The Golden Hairpin -Chapter 16: Caged Birds (1)

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Two horses, riding one and leading the other passed through Anxingfang and Shengyefang, the streets and alleys were already deserted.

She galloped fast to the Zhou’s mansion in Chongrenfang, got off her horse and hurriedly knocked on the door. The doorkeeper opened the door and looked at her, seeing her in eunuch clothes, he asked with a smile, “Who is young sir eunuch looking for?”

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“Your young master Zhou Ziqin.” She replied and showed him the little goldfish token in her hand. When he saw it, he immediately responded, “Oh, wait a minute.” 

She stood in front of the Zhou mansion, watching the bright moon rising from the east as she pursed her lips tightly. The sound of the drum vaguely coming from a distance, indicates the closing time of the  Chang’an City gate. 

Not long after that, there were fast walking steps that could be heard coming from the inner mansion, and soon a young man appeared at the entrance. He was about 20-years-old, with clear eyes, handsome and elegant. He was wearing a richly embroidered brocade dress. The color of the clothes was gorgeous sky blue and smoky purple. A white jade belt with engraved chi patterns on it, with dangling incense pouches, small purses and white jade pendants jingling below his waist. At a glance, he seems like just any other ordinary guy on the street, the difference is that he has better looks and is more attractive than others.

As soon as the boy saw her, he promptly asked, “Young sir eunuch, is Prince Kui asking for me?”

“Zhou Ziqin?”, she asked in return. 

“That’s right, it’s me.” He turned his head left and right as if he was searching for someone as he talked to her, he impatiently asked, “Does the prince finally think that I can be put up to a good use? I heard that he spoke of me before the emperor and wished for me to go to Sichuan with my father.” At last, I’m going to be a yamen runner! Hahaha, a new stage of my life is about to begin…”

“Keep your voice down,” she anxiously stopped him as she couldn’t stand this man’s clamoring, and she continued in a low voice, “Now the prince assigns you a job, which is very suitable for you.”

“Really? Better than a yamen runner?”

“Uh huh, dig up the dead body.”

“Indeed he is the Prince Kui who knows me well,” without questioning further, he instantly raised his hand, snapped his fingers, and he said, “Give me a minute! I’ll come right after I get the tools!”

By the law of the Chang’an City, at the end of the day when the “The drum of closing door” hits the 600th time, the city gate is closed. On the next day begins at 5th geng (4.56am) in the morning, when the “The drum of opening door” hits the 400th time, the city gate is opened.

The sky was getting darker and darker, and the sound of the drums could be heard from far away just like a ticking clock before the closing gate. Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin’s horses were at full gallop on the street, heading straight to the Jinguangmen. Please read the original from cloudmanor and stop supporting theft. 

Almost at the moment when the last drum fell and the city gate officer yelled “Shut the door——”, their horses just in time made it through passing the city gate and ran along the trails to the wild western city.

The mountains and forests in the west of Chang’an City are covered in lush and flourishing greens, and Zhou Ziqin took her to the city morgue as he was familiar with the road. Inside the mortuary, only a single lamp was lit, and the old mortuary caretaker had fallen asleep.

Zhou Ziqin had already taken off his brocade clothes, and was only wearing a brown coloured inner robe on him. He took out a flat metal plate from his sleeve, flipped the latch lightly and deftly, then quickly pushed the door and stretched out his hand, caught the latch the moment before it hit the ground, and put it on the window sill next to it without making a sound.

Huang Zixia started to have a good impression on him. With this skill, he is nowhere likely to be a playboy; he is clearly cultivated for a thousand years old fox!

Zhou Ziqin beckoning her over with his fingers, then tiptoed in, opened the wooden cabinet, took out the booklet inside, and turned to the most recent page——

There were 14 refugees from Youzhou, 12 males and 2 females. They were all buried beside the pine forest on the side of Qishan Hill.

He slid his finger across the line of words, then silently pointed to a small hill outside, opened his lips and made a “go” mouth shape.

