A new 30-episode costume fantasy has finally shown its cards. How to Slay Your Boss (千夜奇谭) announced its full cast, began shooting in August 2026, and will stream only on iQIYI and its TV app. Wajijiwa (哇唧唧哇) Entertainment produces it with iQIYI. Zhao Yilong (赵一龙), who directed Love Game in Eastern Fantasy (永夜星河), sits in the director’s chair. Reservations are already open. The premise is not a quiet palace romance. A burned-out game planner is dropped into her own project, ordered to kill the male lead, and forced to deal with a target who looks exactly like her awful boss—and refuses to die. That mix of office rage, game logic, and ancient spirits gives the show a loud, playful pulse before a single episode airs.
Game Over, Reboot
Zhao Yining (赵乙宁) is a modern office worker and game planner. After her boss pushes her past her limit, she collapses emotionally and wakes inside How to Slay Your Boss, the game she helped design. She becomes Qian Yunxi (千云兮), a substitute bride with a dangerous family, a strange gift, and no easy way out. The system gives one main quest: assassinate Ye Youming (夜幽冥), the male lead. Only then can she return home. Then she sees his face. It belongs to the same man who crushed her at work. Suddenly the mission feels personal. She accepts with fierce energy, ready to treat the script like a bug she can fix.
Her attacks fail. Again and again. Ye Youming is no ordinary target; he carries an immortal body. Blades, traps, and clever plans slide off him like rain. The system patches the rules and delivers a strange hint: true feeling can break a deathless body. The main quest changes. Killing him is no longer the goal. Winning his heart is. What begins as a survival tactic turns into a bickering game of push and pull. He is cold. She is stubborn. Neither wants to lose, and both refuse to admit that the game is already rewriting them.
Their path throws them into dangerous encounters with strange spirits and demons. They stumble through ridiculous adventures, trade insults, save each other, and slowly stop treating every moment as a battle. Affection grows in the middle of suspicion and teamwork. Their bond moves through rivalry, laughter, and mutual rescue. The show folds modern workplace pressure into an ancient costume frame. Its real question is simple: can someone trapped by fate grab back control of her own life? For anyone tired of being managed, scheduled, and drained, that question lands harder than any sword.
Cast and Chemistry
Li Landi (李兰迪) plays Qian Yunxi, a character with an ancient shell and a modern soul. On the surface, she is the chancellor’s daughter, gifted with spirit communication. Inside, she is Zhao Yining, a tired planner who knows exactly how unfair the script can be. Qian Yunxi mixes modern clear-eyed humor with an ancient bride’s toughness. She is mischievous, quick, and brave when it counts. Her look leans elegant and gentle, with blue-purple fairy tones. Simple makeup lets her soft features carry a classical mood, while her eyes suggest she is already calculating three ways out of the room.
He Yu (何与) plays Ye Youming, the first lord of Xuanji Si (玄缉司) on Jiu Xiao Da Lu (九霄大陆). He hunts demons, keeps his distance, and carries a deathless body. His outside is icy, commanding, and noble; his inside hides a thousand-year fate and deep loneliness. The character’s charm comes from that split: cold presence, secretly proud and childish. Black-gold robes, tied hair, and a forehead band sharpen his luxurious, untouchable image. He looks like a man who would silence a room, then sulk because no one dared to tease him.
This is Li Landi and He Yu’s first time playing lovers. The pairing skips the usual recycled idol-drama combinations. She brings sweet, lively energy. He brings arrogant, cool weight. A sweet girl and a haughty immortal king make a spark that feels loud before either character admits anything. Their scenes promise the kind of banter where every threat sounds half like a confession. Fans of slow-burn chemistry, system quests, and enemies who refuse to stay enemies have a clear reason to keep an eye on this one.
Manga Roots, New Rules
The series adapts Psychic Princess (通灵妃), a wildly popular comic from Tencent Animation. The original has drawn 46.31 billion total views and is known for chaotic, silly humor. Its core pieces remain: the substitute bride, spirit communication, and a heroine who refuses to be quietly sold off. The drama keeps those familiar hooks while adding a game-transmigration twist. That change creates sharp contrast and a fresh entry point for viewers who already know the comic. It also lets the story poke fun at its own rules without losing the emotional stakes.
The main plot runs in two stages. First, Qian Yunxi tries to assassinate the boss. Then, she must win his love. The switch turns a revenge power fantasy into a comedy of romantic strategy. It also gives the story a built-in tension: every failed attack can become a failed flirtation, and every joke can hide a real question about trust. The system tasks, office-worker jokes, and ancient fantasy setting collide without losing the emotional thread. One moment the heroine is dodging a demon; the next she is dodging the terrifying possibility that her target actually understands her.
During the iQIYI Yuexiang event (悦享会), the project was confirmed for the 2027 iQIYI new slate. With its mix of system prompts, exhausted-worker humor, demon hunting, and an arrogant deathless hero, How to Slay Your Boss is aiming for viewers who want laughs, swoons, and a little rebellion against a fixed life. The cast is set. The cameras are rolling. The only question left is whether the game will let its heroine log out—or make her want to stay.
