The Golden Hairpin

Huang Zixiao stood silently behind Li Shubai, gazing at Empress Wang seated before them.

Twelve years of dramatic upheaval had seen her rise from a humble pipa player to the empress, a journey fraught with hardship. Yet stolen things must eventually be returned. Now that everything had collapsed overnight, no one could predict her fate.

Meanwhile, Wang Lin straightened his back, tears streaming down his aged face as he addressed the emperor, "Your Majesty... I truly never imagined... that things would come to this! Since Your Majesty ascended the throne, I have been unable to sleep at night. When she was crowned empress, my torment only grew worse. For years, I have lived in constant fear of exposure... I suspect... Her Majesty the Empress may have suffered no less than I. Your Majesty, I know I deserve death ten thousand times over, but I beg you to consider that the empress was coerced by me and later found herself trapped, powerless to resist..."

"Enough." The emperor raised his right hand slightly, cutting him off. "If you were truly so uneasy, why would you dare stage the same deceitful act twelve years later? Did you truly believe I could be so easily fooled?"

Wang Lin shuddered, drenched in cold sweat, his body trembling like a sieve, too terrified to speak another word.

Empress Wang, who had been watching coldly from the side, finally spoke. Her voice was hoarse and slow as she murmured softly, "In this life, meeting Your Majesty has been my greatest fortune. Though these twelve years have been filled with fear—dreading the day you would learn the truth and cast me aside—I cannot deny that in my wretched survival, I have also felt... fortunate."

At this point, her voice trembled with suppressed sobs. She lifted her tear-filled eyes to the emperor, crystalline drops rolling down her jade-like cheeks like pearls. "Your Majesty... For twelve years, though I have lived in the cold solitude of the palace, surrounded by wolves, you have treated me with more tenderness than any common husband could offer his wife. My life has been so blessed that... I dared to dream of securing a similar fate for my daughter outside the palace... I thought... that by doing so, I could finally repay the debt I owed her. Once Xue Se was married, I would sever all ties to the past and devote myself entirely to serving Your Majesty—even if it meant breaking my body or walking through fire."

Huang Zixiao and Li Shubai exchanged a glance, their thoughts mirrored in each other's eyes. They knew all too well that the moment Empress Wang summoned her daughter back to her side, she had reconnected with her past in a way that could never be undone.

Yet they were merely outsiders.

They could remain clear-headed and unmoved, but the man who had shared his carriage and bed with Empress Wang for twelve years could not resist her persuasion. She knew his weaknesses too well—knew exactly how to sway him.

In an instant, the woman who had been unable to contain her grief after killing her own daughter had vanished. Now, standing in the Yanji Hall was the Empress Wang who bore the name "Shangwu"—beautiful, cruel, every gesture and smile meticulously calculated, never wasted, never missing its mark.

And as the emperor looked upon Empress Wang, her eyes reddened and glistening with tears, a wave of helpless sorrow surged in his chest.

For years, they had shared glory and disgrace, standing side by side as they ruled the realm. He still remembered the first time he saw her, her face half-hidden behind the pipa, smiling shyly. He remembered her radiant joy on the day of his coronation, and the exhausted yet tender smile she wore when he held their newborn son in his arms—She seemed to have become an integral part of his life; without her, his existence felt incomplete.

"Ah Shao..."

The emperor finally stood up and walked toward her, step by step, slow and heavy. "You were just now... far too unrestrained," he said.

Empress Wang gazed at the approaching emperor, her face gradually filling with sorrow and grief. In the end, she lowered her head and replied, "Yes..."

"You are the eldest daughter of the Wang family's concubine line. You have been by my side for twelve years and have served as empress for many years, always dignified and composed. How could you today, before the spirit of your clan sister, grieve so excessively that you were bewitched by ghosts and spoke such nonsense?"

Empress Wang froze there. After a long while, large teardrops finally began to slide slowly down her face. In that moment, she was no longer the proud, peerless woman who had once captivated the world. Whether it was real or feigned, she appeared weak and helpless, as if all strength had been drained from her body. She could only kneel, clutching the hem of the emperor's robe, covering her face as she wept uncontrollably.

The emperor grabbed her arm and pulled her up roughly. She was slender and pale, her body trembling faintly, but with his support, she managed to stand before the crowd once more. Side by side with the emperor, even with tear stains on her face, she still exuded the pride cultivated from years of standing above others—unconsciously, yet unmistakably.

Huang Zixiang watched coldly from the sidelines, observing this woman who had meticulously orchestrated every movement and emotion. She couldn't help but think that perhaps, in that moment of breakdown, Empress Wang had seemed more like a living, breathing person—but only for that fleeting instant.

The emperor stiffly took her arm. Though it was unnatural, he held onto her nonetheless.

His gaze swept over Wang Lin, Wang Yun, and Li Shubai's faces before finally settling on Huang Zixiang's. Slowly, he said, "If anyone dares to speak even a word of this matter again..."

His voice paused for a long moment before finally dropping like a thousand-pound weight: "They will be disregarding the dignity of the imperial family and deliberately opposing the court!"

The hall fell into silence; no one dared to speak.

The emperor reached out to Empress Wang, tucking her disheveled hair behind her ear before taking her hand. "Go and rest. I will have the imperial physician examine you. Today, you were overwhelmed by grief and lost your senses. Do you understand?"

"Yes... I understand," she replied hesitantly in a low voice.

"Let's go."

The emperor and empress departed hand in hand, just as they had arrived, though Empress Wang's steps were slightly unsteady as the emperor led her step by step out of Yanji Hall.

Before leaving, the emperor glanced back at Xianyun and Ranyun, signaling to Wang Yun.

