The Early Spring Episode 4 Recap
**SPOILER ALERT**
Table of Contents
TL;DR (Quick Overview)
FOLLOW ME HOME
A dinner meant as a simple thank-you turns into a night of real vulnerability, fishing, a knife-wielding ex-girlfriend, and a friend’s quiet warning about Luan Nian’s painful past. By the time Friday night’s karaoke bar chaos rolls around, jealousy and drunken honesty finally push these two somewhere they can’t easily walk back from.
A Childhood Glimpse
Back in the hospital after the accident, Luan Nian lies awake replaying what Zhitao admitted, that facing possible death, all she could think about was her father’s braised fish and never getting the chance to thank him. It stirs a memory of his own, a flashback to childhood, sick in a hospital bed himself while his father took a business call instead of comforting him, promising the project couldn’t wait and his mother would come look after him soon.
This is our first real glimpse into whatever backstory or trauma shaped Luan Nian into who he is now.
Watching Zhitao toss restlessly in her sleep, her injured arm dangling off the bed, he quietly slides his hand underneath hers for support.
A Thank-You Dinner
Back to the present, he picks her up for the dinner as promised. In the car, he questions why she’s rushed back to work when she’s not fully recovered. She retorts that he’s not fully recovered either, and yet he’s the one driving. He counters that he drives with his hands, not his arms.
He also tells her she doesn’t need to keep thanking everyone all the time, pointing out that showing weakness in this industry only invites competitors to run her over, understanding his sentiment.
When she tries to insist on repaying his kindness, he counters that she saved his life too during the storm, so technically they’re already even, and he’d rather call it even than deal with the back-and-forth of settling favours.
Noticing a car tailing them on the freeway, he shakes it off smoothly before arriving at a secluded countryside eatery. She’s confused walking in, and he jokes he’s not planning to murder her out in the wilderness.
Fishing for Dinner
He has the restaurant cleared for privacy, then leads her out to a pond, telling her if she wants braised fish, she’ll have to catch it herself, clearly remembering exactly what she’d craved while facing danger in the mountains.
The owner, Tan Mian, a former advertising executive turned restaurateur and old friend of Luan Nian’s, offers to net one for her, but Luan Nian insists it’s not as satisfying unless she catches it herself, and she agrees with enthusiasm.
Once the fish is grilled, Luan Nian serves her a portion and carefully removes every bone, and Tan Mian watches, genuinely stunned, clearly having never seen this side of him before. Asked if she’s his girlfriend, Zhitao corrects him quickly, just colleagues, and Tan Mian jokes that he’s never once seen Luan Nian serve anyone like that, girlfriend or otherwise.
A Rare Compliment
Asked what she thinks Luan Nian’s greatest strength is, Zhitao credits his creativity, calling him a prodigy the way everyone in the industry does. Luan Nian scoffs, admitting maybe a decade ago, back when one of his slogans went famous, but he learned fast that no amount of clever advertising saves a product nobody wants to buy. Tan Mian agrees, adding that his real gift is his relentless attention to detail, the same meticulous instinct that makes him so hard on everyone’s work, himself included.
A Dangerous Interruption
The lights suddenly cut out, and when Tan Mian steps out to check the circuit breaker, he finds the lock on the gate cut and Luan Nian’s ex-girlfriend, Zhang Xin, waiting there instead, demanding to see him. Tan Mian tries to turn her away, but she won’t be deterred, and once Luan Nian steps out himself, the confrontation turns ugly fast.
She accuses him of abandoning her after she gave up her life in America and defied her parents to be with him, refusing to accept that their breakup a year ago was mutual, convinced Zhitao must be the real reason they can’t get back together.
He shuts that down completely, insisting it’s none of her concern, but in her desperation, she grabs a knife off the table. As he moves to disarm her, she slices his palm in the struggle. She’s immediately remorseful, dropping the blade, but panics and grabs for it again before he finally manages to wrestle it away entirely.
A Painful History
At the hospital while his hand’s treated, Tan Mian sits with Zhitao and gently clears up any misunderstanding. Laun Nian’s relationship with Zhang Xin was brief and ended long ago, and he isn’t the type to two-time anyone. Zhitao insists there’s nothing romantic between her and Luan Nian and Tan Mian, still visibly stunned, admits she’s the first colleague he’s ever brought to this restaurant.
He shares more than he probably should, that the two of them once worked together at an agency Luan Nian used to own. Tan Mian jokes that he helped bring in over 80 million Yuan worth of revenue and he had never been taken out to dinner.
Asked why they didn’t continue working to together, he cited that it eventually collapsed after burnout, and worse, a betrayal from someone inside their own circle, a wound Luan Nian’s never really recovered from. His own parents, have since forbidden him from starting another agency of his own. Tan Mian warns her never to bring any of this up in front of him directly.
Walking Away From Zhang Xin
Once Luan Nian emerges, hand bandaged, he is ready to leave. Zhitao however is concerned about Zhang Xin but he coldly mentions he’s already called her parents to come take over her care, unwilling to shoulder any more responsibility for her himself.
