Today I’m going to review one of the most popular Chinese drama of 2026. The drama is called Royal Betrothal and it stars, Wu Jin yan and Chen Zheyuan. I honestly didn’t know about this drama until it premiered. And I couldn’t ignore it because it has two of my favorites as the leads. Chen Zhe Yuan had two impressive projects in 2025. I think it was Fated hearts and The White Olive Tree. Wu Jin Yan had a masterpiece in 2024 with The Double. So when I saw them as the leads for Royal Betrothal, I instantly jumped on it.
Royal Betrothal Summary
Royal Betrothal is takes place during The Great Daning Dynasty, which is threatened by corruption, political struggles, and criminal forces or gangs. Meng ting hui, who is an orphan that was once rescued by the young emperor, becomes the first woman to achieve the imperial examination’s “Triple First” honor, and joins the court of oversight. On the other hand the emperor Ying Gua, secretly fights injustice as a masked vigilante while managing the power struggles within the court. When their paths unite, they join forces to expose corruption, and bring justice both inside the imperial court and among the people.
Storyline
That’s the summary of Royal Betrothal. The first five episodes where actually interesting and funny. Firstly they opened episode 1 with some backstory of Meng Ting Hui and her sister when they were young. They were abducted by a gang that trained them to steal. Even though they didn’t give much details on that opening scene, but it was enough to get my attention. I was curious about what really happened. Because after that opening scene, you see an adult Meng Ting Hui. She’s a student now, they’re getting ready for the exams. But she still doesn’t have peace because someone else is using her power to bully her. That was the introduction of Meng Ting Hui, they even showed her selling exam question predictions, which shows that she was no longer stealing, she was making money by selling exam question predictions. It also showed her intelligence, if she always manages to predict the exam questions, she’s definitely super intelligence.
Funny Moments In The First Half
Then there’s a scene where the emperor, I’m just going to call the emperor by the name “He Du”, because I’m used to it compared to Ying Gua. He Du was with his man, on the way to investigate a case in shazhou, where Meng Tian Hui lives. Which obviously is going to lead to their meet up. On that day, it happened to be a funeral in shazhou, and the huxiao gang leader was forcing people to wear funeral clothes. They didn’t even want to see anyone celebrating or rejoicing. The whole part was to show how ruthless these gangs are and how they control the area. But there was a scene that was kinda funny, when the gang leader and his crew were walking on the road, they noticed Meng Tian Hui and her friend dancing to promote her friend’s business. Then the gang leader paused, turned towards them. It was a funny moment and his facial expressions were on point. His face was like, “oh so these ones are not going to respect the gang, deal with them” And that’s when the male lead, He Du met Meng Tian Hui. He was helping them to fight the gang. While they were fighting, Meng Tian Hui then used He Du as a shield. It was also a funny moment. It showed how quick witted Meng Tian Hui is. She’s always on her survival instincts.
The Move From Shazhou to the Capital
The first episodes were mainly about the interaction between He Du and Meng Tian Hui. The story was also developing, they were dealing with the weapons case, the corrupt magistrate of shazhou. Meng Tian Hui suffered a lot because of the niece of that corrupt magistrate. But there was a time where Meng Tian Hui was sent to prison, her friend thought she was going to be hurt badly. But then they show Meng Tian Hui playing dice and eating with the prison guards.
The story then moved from Shazhou to the capital. He Du and Meng Tian Hui solved the case in Shazhou. He Du returned to his role as emperor and Meng Tian Hui, passed her exam in Shazhou. She was on her way to the capital to write another exam. That’s where they introduced to more characters such as The Right Chancellor, Shen Zhili, A’nian, Yin Qing, Situ Xue. They also started giving more details about the two gangs that were messing up the city. One gang is all about restoring their fallen nation. Another gang was all about gambling, and all other bad stuff, I don’t think it’s safe to say them on YouTube. The second half of drama was nothing but a battle. What happened in the first half is nothing compared to the second half. There were endless schemes and corruption. Meng Tian Hui got her exam paper swapped, only to find that it was the niece of that corrupt magistrate. But she eventually solves it by using the support of the people. She even went to challenge the left chancellor, who wanted to cancel this idea of women becoming officials.