The two walked out the door slowly and carefully, he moved the latch back inch by inch with a flat metal plate, inserted it on again with difficulty, and waved her to go. 

Huang Zixia finally understood why Li Shubai asked her to find Zhou Ziqin, this guy is simply a habitual offender; he got extremely supple fingers and feet.

After they left and traveled quite a far distance, Huang Zixia finally asked: “You…have often done this kind of thing before? You seem to be very familiar with doing it.”

He was complacent: “That’s right, I love what I’m doing right now. Let me tell you, I secretly practiced my coroner skills from these unidentified corpses.”

“Unlocking the doors is probably the best in Chang’an, right?”

“It’s just so-so, I’ve practiced it for about half a year now.”

“Actually, I’ve wanted to ask, the window beside the main door, the bolt seems to be easily opened with a flick. Why do you have to go in through the door?”

“Window…window?” Zhou Ziqin stunned for a moment, Huang Zixia already strode quite far before hearing him wailing out loudly behind her, “I wasted more than half a year to develop the skills! Who can pay back the blood and sweat that I had practiced day and night!”

When they reached the foothills, the horses that they tied them to the trees nearby were pacing anxiously.

Zhou Ziqin led the horses into the pine forest, a small hill in the north, which was the new soil that had been dug out and filled back into its original position.  He knew it should be here, so he took down the tool box that was hung on the horse’s back earlier, opened it, took out the hoe and shovel, and threw one over to her.

Looking disbelieving at the shovel in her hand; she was astonished, “You even have this thing? You are an expert indeed.”

“Shh, don’t mention it, Prince Kui got it from the Weapons Department for me. After my father found out, I was almost beaten to death!” He scrunched his face, and then took out a lobe of garlic, a piece of ginger and a bottle of vinegar from the box.

When Huang Zixia thought he was going to take out a steam bun next, he had already taken out two strips of cloth, smashed the ginger and garlic, mixed it with vinegar, rubbed it on the cloth, and then handed her one, “Wear it, dead bodies smell awful.”

Huang Zixia remembered something and hurriedly reminded him, “It was said that these people who died of the epidemic disease.”

“Then you should put it on and secure it more tightly,” He gave a smug look and continued, “Although it doesn’t smell good, this is a secret recipe passed down from great ancestors.”

Huang Zixia almost fainted by the overwhelming smell, “Isn’t your father an official? Could you explain by passing down from your ancestors?”

“Of course it’s not my family’s ancestral recipe. I have been begging for it for a long time and many months of persuasion to get this Zhu family’s ancestral secret recipe from the city’s famous coroner, Uncle Zhu.”

She was silent, picked up the shovel and dug the soil on the ground with him. The corpses that were just buried today; the soil is not too difficult to dig up.  Without wasting much time, Zhou Ziqin already wields a hoe and starts digging; the speed is relatively fast.

Under the moonlight, Zhou Ziqin was digging and digging, seemingly a little bored, and asked her casually, “Are you the… new love of Prince Kui?”

“…” Her lips twitched, if it wasn’t for the piece of cloth covering her face, her expression would have made him understand her thoughts. 

It’s a pity that Zhou Ziqin didn’t see it and he continued to mumble to himself, “What’s the name again… Yang Chonggu, right?”

She let out a dejected “hmm”, and after pondering for a second, she asked, “That new love you said, what does it mean?”

“Uh? I don’t know either. I just heard the rumors in the capital that Prince Kui has a pretty little eunuch serving him. Prince Zhao wanted to take the little eunuch in but Prince Kui wouldn’t let. When I saw your appearance, I guess it was you.”

After listening to his blabbering of silly words, she didn’t feel like talking to him anymore; she rather buried her head deep into the ground out of grief and indignation.

He kept on talking, “I heard that you could solve crime cases, the one ‘four direction’ case.”

“Coincidentally.”

