ninan

Character development Weise, I would say ML made a bigger improvement than the FL. I hope FL could improve more though. But I’m ok with what it is at the end. Good enough.

The office romance is for me just a set up. In the core it’s an old CEO story. ML and FL are with imbalanced power, which could be wealth like in Meteor Garden or Flower Boys, magical power like in Love between Fairy and Devil, social status like in those historical romance dramas. An arrogant, dominant Alfa ML to start. In the end love changed him. Authority abuse is a common trope at the first arc of these stories. It is old but effective all the time. Anyway, I think this story is unique is because it fully focused on two leads. We are so tired of annoying second FL and second ML, annoying in-laws, etc. None is in this story. It is a story purely driven by the characters of ML and FL. Another unique thing is although the office romance set up is a fantasy, the presentation of their relationship is surprisingly real. A lot of people could relate their problems to their own and feel connected.

Nice to talk with you about the real plots, not just the surface discussion of the plot device.

Agree with you but also disagree some parts. You said totally right. It's a romance fantasy. What you talked about the wrong ML did is all valid. But it's the point of the drama. The drama wants to say it is wrong. What ML did is wrong and what FL did is also not totally innocent. And their relationship is never merely a story of one-sided harassment as someone claimed. It's so messed up, exhausting yet attractive in a strange way. That's why so many people invested into it. Honestly speaking, I doubt if any adult with working experience can not tell Luke is just a delulu figure. The reality is that nobody will sleep with her boss shortly after she starts to work. I mean common sense not some rare cases, which I believe do exist. So this drama is just a fantasy to start with. So seriously has to pin the ML to sexual harassment is nowhere to begin with. My only complaint is the drama should be marked with PG18 not PG13. Not because of the intimate shots but because of this kind of argument. People could not tell difference between reality and drama. As an adult viewer, I clearly know it is just a drama set up. I fully focused on the relationship tangos between the two leads.

If you really watch the drama, you can tell it's the girl, who is at the upper hand of this relationship all the time. She is the one to lead the relationship. Not He. From the beginning to the end. All the turning points of their relationship all started from her including their first night. She chose to be attracted to this man and attract him at the same time. She got what she wanted and the toxic relationship is not just from one end. That's why Sun Yu never really pulled her away. It's her choice and she lived with that choice.

I think your mind stuck at the idea that this relationship is forced from one side. But from the story presentation, it is obviously not the case. The girl is not the innocent and obedient one. That's why I say it's two very flawed characters. Everybody can tell the man is badly flawed, but the girl is not so obvious one. She is clearly very career oriented but she also could not let the desire of getting this man go. She wanted both. The first night was definitely the result of such conflicts. Starting from here, both sides made mistakes in turns. Very complicated relationship which you maybe should not just simply pin it as harassment from one side.

I think the difference is that so-called toxic relationship here in The Early Spring is never generated from outside. No toxic third-wheel, no toxic family, no toxic in-laws, no toxic colleagues or friends, etc. Actually they might have one of the most healthy working, friends and family (ML's father did give some influence on ML's personality though) environment in cdramas. It is just down to these two characters, both heavily flawed in my opinion. It started with physical attraction mainly, but you can still get it, that it's not only physical, there are sth else between them pulling them together, sth even themselves could not tell. This pull and drag process is toxic and attractive at the same time. In the end they finally figured out a way to permanently tie together. The whole process is exhausting but satisfying.

Agree. And in real life, 99% people will not automatically link weight losing, having family issues to depression. Maximum they could think of is like work stress, relationship stress. We know the story, so people think the roommates should be aware of it earlier but in reality, NO way you notice it and figure it out early. Actually a lot of depressed people even themselves do not realize that they have depression.

"They could have sent him care packages "for fun" with high-calorie Beijing specialties, have Zoom dinner parties, etc. " I felt the culture difference. And I think my point is HE did not want to be figured out his condition. He showed clearly to others that it's his private matter, and he did not want others to step in. I don't see any problem that his friends respected his decision. And in real life, it's a delusion that you could save a severe depressed patient by pushing him. Actually you are making things even worse.

