The Romance of Tiger and Rose (传闻中的陈芊芊, Chuán Wén Zhōng De Chén Qiān Qiān; also known as The Rumoured Chen Qian Qian) is a 2020 Chinese series starring Zhao Lu Si and Ding Yu Xi.
Chen Xiao Qian, a screen writer has finally succeeded in being paid for her work! Her show, a romantic historical drama about a matriarchal society at war with a patriarchal society, is about to go into production when the lead actor objects. Xiao Qian works herself to exhaustion to fix the script, only to pass out as soon as she's done.
She wakes up she's in the role of Chen Qian Qian, a character in her script. It only gets worse; this character is a Bit Character, destined to die in the third episode. After marrying the main love interest, and accidentally surviving her own death scene, she has to figure out how to get out of her script.
Contains examples of:
- Arranged Marriage: Chen Qian Qian and Pei Heng have been arranged to be married by their mothers since childhood. Pei Heng hates Qian Qian and avoids seeing her due to her cruel, selfish and uncaring personality.
- Blood from the Mouth: Chen Qian Qian stages having been poisoned with this.
- Face–Heel Turn: Chen Chu Chu starts out as Chen Xiao Qian's perfect, pure-hearted heroine, then slowly turns to villainhood as Chen Qian Qian accumulates more love and power.
- Faking the Dead: Chen Qian Qian eventually resorts to this. She also fakes her own near death – complete with fireworks and sad music – to make Han Shuo feel guilty for trying to poison her.
- Gone Horribly Right: Chen Qian Qian intends to protect herself from assassination by doing nice things for Han Shuo until he's too fond of her to kill her. It works, but now Han Shuo is in love with her instead of Chen Chu Chu and is ruining the narrative.
- Hesitant Sacrifice: Chen Xiao Qian, who is in minor character Chen Qian Qian's body, tries to kill herself a few times hoping to return to the modern world after she accidentally changes Chen Xiao Qian's fate (she was supposed to die from being poisoned by Han Shuo in an early episode), but she's hesitant to go through with it. She decides to find a way for Han Shuo and Chen Chu Chu to get together and survive the story without getting herself killed.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Su Mu was a musician at a brothel. He becomes Chen Yuan Yuan's love interest and tries to help her.
- Hypochondria: Chen Yuan Yuan, the eldest princess, lost the use of her legs years ago. She now lives in fear that anything might sicken and kill her. Helpfully, this means she's a pretty good doctor.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Chen Qian Qian gathers three storytellers to help her keep the story on track and herself alive. These playwrights offer critiques of how the story is going.
- Platonic Life-Partners: The Chen servants' relationships with the Chen family remain completely platonic, and they have no romantic feelings between them. When Han Shuo's father mistakes the Chief of Huayuan City's servant Sang Qi for her husband, he completely denies it.
- Sibling Rivalry: Their mother's coddling of Chen Qian Qian causes her older sister, Chen Chu Chu, to come to resent her.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: In Chen Xiao Qian's original transcript, Han Shuo and Chen Chu Chu are supposed to be portrayed as tragic lovers since they come from two different kingdoms at war with each other. They choose their home kingdoms instead of being together. In the original ending, Han Shuo lets Chen Chu Chu kill him because he would rather be killed by the woman he loves than kill her himself.
- Surprise Incest: Implied to have been planned in Xiao Qian's original script. Pei Heng, as second lead, should have had feelings for heroine Chu Chu; his mother is eventually revealed to have been Chu Chu's biological mother, making them siblings. Fortunately in the revised universe, he falls for Chen Qian Qian instead.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: In the season 1 finale, after Chen Xiao Qian returns to her own world, she thinks she won't be able to see her lover Han Shuo again due to being in another world and the fact that he's slowly dying from his injuries, but she finds out the actor Han had an accident at the same time she was transported into her transcript. However, unlike Xiao Qian, who retained her memories from the modern world, he didn't remember who he was, and all he remembers from his dreams is Xiao Qian. She realizes the person she fell in love with wasn't Han Shuo, but the actor Han all along. The two reunite and they end up together in secret. After that, she changes the ending in the transcript (where Chen Xiao Qian and Han Shuo end up being a loving couple and Chen Chu Chu becomes the City Owner of Huayuan City) thanks to Chen Qian Qian's help.
- Trapped in Another World: Chen Xiao Qian was transported inside of her own transcript in the body of a minor character named Chen Qian Qian who was supposed to die at the beginning of the story.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Xiao Qian's original script bears some striking resemblances to the 2019 series Goodbye My Princess. The show in general can be seen as a light-hearted parody of it. Fei Wo Si Cun, the author of Goodbye My Princess's source novel, was even a producer on this show.
- You Talk Too Much!: While writing the screenplay Xiao Qian used Zi Rui to pad out the work count. Once he's her servant she has him cut his lines down.
