The Golden Hairpin

"Seventh Brother, what's wrong?" Prince Zhao asked him.

But he didn't even have the presence of mind to respond to Prince Zhao's question. With a trembling hand, he pointed at the painting, his voice choked with emotion: "That painting... what is that painting?"

Zhang Xingying turned to look and quickly explained, "It's a painting bestowed upon my father by the late emperor when he was summoned to the palace to examine His Majesty's pulse many years ago."

Prince Zhao laughed. "The late emperor's calligraphy and paintings were exceptional. How could he have painted something like this?"

"Indeed. Moreover, this painting shows signs of being crumpled. I've secretly wondered if it might have been just a piece of paper used to blot ink that my father treasured as if it were priceless. Otherwise, what could these messy patterns possibly be?" Zhang Xingying hurriedly added. "But my father treated this painting as more precious than life itself. Knowing I was to be tested by the Capital Defense Bureau today, he gave it to me to burn incense and kowtow before, praying that the late emperor's spirit might bless me to pass the examination."

As he spoke, he turned to enter the house to take down the painting and place it back in its box. Prince E, Li Run, stood up and followed him inside, asking, "May I take a look?"

"Of course!" Zhang Xingying respectfully handed the painting to him.

Seeing Prince E's keen interest, the others gathered around to examine the three ink blots on the paper closely.

They were nothing more than three irregular, chaotic scribbles of varying sizes, haphazardly drawn on the paper. Huang Zixiang studied them from all angles but couldn't discern any meaning. However, when Prince E tilted the painting, she caught a glimpse of a faint crimson dot hidden beneath the heavy ink and focused intently on it. Yet after staring for a long time, all she could see was that tiny pinprick of red amidst the varying shades of black.

Prince Zhao suddenly clapped his hands and exclaimed, "I see it now!"

Zhou Ziqin quickly asked, "What does Your Highness see?"

"It's three people!" Prince Zhao pointed at the ink blots, his expression animated. "Look, from left to right—the first one depicts a person writhing on the ground, his body contorted. These irregular shapes around him are flames! In short, this shows a person being burned to death!"

With his explanation, the others seemed to make out the same image. Only Zhou Ziqin pointed at a twisted vertical line above the ink blot and asked, "Then what's this long line?"

"Smoke, perhaps..." Prince Zhao hesitated, then immediately brightened and slapped Zhou Ziqin's shoulder. "No, it's lightning! A thunderbolt! This person was struck by lightning and met a tragic end!"

Huang Zixiang's mind instantly flashed back to the man at Jianfu Temple the previous day—struck by lightning, engulfed in flames, and burned alive.

Zhou Ziqin also seemed struck by a thought. "Ah, now that I think about it, wasn't that eunuch Wei Ximin from the princess's residence struck by lightning and burned to death yesterday? It's an uncanny resemblance to this painting!"

"What an odd coincidence," Prince Zhao remarked.

Zhang Xingying said, "But this painting has been in my family for ten years, and this year marks the tenth anniversary of the late emperor's passing. I doubt there's any connection."

"Indeed, what could a eunuch who died yesterday possibly have to do with a painting from ten years ago? Just a coincidence," Prince Zhao said dismissively.

The others agreed, and soon the topic of Wei Ximin was dropped.Zhou Ziqin's imagination was indeed quite vivid. With Prince Zhao's hint, he soon pointed at the ink blot in the middle of the painting and exclaimed excitedly, "Now that you mention it, I think I see it too! This second painting also depicts a person. Look, these vertical lines seem like a cage, imprisoning him—probably a prisoner. And these ink blots around it look like bloodstains, likely indicating this person died inside the cage."

Everyone nodded in agreement, their gazes shifting to the third ink blot. This one consisted of two blobs, one above the other, with the upper one bearing no resemblance to a person. As they were still studying it, Zhang Xingying suddenly gasped, his mouth falling open.

"You see something?" Prince E, Li Run, asked him.

Zhang Xingying nodded repeatedly, somewhat nervously saying, "I think... I think this looks like... a large bird swooping down to peck at a person, while the figure below is desperately trying to flee... There seems to be a hint of red beneath the black ink, like a very small wound."

"Hmm, that's what I thought too!" Prince Zhao nodded.

"So that's it... Is this what the painting is depicting?" Prince E murmured thoughtfully to himself.

Huang Zixiang frowned slightly and asked, "But I have a question—why would the late emperor paint something like this? What is the meaning behind these three paintings?"

The question clearly had no answer. Prince E rolled up the scroll and handed it back to Zhang Xingying, saying, "Whether it's the late emperor's own hand or not, since it was something your father cherished, you should keep it safe."

"Yes," Zhang Xingying replied, carefully placing the scroll back into its box and preparing to take it upstairs to its original spot. As he turned, he froze for a moment, spotting Adi standing at the top of the stairs, lost in thought.

What unsettled him was not just her dazed expression but the twisted mix of cruelty and satisfaction on her face, making her appear almost frightening.

Startled by her expression and worried she might lose her balance and fall, he hesitated before quickly stepping up to block the first stair. "Adi, what's wrong?" he asked.

