A Love So Beautiful
A Love So Beautiful is a 23-episode Chinese youth drama from Tencent Video. It aired from November 9, 2017 to December 7, 2017, and all episodes are out. In the US it streams officially on Viki (free with ads) and iQIYI (VIP, episodes 1-5 free), checked October 25, 2026. It is adapted from a novel by Zhao Qianqian.
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Is it worth watching?
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Viewers who want a short, nostalgic school romance with a bright heroine and a cool, aloof crush
What viewers score it
The story, without spoilers
What to Expect
We haven't watched this one. This section is based on the official episode synopses, the production's own descriptions and Chinese and English coverage, and we'll replace it with a verdict once we have one.
A Love So Beautiful is a light, nostalgic school romance. Chinese coverage often compares it to Itazura na Kiss, the Japanese story about an airheaded girl who loves a cold genius, and the comparison fits: Xiaoxi is endearing and hopeless at school, and Jiang Chen hides his feelings behind teasing and disdain. The conflicts are small and personal: a jealous class president, an exam, a choice of university, a fight that goes on too long. It is the kind of drama Chinese viewers call qingchun (youth) drama, built on uniforms, bicycles, school festivals and summer light.
What viewers praised. Coverage at the time credited the leads' chemistry and the drama's warm, sunlit look, and it is widely credited with making Hu Yitian and Shen Yue stars. It was a hit for Tencent Video. Sources disagree sharply on its views: Mirror Media reported 1 billion by late November 2017, beauty321 later cited 4.4 billion, and English Wikipedia gives more than 10.5 billion. It won Best Web Series at the 2018 Hengdian Film and TV Festival and was named one of the year's top ten web series at the China Pan-Entertainment awards. It holds a 7.1 on Douban, according to a beauty321 round-up from December 4, 2022.
What viewers complained about. The usual complaints are about its simplicity. Some viewers found the plot thin and the conflicts low-stakes, and some found Jiang Chen's coldness toward Xiaoxi more unkind than charming in the early episodes. One Italian review (AnimeClick) felt the last episode didn't give the story a real conclusion. Others questioned the three-year time skip, which resolves the big breakup quickly.
Pacing. Episodes run about 45 minutes, and most of the runtime is spent in high school. University and the adult reunion take up only the last third or so.
Content notes. There is bullying at school, a classmate's staged suicide scare, a character with a serious heart condition and a parent's surgery. Nothing is graphic.
The Story
Chen Xiaoxi has loved Jiang Chen, the boy who lives next door, for as long as she can remember. She is cheerful, clumsy, good at drawing and terrible at exams. He is the school's top student, handsome, cool to everyone and especially cool to her, at least on the surface. Through their last years of high school she chases him openly while a swimmer named Wu Bosong quietly falls for her, and their friends pair off around them. A Love So Beautiful (致我们单纯的小美好) is a 23-episode Tencent Video web series from 2017, with one extra special, starring Shen Yue and Hu Yitian. It is based on a novel by Zhao Qianqian (赵乾乾) and became one of the most-watched Chinese school romances of its time, both in China and abroad.
The story moves from high school to university and then jumps forward three years, when the two meet again as adults. It spawned two loosely connected follow-ups from the same producers and has been remade in Korea and Thailand.
Release Notes
A Love So Beautiful premiered on Tencent Video on November 9, 2017, releasing two episodes every Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m. Sources disagree on when it ended: English Wikipedia gives December 7, 2017, while TheTVDB lists the last three episodes and the special on December 14. The difference may reflect VIP members watching ahead of free viewers, but we haven't confirmed that. Yang Long (杨龙) directed it, Huace and Tencent Penguin Pictures produced it, and it was filmed in Zhuji and Hangzhou in spring 2017.
Internationally, Chinese Wikipedia says the full series went up on YouTube for US viewers on November 24, 2017, on an official channel. From the US on October 25, 2026, Viki had all 24 episodes, counting the special, free with ads, and iQ.com had the 23 episodes, with 1 to 5 free. Netflix has listed it in some countries, but we couldn't check that ourselves.
There is no second season. Two later dramas from the same production line share its title format but tell new stories: Put Your Head on My Shoulder (致我们暖暖的小时光, 2019) and Make My Heart Smile (致我们甜甜的小美满, 2021). The story was remade in Korea as A Love So Beautiful (KakaoTV and Netflix, 2020) and in Thailand by GMMTV in 2024.
The theme song, "How Much I Like You, You'll Know" (我多喜欢你，你会知道), is sung by Wang Junqi. Hu Yitian sings the ending song, "Is It a Dream" (是梦吧).
Does A Love So Beautiful have a happy ending?
