Introduction
This Chinese historical romance drama is an engaging watch for fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope, political intrigue, and strong character arcs. It weaves a complex story with romance, court politics, revenge, and hidden conspiracies. Unlike many dramas, the main characters don’t just fall in love—they actively work together to outwit their enemies, making their romance feel like a true partnership.
While I enjoyed the drama while it was airing, I felt the pacing was inconsistent, especially in the early episodes. There are also some annoying characters and unnecessary subplots. So, if you want to fast-forward through some scenes but don’t want to lose the story, here is the recap series for Fated Hearts. Enjoy!
Drama Info
Drama title: Fated Hearts (Native title: 一笑随歌 )
Alternative title: Yi Xiao Sui Ge
Genres: Historical, Mystery, Political, Romance
Aired: 2 Oct, 2025 - 16 Oct, 2025
Episodes: 38 | Duration: 45 min.
Directors: Chu Yui Bun ( 朱锐斌 ) - chief director, Francis Nam ( 蓝志伟 ), and Gu Zhi Wei ( 古志威 )
Screenwriters: Qing Mei ( 青枚 ) - chief writer, Wu Cong ( 武聪 ) - chief writer, Wang Xiao Dan ( 王晓丹 ) - chief writer, Cao Ting ( 曹婷 ), and Cheng Cheng ( 陈辰 )
Adapted from the novel "Yi Xiao" (一笑) by Chi Yi Qian Yu (炽翼千羽).
Where to read the English translation novel: ReadtheDrama
Where to watch: iQiyi
OST: Full album (fan audio - English translated)
Trailer
Synopsis
When Jinxiu Kingdom is on the brink of defeat in the battle at Pingling, the female archer in red, Fu Yixiao, shoots an arrow at Susha’s eldest prince, Feng Suige, turning the tide of the battle. But Yixiao accidentally falls off a cliff shortly after and loses her memory. After Yixiao is rescued by the Ling family of doctors of the Righteous Villa [Zheng Nian Villa], she unexpectedly reunites with her old enemy Suige.
Looking at the mess Yixiao is in, Suige infers that it must be related to his predicament in the battle at Pingling. Suige wants to use Yixiao to find out the truth behind the scenes, while Yixiao wants to use Suige to survive under heavy pursuit.
So the two, who were mortal enemies a month ago, must now rely on each other to survive in the turbulent Yujing City [the capital of Susha Kindom], and their love secretly blossoms through countless near-death experiences. The seeds have been sown, and amid the hatred, betrayal, deception, unrequited desire, and inability to let go, everyone is both a player and a pawn.
Yixiao and Suige can only work closely together in the storm to overcome the dark conspiracy, break the shackles of fate, live up to the people’s expectations, and not let each other down. (Source: iQiyi)
Characters
Character Chart
Main Characters
Li Qin ( 李沁 ) as Fu Yi Xiao
Fu Yixiao was once the number one archer in Jinxiu, known for her calm and decisive nature. She had a clear sense of love and hate, and although she was arrogant and sharp on the outside, she was warm and sincere at heart. After being betrayed by her beloved and falling off a cliff, she was lucky enough to survive, but lost her memory and her left hand was severely injured, making it impossible for her to draw a bow.
Chen Zhe Yuan ( 陈哲远 ) as Feng Sui Ge / First Prince of Susha
Feng Suige is the eldest prince of the Susha Kingdom. Fu Yixiao shot him in the Battle of Pingling, which turned the tide of the battle. Later, he met Fu Yixiao again after she lost her memory. He took the opportunity to bring her to his side to lure out the mastermind behind the scenes and start the journey of revealing the conspiracy between the two countries.
Supporting Characters
Xia Jing Shi (Chen He Yi) – Prince of Zhennan
Feng Xi Yang (Xia Meng) – Princess of Susha
Murong Yao (Zuo Ye) – General of Susha
Xia Jing Yan (Qin Tian Yu) – Emperor of Jinxu
My Rating
My rating for this drama was based on MyDramaList’s scoring system, which is from 0.0 to 10.0. For any drama/movie/show I completed, I gave a minimum rating of 6.0 to appreciate the hard work of the production team, and to adjust to MyDramaList’s overall score base. From 6.0, this drama has additional scores of:
1.0 for the complex but intriguing political plot
1.0 for the acting of the leading actor and leading actress, and the villains.
1.0 for the elaborate and luxurious royal costumes
Thus, my final rating is 9.0/10.
