# How Dare You!? (成何体统)
**How Dare You!?** (成何体统) is a Chinese transmigration (chuanshu, "book-transmigration") story by the web novelist Qi Yingjun (七英俊) that grew from a 2020 Weibo serial into a multi-format entertainment IP developed by iQIYI and Xingyue Culture, spanning an animated series, a vertical short drama, and a live-action television drama, all telling the same core story: a modern office worker who wakes up inside a novel as its doomed villainess and teams up with a fellow transmigrator posing as the tyrant emperor to rewrite the plot.[1](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html) • [2](https://www.iq.com/play/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F-21e7g752a58?lang=zh_cn)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original novel | Serialized by Qi Yingjun on Sina Weibo from August 2020; first-24-hour reads exceeded 10 million and cumulative reads passed 100 million[1](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html) |
| Premise | Modern office worker Wang Cuihua transmigrates into the doomed villainess Yu Wanyin of the novel *Chuanshu zhi Emo Chongfei* and allies with the tyrant Xiahou Dan, himself a transmigrator, to survive and avert the story's ruinous ending[2](https://www.iq.com/play/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F-21e7g752a58?lang=zh_cn) |
| Animation | 24 episodes, premiered June 14, 2024 on iQIYI; opening heat value of 5398 set an iQIYI in-house anime record[3](https://bangumi.tv/subject/340263) • [4](https://pages.iqiyi.com/p/zbs/news20250326.html) |
| Short drama | 89 episodes, aired from June 28, 2025; heat peak 5667 and a first-day Maoyan short-drama heat record of 8774.52; won Best Micro Drama at the 30th Asian Television Awards[5](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F/65674885?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Live-action drama | 32 episodes of about 45 minutes, premiered February 6, 2026 on iQIYI; directed by Liu Haibo (chief director) and Wang Li, starring Wang Churan and Cheng Lei[6](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F/63278781?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Long-drama performance | Heat peak of 9079 on iQIYI; ranked TOP1 in platform heat in 11 countries and regions including Canada, the United States, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam[1](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html) |
| Full IP matrix | Novel, print books, animation, short drama, long drama, radio drama, audiobook, and comic, developed by Xingyue Culture under exclusive license[1](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The protagonist, Wang Cuihua, is a modern office worker who finds herself inside the novel *Chuanshu zhi Emo Chongfei* ("Book Transmigration: The Demon Consort's Favorite"), in the body of Yu Wanyin, a doomed villainess fated to die early in the plot.[7](https://www.zaobao.com.sg/entertainment/story20260331-8796585) • [8](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_1oc1t67i3bt.html) She discovers that the tyrant emperor Xiahou Dan is also a transmigrator from the modern world; the two confirm each other's identity through the English textbook exchange "How are you?" "I'm fine, thank you, and you?", a scene that became one of the drama's signature moments.[7](https://www.zaobao.com.sg/entertainment/story20260331-8796585)
The two pose as the story's villainous emperor and demon consort while secretly scheming to survive and avert the novel's catastrophic ending. The narrative is built as a nested "book within a book": a second transmigrator, Xie Yong'er, turns out to come from a layer of reality lower still than the leads', and the leads test and eventually win her over while preparing drought-resistant crops, recruiting talent, stabilizing the frontier, and defeating the ambitious Prince Duan.[2](https://www.iq.com/play/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F-21e7g752a58?lang=zh_cn) The story's comedy comes from modern thinking applied to an ancient court: characters use English code phrases, manage palace affairs with spreadsheet logic, and treat palace intrigue with workplace tactics.[9](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-02-18/detail-inhnfihm5214541.d.html)
## Origin as a Weibo serial
The project began in 2020, when the production company Xingyue Culture signed Qi Yingjun and chose to break from the conventional web-novel serialization model by launching the story on Sina Weibo rather than a traditional web-fiction platform. The stated aim was "interactive reading": during serialization the team ran plot votes, foreshadowing games, and character-topic discussions so that readers helped shape the story as it was written. The novel's first 24 hours drew more than 10 million reads, and cumulative reads later passed 100 million.[1](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html)
The choice of subject was also deliberate. According to Xingyue Culture's account, costume dramas at the time were dominated by formulaic "revenge of the legitimate daughter" and "the emperor's exclusive favor" plots, while transmigration stories offered a built-in collision between modern and ancient worlds that could carry both palace intrigue and the workplace anxieties of young readers.[1](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html)
