The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 58

You, shut, your, mouth! (Awakening)

Murong Yan felt as though she had been in a very long dream.

In the dream, she and Ah Qin were on a small boat, drifting with the ripples on the calm lake surface as the wind blew.

Ah Qin, dressed in a light green robe, resembled a handsome scholar, steadily poling the boat.

As for Murong Yan herself, she lay there bonelessly, lazily, her eyes seductive as silk, like a fox wanting the focused person before her to touch her, to sink into depravity together.

The breeze blew gently, and the scenery was splendid.

At some point, a gentle tremor was felt.

We had reached the shore.

Stretching out my arms, my beloved put down her pole and embraced me, our cheeks rubbing together as if trying to merge our bodies into one.

I comfortably tilted my head back, allowing the delicate, rain-like kisses to fall on my neck. Time and space, everything seemed trivial now.

Just when my eyes were getting hazy, almost wishing to be submerged forever, Ah Qin stopped. She took my hand, gently and cautiously, and helped me ashore.

『Ah Qin, come.』

I reached out my hand, wanting to help the woman who still hadn’t come ashore.

But she just smiled, shaking her head, picked up the pole, and pushed the flat boat further and further away from the riverbank.

『Ah Qin, don’t!』

Suddenly, the previously calm lake surface whipped up into a hurricane, the sky turned dark and gray, and the storm made the small boat shake uncontrollably.

The black water formed raging waves, and in an instant, it swallowed everything along with the person and the boat.

『Ah Qin, Ah Qin, don’t! Don’t leave me!』

The feeling of suffocation surged again, and her heart ached painfully. Lying on the bed, Murong Yan suddenly opened her eyes, her forehead covered in sweat, gasping uncontrollably.

“The Princess is awake!”

“That’s great.”

“Quick, go call Imperial Physician Wang.”

The excited voices of the maidservants filled her ears, wanting to lift her hand to wipe sweat, but her body was both sore and stiff, so she just let it fall weakly. Her consciousness felt like it was filled with paste, making any thought extremely difficult.

A tiger approached the bed, lifting its front paws to prop up its body, and affectionately nuzzled the woman’s thin cheek with its gray eyes.

Hu’er seemed to have grown a bit bigger, how long had she been asleep?

Pulling away from the annoying nightmare, her memory in her head only stayed at the moment in Cangyue Tower when the Crown Prince forcibly poisoned her, everything after that was a blank.

Could it be that she had been rescued?

“Is the Princess awake now? How do you feel?”

Song Shuqing was the first to enter, with noticeable dark circles under her eyes. As she saw the person trying to struggle up, she took Murong Yan’s wrist and said, “You have been unconscious for a month, you should not strain yourself.”

A month?!

Murong Yan couldn’t believe it, and when trying to speak, found her throat to be dry and painful, making it momentarily impossible to produce any sound.

Weakly coughing, and as she stared at Song Shuqing, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time, Murong Yan’s eyes widened as she attempted to communicate something with her mouth movements.

Song Shuqing bowed her head, pretending to take a pulse with an expression full of bitterness, yet spoke naturally, “I don’t know where Qinqin is. After Cao Yun and I finished our mission in Shu, she didn’t meet up with us. I also just returned to the capital a few days ago and haven’t received any news from Qinqin yet.”

Hearing this, Murong Yan’s neck, which was strained with effort, slumped down. She closed her eyes in silence, letting Song Shuqing administer acupuncture to her.

“Miss Song, you arrived so quickly!”

Wang Wei, with a reddened nose and messy hair, entered the room, casually opening his medicine box, unaware of the unusual silence between the two, “I knew you wanted to inherit my mantle and become the world’s Medicine King. You are indeed my good disciple.”

“You old fart, who wants to be your disciple! I’m about to die, Medicine King my ass.” Song Shuqing secretly sighed in relief, while letting Murong Yan support her by wrapping her arms around her shoulders to help her sit up, responding irritably, “I’ve told you a hundred times and you still don’t understand.”

“Hmph! You hypocrite, you actually want to change the world with me.” Wang Wei grumbled as he handed the medicine he had prepared to Song Shuqing, asking her to slowly administer it to Murong Yan.

