EU - Shanghai - EU

I have 2 questions, and I'm asking since I got conflicting answers for these:
For the 144 hour transit Visa to Shanghai:
1) Does coming from an EU country and returning to another EU country is okay?
2) When they check for which country you got from and returning to - do they check:
(a) the direct flight in/out of China, or
(b) The first origin and final destination?

My flight is:
Malaga->Amsterdam->Shanghai
Shanghai->Paris->Malaga

I was told by people in this forum - that what matters is the direct flight in/out - i.e. they will look at Amsterdam->Shanghai->Paris without caring about Malaga
But I called now China Eastern, which is the airline I'm flying with and they told me it is not valid since I'm flying and returning to Spain (Malaga) - and that also if I flew from on EU country to the other - it wouldn't be valid.
(I have to mention there's a lot of confusion on the 144 hours free transit, and even embassies dont know enough about it)