EPILOGUE.

Stories must end, but lives go on.

Yezun stays around for a few more days, waiting for Hong's mother to come back from her visit to her own mother, so that he can meet her too and inform her that he's about to take her daughter away with him.

Now that his brother is ok, Yezun goes back to his own place. He lives in another town, where he has a study which soon becomes full of paintings inspired by Hong.

She's not featured in all of them, but in one way or another, she's still the inspiration for anything Yezun paints.

A plain landscape becomes brighter when he imagines her in it, and that shine is reflected in all of his work.

He gets accepted to show his paintings at a new gallery exposition, receiving good reviews. He starts selling something, then more and more as his name gets around, but the rising success doesn't go to his head because he was always sure that it would happen, especially after he found his muse.

Yezun now takes his wallet everywhere he goes, where he keeps his own money and his business cards.

Every time he sells something, he sends a note to his brother with part of the money. Wei told him he didn't have to do that, but Hong is very proud of him and supports his every decision.

Wei is also very proud of him and Yezun never calls him princess anymore.
At least not to his face.

Without them even realising it or discussing about it, Hong becomes his manager: she takes care of everything from talking to the galleries, handling the payments or keeping detailed accounts of their financial situation.

Yezun got much more than he expected when he chose her, and soon that light reflected in his paintings becomes more and more shining as they live happily together.

Mr and Mrs Zhu are happy that their daughter has found her happiness. They miss her a lot but keep in touch by calling her often and insisting she sends lots of pictures.

Yunlan has joined the Police Academy. His father is quite satisfied at how seriously he takes this new commitment, and starts believing that he might have really found his right place and that he will also be able to make a career for himself.

Yunlan finds pride in being a top-class cadet and the outings with his old friends have been drastically reduced.

Despite the way they first met, Wei scolds him if he gets drunk claiming that, "I never drink!" and that he only had one drink that night and will never repeat the experience.

Wei still works at the flower shop, but has given up on any other side-job. Combined with the money Yezun sends him he has more than enough now, but he likes working at the shop since he loves flowers and every bouquet he makes reminds him of Yunlan's visits.

Yunlan takes his job very seriously and applies for any case or transfer that might help his career. He moves into Wei's apartment and how much he loves this steady life with the same person day after day surprises even himself.

He knew that he felt something real for him when he decided to confront his father, but the amount of love that grows in his heart every day overwhelms him sometimes.

Since he didn't leave Wei but actually seems to make his brother happy, Yezun has become more indulgent and almost never calls him an idiot anymore.

The relationship between Mr Zhao and his son has become much more civil.
They still have trouble finding the right words to talk to each other, so they mostly talk about Yunlan's accomplishments, but they are both happy to do that, and Yunlan finds so much pleasure in feeling that his father approves his decisions and often praises him for his successes.

Wei loves taking care of him and their house. He even spends time with Yunlan's father when he gets sent away for some difficult mission.

Wei worries a lot when that happens, but smiles at the way Mr Zhao says to anyone they meet, "My son, he's a cop you know!" his voice filled with pride.

It's very difficult to stay apart, sometimes for a long time, because of Yunlan's work, but every time he comes back they make up for the lost time, usually locking themselves up in the bedroom for hours.

And all of this happened because one night a lonely young man drank a scotch cocktail (made with whisky, lemon, honey and ginger) thinking that it was lemonade.

The old man who paid for it was so angry that the barman gave him a new one, never knowing what happened of the first after he put it on the bar.

P.s.
Nobody knows what happened to Chang after he left Shen Wei, but nobody cares.

It was all part of their destiny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~