Her vacant gaze slowly focused on his face, as if she were still trapped in another world. But upon recognizing him, her expression gradually softened. She lowered her head and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "I heard you all talking... about the scenes of death in the paintings, and... it reminded me of the person we saw burned to death at Jianfu Temple yesterday. It was so horrifying... I think I got a little scared."

"Oh, don't worry, we were just describing the painting. Everyone was just guessing," he reassured her quickly.

Adi nodded, then slowly hugged herself and crouched down, murmuring to herself, "When will they leave... I need to go down and prepare Uncle's medicine."

"Oh, I'll take care of Father's medicine. If you're uncomfortable around people, just stay upstairs for a while," Zhang Xingying said, locking the cabinet where the painting was stored.

After leaving Zhang Xingying's house, Huang Zixiang and Zhou Ziqin walked together, bidding farewell to Prince Zhao and Prince E.She noticed the expression on Prince Run of E's face. The ethereal young prince now seemed dazed, forcing a smile as he bid them farewell, but his gaze had changed—fixed on some distant void, as if nothing else existed in his eyes.

What was so strange about that painting that it had suddenly unsettled Prince Run so deeply?

Lost in thought, Huang Zixiang rode slowly on Nafusha alongside Zhou Ziqin, making their way back under the shade of the locust trees lining Chang'an's streets.

In the height of summer, the locust trees cast cool shadows. Occasionally, an unnamed bird would sing softly from the branches.

Zhou Ziqin, riding beside her, reached out and patted Nafusha's head, saying, "Chonggu, it's not so bad, don't worry too much."

"Huh?" Huang Zixiang looked up at him.

"Even though we can't go to Shu Commandery right now, Prince Kui is still waiting for you, isn't he? Once we wrap up matters concerning Princess Tongchang, maybe we can all go to Shu Commandery together."

Huang Zixiang sighed. "You saw it too—the death of the eunuch Wei Ximin in the princess's residence and today's injury to the imperial son-in-law are both baffling cases. At least the latter has some leads, but with the incident at Jianfu Temple, we can't even determine if it was a deliberate crime."

"Exactly! But the emperor dotes on Princess Tongchang. If she insists on an investigation, we have no choice but to comply... Maybe we should just go through the motions and wrap it up in a few days."

Huang Zixiang reined in her horse, considering for a moment before saying, "We should go take a look as soon as possible."

"Look at what?" Zhou Ziqin quickly asked.

"Jianfu Temple. To see if there's anything we need to pay attention to."

With that, she turned her horse toward Jianfu Temple. Zhou Ziqin hurried after her. "Wait for me! I'm coming too!"

Unlike the chaotic scene of the previous day, Jianfu Temple was now eerily quiet. Though the mess had been cleared away, the trampled grass and broken branches bore silent witness to yesterday's turmoil.

As Huang Zixiang and Zhou Ziqin entered the gates, they saw two monks carrying empty sacks toward the release pond, shaking their heads and sighing.

Zhou Ziqin quickly asked, "Venerable ones, what happened at the release pond?"

"Ah, it's too tragic to speak of," the monks lamented.

Exchanging glances, the two followed and were immediately struck speechless by the sight.

The release pond, spanning two hundred paces, was densely packed with dead fish—so many that they weren't just floating in a layer but piled atop one another. In the sweltering heat, the bloated corpses of fish at the bottom had begun to rot, their swollen bellies pushing the ones above them to the brink of spilling over the pond's edges.

A pungent stench of rotting fish assaulted them, forcing Huang Zixiang and Zhou Ziqin to cover their noses and turn away, nearly retching.

The two monks sighed and shook their heads. "Merit, merit—the whole city sought to accumulate merit, yet who knew their good deeds would become the blade of slaughter?"

Huang Zixiang and Zhou Ziqin took shelter under the eaves, watching as the monks covered their mouths and noses with cloth and began scooping the fish into baskets with shovels, then emptying them into the sacks.

Zhou Ziqin called out from a distance, "Venerable ones, what will you do with all these dead fish?"

"Transport them outside the city and bury them deep in a pit," one monk replied loudly.

"That'll require an enormous pit—what a hassle!"Two monks carried a sack of dead fish out, muttering, "Amitabha, these fish are poisonous. This morning, a cat sneaked into the temple, snatched one of the dead fish to eat, and immediately dropped dead. If we don't bury them deep, they'll remain a hazard."

"Poisonous?" Zhou Ziqin and Huang Zixiang exchanged glances. Ignoring the overwhelming stench, they covered their noses with their sleeves and approached the release pond to examine the fish inside.

The bloated, half-rotted fish floating belly-up revealed nothing obvious. Zhou Ziqin snapped off a branch, speared the gaping mouth of one dead fish, and lifted it out. "I'll take this back for examination," he said.

Huang Zixiang frowned slightly, her gaze lingering on the crowded mass of dead fish in the pond. "Logically speaking, even if the release pond was overcrowded, it's impossible for all the fish to die overnight like this."

"So someone probably poisoned them," Zhou Ziqin said indignantly. "Who could be so cruel as to kill every fish in the release pond?"

Huang Zixiang remained silent, deep in thought. Zhou Ziqin concluded, "It must be some twisted, malicious villain who can't stand seeing others do good!"

The overpowering stench finally became too much for Huang Zixiang. She turned and hurried toward the main hall ahead. "Keep that fish safe. Let's go check the scene of yesterday's incident first."