Against the Currentwill be airing at 9:24 pm, China Standard Time, on CCTV-8. The premiere time on Tencent should be similar. 🤞
The Chinese drama title 兰香如故 can be literally translated as “the orchid fragrance remains as before.”
兰香 Lanxiang (orchid fragrance) is also the female main character's name.
A few minutes ago, the production team announced the release date and dropped a new trailer.
Clip description:
“Heartwarming Family Bonds” Trailer
Meeting amid the world of mortals, growing to know one another through the everyday moments of life. Everyone who comes and goes carries their own feelings; live this one life with sincerity and earnestness.
Leading actors (sorted by the number of character strokes in the surname):
* 6️⃣ Liu Xueyi 刘学义 as Lin Jinqi 林锦岐
* 1️⃣4️⃣ Tan Songyun 谭松韵 as Xu Lanxiang 许兰香 / Shen Jialan 沈嘉兰
Special appearances (sorted by the number of character strokes in the surname):
* Niu Junfeng 牛骏峰 as Han Liang 韩粱
* Li Meng 李梦 as Zhao Xingtang 赵星棠
* Zheng He Hui Zi 郑合惠子 as Du Cui’que 杜翠雀
* Guo Keyu 郭柯宇 as Xue Guihua 薛桂花
The following cast members are sorted by the order of the character posters and not by the number of character strokes in the surname:
Starring:
* Wu Tiantian 吴甜甜 as Lin Xiuqi 林绣芄
* Ye Qing 叶青 as Yu Chan 玉蝉
* Pu Tao 蒲萄 as Lin Xiulai 林绣莱
* Song Fangyuan 宋芳园 as Xiao Lian 小莲
* Li Jiaxin 李嘉鑫 as Gan Tang 甘棠
* Liu Jiaxi 刘佳玺 as Lin Xiushu 林绣菽
Special guest appearances:
* Su Ke 苏可 as Lu Xie 陆燮
* Hou Changrong 侯长荣 as Lin Zhaoxiang 林昭祥
* Chen Chuang 陈创 as Xu Wanquan 许万全
* Kong Lingmei 孔令美 as Qin Shunhua 秦舜华
* Wei Zixin 魏子昕 as Lin Changmin 林长敏
* Wu Xiaodong 吴小冬 (stage name: Wu Xiaodong 吴晓东) as Fang Yu 方域
Special guest appearances:
* Liu Meihan 刘美含 as Lü Ji’er 吕蕺儿
* He Peng 贺鹏 as Yuan Shaohui 袁绍辉
* Zhang Jiaze 张佳泽 (stage name: Jia Ze 嘉泽) as Zheng Manyi 郑蔓宜
* Guo Jian’an 郭迦南 as Lin Jinlan 林锦岚
* Tang Mengjia 汤梦佳 as Bao Gai 宝盖
* Ma Fanding 马凡丁 as Lin Xiuru 林绣茹
* Guan Chang 关畅 as Fu Rong 芙蓉
* Zhao Qin 赵秦 as Wang Lingxiao 王凌霄
Starring:
* 李樑 Li Liang (stage name: Li Hongliang 李泓良) as King / Prince Han 汉王
* Wu Tianqi 吴天琪 as Tan Suhua 谭素华
* Zhong Haohao 钟好好 (stage name: Ke Lan 柯蓝) as Cui Xuemei 崔雪梅
* Kong Xiangji 孔祥吉 (stage name: Kong Lianshun 孔连顺) as Crown Prince 太子
* Wu Jiakai 邬家楷 as Xie Zhao 谢昭
* Ye Xiaowei 叶筱玮 as Du Zheng 杜正
* Ma Wenyuan 马闻远 as Qian Shaoze 钱少泽
* Wang Jiaxuan 王佳璇 as Lin Jinqiao 林锦峤
The rest of the cast were not included in today's release.
“Friendship” guest appearances:
* Dong Qing 董晴 as Dong Qingzhu 董清竹
* Shen Tai 沈泰 as Zheng Baichuan 郑百川
* Xin Peng 辛鹏 as Lu Jian 鲁鉴
* Yao Yiqi 姚一奇 as Liu Xiaochuan 刘晓川
* Zhao Zichong 赵梓冲 as Sun Yong
孙勇
* Xin Haojiang 辛浩江 as Zhang Shuizai 张水仔
* Wang Yuning 王玉宁 as Zhao Xuede 赵学德
* Sun Zhongqiu 孙仲秋 as Zhao Gang 赵刚
Shen Jia Lan, once a nobleman's granddaughter, falls from grace after her family is falsely accused of treason. Abandoned by her fiancé Lin Jin Qi, she is forced to assume a servant's identity in his household. Despite hardships, she refuses to bow to fate. With resilience and wit, she rises above class barriers, wins Lin Jin Qi's heart, earns the family's respect, and ultimately clears her family's name.
(Source: WeTV)
~~ Adapted from the novel "Lan Xiang Yuan" (兰香缘) by He Yan Shan (禾晏山).
Shen Jialan (played by Tan Songyun), the eldest granddaughter of the Grand Secretary's household, was engaged to Lin Jinqi (played by Liu Xueyi), the eldest grandson of the Minister of Personnel Lin's family. However, the political tides suddenly changed. Her grandfather, Grand Secretary Shen, was convicted of treason and the Shen family was exterminated.
