Introduction
Money Is Coming is an easy watch short drama despite the angst because it’s a palace politics. In this drama, money is indeed… colorful!
Drama Info
Drama title: Money Is Coming (Native title: 富贵逼人太甚 )
Genres: Historical, Romance, Fantasy
Aired: Jan 2, 2025 - Jan 20, 2025
Episodes: 27 | Duration: 20 minutes
Director: Zhou Xiao ( 周潇 )
Screenwriter: Zhou Mo ( 周沫 )
Adapted from the web novel "Chuan Shu Hou Cheng Le Da Lao De Xian Yu Bao Zhen (穿书后成了大佬的咸鱼抱枕) by Xi Yin (奚音).
Where to watch: WeTV
OST:
"Outside the Balcony" ( 楼台外 ) by Zi Ru Chu Music ( 子如初音乐 )
"An Eternal Thought" ( 一念永恒 ) by Dong Xiang Lin ( 董相麟 )
Trailer:
Synopsis
A female college student, Ning Chu Xi, accidentally finds herself entering a book, becoming the vicious supporting character, Princess Yue Xi, who doesn’t survive beyond the first three chapters. To save herself, she makes the bold decision to return to her hometown, hoping to avoid the inevitable fate outlined in the original plot. However, after experiencing the warmth of familial love back home, she gradually develops a deep connection to this world. No longer content with merely saving her own life, Ning Chu Xi resolves to save other characters whose lives are also being crushed by the main storyline. She decides to rescue the male supporting character, Xiao Xing Heng, who is fated to die at a specific point in the story. Together, they form an alliance to alter the main plot and seek justice for the original character’s wronged family. (Source: WeTV)
The Drama Title Explained
When you read the drama titled Money Is Coming, you assume it’s a comedy or romantic comedy. Nothing like it. This is a perfect fail case of a drama marketing team that tried to closely translate a native title to English. The native title 富贵逼人太甚 derives from a Chinese idiom 富贵逼人 (fùguì bī rén) that means “to gain wealth and power when one does not deliberately seek them” (Purple Culture). 太甚 translates to “overwhelming” or “too much”. The native title assumes that the protagonist Ning Chu Xi, after becoming a character in a book, finds herself rich and powerful. However, after indulging herself in luxury, she finds that kind of life too much. Thus, she starts doing something more meaningful for others, including saving Xiao Xing Heng.
Characters
Main Characters

Zhi Yue ( 芝月 ) as Ning Chu Xi

Lin Ze Hui ( 林泽辉 ) as Xiao Xing Heng
Supporting Characters







Review
Story
Romance Plot
The romance plot takes up more portion than the palace political plot, making this drama easy to watch. The main couple slowly falls in love along the drama with a healthy relationship and open communication, with no love triangle. Misunderstandings are resolved quickly. The chemistry? Is on fire 🔥 with subtle and sensual innuendos as shown in an example below. Of course, we also see the couple’s real kisses, too!

Palace Politic Plot
Because this is a short drama, the palace political plot is straightforward. From the beginning, we can guess who the antagonist(s) are. We just wait what they’re trying to do and the hero or heroine’s movements. From the type of watcher who doesn’t like complicated palace politics that is quite common in regular-length historical dramas, this drama is recommended for not dragging the political part.
Character and Acting
Ning Chu Xi/Zhi Yue
The manhwa character Ning Chu Xi depends her life on marriage to a royal family member, therefore becomes a second female lead villainess. The drama character Ning Chu Xi, since she comes from a modern world, is as what the idiom in the drama native title. She is “fùguì bī rén” who focuses more on gaining wealth and power as the only daughter of General Ning, not getting married. She is practical and logical, bold and fierce without any restraint to the ancient custom. Through her thoughts and actions, viewers can see her modern ways to solve problems.
I have never seen the actress Zhi Yue, who is a Weibo blogger and a hanfu model. Unfortunately in this drama we cannot really see that the actress is really pretty, as shown on the left image (credit: TMDB), because of the substandard makeup. See the review on the makeup section below.

Xiao Xing Heng/Lin Ze Hui
I have seen Lin Ze Hui in a few costume dramas, I specifically liked his drama Palace Shadows: Between Two Princes ( 嫁东宫 ). In this drama he played as the Crown Prince Xiao Xing Heng who came from long time imprisonment in another country. Because of past experiences, Xiao Xing Heng can behave either gentle and considerate (especially to Ning Chu Xi), cunning and calculative (towards the villains), and ruthless (towards the bad guys).
The Visuals
This is the section of this article in which “the colorful money” in this article title is related. The lavish aesthetic full with colors in this drama screams money (expensive). Because majority filming budget didn’t go to paying expensive actors, the production company seemed spending a lot to make the drama looking pretty. Let’s see some examples, starting with the props and sets as shown below.
Props and Sets




Costume and Accessories
The costumes of almost every royal and noble characters are so intricately beautiful. Below I picked favorite costumes of Ning Chu Xi.




Makeup
Now, leading characters’ makeup seems like the most and only subject watchers complained about. Interestingly, other characters don’t wear excessive eye makeup. Some reasoned the makeup is close to manhwa, with orange/red eyeshadow around Ning Chu Xi’s eyes (bottom left GIF) and dark eyeshadow around Xiao Xing Heng’s eyes (bottom right image). But I even read critiques from Chinese watchers on Douban, don’t they probably are more familiar with orange/red eye makeup on Chinese manhua and donghua?
The rationale on red/orange eye makeup worn by Ning Chu Xi maybe can be explained in a Tumblr post below (click/tap on the spoiler arrow).
The orange/red eye makeup in ancient China/costume Chinese dramas


Xiao Xing Heng’s dark eyemakeup on a white/pale face might be inspired from his situation as depicted on the GIF above (click/tap on the spoiler arrow).
Xiao Xing Heng was poisoned when he was in the enemy’s country, so he suffers from a strange illness that causes him to have manic episodes, in which he has to be chained or he will bite people. In this scene he bites Ning Chu Xi like a vampire when she stumbles upon him.
Conclusion
Money Is Coming, starting from the odd title, shouldn’t be taken as a serious historical or costume Chinese drama. Instead, with a light heart watchers can enjoy this short drama!

Spoilers
Ending
Happy ending
Detailed ending
The villains are dead. Lin Yu Dai killed Xiao Xu. Xiao Xing Heng and Ning Chu Xi get married. Unlike other transmigration dramas, surprisingly, Ning Chu Xi doesn’t go back to the modern world.