Huang Zixiang stood behind Li Shubai. As the truth of the case was revealed yet concluded in silence, she felt a faint sorrow and inexplicable melancholy.

Li Shubai turned to look at her before walking out without a word.

Huang Zixiang followed behind him, leaving Yanji Hall together.

As she passed Wang Yun, she heard his voice, so quiet it was almost inaudible, whisper in her ear: "Why?"

Her heart skipped a beat, and she turned to look at him.

Wang Yun, who had always been gentle and warm like a spring breeze, now stared at her with deep, unfathomable eyes, unmoving and unblinking.His voice, low yet clear, asked word by word, "What has our Wang family ever done to wrong you? Why... time and again, you push me to this?"

Huang Zixiang only felt a chill in her chest under the intensity of his gaze.

But she could only grit her teeth and say, "I don't know what you mean. All I know is that justice and truth reside in the hearts of people. Whether the deceased is a singing girl or a beggar, whether the murderer is an emperor or a general, I only seek to speak the truth I have uncovered, to be true to my own conscience."

With that, she turned and fled out the door as if escaping.

Yet, in that moment of flight, it suddenly dawned on her—what did he mean by "time and again"?

Could it be referring to her previous refusal to marry him, which had made him the laughingstock of the capital?

Her heart pounded with fear, a thin layer of cold sweat breaking out on her back. But she quickly dismissed the thought—if she had humiliated Wang Yun so deeply, and if he had recognized her as Huang Zixiang, he would have surely exposed her true identity by now. How could he have tolerated her presence until this moment?

Even if he had indeed recognized her, with Li Shubai by her side, he might not dare to forcibly unmask her.

Besides, even if he had recognized her, so what? She would soon leave the capital for Shu. Once she uncovered the truth about her family, whether she could return was uncertain.

No matter what, from now on, she must be extra cautious—but in her current state of exhaustion, she truly lacked the energy to dwell on this.

The clamor at the Wang family's gate had already begun. Jin Nu's body, as originally planned, was being transported to the Wang family's ancestral graves in Langya for a grand burial.

Unconsciously, she stopped in her tracks, standing beneath the towering cypress tree at the gate, staring blankly at the black lacquered coffin for a long time.

Li Shubai turned to look at her and asked, "What's wrong?"

After a long silence, she quietly replied, "I was thinking about Jin Nu."

At the age of five, Jin Nu had been starving and freezing to death on the streets. When the wind lifted the curtain of Mei Wanzhi's carriage, she caught sight of Jin Nu's hands and took her home. She had said, "Jin Nu, heaven gave you these hands to play the pipa."

At twenty, in the Daming Palace of Chang'an, Jin Nu played a melody Mei Wanzhi had taught her on the pipa Mei Wanzhi had gifted her. And in return, Mei Wanzhi had given her a box of rosin powder—the poison that seeped through those very hands, ending the life Mei Wanzhi had extended by fifteen years.

Huang Zixiang stood beneath the tree and softly asked, "Is this ending... truly no ending at all?"

"Who says there isn't one? Making the murderer realize she killed her own daughter with her own hands, condemning her to live in nightmares forever—that is the greatest punishment for her," Li Shubai said, then shook his head. "But then again, if she could cast aside her young daughter back then, she can surely cast her from her heart now. A woman who has thrived in the palace like her will never know defeat in this lifetime."

"And Chen Nianniang—though she succeeded in luring her enemy into committing the crime of killing her own daughter, her revenge was achieved. But she will likely live with the torment of her conscience for the rest of her days," Huang Zixiang murmured. "As for Empress Wang... she is, after all, a woman, isn't she? No matter how formidable she is, she couldn't hold back her tears for her lost daughter."The sunlight filtered through the emerald-green branches, casting sparse patches of light upon the two of them.

This gentle sunlight reminded Huang Zixiao of the emperor, renowned for his mild and benevolent nature.

Back then, outside the mourning hall, when Li Shubai spoke of the case and hinted that the culprit might be Empress Wang, the emperor had merely glanced sideways at her before closing his eyes and saying slowly, "If the dignity of the royal family remains intact and no outsiders come to know of it, then even if the empress has broken the law, I must still learn the truth and mete out punishment."

The so-called twelve years of sharing bed and board, as devoted as any common couple, shattered like brittle glass before the rumors swirling through the capital—"the emperor exalted, the empress martial." No emperor would tolerate such a dynamic between himself and his empress.

Imperial spouses, palace sovereigns.

Huang Zixiao stared blankly at the sunlight overhead, lost in thought.

Li Shubai glanced at her and asked, "Still not happy?"

Huang Zixiao said nothing, only turned to look at him.

"The empress is strong-willed. In recent years, she has meddled excessively in court affairs and frequently abused her power to punish others privately—even the emperor could not restrain her. By assisting His Majesty this time and delivering her such a heavy blow, you’ve rendered a great service."

"Does the emperor truly believe my claim about being a distant relative of the Huang family?"

"Whether he believes it or not hardly matters. But since His Majesty has already promised, an imperial decree will soon be issued to reopen the investigation into your family’s wrongful case. When the time comes, I will personally escort you to Shu."

Hearing his calm tone, Huang Zixiao felt her chest constrict abruptly, as if she couldn’t breathe.

Shu—the place where her parents and kin lay buried.

Now, she was about to return there, to overturn that ironclad verdict, wash away the blood of her wrongful accusation, and unearth the murderer.

A sensation both exhilarating and bitter welled up slowly from her heart, leaving her standing dazed before him in this early summer warmth, dizzy with uncertainty.

She couldn’t tell whether it was joy or sorrow.