Luan Nian feels that Tao must think he’s an irresponsible playboy but Zhitao thinks that all relationships are complicated and messy. She believes that all relationships start off with good intentions but people grow and move in different directions at no fault of anyone’s.
When he presses her about her own past relationships and how many she had, she admits she’s only had one but it wasn’t an unhappy breakup but one that was ended amicably. He is surprised by her mature outlook on love.
A Friday Night Out
That Friday, while Zhitao plans to stay in and study English to keep pace with her more polished colleagues but Sun Yu tries to convince her to come out and have some fun with her friends at a bar. She’s clearly not in the mood. Sun Yuanzhu comes home and he hands over her typewriter key L, freshly repaired and invites the girls to a card game night with his friends.
Sun Yu refusing to allow Tao to stay home on a Friday night meant for having fun and relaxing makes her choose between a bar and card games. Tao chooses card games and they meet Zhu’s friends and colleagues including Long Zhentian, a Canadian university friend. Zhentian who speaks fluent English, French and Mandarin mentions he is looking for a Chinese tutor and Zhitao’s roped into a language exchange with him almost immediately.
Mid-game, Sun Yu gets an urgent work call and rushes off, Sun Yuanzhu offering to drive her, and the group starts thinning out as the night wears on. Eager to keep practicing conversational English, Long Zhentian invites Zhitao to a lively new bar nearby.
Crossed Paths
Back at the office, Lumi reminds Luan Nian it’s Friday night, urging him to actually go enjoy himself, but he stays working late regardless, only relenting when friends drag him out to check out their bar’s grand opening.
At the venue, a mix-up over pronunciation leaves Zhitao and Zhentian accidentally ordering twenty martinis instead of two. Wanting to also learn how to improve her alcohol tolerance in a bid to make the most of the situation anyway, they continue to trade language lessons over cocktails.
Across the room, Luan Nian’s friends coax him toward the stage to sing, and he only agrees once he spots Zhitao laughing with another man. By the way, Jing Boran actually started his career as a singer, though he doesn’t perform any of the show’s actual soundtrack, which makes this scene even more convincing.
His performance is magnetic, and for a moment, drunk and swept up in it, Zhitao’s convinced he’s singing directly to her. By the time Long Zhentian returns from the bathroom, the song’s over, and she’s left wondering if she imagined the whole thing.
Luan Nian’s Jealous Rescue
Noticing how drunk she’s gotten, Long Zhentian offers to take her home, only for Luan Nian to step in and physically pull her back. Zhentian tries to pull her back thinking he is a stranger while Luan Nian’s friends step in to try and diffuse the situation by buying him more drinks at the bar. Once it’s established she knows him, Zhentian lets it go.
Outside, thoroughly drunk, she tells him that he’s incredibly handsome even when he’s angry. She likes his duck bill lips and proceeds to cup his face and squeeze his lips as he does his best to try and keep her upright.
As she continues to bear most of her weight on him, he teasingly grumbles about her weight and if she’s not careful she was going to break his arms. She defends herself by quoting her father’s advice about needing to eat well or risk being blown away by the wind, which makes him laugh despite himself.
Nowhere to Go
Once they reach her building, she’s too disoriented to remember which apartment is hers, knocking on the wrong door entirely before a stranger turns her away. Rambling and clearly still not thinking clearly, she shows him the scar on her hand from the mountain rescue, teasing that in the old days, an injury like that would’ve meant they had to marry.
She hugs him, refuses to let hm go and tells him she dreams about him often. Realizing she’s in no state to be left alone, he makes the call to just take her back to his own place instead.
The Early Spring Episode 4 Recap: My Thoughts
This episode gives us an interesting glimpse of a more thoughtful, caring Luan Nian. Him remembering exactly what she craved in a life-or-death moment was such a sweet detail, and that whole fishing sequence, him serving her, bones removed and everything, was a great scene.
I loved watching Tan Mian’s genuine shock at witnessing this side of him, it’s such a nice window into who Luan Nian is beneath all that polish, and a lovely way to properly introduce him into the story.
The Zhang Xin storyline adds real complexity to what could’ve been a flat “playboy” reputation, and I’m curious whether she resurfaces later to cause more trouble. That whole arc also does something quietly important, it shows off just how mature Zhitao’s outlook on love actually is, and Luan Nian’s surprise at that says a lot about what he’s used to.
And of course, we needed some excuse for them to collide outside of work, so the “coincidentally end up at the same bar” plot device does its job, setting the stage for whatever’s coming next. It’s amusing watching how fast Luan Nian’s crumbled, considering he told her to quit outright back in episode one, and now he’s fiercely, visibly territorial over her by episode four.
That drunken hallway scene and the fishing date both feel like proper masterclasses in slow-burn tension, and the shift from cold, public professionalism to this kind of quiet, private care feels completely earned rather than rushed.
I also appreciate that the show doesn’t let the romance get too soft-focus either. Even mid-date, he’s still giving her real, occasionally blunt career advice, warning her that being too polite in this industry just gets you steamrolled.
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