LayarHijau – Chinese drama Love Between Lines (轧戏) officially premiered on January 9 on Dragon TV and iQIYI. By January 10, the drama starring Chen Xingxu and Lu Yuxiao had reached No. 7 on Maoyan’s popularity chart. While its opening performance was not overwhelmingly dominant, Love Between Lines quickly became a talking point on Chinese social media, particularly Weibo, thanks to a storyline many viewers described as refreshing and unconventional for a modern romance drama.
The drama centers on Hu Xiu, played by Lu Yuxiao, a woman whose life hits rock bottom after she is dumped by her fiancé and realizes she has spent three years stuck as an assistant, despite dreaming of becoming an architect. Struggling emotionally, Hu Xiu follows a friend’s suggestion and joins a murder mystery game (a role-playing deduction game) as a way to escape her real-life frustrations.
It is in this game that she first meets Xiao Zhi Yu, portrayed by Chen Xingxu, a seasoned and highly strategic player. Their first encounter ends badly when Hu Xiu is deceived and becomes the first player eliminated. Determined to redeem herself, she re-enters the game for a rematch, and this marks the beginning of their complicated connection.
Their relationship does not remain confined to the game. In real life, Xiao Zhi Yu turns out to be the tenant renting Hu Xiu’s apartment, placing them in a landlord-tenant relationship. The overlap deepens further when Hu Xiu applies for a job at an architecture firm owned by Xiao Zhi Yu, making him her boss. As a result, the story unfolds across three intertwined dynamics: felow players inside the game, landlord and tenant in daily life, and boss and employee in the workplace.
This multi-layered setup is precisely what has drawn praise from Chinese viewers. On Weibo, many netizens applauded the drama for presenting a new kind of romance rarely seen in modern idol dramas. One widely shared comment read, “Chen Xingxu and Lu Yuxiao feel like they’re portraying a completely new type of relationship. In real life, they’re landlord and tenant, boss and employee. In the game, they’re rivals testing each other’s intelligence through fake identities. This three-layer relationship makes the drama feel fresh and alive.”
Other viewers noted that the shifting dynamics allow emotions to develop gradually—from suspicion and rivalry to dependence and attraction. Some even jokingly described the drama as “Jinjiang-style wolf-and-rabbit romance brought into reality,” referring to the power imbalance and emotional push-and-pull between the two leads.
Despite the praise, Love Between Lines has also faced its share of criticism. Some viewers feel the early episodes are overly complicated, with frequent switches between the game world and real life that can be confusing. Others argue that Hu Xiu’s growing feelings for Xiao Zhi Yu develop too quickly, making the romance hard to justify logically after only a few game sessions.
Additional criticism has been directed at the perceived lack of chemistry between the leads, as well as Lu Yuxiao’s unclear diction when delivering lines using her natural voice rather than dubbed audio. These factors are often cited as reasons why the drama’s initial popularity trails behind other series airing in the same period.
Even so, ongoing discussions on social media suggest that Love Between Lines continues to hold appeal for viewers seeking a romance with a non-traditional structure. With its three intersecting identities and evolving character relationships, the drama is widely seen as one that still has room to grow as the story progresses.
