General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Nian Nian You Ci

Nian Nian You Ci (念念有词, also known in English as Lingering in Mind) is a 2025 Chinese vertical-screen micro-drama produced by the studio Tinghua Island (听花岛), directed by Zhou Qianqian (周茜茜) and starring He Congrui (何聪睿) as the mute CEO Feng Yan and Liu Nian (刘念) as the talkative college student Sang Lu. It premiered on 3 July 2025 on the Hongguo short-drama platform and iQIYI, and became the first drama on Hongguo to exceed both 1 billion plays and a heat value of 100 million.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	92 vertical-screen episodes, each averaging under 2 minutes; the complete series runs under 3 hours³
Premiere	3 July 2025 on Hongguo Short Drama and iQIYI¹
Source material	Adapted from the Tomato Novel Wo Gei Yaba Zongcai Zuo Hualiao, Haomen Quan Meng Le (《我给哑巴总裁做话疗，豪门全懵了》)¹
Records	First Hongguo drama with both over 1 billion plays and a heat value over 100 million; 12 days to 2 billion views²^•⁴
Leads	He Congrui as Feng Yan (封砚), Liu Nian as Sang Lu (桑鹿); their third collaboration⁵
Production	Produced by Tinghua Island; associated with Tomato; screenwriter Santai (三台)⁶

Spoilers

Premise

Sang Lu, a college student, transmigrates into a romance novel as a cannon-fodder supporting character. The original owner of the body despised her mute CEO husband and died miserably; Sang Lu decides to change that fate by cherishing the marriage, her work, and her parents, and living properly for once. Her energy gradually reaches her mute husband, the two hearts draw closer, and the story ends with success in both career and family.⁷

The male lead Feng Yan is an icy business magnate who lost his ability to speak. One analysis attributes his condition to childhood trauma and notes the dramatic consequence: because he cannot talk, all of his love and protection must be expressed through action.⁸ In the later episodes the husband finally speaks, and the reveal of his deep, magnetic voice is treated as the story's payoff moment.⁶^•⁹

Release and records

The drama launched on 3 July 2025. The next day its topic volume across the web passed 300 million and its heat value inside Hongguo passed 80 million, holding the top of Hongguo's hot-play ranking for consecutive days. By 7 July, its fifth day, it broke the Hongguo record: heat above 100 million, plays above 1 billion, and nearly 3 million people following the series.² Trade coverage describes it as the first short drama on the platform to break 100 million in both heat value and viewing volume, the "double hundred-million" milestone.¹⁰ Twelve days after release it had passed 2 billion views.⁴

Some databases give slightly different launch dates, 30 June or 2 July 2025, reflecting first-release versus platform-listing dates.⁷^•⁶

Reception and analysis

Commentary credited the drama to its central pairing of opposites, a "silent CEO" and a "chatterbox sweetheart", and to what the trade press called heartfelt (走心) production: grounded characters and emotional expression rather than plot contrivance.²^•⁵ Critics noted that the premise itself, a woman transmigrating into a doomed supporting role, was a familiar one, and that the drama's distinction lay in its finely drawn emotional line and the contrast when the mute husband finally speaks.⁹

A psychographic analysis argued the heroine works as a proxy for audience frustrations: she answers back at injustice instead of enduring it, and her quick, internet-flavored banter says what viewers wish they could say.⁸ Another review highlighted the script's roughly 100 inserted memes and reversals, the heroine's financial and professional independence, and the absence of mistress plots or melodramatic suffering.¹⁰

The gender framing drew comment as well: where earlier Chinese dramas centered the mute figure as a bride, this one makes the husband the silent partner, a shift read as reflecting a female audience that sees itself as the active giver and healer in a relationship rather than the pitied one.²

Cast and production

Liu Nian and He Congrui had previously co-starred in Qing Jun Ru Wo Huai (《请君入我怀》), also a Tinghua Island hit directed by Zhou Qianqian; Nian Nian You Ci was their third collaboration, and their on-screen chemistry was repeatedly cited as a draw.⁵^•¹⁰ The supporting cast includes Ye Wen Kevin as Xie Sinan, Song Xu as Doctor Ji, Shu Hanyu as Zhuang Xiao, Li Jingrui as Bai Xinrou, Zhu Ruixi as young Feng Yan, Yang Yanling as Zhuang Xiao's mother, Bai Lou as Zhuang's father, and Zhang Wenlu as Guan Shiqing.⁶

The drama was later named among Hongguo's annual short dramas of 2025.¹¹

Related versions

An AI-generated animated adaptation, Nian Nian You Ci: Yaba Zongcai de Xiaolaba (《念念有词：哑巴总裁的小喇叭》), was released on 28 August 2026 with 272 episodes totaling 4 hours 42 minutes, continuing the same premise of Sang Lu acting as her silent husband's "spokesperson".¹² The title 念念有词 is also the name of an unrelated 2019 single by the singer Zhou Shen.¹³

References

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