Recap Episodes 1 to 8
Episode 1
The Jinxiu Kingdom and the Susha Kingdom were neighbors and enemies, with deep-seated hatred and constant wars. The eldest prince of the Susha Kingdom, Feng Suige (I will call him Suige), led his army to attack the Jinxiu border pass called Zhennan Pass. In the midst of battle, he was shot down by the Jinxiu Kingdom’s female captain, Fu Yixiao (I will call her Yixiao), with an arrow.
While Suige retreated, he encountered a group of masked assassins. But just after killing one group, another group of assassins chased after his carriage. Suige felt that there were ambushes at every pass along the way. His carriage was forced to the cliff. The coachman was able to save the horse and himself, but the carriage fell off the cliff. The masked assassins thought that Suige was dead, so they retreated.
In the Battle of Pingling, the Zhennan Army of Jinxiu defeated Feng Suige’s army of Susha. But on the night of the victory, Zhennan’s Army foremost commander, the Red-Clad General Fu Yixiao went missing.
In the woods, Yixiao was besieged by a group of masked assassins. She fought them with all her might and killed her assassins, but she was seriously injured. Ling Xueying, the physician of Zheng Nian Villa, found Yixiao, who had lost consciousness and fainted. She brought Yixiao back to Zheng Nian Villa. This place was apparently famous for treating injuries. Both injured soldiers of the Susha Kingdom and the Jinxiu Kingdom were treated here.
Suige apparently didn’t die. He escaped the pursuit with a trick. However, his injuries were too serious. A local physician could only remove the arrow but not heal the wound. Suige knew he couldn’t return to Susha yet, but he knew there was a place that could save his life, which was a forbidden area in the back mountain of the Zheng Nian Villa.
After Yixiao woke up, she could not remember her name, nor could she remember who shot her in the back. Xueying took her to the forbidden medicine pool in the back mountain. Unexpectedly, Suige, who wanted to heal his arrow wound as soon as possible, also came to the medicine pool. They met, but Suige fainted due to his serious injuries. After waking up, he recognized Yixiao as the archer who shot him because he had a portrait of her. Yixiao also saw her portrait, but didn’t recognize Suige as her enemy. When Suige found that Yixiao had amnesia, he didn’t tell her who he was. His soldiers then came she was knocked her unconscious.
Episode 2
WARNING: Violent scenes! (for Chinese dramas)
Suige took Yixiao a hostage despite Physician Xueying begging him to let Yixiao stay at the Zheng Nian Villa to recuperate. But Suige refused because he lost the battle of Pingling because of Yixiao. After torturing her severely to test whether she was really amnesiac, Suige concluded that there was someone in Jinxiu Kingdom who wanted to kill Yixiao. Man, the torture was quite brutal, but she fought back by biting and kicking him!
It seems Yixiao and Xia Jingshi, the Second Male Lead, the Prince of Zhennan of Jinxiu Kingdom, were lovers. Before the Battle of Pingling, he gave her a jade bracelet as a token of love. However, Yixiao disappeared after the battle. Jingshi had been looking for her everywhere; soon afterwards, he received an imperial decree. The Jinxiu Kingdom decided to cease the war with the Susha Kingdom and make a peace treaty by marrying Jingshi to Feng Xiyang, the Princess of Susha. She’s the Second Female Lead and Suige’s younger sister. This ‘love square’ will be interesting.
Yixiao suspected that someone in the Susha Kingdom was colluding with the enemy, and Yixiao probably stumbled upon the secrets, so they hunted her down. To find out the truth, he decided to spare her life and personally applied medicine to her wounds.
When they were on the way to the capital of the Susha Kingdom, Yixiao woke up. She broke free off the ropes and attacked Suige. Suige was no pushover either, and easily grabbed her neck. He warned her that someone, not him, hunted her down and wanted to kill her. He would investigate the matter as it connected with the treason in the Susha Kingdom, but she needed to cooperate. After hearing his words, she calmed down, but not before stating that she would not let him manipulate her.
Suige’s army, the Feng Battalion, was stopped outside the city gate by Zhuang Shen’s adopted son of Prime Minister Zhuang He. This PM is up to no good. They were demanded to be taken back to the Ministry of Justice for questioning, because Zhuang He suspected that there were spies in the Battalion that led to the defeat. But this was only a trick to weaken Suige’s army. He deliberately let Zhuang He approach, and suddenly grabbed Zhuang He’s throat and broke his neck. Suige then ordered his army to enter the city. When they arrived at his mansion, he asked Yixiao to recuperate in the mansion, and then discuss the cooperation after she’s healed. Then Suige went straight to the palace without being summoned.
