Is The Early Spring Based on a Book? Novel vs Drama

The adaptation retains Shang Zhitao’s career and her romance with Luan Nian, but changes how their relationship begins, the male lead and the story’s pacing.

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Yes, The Early Spring is based on the Chinese novel of the same name by Gu Niang Bie Ku, but the adaptation starring Jing Boran and Sun Qian changes important aspects of the relationship between Luan Nian and Shang Zhitao. The series retains the competitive world of advertising, the heroine’s professional growth and the couple’s long emotional evolution. However, the path to that story is less harsh and more romantic on television.

The main difference lies in the starting point. In the book, their closeness begins with a no-strings-attached intimate arrangement, shaped by the imbalance between an experienced boss and an employee still trying to find her place at the company.

In the C-drama, the attraction remains secret and complicated, but there are more caring gestures and situations that help viewers believe in the connection before the relationship becomes physical.

This article discusses the novel’s premise and events from the series’ early episodes, but does not reveal the outcome for Luan Nian and Shang Zhitao.

What book inspired The Early Spring?

The Early Spring, the international title of Zao Chun Qing Lang (早春晴朗), adapts a web novel published by Gu Niang Bie Ku on Jinjiang Literature City. The work follows several years in Shang Zhitao’s life, from her arrival in Beijing as an inexperienced professional to the point when she can more confidently decide what she wants for her career and love life.

Luan Nian holds a position of authority at the advertising agency. He is talented, demanding and impatient, often turning professional criticism into attacks that are hard to separate from the personal. Their attraction does not erase this power imbalance; rather, it is precisely what makes the relationship uncomfortable for much of the novel.

Advertising and Shang Zhitao’s professional growth remain at the heart of the adaptation of The Early Spring. (Courtesy of Youku)

The 24-episode version retains this overall arc. Shang Zhitao arrives in the capital with a résumé that does not impress Luan Nian, lands an opportunity and begins learning the industry’s unwritten rules.

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The adaptation also keeps the idea that both need to mature before they can build a more balanced relationship. What changes is how the script guides that process.

1. The relationship begins differently

In the novel, Luan Nian proposes a relationship that is essentially physical. He does not want to take on the emotional work of dating and tries to treat his closeness with Shang Zhitao as something that can end as soon as it is no longer convenient. She agrees, but the gap between what each expects begins to create frustration, insecurity and resentment.

This beginning matters because the book does not ask readers to immediately see a great love story. The relationship starts out flawed, and feelings emerge in a space where desire, dependence, professional admiration and a power imbalance are intertwined. Shang Zhitao needs to learn that staying beside someone does not necessarily mean being treated as their partner.

The series replaces that direct arrangement with a connection built in stages. Luan Nian is still the superior who initially tries to push her out of the company, but he begins mentoring her, protects the young woman in difficult situations and pays attention to details that even she does not notice.

The secret romance remains a problem within the office, but it no longer seems merely an extension of the authority he holds over an employee.

In the series, intimacy is built through conversations, teasing and small gestures before the relationship progresses. (Courtesy of Youku)

The change does not remove the ethical issue of a boss becoming involved with a subordinate. It simply gives viewers more reasons to understand why Shang Zhitao is drawn to him.

Rather than beginning with a physical arrangement and gradually revealing the affection, the C-drama first shows curiosity, care and chemistry before leading the characters into a hidden relationship.

2. Luan Nian is less cruel and more vulnerable

The Luan Nian of the book is harder to defend. His professional intelligence is paired with arrogance, harsh judgments and a persistent inability to consider how his choices affect Shang Zhitao. Even when he shows attachment, he tries to keep control of the situation and takes a long time to admit that the relationship has stopped being casual.

On television, the character remains brusque, but the script creates counterweights from the start. There are moments of loneliness, family memories and subtle changes in the way he watches the new employee.

His role as a bar singer also breaks up the image of an executive who exists only in meeting rooms. Jing Boran plays these contradictions without turning Luan Nian into a suddenly kind man.

