First Look of Wang Churan and Li Hongyi Filming The Female Assassin of The Song Dynasty

Here's the first look of Wang Churan and Li Hongyi in their stunning ancient costumes in the filming set of their upcoming costume historical drama.

This is based on the novel, "The Female Assassin of The Song Dynasty", but the drama title has been renamed and has a literal English translation of “The Shadow of the Beacon Burns the Plum Fragrance”.

Is this a kissing scene?😄

In the original novel, the female protagonist is a modern woman assassin, who, after she died, time traveled to the Song dynasty and became a member of a secret guard group of a noble family.

Wang Churan and Li Hongyi still shots

We know that time travel theme is no longer encourage in the Chinese drama productions so we don't know yet how the script of this drama is written, we won't be surprised if Wang Churan's character is an author writing a novel or someone who is in a coma just to pass the stiff censorship in China haha! 😂

Li Hongyi

Anyway, here's the original plot summary of the novel source:

The Female Assassin of the Song Dynasty book tells the story of An Jiu, a 21st-century woman who is an elite assassin. Then she dies.

To her surprise, she wakes up in an ancient era, in the Song Dynasty period and her name is also An Jiu. She is also an assassin.

During a mission, she got injured. She was saved by a kind and fragile young girl, Mei Jiu. They were found by her mother and were brought home.

After entering the Mei Residence’s study hall, An Jiu realized something was different in the household. She also sensed some dubious things so she concealed her real strength.

Not long after, she discovered the Mei clan’s secret. They were in fact one of the Song Dynasty’s classified aristocratic families of assassins.

An Jiu was trained to become part of the family's assassin squad and was trained by the mysterious Chu Ding Jiang, the commander of the Crane Control Army.

Despite his stoic behavior, An Jiu secretly develops feelings for him. But just when everything was going well, the Mei Residence was suddenly exterminated. Mei Jiu and her entire family were killed.

Following the incident, Chu Ding Jiang became strange and callous. In order to seek revenge for her friend and the Mei family, An Jiu investigated the incident. However, she gradually fell into a whirlpool of conspiracy, love, and hatred.

Still shot of Li Hongyi

Still shot of Wang Churan

It sounds like an interesting plot but I doubt if they will include the modern arc in the drama adaptation due to censorship.

It will be most likely that the script will be altered and be added with other elements such as an author writing the story (just like in An Ancient Love Song or Story of Kunning Palace), the female lead was in a coma or dream (just like in Scent of Time), or they just go straight to the ancient period without any reference to the modern era part (just like in Untouchable Lovers).

"The Shadow of the Beacon Burns the Plum Fragrance” will be streamed on Youku.

Here are still photos of Li Hongyi from the filming location shared by his fans: