The Golden Hairpin

Huang Zixiao felt her heart skip a beat, but then she remembered—she had just seen Yu Xuan emerge. It seemed the Emperor had spared him.

"I truly wanted to kill him," the Emperor murmured, lost in thought for a moment before exhaling deeply. "But when I saw him in person, for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to do it."

Li Shubai remained silent, merely tilting his head slightly, his gaze resting on the princess’s coffin.

"Perhaps I’ve grown old and can no longer bear to destroy a jade tree," the Emperor mused, turning to Li Shubai. "Have you ever seen this Yu Xuan?"

"I have. Graceful and peerless," Li Shubai replied indifferently.

Consort Guo sat dazed for a long while before suddenly rising and hurrying to Princess Tongchang’s coffin. Leaning against its edge, she wept uncontrollably.

Li Shubai remained composed. "Your Majesty was right not to kill him. Otherwise, if he were to accompany the princess in eternal rest, how would the princess’s husband endure it?"

The Emperor nodded, closing his eyes, his face weary.

Huang Zixiao stood behind them, listening quietly. The summer afternoon buzzed with the sound of cicadas. Amidst the noise, the Emperor’s voice sounded frail: "Tomorrow, the Dali Temple will hold a public trial. I have already ordered that once the trial concludes, the criminal is to be taken to the execution grounds and subjected to death by a thousand cuts."

Li Shubai paused briefly before asking, "Is the case already conclusive?"

"Witnesses and evidence are all in place."

"If the true culprit is caught, it will bring peace to Tongchang’s spirit." Li Shubai glanced at Huang Zixiao before adding, "As I hold a nominal position at the Dali Temple, I will naturally attend tomorrow."

"The weather is too hot, and Linghui cannot remain here for long. I have decided that once the murderer is executed, she will be temporarily moved to my father’s Zhenling Mausoleum until her own tomb is completed for proper burial."

"That would be best." As Li Shubai spoke, he noticed the Emperor leaning back in his chair, staring blankly at the sky, motionless—even his eyes unblinking—only his breathing growing heavier.

After a long silence, Li Shubai took his leave and exited the princess’s residence with Huang Zixiao.

The summer afternoon enveloped the capital in sweltering heat, the streets nearly deserted.

Inside the carriage, an ice bucket held a carved mountain of ice, though the heat had eroded its intricate figures of immortals and trees, leaving only the rough outline of a mountain.

The sound of melting ice dripping into the water was faint.

Even seated beside the ice, Huang Zixiao still felt the heat, a light sweat forming on her back. She sensed Li Shubai’s scrutinizing gaze, which made her unbearably tense.

In such a situation, knowing oneself but not the other left no room for control. To avoid utter defeat, she steeled herself and spoke first: "This servant wishes to ask Your Highness a question."

His gaze flickered with surprise. "What is it?"

"Is there any way to make someone hallucinate—to see things that never happened?"

Li Shubai shook his head. "Impossible."

"Yet, when I encountered Yu Xuan earlier, he claimed that on the day my parents died, I was holding a packet of arsenic with a strange expression."

The name "Yu Xuan" left her lips, stirring a ripple in her heart—but like a fading ripple, it soon dissolved into nothingness.Li Shubai pondered briefly and said, "Perhaps this explains why he insists you're the murderer—because what he saw in you at the time were some unusual actions."

"But I truly didn't do it!" she insisted.

"Was he mistaken, or have you forgotten?" Li Shubai pressed.

"He was mistaken," Huang Zixiao replied without hesitation.

"Or perhaps there's another possibility—he lied."

"But... what purpose would lying serve in front of me, the person involved?" Huang Zixiao asked blankly.

"You're the one involved, and even you don’t know. How would I?" Li Shubai's voice turned cold. "Besides, haven’t you already arranged to meet in Yizhou? You can confront him then and clear things up."

Huang Zixiao caught the chill in his tone and fell silent. The sound of dripping ice water echoed as the carriage came to a slow halt—they had arrived at the Prince Kui’s residence.

As she stepped out of the carriage, a wave of heat surged over her like a tangible force, causing her to stumble slightly.

Li Shubai, right behind her, reached out to steady her.

She regained her footing and was about to thank him when he released her and strode past her into the residence.

She stood there for a moment, watching his retreating figure, then turned toward the stables.

Without looking back, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, his cold voice carried over: "Where are you going?"

"The Taiji Palace," she replied, turning back. "I want to see if I can save the maids and eunuchs serving the princess."

"Eunuch Yang, it’s been a while. How have you been?"

Empress Wang had just woken from her nap, still exuding a languid air. The grand hall was dim and cool, her flawless skin draped in gauzy robes like wisps of cloud, seemingly untouched by the summer heat.

In stark contrast, Huang Zixiao, who had galloped all the way from Prince Kui’s residence, was in a sorry state—strands of hair loose on her forehead, tiny beads of sweat on her nose, and her hastily adjusted robes still disheveled, making her appear thoroughly discomposed.

