SPOILER ALERT. I finished reading a Chinese historical mystery romance novel called The Golden Hairpin (잠중록) by Qinghan Cece (2015). I guess it's the longest book (about 2,200 pages?) I've read in Korean since I read The Lord of the Rings about 20 years ago (!). It's about a girl falsely charged with murdering her entire family, trying to hide her identity and uncover the truth with the help of a young king (there are many kings and one emperor). He is himself entangled in a mysterious conspiracy, and together they solve cases that are said to have been committed by malicious spirits. Though the romance part wasn't particularly engaging for me, I relished following this detective story and the opportunity to get a glimpse into ancient Chinese culture and religion (Tang dynasty, to be exact). In the book, the power of the emperor is so absolute that he can easily have people buried alive for no obvious reason other than to "continue taking care of his dead daughter in the afterlife." Yet, it is so precarious that he is in a state of constant paranoia, so much so that he ends up killing nearly all his family members by resorting to poison, hypnosis, and paranoia-inducing fish that hatch inside people's esophagus and suck their blood. Buddhist practices portrayed in the book were also fascinating. In contemporary Korea, Buddhism is largely regarded as something really private, quiet, and ascetic. Well, in the book, the rulers are both dependent on and manipulative of the religion, as many people have done throughout history across cultures. The effect was a massive frenzy (the visual representations were rather gory), culminating in another bloodshed, settled only by the protagonist's revelation of the truth behind the crimes. The protagonist's pursuit of the truth is, in my opinion, the strongest attraction of the book because she continues believing that evil deeds cannot forever remain concealed and unpaid, despite facing endless setbacks, death threats, and heartbreaking betrayals. Here are the words she spoke right before unveiling the real picture of the age-old crime: "Even if a lie could deceive most people in this world and could disguise the truth perfectly for one moment, the drifting cloud shall not obscure the sun in the end, and a piece of jade deep down in muddy water shall one day also be cleansed of mud."