The Golden Hairpin

Li Shubai resided in a place called Jingyu Hall.

Huang Zixiao flipped through the almanac while Li Shubai sat beside her, watching coldly. She quickly scanned the pages, from the seventeenth day of the first month to the twenty-first of the second month, then to the nineteenth of the third month, and finally to the current date. After a brief glance at each, she set it aside and said, "If there are patrols tonight, they should focus on the southeastern part of the city, especially households with pregnant women. They are likely the next targets."

"Are you certain the murderer's fourth victim will be a pregnant woman?" Li Shubai raised an eyebrow.

"Very likely," Huang Zixiao replied.

Li Shubai turned and called out, "Jingyou."

A eunuch with cheerful, smiling eyes entered promptly. "Your Highness."

"Go to the Dali Temple and summon Cui Chunzhan."

"Yes, Your Highness." Jingyou bowed, not sparing a glance at the disheveled Huang Zixiao standing in the hall, and turned to leave. Li Shubai then pointed at Huang Zixiao and added, "Take her with you first. Arrange a suitable residence for her. Remember, she's a young eunuch."

"Understood. Rest assured, Your Highness."

And so, Huang Zixiao, a fugitive wanted across the land, became a young eunuch in the Prince of Kui's household.

On the way, Jingyou showed her around the main paths of the residence and explained a few rules she needed to follow. He then took her to the northern quarters where the eunuchs lived and assigned her a private room. He had someone deliver daily necessities and three sets of eunuch robes, saying, "Young one, since you're new here, you won't be assigned duties yet. Just remember to pay your respects to His Highness daily."

Huang Zixiao thanked him again and inquired about daily routines from the eunuch next door. She then fetched some food from the kitchen and two buckets of water to wash herself and her hair thoroughly. Exhausted from the day's turmoil and fatigue, she fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

By the time she woke, the sun was already high. When she went to fetch water from the well, a eunuch sweeping the courtyard told her, "Eunuch Jingyou asked us to inform you to go to Yubing Pavilion once you're awake."

She hastily drank a bowl of porridge, asked for directions, changed into eunuch robes, and hurried to Yubing Pavilion. The pavilion served as the prince's study, surrounded by sparse trees and flowers, with translucent gauze covering the windows and doors.

Peering through the carved lattice window as she entered, Huang Zixiao immediately spotted Li Shubai inside, studying a map of the capital.

Hearing her footsteps, he looked up calmly and said, "Come here."

She approached, and he pointed at the map. "The murderer didn't strike last night. But according to your reasoning, should the culprit appear in the northwest tonight?"

Huang Zixiao looked up at him in surprise. "Your Highness already knows how I deduced this?"

"You can read the almanac, and so can I." His tone was indifferent as his pale, slender fingers traced over the twelve wards in the northwest of the capital. "This morning, I had people investigate. Among these wards, there are already many visibly pregnant women. In Xiude Ward, two women are seven months along; in Puning Ward, one is full-term and about to give birth; in Jude Ward, four women are between six to eight months pregnant."

"Puning Ward," she said firmly, pointing at the ward on the map.Li Shubai tilted the map slightly to examine the detailed layout of Puning Ward and said, "The pregnant woman's home is right next to the former residence of Xu Maogong."

Huang Zixiang studied Puning Ward and suddenly recalled something. She hesitated for a moment but ultimately suppressed the thought, deciding to wait until the case was solved. However, Li Shubai seemed to have read her mind. He glanced at her and said, "Zhang Xingying's home is also in Puning Ward."

"Mmm." Since he brought it up, she continued the conversation, "If this case is solved, will Your Highness consider allowing Zhang Xingying to rejoin the honor guard?"

"Impossible," he replied without hesitation.

Huang Zixiang defended, "Though it was improper for Zhang Xingying to let me impersonate him and sneak into Your Highness's honor guard to enter the city, he is truly a rare good man. Repaying kindness is a noble virtue. Could Your Highness pardon him and let him assist me in investigating this case?"

"That is out of the question," he flatly refused. "Though his actions are understandable, I cannot have someone so emotionally driven by my side."

Huang Zixiang bit her lower lip and pleaded softly, "Your Highness, please show mercy..."

He cut her off, "If those who make mistakes can return unscathed after a few days, what purpose do disciplinary rules serve? How would I command my subordinates in the future?"

Huang Zixiang lowered her head in silence, abandoning the idea. She asked, "Then what should I do next?"

