The Golden Hairpin

Everything in the Eastern Pavilion remained exactly as it had been on the day of the incident. Although a thorough search had been conducted, those involved had been mindful of the fact that this was the imperial palace and had made every effort to restore everything to its original state afterward.

Yet in this unchanged environment lay a young girl whose face was now unrecognizable. She was dressed in a yellow robe, her hair loosely tied in a Liuxian bun, and wearing plain silk shoes—identical to her attire on the day she disappeared.

However, her entire body was now covered in festering, blackened skin, with pus and blood oozing everywhere. The original features of her face were completely obliterated, and no one could discern from such a corpse the once radiant beauty she had possessed.

Huang Zixiang silently gazed at her, and for a fleeting moment, the image of that day flashed through her mind—the vibrant hibiscus flower by the girl’s temple, her face and the blossom reflecting each other’s beauty.

But it was only a momentary daze. She pressed her lips together and walked to the bed where the corpse lay.

Zhou Ziqin had pulled up a chair beside the bed and was now donning a pair of extremely thin, soft leather gloves he had retrieved from his person. He leaned down, first cupping the girl’s face for a closer look.

Even Huang Zixiang, who was accustomed to seeing corpses, couldn’t bear to look directly at such a swollen, disfigured face oozing with pus and blood. She turned her head away and asked, "Didn’t you say you didn’t bring any tools? When did you get these gloves?"

"I brought them this morning when I left home. I heard there was a murder on the street, possibly a poisoning, so I hurriedly grabbed them. Didn’t expect they’d come in handy now instead." Zhou Ziqin spoke with a serious tone, lecturing her as he bent over to examine the corpse’s orifices, prying open the mouth to inspect the tongue and teeth. "When examining a poisoned body, especially one with such a potent toxin, if you accidentally nick the skin and the poisoned blood seeps in, you’ll be in immediate trouble. That’s why gloves are absolutely necessary."

Huang Zixiang didn’t want to listen to his explanations and simply asked, "Since the deceased is wearing Wang Ruo’s clothes, does her age and physique match?"

"The deceased is around sixteen or seventeen, slender and tall, about five feet seven inches. Such height is quite rare among women, so it’s a fairly close match. Did Wang Ruo have any moles, birthmarks, or distinguishing features?"

"Let me think..." She struggled to recall her previous interactions with Wang Ruo. "No moles or birthmarks, but I think there was a small freckle on her right wrist. Can you see if it’s there?"

Zhou Ziqin rolled up the right sleeve and examined it, then sighed in frustration. "The skin is so blackened it’s impossible to see anything. Forget a freckle—even a mole would be invisible."

"Hmm." Huang Zixiang stared at the swollen, blackened hands, a pang of sorrow striking her as she remembered the first time she met Wang Ruo in the carriage, the delicate and beautiful jade-like hands that had slipped from her sleeves. The sight of these unbearable hands now made her chest tighten slightly. "How did her hands... become so swollen? Her hands used to be so slender and graceful, the envy of everyone."

"Slender?" Zhou Ziqin picked up one of the corpse’s enormous hands, feeling from the palm to each finger. "That can’t be. The bone structure of her hands is among the larger ones I’ve seen in female corpses. Even before, they couldn’t have been described as slender."Huang Ziyao let out a surprised "Huh?" and glanced at the swollen, purplish-black hands before nudging Zhou Ziqin's shoulder with her elbow. "Give me your gloves," she said.

Zhou Ziqin looked at her in confusion. "What for?"

She didn’t answer, merely tilting her chin up and narrowing her eyes. Zhou Ziqin immediately complied, obediently handing over his gloves.

Though they were soft, snug leather gloves, men’s gloves were naturally larger, making them slightly loose on Huang Ziyao’s hands. She didn’t mind, though. Wearing them, she pinched the female corpse’s hand and compared it to her own—swelling could expand the width, but fingers wouldn’t lengthen much. Yet, the corpse’s fingers were even longer than hers, which Chen Nianniang had once praised as ideal for playing the zither.

