Against The Current Romance Review and Recap (2026)
**SPOILER ALERT**
Table of Contents
Against The Current Romance Review: Summary
The romance between Lin Jinqi and Xu Lanxiang isn’t a love story of sparks and stolen kisses. It’s a love story of relentless pursuit, patience, restraint and devotion, and for most of the drama, that love belongs almost entirely to him.
They were betrothed as children and never met. Then the Shen family was destroyed, the Lins broke off the engagement to save themselves, and Shen Jialan became Xu Lanxiang, a maid in the very household that abandoned her. Jinqi has no idea the quiet servant in his household is the girl he was once meant to marry. All he knows is that she sees more than anyone else in the room, and slowly, he can’t stop watching her.
He falls first, and he falls hard. She keeps her head down, because for a servant, a master’s attention is dangerous, not romantic. The power gap between them is enormous, and the drama doesn’t pretend otherwise.
When he finally makes his move, he does it the wrong way, using his power to take a choice that should have been hers. The show makes him pay for that, and the rest of their story is about him learning that loving her means respecting her.
What makes it so moving is how long he waits. Year after year, he gives without expecting anything in return. He protects her family, defends her in front of his own, and keeps choosing her even when she can’t choose him back. Her love comes slowly and quietly, shown through what she does rather than what she says, and it’s carried by trauma she can never speak of.
There is no smouldering tension here and nothing sensual. There are only two kisses in the entire 47 episodes. One lasts about a second, and the other is half hidden behind bed curtains. If you want a sweeping, passionate romance, this isn’t it. But if you want a love that is earned over a lifetime, this is one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve watched.
Against The Current Romance Recap: Lin Jinqi & Xu Lanxiang
Full spoilers ahead, tracing the romance from Episode 1 through 47. It’s a very slow burn, and the leads barely interact for the first ten episodes, so I’ve only included episodes that move their relationship forward. The kiss count is at the end for anyone keeping track.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 1–5
No romance yet. These episodes set up everything that makes the romance so painful later.
Episode 1: The Shen family is wiped out, and we learn Jialan was once betrothed to Lin Jinqi. The Lins broke off the engagement to protect themselves.
Episode 2: In one of the most heartbreaking images of the drama, Jialan walks in parallel with a wedding procession, watching Lin Jinqi marry someone else on the very day she realises who he is. A devastation of epic proportions for our young Jialan.
Episode 3: Six years later, Jinqi returns from the army to a loveless marriage. By the end of the episode, Lanxiang stands face to face with the man she was supposed to marry, now serving in his household as a maid.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 6–10
The leads finally meet, but there isn’t a spark to be found.
Episode 7:Their first proper encounter is purely transactional, business dressed up as conversation. He’s her master, and she’s a maid trying not to put a foot wrong.
Episode 10: Lanxiang requests a post in the study and library, which puts her closer to Jinqi for the first time.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 11–15
He notices her, then he admires her, then he falls. She has no idea.
Episode 11: After Lanxiang quietly saves the family’s reputation, Jinqi questions her about how she worked it all out. It’s suspicion rather than gratitude, but it’s the first sign he’s paying attention.
Episode 13:Their first real stretch of time together is a conversation in a carriage, and he realises just how sharp she is. When she’s held at knifepoint, he hesitates, unwilling to let her get hurt, though she’s already outsmarted her attacker with a hidden needle. They grab hands and swap places as the score swells. Afterwards, she admits she improvised her whole cover story on the spot, and he’s clearly impressed.
Episode 14: Stuck overnight in a military camp, Lanxiang tells the soldiers a story so moving that the hardened men around her cry. Jinqi watches the whole time, caught between admiration and surprise. I’m convinced this is the moment he falls.
Episode 15: Walking her out of the camp, head down and smiling to himself, he seems to realise for the first time that he has feelings for this maid. Later, he offers her medicine for an itch, pretending to read his book rather than look at her, then drops it the second she leaves and watches her through the window. Swoon.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 16–20
His feelings show more and more, while hers stay firmly locked away. Then she walks out of his household a free woman.
Episode 16: Small moments, all on his side: whispering in her ear, a hand on her shoulder, and him leaning against the bath doorway, arms crossed, asking what’s in her gift box.
Episode 18: After she saves the Lin family again, Jinqi toasts her, then follows a tipsy Lanxiang into the garden. Sitting on the steps among the night-blooming orchids, they talk like two ordinary people rather than master and servant. When he blames himself for trusting a man who betrayed him, she tells him he’s a good person. He asks her to say it more often, only to find she’s fallen asleep.
Episode 19: Lanxiang cashes in her merit for her family’s freedom, and Jinqi agrees far more readily than his mother expected. If he wants to pursue her properly, she can’t remain his servant. But he notices, a little wistfully, that she didn’t seem reluctant to leave at all.
Episode 20:Jinqi tries so hard to arrange a comfortable house for her family that he completely outsmarts himself. Then he finds her singing in harmony with her new neighbour, Scholar Han, and his face drops like a sack of potatoes. Back home, he grumbles about troublesome butterflies around his orchid, and poor Nanke starts searching the room for actual insects. Jealous Jinqi is incredible.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 21–25
A rival, a kidnapping, a broken heart and the most controversial move of the drama.
Episode 21: Jinqi delivers pastries and an orchid he has painstakingly cared for, pretending it’s from Yuchan and Gantang. Lanxiang loves it and is none the wiser. Meanwhile, Scholar Han prepares to propose.
Episode 22:A jealous rival destroys Lanxiang’s orchid and has her kidnapped.
Episode 23: Jinqi is clearly losing his mind with worry while he has to hold himself together to save two princes. On top of that, he witnesses the Han family moving to propose to the Xus.
Episode 24: Lanxiang is rescued by Scholar Han rather than Jinqi. Arriving anxious to see her, Jinqi realises he may already have lost her, and his heart breaks right there.
Episode 25: Owed a great reward for saving the Crown Prince, Jinqi asks the Emperor for one thing: a decree marrying him to Xu Lanxiang. It stops her engagement to Han Liang in its tracks. I love you, Jinqi, but this was dirty.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 26–30
A forced wedding, a slap and a husband who grovels his way through married life.
Episode 26: Jinqi takes a brutal beating from his grandfather and father for arranging his own marriage behind their backs. He knew it was coming, and he deserved it.
Episode 27: An entire episode for the wedding. Lanxiang hesitates to bow, and when he lifts her veil, she slaps him in front of the whole wedding party. He doesn’t fight back. That night, she sleeps apart from him, and he quietly confesses that his feelings began long before she ever left Zhichun Hall.
He understands why she’s angry. He’d had years to come to terms with his feelings, while she was thrust into this marriage without ever being asked. He promises to give her time and do everything he can to earn her heart.
Episode 28: He teases her that resting on her pillow technically counts as sharing a bed, which only irritates her more. After a careless remark, the robe her mother made becomes a tug-of-war, until he wraps it around them both and apologises. He also pushes to move to the capital, partly to protect her from his difficult family.
Episode 29: Jinqi visits her parents and is a wonderful, unpretentious son-in-law, and Lanxiang is quietly pleased. Then, unable to bear going to the capital without her, he drugs her wine and carries her aboard a ship, not knowing she had already decided to go. She tells him she’ll reserve judgment on forgiving him. And then there’s that bath scene, which had me blushing.
Episode 30: He strips half naked and fakes an illness to get her attention, and it doesn’t work quite the way he hoped. Then comes their biggest fight. When she refuses to use imperial power to free Ji’er, he assumes she’s still pining for Han Liang. She asks whether he would have forced the marriage if she’d been a Grand Secretary’s daughter. He knows the honest answer is no.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 31–35
Patience, a hand held in public, a birthday wish and the first kiss.
Episode 31: He helps her register Ji’er in Quanzhou and tells her that all he wants is for her to be his wife. She points out that she already is. He says he wants her heart too, and she replies, deadpan, that she’s right here. He sighs that she’s far too clever not to understand.
Episode 33: After Jinqi takes a beating to win Xiulai’s separation, he’s carried home past Han Liang’s procession. Mortified, he takes Lanxiang’s hand where Han can see it, and she lets him. Later, he fakes groans so she’ll keep him company, they talk late into the night, and as she leaves, he catches hold of her sleeve. He’s so proud of her.
Episode 34: On her birthday, he waits for her at the temple’s wishing tree. His wish is that they love each other and grow old together. When she works out that a rebellion is coming and warns him in time, she calls from the carriage window for him to take care of himself.