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Luan Nian’s caring gestures make his interest more apparent in the adaptation’s early episodes. (Courtesy of Youku)

The accident during the business trip is a clear example of this strategy. The sequence heightens the melodrama, but puts the two in a situation where they have to save each other.

Afterwards, his care at the hospital and his memory of something Shang Zhitao said about her father reveal that Luan Nian pays attention even when he cannot explain what he feels.

This softening makes the male lead easier to follow as a romantic partner. At the same time, it reduces some of the discomfort that gave the book its identity.

In the original work, Luan Nian’s transformation carries weight precisely because he spends so long confusing affection with possession and honesty with cruelty. The series introduces signs of change much earlier.

3. The series speeds up the romance and better structures Shang Zhitao’s career

The novel follows a relationship that spans several years. Time allows small resentments to build and Shang Zhitao’s professional growth to gradually change the dynamic between the couple. The young woman who initially depends on Luan Nian’s approval becomes able to question both his decisions and the place she has accepted in his life.

With 24 episodes, the adaptation needs to make these changes visible more quickly. Jealousy, misunderstandings, the business trip, the accident and a connection that is spread across a longer period in the book all appear in the early episodes.

The script concentrates events so that the chemistry between Jing Boran and Sun Qian is established before moving into the story’s more painful phases.

A fishing trip turns one of Shang Zhitao’s memories into one of Luan Nian’s first romantic gestures. (Scene/Netflix)

The heroine’s career, meanwhile, is given a more structured progression for television. Shang Zhitao is not granted miraculous talent: she makes mistakes, reworks presentations, learns to document client requests and understands how to protect herself from conflicting demands. Advertising stops being merely the place where the couple meets and becomes the concrete measure of her maturity.

This care is essential because it prevents the character from being defined solely by her relationship with her boss. The more competent and independent Shang Zhitao becomes, the less sense it makes for her to accept a bond guided only by Luan Nian’s rules. Both the book and the series move in that direction, though at different paces.

What does the adaptation gain — and lose — with these changes?

Shang Zhitao and Luan Nian (Scene/Netflix)

The series gains a more approachable couple. Viewers see early on that Luan Nian cares about Shang Zhitao and that the young woman does not stay with him solely out of submission or inexperience. Jing Boran and Sun Qian turn teasing, silences and curt replies into signs of an attraction neither of them knows how to handle.

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The cost of this choice is a less uncomfortable early relationship. The book more forcefully explores how long someone can remain in an unequal bond while waiting for it to become love. In the series, signs of reciprocity appear early enough that viewers have fewer doubts about the male lead’s feelings.

That does not mean one version is automatically better. The novel is harsher in its exploration of emotional dependence and the harm caused by years of poor communication. The C-drama needs to condense that journey and opts for a more balanced mix of romance, melodrama and professional growth.

Is The Early Spring faithful to the book?

Shang Zhitao and Luan Nian (Scene/Netflix)

The Early Spring is faithful to the heart of the work, but does not literally recreate the beginning of the relationship. The series retains advertising in Beijing, the difference in experience between the leads, the hidden romance and the need for both characters to mature. The biggest changes are in tone: Luan Nian is humanized earlier, Shang Zhitao is given a more direct professional journey, and the attraction gets a romantic build-up before intimacy.

For those who first discovered the Netflix production, the book offers a more adult, uncomfortable and emotionally uneven version of the same story. For readers of the web novel, the C-drama works as a reinterpretation that preserves recognizable elements while reshaping the more controversial choices to bring viewers closer to the couple.

regions with original audio and subtitles in multiple languagesazil with the original Mandarin audio, Portuguese dubbing and subtitles. The series is also broadcast by Youku in China and has 24 episodes. Check out the full episode schedule for The Early Spring and meet five actors from the C-drama’s cast.

Anyone still deciding whether to start the series can also read 10 reasons to watch The Early Spring on Netflix.