably the same. She mentions craving osmanthus milk, and he offers to make it for her once she’s back. “How about now?” she asks, and right as he processes the question, he hears the door code being entered.
She’s home. She throws her bag down and runs straight into his arms for the sweetest reunion yet, telling him how much she missed him before kissing him warmly. He asks if she’s really home, and she admits it’s only brief, she just wanted to see him before heading straight back to the office.
Trouble in Hangzhou
Work pulls her attention fast the moment she’s back on the job. Dony announces a dedicated team heading to Hangzhou for the Xizi Cultural Tourism account, and when Zhitao tries arguing to stay in Beijing as she is managing a project here and she can manage things remotely for Hanzhou, he overrules her flatly, insisting she lead the team on-site herself.
In a private meeting afterward, Dony praises her report, then subtly tries prying her loyalty away from Luan Nian, suggesting anyone handed that much authority and resources would naturally look impressive, dangling faster career advancement if she’d just align herself with him instead. She doesn’t take the bait, defending Luan Nian’s leadership without hesitation.
Back at the office, Tracy raises real concerns about how Dony parachuted into the division without any proper HR approval at all. Luan Nian tells her to quietly dig deeper into his background, then steps back from company affairs on the surface by taking his own annual leave.
A New Enforcer
Around the same time, a rigid new market expert named Will arrives and immediately starts micromanaging Lumi, demanding detailed reports over everything. Frustrated, Lumi nicknames him “the old scholar” and starts suspecting he’s Dony’s plant, sent specifically to push out Luan Nian’s core allies.
Things worsen when Lumi’s father suffers a stroke and needs hospitalization. Terrified Will might deny her leave, she requests it anyway, and he coldly tells her to just follow standard procedure and make sure her work is properly handed over first. Lumi is surprised he let her go.
Pressure Mounts in Hangzhou
At a team dinner in Hangzhou, Dony pushes everyone hard to drink, chasing some artificial sense of camaraderie. When Zhitao and another colleague decline, he keeps pressing until she reminds him plainly that Lime maintains a standing policy against pressuring employees to drink. Eager to score points regardless, Kitty steps up and downs a full glass in his honour.
The next day, Dony questions why a budget proposal requires Luan Nian’s sign-off at all, and Zhitao explains Lime’s mandatory three-part approval process, leaving him with nothing left to argue. Not long after, she’s alarmed to see the same budget approved and paid out anyway, completely bypassing that process.
She calls Luan Nian mid dog-walk to flag it, and he confirms he never signed off on anything, warning her to stay alert. Almost as an afterthought, he asks for Sun Yu’s number too, offering to connect her dating app idea to an investment banker friend of his.
Tension keeps mounting as Dony insists on scrapping Lime’s existing Beijing MCN partnerships entirely, determined to rebuild everything locally from scratch, a call that leaves clients uneasy and the whole team running on fumes.
Meanwhile, Dony keeps vanishing under the excuse of “market research,” when really he’s off buying expensive orchids, browsing galleries, and relaxing in tea houses, offering the team almost no real direction.
One night, a visibly anxious Kitty shows up at Zhitao’s room, begging her to help deliver a proposal to Dony because she’s too intimidated to face him alone. Sensing how genuinely frightened she is, Zhitao agrees. After she closes her door, Kitty comes to her senses and knocks on her door again. Dony opens the door in his bathrobe and finds both of them standing there, his expression sours instantly.
The Truth About Dony
Back at headquarters, Tracy finishes her background check and uncovers something serious, Dony was involved in skimming money through inflated supplier contracts at his last job, quietly resigning before it became a scandal. She brings it straight to Luan Nian, baffled the board would ever hire someone with a record like that.
Luan Nian explains the real motive plainly, board member Mr. He brought Dony in deliberately, retaliation after Luan Nian rallied shareholders to block his Southeast Asia project. He tells Tracy to send Lumi to Hangzhou to quietly trace the money, the ownership structures, and whoever’s actually pulling the strings, determined to expose the whole scheme properly.
Working Through the Vacation
At home during his leave, Luan Nian notices Zhitao staying up late helping Sun Yu rework her dating app business plan. Skimming through it, he points out it’s missing solid data and any real selling points strong enough to catch an investor’s attention.
He grumbles about being roped into work while supposedly on vacation, but helps her polish it up anyway, she’d asked nicely, after all, and pointed out he didn’t exactly have anything better to do.
The Early Spring Episode 16 Recap: My Thoughts
I am loving the addition of this dog. It gives us a whole different side to Luan Nian, and I think he’s probably shocked himself at how much he’s come to love it, most likely because he knows how much Zhitao loves it too, this is his own quiet way of loving her back.
Watching him panic over its wounded paw, unable to stay angry at it for long despite it wrecking his entire apartment, and the dog’s loyalty in return, even pushing Zhang Yao off at the park, is adorable. This dog is impressively well trained, and it’s such a lovely addition to the show.
I’d been hoping Sun Yuanzhu and Sun Yu might become the show’s second couple. Early on, I actually assumed he had feelings for Zhitao instead, though that was never really substantiated, and now I’m wondering if that’s part of what’s driving his rejection of Sun Yu here.
My real suspicion, though, is that it runs deeper than that. He mentioned once, hiking up the mountain, that he’d never want to drag someone else down alongside him, and I can’t shake the feeling he’s dealing with something he’s keeping entirely to himself, maybe even his health. Whatever it is, that rejection landed carefully and gently, and I do feel for Sun Yu here.
The scene where Zhitao surprises Luan Nian coming back from Hangzhou, running straight into his arms, was absolutely beautiful. She looked radiant, genuinely happy, and any man on the receiving end of that kind of joy would feel exactly what he clearly felt in that moment. The kiss itself was passionate but tender, an unmistakable “I missed you” kind of kiss, and she looked gorgeous throughout.
This new, sinister thread with Dony is giving me real anxiety, and something is clearly off with him. Toward the end, when the suspected harassment situation between Dony and Kitty starts brewing, it’s unsettling, and the moment Kitty asked Zhitao to go to his door with her, I was practically pleading with her not to go alone.
Thankfully she didn’t, and I’m hoping the truth comes out soon, especially now that Tracy’s already dug into exactly why he’s really there. Luan Nian stepping back and taking leave feels like a deliberate strategic move, and I have a feeling he’s got something planned, likely drawing attention away from the brewing conflict while Dony tries to muscle into his role as general manager. I’m curious to see exactly how this plays out.
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