Overwhelmed that she cares, he wheels his horse back and kisses her just outside her lips. Kiss #1. She’s not impressed, and he shouts that she can slap him when he’s back. Then he takes an arrow to the chest, and he is severely injured.
Episode 35: Lanxiang comes to save him in the snow with a mule she bought from a farmer. She tells him she doesn’t want to be a widow, especially since the Emperor arranged their marriage and she can’t even remarry. Hiding in a reed shelter, too weak to protect her, he teaches her to load and fire his gun, guiding her hands.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 36–40
The turning point of the entire romance. He finally understands her, she finally sees him, and they finally walk the same path.
Episode 36: Believing he may die, Jinqi tells her to marry Han Liang. She tells him she never had feelings for Han Liang at all. What hurt her was that he took away her freedom without ever asking what she wanted. He sheds a tear, and for him, that truth is probably worse than her loving someone else.
Then she finds proof of his greatest secret, a crime that could destroy the whole Lin family, and burns it while he pretends to sleep. She never mentions it. He tells her he’ll spend his whole life remembering that she saved him.
Episode 37: Home and recovering, he admits he was wrong to think sweet words would win her. He promises to respect her as if she were another version of himself, and says they have plenty of time to truly know each other. She tells him they walk different paths. He thinks she means status. He has no idea.
Episode 38: The greatest moment of the drama. Jinqi takes Lanxiang to an unmarked grave and reveals he secretly paid to bury the Shen family out of guilt for breaking his engagement to Shen Jialan. It’s her birthday, and he remembered it when she had forgotten.
He tells her he’s no gentleman, he gets scared and acts rashly, but he will never fail her. She asks him to kowtow with her before her “benefactors,” and as they bow, it echoes the marriage rites. She is finally introducing her husband to her parents.
Episode 39: She stages a private play to show him how their ways differ. After two years and too much loss, he finally understands, resigns his post and takes her home to Jinling. There, with nothing standing between them, they truly become husband and wife. Kiss #2.
The kiss and the intimacy that follows are partly hidden behind the bed curtains, but you can see it, and the moment is woven with symbolism: pomegranates, a nest under the eaves, wild geese and two dewdrops merging into one on an orchid petal. Soon after, she’s pregnant.
Episode 40: Challenged by his best friend, Jinqi declares in front of everyone that he will never take a concubine. His wife has shown him kindness, loyalty and love, and he would rather return his title to the court than betray her for a son he’s never met. On the way home, he swears it again, just to her. His only wish is to hold her hand and grow old with her.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 41–45
A daughter, a secret uncovered without a word and a marriage that becomes a true partnership.
Episode 41: When Zhangcheng is born, Jinqi stays in the birthing room and faints at the sight of the blood. He tells Lanxiang that childbirth is no less dangerous than a battlefield, and that she went through it for him. She corrects him: it was for their daughter. Then a slip from her mother sets him thinking, and he finally asks his wife where her belongings really came from.
Episode 42: She can’t bring herself to tell him. Once he learns the Cold Mountain Painting belonged to the Shen family, he understands everything. That night, he burns every trace of her past, telling her she is Xu Lanxiang and they are husband and wife through every fortune and misfortune. Her secret is sealed between them, and he never makes her say it.
Episode 43: When the late Emperor dies, Lanxiang comforts a grieving Jinqi, and they burn paper offerings together.
Episode 44:Asked whether he remembers what Du Cuique looked like, Jinqi says that other than Lanxiang, there’s no woman’s face he could remember for over ten years. Then he says goodbye to his children and rides out in armour.
Episode 45: When Jinqi wants to throw himself into revenge after Shaohui’s death, Lanxiang holds him back. Together they see through Du Cuique’s plan and fight it from both ends, him at the provision boats, her at home. She tells the household that His Lordship promised Zhangcheng he’d bring Nanke and Jiugao home safely.
Against the Current Romance Recap: Episodes 46–47
A long separation, a homecoming and the most heartbreaking goodbye.
Episode 46:Jinqi is away, and Lanxiang welcomes the New Year with the children on her own.
Episode 47:He finally comes home. He tells her he’s home, and she tells him she has waited so long for him. He promises to stay by her side with the children and live a peaceful life, and he keeps that promise for the rest of his days.
Years later, he goes to the Matchmaker Temple and ties a red thread around their wrists, wishing to be husband and wife again in their next life. If he’d known he would marry her, he says, he would have taken better care of himself back in Jinzhou.
