The Golden Hairpin

Chapter 5: The Four Directions of Bodhi (part 2)

“Exactly, exactly!” Li Rui replied with a laugh, “His Majesty is brilliant, when the time comes, if Zhou Ziqin was appointed as a constable, let’s see what else Lord Zhou can do!”

The constant babbling between the princes caused Li Run to call something to mind, he said: “However, I was curious how the case of the former Governor of Shuzhong county, Huang Min has been going so far?”

Li Rui was the most informed, and immediately said, “I’m afraid that Huang Zixia escaped in disguise. It’s not easy to catch a person living in a remote country for a whole life.”

“I didn’t expect that such a prudent man as Lord Huang would end up this way. It’s really a pity.”

Huang Zixia stood beside them, listening to them talking about her own and her family’s murder cases. Her expression was almost cold, and her chest was filled with a kind of suffocating pain. She felt like there was a string strangling her heart slowly and painfully.

Li Shubai did not turn to see what Huang Zixia’s reaction looked like standing behind him. He only said faintly: “Maybe Huang Zixia is very bold, and she went the opposite way. One doesn’t know for certain if she has come to the capital.”

“…That is to say, if one throws themself into the snare, they will definitely die.” Li Rui said.

Li Run sighed in a low voice: “I remember Huang Zixia was praised as a goddess child in the capital city in those years. I really didn’t expect that it would become like this now. It’s really pathetic, lamentable and hateful.”

Among the people present, Li Wen, Prince of Kang was still young and did not know the story at that time. He asked curiously, “What’s so strange about Huang Min’s daughter? Why does everyone seem to know her?”

Li Rui said with a smile: “She used to help Huang Min, her father, who was an official in the Ministry of Justice, to solve several cases, which is quite interesting. Until now, this case is still talked about by storytellers.”

Li Wen curiously said: “I have never heard of it, Ninth elder brother, you tell it to me, I want to listen to it. I’ll see if you can regale it better than a street side story-teller.”

In the laughter of the crowd, Li Rui also sat upright, coughed and said, “OK, I’ll start from the beginning. I remember that five or six years ago, one evening, the Ministry of Justice suddenly received news that a woman had hanged herself in Xingde district. When they arrived at the place, she turned out to be a new bride who had just married less than a month ago. It was said that because she had a disagreement with her husband the previous day, she went out alone and sulked for a long time. When she came back in the evening, she found a short-sighted way.

Jin Nu covered her mouth; her eyes widened, and sighed: “Women in this world are so narrow-minded, it’s really exasperating!”

“Yes, at that time, when an autopsy was performed, it was found out that she was indeed hanged to death. So, the Ministry of Justice prepared to close the case. Huang Min, then a servant of the Ministry of Justice, went to examine and close the case. At that time, Huang Zixia, who was 12 years old, was also outside the house where the incident happened, waiting for Huang Min, to go home with her older brother. Chang’an’s people love to be lively and the streets bustle with people. When they saw a homicide case there, people from other places were all coming and going, watching with much enthusiasm. A cloth merchant said that the lady didn’t buy her wedding dress from his shop when she got married. The color of the wedding dress she wore was not correct, which induced the tragedy. A jewelry dealer said that she had ordered a pair of silver hairpins in his shop in the afternoon of the day the event happened, and asked the master if he still wanted it. A fortune teller said that he had figured out that his family should have catastrophe events this year, but he didn’t come to find him early. All in all, there was a lot of noise. Just when Huang Min was about to make a final decision, Huang Zixia suddenly called him through the door, ‘Father!’.” 

When Li Rui said this, he coughed slightly and looked at everyone in front of him like a storyteller in the market: “Everyone, at this point, does anyone know what Miss Huang Zixia said to her father?”

Li Run smiled and said, “You just said the beginning and didn’t give a hint. How do we know what Huang Zixia said to her father?”

Li Rui replied: “You are absolutely correct, it’s really just the beginning, but at that time Huang Zixia had already figured out the cause of death and the real murderer of the new bride, and I have just indicated it.”

Everyone looked at each other, and Li Wen said first: “In my opinion, the fortune teller is very suspicious. Is it to let himself get the name of a living immortal, so he would not hesitate to harm others?”

Li Rui laughed loudly and asked Li Run, “What do you think, Seventh brother?”

