The Golden Hairpin

Zhou Ziqin hurriedly asked, "At that time, Jin Nu was sitting and eating with us the entire time without leaving. She ate the same food as us, so how is it that we were fine while she was poisoned with a deadly toxin?"

"Because she was a pipa musician," Huang Zitang sighed. "I don’t know if you remember, but before playing the pipa, she tested a few notes and complained that the rainy late spring had dampened the instrument, making the sound unclear. So she took out a box of rosin powder and applied two pinches of it to the strings and tuning pegs, didn’t she?"

Zhou Ziqin nodded.

"Therefore, if the killer had mixed some bamboo or hardwood shavings soaked in poison into the rosin powder, Jin Nu would naturally have pricked her fingers or nail beds while rubbing and pressing the powder. Those tiny wounds, combined with the potent toxin, would have caused her to feel only a slight numbness rather than pain. Though the poison from the Antiaris toxicaria tree is known to be fatal upon contact with blood, even a minuscule amount would, over time, spread from her hands throughout her body after she returned to her residence in the outer music academy. She would fall into a coma and eventually die without regaining consciousness, her body swelling beyond recognition—perfect for passing off as Miss Wang’s corpse, allowing the real Miss Wang to escape and vanish completely from the world."

The hall buzzed with murmurs, and even the emperor looked astonished. He asked, "Why would the killer go to such lengths to substitute a fake corpse for Wang Ruo? And how did they make Wang Ruo disappear from the palace? What was their purpose?"

Huang Ziqin replied, "What I have just unraveled is the first mystery—whose corpse this truly is. All evidence now points to it being Jin Nu, not Miss Wang. With Your Majesties' permission, I shall now reveal the second mystery: how Miss Wang disappeared and how she was replaced with Jin Nu."

Li Shubai suddenly spoke up, addressing Zhou Ziqin, "Ziqin, you’ve worked hard fabricating the fake hand and providing testimony. You must be tired—go and rest for a while."

Zhou Ziqin looked puzzled. "But Yang Chonggu hasn’t solved the mystery yet..."

Li Shubai said nothing more, only narrowing his eyes slightly to glance at him.

Though simple-minded, Zhou Ziqin was no fool. The moment he saw Li Shubai’s look, he understood immediately. Gathering his things, he bowed and said, "This humble subject takes his leave!"

After Zhou Ziqin departed and Huang Ziqin closed the door, the emperor nodded slightly and said, "We have also heard the empress speak of this matter. It is truly bizarre—a living person vanishing without a trace under heavy guard. Most strange indeed."

Empress Wang frowned and said bitterly, "It must be the remnants of Pang Xun’s faction, without a doubt!"

Huang Ziqin shook her head. "This case has been shrouded in confusion for days. The rumors of Pang Xun’s ghostly interference were merely tools the killer used to mislead. In truth, they have no connection to this case whatsoever! As for the true culprit, in my humble opinion, they are likely present in this very hall."

Her words were clear and resolute, striking fear into those who heard them, making them sit upright as if needles pricked their backs.

Empress Wang sneered. "How audacious! Are you implying the killer is among our Wang family?"

"This humble servant dares not. I merely base my conclusions on the investigations I’ve conducted over these past days—the only explanation that fits all the facts. As for the killer, I speak only of evidence, without considering other implications.""If it wasn't Pang Xun's doing, but one of us who is the murderer, then who would you suggest it is?" Wang Lin scanned the few people in the hall, his voice filled with frustration and suspicion. "When A-Ruo disappeared, it was right under the noses of both the Capital Defense Bureau and the Prince of Kui's personal guards. You may distrust the palace staff or the troops my son brought, but you yourself are from the Prince of Kui's household—do you distrust those guards as well?"

Li Shubai frowned slightly and interjected, "Minister Wang, there's no need for concern. Yang Chonggu certainly doesn't mean it that way."

Huang Zixiang responded calmly and firmly, "When Miss Wang disappeared, both His Highness the Prince of Kui and I were present. We saw it with our own eyes, heard it with our own ears, and felt it firsthand. I trust His Highness and the members of the Capital Defense Bureau as much as I trust myself."

"Enough, everyone, please remain calm," the Emperor raised his hand to pacify the group. "Let's first hear Yang Chonggu's reasoning. After he finishes, you may voice any doubts you have."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" With the Emperor's permission, Huang Zixiang ignored the others and bowed respectfully before continuing, "While Wang Ruo's disappearance is indeed perplexing, something even more inexplicable occurred just before she vanished—why would a palace servant attempt to assassinate her while she was resting in Penglai Hall, especially under such dangerous circumstances? Moreover, when I heard the commotion in the inner chamber and rushed in immediately, the assassin had already disappeared without a trace. Outside Penglai Hall, the terrain is completely flat with no cover, yet the female officials like Changling, who arrived just moments before me, claimed to have seen a shadow leap out the window. How could someone vanish so completely in the blink of an eye? Is there truly a method in this world that allows a person to disappear instantly?