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We have not finished this one ourselves; this is based on outside sources.
In Brief
Ending spoilerShow the ending in brief
A Love So Beautiful has a happy ending. After a three-year separation, Chen Xiaoxi and Jiang Chen get back together. She publishes her first comic, he becomes a doctor, and they get engaged in the final episode. Their friends Lin Jingxiao and Lu Yang marry, and Wu Bosong moves on.
Full Ending Explained
Full spoilersShow the full ending
This account comes from published episode synopses (TheTVDB and TVmao) and Chinese coverage, not from watching.
The breakup. In their university years, Jiang Chen is offered hospital training in Beijing. He has already turned down Tsinghua, a choice his mother disapproves of and that recaps tie to Xiaoxi, and Xiaoxi has been preparing for an art exam after a Hangzhou school rejects her. The two have a major fight, and he leaves for Beijing without contacting her. Around the same time, his friend Lu Yang, who has a heart condition, needs surgery, and Jiang Chen asks his mentor for help.
Three years later. The drama jumps three years ahead. Xiaoxi's father needs an operation, and the surgeon arranging it turns out to be Jiang Chen. In the episodes that follow, they talk through what went wrong, and he asks for another chance. He helps her self-publish her comic.
Wu Bosong. Wu Bosong, who has loved Xiaoxi since high school, proposes to her knowing what her answer will be. When Lin Jingxiao and Lu Yang are shopping for wedding rings, they come across a ring Wu Bosong had prepared for Xiaoxi, which shows how long he waited. He later leaves for a swimming competition and his own future.
The last episode. According to TVmao's synopsis of episode 23, Xiaoxi commits to drawing comics. At a celebration for her first book, tipsy, she ends up proposing to him. He later proposes properly, in a hospital room, with a ring lowered on a balloon made from an inflated surgical glove. He takes a call from her mother, who is trying to set her up on a blind date, and announces that they are together. Her father tests him with a drinking session. Her first book signing starts with almost no one there, until their friends arrive to fill the room.
Lin Jingxiao and Lu Yang. The second couple gets its own resolution. Lu Yang, who has quietly admired Lin Jingxiao since high school, confesses with Jiang Chen's encouragement, and the two start dating in their university years. His heart condition hangs over their story, and Jiang Chen asks his own mentor for help with Lu Yang's surgery. By the final episodes they are married, and Chinese Wikipedia's character notes confirm the marriage.
The special. The series has one extra episode after episode 23. We haven't confirmed its content, so this account doesn't cover it.
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Cast and characters
- Chen Xiaoxi (Shen Yue): sunny, clumsy and persistent, with a gift for drawing that becomes her career as a comic artist.
- Jiang Chen (Hu Yitian): the top student next door, distant since his father's death and gentler underneath than he lets on. He becomes a doctor.
- Wu Bosong (Gao Zhiting): a warm, straightforward swimmer, the second lead who loves Xiaoxi and never quite gets over her.
- Lin Jingxiao (Wang Ziwei): Xiaoxi's level-headed best friend. Her teenage crush is the school doctor; her real love story is with Lu Yang.
- Lu Yang (Sun Ning): Jiang Chen's cheerful best friend, who hides a heart condition.
- Li Wei (Lü Yan): the class president, who likes Jiang Chen and makes Xiaoxi's life difficult.
- Li Shu (Zhang Hehaozhen): the school doctor, who resigns and, according to Chinese Wikipedia, later works in Africa with an international humanitarian medical group.
- Qiao Lu (Wang Jiahui): Li Wei's close friend in Class 8, who joins in picking on Xiaoxi.
- Su Mu (Zhou Zixin): Jiang Chen's colleague after the time skip, a joking orthopedic doctor who belongs to the adult half of the story.
Identity Reveals
Ending spoilerShow identity reveals
There are no hidden identities. The nearest thing to a reveal is Lu Yang's heart condition, which he keeps from his friends until he collapses, and the depth of Jiang Chen's feelings, which the drama reveals through things he did for Xiaoxi without telling her.
The novel behind it
The drama adapts Zhi Wo Men Dan Chun De Xiao Mei Hao (致我们单纯的小美好) by Zhao Qianqian, a Chinese web novel later published in print; an edition from Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing came out in September 2015. Chinese readers sometimes call it a Chinese answer to Itazura na Kiss. As far as we know, there is no official English translation.
Differences from the Novel
Ending spoilerShow the differences
We haven't found detailed Chinese coverage comparing the two, so treat this section as provisional. The broad outline, a clumsy girl, a cold top student next door, a separation and a reunion as adults, is shared. Adaptations of this kind usually add school-era subplots and supporting romances to fill a 23-episode series, and Chinese coverage of the drama describes the second couple, Lin Jingxiao and Lu Yang, as a big part of the show's appeal. We'll update this section when we can confirm specific changes.
