A Long Song for the Radiant Bracelet

Hou Yi gave Chang’e the Radiant Bangle as a token of their love, and after marrying, they became a divine couple whom everyone envied. One day, he answered the people’s plea for help and shot down Jiuying, becoming a beloved folk hero famed for shooting down the suns. The furious Heavenly Emperor ordered Hou Yi’s disciple, Feng Meng, to murder him with a peachwood cudgel. The Queen Mother pretended to grant Chang’e an elixir of immortality, then ordered Feng Meng to pretend to steal it. To protect Hou Yi from being blamed for negligence, Chang’e swallowed the pill herself and ascended to immortality. She was left to endure the pain of her husband’s unjust death and the loneliness of loving him but being unable to stay by his side. Because Hou Yi was so highly esteemed among the people, his death stirred widespread outrage and brought one calamity after another. To appease the people, the Heavenly Emperor elevated him to the rank of God of the Underworld. But wary that Hou Yi’s achievements might overshadow his own, he seized on Hou Yi’s secret meetings with Chang’e in the heavenly court as a pretext to banish him to the mortal realm to undergo tribulations. Wu Gang was sentenced to chop down the osmanthus tree in the Moon Palace for eternity after killing his wife, who had been unfaithful with the Heavenly Emperor. Chang’e later learned from Wu Gang that in his previous life, her husband had been killed through the schemes of the Heavenly Emperor and Queen Mother, and that in this life he had again been banished to the mortal realm to endure tribulations. She also learned from the Office of Destiny that Hou Yi’s life during his tribulations had been altered, and the Heavenly Emperor was determined to kill him in the mortal realm and deny him reincarnation forever. Chang’e secretly descended to the mortal world to protect her husband, but fate drew her into the turbulent currents of history at the end of the Western Zhou and the beginning of the Spring and Autumn period. What future awaits them both?