Cheng Yi (成毅) and Zhang Yuxi (张予曦) are reunited in the currently airing series, “Stand By Me” (与君歌). This is their second collaboration after “Love and Redemption”. After “Stand By Me”, Cheng Yi and Zhang Yuxi have already collaborated on a third series, “South Wind Knows My Mood”, which has yet to air.
The series is adapted from the novel, “Jian Qi Hang” (剑器行) and starts with “Emperor Wenzong’s “reign at the end of Tang Dynasty where the eunuchs have usurped power over the imperial court. “Emperor Wenzong” along with his Prime Minister and loyal court officials devised a plan referred to as the “Sweet Dew Plan” in history to assassinate the powerful eunuch leader, “Qiu Ziliang”. However, their plan failed and was foiled by the eunuchs. In retaliation, the Prime Minister, Wang Yang, and his family were executed by the eunuchs. However, two of his granddaughters escaped, but grew up with separate lives. The younger sister is adopted by the Purple Bureau’s high ranking female official, “Cheng Xi” and changes her name to “Cheng Ruoyu” (Zhang Yuxi)”. As for the older sister, she gets adopted by the powerful eunuch, “Qiu Ziliang”, and changes her name to “Qiu Yanzhi” (Xuan Lu) with her heart set out for revenge.
Seven years later, the new “Emperor Qi Yan” (Cheng Yi), ascends to the throne. He deploys the Purple Bureau to deal with “Qiu Ziliang”. It’s during this moment, the two sisters who are standing from opposite ends of the battle are finally reunited. They don’t recognize each other at first as “Cheng Ruoyu” had amnesia while “Qiu Yanzhi” doesn’t recognize her younger sister who has grown up.
As they try to search for “Emperor Wenzong’s” edict, the two sisters with very different personalties and opposite agendas, become sympathetic opponents. However, they later become mortal enemies. When “Qiu Yanzhi” discovers that she has been framing her younger sister, “Cheng Ruoyu”, during her plot for revenge, she decides to sacrifice herself to save her. “Cheng Ruoyu” also serves as “Emperor Qi Yan’s” personal attendant and bodyguard and develops feelings for each other. In the end, “Cheng Ruoyu” helps “Emperor Qi Yan” eradicate “Qiu Ziliang’s” power.
While “Stand By Me” is Cheng Yi and Zhang Yuxi’s second collaboration, this is the first time they are portraying characters that are romantically involved. In a recent interview with Sina Entertainment, they were asked how it felt being paired as a CP this time. Zhang Yuxi gave a very standard response saying their characters and personalties are very different. Along with the romance and revenge theme as the backdrop of the storyline, Zhang Yuxi said it’s very special, which Cheng Yi told everyone to look forward to.
As for their impressions of their first time meeting each other, Cheng Yi said of Zhang Yuxi, “Zhang Yuxi-laoshi is especially active and especially professional. Because her movements are really fast, she’s also very serious about her character. After working with her on a few series, you’ll realize her personality is the same as a little boy’s, carefree.” Zhang Yuxi said of Cheng Yi, “The first time I saw Yi-ge, I thought Yi-ge was very shy at the time. He seemed like a very quiet person. Because we’ve collaborated so many times, so our relationship got more familiar and then I realized he is also a very bubbly and cute person.”
When asked about how they felt about “CP feels”, Zhang Yuxi gave another standard answer saying the relationship between their characters, “Cheng Ruoyu” and “Qi Yan”, makes everyone think its very sweet and hope they get together. Zhang Yuxi said it’s a very fortunate thing for an actor to hear these things, while Cheng Yi just nodded and agreed.
After the success of “Love and Redemption”, the cast held a special concert. However, instead of finding “candies” between the two leads, many netizens noticed the leads, Cheng Yi and Yuan Bingyan seemed to be intentionally avoiding to be in the same frame with each other and had zero interactions. At one point, they weren’t even standing next to each other.
