Epilogue to Yang Jian and Xin

Erlang, the True Lord Who Reveals the Sage, Yang Jian, once stayed by Cunxin's side for a thousand years out of gratitude, and later made a moonlit vow. The Third Princess of the West Sea, Ao Cunxin, rebelled against Heaven for Yang Jian and broke with the West Sea. She eventually married him, but, consumed by jealousy over her suspicions that Yang Jian and Chang'e were having an affair, she did many things that were hard to bear. Their thousand-year marriage ended in divorce, after a thousand years of misery. Later, Cunxin took the blame for Yang Jian and was imprisoned in the West Sea forever. Another thousand years passed. Yang Jian disguised himself as a wicked villain and laid an enormous scheme to spur his nephew Chen Xiang into bringing about the New Heavenly Statutes. When everyone misunderstood him and nearly killed him, Cunxin used her dragon pearl to save him, suffering the agony of a shattered heart herself. With the pearl gone for a year, her body and spirit would be utterly destroyed, and she would be unable to reincarnate. When the New Heavenly Statutes came into being, everyone assumed Yang Jian and Chang'e were about to get together. Who could have guessed that Cunxin would become Yang Jian's personal maid? Everyone was dumbfounded. They didn't know that the two kissed, embraced, and slept in each other's arms not because they were swept away by love, but to save a life (and keep up the pace for 81 years in the mortal world)! No one could guess what Erlang Shen was thinking. Was he repaying a debt of gratitude once again, or setting another trap?

Yang Jian: A thousand years of marriage, a thousand years apart, a thousand knots in the heart, impossible to untangle. Years spent gazing at the moon, years of distance, so much left unclear, impossible to discern.

Cunxin: She thinks of him, resents him, waits for him, longs for him, and only wants him to be well. She laughs at him, pities him, avoids him, doubts him, and finds it hard to give him her heart.

Mu Li: He loved her devotedly back then, but had no time to wait for good news. Now he pretends to ask her to leave, without knowing whether their bond runs deep or shallow.

Chang'e: Her heart is like the bright moon. She misunderstood the True Lord and regrets it. Love beneath the moon, and doubt. Another's feigned request, met with silence. Yet she does not know where the woman has gone.

Yang Jian, Cunxin, Mu Li, and Chang'e: They do not know whom to confide in.

This story takes Lotus Lantern and its prequel as its premise, with some changes, and continues from the ending of Lotus Lantern.