Novel Ending
Full spoilersShow how the novel ends
As far as we know, the novel also ends with Xiaoxi and Jiang Chen together. We haven't confirmed the details of its last chapters, including whether they marry on the page, and we'll update this when we have.
- Original title
- 致我们单纯的小美好
- Author
- Zhao Qianqian 赵乾乾
- First published
- Other
- In English
- No official translation that we know of
Words and customs you'll hear
Choosing a university
Chinese students' university options depend on their gaokao score, the national entrance exam, and a top scorer like Jiang Chen could choose almost anywhere. Tsinghua, in Beijing, is one of the country's two most prestigious universities. His decision to turn it down, which recaps connect to Xiaoxi, is a huge gesture, and his mother's disapproval is what most Chinese parents would feel.
Art school and the art exam
Students who want to study fine art in China take a separate specialist exam on top of the gaokao. When Xiaoxi decides to prepare for it, she is choosing a different route into university that plays to her strengths, which is why it becomes her turning point.
One class, three years
Chinese high school students are assigned to a numbered class, such as the drama's Class 8, and they stay together in the same room for most of their lessons, often for three years, while teachers come to them. That's why the same small group of friends, rivals and crushes sees each other all day, every day, and why a class president like Li Wei has real power over a classmate's life.
Youth dramas
Qingchun (青春), "youth", dramas are a whole genre in China: nostalgic stories about first love in high school and college. A Love So Beautiful helped set the template in 2017, with a sunlit look, school uniforms and a reunion as adults, and many later shows, including Hidden Love, use the same structure.
A Love So Beautiful FAQ
How many episodes does A Love So Beautiful have?
A Love So Beautiful has 23 episodes, each about 45 minutes, plus one extra special. It ran on Tencent Video from November to December 2017, and all episodes have been available since. Some international listings count the special as a 24th episode, so you may see either number.
Where can I watch A Love So Beautiful?
From the US on October 25, 2026, Viki had all 24 episodes, counting the special, free with ads. iQ.com, iQIYI's international site, had the 23 episodes, with 1 to 5 free and the rest for VIP members. Netflix has listed it in some countries. In China it streams on Tencent Video.
Does A Love So Beautiful have a happy ending?
SpoilerShow the answer
Minor spoilerReveal whether it ends happily
Yes. After a three-year separation, Chen Xiaoxi and Jiang Chen reunite, and the final episode ends with them engaged, her parents won over and her first comic published. Their friends Lin Jingxiao and Lu Yang marry. Wu Bosong, the second lead, does not get the girl.
Why do Chen Xiaoxi and Jiang Chen break up?
SpoilerShow the answer
Ending spoilerReveal why they break up
During university, Jiang Chen is offered hospital training in Beijing. After a major fight with Xiaoxi, he leaves without contacting her, and they lose touch for three years. They meet again when he arranges her father's surgery, talk through the misunderstanding and get back together.
Who does Wu Bosong end up with?
SpoilerShow the answer
Minor spoilerReveal what happens to Wu Bosong
No one, by the end of the drama. Wu Bosong loves Xiaoxi for years and proposes knowing she will say no. Her friends later find the ring he had prepared for her. He leaves for a swimming competition, and the story sends him to his own future rather than a new romance.
Is there a season 2 of A Love So Beautiful?
No. There is no direct sequel. Put Your Head on My Shoulder (2019) and Make My Heart Smile (2021) come from the same production line and share the title style, but they have new characters and stories. The drama was also remade in Korea in 2020 and Thailand in 2024.
Is A Love So Beautiful based on a novel?
Yes. It adapts Zhi Wo Men Dan Chun De Xiao Mei Hao (致我们单纯的小美好) by Zhao Qianqian, a Chinese romance novel that was published in print in China. As far as we know, there is no official English translation, and we don't link to unofficial ones.
What is the Korean remake of A Love So Beautiful?
The Korean remake, also called A Love So Beautiful, aired on KakaoTV and Netflix from December 28, 2020, with Kim Yo-han as the cool top student and So Joo-yeon as the girl who loves him. GMMTV made a Thai version in 2024. Both follow the same high-school-to-adulthood structure.
Who sings the A Love So Beautiful theme song?
The theme song, "How Much I Like You, You'll Know" (我多喜欢你，你会知道), is sung by Wang Junqi. Hu Yitian, who plays Jiang Chen, sings the ending song "Is It a Dream" (是梦吧), and Feng Jiaqi sings the insert song "Little Beauty" (小美好), named after the drama's Chinese title.
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