A month went by just like that. During the past month, Zhao Ming focused on her training. Even though it was extremely hard at first and her body and mind almost gave up, however, Ji Cheng's support and Aunt Shen Jia's nagging helped her to go through that indecisive period.

  Now she was more or less used to that hellish training. Since Ji Cheng is also busy with his palace affairs, she doesn't bother him much and goes to train herself with Feng Ju. Since he doesn't want her to go alone, he sends Feng Ju to help her during her training.

  Not only that, but she was also receiving meditation training from Aunt Shen Jia. She has to meditate for hours for at least 2-3 days a week. She wants her to not only be physically strong but mentally as well.

  Her body has changed a lot since she has started training. She can't believe that only a month's training can bring so much change in her. Her body has become toned and she can see abs lining on her abdomen as well. She not only has lost her fat but also gained some muscles on top of that.

  If she was in her time, she could wear sexy revealing bikinis to show off her body. But too bad, she can't do that here.

  The clothes cover her from head to toe. Now since the weather has turned cold, she has to wear more layers over her normal clothes.

  Since this area is more open and was surrounded by greenery, it was colder than it was in the city. In the city there were large buildings and the increasing pollution has reduced the coldness during the winter. However, it was not the case here.

  It was so cold that she can't even bear to step out of her bed, leave alone the training outside in this cold weather. However, she has to do that, she has no option. There are no thermal blankets or heaters to keep her warm. The handmade woolen clothes are better than she had expected but she still feels the need for the heater.

  Out of three months, one month has already ended. She needs to focus on finding the thing which Shen Jia has told her.

  After her morning training, she was now sitting in her room with a rough dusky paper and a wooden in her hand. There was an ink bottle placed on the table in front of her.

  She jotted down all the important things that she had seen in her dreams until now. Surprisingly, she didn't get many dreams of her past in the last months. She did see a few sometimes but they were all similar to her previous dreams.

  In those dreams, she sneaks out of the palace to look for Yuan Song and makes excuses to talk to him. Sometimes she was just staring at him from afar.

  Whenever she has such dreams, she just can't help but smile. It was so heart fluttering that it felt like she was watching a romantic movie.

  She tapped the tip of the wooden stick on the paper as she murmured, " What could be that thing? Since it is a thing, it should be materialistic, right? Is it like Cinderella's glass shoe? Or Harry Potter's magic wand?" She thought while trying to remember what kind of important things were used in those stories.

  "Argh…… it's so hard. How can I resolve this mystery of hundreds of years ago?"

  After some time, she laid on the table with her hand stretched out, looking lifeless. It's too difficult.

  " Oh!" She was looking at nowhere when her eyes fell on a certain painting that was hung on the wall.

  It was not Zhao Ming's painting but Ji Cheng's Grandmother's painting. However, there was something in that painting that caught her attention.

  She stood up and walked towards the painting. She squinted her eyes to look at it carefully.

  " What is this? How come I never looked at it carefully?" Her mouth opened in shock when she got her first-ever lead.

  "Daebak!" She exclaimed in happiness. Her eyes lit up seeing that thing. In the painting, a female sketch was made but what caught her attention was not the woman but the hairpin in her hair.

  Since the painting was so detailed and beautifully done, the hairpin was also drawn with careful details on it. She has heard from Lu Shi that there is a tradition in the royal family.

  The hairpin which the Old Emperor, ( Ji Cheng's grandfather) gifted to his wife has been descended from generations. It has become a symbol of love and title which was given to the Empress when she was crowned.

  This hairpin was treated as the most precious treasure to the royal family since it not only holds the materialistic value but the emotional as well.

  Lu shi told her that she had heard Ji Cheng and Wen Xu's conversation when she was unconscious. Wen Xu wanted to make Xiao Li the next Empress since she was unconscious. However, Ji Cheng didn't agree with it. In the end, he said that the royal hairpin was nowhere to be found so they can't proceed with this ceremony.

  Wen Xu was ready to break this tradition but Ji Cheng stopped her. Surprisingly, the hairpin disappeared since she fell in that pond. No one found it around the pond or in her chamber.

  It was like it had disappeared.

  Although she hasn't seen that mysterious hairpin with her own eyes but now seeing it in this picture, she remembered that she has seen something similar in her dream as well.

  The girl Tan Xiu, who was supposed to be her past self always used an exquisite jade hairpin which was similar to the one in the painting.

  By now, she hasn't seen anything similar to her past story.

  'So does it mean….the thing which I am finding is this hairpin?' her eyes widened when she thought about this possibility.

  It would be crazy if it is true. She can't believe that a single hairpin was carrying the curse and has ruined her life for years.

  She suddenly felt goosebumps when she thought about it. The hairpin looked breathtakingly beautiful even in the picture, how would it look in real life?

  " Does it really hold the curse with it?" she mumbled while grazing the hairpin with her fingers on the painting.

  Title: Cursed Hairpin.

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