Xie Zheng × Fan Changyu Spite Kiss

The Pettiest Romantic Scene of 2026

By April 2026, the algorithm had picked a winner. Across TikTok, Twitter, and Weibo, the same eight-second clip kept resurfacing: Xie Zheng (Zhang Linghe) leaning in to kiss Fan Changyu (Tian Xiwei) — not because they were alone, not because the moment called for it, but because her ex-fiancé Song Yan happened to be standing nearby. The kiss is romantic. It is also, openly and proudly, a flex.

This is the Pursuit of Jade spite kiss: a single scene from Episode 35 that combined romance, status reversal, and pure petty energy into the most-shared c-drama clip of the spring.

What Is Pursuit of Jade?

Pursuit of Jade (逐玉, Zhu Yu) is a 2026 Chinese historical romance directed by Zeng Qingjie, adapted from the web novel Zhu Yu by Tuan Zi Lai Xi. It released worldwide on March 6, 2026 on Tencent Video, iQIYI, and Netflix, with a Dragon TV broadcast premiere two days later. Within its first week it debuted at number 6 on Netflix's Global Top 10 Non-English Shows chart.

The premise: during a snowstorm, a heavily wounded Xie Zheng collapses near Fan Changyu's village. She drags him home, patches him up, and accepts a marriage of convenience. He has a sixteen-year revenge plot to finish. She has three younger siblings to feed. Both intend to walk away the moment circumstances allow. They do not walk away. That is the entire show.

Who Is Song Yan, and What Did He Do?

Before any of this, Fan Changyu had a different life. She was engaged to Song Yan — a young scholar from a respectable family. When her father died and her family's status collapsed, Song Yan's mother, Madam Song, demanded the betrothal letter back. Changyu returned it without protest. The Songs treated her like she was beneath them. Song Yan, the supposed love interest, did nothing.

Years later, in Episode 35, Song Yan walks back into her life as a freshly-appointed scholar from the Ministry of Rites — assigned, by the kind of cosmic irony only c-dramas commit to, to teach her etiquette. He doesn't recognize that the high-ranking officer he's being sent to instruct is the woman his family discarded. When he figures it out, he tries to recover his pride by being condescending. It does not go well for him.

The Setup: Song Yan Meets the Marquis

Before the kiss can land, the show has to do its setup work — and Episode 35 is precision-engineered for maximum embarrassment. Song Yan, still trying to assert old-fiancé authority, addresses the man he assumes is just Changyu's "matrilocal husband" — a low-status arrangement where the man marries into the wife's family. He insults him casually. He postures. He performs.

Then Official Liu, who is in the room, panics and explains that the man Song Yan has been condescending to is Marquis Wuan, Xie Zheng — one of the most powerful figures in the empire. Song Yan, in the show's now-iconic framing, literally faints. (This same passing-out moment fueled a separate viral meme — the Xie Zheng Side Eye — built around the look that did the damage.)

The kiss comes after. It's not a dramatic eruption. It's a casual, possessive, slightly amused gesture, performed at exactly the moment Song Yan is conscious enough to register what he's seeing. Xie Zheng doesn't need to say anything. The kiss is the sentence.

Why the Spite Kiss Hit So Hard

The trope of "kiss your partner in front of your ex" is older than cinema. What made this version travel was the specific combination of factors:

• The status reversal — Changyu was discarded for being too low-class. She is now married to the highest-ranking man in the room. The kiss makes that legible without a single line of dialogue.
• The competence-porn payoff — Xie Zheng doesn't shout, doesn't threaten, doesn't even raise his voice. The whole humiliation runs on body language and the implied threat of his title.
• The performative softness — the kiss itself is genuinely tender. It works as romance for fans who don't even care about Song Yan; the spite is icing.
• Loop-friendly framing — eight seconds, clean in and out, no dialogue required. The shot is engineered to be screencapped.

How It Spread

The first wave was Chinese social media — Weibo and Douyin compilations within hours of Episode 35's release in late March. International fans on TikTok caught up within days. The GIF version racked up tens of millions of plays across reposts. By April, the meme had escaped its original fandom: people who had never watched a single episode were using the clip as a reaction GIF for "when your ex DMs you on the day of your wedding," "POV: he finally googled you," and "introducing my husband to the guy who said I'd never make it."

Pursuit of Jade also benefited from the broader 2026 c-drama crossover wave. Western audiences on TikTok had already discovered Joy of Life Season 2, Story of Pearl Girl, the Pursuit of Jade gua sha scene, and the Xie Zheng side eye. The spite kiss was the moment that pushed casual viewers into typing "what's the name of this drama" into the YouTube comments at three in the morning.

The Wider Pursuit of Jade Kiss Universe

For completeness, this isn't the only kiss the show went viral with — it's just the funniest one:

• Episodes 14–15 — Drunk Window Pin: Xie Zheng catches a drunk Fan Changyu and kisses her against a lattice window. The first major kiss of the show.
• Episode 28 — "Say You Love Me": Xie Zheng asks Fan Changyu to say the words. She kisses him instead.
• Episode 33 — Lin'an Party Window Kiss: Another window. Another kiss. The fandom is consistent in its taste.
• Episode 35 — The Spite Kiss: The one this article is about. The internet's favorite.
• Episode 38 — Consummation Kiss: The one the censors barely let through. The Veimia fan blog called the deleted version "the cut that should never have been cut."
• The Drugged Love Bite: Xie Zheng, drugged by enemies, marks Fan Changyu's neck. Different vibe entirely.

Face Swap the Pursuit of Jade Spite Kiss

Want to be the one delivering the kiss heard round the kingdom? Or receiving it in front of the most embarrassed man in the room? The frame is one of the friendlier c-drama scenes for face swapping — both leads are positioned with clean angles, even lighting, and the motion is slow enough that frame-to-frame consistency holds up.

On MEEMES, upload a selfie, pick the Pursuit of Jade kiss template, and pick your role. Difficulty is medium — the period hair and headpieces add a small amount of visual noise — but the result lands. You will, briefly, be the most dramatic version of yourself in about five seconds. Bonus points if you tag your actual ex.