Love Has Fireworks: The Shanghai Roommate Romance Set in Investment Banking

Why this one

Most workplace romances in the dushi (都市, "urban") mould pick a career and then forget it by episode five. Love Has Fireworks (爱情有烟火, Aiqing You Yanhuo) builds its premise on the career itself. Li Yifei (李亦非), played by Tan Jianci (檀健次), is an investment-industry high-flyer whose big bet has gone wrong. Qian Fei (钱菲), played by Wang Churan (王楚然), is a young finance worker in Shanghai whose engagement, job and housing plans have all come apart at once. They end up sharing a flat, then meet again across the same office, and the show runs their friction at home and at work side by side.

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The series aired from June 15, 2026 and has finished: 36 episodes, shown on CCTV-8 (China Central Television's drama channel) with simultaneous streaming on Tencent Video and iQIYI. Three things pull against each other: a lead pairing that viewers debated from the first episode, an investment-banking setting that Chinese reviewers questioned for accuracy, and strong early viewing numbers set against a divided word of mouth. Plot points here stay at the level of the opening episodes.

The setup

According to the official synopsis, Li Yifei's career takes a hit after an investment failure, and Qian Fei faces a breakup and the loss of her job. They become roommates by accident, meet again at work, and move from friction to partnership. TMDB's summary adds that she rents out a room to cover her mortgage. An English-language first-impressions review describes Li Yifei as an investment director trying to build a name apart from his father's business, and says the two end up living in the home Qian Fei had planned for her married life.

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The format is a light comedy about two adults who are, on paper, equals. This is hezu (合租, "flat-sharing"), a daily reality for many young people who have moved to Shanghai from elsewhere, a group Chinese media call hupiao (沪漂, "drifters in Shanghai"). Qian Fei is described in Chinese reports as one of them.

Cast and crew

• Tan Jianci (檀健次) as Li Yifei (李亦非)

• Wang Churan (王楚然) as Qian Fei (钱菲)

• Li Naiwen (李乃文) as Li Qiansheng (李仟圣), billed as a special guest star

• Li Xinze (李欣泽) as Wang Ruohai (汪若海), Qian Fei's former fiancé

• Jiang Peiyao (姜珮瑶) as Yao Jingjing (姚晶晶)

Shi Chengye (史成业) directs, according to China International Radio's pre-launch report; Liu Yi (刘益), Liu Li (刘莉) and Qin Ye (秦晔) are credited as writers. One database lists a different director. The English title is the one used by TMDB.

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Tan Jianci and Wang Churan as a pair

The pairing drew the earliest discussion, and reception is split. Supporters in Chinese coverage point to the leads' chemistry and the comedy of the flat-sharing scenes. Critics question how well the two read as a couple on screen, and some viewers pointed to the lead's thick-soled shoes in close-ups, since the official heights given in one roundup are 174 cm for Tan and 172 cm for Wang, a gap that gives little height contrast.

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The acting is praised and criticised in the same reviews. A Sohu review credits Tan Jianci with playing a high-intelligence, low-life-skills man in a way that avoids the cold-CEO stereotype, and credits Wang Churan with a believable ordinary office worker, particularly in her scenes after the breakup and job loss. Taiwan's UDN, summarising online reaction, reports the opposite reading from other viewers, who found Tan exaggerated and Wang stiff. The English-language review is warmer: it calls the romance slow-burning, notes that the characters keep their own career goals in view, and singles out Tan's comic, slightly awkward side.

One casting controversy sits behind the show. The role of Wang Ruohai was digitally re-faced with another actor after an off-screen controversy involving the original performer, and viewers criticised how the effect looked on screen.

The investment-banking world: how convincing?

The setting is the show's selling point and its most criticised element. Qilu Evening News carried a review that called the show's industry storytelling inaccurate. The reviewer argued that the mergers-and-acquisitions due-diligence scenes lack believable industry logic, that Qian Fei's data-analyst role is shown as indispensable in a way a large Shanghai firm would not allow, and that the Lujiazui office sets look like ordinary office buildings. The same review credits the show with capturing the financial and emotional pressure of young people renting and working in Shanghai, and describes the reception as sharply polarised.

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Chinese reviewers use the word xuanfu (悬浮, "floating") for dramas whose professional world seems detached from real working life, and the term recurs in commentary on this one. A Sohu review makes a similar point from the other side: the banking storyline is thin, while the everyday domestic details of living together are less present than the ex-partner and office conflicts. The English-language review gives the workplace little attention, noting only that both leads work in finance and that their careers drive their arcs. A more forgiving view in the coverage is that the show is a light comedy and not a training manual.

The novel behind it

The source is a web novel by Hong Jiu (红九), serialised on Jinjiang Literature City (晋江文学城) and published in print in November 2014 by Beifang Literature and Art Publishing House. Reports disagree on the title. Chinese pre-launch reports call the novel Touhang Nannü (投行男女, "Investment Banking Men and Women") and say it was originally titled Women Zhu Zai Yiqi (我们住在一起, "We Live Together"). Douban's book listing gives Women Zhu Zai Yiqi as the title of the published edition and Touhang Nannü as the original title. The two titles refer to the same novel, and sources do not agree on which came first.

The book's premise matches the series: a woman rents a room to pay her mortgage and ends up sharing it with a sharp-tongued colleague from the same industry. Douban's synopsis adds that her ex returns and that the male lead's father interferes in the romance.

Numbers and reception in China

The premiere was a strong television start. According to a Sohu report, the Maoyan Professional real-time rating peaked at 1.4530% and Kuyun's CCTV-8 premiere peak was 1.2566%, with a two-episode average of about 0.8946%. The report notes that the figures use different methodologies, and that Tencent Video's heat figure passed 20,000 on its platform.

Word of mouth moved differently. The same report describes strong television momentum with divided online reception, and it sets the supporters' praise for chemistry and light comedy against doubts about the pairing and the hair and makeup. UDN's roundup adds common complaints about a familiar opening of betrayal and forced roommates, and about the dated look of a drama shot about three years before it aired.

Where to watch

In China the series streamed on CCTV-8, Tencent Video and iQIYI. For viewers abroad, an English-language review links to Rakuten Viki. Availability varies by region, so check the Viki, WeTV and iQIYI apps in your country.

What overseas viewers are saying

English-language coverage is a Soompi first-impressions review, which treats the series as a comforting watch built on a slow romance and the leads' separate ambitions, with the second male lead and some awkward moments as its drawbacks.