Li Run pondered and said, “I don’t know. Is it that the cloth merchant and the bride had a dispute over the wedding dress, so they held a grudge? Or maybe it was the jewelry dealer who had some discord when the woman went to buy jewelry? And incite him to kill?”

Li Rui smiled without making any comment, and turned to Li Shubai: “What do you think?”

“It was done by the husband.” Li Shubai said casually.

Li Rui was shocked and showed the expression ‘brother, please accept my worship’: “Fourth brother, how did you guess it?”

“I’ve seen the files in the Ministry of Justice before, so I have a rough idea of the truth.” He said blandly.

Li Rui breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Exactly. At that time, Huang Min was about to sign-off the dossier, but he heard Huang Zixia yelling ‘Father!’.”

“…He looked up and asked, ‘You are a little girl, what are you doing here at the site of murder? Go back quickly!’ Huang Zixia pointed at the jeweller standing next to him and said, ‘Father, did you hear what he said? So, the lady definitely did not commit suicide, but it was disguised as a suicide. She actually was killed by someone!’.”

Li Wen looked skeptical and said, “Ninth brother, you said she was twelve years old at the time, and she was younger than me! Who would believe the words of a little girl like her?”

“That’s right. At that time, Huang Min also felt that it was unreasonable for a little girl to say such a thing. He reprimanded her lightly and said in a hushed tone, ‘You go outside and play.’, he didn’t intend to pay attention to her words. However, she put her hand on her father’s file and said, “Father, when you talked with your colleagues at home, you talked about the behavioral and mindset of dead people before suicidal, as if they were living in the absence of hope. So, have you seen anyone who would go to the jewelry store to order customised silver hairpins before committing suicide? What’s more, she just chose the style and hadn’t got it!’.”

Li Rui’s words wreaked silence in the hall. Even Jin Nu, who had been holding the pipa all the while, was in a trance for a moment. Her hand unconsciously drew a stroke on the lute and made a slight sound. However, no one paid attention to her. Everyone just realized it suddenly and then appraised her.

Li Shubai raised his hand and gently touched the table top, alerting Huang Zixia behind him. She knelt down slowly, picked up the jug on the table and filled his glass.

He turned his eyes slightly, and saw her side, long eyelashes thick and curled, lowly loomed over her eyes which were as deep as a pool; the sunlight dashed through the window lattice, gliding on her eyelashes.

Li Rui continued: “Huang Min was shocked to see that his daughter was right, so he immediately called for a second examination of the body. After careful examination, he finally found that the trace left by rope showed a slight shift (or displacement). It was a mark that would be superimposed only after one strangulation, and then the body was hanged on the beam to be disguised as a suicide. Naturally, the person who did this was the first to find her body and report to the official that his wife committed suicide. Her husband.”

Li Wen widened his eyes and asked, “Did her husband confess?”

Li Xi nodded and said, “Her husband, seeing that she had been examined for the flaw on her corpse, had already turned pale with fright, so he knelt down to beg for mercy and confessed his crime. It turned out that he suspected that his wife had an affair with someone on the street before marriage. After their quarrel, when she went to the street, he thought that she was an adulterer. So he was overcome with anger that he lost his mind. When his wife turned to close the door after returning home, he grabbed the rope beside him and strangled her. When he realized his mistake, at once he quickly hung her on the beam to disguise his wife’s suicide in an attempt to get through.”

Li Run praised: “He had almost deceived everyone, but he was caught by a 12-year-old girl. Perhaps, it was God’s will to not let him go.”

“Yes, Huang Zixia was twelve years old and solved a murder case by just utter a sentence. Since then, everyone in the capital praised Huang Zixia as a gifted girl. Sometimes when there was a particularly difficult case in the Ministry of Justice, Huang Zixia always managed to help Huang Min figure out what to do. Therefore, Huang Min had once told others that his daughter was better than ten sons in other families. However, he had not expected that, in the end, this daughter would kill the whole family and create a world-shaking murder case.”

Li Shubai saw the pair of eyelashes on Huang Zixia’s countenance sheathed in sunshine quiver slightly. But, it was only a slight tremor. She lowered her eyelids and stood up in silence, as light as the arc of a flower branch quivering in the wind. 

