A Touch of Green: Li Xian and Zhang Jingyi’s Upcoming Chinese Drama Has Officially Started Filming

She grew up beside the younger brother, but it’s the older one who has been watching over her all along.

Status: Now Filming Episodes: 24 Genre: Modern · Romance

Good news for fans of modern Chinese romance — A Touch of Green has officially begun filming its first outdoor scene. Starring Li Xian and Zhang Jingyi, this upcoming iQIYI drama is one of the more quietly anticipated C-dramas. It’s a modern love story about growing up, letting go, and realizing that the person you were meant to be with was never the one you were looking at.

🎥 260506 A Touch of Green Filming day 4 #ATouchOfGreen #LiXian #ZhangJingyi

they seem to be enjoying the process…
so lovely to see 🫶🏻 pic.twitter.com/xzCEuie8IP

— li xian 李现 source (@1019source) May 6, 2026

A love story hiding in plain sight

Chen Qing Wu has always assumed she would end up with Meng Qi Ran. They grew up together as childhood sweethearts, always close, always comfortable — the kind of relationship that everyone around them just naturally assumed would lead somewhere. One night, when Meng Qi Ran’s band had a show, she flew in at midnight just to show up for him. But after the performance, Qi Ran was drunk, and it was his older brother, Meng Fu Yuan, who came to bring him home.

Meng Fu Yuan — the eldest son, serious, reserved, and almost entirely unreadable — was never someone Qing Wu felt comfortable around. She always had this nagging feeling that he didn’t particularly like her. That impression started to quietly shift when he returned from a business trip abroad and handed her a gift: a set of porcelain, carefully wrapped and carried thousands of miles without so much as a crack. It was such a small, thoughtful gesture — and it planted a seed of doubt she couldn’t quite shake. Could she have been reading him wrong this whole time?

The moment everything changes

Then comes the scene that changes everything. During a family gathering, Meng Qi Ran decides it’s finally time to propose — but when he looks around, Qing Wu is nowhere to be found. What no one knew was that she was upstairs in the third-floor study, where Meng Fu Yuan had her close and quietly told her to stay still. That single moment speaks volumes without saying much at all.

Looking back, Meng Qi Ran was the restless, exciting kind of love she chased when she was young — something she held for a while and eventually let go. Meng Fu Yuan is something else entirely: steadier, deeper, the kind of love that doesn’t announce itself but simply stays. And as it turns out, he has been quietly in love with her for years, waiting for the right moment to make his move.

About the source material and the team behind it

A Touch of Green is adapted from the web novel Wu Li Qing (雾里青) by Ming Kai Ye He. What makes the production especially exciting is the director attached to it — Qu Youning, who previously helmed the breakout hit The First Frost. That drama was widely praised for its emotional depth, its poetic visual style, and its ability to turn a quiet romance into something that genuinely lingered. If he brings even half of that sensibility to this project, A Touch of Green has a very strong foundation to work with.

Honest thoughts: is A Touch of Green worth watching?

Editor’s take

“The older brother who brings you porcelain from halfway across the world without being asked — that’s not just a character detail. That’s the whole love story in one gesture.”

Let me be upfront: the plot isn’t groundbreaking. A girl, two brothers, a love triangle that resolves in favor of the quieter, more devoted one — it’s a familiar setup in modern C-romance. But familiar doesn’t mean bad, and what matters most with this kind of story is the execution. The novel has been described as a light but emotionally satisfying read, and with the right director and cast, that can absolutely translate into a very watchable drama.

🎥 260505 A Touch of Green Filming day 3 #ATouchOfGreen #LiXian #ZhangJingyi pic.twitter.com/Dcbic0WoI7

— li xian 李现 source (@1019source) May 5, 2026

Li Xian as Meng Fu Yuan is casting that makes a lot of sense once you think about it. He naturally carries that calm, mature, quietly intense quality that the character needs — and the detail that Fu Yuan will wear glasses in the drama (a signature trait from the novel) already has fans excited. As for Zhang Jingyi, this is actually her second drama in the same season after Chasing Dreams, which means she is having quite the year. Whether she brings enough range to make Qing Wu feel fully realized is something we’ll have to wait and see.

The biggest question mark for me is the chemistry. Both Li Xian and Zhang Jingyi have a similar calm, measured energy on screen — which could work beautifully as a slow-burn romance, or it could feel a little flat if the direction doesn’t push them. That’s where Qu Youning becomes so important. He knows how to make restrained emotions feel electric, and that’s exactly what this story needs.

At 24 episodes, it’s a compact run — which I actually appreciate. There’s no room to drag things out, which should keep the romance feeling purposeful and the pacing clean. Overall, A Touch of Green isn’t the most original premise on paper, but the team behind it gives me genuine reason to be optimistic. I’m cautiously watching this one.

Drama details

li xian looks so fine, i can't wait to see the reuters of a touch of green with jingyi hihi pic.twitter.com/3SQHe4XFSD

— 🌸 (@crbfvs) April 23, 2026

Are you adding A Touch of Green to your watchlist? Drop a comment below — are you watching for Li Xian, the slow-burn romance, or just to see if those two leads have the chemistry to pull it off?

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