The Golden Hairpin

Landai—

Huang Zixiao straightened up abruptly upon hearing the name, her face filled with astonishment.

Li Shubai glanced at her and asked, "What is it?"

"This name... this name is..." Huang Zixiao was so agitated she could barely string her words together.

Li Shubai said, "Landai. A name that’s beautiful yet carries a hint of worldly charm—naturally, it belongs to a woman who frequents the pleasure quarters."

Huang Zixiao exclaimed excitedly, "But... but this is the name of one of the Six Maidens of Yunsao, my third sister!"

Li Shubai raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh? Is this related to that Yunsao Pavilion in Yangzhou again?"

"Yes, go on. What happened next?" Huang Zixiao urged.

"Naturally, I wouldn’t seek her out, much less go to Yangzhou to find a courtesan. So I looked down at her and said, 'I saved you by chance. I won’t come looking for you in the future, nor do I want anything from you. If this hairpin is important to you, then keep it safe.'

"But she stubbornly refused to lower her hand, holding the hairpin out to me insistently, the pointed end facing herself and the other end toward me. It was a leaf-vein hairpin."

Huang Zixiao let out another surprised sound. "A leaf-vein hairpin? What did it look like?"

"The pin itself was about four inches long, with a head shaped like a leaf vein intricately wrapped in silver wire. The delicate, lifelike veins were so finely crafted they seemed almost transparent. On top of the leaf vein, there were two tiny pearls embedded, like dewdrops."

"Was it made of silver?"

"Yes, my memory doesn’t fail me," Li Shubai replied, then added, "I’m not well-versed in women’s accessories, but I thought that silver leaf-vein hairpin bore a striking resemblance to the gold leaf-vein hairpin left behind when Wang Ruo disappeared. Are leaf-vein hairpins particularly fashionable?"

"Not at all. Most hairpins, even if they’re crafted into leaf shapes, are solid rather than this kind of hollow, intricate vein design. I’ve never seen such an exquisite and unique hairpin before. If, as you say, they’re very similar, then there must be some underlying connection."

"It seems the two girls I encountered back then might be closely tied to this matter."

"Yes, I think so too," she agreed, then asked, "Did you take it?"

"That silver hairpin?" Li Shubai said indifferently. "No. When she saw I wouldn’t reach for it, she placed the hairpin on the carriage shaft, then turned and ran off. The setting sun cast a golden glow on the hairpin, its glare irritating my eyes. So I picked it up and tossed it onto the dusty roadside."

Huang Zixiao rested her chin on her hand, staring at him without blinking.

He glanced at her coolly. "What?"

"Would it have made any difference if you’d waited until you returned to the city to throw it away?"

"Early or late, what does it matter when it’s discarded?" Li Shubai’s voice was calm. "Besides, at the time, I noticed the girl named Xiao Shi watching me. So after I threw the hairpin away, she likely picked it up and returned it to that Cheng girl."

"If it were me, I definitely wouldn’t tell my friend that the gift she gave someone was immediately tossed away," Huang Zixiao remarked offhandedly. "Otherwise, how humiliated and pitiful my friend would feel."

"The intricacies of how women interact hold no interest for me," Li Shubai scoffed.Huang Zixiang didn’t want to discuss such a profound issue with someone so cold and unfeeling. She pulled the hairpin from her head and began sketching the shape of the leaf-vein pin on the table.

Li Shubai glanced at her gauze cap, now loose without the pin, and asked, “Aren’t you afraid it’ll fall off?”

She casually reached up to adjust it. “It’s fine.”

“Lucky you’re pretending to be a young eunuch. What if you were disguised as a Buddhist novice? How would you doodle with a hairpin then?”

“There’s always a wooden fish,” she murmured absentmindedly, her gaze fixed on some distant point as her hand continued to trace random lines on the table—now sketching the shape of the half-ingot of silver. As she drew, she muttered to herself, “That silver ingot the girl took back then… since there were two of them, did they split it in half?”

“Something used as a murder weapon would likely have been exchanged for smaller pieces of silver long ago.”

“Possibly…” Huang Zixiang finally looked up at him. “Do you still remember what those two girls looked like?”

“They both deliberately let their hair hang loose and covered themselves in dirt and blood. Our encounter was brief, so I truly have no clear impression. Besides, they were only thirteen or fourteen at the time. Women change a lot as they grow up. Even if they stood before me now, I might not recognize them.”

“Hmm…” She nodded, but as she did, her gauze cap wobbled and promptly fell off.

Li Shubai swiftly caught it midair and tossed it back to her with a slight frown. “I told you—just pretend to be a monk instead.”

Silently, she gathered her hair. A loose strand dangled in front of her eyes, and with a mix of irritation and embarrassment, she twisted it back into place before securing the cap again.

Li Shubai gave her a disdainful look. “I’ve never met someone who can’t think without scribbling.”

“Old habits die hard…” she muttered.

