Romance in the Rain

Characters

Main cast

Lu Yiping (陸依萍/陆依萍) or Bai Mei Gui (Stage Name), played by Zhao Wei

The protagonist of Romance in the Rain, Yiping is one of the many children of Lu Zhenhua, a retired general with nine wives. Her mother, Fu Wenpei, is the general's eighth wife. Both she and her mother are banished from the Lu household through the actions of her father's ninth wife, Wang Xueqin. She has ten half-sisters, including Ruping and Mengping, many half-brothers, including Erhao, and one stepbrother named Erjie. The mercilessness with which her father and stepmother treat her has made her resentful of the Lu family, which she refers to as the "other side." At first, she is at odds with her half-brother Erhao and half-sister Ruping for this reason, but she eventually learns to love and accept them as her siblings. She has one elder full sister called Xinping (陸心萍/陆心萍) who died 7 years before the plot of the story at 15 years of age. After an earlier encounter, she meets a reporter named He Shuhuan at a Shanghai nightclub. Shuhuan is soon captivated by Yiping's singing talent, emotion, and mystery. After discovering her half-sister Ruping's love for Shuhuan, she seeks Shuhuan's love, partly as revenge (as he discovers by reading her diary), but in her heart, she really loves him and so for He Shuhuan, her revenge become meaningless and she learns to be loving and forgiving of her father. When Yiping fell in love with Shuhuan and she softens as a result. After the death of her father, Yiping became the sole financial support of the Lu family as Erhao also enlists in the army. Yiping's character is loud and blunt, with a strong sense of righteousness and justice due to the misfortunes that she and her mother have suffered. She often describes herself as a porcupine who has grown spines as a mechanism of self-defense. In order to love Shuhuan, she pulls out her quills one by one, leaving her defenseless and a bloody mess.

Lu Ruping (陸如萍/陆如萍), played by Ruby Lin

Ruping is the daughter of Lu Zhenhua and Wang Xueqin, as well as Yiping's half-sister. She is the full sister of Erhao and Mengping and half-sister of Erjie from her mother's side. Her mother, Xueqin, is her father's ninth and final wife. Pretty and sympathetic, Ruping comes from a wealthy environment but is not prejudiced against Yiping like the rest of her family. She gets angry, jealous, and upset at times, but in times of need, she always prioritizes other people's well-being before her own emotions. Ruping's first love interest is Shuhuan, whom she met after Shuhuan asks her to guard some negatives. At the same time, she also meets Du Fei, Shuhuan's colleague, who develops strong feelings for Ruping. During the series, Ruping is confronted with a series of misfortunes that make her believe that she is unloved. Shuhuan runs away from their engagement ceremony, her mother has been found guilty of committing adultery and stealing from their family's treasury, and after helping her mother escape imprisonment by contacting Wei Guangxiong, Ruping is the direct cause of the loss of all of the Lu family's savings, which earns her much anger and harsh words from her father. She runs away from home with her father's gun, intending to commit suicide. However, with the onset of war against the Japanese, she decides to join the Red Cross instead and becomes a nurse in the battlefield. During this time, she thinks about Du Fei every day and comes to realize that he is her one true love and has been for a long time. By coincidence, she and Du Fei meet again, and she is able to reveal her feelings. They end up holding a "battlefield wedding" and working together until the end of the war.

He Shuhuan (何書桓/何书桓), played by Leo Ku

A reporter from Nanjing, Shuhuan is the friend and colleague of Lu Erhao and Du Fei as well as the love interest of sisters Lu Yiping and Lu Ruping. However, whereas his feelings towards Yiping are romantic, he only treats Ruping as a special friend. At the beginning of the series, he and Ruping are assumed to be potential partners by all their friends and family members. Xueqin is particularly adamant about this, often insisting that Ruping make a move to secure their relationship. Despite several arguments, and going back and forth between Yiping and Ruping, he remains passionate towards Yiping. After reading Yiping's diary and discovering that Yiping was only dating to get revenge on 'that side' of the family he was led to anger and broke up with her. He later is engaged to Ruping but leaves her during the engagement party for Yiping.

He starts to love Lu Yiping after he knows that she loves him with sincere and innocent love. He regrets breaking her heart and so promised her to always believe her and to never break up with her again. Towards the end of the story, Shuhuan goes off to fight in the war between Japan and China, leaving Yiping to wait for him.

In the final episode, after arriving in China, Lu Yiping finds him, and Shuhuan runs to her and tells her "I love you" many times and then kisses her.

