The Golden Hairpin

Chapter 1: A Notoriety (Part 1)

In the dark night, a rainstorm suddenly poured down. The mountains and forests far and near, the long and short rivers and canyons all lost their outline in the sudden rainstorm and gradually disappeared into invisibility.

The road ahead got more and more blurred. Outside the city of Chang’an, the lilacs planted along the mountain roads were also scattered by the torrential rain. Clusters of beautiful flowers were damaged in the torrential rain and degenerated into mud roads. Nobody could see them at night.

Huang Zixia trudged forward through the darkness of the mountain road. The sky blue oil paper umbrella in her hand broke into fragments in the storm. The raindrops cold as a knife pierced through the broken surface of the umbrella and hit her cheek directly.

She just looked up, and without hesitation she tossed her umbrella on the road and walked on in the heavy rain. The cold rain fell on her body. The sky was dim in the dark night. Only the glimmer of raindrops occasionally reflected the dim scenery in front of her. The whole world was blurred.

At the corner of the mountain road stood a small pavilion. The current dynasty, they built big pavilions every ten Li [Chinese miles: Li=500m] and small pavilions every five Li, which was a resting place for passers-by. In such a dark night of wind and rain, there were three or four people either leaning or sitting in the pavilion, and talking to each other. Chang’an City had a curfew. The city gate would only open from three to five o’clock every morning. It was still early then. It must be the people waiting for the gate to open there.

Huang Zixia stepped in the muddy water. She was wearing an extremely common variety of men’s blue short shirts. Several people inside turned their heads and saw that it was a delicate young man. One of the old men said to her, “Young man, you also want to enter the city early? You’re all wet, rather pitiful. Hey, come here and sit by the fire.”

Huang Zixia looked at his warm smile in the light of the fire, held onto the collar of her wet robe tightly, said thanks and sat down by the fire, two feet away from him. She quietly helped him to add firewood.

Seeing that she only poked on the fire and did not speak, several people turned back and chatted with each other. They talked about all kinds of strange things in mainland China, and the people were even babbling exuberantly as if they had witnessed it with their own eyes on the spot.

“Speaking of these strange events, have you heard of the recent strange case in the capital recently?”

“Old Zhang is talking about the one called the ‘Four Directions’ case?” Someone immediately said, “Three people died within three months, and they were the people who lived in the northern, southern and western suburbs of the capital city respectively, and leaving behind the three bloody characters “Jìng [净 =Pure]”, “Lè [乐=happy]” and “Wo [我=I]”. It’s strange and unpredictable, and the terror is extraordinary!”

“Yes, now it seems that the next murder case will be in the eastern suburbs of the city. So people in the east of the city are in a state of panic. It is said that all the people who can walk have already left. The eastern suburbs of the city are nearly empty.”

Huang Zixia with her pair of fair and clear hands held the firewood branch, causing the fire to crackle in a small explosion of sparks as she watched the flame without any flicker of emotion on her calm mien.

“Now the world is in a state of turmoil. Not only in the capital city, but also in Shuzhong recently there has been a murder case. Have you heard of it?” One of them, a middle-aged man, was obviously a traveling storyteller. He habitually held a wooden gavel in his hand, and had a good conversation. “Have you heard much about the murder cases? But this case is the massacre of the civil governor of Shuzhong County, Huang Min’s family!”

 Huang Min. 

This name as it suddenly entered the ears of Huang Zixia who had been quiet all the while trembled unconsciously; the fire in her hands splashed a bit of spark on the back of her hand sending a pang of stark pain.

Fortunately, everyone was surprised. No one paid attention to her at all. Since that topic was brought up, the noise of babbling continued: “Isn’t Huang Min the senior official who used to be a Deputy Minister of the Justice Department in the capital who had solved several strange cases in the past few years?”

“I’ve heard about it! It is said that this is not all Huang Min’s power. He has a son and a daughter, there’s no need to talk about his son, Huang Yan, but that daughter is a rare genius. It is said that when Huang Min was a Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Justice, she solved many mysterious cases for her father. At that time, she was only 14 or 15 years old. The current Emperor once praised her personally, saying that if she was a man, she must have the talent of a prime minister.”

“Haha, a talented person?” The storyteller sneered. “Have you heard the rumors that Huang Min’s daughter was born with blood in the room, and everyone who saw it said that the white tiger star came to this world and wanted to eat the whole family. Now it is true that the murder of the Huang family was committed by the daughter of the Huang family!”

Huang Zixia forgot the sharp pain on the back of her hand. She was staring at the fire in front of her. The tongue of fire stuttered and licked the darkness, but no matter how red the fire was, it could not hide her pale face.

People around looked at each other, and the old man couldn’t believe it: “You said it was the daughter of the Huang family who destroyed the whole family?”

“Yes!”

This word, uttered without hesitation, was resolute.

“It’s ridiculous. How can a daughter kill all her relatives?”

“It’s true. The imperial court has already issued an arrest warrant. Huang’s daughter is now absconding from authority. If she is caught, she will be cut into thousands of pieces, and die without a burial place!”

“If it is true, it will be a total loss of humanity with a non-existing sense of guilty conscience!”

It was the old man who asked, “What is the reason for such a tragedy in the world?”

