The Golden Hairpin

In front of the Great Buddha Hall. On the square where the sutra lecture had taken place the day before, the platform had already been dismantled. The vast, empty space before the hall was now left with only a giant candle standing tall beside the towering incense burner.

On the other side of the incense burner lay the last remaining foot-long wick. A man in his fifties was squatting there, scraping candle wax off the ground with a shovel.

As he scraped with great effort, tears streamed down his aged face. The mixture of sweat and tears slid down his gaunt, wrinkled cheeks, dripping onto the sun-baked brick pavement under the scorching afternoon sun, only to evaporate instantly in the heat.

Huang Ziyao approached and squatted beside him, asking, "Uncle, what troubles you? Why are you crying alone here?"

The old man glanced up at her before lowering his head again to scrape the wax, his voice hoarse: "Who are you?"

"I'm here under the orders of the Dali Temple to investigate yesterday's chaos," Huang Ziyao replied.

Only then did the old man mutter in response, "This was my candle!"

Huang Ziyao immediately understood—this was the skilled craftsman who had made the candles, Lü Zhiyuan.

"These two candles were the proudest work of my life! Tell me, who else in Chang'an could create such perfect candles besides me?" Lü Zhiyuan wiped his tears and pointed to the remaining giant candle beside them. "I was born in Chang'an. At six, I began learning candle-making from my father. The Lü Family Candle Shop was passed down through four generations, but it ends with me! I'm fifty-seven now, and my health is failing. I can no longer do what I used to. I thought these two candles would be the last glory of the Lü family. But who knew even the heavens would deny me, destroying the finest work of my life!"

Huang Ziyao comforted him, "A bolt from the blue is beyond human control. There was nothing you could do."

"Hmph..." He scoffed dismissively, struggling to his feet to scrape another patch of wax from the ground.

Zhou Ziqin helped him carry the basket nearby and asked, "Is this wax still useful?"

As he scraped the wax into the basket, he said, "I've made a vow before the Buddha to recast one of the candles. Beeswax is expensive these days, so every bit I can salvage helps. The rest, I'll make up for myself."

"What a shame—such a huge candle, completely exploded and burned, leaving almost nothing behind," Zhou Ziqin sighed. "Did you see what happened yesterday?"

"I wasn't here," he replied, still focused on scraping the wax without looking up. "I worked seven days and nights nonstop to finish these candles. As soon as they were delivered here, I collapsed and was carried back home."

"Yes, I heard about that yesterday," Huang Ziyao nodded.

"It's fate! The heavens wanted to punish the wicked, and those wicked people just happened to crowd around the candle. So when the lightning struck, all my hard work went up in flames!" Old Man Lü spat in disgust.

Zhou Ziqin mused, "I've heard that too. Everyone says it was divine retribution."

"Those castrated freaks who forsake their dignity as men—what wouldn’t they do for wealth and power? The most disgusting creatures in this world are those half-men, half-women eunuchs!" Old Man Lü sneered.

Huang Ziyao glanced down at her own eunuch’s attire, unsure whether the old man genuinely didn’t recognize the uniform or was deliberately cursing the bald while pointing at the monk. She could only offer a bitter smile.Zhou Ziqin argued, "Uncle Lü, that's not entirely fair. There are good eunuchs too."

"Good? Good men would willingly castrate themselves? Decent men who choose to become neither male nor female?" Lü Zhiyuan scoffed. "In this world, men are the heavens! And they'd abandon that to willingly degrade themselves?"

Huang Zixiang found herself at a loss for words with this old man.

Zhou Ziqin asked blankly, "Uncle, you mentioned earlier that your family's incense shop has no heir... You have no sons?"

"My useless wife couldn't bear me a son and died young, leaving behind nothing but a worthless girl. What good is that? Pah!" he spat contemptuously.

Huang Zixiang stood up, brushing off her clothes. "Alright, I'll go check if the fish in the release pond have been dealt with."

Compared to this old man who held women in such contempt, she'd rather be by that stinking release pond.

After hauling away sack after sack of dead fish, the overwhelming stench from the release pond had finally lessened somewhat.

Huang Zixiang and Zhou Ziqin finally breathed a sigh of relief, covering their noses as they approached the drained pond. "Is it almost done?" they asked the two monks.

"Just two more sacks should do it," replied one monk. The pond had been completely emptied, and the two monks were descending the steps with dustpans and shovels to gather the remaining dead fish. "We're the ones assigned to manage this release pond. The day before yesterday, knowing many devotees would come to release fish, we spent the whole day draining and cleaning it—exhausted ourselves completely. Who knew we'd face this disaster today? What a sin, what a sin!"

Zhou Ziqin said sympathetically, "Once this is over, the pond will be easier to manage, and you can rest then."

But Huang Zixiang's attention was caught by a dull glint in one corner of the pond. Holding her breath against the stench, she stepped into the drained pond and crouched beside the glimmering object for a closer look.

It was a thin iron wire, slightly thinner than a chopstick, about two feet long. The upper end was straight, while the lower end curved into a semicircle. One end showed signs of rust, while the other appeared tempered, with a faint bluish sheen.

Huang Zixiang picked it up, weighing it in her hand.