## The three adaptations
**Animation first.** The animated series, produced by iQIYI with Beijing Shengying Animation, premiered on June 14, 2024 and ran 24 episodes, with Wang Miao and Xie Huan as directors.[3](https://bangumi.tv/subject/340263) Its premiere heat value of 5398 set a record for iQIYI's self-produced anime, and it drew more than 150,000 topic discussions on Weibo and over 450 million video views on Douyin. It was named an "Honored Recommended Work" in the animation category at the 13th China College Student TV Festival in March 2025, and a second season entered production.[4](https://pages.iqiyi.com/p/zbs/news20250326.html) The second season premiered in early 2026 with a Douban score of 8.3 and premiere reservations above 1.57 million.[10](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_32518835)
**Short drama next.** A vertical-format micro drama, produced by iQIYI's Qiguang Studio and directed by Min Xiangsheng with Qi Yingjun among the writers, starred Liu Nian, He Congrui, Jia Yixuan, and Zhong Zheng. It opened on June 28, 2025 with 89 episodes, reached a heat peak of 5667, and set a Maoyan short-drama category record of 8774.52 on its first day. In November 2025 it won Best Micro Drama at the 30th Asian Television Awards.[5](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F/65674885?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
**Long drama last.** The 32-episode live-action series premiered on iQIYI on February 6, 2026, with Liu Haibo as chief director and [Wang Li](https://www.edgepedia.org/wang-li) as director, scripts by Wang Huan, Fan Jing, Jiang Lihua, and Zhou Yinglei, and Wang Churan as Yu Wanyin and Cheng Lei as Xiahou Dan, supported by Tang Xiaotian, [Hu Yixuan](https://www.edgepedia.org/hu-yixuan-actress), Ma Su, and Fan Shaohuang.[6](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F/63278781?fromModule=lemma_inlink) • [11](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_16ucpowk17h.html) Filming ran from December 29, 2024 to April 25, 2025, with locations in Zhejiang including the Kaihua Root Palace Buddha Country scenic area.[6](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F/63278781?fromModule=lemma_inlink) The series was positioned as the prestige tier of the IP: deeper court-intrigue plotting and higher production values than the short drama, while keeping the animation's character designs and anti-formula tone.[10](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_32518835)
## Reception and the layered-release strategy
The three formats were released in a deliberate sequence: the animation built IP recognition, the short drama captured the resulting heat quickly, and the long drama carried the fullest narrative expression. iQIYI's senior vice president Yang Bei, the long drama's supervising producer, described the principle as "unified core, adapted expression": the three versions share one story but each must find its own mode of telling, since gags and interactions that drive the novel do not translate directly into television narration.[12](https://lmtw.com/mzw/content/detail/id/252150)
The numbers for each format were reported as records for their tiers. The animation's 5398 premiere heat set an iQIYI in-house anime record[4](https://pages.iqiyi.com/p/zbs/news20250326.html); the short drama's 5667 peak set what was then an iQIYI short-drama heat record[13](https://www.thepaper.cn/detail/32762523); and the long drama reached a heat peak of 9079, topping iQIYI's data charts repeatedly during its run.[1](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html) • [13](https://www.thepaper.cn/detail/32762523) On the finale night, the drama's main Weibo topic surpassed 2 billion reads and related short videos exceeded 1.6 billion plays, according to platform data cited by Xingyue Culture.[1](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html)
Overseas, the long drama reached TOP1 platform heat in 11 countries and regions, and in South Korea the "English code phrase" and "Excel-style KPI palace intrigue" gags drove viral second-creation videos on TikTok.[1](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html)
**Critical response was divided.** Supporters praised the leads' chemistry, the anti-formula palace comedy, and faithful recreations of the novel's famous scenes; critics gave the drama a 6.5 opening score on Douban and argued that the adaptation simplified the novel's darker material, including the original ending in which Xiahou Dan dies of illness in the ancient world and Yu Wanyin rules as empress before the two reunite in the modern era, replacing it with a joint victory and a return to modern life.[14](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-02-18/detail-inhnfihm5231985.d.html?vt=4) A separate analysis noted the drama was praised for roughly 95 percent dialogue fidelity to the novel while also criticized because reproducing the plot exactly left little suspense for viewers who knew the book.[9](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-02-18/detail-inhnfihm5214541.d.html)
## References
1. [星悦文化深耕六年，让《成何体统》从热门小说长成全球爆款IP, 新京报](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1773460926129780.html)
2. [成何体统 (2026) 全集, iQIYI International (iq.com)](https://www.iq.com/play/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F-21e7g752a58?lang=zh_cn)
3. [成何体统 WEB, Bangumi 番组计划](https://bangumi.tv/subject/340263)
4. [爱奇艺出品动画《成何体统》获评第十三届中国大学生电视节"荣誉推荐作品", 爱奇艺](https://pages.iqiyi.com/p/zbs/news20250326.html)
5. [成何体统（2025年闵祥昇执导的反套路IP微剧）, 百度百科](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F/65674885?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
6. [成何体统（2026年刘海波、王莉执导的古装爱情喜剧）, 百度百科](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E6%88%90%E4%BD%95%E4%BD%93%E7%BB%9F/63278781?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
7. [王楚然丞磊穿书回到古代 化身妖妃暴君联手改写命运, 联合早报](https://www.zaobao.com.sg/entertainment/story20260331-8796585)
8. [https://www.iqiyi.com/a_1oc1t67i3bt.html](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_1oc1t67i3bt.html)
9. [网剧《成何体统》的"书中书"嵌套式剧情结构具体是如何设计的？, 新浪娱乐](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-02-18/detail-inhnfihm5214541.d.html)
10. [《成何体统》漫改剧，能帮爱奇艺翻身？, 澎湃新闻·湃客](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_32518835)
11. [https://www.iqiyi.com/a_16ucpowk17h.html](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_16ucpowk17h.html)
12. [《成何体统》的三种打开方式, 流媒体网/骨朵网络影视](https://lmtw.com/mzw/content/detail/id/252150)
13. [梯度开发引爆《成何体统》：IP系列化的全新范式来了, 澎湃新闻·湃客](https://www.thepaper.cn/detail/32762523)
14. [观众对《成何体统》的大结局改编和'跨次元救赎'设定评价如何？, 新浪娱乐](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-02-18/detail-inhnfihm5231985.d.html?vt=4)
---
*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 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license