Zhou Ziqin remarked from the side, "See, even though you’re a man, I bet you were castrated very young, so your hands are smaller than hers."

"What does castration have to do with hand size?" Huang Ziyao thought to herself. She then pressed her own bones through the gloves and did the same with the corpse’s. Though the swollen flesh made it hard to feel the bones, she pressed firmly inch by inch until she finally detected something solid, confirming Zhou Ziqin’s observation—these hands were far from delicate.

Zhou Ziqin tensed beside her. "Chonggu, don’t press too hard. The skin’s already rotting—if you squeeze it apart, it won’t be good..."

Huang Ziyao quickly loosened her grip and checked the palm to see if she had damaged it. Fortunately, only a thin layer of white callus near the outer edge had split, with no bleeding.

"This must be a thin callus, so breaking it doesn’t matter. Besides, her whole body’s skin is already decayed—no one will notice a little callus damage," Zhou Ziqin said, scrutinizing the callus’s location near the base of the little finger. He frowned slightly. "Strange. In all my years of autopsies, I’ve never seen a callus grow here before."

"True. Normally, calluses form on the thumb’s webbing—the outer palm edge is the least likely spot," Huang Ziyao mused. She then noticed hardened skin on the tips of the left hand’s middle three fingers and the right thumb. After pondering and mimicking writing, embroidery, washing, and pounding clothes, she still couldn’t pinpoint the cause.

Zhou Ziqin took back the gloves she had removed. "Other than that, nothing stands out. This woman must have come from a good family—her hair and teeth are well-maintained, with no signs of hard labor. Now, dressed in Wang Ruo’s clothes and found in Yongchun Hall, with an unrecognizable face... If we claim she isn’t Wang Ruo, we lack solid evidence..."

Huang Ziyao cut straight to the point. "To avoid alerting anyone, record the findings in the autopsy report but don’t reveal everything outright. Just state the cause of death."

The two opened the door and stepped into the outer hall to meet the waiting officials.Zhou Ziqin bowed to the assembled crowd, then holding the autopsy records in his hand, he summarized briefly: "Examination complete: The deceased is a female, approximately five feet seven inches tall, with indistinct facial features. The entire body is blackened and swollen, covered in pus and blood. The teeth are intact, and the hair is glossy, reaching down to the ankles. There are no external wounds on the body, indicating death by poisoning."

Wang Lin sighed repeatedly, lamenting, "How hateful, truly hateful! I never imagined my niece would meet such a violent end within the heavily guarded palace..."

Behind him, Wang Ruo's two brothers, who had traveled from Langya to attend the grand wedding, also wore expressions of grief. The elder one asked, "Do we know the cause of my sister's death...?"

"Undoubtedly, she died from poison arrow tree toxin," Zhou Ziqin replied.

"Poison arrow tree..." The name was unfamiliar to most, but Wang Yun asked, "Is it the poison the southern barbarians call 'seal the throat upon seeing blood'?"

"Indeed, it's rarely seen in the capital." However, several others had also died from this poison the previous night. Zhou Ziqin glanced at Huang Zixiang, and seeing she had no intention of explaining further to them, he fell silent.

Before long, Empress Wang arrived in person. She took one look through the window at the corpse on the bed and immediately turned away. Changling, standing behind her, quickly supported her, preventing her from collapsing. Staggering, she covered her face and left without uttering a word.

Changqing led a group from the inner court to prepare the body for burial, all working in solemn silence. The Wang family's carriage carried the coffin away, and Li Shubai stood at the palace gate, watching them depart.

Zhou Ziqin hurried to Cui Chunzhan's carriage, while Huang Zixiang pulled over a prepared horse, ready to mount. However, a glance from Li Shubai through the carriage window made her withdraw her foot from the stirrup and board the carriage instead, taking her usual seat on the low stool.

The procession headed toward Yongjia Lane.

Throughout the journey, Li Shubai did not look at her, merely lightly tapping the glass fishbowl with his finger, causing the small red fish inside to chase after it with its gauzy tail.

"I heard the autopsy results. What wasn't said aloud?"

