Twenty Years After his own service to Mazarin, he refuses to watch over the Duc de Beaufort, who is imprisoned at the time, and soon learns that, in consequence, he is to be returned to the Bastille, though this does not deter him from speaking highly of the achievements of d'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers. Having determined that d'Artagnan is the man he seeks, Mazarin enters the chambers of the Queen to let her know that he has enlisted the man who had served her so well twenty years earlier. The Queen, feeling guilty for having forgotten d'Artagnan's service, gives Mazarin a diamond
Twenty Years a Dream references, including to Yang Guifei breasts ("lotus kernels") and Yuan Zhen ballad "The Lianchang Palace" (). The story was well-received by literary critics. Early commentators like Wang Shizhen () and Dan Minglun () are in praise of the story's ending in particular, which they describe as "marvellous" and "like hearing the sound of celestial music suddenly cease" respectively. Feng Zhenluan () remarks that the "whole story is ... fragmentary, inconclusive, loose, delicate, exquisite." Zhang Zhenjun compares the protagonist Locket to Lin Daiyu of "Dream of the Red Chamber", while lauding Pu's characterisation. Twenty Years a Dream "Twenty Years a Dream"