General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

When I Fly Towards You (当我飞奔向你)

When I Fly Towards You (当我飞奔向你; Dang Wo Fei Ben Xiang Ni) is a 2023 Chinese coming-of-age romantic comedy streaming series directed by Mao Deshu (猫的树) and starring Zhou Yiran and Zhang Miaoyi, adapted from Zhu Yi's (竹已) campus youth novel Ta Bing De Bu Qing (她病得不轻, also rendered as She's a Little Crazy). It aired on Youku from June 13 to June 29, 2023, in 24 episodes, and closed as Youku's top revenue-sharing drama of 2023 with 60.8 million yuan in revenue-sharing box office.¹^•²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Original title	当我飞奔向你 (Dang Wo Fei Ben Xiang Ni); alternate title 她病得不轻²
Basis	Campus youth novel Ta Bing De Bu Qing (她病得不轻) by Zhu Yi (竹已)¹
Broadcast	Youku, June 13 to June 29, 2023; 24 episodes, daily at 18:00²
Main cast	Zhou Yiran (Zhang Lurang), Zhang Miaoyi (Su Zaizai), Bian Tianyang (Gu Ran), Jiang Zhinan (Jiang Jia), Guo Zhe (Guan Fang)⁴
Commercial result	60.8 million yuan revenue-sharing box office on closing, August 18, 2023; Youku's 2023 revenue-sharing drama champion³
Douban rating	7.8 at the end of the member run, first in Douban word of mouth among Youku's 2023 revenue-sharing dramas³
International streaming	Netflix (in 4K) and Rakuten Viki, with subtitles in English and more than 20 other languages⁵^•⁶^•⁷

Spoilers

Premise and characters

The story opens in the autumn of 2012 at Yucai Middle School in the city of Jiangyi. On the first day of high school, the cheerful, direct Su Zaizai (苏在在, played by Zhang Miaoyi) sees the reserved top student Zhang Lurang (张陆让, played by Zhou Yiran) walking in the rain and falls in love at first sight. Her blunt pursuit gradually opens up a boy who is somewhat closed off to the people around him, and the two grow close alongside their friends Gu Ran (顾然, Bian Tianyang), Jiang Jia (姜佳, Jiang Zhinan), and Guan Fang (关放, Guo Zhe), whose bickering romance forms a secondary storyline.⁴

Zhang Lurang's reserve has a specific cause in the script: he grew up constantly compared with his gifted younger brother Luli (陆礼), his mother favors the brother, and English is his weak subject despite his strong grades, which feeds a quiet insecurity. The family keeps a golden retriever named Susu (酥酥).⁸^•⁹ The drama follows the five teenagers from their first meeting through the end of their student years; the story spans 2012 to 2020, ending with the leads as adults.¹⁰

Production and style

Director Mao Deshu, known to fans as "Cat Uncle" (猫叔), specializes in youth material; his earlier series Such Lovely Us (如此可爱的我们) aired in the summer of 2020 and reached a Douban score of 8.2, topping the Chinese-language word-of-mouth drama chart for four consecutive weeks.¹¹ A signature device in When I Fly Towards You is handheld DV footage shot by the characters themselves, woven into the main storyline; the blurry, timestamped home-video texture became one of the drama's most remarked-upon visual choices.¹²

The production was a Youku revenue-sharing (分账) drama, a model in which revenue is shared on the basis of viewing performance rather than the platform buying distribution rights outright. Youku participated in the project from development onward, visiting the set during shooting, and its web-drama division built the marketing strategy around audience participation, immersion, and companionship. Youku positioned the show for women under 25, judging that both the campus-to-wedding story and its idol-drama coloring pointed to a young female core audience, while betting that a truthful campus story could break the genre's usual audience ceiling.¹²

Release and commercial performance

The drama premiered on Youku on June 13, 2023, with daily updates at 18:00, and ran through June 29.² It finished its member run on August 18, 2023, closing with 60.8 million yuan in revenue-sharing box office, the highest of any Youku revenue-sharing drama that year, and a Douban score of 7.8 that ranked first in Douban word of mouth among the platform's 2023 revenue-sharing titles. The score had risen from 7.6 as the run progressed.³ Industry commentary credited the result to precise casting, solid production values, and the demonstration that campus material could perform in the revenue-sharing category, which had previously been led by costume romance and urban dramas.³

The drama earned industry recognition as well, including the "Fuyao Night 2023 Outstanding Revenue-Sharing Drama" honor and the "Revenue-Sharing Drama Excellence" award at Datawin's (德塔文) 2023 Jingqi awards.⁹

Reception

Reviewers and viewers repeatedly singled out the same qualities: a light narrative built on everyday school life, a female lead who is direct without being passive, and a male lead who is reserved but never coldly withholding. On Douban, user reviews praised the mutual, two-way nature of the romance, in which Zhang Lurang's quiet devotion is revealed to match Su Zaizai's open pursuit, and the treatment of friendship and family affection alongside first love.¹³^•¹⁴^•¹⁵ A commentary on the summer 2023 wave of campus dramas noted that the heroine's open pursuit of her crush, dodging teachers and parents while acting boldly on her feelings, was shown vividly on screen, while cautioning about content direction in dramas aimed at teenage audiences.¹⁶

Long-tail popularity. The show's afterlife has been long for a small-budget campus drama. More than three years after broadcast, fan-made edits, music-driven "memory kill" clips, and platform algorithm recommendations kept generating new waves of attention; in late September 2026 the drama returned to Weibo hot searches with related topic live viewership exceeding 2.79 million, and Douyin topic views for that wave reached 2.8 million. The line "If he is 100 points, then you are 101 points" became a signature quote recycled across fan videos.¹⁷^•¹⁸ Ahead of the second season, Toutiao reported more than 2 billion total plays across platforms, related topic reads above 15 billion, and over 5 million reservations for the new season.¹⁹

International distribution

Beyond Youku, the series streams on Netflix, where it is available in 4K, and on Rakuten Viki, where it carries a 9.7 user rating from more than 112,000 ratings and subtitles in English, Chinese, and over 20 other languages.⁵^•⁶^•⁷ Netflix availability data verified on September 8, 2026 listed the title in 54 of 59 checked regions, with gaps including India, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Bulgaria.²⁰

A second season has been reported as scheduled for August 16, 2026, with 24 episodes over a ten-week run expected to conclude on October 18, 2026. It is planned as a multi-platform release led by Mango TV with first-run network rights, joined by Douyin Select, and a television slot on Hunan TV's youth theater at 22:00 on Sundays through Mondays. The season continues the story of the four leads after graduation as they face work, life, and relationship tests.¹⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › Chinese modern and contemporary drama › Premiered 1998 to 2023

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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