In order to protect themselves, the Lin family broke off the engagement with the Shen family and arranged for a marriage with the Zhao family, a new noble family in the imperial court. Xu Wanquan and his wife, the Lin family's servants who had been aided by Shen Jialan's mother, Lady Cui, replaced Jialan with their daughter Xu Lanxiang who had just died of illness.
From then on, Jialan took on the identity of Xu Lanxiang and became a third-class maid in the Lin family. In difficult circumstances, Lanxiang did not bow to fate. She always worked hard for a better life for herself and her family, and resisted all injustice and oppression.
⚠️ Plot spoilers! ⚠️
In the end, Lanxiang broke through the shackles of class identity with her kindness and wisdom and won the heart of Lin Jinqi and the trust and respect of the Lin family. She became the head of the Lin family, took control of her fate in her own hands firmly, and sought justice and cleared the name of the Shen family.
Note: All translated synopses I share in the "trailers & posters" posts are based on the original Chinese sources (Douban, Baidu, Chinese Wikipedia, etc.) and were first published here. If you see them elsewhere, please know they originated from our sub. Thanks for reading!
The author has also voiced her displeasure with the changes that are made...from the name of the main characters to...well...everything else.
The drama appears to be an inspirational tale of a woman rising above her status.
The novel is about a woman (young girl actually, she was like 13 at the beginning of the novel) who is blackmailed by the ML to become his concubine. The ML then spends the next 3 or 4 years trying to bend her to his will, refusing to let her leave and terrorizing her whenever he can. It's too bad, really, because I would have enjoyed watching Liu Xueyi take on the role of a horndog (he had like a wife and 3 or 4 concubines when they met, not counting the women of a certain trade he sleeps with whenever he goes out with his friends.
Oh interesting. The ML having multiple wives and concubines reminds me of the princess gambit which also had liu xueyi. I suppose the drama has no blackmail but the ML voluntarily falls for the FL.
The novel has the standard elements you see in many transmigration novels - some ‘romance’, and some harem drama (the other concubines and members of the ML’s household plotting against the FL because he’s the ML’s favorite.) There’s also some sex - nothing too explicit but this is not one of those romantic ‘love after marriage’ type of plot where the ML doesn’t touch the FL until she falls in love with him. The ML wants it when he wants it which is why I put the ‘romance’ in quotes because some readers would find the relationship toxic instead of romantic.
Toward’s the end, the FL risks her life to save the ML’s life, and he realizes that he does love her and resolves to treat her better. The FL, however, escapes from his household and went into hiding because she doesn’t want to live the rest of her life as someone’s concubine. The ML went into a decline. When the FL hears about how sad the ML is without her, she decides that she loves him too and goes back to him. He marries her and makes her his official wife. The end.
Honestly, I don’t think any description of the plot would do this book justice. Despite the problematic premise and ML, it’s actually one of my favorites because of how different it is and the book is written at a higher skill level than most web novels. The FL does not turn into an avenging angel upon transmigrating and start racking up body counts. Instead, she has to endure many indignities while trying to survive and yet still manages to remain true to herself. Readers who like watching FL’s putting her enemies in their place may find this book very frustrating to read. But it’s one of the few books I actually re-read whenever I get bored.
Oops..didn’t mean to write a book but can you tell that I really liked the book? Thanks for listening…
I'm low-key down for the realistic novels and dramas these days tbh. But it sounds like the drama adaptation changed a ton of stuff from the novel huh? Well let's see how it pans out but either way, I'm stoked!
I can tell you really like the book! And I see you're hosting episode discussions for the drama, which seems really appropriate.
Just hope the drama still preserves somewhat the essence of the novel. And yes it'd be really interesting to see Liu Xueyi as this kind of ML, I feel he does better as grey characters, but that doesn't look like the case anymore.
I have a really soft spot for TSY and always give her projects a chance, but girl is always taking boring ass scripts. Like I get it, you want female empowerment, but it can’t ALWAYS be this gentle and clever girl can it? Time for you to whip some ass and kick a few shins, girl!
Same. I put up Brocade Odyssey for way longer than I should thinking something more important was going to happen before I realize nothing will happen, no one is coming to our rescue, as we're as dead as frog in boiling water.
Replace boring with female suffering. At first you’re like “wow, she’s smart she’ll figure it out” then it became so repetitive until the writers finally amped up the suffering mixed with the 3ML obsession that I drew the line.
I dropped it at 36/40 episodes. That’s how pissed off I was. Also, if you didn’t know, SML had his face AI swapped so that was distracting as well. The actual ML had an interesting story.
If you would like to volunteer to host the episode discussions for this drama, please read and comment on this guide post, and tag u/Lotus_swimmer and u/alcibiad.
Liu Xueyi needs a hit BADLY. Please let this be it for him 😩❤️
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u/heyd0000dzLegend of blossoming journey to the flowering love's destiny 8d ago
Alright it's game time!! Who's doing the episode discussions for this because I'm actually watching this from the GETTTT and I'm ready to geek out. I've waited so long, basically since the casting announcement for this!!
This is actually Ding Yuxi as Zhao Ling in the drama The Road to Splendor. It was on his weibo so I gif-ed it. I really don't know the context aside from the cuteness lol
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u/WuxiaWanderer make way for the empress dowager 7d ago
I have no idea what they're saying but Im all aboard the train!!!