"Upon reflection, I realized this fleeting assassin served only one purpose—to prompt Her Majesty the Empress to take one specific action: moving Miss Wang to Yongchun Hall."

Empress Wang sneered, "So, you're saying my concern for A-Ruo, my desire to protect the future Princess of Kui for the court and the prince, was a mistake?"

"I wouldn't dare suggest such a thing, Your Majesty. This servant never implied it was Your Majesty's fault. What I mean is that precisely because Miss Wang was under such heavy protection, it inadvertently facilitated this mysterious incident. Yongchun Hall was prearranged as the perfect stage for Wang Ruo's sudden disappearance—the most seemingly secure yet actually ideal location in the entire palace for such a vanishing act—"

She retrieved a neatly folded sheet of paper from her sleeve and unfolded it before the assembly—a map of Yongchun Hall she had prepared earlier.

Pressing the silver hairpin in her bun, she removed the central jade pin and used it to trace lines on the paper as she explained to everyone present, "Yongchun Hall was originally used as an inner treasury, surrounded by impenetrably high walls. Moreover, Her Majesty the Empress requested His Majesty to deploy two hundred soldiers to guard the area. While this created an appearance of tight security, it also led to chaos with too many eyes watching. Furthermore, Wang Ruo deliberately stepped out of her chamber to thank His Highness before her disappearance, ensuring we all watched her return inside—only to vanish from what was supposedly the most secure and impossible place to disappear from."Her hairpin drew a circle on the eastern chamber in the innermost hall, marking the very center of the heavily guarded area: "After her disappearance, I kept puzzling over it. Why did Wang Ruo vanish the moment she entered the chamber? How could she have slipped past everyone's notice and disappeared without a trace?"

The hall fell silent. Even Li Shubai, who already knew the details, focused intently as she unraveled the core trick of this case.

"Yet we were misled all along. No matter how many possibilities we considered, we could never figure out how she disappeared from Yongchun Hall. It wasn’t until I was inspired by a street magician in the West Market that I realized the truth—Wang Ruo didn’t mysteriously vanish from the eastern chamber. In fact, she never entered it at all!"

Wang Lin said coldly, "But I heard that everyone, including Prince Kui and you, as well as the dozens of guards stationed in the hall, saw Wang Ruo enter the eastern chamber with their own eyes. She clearly walked into the chamber under the gaze of so many witnesses. Are you now saying she never went in? Does that mean everyone was hallucinating?"

"Not hallucinations. Minister Wang, did you notice that after Yongchun Hall was converted from an inner treasury into a residence, a rockery was placed between the inner and outer halls—specifically in the courtyard near the inner hall—to break up the rigid square layout?"

"But that rockery is quite small, with only one or two stones taller than a person’s head. How could that be used for any trickery?"

"Just one spot tall enough to obscure a head is sufficient," Huang Zixia said calmly. "In truth, this trick only needed a split second to succeed. Due to Wang Yun’s arrangement of the guards, no one was stationed behind the rockery. The only two guards who could have seen behind it, standing by the eastern chamber’s window, were ordered to face the window and watch the entrance the entire time. Under these circumstances, the so-called witnesses who saw Wang Ruo return to the eastern chamber only saw her back as she walked away."

"Isn’t seeing her back enough?"

"Of course not. Because the so-called disappearance, completed in an instant, only required a moment." Huang Zixia’s hairpin pointed to the rockery. "Between the inner and outer halls stands this low rockery, with a winding brick path through it. Here, at its highest point, it just barely obscures Wang Ruo, who was five chi and seven cun tall. So, all it took was a woman dressed identically to Wang Ruo—same clothes, same hairstyle, same jewelry—hiding behind the rockery beforehand. The moment Wang Ruo reached the tallest stone, she crouched down, and the other woman stood up and walked out from behind the rockery. In that instant, a switch was made. The ‘Wang Ruo’ we all saw walking toward the eastern chamber was already someone else!"

