LayarHijau – The Chinese drama The First Frost starring Bai Jingting and Zhang Ruonan has become a massive success both in China and internationally. Adapted from the novel Difficult to Coax by Zhu Yi, the drama broke multiple records during and after its release on Youku and Netflix. Difficult to Coax is the second novel in the Nanwu-Yihe series. The first novel, Secretly, Secretly but Unable to Hide It, was previously adapted into the drama Hidden Love.
Just like Hidden Love, The First Frost also contains several differences from the original novel. Some of those changes were likely influenced by Chinese broadcasting regulations and censorship.
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The First Frost follows the complicated romance between Sang Yan and Wen Yifan. The two secretly liked each other in high school, but misunderstandings and circumstances forced them apart for years. As adults, they unexpectedly reunite in Nanwu while already working, and their relationship slowly develops again as old feelings and unresolved pain resurface.
One interesting detail from the novel is the popularity Sang Yan and his close friend, Duan Jiaxu, enjoyed during their college years.
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The novel that inspired the hit Chinese drama—streaming on Netflix! A sweet story about a high school crush that might just become a real chance at romance..
Volume 1.
The topic comes up when Wen Yifan reunites with Zhong Siqiao and Xiang Lang, her childhood friends since kindergarten. After Xiang Lang returns to Nanwu, he invites everyone to a small reunion dinner. Sang Yan later joins them together with his college friend Su Hao’an, and the group spends the night chatting over hotpot.
During the conversation, Su Hao’an casually mentions Duan Jiaxu and reveals that Sang Yan once secretly traveled to Yihe to visit him. That comment eventually leads to stories about Sang Yan and Duan Jiaxu’s college days.
Zhong Siqiao explains that the two were extremely famous on campus because they were in the same major, same class, and even shared the same dormitory. They were widely known as the “twin heartthrobs” of the Computer Science Department.
According to Zhong Siqiao, it all started with a viral university forum thread discussing the most attractive and popular students on campus. Students uploaded secretly taken photos of the people they considered the best-looking from different departments, and Sang Yan and Duan Jiaxu quickly became two of the most frequently mentioned names.
What made the discussion even funnier was that almost every photo of Sang Yan included Duan Jiaxu somewhere in the frame, while photos of Duan Jiaxu almost always included Sang Yan too.
“Then everyone suddenly realized that in more than 80 percent of the photos, they were always together,” Zhong Siqiao says in the novel.
Because they were constantly seen eating together, walking together, and appearing side by side all over campus, many students started seeing them as inseparable. On top of that, neither of them was ever seen getting close to girls throughout their four years in college. Eventually, rumors spread across campus that the two were secretly dating.
The rumors became so widespread that many students jokingly referred to them as the “handsome couple” of the Computer Science Department. Su Hao’an even complained that he and the other friends practically became invisible in photos whenever Sang Yan and Duan Jiaxu appeared together.
“That’s because people were biased! Qian Fei and Chen Junwen were also in those photos, but everyone ignored them because they weren’t handsome enough,” Su Hao’an joked.
Zhong Siqiao also reveals that many girls who liked Sang Yan considered Duan Jiaxu their biggest romantic rival because he was always by Sang Yan’s side.
Interestingly, the rumors eventually influenced Wen Yifan as well. At first, she was simply curious about Duan Jiaxu after hearing his name repeatedly during the conversation. But after learning how close he and Sang Yan had been during college, Wen Yifan couldn’t help feeling jealous and even subconsciously viewed Duan Jiaxu as her romantic rival.
Meanwhile, Sang Yan’s popularity is hinted at from the very beginning of the novel. After graduating, he and several college friends open a bar together near Wen Yifan’s workplace. The bar becomes quite famous in the area, especially because the owner is rumored to be extremely handsome and often stays there in person.
Zhong Siqiao even persuades Wen Yifan to visit the place because she wants to see the attractive owner everyone keeps talking about. At the time, Zhong Siqiao has no idea that the owner is actually Sang Yan. Wen Yifan also never expects to reunite with her first love there. The scene shows that Sang Yan remained just as popular even after college.
Duan Jiaxu’s popularity is also repeatedly highlighted in Secretly, Secretly but Unable to Hide It. One memorable example happens when Sang Zhi is still in middle school and asks Duan Jiaxu to pretend to be her older brother during a meeting with her homeroom teacher.
During the scene, Duan Jiaxu immediately catches the attention of Fu Zhengchu’s older sister, who repeatedly steals glances at him inside the teachers’ office. Sang Zhi even notices it and quietly shifts her body to block the woman’s line of sight.
After the meeting ends, the woman nervously gathers the courage to ask for Duan Jiaxu’s contact information. However, Duan Jiaxu only glances at her briefly without giving a direct answer. The silence alone is enough to make his rejection clear.
Seeing the uncomfortable atmosphere, Sang Zhi suddenly blurts out, “My brother has already dated twenty-nine girls.”
She then adds, “He changes girlfriends every day. This month he’s still missing one, maybe it could be you.”
Sang Zhi’s unexpected comment immediately makes Duan Jiaxu turn toward her with a frown. Even so, he still refuses to give the woman his contact information, making the rejection even more obvious without saying it outright. Meanwhile, the woman becomes visibly embarrassed as the atmosphere grows increasingly uncomfortable.
The scene became one of the novel’s memorable examples of Duan Jiaxu’s popularity among women. Interestingly, both Sang Yan and Duan Jiaxu are portrayed as extremely popular men from a young age, yet both end up experiencing complicated love stories filled with misunderstandings and emotional struggles. The particular scene was omitted from the drama adaptation.
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