Li Shubai thought in his heart, who would have thought that such a slender and delicate girl could stand amidst a crowd talking about her, and listen to other people’s stories about her past and her sin with no change of expression.

After Li Rui finished talking about the case, people sighed. For a moment, Li Run suddenly remembered something and said, “If Huang Zixia is in the capital, I wonder if she can solve this strange case in the capital.”

“Are you talking about the ‘four directions’ case, now that people in the capital are in danger?” Li Run asked. 

Li Run nodded. Li Wen immediately asked: “What is the four directions case? Why don’t I know about it?”

“It’s a new case in the capital- bloody, weird and cruel. People consider your age to be too young, so they don’t mention it in front of you.” Li Rui answered with a smile, “If you want to listen, you’d better go to listen to the lectures of the scholars in the Imperial Academy.”

“No, no, Ninth brother, what you say is much better than what the scholars of Hanlin say. I must know what the four directions case is!” Li Wen stood up, ran to Li Rui and sat next to him. He looked at him as if the young bird would look at the mother bird asking for food. 

Li Run said with a smile: “Ninth younger brother, you tell it. Although I have heard about it, I only know roughly something about it. I know that you frequent restaurants and tea-houses every day. What are the people’s thoughts on it?”

Li Rui looked at Li Shubai: “Fourth brother, you are familiar with the Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice. Do you have any new clues?”

Li Shubai slowly shook his head: “No, both parties are trying to investigate, but there is no progress.”

“Then I’ll tell you what I’ve heard.” Li Rui motioned to Jin Nu to come over and pour wine for him. Then, with a mysterious look on his face, he asked Li Wen, “Do you know that people in the eastern of Chang’an City are in a state of panic. The eastern suburbs are almost empty, most of them have gone to other places in the central city or moved to relatives’ and friends’ houses. They dare not live in the eastern of Chang’an City anymore!”

“Really? It’s no wonder that the business in the eastern region seems to be unprosperous recently. When I went shopping last time, many businesses had their doors closed and were on hiatus.” Li Wen was more curious, “What’s going on? What happened to the city in eastern region?”

“It started three months ago. In the early morning of the 17th day of the first month, the guards of Taiji Palace in the north of the city got up early and made routine patrols. They found that an old watchman in his sixties was killed under the wall, and the character “Jing*”[净=pure] was written in blood on the wall.” Li Rui’s emotional expression was so vivid that if you hadn’t listened to what he just said, you’d think that he was telling an enrapturing story about talented people and beautiful women, and not about a murder case.

“A month later, on February 21st, a 30-year-old blacksmith was killed outside the medicine hall in Anyi Square, south of the city. The character “Le*” [乐= happy] was written on the wall. On March 19, a four-year-old child was killed in the murder case of the Shantang Hall in Chang’an Fang, southwest of the city, and left behind a character “Wo” [我= I]. The Ministry of Justice confirmed the handwriting and homicide methods, and determined that the three cases should be committed by the same person, so it was tentatively designated as the “four directions” case. Because it is said in the《Great Nirvana Sutra》that the four sides of the bodhi tree “Chang, Le, Wo, Jing”; the East is “Chang*” [常=always], the South is “Le” [乐= happy], the West* is “Wo” [我= I], and the North is “Jing” [净=pure]. At that time, people in the capital were in a state of panic, and there was a rumor that these people were killed by evil spirits. On the first day in January this year. The Buddhist elder monk, Master Zhuang Zhen had misread the scriptures in the Buddhist rituals, which caused the evil spirits to stay in the mortal world and cause trouble. Four people in four directions must be killed in the capital for the spirits to leave.”

“Master Zhuang Zhen, I remember! He seems to be an eminent monk in Jianfu Temple, doesn’t he? When Princess Suining was born, because Chen Zhaorong had a difficult labor, the palace had invited him to perform the blessing rituals.” Li Wen asked curiously, “I only heard that he died a few days ago. Is it related to this matter?”