Huang Zixia turned to look at Xianyun and Ranyun, who were trembling on the ground, and said slowly, "At the time, Ranyun was accompanying Wang Ruo to see Prince Kui. So, the person impersonating Wang Ruo behind the rockery had to be Xianyun.""Absurd!" Wang Lin sneered coldly. "Eunuch Yang, what a remarkable conjecture you have—seeing a street performance and immediately connecting it to the case. Moreover, Your Excellency doesn’t even care that Wang Ruo was half a head taller than Xianyun? Wang Ruo was notably taller than most people. If the figure emerging from behind the rockery was suddenly half a head shorter, wouldn’t anyone have noticed?"

"Altering one’s height isn’t difficult, especially for a woman. The elevated wooden soles sold in the markets can be as tall as five or six inches, easily adding half a head to Xianyun’s height. When Xianyun entered the hall, I noticed her foot caught on the threshold—naturally because she wasn’t accustomed to such shoes. Another, more compelling piece of evidence is that shortly after entering, Xianyun left with a food box and went to the small kitchen in the corner behind the hall. I suspect she burned her disguise—clothes and shoes—there. Unfortunately, her inexperience and panic left behind a half-charred piece of wood resembling a horse’s hoof in the stove, the remnant of an elevated sole, which served as evidence!"

Seeing Wang Lin momentarily speechless, Li Shubai asked, "Then, when everyone began searching Yongchun Hall immediately afterward, where did Wang Ruo go?"

"It’s simple. She changed into the maid or eunuch’s clothes hidden in the rockery beforehand. While everyone was searching the rockery for her hairpin, she pretended to be one of the palace servants helping with the search and slipped away."

"Absurd! Wouldn’t anyone have been suspicious of a person in the hall who looked exactly like Wang Ruo?" Wang Lin roared again.

"No one would have noticed her. The head palace maid Changling from the Empress’s entourage soon arrived with a group of maids and eunuchs. She left a few behind to assist in the search and took others to report to the Empress—among them was Wang Ruo. Once outside the chaotic Yongchun Hall, Wang Ruo vanished like a bird into the forest or a fish into the sea, never to be found again. Later, the guards at Yongchun Hall were withdrawn, leaving only a few elderly eunuchs and maids. With the help of someone who had eyes and ears in the palace, moving a corpse undetected into the Eastern Pavilion would have been effortless."

Silence fell over the assembly, and the Yanji Hall was plunged into a deathly stillness.

The Emperor pondered Huang Zixia’s words, his gaze shifting toward the Empress. Empress Wang lowered her eyes, staring at the silver embroidery on her white skirt, and asked slowly, "From Eunuch Yang’s words, it seems you already have a clear idea of the mastermind behind this?"

"This humble servant dares to presume... I had not wished to think so. But the methods employed in this case could only have been orchestrated by that person." Huang Zixia raised her head, her gaze clear and fearless. "Even if it means offending powers beyond my imagination, I must reveal the truth I’ve uncovered from beginning to end."

The expressions of those present shifted subtly, but the Emperor remained composed and nodded gently. "In that case, tell us—who is the mastermind behind the mystery of Wang Ruo’s disappearance?""From various signs, it's not difficult for us to deduce several points. First, this person could predetermine the crime scene and move Wang Ruo to Yongchun Hall; second, they could command senior palace maids and eunuchs like Changling and Changqing beforehand; third, after the incident, they could have Yanling take Wang Ruo away; fourth, after Jinnu's death, they could easily move her body into Yongchun Hall."

As she spoke, she kept her gaze lowered to the ground, not looking at anyone in particular. Yet the answer was practically on the tip of her tongue: "As for the mastermind behind this, let me first mention how it all began. On the day Wang Ruo went to pray at Xianyou Temple, a mysterious man appeared before us carrying a birdcage, performing a sleight of hand trick right in front of our eyes. He warned Wang Ruo that no matter what, one's past could never be hidden, then mysteriously vanished from the heavily guarded Xianyou Temple—it was precisely this mysterious man's appearance that triggered the subsequent chain of events."

The emperor nodded and said, "I've heard of this as well—it was indeed a bizarre incident. In your opinion, where did that man in Xianyou Temple come from, how did he leave, and what was his purpose in doing all this?"

"In this humble servant's view, Xianyou Temple has high walls and deep courtyards. That day, the temple had already been cleared of worshippers, and there were soldiers from Prince Kui's mansion guarding it. At the time, I was stuck in a mental rut, only wondering where the mysterious man could have come from, but it never occurred to me that he might have actually come with us all along—always by our side. When we left the crowd, all he needed to do was put on a disguise to appear before us. Disappearing was just as simple—he could just remove his outer disguise in the back hall, throw it into the incense burner to be destroyed, then quickly descend along the bushes beside the mountain path steps, rushing to reappear before us before anyone else... And at that time, the first person to appear before us was you—Commandant Wang Yun of the Capital Guard."