“But you can make a breakthrough in such a dignified ‘four direction’ case, I would say you can almost keep up with the person I admire the most!”

“It was just an average.”

That night in the empty wilderness of the mountain, under the faint moonlight and the howling sound of the wind blew between the pine trees, the two were talking and digging in the mountains for a substantial amount of time. When something different in color from the soil appeared under the moonlight, Zhou Ziqin hurriedly said, “Wait, wait, let me see.”

He jumped and landed on the shallow pit below, put on a pair of thin gloves, picked up the bone and looked at it, he said, “Yes, it is a burned body. But this is obviously a man’s bone; you can tell by the thickness of the bone. If you are looking for a woman, we have to continue searching.”

Huang Zixia squatted by the pit and said, “Yes, what I’m looking for is a woman, about forty years old, five feet three inches tall, of medium build, good at playing the piano.”

“Okay.” He rummaged through the soil with a small shovel. It took a lot of effort to find the bones of fourteen people, but the women’s bodies were usually  separated. He dug on all sides, carefully identified them, and brought out a large pile of charred belongings. 

When she saw the pile of half-burned bones and flesh, she knew that Li Shubai was right. Sure enough, the Finance Ministry’s officers had dug a pit and buried bodies after hastily burning them. They did not implement the standard procedures of “burned and buried the corpses” as supposed to be.

She put on the gloves and fiddled with the female corpse’s hands first. After all it was at night, things looked blurry but it didn’t bother her much. It was just the smell was a bit unbearable, even with the vinegar, ginger and garlic, it didn’t ease the foul smell from getting into her nostrils.

She held her breath and told herself, Huang Zixia, you are someone who has seen the corpses of your own family members, these are nothing to you.

The feeling of nausea gradually receded, and she tried to calm herself down, reaching out to look at the corpse in front of her. She heard Zhou Ziqin say, “Judging from the bones of the two female corpses below, this woman is about five feet or more in length, but the other woman’s bones are fragile, her body is slightly hunchbacked, and she is about fifty-years-old. The latter one should be the person you are looking for.”

She carefully identified the scorched black skull of the female corpse, and asked, “Is there any way to find out whether there is a mole on the left eyebrow?”

“No, the moles and scars are all on the epidermis, and the skin has already been burnt. How can it still exist?”

“Then is there any other way to identify them?”

“Wait a minute, I’ll look for it.” He took out a leather duffel bag from the box, and when he opened it, the moonlight shone on the things inside and it gleamed brightly. Inside are all kinds of knives, hammers and awls made of refined iron.

“If you want to do something, you must first sharpen your tools. I’m well prepared, aren’t I?” He continued to show off his skills, turning the bones over and over for a long time, and then he cut open the remaining flesh of the dead body, “First, the throat mustn’t touch… the fingers are completely burnt; cannot be identified, the eyes are dry; cannot be identified, the ears are gone; cannot be identified…”

Huang Zixia squatted beside the pit, looking up at the moon while listening to him. 

After Zhou Zhiqin went through all the fuss, in the end, he concluded, “There is completely no way to see any trace of evidence.”

She rested her chin on her knees and asked, “Didn’t the people in the ministry examine the body before it was burned? Is there any record in the mortuary?”

“These are the victims of the plague, nobody wants to check on them. They just simply want to deal with it as soon as possible.” After Zhou Ziqin explained, he pointed to the box beside her and said, “The fourth line, second tray, take that small bag and give it to me.”

Huang Zixia took the small cloth bag and threw it to him. He took out a flat, thin circular silver in the size of a little finger and a small bottle from the bag, then took a small cloth dipped into the liquid in the bottle and wiped it on the silver disc vigorously until it was shiny. He squeezed the dead man’s chin to open the mouth, put the silver disc in, closed up the mouth and then sealed it with a piece of paper, and said, “Wait a while.”