He scoffed. “How does someone even develop such a habit?”

“Well… back when I followed my father on cases, I often needed to jot things down but had no paper or brush. Since I wore women’s clothing then, I always had a hairpin or two. I’d pull one out and sketch on the ground—it helped clarify the case. Eventually, I couldn’t break the habit. Drawing just helps me think.”

“And then?”

“Then what?”

“The hairpins you sketched with in the dirt.” He was oddly fixated on this detail.

Huang Zixiang blinked at him, puzzled. “You’d just wash it, dry it, and put it back in your hair.”

Li Shubai let out an “Oh.” Seeing her expectant stare, he added, “The first time I met Zhou Ziqin, he was crouched beside a corpse in the mortuary, munching on a bag of pine nut and peanut candies while watching the coroner work. He even handed over tools to assist.”

Huang Zixiang asked, “When you said ‘munching with relish,’ were you referring to the candy or the autopsy?”

He gave her a sidelong glance. “What do you think?”

“I get it,” she said quietly.

“So when I heard that Huang Min’s daughter was skilled at solving cases and was someone Zhou Ziqin admired, the first image that came to mind was of a woman crouched beside a corpse, eating pine nut and peanut candies.”Huang Ziyao couldn't help but twitch her eyebrows. "And now?"

"I'm relieved that you merely enjoy doodling randomly, and surprisingly, you even know to wash the golden hairpin you drew on the ground."

Huang Ziyao said gloomily, "Don't lump me together with Zhou Ziqin."

Li Shubai said indifferently, "But it seems you're the one he's chasing after."

"That's just his fantasy about things he's never seen before. It's like how people always think the scenery in the distance is better, or how childhood dreams seem the most beautiful—if he knew I'm Huang Ziyao, he'd probably feel awkward and find it hard to accept. Maybe even his long-held dreams would shatter."

Listening to her words, a faint smile appeared at the corner of Li Shubai's lips. He nodded and said, "Perhaps. So it's better for you to remain that little eunuch in front of him."

"Yes... It's best not to shatter his aspirations." Huang Ziyao nodded, feeling a piercing light flash before her eyes. She shielded them with her hand and realized it was the slanting rays of the setting sun.

Their discussion had lasted so long that dusk was approaching. She took her leave and stepped out of the Yubing Pavilion, heading back to her room.

The winding corridors and grand halls surrounded her. Sleeves drooping, she unconsciously clenched the token of the Prince of Kui in her hand and looked up at the sunset glow. A sudden wave of melancholy rose in her heart.

Half a year had passed since the deaths of her parents and family, yet the murderer remained untraceable. The case before her was tangled and perplexing, with countless threads—who knew when the truth would finally come to light?

For the first time, she began to doubt herself. She asked inwardly, "Huang Ziyao, if things continue like this, will you ever have the chance in this lifetime to shed these eunuch's robes, put on women's clothes again, and proudly tell the world—my surname is Huang, I'm a woman, I am Huang Ziyao?"

Tossing and turning all night, Huang Ziyao considered every possibility but couldn't figure out how Wang Ruo had disappeared or where the unidentified female corpse had come from.

As a result, when she got up the next morning, Huang Ziyao staggered unsteadily, plagued by a splitting headache and an aching back. Sitting before the mirror, she saw her reflection—ghostly pale, almost lifeless.

But what did it matter? She was just a little eunuch now. Who cared if a eunuch looked like a ghost? Resigned, she fetched water to wash up and headed to the kitchen. The cook beamed at the sight of her and stuffed seventeen or eighteen spring rolls into her hands, saying, "Eunuch Yang, congratulations! I heard His Highness has finally given you official status."

"Pfft—" Huang Ziyao spat out the spring roll she was chewing. "What... status?"

"It's what everyone in the mansion was talking about this morning. They said you've been formally added to the prince's household registry as a documented eunuch."

"Oh..." She silently stuffed another spring roll into her mouth and mumbled, "That lowest-ranking eunuch position?""Hey, what do you mean by lowly? This is just the beginning—you've got a bright future ahead, eunuch!" The cook said with animated expressions. "A few years back during the Suizhou famine, so many people lost their livelihoods that they couldn't even secure a path to become eunuchs by cutting off their own roots! And look at me—I've been working in the kitchen for twenty years, yet I'm still just a temporary helper, unable to be registered as an official servant of the prince's household. But you, eunuch, have only been here a month or two and are already a recorded, named eunuch in the prince's household!"

Huang Ziyao was truly speechless. So even becoming a eunuch in the prince's household was something so many people envied and coveted—what a waste of such a precious opportunity for her.

While she was dealing with the cook and eating breakfast, someone outside called, "Yang Chonggu, where is Yang Chonggu?"

She quickly took a sip of the milk tea and responded, "I'm here!"

"His Highness orders you to go to Chunyu Hall immediately—someone is waiting for you there."