Empress Wang motioned for everyone around her to withdraw, then picked up an embroidered handkerchief from the table and handed it to her. "What brings you here in such haste?"

Huang Zixiao took it, dabbing the sweat from her nose, and said softly, "Congratulations, Your Majesty. Your return to the Daming Palace is imminent."

Empress Wang studied her face for a moment, noting her earnest expression, and smiled faintly. "The Penglai Hall is near the water, much cooler than here. Returning sooner would indeed be welcome."

Huang Zixiao nodded. "This servant knows Your Majesty must already be preparing for the return, but helping you return even a day earlier is my duty."

"First, tell me why you rushed here to inform me of this," Empress Wang said, reclining on the couch, idly fanning herself with a white round fan painted with celestial maidens scattering flowers.

"Consort Guo has a secret—one that might have been noticed by the princess’s closest eunuchs and maids. Now that the princess is dead, she intends to have all of them buried with her."

Empress Wang covered her lips with the fan, though it couldn’t hide the slight curve of her eyes. "It seems this is a very important secret."

"Actually... it’s just one sentence," Huang Zixiao whispered. "And there’s one more thing I must ask of Your Majesty."

"What is it?""The other person involved in this matter, Yu Xuan, the Academic Supervisor of the Imperial Academy, is my... old acquaintance. I believe that as long as the Empress knows this secret, it can be used to admonish Consort Guo. There is no need for this secret to be revealed to the world."

Empress Wang smiled and said, "Naturally. I have tolerated Consort Guo in the palace for over a decade, and in the future, I will naturally continue to have her by my side as my right-hand woman."

Huang Zixiang silently lowered her head and softly replied, "Yes."

"Then, what is the secret of Consort Guo? Which phrase is it?"

Suddenly, as if in a dream, Huang Zixiang's mind flashed back to the day she first met Yu Xuan—the breeze over the lotus flowers, the scattered buds in her arms floating quietly on the water, the ripples disturbing the lake's surface, never to return to calm again.

The first time she moved to live outside, Yu Xuan stood outside her door for half the night because of insomnia, the snowflakes on his eyelashes melting into water, dripping like tears.

On the day of the tragedy in her home, he helped her hold the plum blossoms, the dazzling red blooms beside his smile more vibrant than any blood she had ever seen.

And then, the fragments of letters he threw into the incense burner at Xingtang Temple, their colors fading in the fire, leaving only ashes.

She closed her eyes and whispered like a sleepwalker, "May I follow the moonlight to shine upon you."

The evening glow spread like brocade over Chang'an. Huang Zixiang looked west, the sky so low it seemed within reach.

After the most brilliant sunset, another day was about to pass.

Huang Zixiang returned to Prince Kui's residence and sat in her room, removing the hairpin from her hair. She absentmindedly traced lines on the bed, piecing together all the clues.

After confirming everything was correct, she reinserted the silver hairpin and sat on the bed, thinking. Finally, she realized the source of her unease—

Li Shubai had not summoned her.

Usually, when she returned to the residence, someone would tell her, "His Highness wants to see you."

But now, after making such significant progress, she had no one to report the case's developments to.

She sighed and lay down on the bed, replaying the events in the alley next to the princess's residence in her mind.

Yu Xuan had said he saw her holding a packet of arsenic with a strange expression.

Impossible—in her memory, after buying the arsenic, she hadn't even had time to make the bet with him before hearing about the massacre in Longzhou. She rushed there to investigate and, after inquiries, discovered it was a daughter poisoning her family—including herself—because her parents had separated her from her lover. Moved by the tragedy, she wrote him a letter and returned to Yizhou two days later. Exhausted from the journey, she arrived home at dusk, ate, and went straight to bed, sleeping so soundly she didn't even dream. The next morning, when Yu Xuan came, she had just woken up. He asked about the contents of her letter and, seeing nothing amiss, went with her as usual to see the plum blossoms in the backyard. Then, because her grandmother and uncle arrived, he took his leave.

At that time, she hadn't even opened the cabinet where the arsenic was stored. How could she have been holding it?

Had his memory faltered, or had hers?

Was he lying? But his expression showed no deceit, and what purpose would lying to her face serve?Huang Zixiao felt utterly exhausted and involuntarily lay back on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Not moving a muscle—what are you thinking about?" A voice sounded beside her.

As if lost in a dream, she murmured instinctively, "Yu Xuan..."

The moment those two words left her lips, she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine, and a thin layer of sweat broke out on her back.

She quickly sat up and turned to look at Li Shubai standing at the door.

The slanting rays of the setting sun had dimmed, and the sky was about to darken. The faint glow of twilight outlined his silhouette vaguely, indistinctly, failing to illuminate the expression on his face at that moment.