Popular costume suspense drama Mysterious Lotus Casebook that has been anticipated all summer has premiered last night, on 23 July. Within two hours of broadcast, it emerged as the number one searched drama on iQIYI’s website, and the number of reservations exceeded 4 million even before the drama started airing. The highly anticipated drama saw netizens urging for updates on the drama’s launch date prior to the official announcement. They whined about how this drama not only has a suspenseful plot, but its date of launch is also in suspense.

The drama is adapted from the novel Auspicious Pattern Lotus House by Teng Ping and it tells the story of the renowned leader of the Sigu School, Li Xiangyi (played by Cheng Yi), who is severely injured in a major battle and thus retreats from the martial arts world, becoming a humble physician named Li Lianhua. However, his peaceful life is disrupted when he meets Fang Duobing (played by Joseph Zeng), and his old enemy Di Feisheng (played by Aero Xiao). The drama is not only suspenseful but its unique plot made fans exclaim in joy: “It’s finally not another fantasy costume drama!”

This drama marks the dream collaboration between the two leading actors Cheng Yi and Joseph Zeng, since both of them acted in different versions of The Lost Tomb and left deep impressions on many audiences ever since. Mysterious Lotus Casebook marks the first detective drama that Cheng Yi is starring in, which explains his receival of the massive attention. Being known for his acting skills and good looks, many audiences look forward to his wonderful performance in the drama. It is also a new work of the famous director Guo Hu, who has been well received for his popular works such as One and Only and Immortal Samsara. From the script to the drama completion, the whole drama production took up to four years. Up to 400 scenes were built in the drama in order to present more realistic scenes to the audience, with action scenes all directed by a Hong Kong team for it to turn out perfect. The well-produced drama will definitely live up to the audience’s high expectations!

Mysterious Lotus Casebook begins with Li Xiangyi and Di Feisheng’s intense fighting scene at sea, with both of them falling into the water. Li Xiangyi fought so well that he was crowned number one in martial arts. Netizens have praised Cheng Yi for being the chosen one for the role, and felt as if he personally really knows martial arts. Not only is he so handsome, he is also amazing and made the drama so exciting!

The plot of the drama is fast-paced,filled with fun and laughter. It is unique for a detective drama to be turned into a comedic one, which would leave many laughing till they cry. The attractive setting of characters accompanied with good acting skills of the actors played a huge part in the drama premiere being very well-received. Under the wild imagination of the great detective Li Lianhua, the martial arts costume drama that everyone thought to be turned into an ethical drama. Netizens couldn’t help joking that Cheng Yi brought to light many truths in Mysterious Lotus Casebook.

iQIYI original drama Mysterious Lotus Casebook premiered on July 23 on www.iq.com with its first six episodes. The 40-episode series will release two new episodes daily at 20:00 SGT.