The “Lost” Silver Hairpin
A child from the countryside once told me an interesting fairy tale that I had never heard before. The child didn’t know its origin either, so I wrote it down:
Once upon a time, there was a king who had seven daughters. Each of the seven princesses had a thousand silver hairpins to arrange their hair. Each hairpin was finely crafted, adorned with diamonds, and as delicate as a needle. When pinned into their hair, they sparkled like stars in the Milky Way.
One morning, the eldest princess found that she had only 999 hairpins, one was missing. She was puzzled and distressed, so she secretly opened the second princess’s dressing box and took one. The second princess, now short of a hairpin, stole one from the third princess.
The third princess then took one from the fourth, the fourth from the fifth, the fifth from the sixth, and the sixth from the seventh princess. In the end, it was the youngest princess who was left without a hairpin.
It happened that the next day, the king was expecting a distinguished guest from afar. Without the missing hairpin, the seventh princess could not secure a section of her hair, and she spent the whole day anxiously searching for it with her maid. She even said, “If anyone finds my hairpin, I will marry him.”
A little branch outside the window heard her and said, “Use my twig as your hairpin!” But the twig was too hard and would make her hair stand up.
A mountain spring heard her and said, “Use my frozen ice as your hairpin!” But the cold ice melted immediately when placed in her hair.
The moon in the sky heard her and said, “Use my silver light as your hairpin!” But the moonlight was too soft to hold her hair.
The seventh princess sighed helplessly, “What should I do? A guest is coming tomorrow!”
The next day, the guest from afar turned out to be a prince. He held a silver hairpin in his hand and said, “A mischievous bird built a nest in my hunting hat, and I found this hairpin engraved with the royal emblem inside. Could it belong to one of the princesses?”
The six older princesses clamored and claimed that the hairpin was theirs, but their hair was already beautifully arranged with a thousand hairpins, sparkling like the Milky Way.
“Ah! That’s my lost hairpin!” exclaimed the seventh princess as she hurriedly ran out from her room.
However, before the prince could return the hairpin to the seventh princess, he lovingly kissed her. Her unpinned lock of long hair hung down to her heels, shimmering brightly…
Like all beautiful fairy tales, this story ends with the prince and princess living happily ever after. I heard this story from a young schoolgirl in the countryside.
After finishing the story, she looked up at the twinkling stars beyond the distant mountains, as if imagining herself as the seventh princess who lost the hairpin, unaware that “loss” can sometimes be sorrowful. In the end, with a smile on her face, she fell asleep under the starlight.
But as for me, I couldn’t sleep even until midnight after hearing the story. It turns out that a princess with a thousand hairpins does not necessarily have a better fate than one who loses a hairpin. The loss of the hairpin and the missed fate initially carried a sense of tragedy, but thanks to the little bird of fate, the tragedy turned into a comedy. I believe everyone has had similar experiences.
In the progression of life, many factors, as small as silver hairpins, can change one’s destiny. Sometimes they are so small that even the branches, the springs, and the moon cannot help, yet they change a person’s life.
Bacon once said, “Without tears, there would be no laughter.” Loss is similar; without loss, one cannot truly appreciate the joy of gain. Thinking this way, many aspects of life can be faced with calm and serenity.
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