“What else could it be? Women have shallow vision and of course, it’s for the word ‘emotion’.” That storyteller uttered in an enthusiastic tone. “It is said that she was betrothed since she was a child, but when she grew up, she had someone else she liked. So when grandmother and uncle came to discuss her marriage, she personally served a sheep’s hoof soup. Huang Min, his wife Madame Yang, his son Huang Yan, and even her grandmother and uncle all died of poisoning. She was the only one who escaped and disappeared. They found the arsenic seal in her room, and found out that she bought arsenic in the drugstore a few days ago, which was recorded in black and white. Her parents forced her to marry someone else, so she killed the whole family in anger and invited her lover to elope together!”

All the people in the pavilion were shocked by the tragedy of human relations. Another person asked, “How did this vicious woman escape again?”

“She poisoned her parents and family members, so she asked her lover to elope overnight. However, the other party hated such a heartless woman, so he submitted her love letter to the government and took officials to their meeting place to arrest the vicious woman. As a result, the evil girl somehow noticed that there was something amiss and ran away! Now she is under arrest warrant by the government, and all the provincial yamen* have posted wanted notices. The net is so vast that it can not miss. I’d like to see when this vicious woman will be caught and suffer the penalty of a thousand cut!”

[yamen – headquarters of Chinese government officials]

The people who narrated said it with relish and those who listened were filled with indignation. For a time, there was an atmosphere of common hatred and common ground in the whole pavilion.

Huang Zixia, who embraced her knees as she listened to the public’s repugnance, suddenly felt sleepy and extremely tired. She put her face on her knees, her eyes staring blankly at the dim, flickering fire. Her clothes were half dry and half wet. On such a spring night, the cold air pierced the skin like an invisible needle, half awake and half asleep.

It was still early, and the gate of the city was not open. The topic of people around turned to the recent anecdotes in the capital. For example, the emperor built a new Imperial Li Palace [离宫- Lí Gōng], Imperial Concubine Zhao personally stitched curtains for the Sanqing Palace, and how many young girls in the capital wanted to marry Prince Kui, and so on.

[离宫- Lí Gōng, it means leaving the palace. When a prince is an adult, he may build a new palace, get married and live separately from the monarch.]

“By the way, is Prince Kui coming to the capital in these few days?”

“That’s right. The emperor has had the pleasure of holding imperial banquets in the palace recently. The newly built Imperial Li Palace certainly needs a lot of excitement. How can the gathering in the palace be regarded as a celebration occasion without the presence of Prince Kui?”

“This Prince Kui is really an outstanding person in the royal family, and the late Emperor also dotes on him. No wonder Princess Qi Le desperately wants to marry Prince Kui, and she has become a laughingstock in the capital city several times.”

“Duke of Yi left such a daughter. If he knew about it in the afterlife realm, he would be angry with her and get resurrected from death…”

When it comes to royal affairs, people naturally like to talk about it. Only Huang Zixia didn’t pay attention to it. She just kept her eyes closed and listened to the outside world.

The rain stopped as the morning light gradually illuminated the sky, there was a faint sound of horse’s hooves coming.

Huang Zixia immediately opened her eyes, left the gossiping lot, and quickly walked out of the pavilion.

In the light of the morning, the rays of the rising sun were floating out of the sky. On the winding mountain road came a group of well-ordered guards. It was clear that they were still carrying raindrops, but they all cleaned up with vigilance, clearly they were well-trained.

In the middle of the procession were two impeccable black horses, dragging a carriage slowly. The carriage carried the imperial dragon and phoenix symbol. It is painted in gold lacquer, decorated with blue-green turquoise stone in the shape of calms. Two small golden bells were hanging under the eaves of the carriage. As the carriage moved, it shook gently and made a trilling sound.

The chariots and horses moved on past the pavilion. Huang Zixia followed from afar. At the end of the line, there was a soldier about her age, restless in the center of the March, glancing left and right. When he saw Huang Zixia at the back of the forest, he turned to the man beside him and said, “Brother Lu, I don’t know if I had something bad last night. I’m going to relieve myself.”

“What’s the matter with you? You’re going into town. Can you catch up?” The man next to him lowered his voice and glared at him, “The prince is very strict. If you are found out, you know what the consequences are!”

“Yes. Don’t worry. I’ll catch up in a minute.” He covered his stomach and hurriedly turned the horse’s head and plunged into the dense forest.

Huang Zixia pulled herself out from behind the grass and ran to the soldier who was waiting for her. The other party had already taken off the uniform of the imperial palace guard in a hurry and took off the helmet to her: “Miss Huang, can you…. ride a horse?”

Huang Zixia took over his helmet and said in a low voice, “Second brother Zhang, I am really grateful that you have risked so much to help me!”

“What do you mean? If I didn’t rely on you, my parents would have died. If I didn’t help you this time, my parents would kill me.” He patted his chest boldly, “What’s more, today I’m just an escort of the procession, not on a military affair. Even if I’m caught, it is still fine. Last time, Liu Wu also secretly asked someone to do errands for him, and he got away with just a few dozen flogging. Just have to stick to it and say that you are my cousin sister… no, cousin brother. My cousin brother passed by and saw that I had diarrhea and couldn’t stand up, so he took my place and served as a formality. Today, I’m going to the city as a guard of honor. It’s no big deal.” (Please read original translations from Cloud Manor and stop supporting theft.)

Huang Zixia nodded, quickly took off her coat to him, and then put on his clothes. Although his clothes were a little bigger, she was slender and could still be seen.

Huang Zixia hurriedly thanked Zhang Xingying, flew up and rushed out of the dense forest.