The hairpin had indeed been the murder weapon.
It had been coated with a deadly poison. The female assassin herself had also taken poison before coming to carry out the assassination, to prevent her from falling into someone else's hands and identifying her accomplices.
Not long after she was subdued, the poison took effect, and the female assassin died.
The incident immediately caused an enormous uproar. The Yellow Gates were beside themselves with fury.
"How dare they?!"
"How could they dare?!"
Since Great Wei's founding, nothing so outrageous had ever happened, though Wei had done such things to its enemies. The Wei general who had assassinated Fei Yi had originally targeted Liu Shan, but because he could not get close to him, he had been forced to strike at Fei Yi instead. The outcome had directly hastened the Shu Kingdom's destruction.
There were even rumors that Sun Ce's assassination had some connection to Cao Wei's forces, though that was rather far-fetched.
Still, of course, only Wei was allowed to do such things. Others could not do them to Wei.
I would rather stab others than be stabbed by others!!
While the Yellow Gates were running around in anxious circles, Cao Mao was chatting with Man Changwu, perfectly calm.
"In the future, you must be more careful too. What would we do if that poisoned hairpin injured you instead?"
"Nothing must happen to you. If anything happened to you, I would have no commandant by my side!"
As Cao Mao spoke, Man Changwu merely nodded without saying a word.
Man Changwu was an excellent person to chat with, something Cao Mao had only recently discovered. When they were together, he could talk about whatever he pleased, and Man Changwu would listen very attentively, never interrupting or asking further questions, only nodding.