Royal Rumours

The story is set in the fictional kingdom of Great Jin (大晋) during the Changlong era. The Jin general Hua Yingting (花应庭) has just defeated the neighbouring state of Jinpo (金珀国) and sends his only daughter, Hua Liuli (花琉璃, played by Meng Ziyi), ahead to the capital. She grew up in border army camps beside her father and brothers, and she is quick-witted and well trained in martial arts.

The capital is another kind of battlefield. Rumours say the Hua family holds too much military power, and the crown prince, Ji Yuansu (姬元溯, played by Xu Zhengxi), is a second son who took the title without being the eldest and seems more interested in leisure than in government. Aware that she is under watch, Liuli hides her strength behind the image of a sickly, delicate beauty and takes down rivals while keeping up the act. She "plays the pig to eat the tiger" (扮猪吃虎), pretending to be weak to catch others off guard.

Ji Yuansu is not as idle as he looks. The two end up as partners against corruption at court, and a romance grows from that. The crown prince has been writing to Liuli since they were children, and the fierce, sharp-edged person in those letters is hard to match with the fragile woman he now meets.

The drama is adapted from the web novel Zao Zuo Shi Guang (造作时光, "affected days") by Yue Xia Die Ying (月下蝶影), and it was produced by Tencent's Penguin Pictures (企鹅影视) under director Zhou Jiawen (周家文). It was shot in 2021, wrapped on January 11, 2022, and was released on Tencent Video on March 15, 2023, more than a year later, under the new title Royal Rumours. It is a Tencent Video exclusive.