The Emperor asked Suige the reason for the defeat of Pingling. Suige said because there was a spy from Jinxu. He took out the head of Zhuang He and said that Zhuang He had sent people to assassinate him along the way.
Episode 3
The tactical PM Zhuang could only acknowledge that his adopted son Zhuang He was indeed a spy. This put Suige at the upper hand position, and he and his army was not punished.
It seemed the Zhuang Family would be Suige’s villains in the future, not only PM Zhuang. His daughter was the Empress Zhuang Jingyuan. She also hated Suige and warned her young son, Feng Chengyang, not to get close to Suige. This cutie pie adored his older half-brother so much and wanted to learn from Feng Suige and become a brave and good general in the future. Suige and his younger sister, Feng Xiyang, were the children of the previous empress with Emperor Feng Pingcheng. His mother was slandered as a spy colluding with Jinxiu and died. Zhuang Jingyuan became the mean stepmother, while the emperor didn’t care about his two children. Suige had remembered everything and grew hatred, turning him into the gloomy and ruthless character he is today.
I wrote about Feng Chengyang, because I have a hunch that this boy may be the future emperor of Susha. The current emperor sucks, and Suige will be like many of the princely heroes in Chinese historical dramas; in the end, they let others lead the nations, while the heroes get away, living with the heroines as commoners in secluded places.
Although Yixiao had already figured out that cooperating with Suige was the best way out, she was still murderous at him. During the meal, she took a fragment of glass, held him hostage, and took him for a ride in broad daylight. Suige noticed that Yixiao looked around the crowd and saw some shady men who had followed her last time. He knew that her intention was not to kill him, but to announce her whereabouts publicly. Not only did the assassins see her with Suige, but someone from Zheng Nian Villa also looked for her and told Physician Xueying.
After the public declaration, Yixiao took Suige to the forest and tied him up. She had been whipped 47 times, so she retaliated by whipping Suige to vent her anger. The assassins followed them, but so were Suige’s subordinates. Yixiao and Suige made a pact of cooperation. However, when she released Suige, he hugged and bit her! He had not forgotten that she had bitten his neck, and he bit back to settle the account. His subordinates felt awkward watching their sadomasochistic relationship, hahaha!
Episode 4
While conferring with his subordinates about the Battle of Pingling, Suige found out that Yixiao’s shooting him was actually a blessing in disguise. The Jinxiu army had already surrounded the Fengzi Battalion to ambush them in Zhennan Pass. However, after Suige was shot and he and the army retreated, their plan failed. In this way, Yixiao’s arrow was not a disaster, but saved them. As long as they can find out who wants to kill Yixiao, they can find out the Susha spies by following the trail.
Suige invited an imperial physician to treat Yixiao’s hand injury. To avoid suspicion, he said that Yixiao was his concubine. Even his subordinates didn’t know about this scheme; they thought that their boss had taken a fancy to Yixiao. Later, he dressed Yixiao up and paraded her publicly on the street. The real reason was to lure out the assassins. Yixiao was not used to the showcase. She took off her gorgeous robes and all accessories and flew to ride with Suige.
The grand display didn’t attract the assassins but other people instead. Firstly, there was the playboy Murong Yao, Suige’s childhood friend, who was like a brother to him. If Suige didn’t claim Yixiao right away as his concubine, Yao would flirt with her. Secondly, Physician Xueying, who took three children with her to the capital. They were looking for Yixiao, who had taken them as her disciples since their fathers, Yixiao’s subordinates, died on the battlefield.
When Suige learned that his sister was going to be sent to marry the Jinxiu prince for a peace alliance, he was angry and immediately rode into the palace to protest. He strongly opposed the marriage. But PM Zhuang said that if not a marriage alliance, they had to give up four border cities that were captured by Suige before.
Episode 5
Since her little disciples would only be in danger if they followed her, Yixiao entrusted Physician Xueying to take the three children back to Zheng Nian Villa. On their way back, their carriage was blocked by the assassins who wanted to kill Yixiao. They took one boy to lure Yixiao to a merchant ship. While following them, Yixiao recognized that they were from the Zhennan Army! However, she couldn’t figure out who exactly was the person who wanted her dead. Because of the child, Yixiao was forced to surrender. Luckily, Suige came to save her life. The ship was burned by the assassins. Suige pushed Yixiao into the river and looked for the boy. After saving him, Suige gradually lost oxygen and, in turn, was saved by Yixiao.