Du Fei (杜飛/杜飞), played by Alec Su

Like Shuhuan, Du Fei is a reporter. He is extremely passionate about his love for Ruping, but Ruping attempts to reject his love. A caring man, Du Fei always helps others in need but is also careless and clumsy. During the war between Japan and China, Du Fei, upset by Ruping's disappearance, goes to the battlefield as a reporter in hopes of finding Ruping, and after several years discovers Ruping and her love for him and so marries her.

Lu Erhao (陸爾豪/陆尔豪), played by Gao Xin

Erhao is the son of Lu Zhenhua and Xue Qin, brother to Ruping and Mengping, and half-brother to Yiping from his father and Erjie from his mother. He is the love interest of Yiping's best friend Fang Yu. However, his relationship with Fang Yu becomes complex after Erhao discovers that his past childhood love, Keyun, once had his child and is now mentally disabled. At the beginning of the series Erhao hated Yiping but for the sake of Fang Yu he tried hard to make peace with Yiping. He was able to put aside his hatred towards Yiping and grew to love and accept her as his sister and part of the family. Erhao later enlists in the army as well, leaving Fang Yu waiting for him.

Fang Yu (方瑜), played by Li Yu

The best friend of Yiping who falls in love with Yiping's half-brother, Erhao. Yiping is at first against Fang Yu's relationship with Erhao, especially after finding out about Keyun, but Fang Yu continues to love Erhao despite complications in their relationship.

Supporting cast

Li Keyun (李可雲/李可云), played by Xu Lu

The daughter of Li Zhengde and Li Yuzhen, Keyun had a childhood romance with Erhao which resulted in a pregnancy. She did not inform Erhao about this. After their baby's death, Keyun developed a mental illness. Throughout Romance in the Rain, Yiping, Shuhuan, Erhao, Ruping, Du Fei, and Fang Yu attempt to help Keyun recover her memory. In the end, Keyun gets better when she saw a motherless baby during the war. She decides to raise him as her own.

Lu Zhenhua (陸振華/陆振华), played by Kou Zhenhai (Episode 01–45) Deceased

The father of Yiping, Lu Zhenhua is a retired, respected general. He was married to nine women, all of whom he eventually lost interest in. As a result of his tragic romance with Pingping, Lu Zhenhua is inclined to marry any woman who bears a resemblance to Pingping. It is revealed later after he died that the person who bore the closest resemblance towards his long-lost love Pingping was not his wives but his daughter, the deceased Xinping, the sister of Yiping and daughter of Wenpei who became his favorite daughter. Although his relationship with Yiping is tumultuous at the beginning, especially after he whips her, the two eventually build a strong bond through their similarities and as the series goes on Yiping grows to love him. He dies after getting shot while fighting off Japanese soldiers trying to protect Yiping and Shuhuan.

Fu Wenpei (傅文佩), played by Xu Xing

The eighth wife of Lu Zhenhua, Fu Wenpei is gentle and moral compared to Zhenhua's ninth wife, Xueqin. After Zhenhua married Xueqin, he lost interest in Wenpei and eventually she was expelled from the Lu household. She and Zhenhua had two daughters: the deceased Xinping and Yiping. The death of Xinping brought great disturbance and grieve to her. She cannot forget about Xinping and always thinks of her much to Yiping's dismay who thought that she could never replace Xinping in Wenpei's heart. Wenpei is of noble character especially when she speaks for Wang Xueqin to Zhenhua even after she is always treated unfairly and badly by Wang Xueqin. She later becomes the mother figure to the children of Lu Zhenhua with Wang Xueqin, especially towards Mengping. At the beginning, Wenpei lives a modest life with Yiping.

International broadcast

Taiwan — China Television (April 2001)

Hong Kong — TVB (May 2001)

South Korea — Gyeongin Broadcasting iTV (May 2001, as 안개비연가)

China — China Central Television (September 2001)

Singapore — Singapore Cable Vision (September 2001)

Malaysia — RTM TV2 (December 2002)

Vietnam — VTV3 (November 2001, as Tân dòng sông ly biệt)

Indonesia — Indosiar (March 2002, as Kabut Cinta)

Thailand — Channel 3 (2007, as มนต์รักในสายฝน)

Philippines — Radio Philippines Network (January 2007), SolarFlix (2023, as A Kiss in the Rain)

In mainland China, the series received the highest ratings of the year, with an average rating of 12% and the highest episode rating of 20%. (Source:AGB Nielsen) This was China International Television Corporation's first co-produced television series with Taiwan.

Soundtrack

Most of the lyrics for songs were written by the writer, Chiung Yao, sung by Zhao Wei.