The plot synopsis of The Romance King

During the Shunzhi period, the Qing Dynasty was beginning to settle down, the people were unstable, and the pain of changing dynasties continued. Li Yu, who was obsessed with drama, turned his back on what was going on outside the window and concentrated on the stage. With his outstanding talent, the "name of the drama" was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and became famous far and wide.

Hong Chengchou went to the south of the Yangtze River to look for the former famous prostitute Li Xiangjun. Because Li Yu used opera to ridicule him, he held a grudge and wanted to harm Li Yu. He tried his best to ruin Li Yu's reputation and bring him eternal infamy, so that Li Yu, as a "literary man", would never be able to stand up again.

The stubborn former Ming official Wu Xiang believed that Li Yu was the author of "Jin Ping Mei" and believed that the demise of the Ming Dynasty was caused by "Jin Ping Mei" corrupting the morals of the world and people, so he pursued Li Yu hard. Accountability. Hong Chengchou took the opportunity to encourage Wu Xiang, which caused a lot of trouble for Li Yu.

Li Yu, who was worried about not being able to find a suitable actor, met Li Xiangjun, who was frustrated and was about to become a nun. At first, because of his love for Li Xiangjun's "acting talent", Li Yu brought Li Xiangjun back to the earthly world, who was about to escape into Buddhism. Unexpectedly, an impulse for a show actually caused the two to form an indissoluble bond.

In order to show sympathy for Xiangjun's emotional integrity, Li Yu gave up his self-promise not to get involved in politics. Regardless of his life safety, he rescued the orphan of the former Ming martyr adopted by Xiangjun and adopted him in the theater troupe under the cover of studying opera and singing. Gradually, Li Yu realized that he had fallen in love with Li Xiangjun. Li Xiangjun, who was already calm, found that his heart was slowly melting...

From then on, I stayed with Li Xiangjun, not only for drama, but also for love.

Qiao and Wang Erji, who have followed Li Yu since childhood, have a secret crush on Li Yu. Long Gege, who has a free and easy personality, also sneaks to the south of the Yangtze River to look for Li Yu because he admires Li Yu's talent. Several people came together and put on a good show. Li Yu's feelings for Li Xiangjun not only overturned their jealousy, but also forced them to adopt strategies, both uniting and opposing each other, fighting each other, and making many jokes, which made Li Yu dumbfounded.

Hong Chengchou avenged his personal revenge and sent troops to search for Li Xiangjun in the name of searching for anti-Qing crimes. In addition, Wu Xiang persevered and contacted a group of former Ming officials to pursue Li Yu. Li Yu's troupe was full of thrills and excitement.

Li Yu's troupe was spotted by Jiangnan Weaver Cao Xi, who invited Li Yu to lead the troupe to Beijing to perform for the Queen Mother on her birthday. However, she was opposed by Li Xiangjun. She insisted that she should not sing opera for the Manchus who ravaged the Ming Dynasty. However, Li Yu believed that this was a good opportunity to show opera culture to the Manchus and advised Xiangjun to follow the trend of the times. He told Li Xiangjun that he would use profound and beautiful operas to let the Manchus see the civilization of the Han people and win dignity for the Han people who were defeated by the Manchus on the battlefield.

In order to flatter the Queen Mother, Wang Wenkang, the son-in-law of Pingxi King Wu Sangui, is also organizing a theater troupe "Gusu Opera Society" to perform in Beijing. However, Wang Wenkang was not talented enough to form an excellent troupe. He began to covet Li Yu's troupe and wanted to take Li Yu's troupe as his own.

Li Yu was not confused by the interests, but Wang Wenkang failed to succeed several times. He became angry and could not work hard on and off the field. He thought that he could not win the fight with Li Yu's troupe. Wang Wenkang not only started to insidiously cause harm off the field. He also joined forces with Hong Chengchou to attack Li Yu.

Hong Chengchou became even more angry because Li Xiangjun, whom he secretly admired, liked Li Yu. He made suggestions for Wang Wenkang and repeatedly put Li Yu in danger.

Wang Wenkang, with the help of Hong Chenggong, caused a trampling incident on the theater and used the "female corpse" to frame Li Yu for being frivolous towards women, causing the women to commit suicide. Li Yu was unjustly imprisoned. Wang Wenkang spread rumors and incited local gangsters to go to Suzhou Prefecture to cause trouble and petition for Li Yu's public trial. The situation is extremely critical. Fortunately, Cao Xi, Longgege and others secretly helped, and Li Yucai escaped from danger after going through hardships. However, in order to rescue Li Yu, Li Yu's two disciples Qiao Ji and Wang Ji fell into Wang Wenkang's trick and agreed to leave Li Yu's theater troupe and signed a pledge to join the "Gusu Opera Club".

Li Xiangjun got the news about Hou Fangyu and wanted to find Hou Fangyu and return the "folding fan" to completely end the relationship. Li Yu was reluctant to leave Li Xiangjun, worried that Xiangjun would not come back after saying goodbye, but he still graciously let Xiangjun leave.

On the emperor's order, Prince Chun came to Suzhou to finalize the troupe for the Queen Mother's birthday.

Wang Wenkang and Li Yu each led their theater troupes to prepare for the "fighting opera".

Due to Li Xiangjun's departure, Li Yu suffered from the lack of a leading role in the troupe. Longgege, who learned from the capital that Li Yu was in trouble and came to rescue him, arrived in time and stepped in. Li Yu won the first performance. But Wang Wenkang encouraged Prince Chun to ask Longge to withdraw from the second performance on the grounds that Longage was not a member of Li Yu's troupe. At the critical moment, Li Xiangjun rushed to the rescue. Li Xiangjun told Li Yu that she decided not to return to Nanjing because she could no longer leave the theater troupe, let alone Li Yu.

With Xiangjun’s joining, Li Yu Theater Troupe achieved great success. Just when Li Yu was about to go to Beijing to act and his ambition to promote opera culture was about to be realized, Li Xiangjun, who finally did not want to act for the Manchus, left a letter and left without saying goodbye. Li Xiangjun told Li Yu in the letter that she respected Li Yu's choice, so she finally chose to leave.

We met each other because of drama, got connected because of drama, but finally separated because of drama.

Li Yu's performance in Beijing was a great success, and Longegge managed to make Li Yu the "King of Romance Opera". At this time, Li Yu could not enjoy the joy that drama brought him. He wandered the streets alone, hopelessly looking for Xiangjun.