Flipping through the medical records by his side and observing the complexion of the woman taking the medicine, Wang Wei sighed, “It seems that the Princess has stabilized now! That’s really great. Now I can finally rest assured, so that Xiaoming’s efforts in the shadows weren’t in vain…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Song Shuqing cut him off with a glare that could kill.

『You, shut, your, mouth!』

While Murong Yan was looking down and drinking the medicine, she turned her head and silently gestured to the mad old man in front of her.

“Oops… yes, yes.”

Recalling how Song Shuqing instructed everyone beforehand, Wang Wei guiltily touched his nose and, unusually for him, stayed quiet for a moment. Still, he couldn’t help but chatter to the princess who had just awoken, “Ah… Miss… Princess, you’ve just woken up, so you need to take your medicine on time. Try to eat something easy to digest like porridge at first, and slowly increase the amount. Don’t eat too much at once, and make sure to get some exercise, rehabilitation is very important…”

After sipping the extremely bitter medicine bit by bit, Murong Yan’s face showed no particular expression; she just lowered her eyelids, and it was unclear if she was listening.

“Your body needs to be well taken care of, no more highs and lows. You’re only thirty, and your hair has already turned white. Though people generally live up to sixty and consider it a long life, with the way things are, I’m not even sure you can live to fifty.”

Wang Wei didn’t mind the lack of response and simply closed his medicine box, lamenting, “I’ve gone through so much trouble, traversing mountains and rivers, even suffering from… oh no, not car sickness… horse sickness to come save you. If you die too soon, it would be too unfair to me and Xiaoming…”

Seeing the old man about to slip up again, Song Shuqing swiftly covered his incessantly moving mouth, barely managing a forced smile towards Murong Yan, then grabbed Wang Wei by the collar and dragged him out the door.

“Hey, hey, hey! Miss Song, my clothes, my clothes are about to get ruined,” Wang Wei struggled, carrying a medicine box with dissatisfaction.

“Damn it… you old fart.”

Song Shuqing closed the door and then lowered her voice, releasing her grip. She said, “If you dare mention Qinqin in front of the Princess again, I’ll really knock you out next time.”

Wang Wei, feeling wronged, straightened his crumpled face and pouted, “It’s not like I did it on purpose. Xiaoming risked her life to exchange for this body. It needs proper rest.”

“Do you think I don’t know?” Song Shuqing grabbed her head in frustration and said irritably, “But if the Princess finds out that her life was exchanged for Qinqin’s health, do you think she’ll be happy?”

“Stop talking about extreme joys and sorrows; we might just end up going together in the next second.”

“Alright, alright, I get it, my bad, my bad.” Wang Wei raises his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Sigh.”

With a sigh, the frustrated woman loosens her collar and sets off walking. “Now that the Princess has recovered, we don’t have to be distracted anymore. We need to hurry and study the antidote for Qinqin.”

“Creating an antidote to prolong life is one thing. Shadow Guard Xiaoming has antibodies in her body and won’t die, but… it’s uncertain whether the damaged parts can recover.”

Wang Wei absentmindedly scratched his non-existent beard, and a trace of desolation appeared on his usually crazy face. “To be honest, Shadow Guard Xiaoming’s current condition… may be worse off than…”

“Damn it, don’t give up!”

Kicking the old man’s butt, completely disregarding his seniority and lacking any respect for the elderly and love for the young, Song Shuqing glared angrily and said, “Aren’t you supposed to be a world genius, a miracle from the dinosaur era? Take this seriously!”

“I know, I’ll find a way to save Shadow Guard Xiaoming.” Rubbing the sore spot from being kicked, Wang Wei didn’t get angry; he just walked slowly and said, “Hey! Do you think this useless Crown Prince is also some kind of genetically mutated scorpion genius? Otherwise, how could he get hold of such a tricky poison?”

“Who knows? Wherever he got it from, just use your wisdom as a modern medical doctor to crush him.”

The old and the young continued bickering as they walked towards the Shadow Guard Camp.

The author has something to say:

For the side stories, apart from senior sister, I also plan to write a few pieces about the supporting characters (Cao Yun, Little Eleven), roughly covering their subsequent developments in brief stories of about one or two thousand words each.

I will mark these clearly, so if you’re not interested in the men’s stories, feel free to skip them; it’s okay.

LP: Re-translated on March 26, 2024