Huang Zixia has been following the yamen guards around in Shu County for a long time, naturally she knew that this was for drug testing, and that silver disc was washed with saponin water. After half an hour, if the silver disc retrieved out from the mouth turned black, it means the deceased had died of poisoning.

“The other female body and also that refugee male victim, could you run a test on both of them too?” Huang Zixia asked.

“Sure.” He said, and carried out the test on each of them.

She couldn’t help but remind him aloud, saying: “Remember to run a stomach test later, last time there was a woman in Shu County who was feed with poison after her death, but the toxicity test was done only in her mouth by the coroner and they almost made a wrong finding in the end.”

“Huh, is there such a thing?” Zhou Ziqin’s eyes lit up immediately, and he climbed up and walked with her to the pine tree a little further away, took off his mask, and asked, “Why don’t you tell me about that case in detail?”

“It’s nothing, it’s quite simple.” Huang Zixia thought about it for a while, and said, “A young girl in Longzhou, Shu County died suddenly at home. The coroner is using this method to test it, he concluded that she committed suicide by drinking poison. But because I… but because the yamen head guard found that the woman’s wrist had bruises with a kind of pattern, however not the grape decorative pattern on her bracelet, and it’s kinda like pomegranate pattern. It was concluded that other women must have pressed her hands before she died. So they searched carefully in her mouth and nose, and found the trace of dried blood. After interrogating her family, it turned out that she caught the sister-in-law having an affair with the neighbor. When the sister-in-law restrained her hand, the man covered her mouth to keep the secret, but she died because she was suffocated. In desperation, the two drugged her with poison in an attempt to create the illusion that she committed suicide. Therefore, the poison could be detected in the throat, but not in the abdomen, thus breaking the case.”

Zhou Ziqin asked excitedly, “Really? Please tell me, who on earth could have such a meticulous and refined mind like thin hair? Who could break a case merely on a bracelet pattern?”

“…It’s Guo Ming, the yamen head guard of Shu County.”

“Impossible! I’ve seen Guo Ming before. He has a big beard; he was loud and rough. How could he notice the pattern of bruises on the woman’s hand!”

Huang Zixia was helpless, rolled his eyes at the moon that had risen above her head, and said, “I don’t know about that.”

“I have a guess. Could it be Huang Zixia, the daughter of the governor Huang Shijun?” Zhou Ziqin said suddenly, “I heard that she is very good at determining the case based on clues.”

“I don’t know.” Huang Zixia lowered her chin on her knees, looked up at the moon for a long time, and then said, “I seem to have heard of this person.”

Zhou Ziqin didn’t feel her indifference at all, and gleefully said, “I know, you must have never been to Chang’an before! and not even been to Shu County, did you? She is very famous in Chang’an and Shu County! And there is more, do you know why I aspire to be a coroner and a yamen guard? It’s because of Huang Zixia!”

“Oh.” She remained indifferent.

“Wait a second.” He said, then turned his head and took out a bag of things from the box, and handed it to her, “Come on, give you half!”

She smelled something fragrant and looked down; she couldn’t help but feel disgusted, “We are here tonight to dig up corpses. What’s more, it’s charred corpses that we are digging and you brought roast chicken!?”

“Iya, I haven’t eaten dinner yet! When I went to the kitchen earlier to get vinegar, ginger and garlic, I saw that this was the only food in the kitchen that was easy to carry, so I wrapped it in lotus leaf and brought it here. My nanny cooks very well!”

The corner of Huang Zixia’s mouth twitched slightly, she really didn’t want to say anything to this person.

“Where did I stop just now? Oh… Huang Shijun’s daughter Huang Zixia, she is my sweetheart! The person I like! The person in my dream!”

She snapped coldly, “You won’t even notice her if she is standing right now in front of you.”

“How is that possible? Every time I pass by the wanted notices at the gate of the city, I would stop and take a good look at her. She is so beautiful! Even in a portrait of a criminal wanted list, she’s still gorgeous. She must be a real beauty in person, isn’t she?”