Li Rui nodded: “Master Zhuang Zhen heard rumors in the capital that all the deaths were caused by him. However, he remembered that he had misread that scriptures in the《Great Nirvana Sutra》that day, and that the character “乐” should be pronounced as “Le”[乐=happy] but read as “Yue”[乐=music] in his chanting, but he had not noticed that it was a big mistake. So he spent a few days in anguish. But after his death, rumors spread all over the capital, saying that the Jianfu Temple was at the center of the capital, and that Master Zhuang Zhen’s death should have been in accordance with the bodhi tree facing all directions. Now there has been a murder case in the north, south and west, and the only direction left is “Chang” in the east of the city. The people in the eastern city listened to the rumors, and for a while they were in a state of panic. Many families fled to their relatives’ homes to seek refuge. The east of the city was almost empty.”

(See the difference between “Le” [乐=happy] and “Yue”[乐=music] with same character but two different pronunciation and meaning.)

Li Run sighed slightly and asked Li Shubai: “Fourth brother, this matter is so big that three people have died. The Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice really have done nothing about it?”

Li Shubai said: “This murderer is ruthless and accurate, and is good at hiding. Chang’an City has a population of nearly one million, so it’s almost impossible to investigate such a person. Although the Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice have mobilized all forces, they still have found nothing. Now in April, according to the murderer’s practice of killing one person each month, it is estimated that he will start his attack soon. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review can only send more people about in the capital city. There is no other way out for the time being.”

Li Run sighed: “Chang, Le, Wo, Jing; but the Buddhist verse is taken as a message of the murder case. This case is really weird and ferocious, and it is hard to guess. I’m afraid even if Huang Zixia was in Chang’an, it’d be hard for her to solve this case.”

Li Rui said with a smile: “But Zhou Ziqin has always said in front of me that Huang Zixia is so brilliant that there is no such thing as a difficult case in her world. For me, she is just a woman. Occasionally she solved several cases with her intelligence. It is just that women tend to be narrow-minded and think in ways that ordinary people can’t comprehend. At this moment, she could’ve been helpless about this case and may not be able to solve it.”

“It’s a pity that Huang Zixia, the daughter of Lord Huang, is now a murderer and a fugitive on the run, everyone wanted to kill her.” Li Shubai sneered.

Standing behind him, Huang Zixia was still silent and motionless.

In the sighs of the group, only Li Run said: “I think there must be something ‘inside’ the murder of the Huang family, at least, it’s not as simple as it looks. “

“But the evidence in this case is conclusive, and there is both human evidence and material evidence. Huang Zixia’s crime is a matter of iron and steel(solid or irrefutable). It is impossible to overturn the case.” Li Rui shook his head and asked, “Seventh elder brother to say so, do you know the inside story of the case?”

“No, it’s just that Wang Yun is my good friend and I can’t believe it.”

Li Wen asked curiously, “Which Wang Yun?”

Li Run said: “Naturally, he is the younger brother of the Empress, Wang Yun, the only son of the Longya Wang family.”

“Yes. Wang Yun is Huang Zixia’s fiance.” Li Rui’s face was mysterious. “It’s said that Huang Zixia didn’t want to marry Wang Yun, and she had fallen in love with someone else; so she poisoned the whole family and wanted to elope with her lover.”

Behind Li Shubai, Huang Zixia stood in silence with her hands hanging down. For some reason, Li Shubai chuckled. (Please read original translations from Cloud manor.)

Li Rui quickly looked at him and asked, “Fourth brother, in your opinion?”

Li Shubai said with a smile: “It’s nothing. I was just thinking that Seventh younger brother and Wang Yun have a deep association. Then, have you ever seen Huang Zixia?”

“You can also be regarded as having met her once.” Li Run nodded, “Three years ago, Huang Zixia was summoned and praised by the Empress for helping her father solve many strange cases. That day, Wang Yun came to me and said that Huang Zixia was his fiancee. I saw what he meant, so I went with him into the palace. He said that he wanted to see his fiancee secretly.”

Li Wen quickly asked, “So, you must have seen her? What does that Huang Zixia look like?”

“I’d count as having seen her, but we were late when we entered the palace, and she was already leaving. We could only see her on the veranda far away. She was behind the maids in the palace. She was dressed in silver red tulle, with black hair and fair skin. Her steps and figure were light and slender, with a glow of radiance like a budding flower. At the last corner of the corridor she turned and we got a look at her profile.”

“Is she a beauty?” Li Rui asked.

Li Run nodded: “The portraits in the arrest notification indeed depicted her visage, but it failed to draw her aura, she is definitely a beauty.”

“Wang Yun lost out heavily this time.” Li Wen said with a smile.