What did he whisper in her ear? I guess we would find out later…
After this incident, the two gradually put down their prejudices and suspicions about each other. Yixiao was impressed that Suige would risk his life to save a boy he hardly knew. She saw kindness behind Suige’s ruthlessness. Meanwhile, Suige also learned about Yixiao from the children.
The culprit of this kidnapping was none other than Zhuang Ming, PM Zhuang’s nephew. He was helped by the Jinxiu people.
Episode 6
Since the children were also in danger outside the capital, Physician Xueying decided to buy a house in the capital and stay with the children. She and Yixiao became sworn sisters, and the children became a nuisance for us, the viewers, to watch, although Suige didn’t mind the rowdy children.
The assassins from the ship fire were unidentified, but Suige ordered his men to hang their bodies at the city gate and to ruin the marriage alliance of his sister because the Jinxiu people wanted to kill the first prince. However, the princess didn’t mind marrying Xia Jingshi, because she fell in love with him at first sight. Suige was angry at his sister’s agreement to marry the enemy. He was so distressed that he went drinking. Seeing this, Yixiao quietly accompanied him in drinking, and they were drunk together.
Yixiao was drunk, but she could still dance a beautiful sword dance for Suige
Episode 7
After a night of drunkenness, Suige and Yixiao ended up in the same bed. No, nothing happened last night. Suige just saw that Yixiao was very drunk, so he carried her back to rest, and he passed out in the same bed.
Meanwhile, Jingshi went to Susha to talk about the marriage alliance. He actually wanted to meet his beloved, since he heard Yixiao was in Susha now. However, he didn’t meet Yixiao. He met the emperor instead, who bluntly said that Jingshi was the marriage partner that his daughter liked. If his daughter were not willing, he would never agree to the marriage between the two countries.
When Jingshi left the palace, he met Xiyang in front of the palace gate. He had already forgotten her. She mentioned that three years ago, when she ran away and ended up in the desert in Jinxiu, they met. He did not kill her, but instead threw her a bag of water, allowing her to survive in the desert for two days until her brother and the others came to rescue her. From that day on, she fell in love with him. Therefore, after learning that the marriage partner of Jinxiu Kingdom was Jingshi, Xiyang agreed without thinking.
However, Jingshi didn’t remember Xiyang at all.
Episode 8
Her comrades… (or enemies?) were so close in Susha, so Yixiao wanted to meet them. She found out that her subordinate, Ning Fei, the Zhennan army’s military strategist, was injured by Suige, so she sent him to Physician Xueying. The physician was not happy seeing the people from Jinxu: Jingshi, Ning Fei, and Xiao Weiran, the Zhennan army’s military advisor. She accused them of not even being able to protect their comrades, causing Yixiao to suffer a serious injury to her left hand and develop amnesia.
On the way back from the palace, Jingshi and Feng Suige met in front of the crowd. The two were old enemies, so they exchanged harsh words. Jingshi learned that Yixiao had become Suige’s concubine.
Yixiao wanted to see Jingshi, but Suige did not allow it. Yixiao thought that Suige was afraid she would recover her memory after seeing Jingshi, wanted to return home, and no longer cooperate with Suige. But in fact, Suige was more concerned about protecting Yixiao. After all, Fu Yixiao was injured by someone she knew. According to the confession of the people who were caught, the waist tag from the person who mobilized the assassins of the Zhennan Army either belongs to Xia Jingshi or the army officer Xiao Weiran. Both were here at this moment.
Yixiao did not intend to leave Suige in bad faith, because he had saved her life a few times. However, she did not intend to be trapped in his mansion, either. She secretly asked Xueying to pass a message to Jingshi to meet. However, Jingshi ended up being invited by the empress, who found out about Yixiao. She had a hunch that Jingshi and Yixiao were lovers. Jingshi denied that he had any feelings for Yixiao. She was only her comrade-in-arms on the battlefield.
Suige found out about Yixiao’s plan to meet Jingshi, so he decided that Yixiao could meet Jingshi with him present. Yixiao saw her former comrades Ning Fei and Xiao Weiran, and she was able to recall things about the army. However, when Jingshi returned from the palace and met Yixiao, she did not remember him at all, nor their sweet moments.
Conclusion
Of all the romance dramas with the early amnesia trope, I was satisfied that at least Feng Suige was honest to Fu Yixiao that she was the enemy general, but was wounded and hunted by her assassins, and he was the enemy prince, so their relationship didn’t start on a lie. As sadomasochist as it is, they pretty much have a healthy relationship.
I was not sure about Xia Jingshi and Feng Xiyang, would they be the drama beloved’s second couple, or double trouble? We’ll see in the second part of this recap article.
