The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 18
by Little PandaBirthday Gift (Official Heart-thumping Moment)
“Are you capable or not?”
“I can do it.” The man said, holding his breath.
“I paid you so much money, how come you still feel so slow?” The woman’s tone was disdainful.
“It’s you who hasn’t let me sleep for several days,” the man complained.
“Xu Jun, didn’t you say you were very capable?” the woman asked, lowering her voice.
“I really am capable, Qinqin-senior sister, let me try again,” Xu Jun said, unconvinced.
“How many times have you fumbled already?” Ming Qin was somewhat dissatisfied.
“I promise this is the last time. I’ll definitely satisfy you,” Xu Jun said with utmost confidence.
“But I don’t have much time left.” Ming Qin’s voice was a little anxious, and from the room came the sound of their panting and the clattering of things being knocked over.
“Wait! What are you doing, don’t get so close to me!” Xu Jun panted in alarm. “Wait… don’t, don’t, wait…”
Hearing the suspicious conversation coming from the room, Lin Yan’s face burned and his heart pounded as he listened from the hallway.
He kicked the door open with a bang, frowning as he shouted with a pained heart, “In broad daylight, men and women should maintain their distance1! What in the world are you two doing? Junior Brother Xu, I never thought you were this kind of person! Qinqin, did you learn bad habits from your senior sister?”
Ming Qin and Xu Jun were startled. The two of them, clutching several jars, stared blankly at Lin Yan at the doorway.
Looking at the two, who were fully and immaculately dressed, and the room filled with the smell of gunpowder, Lin Yan felt a bit awkward and rubbed his nose. “So it’s… hahaha, it’s all a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding! Please, continue!”
“What did you misunderstand this time?” Ming Qin, having been interrupted, was a little unhappy. “And Senior Brother, you broke my door.”
“My bad! My bad, I’ll make it up to you,” Lin Yan said, his face red with embarrassment as he tried to put the door back in place.
“It’s done!” Xu Jun suddenly shouted. The bamboo tube in his hand emitted sparks of fire, giving Lin Yan a fright.
“Wonderful! We made it in time!” Ming Qin jumped up happily, unable to stop herself from dancing with joy.
After taking a few bamboo tubes from Xu Jun’s hands with a hasty thank you, Ming Qin ignored Lin Yan, who was still fixing the door, and used her Qinggong to quickly leave the Shadow Guard Camp.
“What’s with Qinqin again? So happy all of a sudden?” Lin Yan did his best to wedge the door back into its frame, asking curiously.
“She probably has someone she cares about, right?” Xu Jun let out a big yawn and wiped his eyes. “She’s been staring me down all month to tinker with this thing, and she ordered me to finish it today for sure.”
“What exactly did you two make that’s so secretive?” Lin Yan looked at the thoroughly broken door and decided to give up, then watched as Xu Jun suddenly picked up a brush and paper.
Xu Jun hurriedly wrote on the paper, muttering to himself, “I have to quickly write down the formula. In the future, when I marry a wife, I’ll have to use this to make her happy.”
Sapce Line
Ming Qin excitedly ascended the Cangyue Tower. Upon seeing Murong Yan on the couch, she didn’t say a word before scooping her up with a single arm, laughing happily as she spun in a circle.
“Ah! Ah Qin!” Murong Yan nervously wrapped her arms around Ming Qin’s neck, her tone a mix of surprise and helplessness. “Put me down.”
Ming Qin paid her no mind. With one hand supporting her bottom and the other pulling a bamboo tube from her robes, she whispered mysteriously into her ear, “I brought you something good today.”
The bamboo tube was extremely long and thin, yet it looked quite heavy. A cotton fuse was embedded in the top.
Murong Yan was a bit curious. Pressing her head against the side of the neck of the person holding her, she smiled and said, “What is it that’s so mysterious?”
“I’ll show you in a moment.”
Ming Qin was about to put the woman down when she caught sight of several exquisitely carved wooden boxes she had never seen before, toppled over in a corner. The beautiful jade and jewels inside were spilled all over, and pieces of exquisitely embroidered dresses and blouses were torn to shreds, discarded there like trash.
“What are these?” Ming Qin asked.
“Just some useless things,” Murong Yan said nonchalantly, casting a disdainful glance at the priceless treasures in the corner.
Ming Qin asked a little cautiously, “Are those the birthday gifts that were sent over?”
“Ah Qin actually knows today is my birthday?” Murong Yan’s voice held a trace of pleasant surprise, and then she smiled faintly. “Could it be that Ah Qin is being so secretive today because you prepared a gift for me?”
The black-clad Shadow Guard suddenly put the woman down gloomily, becoming withdrawn and unwilling to speak.
“Ah Qin?” Murong Yan’s tone was worried as she looked at the dejected expression on the person before her.
“I…” The passion that had filled Ming Qin’s head for the past few days finally cooled. She looked at the rare treasures in the corner, things she probably couldn’t afford with a lifetime’s salary, and hesitated.
If she doesn’t even care for these things, how could Murong Yan possibly like my crude gift?
At this thought, she felt a wave of discouragement and took a few steps back. “I-I-I… I just remembered my Shifu has something for me to do, I have to go now.”
“Ah Qin!” Seeing the person before her about to leave, spouting a clumsy lie to hide something, Murong Yan felt both panicked and angry. She grabbed the corner of Ming Qin’s sleeve. “Ah Qin, what’s wrong?”
Ming Qin was unwilling to roughly break free from her hand, merely clenching her fist in frustration, unsure if she should tell Murong Yan the truth.
“Ah Qin,” Murong Yan’s voice deepened. “If you’re going to lie to me, you must do it flawlessly.”