"Go rest. Tonight, we’ll go to Puning Ward."

Puning Ward, northwest of the capital.

By regulation, after the second watch, all wards in Chang’an closed, and no one was permitted to walk the main streets. Thus, Li Shubai disguised himself as a scholar out for leisure, while Huang Zixiang posed as his page boy. Dressed plainly, they arrived in the evening and lodged at an inn in Puning Ward.

One was a refined nobleman amidst the mundane world, the other a delicate and ethereal youth—so striking that even men turned to look as they passed. At the inn, the proprietress found excuses to deliver water four times, while the proprietor, suspicious of his wife, came by five times.

"Forget it. I’ll contact the Ministry of Justice and go out tonight," Huang Zixiang said, tying up her hair. "As for you, I suspect the innkeepers will have you trapped in this room."

Li Shubai said coldly, "If I’m not left in peace, do you think you’ll be able to leave?"

Just as Huang Zixiang was about to reply, she saw the proprietress swaying gracefully toward their window with a teapot.

She turned to look at Li Shubai, who met her gaze with that faintly mocking expression. "You have fifteen minutes. Get rid of her."

Fifteen minutes—without drastic measures, the proprietress wouldn’t give up so quickly. And for a woman lost in infatuation, the most drastic measure was, of course—

Huang Zixiang stepped in front of Li Shubai, took his hand, and pressed it lightly against her waist. Then, in a voice just loud enough to be heard outside the window, she cooed, "Oh, Young Master, we’re in public—we must be discreet! No, don’t touch me there... Oh, not there either! How shameless! We’re both men—what will people say if they see us...?"

The proprietress’s graceful figure froze instantly.Li Shubai's hand, which had been lightly pulled to rest at her waist, stiffened instantly. But it was only for a brief moment before he calmly withdrew it and turned his face away to sip tea. "Fine, I'll let you off for now. The shopkeeper’s wife here is quite annoying—always hovering around. Could she have figured out I only like men?"

Outside the window, the sound of the shopkeeper’s wife hurriedly retreating with her teapot echoed, and Huang Zixiang could almost hear the shattering of her heart scattering along the way.

She couldn’t help but say with some pity, "Was it necessary to add 'quite annoying'?"

"To help you finish your task faster," he replied impassively, setting down his teacup.

Huang Zixiang latched the door, then opened the window to check the back before swiftly climbing out and gesturing to him. "Let’s go."

The second alley beside the former residence of Xu Maogong, the sixth house—the Wei family with pomegranate flowers in their courtyard.

In the capital, where land was worth its weight in gold, the Wei residence wasn’t large. The so-called courtyard was merely a small patch of ground about ten feet square, with two modest houses at the back and walls only reaching Huang Zixiang’s chest. They quietly crouched by the opposite bridge arch, concealed behind a cluster of peonies.

The second watch had passed, and the streets were silent, all lights extinguished without a sound.

Tonight, dark clouds obscured the moon, its faint glow casting a dim light. After squatting for a while, Li Shubai simply sat beneath the peonies, admiring the moon’s reflection in the water.

Huang Zixiang whispered, "Why did you come? Where are the officials from the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice?"

"Didn’t notify them," he said leisurely, plucking a budding peony and examining it thoughtfully. "The earth is warm this year—peonies are already budding before the peonies have even bloomed."

Huang Zixiang suddenly understood: the only ally she had in catching that cruel, unpredictable murderer was this man before her, who seemed utterly indifferent. She couldn’t help but ask weakly, "Why didn’t you inform the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice?"

"Chief Cui Chunjian of the Dali Temple insisted that we must guard the eastern part of the city, convinced the key to the case lies in the four directions. Since he’s so adamant, I thought it best to respect his opinion—so he’s currently setting up an inescapable net in the east."

"What about the Ministry of Justice?"

"The one handling the case there is Minister Wang Lin—your fiancé Wang Yun’s father, your former father-in-law-to-be. Do you really want to run into him?"

The rippling moonlight reflected on the water beneath the bridge, casting fleeting shadows across her face. For an instant, Li Shubai saw a flicker of emotion in her expression—like the shimmering surface of the water—but it vanished as quickly as it appeared, as if it were just an illusion cast by the moonlight. She spoke calmly, all traces of feeling disappearing into the air. "Never mind. Let them focus on the east then."