Roommate boy has been relocated to North West China for working for quite a while. After FL went to North West China for new projects, she just reunited with this boy for the first time after a long time. So she could tell that he lost a lot of weights. I'm sure she will mention this to other roommates, but what can the other roommates do? The other two are still in Beijing. She is working too. Besides verbally showing concerns, what else can they do? All asking for leave and fly to the city to take care of him? Losing weight is a sign but seriously in real life how many people will immediately link weight losing to depression or other serious situations? Besides the boy was hiding his condition carefully all the time.

In real life you actually see this kind people are even more cheerful than others before they do sth shocking. You absolutely can not tell his condition. Coming from real life experience: cheerful and always funny colleague committed suicide. His family revealed later he had depression and we totally did not see it.

I'm totally fascinated by the ML and FL. SML is not my cup of tea. He is popular on Chinese TikTok and Weibo in China, where is more fandom dominated. Well, the actor of SML is an idol. Anyway, I also feel that the production team is up to promote SML too. They cut away way too many scenes of the ML and FL, which ends up a very chopped storyline for ML and FL. In the end, the only character in the whole drama, who owns a complete storyline and character development path is the SML. Such a pity! If they could focus on the main characters, the drama could work out a lot better. Yes, it had potentials.

Sorry. ML and FL has way more interesting and entertaining moments. Personality wise FL needs an emotional stable partner since herself is such a firecracker already. If the same thing happened to the 2ML, the moment he knew, he would have probably shot CXQ plus hurt FL already.

I like your thought. Yes, to emphasize her roll as a female general not just someones wife or a mother.

Love like the galaxy. Even same scriptwriter.

Yes, saw the mini trailer and some leaked onsites shots. Soooo good, especially CXX. It might be his another life time historical character after Li Cheng Yin in Good Bye My princess. Finally he got the chance to play another grey and complicated character.

The story in the VR game links to the reality. Governor Qin’s father was linked to some crimes. With one evidence submitted, you can totally destroy Qin’s possibility of becoming the mayor. Sounds familiar? They leave bread crumbs in the VR story for what happened in the past.

I did not catch that talking. :-D
My feeling is that his mum remarried very soon. Sth fishy in the whole older generation story. But I guess that is what the rest episodes for. :-)

Well, so far, he treats his mum kind of cold as a son. And his mum treats him like she did sth wrong and carefully does not poke his son at things. So there are sth there. Maybe misunderstanding, but definitely not a happy mother son bond.

General yes, that's the point. He doesn't want to be remembered with the surname Xiao. He told FL to call him Yu Zong. He must have done this to all other people too. He wants to leave the surname Xiao behind in his business. Any name but Xiao will do .

It is not his real surname. His real name is Qin Xiao Yi, the name of the NPC in the VR game. And he suspected his mother and her current husband have sth to do with his dad's suicide. So the grudge towards using his mother's surname.

I like e-Sport related dramas. recommend Falling into Your Smile, Go Go Squid, You are my glory, love 2O2. all available on vili.

Cdrama has the best school dramas. Recommend When I fly towards You amd Always Home.

For the fantasy genre I would start with Love between Fairy and Devil.

For the historical dramas, revenge genre is easy to start with. Recommend The Double and Blossom. After you are familiar with Chinese traditional culture, you can try the difficult bu absolutely top notch cdramas: Zheng Huan Zhuan and Nirvana in Fire.

Well, I enjoyed the second half even more, with more conflicts and further political stories. Their relationship blooms beautifully in these circumstances. They respect and support each other and fight together for their happy ending. I love it so much. One of the best married couples in cdrama land. :-)

Jiang Shu is the baby in ep4, son of the late Duke of Ding, cousin of Song Mo.