She allowed Ah Qin to lie to her.
Yes, she permitted it.
Just as she allowed Ah Qin to do anything to her.
But she couldn’t stand the feeling of discovering Ah Qin was hiding something from her. It was like a sweet dream pierced by an annoying thorn, causing her heart to surge with agitation and displeasure.
“I did prepare a gift, it’s just…” Ming Qin was afraid to see disdain in the woman’s eyes, and she lowered her head. “It’s just that this gift isn’t worth any money at all. My junior brother and I made it by hand. Compared to those expensive gifts over there, it’s not worthy of you at all…”
Murong Yan suddenly pulled on Ming Qin, forcing her to meet her gaze and cutting her off forcefully.
She didn’t care in the slightest what the Crown Prince had sent; those things merely being there were enough to make her feel disgusted.
“Give me your gift.” The woman tilted her head up, her voice softening as she spoke gently, “I don’t care if a gift is expensive. I only want yours.”
Ming Qin looked at the softness in the woman’s eyes and compromised, “Alright.”
Even though it was spring, the wind was still a bit cool. She wrapped a blanket around Murong Yan and opened the four windows just a crack.
“My junior brother, Xu Jun, he’s very good at making clever toys. He once built a little bird that could fly, and another time he accidentally fiddled with a new type of hidden weapon and almost burned down the camp,” Ming Qin explained as she took out a handkerchief and soaked it with water.
“I couldn’t take you to the city walls to see the fireworks during the New Year, and I felt it was a bit of a pity, so I thought I would make one for you…” She wrung out the handkerchief and wrapped it around the end of the bamboo tube.
“I tinkered with my junior brother on this little thing for the better part of a month! He even demanded ‘research funding’ and made an exorbitant demand2 several times.” Thinking of her now-flat purse, Ming Qin wrinkled her nose.
“Look, today is your birthday. It’s a day worthy of the entire capital lighting up its lanterns to celebrate joyfully,” she chattered on, lighting the fuse from the stove and then deftly blowing out the oil lamp. “…Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of power. I can’t light up the entire capital for you, I can only celebrate with you in this small room.”
Ming Qin passed the wet-cloth-wrapped bamboo tube to Murong Yan. She embraced her from behind, her slightly larger, calloused palm loosely covering the woman’s delicate hand that held the tube.
“Yanyan,” Ming Qin called out softly, a rare occurrence.
In the darkness, Murong Yan looked up and met a pair of bright eyes.
“May your joy last forever, and may you have this day every year.”
The warm smile before her was suddenly illuminated by a dazzling brilliance. Murong Yan turned her head toward the light source, but her gaze could no longer leave it.
The tip of the bamboo tube in her hand shot out dazzlingly colorful points of light, like real fireworks, illuminating the once-dim room until it was bright and clear.
It was as if the lights of ten thousand homes had truly been invited to celebrate for her, so bright it was blinding, yet she couldn’t bear to look away.
The multicolored, brilliant lights danced continuously before her eyes, causing her always-silent heart to tremble.
A sourness rose in her chest and her fingertips trembled, making Murong Yan almost lose her grip on the bamboo tube.
Just as she was about to let go, her hand was tightly enveloped by Ming Qin’s palm.
“It’s not hot.”
Ming Qin’s low voice spoke gently in her ear, “Don’t be afraid.”
It is hot.
Murong Yan choked back a sob in her heart.
The temperature of their skin touching and the heat coming from her heart were so scalding they made her want to cry.
She thought she had long been frozen through by ice, like the eternal winter of the far north, where no one could enter and not a blade of grass could grow.
But this person beside her had just recklessly barged into this forbidden domain, bringing a searing warmth that set her own heart boiling.
Along with the dazzling light, the bottom of her heart had already melted into a complete mess.
The fireworks in her hand weakened, the once-blinding, dancing points of light gradually faded. Ming Qin took the empty bamboo tube and said, “Do you like it? If you do, should we light some more?”
Murong Yan turned to the side and wrapped her arms around Ming Qin’s trim yet toned waist, resting her chin on her slightly sloped shoulder. Her voice was hoarse as she said, “I like it. I do like it.”
I like her.
Never before had Murong Yan’s mind been so clear. She was acutely aware of how every inch of her body was screaming at the same time, screaming how much she liked Ming Qin.
She liked this person who was holding her in a small room, celebrating her birth.
This was clearly not what she had planned.
Originally, she just wanted to pass the time.
Originally, she was just using her to soothe her loneliness.
Originally, she was just a tool to appease the pain.
Originally, she just wanted to despotically claim her as her own possession.
Her heart was full of calculations, but she never expected that she was like someone sunk deep in quicksand, having already been sinking unconsciously.
Now, looking up, she was already beyond cure.
Murong Yan found it a little funny and a little sad, never imagining that her supposedly dead heart could still stir with such nearly uncontrollable emotions. Her arms tightened, her body pressing against Ming Qin’s.
“Ah Qin.”
“Hm?” Ming Qin’s motion to light another fuse paused.
“Thank you.”
Thank you, for letting me feel, for the first time in a long time, that my own birth is a fortunate event.
The author has something to say:
She’s fallen~
LP: Re-translated on June 17, 2025
Footnotes
- 男女授受不親 | nánnǚ shòushòu bùqīn | A traditional Confucian saying meaning that unrelated men and women should not have direct physical contact, emphasizing propriety.
- 獅子大開口 | shīzi dà kāikǒu | Lit. lion opens its big mouth; an idiom for making an exorbitant demand or asking for a ridiculously high price.
I screamed and cried!
Aw that’s so cute