She tells him one lifetime is enough. With his head on her shoulder, he says that when he was betrothed to his wife, her name was Shen Jialan, and when he married her, her name was Xu Lanxiang. The red thread has always bound him to the same person. He dies before he turns fifty, and she sits beside him in silence for a long time.
Final Kiss Count for the Full Series: 2 kisses
- Episode 34: as Lanxiang calls out from the carriage window for him to take care of himself, Jinqi wheels his horse back and kisses her just outside her lips before riding off to face the rebellion. She’s not impressed.
- Episode 39: their wedding night in Jinling. The kiss and the intimacy that follows are partly hidden behind the bed curtains rather than shown in a direct close-up, but you can see it.
Against The Current Romance Review
The Meet-Cute (or Meet-Ugly)
Neither, really. They were betrothed as children and never met. The first time she lays eyes on him, she’s walking alongside his wedding procession as he marries someone else. When they finally meet face to face, she’s a maid and he’s her master, and their first conversation is purely business. There’s no spark at all, just a girl who knows exactly who he is and a man who has no idea who she is.
The Slow Burn (or Not-So-Slow Burn)
This is a one-sided, slow burn romance that doesn’t get reciprocated quickly. His starts around Episode 13, when he sees how sharp she is, and he’s gone by Episodes 14 and 15. Hers takes far longer. The first real cracks show in Episode 34, when she calls after him, and in Episodes 35 and 36, when she rides out to save him and burns the evidence that could destroy him. But the true turning point is Episode 38, at her family’s grave. From there, Episode 39 is where they finally walk the same path.
Worth the Wait? — The First Kiss
The first kiss isn’t the payoff. It’s a quick kiss just outside her lips in Episode 34, and she’s clearly not impressed. It suits the moment perfectly, but if you’ve waited 34 episodes for a passionate kiss, you’ll be disappointed. The real payoff is Episode 38, when they bow together before her family’s grave, and Episode 39, when they finally become husband and wife by choice and share a second, far more meaningful kiss behind the bed curtains. After all those years of patience, that is absolutely worth the wait.
The Sizzle Factor
This is not a sizzling romance, and it doesn’t try to be. There’s nothing sensual about it, apart from a cheeky bath scene, a male lead who strips half naked to get attention and a wedding night kept discreetly behind the curtains. The chemistry between Tan Songyun and Liu Xueyi is emotional rather than physical. It lives in his gaze when she enters a room, his tiny smile when she outwits someone, and the moments she softens without saying a word.
Soft Moments — Beyond the Tension
This is where the romance shines. Watching him gaze at her through the window in Episode 15. Sitting together on the garden steps among the orchids in Episode 18. Him visiting her parents as a humble son-in-law in Episode 29.
Holding hands in front of Han Liang’s procession in Episode 33 and him catching her sleeve that night. His wish at the temple in Episode 34. Fainting at his daughter’s birth in Episode 41. Coming home and telling her he’s back in Episode 47. These quiet moments carry the entire love story.
Devotion Watch
Jinqi’s devotion is the backbone of this drama. He’s flawed, he makes real mistakes, and he spends the rest of the story making up for them.
Exhibit A: the Shen family grave. Long before he knows who she is, he pays to gather and bury her family out of guilt, and buys back their servants’ freedom.
Exhibit B: the beating. He takes a brutal beating from his own family for arranging the marriage, and later takes another to free his sister.
Exhibit C: her family. He visits her parents as a humble son-in-law, with no airs and no pomp.
Exhibit D: the snow. Too weak to protect her, he teaches her to protect herself, and tells her to leave him and save herself.
Exhibit E: his career. He resigns from the capital, giving up wealth and power, because he finally understands her way.
Exhibit F: the vow. In front of everyone, he swears he will never take a concubine and would rather return his title than betray her for a son.
Exhibit G: the fire. When he works out who she really is, he burns every trace of her past rather than make her confess.
Exhibit H: the red thread. With his last breath, he asks to be her husband again in the next life, and names her as both Shen Jialan and Xu Lanxiang.
Verdict:Would-Burn-The-Kingdom-Down territory. He falls first, he falls harder, and he never stops.
