When Time Is Kind: Zhang Xiaoman and Ye Chunchun

“I’ve been through a lot in this life, but I’ve also met the best person.”

In 2007, Zhang Xiaoman is deported from Japan after a painful setback and admitted to a psychiatric hospital with post-traumatic stress disorder. There, he meets Ye Chunchun, the factory director’s daughter, who suffers from severe anxiety caused by academic pressure. Two people shattered by life begin a story of healing one another on a bench in the hospital corridor.

From the hospital to a flower shop, from the depths of despair back to the world. His clumsy devotion helps her emerge from depression, while her unconditional trust embraces his shattered past. When gossip swirls, their parents oppose them, and old wounds begin to ache again, they simply hold tight to each other’s hands and plant a spring of their own in a tiny flower shop of just thirty square meters.

This is a story about how “time may be merciless, but people can still be kind.” From the abandoned factories of Tiexi to the warm lights of the “Spring Fills the World” flower shop; from their first glance in the psychiatric ward corridor to the flower their daughter grasps during her first-birthday ceremony, fifteen years pass before they finally understand:

Time may be harsh, but those who love one another can always wait for spring to fill the world.