Chinese Dramas Like The First Frost

Hidden Love is the obvious next step, because it shares The First Frost's world. Sang Zhi, Sang Yan's younger sister, played by Zhao Lusi, falls for her brother's college roommate Duan Jiaxu at 13 and follows him to university in his city years later. Sang Yan is here too, played by Ma Boqian, as the sharp-tongued older brother who later co-owns a bar. It is gentler and lower in angst than The First Frost, with a long crush rather than a second chance, and short at 25 episodes. Chen Zheyuan co-leads.

Never-Ending Summer has the closest shape to The First Frost: two people who meet in school, lose each other and meet again as adults. Zhou Wan, a determined top student played by Bao Shangen, approaches Lu Xixiao, the rebellious heir of a rich family, to pay for her grandmother's care, and they meet again at work ten years later over a factory accident. Daniel Zhou co-leads. Like The First Frost, it is a moody romance about a heroine with a hard family life. It leans on atmosphere more than tight plotting, over 29 episodes.

Love for You is the darker pick for viewers who stayed for The First Frost's heavier second half. Chen Yi and Miao Jing grow up in the same home in a small town in the 1990s, after her mother moves in with his father, and a fire pulls them apart. In 2011 she comes back, a grown woman with a career, and they meet again inside a smuggling case. What links it to The First Frost is a long, unfinished history between two guarded adults. The crime plot takes up as much room as the romance. Song Weilong and Zhang Jingyi lead its 32 episodes.

If The First Frost's high-school flashbacks were your favorite part, A Love So Beautiful gives you a whole drama of them. Chen Xiaoxi, a cheerful girl who is bad at exams, has loved the aloof top student next door, Jiang Chen, since childhood, and the two meet again three years after a breakup. Shen Yue and Hu Yitian lead. It is much lighter than The First Frost, a sweet, nostalgic school romance built on small moments rather than family trauma, and it is short at 23 episodes. Pick it when you want the sweet half without the heavy one.

Dazzling is a 2026 youth romance that follows its couple from school into the years after, as The First Frost's flashbacks do. Qing Ye, a sharp-tongued Beijing heiress played by Guan Xiaotong, is sent to a seaside town after her family falls into trouble and clashes with Xing Wu, Li Yunrui's blond local rebel, who is loyal but held back by money worries. Like Wen Yifan, Qing Ye has to grow up fast once her family can no longer protect her. It is warmer and more about small-town life than The First Frost. It runs 30 episodes.

The Early Spring is the pick for viewers who liked that The First Frost's leads are working adults. Shang Zhitao, a young woman from Harbin with no connections, joins a Beijing ad agency and starts a secret relationship with Luan Nian, its brilliant, sharp-tongued creative director, that lasts for years. Sun Qian and Jing Boran lead. Both dramas give the heroine a job that matters to her and real friends outside the couple. The Early Spring is more of an office drama, with a power gap at work and frank treatment of desire. It runs 24 episodes.

Love Between Lines is a near-fit for viewers who loved the shared-flat half of The First Frost. Hu Xiu gave up architecture to work as an executive assistant, until she is dumped at her own engagement party. Xiao Zhiyu, an award-winning architect played by Chen Xingxu, hires her after seeing her old sketchbook, and they end up sharing a lane house in old Shanghai. He also secretly plays a warlord in a murder mystery game. The second half turns into a revenge story about his father. Lu Yuxiao leads its 28 episodes.

Go Go Squid! is the sugary version of a romance with a proud, prickly hero. Tong Nian, a gifted computer science student, falls for Han Shangyan, the strict, short-tempered founder of a cybersecurity competition team, and much of the drama is about her patiently winning him over. His team, like Sang Yan's friends at the bar, supplies most of the comedy. It has none of The First Frost's heavy family story and is bright from start to finish. Yang Zi and Li Xian lead its 41 episodes.

If Bai Jingting was the reason you watched The First Frost, Destined is his other lead role in our catalog. He plays Gu Jiusi, the carefree son of a wealthy Yangzhou family with a playboy reputation, who is married by mistake to Liu Yuru, a cloth merchant's daughter played by Song Yi. She builds a business while court politics close in on them. It is a historical drama with a marriage-first romance, nothing like The First Frost's setting, and it runs longer at 40 episodes. Come for him, and expect uneven pacing later on.