"Just an ordinary iron wire," Zhou Ziqin concluded, crouching beside her.

The monks clearing the fish said, "This wasn't here when we cleaned the pond the day before yesterday."

"Probably dropped by some devotee during yesterday's chaos," the other monk suggested.

Zhou Ziqin nodded, finding this plausible.

But Huang Zixiang stood up with the wire in hand. "How strange. What would someone use a wire like this for? And why bring it to a Buddhist ceremony?"

"Lots of reasons. Maybe to tie up something heavy so the rope wouldn't snap."

"Then where is the thing it was tying?" Huang Zixiang asked.

Zhou Ziqin, ever the imaginative one, immediately offered, "Maybe it was bundling a load of salt. When it fell into the water, the salt dissolved, the wire came loose, and the salt seller had no choice but to fish out the floating poles and accept his bad luck."

"Who would carry a load of salt into a crowded Buddhist ceremony?" Huang Zixiang sighed in exasperation. She climbed the steps and handed the wire to Zhou Ziqin. "Take this to the Dali Temple for me. Tell them it's evidence."Zhou Ziqin looked startled. "You're really going to solve this case?"

"How? Right now, everything seems like a natural coincidence." Huang Zixiang turned and walked out. "At the very least, we should gather some evidence to show we're not just going through the motions."

"That makes sense." Zhou Ziqin gave her a thumbs-up.

After parting ways with Zhou Ziqin, Huang Zixiang led Nafusha back to the Kui Palace, exhausted.

"Has His Highness returned yet?" she asked the gatekeeper.

Learning that Li Shubai hadn't returned yet made the weather feel even more stifling to her. Fortunately, it was midsummer, and the heat made it easy for her to simply draw two buckets of water for a quick bath.

The cold water quickly cooled her down, and the scent of soap beans washed away her weariness.

The eunuch's courtyard in the Kui Palace was quiet and deserted in the early afternoon. After her bath, she sat inside, drying her hair while thinking about Wang Yun's invitation for that evening.

It was almost the hour of You, just an hour or two away. She had originally wanted to discuss it with Li Shubai, but his absence made her inexplicably nervous.

But what must come will come. She could only take it one step at a time.

She silently admonished herself: Huang Zixiang, you used to rely on yourself for everything. How is it that after just a few days, you're already starting to depend on others?

Once her hair was dry, she changed into her eunuch's attire, carefully combed her hair, and inserted a hairpin. Looking in the mirror, she saw a delicate-skinned young eunuch with eyes as bright as lacquer.

Even among the androgynous eunuchs, she still stood out a bit. Huang Zixiang took out some yellow powder, intending to apply more to her face, but after a moment's thought, she set it aside. What was the point of hiding now?

Opening the cabinet, she found the fan Wang Yun had given her lying quietly in the empty drawer.

She took the fan and headed out, just as Lu Yunzhong came running up excitedly. "Chonggu, hurry! There's perch for dinner—isn't that your favorite? Chef Lu saved a big one for you!"

Huang Zixiang shook her head with a smile. "No need, you can have it. I'm going out."

"Where to? With His Highness?" Lu Yunzhong asked in surprise.

She smiled, took a few steps, then turned back seriously. "To the Wang residence—the Langya Wang family. Commandant Wang invited me for a chat tonight."

At the beginning of the hour of You, Huang Zixiang arrived at the Wang residence as promised.

The moon rose in the east, casting shadows of flowers. Wang Yun awaited her in the Moonlit Breeze Pavilion by the water in the Wang family garden.

A gentle breeze stirred as she saw Wang Yun standing alone with his hands behind his back. Moonlight filtered through the leaves, tracing countless branches and leaves in faint ink strokes on his white robe. His expression, hidden in the pale moonlight, was somber yet intent as he watched Huang Zixiang approach slowly along the riverbank.

Suddenly, Huang Zixiang felt a surge of courage. She realized his inner turmoil and hesitation were no less than her own.

The person before her wasn't the terrifying opponent she had imagined.

So she quickened her pace, stopping three steps away from him and curtsying. "Young Master Wang."

Wang Yun gazed at her with dark, unreadable eyes, remaining silent for a long time.

She straightened and respectfully presented the fan to him. "Thank you for lending me this fan earlier. I've come specifically to return it."He finally smiled slightly, reaching out to take the fan and idly toying with it as he asked, "Why have you stopped hiding in front of me today?"

She replied softly, "There's no point in trying to conceal what's already obvious."

A faint smile played at the corners of Wang Yun's lips. As a typical noble scion, even when displeased, his smile carried only a trace of mockery. "If everything had gone smoothly, we should have been husband and wife by now—yet our first proper meeting has turned out like this."

Huang Zitang avoided answering, hearing the buried sarcasm and derision beneath his gentle tone. She kept her head bowed, not daring to look at him, and asked quietly, "When did Young Master Wang realize my true identity?"

He lowered his gaze, studying her intently as he said slowly, "The first time we met, I thought you resembled someone from my memories. But at the time, I didn't dare confirm it because of your identity. Later, after you exposed the Empress and solved Wang Ruo's case, I knew—I was certain you were the one I've been thinking of all this time."