Cui Yunchu walked over to the table and picked up the brocade box sitting there. She had seen this box before—on the day she had been punished and locked in the ancestral hall.
A birthday gift? But hadn't she told him that her birthday had already passed?
Cui Yunchu held the brocade box, standing there for a long while before opening it. After all, this was the first gift she had ever received from Cui Qingyuan in her entire life.
The box opened to reveal a dull gray hairpin, its surface dotted with black specks from years of neglect. One could tell at a glance that this hairpin had never been taken out, that it had been sealed away in this box for many, many years.
Cui Yunchu stared blankly at the hairpin.
She didn't cry, didn't move, just looked at it quietly, her hands feeling as though they were holding up a thousand pounds.
She couldn't say she was particularly fond of her mother, but she had been the only one who kept her company in her early years.
At least when she was young, the word "mother" had meant a great deal to her.
So, that year, the hairpin hadn't actually been lost—it had been put away by Cui Qingyuan.
Cui Yunchu took out the hairpin. Covered in black spots, it looked ugly and cheap. She picked up her silk handkerchief and carefully wiped it, but the grime seemed to have seeped into the very surface, refusing to come off no matter how hard she tried.
"Since you took it, why didn't you keep it properly?" she rubbed harder and harder, tears falling uncontrollably. "It was the only thing she left me that I could have sold for money."
She crouched down on the ground, her voice hoarse. "You knew how long I cried over this hairpin, how long I grieved over it."
He hadn't wanted to give it to her, hadn't wanted to leave any trace of her mother in the household, or in his life. And if Cui Yunchu weren't a person, if she didn't carry Cui blood that couldn't be severed, she too would have been thrown out like the garbage her mother had left behind.
Cui Yunchu sat on the floor, clutching the hairpin, her heart slowly growing numb. Those clear, bright eyes stared blankly, dazedly.
Nanny Zhang entered the room and saw her like this, startled, and rushed over to help her up. When she saw the hairpin in her hand, she froze too.
"Miss, wasn't this hairpin lost long ago? How is it in your hands?"
"Don't ask," Cui Yunchu said through her tears.
She slipped down from Nanny Zhang's arms and lay on the ground, clutching the hairpin, rolling back and forth.
"Miss, what's wrong?" Nanny Zhang's face went white with fright.
Cui Yunchu said nothing and made no sound as she cried, just rolled on the floor, occasionally letting out a choked sob, kicking her legs at the empty air.
After a long while, she gradually calmed down. "Nanny Zhang, people say that when the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be crooked too. Is that true? Is that why he doesn't like me?"
When the upper beam is crooked, must the lower beam inevitably be crooked too?
Who was it that said that? If she ever found out, she would beat that foul mouth of theirs to a pulp.
Nanny Zhang knelt on the ground and wrapped her arms around Cui Yunchu. "Miss, please don't be sad. This old servant has a way to restore the hairpin."
Cui Yunchu leaned against her, lifting her head to look at her. "Really?"
Nanny Zhang nodded. "It's very simple. Any craftsman in the gold and silver jewelry shops in the market can do it."
Cui Yunchu pushed herself up with one hand on the ground. "Then let's go now."
She dragged Nanny Zhang along, and the two left the Cui residence together.
In the carriage, Nanny Zhang was very worried. "Miss, didn't the Lord Prime Minister say you weren't to leave the house freely these days?"
Not even an hour had passed, and the young miss had already left the house. If the Lord Prime Minister found out, would he punish her?
Cui Yunchu leaned against the carriage wall, as if she hadn't heard a single thing Nanny Zhang had said, staring only at the hairpin.
Nanny Zhang frowned slightly. "Miss... didn't you always dislike your mother?"
The way the young miss treasured this hairpin didn't seem like someone who didn't care about her mother.
Cui Yunchu said, "I don't like her. She didn't like me, so why should I like her?"
As for the hairpin...
"This hairpin seems to be the only thing left now that proves she ever existed."
If she could be remembered, then maybe she herself wouldn't be ignored and forgotten anymore.
Few people in the Cui residence remembered that there had once been a Concubine Zhou in the household.
"Do you think her life was a failure? Other women are remembered by their husbands, their children, their relatives. Her? She had nothing. All she got was resentment and contempt. What was the point of climbing such a high branch?"
Nanny Zhang didn't know how to respond. Just then, the carriage stopped in front of a jewelry shop, and Nanny Zhang reached out to help Cui Yunchu down, but Cui Yunchu refused.
"Don't follow me. I want to go alone."
She got off the carriage, crossed the bustling street, and headed toward the jewelry shop in the alley.
The shop was small, and its location was a bit out of the way.
Cui Yunchu walked into the alley and was about to step through the shop's door when her wrist was suddenly yanked backward, and the hairpin in her hand was snatched away.
She turned and saw a boy dressed like a beggar clutching her hairpin, sprinting desperately away.
Cui Yunchu felt like the sky was falling. Her voice trembled with tears. "Don't take that one! That hairpin isn't worth anything!"
She lifted her skirts and chased after him, but the boy was clearly an experienced thief—quick on his feet. In a few twists and turns, he was gone.
When Cui Yunchu ran out of the alley, he had already vanished. She stood there stunned for a moment, then crouched down and wailed.
"That broken hairpin really isn't worth anything! If you want money, I'll give you money—just give it back to me!"
Her cries were loud enough to draw the stares of passersby on the street.
Her shoulders shook as the emotions she had suppressed for so long finally burst out, pouring forth without restraint.
"Miss, please don't cry." A kind old woman, leaning on a cane, walked up to Cui Yunchu. "Don't come to this alley to have jewelry made in the future. It's not safe."
The more secluded the place, the better for doing bad deeds. Especially people going to jewelry shops—they always carried gold and silver, making them prime targets for those thieves.
Cui Yunchu raised a pair of eyes red from crying, glaring fiercely. "If I catch him, I'll beat his legs until they're broken!"
The old woman sighed, patted Cui Yunchu on the shoulder, and walked away.
The street was bustling with people coming and going, and the scene seemed to slow down in Cui Yunchu's eyes, then speed up like a lantern show spinning past.
She crouched there, no one paying her any mind, so small and insignificant. Aside from that old woman, no one else stopped or spoke a single word to her.
It was as if her existence mattered to no one.
"Shen Xiabai, your fireworks weren't boring at all. I want to see fireworks again."
Everything that had ever existed only for her also proved her existence and her importance. How could she not love it?
She lowered her head, and a few strands of hair suddenly fell loose, dangling in front of her. Cui Yunchu frowned and reached up to touch the top of her head.
At some point, one of the gold hairpins in her hair had gone missing.
She felt around, confirmed one was gone, and suddenly thought of the old woman who had patted her shoulder.
She was working with the boy!
Cui Yunchu couldn't hold it in anymore and burst into loud tears once again, learning all too well what it meant that human hearts could be so treacherous.
But... there were so many people on the street, why did they have to pick her to rob?
"I'm going to report you to the authorities," Cui Yunchu sobbed. "You heartless, black-hearted bastards! I'll make Lord Shen dig up your ancestors' graves! Don't you know how to raise your children? If you can't raise them right, then don't have them at all!!!"
