General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Forever And Ever (一生一世)

Forever and Ever (一生一世, Yi Sheng Yi Shi) is a 2021 Chinese modern romance television series starring Ren Jialun (Allen Ren) and Bai Lu, broadcast on iQiyi in 30 episodes from September 6, 2021¹. It is the contemporary half of a two-drama adaptation of Mo Bao Fei Bao's novel Yi Sheng Yi Shi Mei Ren Gu (一生一世美人骨), with the historical drama One and Only (周生如故) telling the couple's ancient-life story². The series follows the voice actress Shi Yi and the chemistry professor Zhousheng Chen, who meet by chance at an airport, become engaged, and work to preserve his family's traditional zisha teapot craft³.

Key fact	Detail
Chinese title	一生一世 (Yi Sheng Yi Shi); adapted from the novel 一生一世美人骨 by Mo Bao Fei Bao¹
Broadcast	iQiyi, premiered September 6, 2021; 30 episodes of roughly 45 to 49 minutes¹^•⁴
Leads	Ren Jialun as Zhousheng Chen, a returnee chemistry professor; Bai Lu as Shi Yi, a top voice actress⁵
Creative team	Director Shen Yang (with Ben Fang); screenwriter Mo Bao Fei Bao, author of the source novel⁵^•⁶
Companion drama	One and Only (2021), the ancient-life half of the same novel; the two can be watched independently or as one story²
Ratings	Douban 6.2/10; iQiyi 8.6/10; IMDb 7.5/10 (figures as of March 5, 2024)⁷
Heat performance	Heat index of 75.72, the top web drama of September 2021 on Guuduo's monthly chart⁸

Spoilers

Premise and plot

The story opens with a chance meeting. Shi Yi, a gentle, low-profile voice actress at the top of her profession, encounters Zhousheng Chen, a refined chemistry professor returned from overseas, at an airport, and the two leave a deep impression on each other³. In the first episode, Shi Yi is dubbing narration for a film called Mei Ren Gu and is struck when the professor's name, familiar to her from that story, is called out at a security checkpoint; she works up the nerve to introduce herself and obtains his email address⁹.

An engagement to save a family business. Zhousheng Chen's family runs a declining zisha (purple clay) teapot factory. To save it, he agrees to his mother's condition that he become engaged and take over the family business, but he rejects the match his family has arranged and instead proposes an engagement to Shi Yi, for whom he already has feelings; she, having long since decided on him, accepts³. The drama follows a "marriage before love" arc in which the two grow close through daily life¹⁰.

Conflict comes from the family rather than the couple. Zhousheng Chen's efforts to revive the zisha craft bring him into a major disagreement with the family elders over how the business should be run, and Shi Yi's steady support helps him through the hardest stretch; together they preserve as much of the traditional handicraft as possible³. Near the end, Shi Yi is seriously injured saving Zhousheng Chen from harm and falls into a deep coma; he hands over the family affairs and devotes himself to caring for her until she wakes, and the two promise never to leave each other's side³.

Source novel and the two-drama structure

The series adapts the modern section of Mo Bao Fei Bao's novel Yi Sheng Yi Shi Mei Ren Gu, whose story spans two lives of the same couple². In the novel, the heroine Shi Yi remembers her past life, which is why she recognizes something in Zhousheng Chen immediately; because Chinese censorship rules do not permit reincarnation in drama stories, Mo Bao Fei Bao, who also served as the screenwriter, split the material into two series: One and Only dramatizes the historical life, and Forever and Ever the modern one¹¹.

The connection between the two dramas is carried by detail rather than plot. Forever and Ever opens with Shi Yi dubbing the story of the ancient couple, and it plants echoes of One and Only throughout, from the Qinglong Temple to the Shanglin Fu rhapsody⁷. Critics and viewers describe the arrangement as an innovation in release strategy: the two dramas were "one book, filmed twice, with dual-drama linkage," watchable separately or as a single story, and Forever and Ever functions for many viewers as emotional compensation for the tragic ending of One and Only².

Production and broadcast

The 30-episode urban romance drama was jointly produced by Beijing iQiyi Technology and Culture Co., Shanghai Croton (Ketong) Partners Television Production Co., and the Xiamen Film and Television Industry Service Center, and began streaming on iQiyi on September 6, 2021⁵. Shen Yang directed; his earlier credits include Happiness Within Reach and Feng Ni Jiu Tian, and the leads' prior credits include Ren Jialun in Under the Power and One and Only and Bai Lu in Zhao Yao and Half Is Sweet, Half Is Hurt⁵.

Anticipation before release was high: iQiyi reported more than 3 million in-platform reservations before the premiere, with viewers waiting for the "Chen-Shi CP" airport reunion¹². The release schedule put two new episodes at 20:00 each Monday through Wednesday, with VIP members able to watch six episodes on the first day¹². The series later aired on Taiwan's CTi Variety Channel in a weekday evening slot¹⁰, and internationally it streams with subtitles in more than ten languages on services including iQiyi's international app, Viki, and Amazon Prime Video⁴^•¹³.

Cast

Ren Jialun plays Zhousheng Chen and Bai Lu plays Shi Yi⁵. The supporting cast includes Ci Sha as Mei Xing, Luo Mingjie as Zhou Wenchuan, Wang Ruixin as Zhou Wenxing, Wang Yueyi as Hong Xiaoyu, Jin Liting as Tong Jiaren, and Luo Haiqiong as Qin Wan¹⁴^•⁶.

Reception

Commercial performance was strong. According to Guuduo's monthly web drama data, Forever and Ever took the September 2021 web drama heat championship with an index of 75.72⁸. On iQiyi's own popularity index, the drama broke 7000 within 90 minutes of its premiere, 7500 within 2.5 hours, 8000 within 14 hours, 8500 within 17 hours, and eventually 9000⁷.

Critical scores were more modest. The drama opened on Douban at 6.7 ten days after its premiere, a figure noted at the time as unremarkable against contemporaries such as Double Probe (7.4) and Danger Zone (8.6)¹⁵; it later settled at 6.2 on Douban against 8.6 on iQiyi and 7.5 on IMDb (as of March 5, 2024)⁷. Commentary attributed the gap between heat and reputation to the drama's standing as a sequel: whether a viewer had seen One and Only directly shaped their judgment of Forever and Ever, and as a standalone modern romance some critics found it thin, with one review judging it "barely satisfactory as a sequel" that could not carry the sense of fate established by its predecessor²^•¹⁶. Positive commentary credited the drama with avoiding stock romance tropes such as misunderstandings and breakups, weaving social reality and family conflict around the love story, and rewarding fans with layered callbacks to One and Only⁷.

Awards. The drama was named an annual recommended romance drama at the 2021 TV Awards (电视剧大赏); Bai Lu received a Best Young Television Actress nomination at the 8th Hengdian Film Festival; Mo Bao Fei Bao placed in the top nine screenwriters of 2021 on the fifth Yingyan Craftsmanship List; and both leads won Annual Outstanding Young Actor at the 18th Chinese American TV Festival in November 2022⁷.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles Cr to In

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?