Everything Became About Meng Tian Hui
Then the story somehow was all about Meng Tian Hui fighting the Huxiao gang, which troubled her from Shaozhou. They had a blood feud and she was always hunting them. She was also fighting those who were in court. Some were opposing her, some wanted to get rid of her because they feared she will expose them. It was a back and fourth battle. Which made me lose interest in the drama around episode 25 or something. Because it felt like we have been here before, Meng Tian Hui has been framed multiple times, give us something fresh from this plot. And they’re taking time to expose the real devil. They keep beating around the bush with the same thing. And the left chancellor is busy fighting against Meng Tian Hui, instead of dealing with other issues in court. I did lose interest in the drama until they raised the issue of Meng Tian Hui’s real identity. That’s when the story got a bit interesting but it was messy. The first half was good but the second half was disappointing.
Meng Tian Hui Always Injured
One thing that I didn’t really like about this back and forth battle, is how Meng Tian Hui was always targeted. Almost every person in the drama targeted Meng Tian Hui. Most of them wanted her dead. It kind of reminded me of Princess Weiyoung. She was being targeted by everyone. Meng Tian Hui was also getting injured a lot. I have lost count of how many times Meng Tian Hui got injured. She got stabbed, she was beaten, she was tortured. She always had an injury in almost every episode.
Wu Jin Yan Playing The Same Role
And while I was watching this drama, I felt like Wu Jin Yan is playing the same character as the one in The Double and Kill Me Love Me. She’s always being targeted, she’s always getting injured, gets beaten up. That’s just how I feel, and she does an amazing job playing those characters. But for me, I feel like some scenes didn’t really need her to get injured or even get a scratch. For some situations, she would get the support of people. Then 2 episodes later, the same people will turn on her, they will throw stones at her. She will then pledge that she will solve the issue, if she fails, she’ll get punished. It was just a repetition of events.
The Left Chancellor
The Left Chancellor was built to look like a bad guy from the start. He’s like one of those guys who wouldn’t mind being seen as the bad guy. As long as he makes sure the rules are followed and everything is in order. He had that dragon stuff, which was given to him by the late emperor, which gives him power to help the young emperor. But it felt like he was abusing his power and he was planning something. During the first half of the drama, I honestly thought he was the bad guy. He was always going against everything the emperor suggested. He always waited for an opportunity to get rid of Meng Tian Hui. He was even against the idea of women taking part in exams and becoming officials. The emperor believed he was against the system because it would weaken his power.
And that’s how it looked like in the first half of the drama. But on the second half of the drama, they started exposing other characters and I started to really understand him. As someone who was given a huge task of helping the young emperor to manage the nation. He had to be strict, he had to make sure that rules are followed. He had to ensure the health and safety of the emperor. He had to make sure the emperor doesn’t lose his way. This is all because of his loyalty to the nation. He had to make sure he completes the mission the late emperor gave him.
They also showed his soft side when they showed his home. At home, he isn’t that strict. I think that’s because he doesn’t have much to worry about when he’s at home. But in court, they’re dealing with a lot of issues. The emperor isn’t strict enough, so someone had to be the bad guy and be super strict. He was that guy. If he wasn’t that strict, the dynasty would have fallen.
Yin Qing Fooled Us
Yin Qing had everyone fooled including me. And when I start to think about him. I remember that he was the first person to point out the real devil in the drama. But they didn’t take him seriously. Yin Qing knew more than what Meng Tian Hui knew, he know who was the devil in court. He knew how they were operating. He was giving hints all the time but no one caught them. So he used his other identity to provide the evidence. He had everyone fooled, I didn’t suspect him until the very last moments. Liang Yong Qi played the Yin Qing character well. He deserves to a lead a drama of his own.
Chemistry
As for chemistry, the leads had no chemistry. I really can’t think of two or three romantic moments between the two. I only saw them as emperor and subject. Shen Zhi Shu and Yan Fu Zhi had much better chemistry than the leads. Even A’nian and Shen Zhili had more interesting love story.
Royal Betrothal Ending
First of all, Royal Betrothal has a happy ending but I’m not happy about it. I don’t get why the drama is called Royal betrothal but we don’t get any royal wedding? Does it make sense? He Du also abolished the rule that stopped him from marrying Meng Ting Hui, he took lashes so that he can be able to marry her but we didn’t get a wedding. And also they had to kill some big characters at the last moment. The ending was disappointing. Anyways that’s my review on Royal Betrothal. With that being said, I’m rating Royal Betrothal 6/10.
