The Early Spring (早春晴朗) Ending Explained: Is It a Happy or Sad Ending? What Happens to Shang Zhitao and Luan Nian

Quick answer: The Early Spring (早春晴朗, Zǎo Chūn Qíng Lǎng) ends happy. The finale aired September 9, 2026, closing out a 24-episode run on 优酷 Youku. Shang Zhitao (尚之桃, Sun Qian) and Luan Nian (栾念, Jing Boran) reunite after their six-year secret relationship ended and years apart followed — she rebuilding her life and her own business away from Beijing, he unlearning the arrogance that cost him the relationship in the first place. Luan Nian proposes in a museum he built himself out of their relationship's own artifacts, their dog wears a sign that says "marry daddy," and she says yes in tears. One thing the drama does not show: the source novel's epilogue, where the couple has a daughter. Chinese coverage confirms that material was cut entirely — no marriage scene, no baby, not even a bonus clip.

Full spoilers for the finale follow.

How the finale actually plays out

By the time the last episodes drop, The Early Spring has already put its leads through the worst of it: a six-year 地下恋情 (dì xià liàn qíng), an "underground relationship" kept secret because of the power gap between a creative director and the junior planner he once tried to push out the door; a breakup driven by misunderstanding and money; and a stretch of years where Shang Zhitao leaves Beijing without a word and starts over.

The finale's job is to earn the reunion, and Chinese recaps of the broadcast (not the novel) are consistent on how it does that: Shang Zhitao spends her years away building an independent life and career on her own terms, and Luan Nian spends his figuring out that the thing that made him good at his job — being right, being sharp, being in control — is exactly what he needs to unlearn to be worth coming back to. Episode 24 is titled, in Chinese, "尚之桃，欢迎你回到北京" — "Shang Zhitao, welcome back to Beijing" — which tells you where the story ultimately lands both of them.

Do Shang Zhitao and Luan Nian end up together?

Yes. And the proposal is the single most specific, most reported scene in the whole finale.

Luan Nian builds what Chinese coverage calls a 时空博物馆 — a "time-and-space museum" — as his proposal, and it is not a metaphor: he physically assembles a small exhibit of their relationship's own objects. Recaps describe a replica of the desk the two of them once shared at work, the fish tank from a fish they kept together, and years of movie ticket stubs, all staged as museum pieces. Their dog — also named Luke, in an echo of Luan Nian's own English office name — plays "assistant," wearing a sign around its neck reading 嫁给爸爸, "marry daddy." Luan Nian kneels with a ring and asks Shang Zhitao whether he can keep a place for himself inside a museum "full of memories." She says yes, in tears.

It's a proposal built entirely out of specific, lived-in objects rather than grand declarations — which fits a show whose emotional violence and, here, its reconciliation both happen through small workplace-adjacent things rather than sweeping gestures.

What the ending doesn't show

The web novel this drama adapts ends further down the road: married, and with a daughter named 念桃 — a name built from a character out of each of their names — with Luan Nian recast as a besotted father. Chinese entertainment coverage published the day of the finale is explicit that the drama stops well short of that: no wedding scene, no daughter, and no bonus footage filling in the gap either. If you've seen the novel's ending summarized somewhere and are wondering why the broadcast version feels like it stops one beat earlier, that's why — the marriage-and-baby material exists, but only on the page.

That's consistent with how the drama has handled its source material throughout: it has been willing to soften and restructure (see how the novel and drama diverge), but this time the choice was to end on the proposal rather than carry the story any further.

Is it a happy ending or a sad one?

Happy, with texture. Chinese coverage summarized the finale's tone as 有泪有甜，有得有失 — "there are tears and there is sweetness; there is gain and there is loss" — which is a more honest description than "happy ending" alone. Nobody gets everything for free. Shang Zhitao's independence is real and it cost her years away from the city and the person she loved. Luan Nian's transformation is real and it required losing her first. The reunion reads as earned rather than granted, which is the entire design of a 追妻火葬场 (zhuī qī huǒ zàng chǎng) arc — the fandom term, already covered in our quotes piece, for the man who has to do real work to win back the woman he once took for granted.

The idioms behind the ending

• 破镜重圆 (pò jìng chóng yuán) — "the broken mirror made round again." The drama's own reunion idiom, already flagged in our quotes coverage as the shape this ending was always going to take. The proposal museum is that idiom made literal: he doesn't ask her to forget the break, he builds a room around it.
• 苦尽甘来 (kǔ jìn gān lái) — "bitterness ends, sweetness comes." The years apart are the bitterness; the proposal is the sweetness. The idiom's usual shape — hardship that resolves into reward rather than hardship that simply stops — matches a finale that insists on showing the work before it shows the payoff.
• 水到渠成 (shuǐ dào qú chéng) — "when water flows, a channel forms." Used for outcomes that arrive naturally once the right conditions are finally in place, rather than being forced. That's the logic the show has been building toward since its own promotional tagline called this a 势均力敌的双向救赎 — an "evenly-matched, mutual redemption." The reunion isn't rushed into the finale; it's what happens once both leads have actually become the people who could sustain it.

Frequently asked

Is The Early Spring's ending happy or sad? Happy. Shang Zhitao and Luan Nian reunite in the finale, and he proposes; she accepts.

Does the finale show them getting married? No. The proposal is the drama's final relationship beat. The novel continues on to a wedding and a daughter, but Chinese coverage confirms the aired drama does not include that material, in the episodes or as bonus content.

How many episodes does The Early Spring have, and when did it end? 24 episodes, airing daily at noon on Youku in China from August 26 to September 9, 2026.

What is the "time-space museum" in the finale? A proposal setup Luan Nian builds himself, filled with physical mementos from the relationship — a recreated shared workstation, a fish tank, and years of collected movie ticket stubs — rather than a real public museum.

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• Is The Early Spring based on a book? Novel vs drama, and what changed
• The Early Spring famous quotes explained: 感谢当年不娶之恩 and 6 more
• 尚之桃 through Chinese idioms: from secret love to 势均力敌
• 11 Chinese idioms every The Early Spring fan should know
• Learn Chinese watching The Early Spring: 北漂、二本 and 8 workplace chengyu