Huang Zixiang rested her chin on her hand, watching the little fish, and replied, "She did indeed die from poison arrow tree toxin. The time of death was last night. But unlike the beggars, the swelling in her throat was less severe than the rest of her body, so the poison that killed her wasn't ingested—it must have entered through a wound. If Zhou Ziqin could perform a dissection, this could be confirmed more definitively."

"If it was a wound, where was it?"

"That's the strange part. Despite the extensive swelling and ulceration, there were no signs of injury from a sharp object. Based on the discoloration of the skin, the poison most likely spread from her right hand before reaching the rest of her body."

"Her right hand." Li Shubai pondered. "Can poison arrow tree toxin kill simply by touching the skin?"

"No, it can't. So how the victim was poisoned remains a mystery."

Li Shubai shifted his gaze from the fish to her face and suddenly asked, "Back when your parents passed away and you fled from Shu disguised as a man... did no one suspect you weren’t actually male?"

Huang Zixiang, still watching the fish, was baffled by the sudden question. "No. Since childhood, I often dressed as a boy to accompany my father on investigations. I’ve seen all sorts of people. Though the journey was arduous, I managed to escape without much trouble."He didn't respond to her puzzled expression, only gazed at her appearance. The young girl dressed in deep red eunuch robes knelt on a low stool, her right hand propping up her chin as she looked at him. Her eyes were as clear and transparent as morning dew on a hibiscus flower. As the carriage jolted, her eyelashes occasionally trembled, making the dewdrop-like glimmer in her eyes shimmer like delicate hibiscus swaying in the wind, instantly radiating brilliance.

The corners of his tightly pressed lips unconsciously lifted slightly at that moment.

Huang Zixiang inexplicably touched her own face, still hesitating when he had already turned away. Without correcting her overly girlish posture, he only asked, "Apart from that, were there any other marks on the corpse? For example—was that body Wang Ruo's?"

Huang Zixiang showed slight surprise: "Your Highness hasn't seen the remains, yet you think so too?"

"I believe everything happens for a reason. Someone who would specifically use poison arrow tree to make a corpse so ghastly and unrecognizable must be trying to conceal something."

"Your Highness guessed correctly. That corpse wasn't Wang Ruo's. Though the flesh was hard to identify, the bones couldn't lie. The hand bones of that corpse were much larger than Wang Ruo's." As Huang Zixiang spoke, she raised her right hand, turning her palm to examine it before herself. "There's another thing I can't figure out—the distribution of calluses on the female corpse's hands. The tips of the middle three fingers on the left hand, the right thumb, and the edge of the right palm here—" She gestured to her own hand, pointing it out to Li Shubai, "This area below the little finger on the palm edge had developed a thin layer of callus. Though usually unnoticeable, the skin here had become slightly tougher than elsewhere."

"Actions that frequently use this area are indeed uncommon." Li Shubai spread out his own slender, pale hands, then clenched them into fists thoughtfully.

Huang Zixiang asked, "Does Your Highness have any clues?"

"Just now, it seemed like a certain motion flashed before my eyes, but I can't recall it in haste." Frowning as he spoke, he simply released his hands and said, "Regarding this case, the biggest point at present should lie in the word 'invisibility.'"

Huang Zixiang nodded and said, "The man at Xianyou Temple's sudden appearance and disappearance, Wang Ruo vanishing before our eyes under heavy guard, even the nonexistent wound on the female corpse's hand—all are invisible, unsolvable mysteries."

"Actually, sometimes it's like magic tricks—they're just simple little tricks executed from angles ordinary people wouldn't expect. Spectators can't grasp the truth because their minds can't make the turn. Another possibility..." As Li Shubai spoke, he picked up a crystal cup from the small table with his hand and raised it to the carriage window.

In the light filtering through the curtains, the pristine, transparent crystal cup and water instantly lost their shapes. In a daze, Huang Zixiang only saw a small red fish quietly swimming in midair above Li Shubai's palm, like an illusion in the sunlight.

"Another possibility is that it's right before our eyes, but due to perspective and perception, we lose our judgment and think it doesn't exist."