As they spoke, the middle of the night arrived, and the Wei residence suddenly stirred. A light flickered in the eastern room, and soon someone began boiling water in the kitchen—the entire household was bustling urgently. A man draped in a robe stepped out of the house, and someone called after him, "Midwife Liu lives in the fourth house of Chouhua Alley—don’t get it wrong!"

"Don’t worry, Mother!" The man’s voice was hurried but brimming with joy.

Huang Zixiang kept her eyes fixed on the upper floor, while Li Shubai released the peony bud and remarked, "Seems like it’s time.""Hmm," she responded, her gaze fixed on the courtyard wall. In the darkness, a shadowy figure slowly approached, standing by the pomegranate tree and softly calling twice over the wall: "Coo, coo—"

In the dead of night, this sharp and ominous sound mingled with the moans of a woman in labor, sending chills down the spines of those who heard it.

"An owl," Li Shubai mused thoughtfully. "Truly inauspicious."

Owls were known as "chīxiāo" in ancient times, and folklore claimed that when an owl hooted outside a window at night, it was counting the eyebrows of those inside. Once it finished counting, it would take a life. Childbirth was also colloquially referred to as "somersaulting on the back of a coffin," so upon hearing the bird's call, everyone in the house immediately jumped up. An elderly woman rushed out from the kitchen, shouting, "I'll go cover my daughter-in-law's eyebrows first! Husband, you hurry and boil water!"

The father-in-law quickly headed to the kitchen, while the old woman covered her daughter-in-law's eyebrows. Just then, the owl outside the window cooed twice more. She hastily grabbed a nearby clothes-drying pole and ran into the courtyard, swinging wildly at the pomegranate tree to drive the owl away.

But the moment she stepped outside, the shadowy figure had already slipped around to the back of the house.

Huang Zixiao sprang to her feet, but Li Shubai was faster. Grabbing her hand, he leaped over the peony bushes with her in tow. Huang Zixiao felt the wind whistle past her ears as they landed a few strides later at the back of the house, just in time to see the dark figure dart through the rear door.

Li Shubai kicked the door open and shoved Huang Zixiao inside, but he himself didn't enter.

Huang Zixiao saw the assailant raising a dagger high, poised to plunge it into the pregnant woman's belly. Stunned and propelled forward by Li Shubai's push, she stumbled and crashed heavily into the attacker, her shoulder slamming into his side and knocking him aside.

Realizing he'd been discovered, the assailant brandished the dagger and tried to flee. Huang Zixiao, still sprawled on the ground, couldn't stop him directly, so she grabbed a nearby flower stand and swept it toward his legs.

The flowerpot atop the stand crashed to the ground with a loud bang, and the assailant tripped, face-planting onto the floor. Before he could get up, Huang Zixiao scrambled to her feet and delivered a sharp kick to his wrist. The pain forced him to drop the dagger, which Huang Zixiao snatched up, pressing it against his lower back. "Don't move!" she commanded.

Meanwhile, Li Shubai remained standing at the doorway, watching her with leisurely amusement. Only after she subdued the attacker did he remark, "Not bad. Quick reflexes, though a bit unpolished."

Huang Zixiao was speechless. "Couldn't you have helped me?" she retorted. Here she was in a life-or-death struggle, and he had the audacity to stand idly by, his hair undisturbed by the moonlight, his entire being bathed in its ethereal glow, looking almost transcendent.

"There's a woman giving birth inside. How could I, a man, enter?" His reply shut her up instantly as he casually tilted his head to gaze at the moon. "How's the pregnant woman doing now?"Before Huang Zixiang could speak, the baby's cries had already filled the entire room. The elderly mother-in-law, hearing the commotion from the courtyard, finally came trembling over. She saw a scene that left her utterly dumbfounded—the room, which had only held her daughter-in-law moments ago, now contained a young page, a black-clad man held at dagger-point by said page, her weak daughter-in-law, a squalling infant wriggling on the bed, a man standing outside the back door gazing at the moon, plus a shattered flowerpot and a thoroughly demolished flower stand. "Oh heavens!" she gasped in terror. "What... what is happening?"

Neighbors nearby, hearing the baby's cries, had already begun opening windows to inquire, while the father-in-law arrived at the doorway carrying hot water. Amid the clamor, Huang Zixiang could only force an awkward smile and say, "Apologies—we're here to catch a robber."

The elderly couple looked at the dagger in her hand, exchanged glances, then turned and shouted toward the outside: "Help! Murder! Robbers are here to kill us—"