The Golden Hairpin

[Extra Story]

Extra: Lantern Night

Silver blossoms adorned jade trees, reuniting people under the moon.

On the night of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, every household lit lanterns. Though a light snow fell, the streets and alleys of Yangzhou were aglow with countless lanterns. Wealthy families set up colorful canopies outside their gates, hosting song and dance performances beneath them.

Yangzhou’s Yunsiao Academy, the most renowned music and dance troupe south of the Yangtze, performed under the bright moon amid a sea of lanterns. The crowd watching the troupe of singing and dancing girls was as thick as a school of fish crossing a river. Even as the moon passed its zenith, the music played on, and the throng remained.

Only a mother and son stood apart, choosing a slightly elevated spot farther away to watch.The mother appeared to be in her late twenties, dressed in an emerald-green robe, with delicate features and bright eyes. Beside her stood a seven or eight-year-old boy clad in a sky-blue brocade outfit, holding a fairy-riding-a-phoenix lantern. His small face, bathed in the lantern's rosy glow, looked as picturesque as a painting.

The woman in green smiled as she watched the distant song and dance performance, but the boy showed no interest, idly playing with his lantern. He sighed listlessly, "Mom, why hasn’t Dad found the almond candy I wanted yet? Let’s go look for him."

His mother replied gently, "Xuanzhan, let’s wait a little longer. This performance reminds me of some old friends from many years ago."

Without looking up, the boy retorted, "What kind of friends? Either murderers or the murdered. Do you and Dad even have any living friends?"

She chuckled and ruffled his hair. "Nonsense! What about Uncle Zhou and Uncle Wang? Don’t we often take you to play with their children?"

"Ugh, you mean Zhou Xiaoxi, who runs around hugging a skull, and Wang Kaiyang, who can’t even climb onto a horse but still dreams of being a great general?" Xuanzhan scoffed. "Two crybabies."

"You cried even more when you were little," his mother shot back mercilessly.

Xuanzhan lifted his head, about to argue, when he noticed a figure searching nearby. It was a woman in her twenties, who would have been considered moderately attractive if not for her plain, unadorned appearance. She wore a simple green dress, her hair tightly coiled into a bun without a single ornament, making her seem rather dull.

Seeing her approach with her head bowed, the woman in green asked, "Madam, are you looking for something?"

The woman didn’t look up, frowning as she replied, "Yes, I lost my gold hairpin."

A gold hairpin was a valuable item, and losing it would be a serious matter for an ordinary family. Xuanzhan quickly raised his fairy-riding-a-phoenix lantern. "The path is covered in snow—it’ll be hard to find. I’ll light the way for you."

"Oh, thank you so much!" The woman in green finally glanced up at them. Noticing the extraordinary bearing of the mother and son, unlike ordinary folk, she hastily bowed. "I was just releasing lanterns with my husband up ahead when I felt my hair shift and realized the pin was gone. My husband, heartless as he is, made me search the path alone on my way home, but I couldn’t find it even when I got back..."

As she spoke, she and Xuanzhan walked toward a willow tree at the foot of a small hill.

The woman in green watched them from the hilltop. Xuanzhan’s lantern cast a faint glow at their feet as they reached the tree. The woman crouched down to look—then let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Xuanzhan raised the lantern, illuminating a motionless figure beneath the willow. He turned and shouted, "Mom, there’s a dead person here!"

Patrolling constables were abundant during the Lantern Festival, and a team happened to be nearby. Hearing the commotion, they rushed over immediately. Some held back the gathering crowd ten paces away, others examined the man lying on the ground, while one took notes as they questioned the woman.