Confession Scene Breakdown
His confessions come in pieces. In Episode 27, on their wedding night, he admits his feelings began long before she left Zhichun Hall. In Episode 31, he tells her he wants her heart. In Episode 34, his wish at the temple says it all. In Episode 38, at the grave, he tells her he’s no gentleman but will never fail her. In Episode 40, he vows publicly never to take a concubine. And in Episode 47, he speaks both her names aloud and asks the Matchmaker God not to get it wrong. That last one is iconic.
Hers is different. She never says “I love you.” Her confessions are actions: saving him in the snow, burning the evidence, bowing with him before her parents, and telling him she has waited so long for him to come home.
Rewind-Worthy Scenes
The storytelling at the military camp, Episode 14.
Watching her through the window, Episode 15.
The garden steps among the orchids, Episode 18.
Jealous Jinqi and the butterflies, Episode 20.
The slap and the wedding night confession, Episode 27.
The robe tug-of-war, Episode 28.
Holding hands in front of Han Liang’s procession, Episode 33.
The wishing tree and the first kiss, Episode 34.
The rescue and the gun lesson in the snow, Episode 35.
Burning the evidence, Episode 36.
The Shen family grave, Episode 38, the greatest scene of the drama.
Their wedding night behind the curtains, Episode 39.
“I will never take a concubine,” Episode 40.
Fainting at Zhangcheng’s birth, Episode 41.
Burning her past, Episode 42.
The red thread, Episode 47.
The Frustration Files
Exhibit A: the imperial decree. Forcing her into marriage to stop her engagement to Han Liang was dirty, and it’s hard to cheer for at the time.
Exhibit B: the drugged wine. However well meant, drugging her to get her on a ship is not romantic.
Exhibit C: how long it’s one-sided. For most of the drama, he loves her far more than she loves him, and some viewers felt she was too cold.
Exhibit D: we rarely see inside her head. Key moments in her feelings happen during time skips, and in Episode 39 we barely get her perspective before they become husband and wife.
Exhibit E: no acknowledgement of the grave. She never thanks him or tells him what his burying her family meant to her.
Exhibit F: two kisses in 47 episodes, one of them half hidden behind a curtain. I understand why, but part of me wanted more.
Exhibit G: his early death. We knew it was coming, but losing him before fifty still hurts, especially since she lived for a few more decades.
Ending: Did They Earn It?
Absolutely. After a massacre, years of servitude, a forced marriage, a slap, a drugging, two rebellions, a pirate queen and a secret he uncovered without a word, they finally get a decade of peace together in Jinling. He keeps his promise to stay by her side, teaches their daughter to fight and goes to the Matchmaker Temple to ask for one more lifetime with her.
Her reply, that one lifetime is enough, has sparked plenty of debate. Some viewers find it cold. To me, it shows her emotional maturity. Romantic love was never her only purpose. She lived her one life fully with him, and whatever he owed her has been repaid. Did she love him? I believe she did, in her own quiet way: she chose him, stood beside him and lived out her life as his wife long after he was gone.
Final Verdict + The Scores
Worth the Wait: 4 — Swoon-Worthy. The first kiss is fleeting, but the grave scene and their wedding night by choice pay off 38 episodes of patience in full.
Sizzle Factor: 2 — Lukewarm. There’s nothing sensual here, and that’s the point. Their connection is emotional, not physical.
Soft Moments Score: 4 — Genuinely Sweet. Garden steps, hand-holding, a wishing tree and a fainting father. The quiet moments carry this love story.
Devotion Meter: 5 — Would-Burn-The-Kingdom-Down. He buried her family, gave up his career, refused a concubine, burned her past to protect her and asked to marry her again in the next life.
Confession Scene Rating: 5 — Iconic. Speaking both of her names on his deathbed goes straight into the cdrama confession hall of fame.
Final Verdict: This is a romance measured in patience rather than passion. He loves her first, he loves her more, and he loves her for a lifetime, learning along the way that devotion means respect and not possession. She loves him slowly and quietly, through actions rather than words, carrying a past she can never speak of. It’s lopsided for a very long time, and it asks a lot of the viewer.
But when it pays off, it pays off beautifully. Watching them bow together before her family’s grave, and seeing him speak both of her names at the very end, made every slow episode worth it. If you want sizzle, look elsewhere. If you want a love that lasts a lifetime, this is it.
Thanks for reading! Would love to hear your thoughts on this Against The Current Romance Review.