The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 47
by Little PandaYou Are Ming Qin’s Most Cherished Person
Murong Yan saw the new emperor at a palace banquet at the end of spring.
As a royal clan relative and the di daughter1 of Prince Yu, she and Murong Can sat not far from the head seat2.
Flushed with wine3, all the men in the great hall were tipsy. Looking at the rich dishes before her, Murong Yan’s expression was merely indifferent as she silently drank tea.
“Yue’er, today is our birthday, you should smile more!” Murong Can, reeking of alcohol and with a slightly red face, looked at his out-of-place younger sister and proactively leaned over. “Should I have everyone celebrate for you?”
Without waiting for the woman to answer, the man raised his cup, stood up, and shouted. Several men, who were also military generals, came forward with smiles, unsteadily performing a zuoyi4 to Murong Yan and yelling in coarse voices.
“Commandery Princess meizi5! Boundless longevity6!”
“What do you mean, ‘meizi’? So impolite, it’s Commandery Princess! May the Commandery Princess’s birthday be auspicious, happy, and healthy!”
“Hey, hey, hey! You stole my words, so what am I supposed to say… A hundred years of good union7! Commandery Princess, a hundred years of good union!”
“Lao Wei8! Are you crazy! My meizi isn’t married yet, who is she supposed to have a good union with!?”
Looking at the chaotic mess of men before her, although they were indeed very boisterous, Murong Yan’s heart felt only loneliness as she involuntarily recalled her birthday last year.
In that small room with just the two of them, the brilliant points of light enveloped by a warm palm were more dazzling and more heart-stirring than this brightly lit and magnificent great hall.
She lowered her head and sipped her tea, as if trying to suppress the sour feeling that was welling up in her heart.
In the latter half of the night, everyone at the palace banquet except Murong Yan was a man, and more than half of them were crude men accustomed to life in military camps. With a few urns of wine in their bellies, most were already muddle-headed and had started telling indecent jokes.
Murong Yan was not angered by what she heard, she just felt a bit bored. When Murong Can picked up his wine cup and got up to make his third round of toasts, she quietly left her seat.
It had been almost more than ten years since she last entered the palace.
At that time, her right leg was not yet broken. Young and not yet knowing restraint, she had relied on her superficial appearance and insignificant9 literary talent to gain everyone’s affection, acting with high-profile flamboyance, coming and going freely within the vast imperial palace.
I’m afraid that if her younger self had been told that such arrogant behavior would attract immense trouble, the young and frivolous girl would not have believed it.
Unexpectedly, the flowers and trees in this courtyard were not much different from her memory.
The people, however, had changed a lot.
Holding her cane, she walked slowly along the small path paved with pebbles. The air was moist, carrying the fragrance of grass and trees breaking through the soil.
She took a deep breath, but unexpectedly came face to face with a petite figure.
“Your Majesty.” Murong Yan cupped her hands10 and was about to perform a curtsy11, but was stopped by the youth.
“Don’t! Don’t perform a salutation to me.” Murong Wan, wearing a somewhat oversized robe, reached out a hand, flustered. The pearls hanging from his crown clinked together. “Ah… rise12! Quickly, rise.”
The woman straightened up, just standing there quietly. Her slender and lonely figure seemed even more fragile than the willow branches behind her. Murong Wan, who had also left the banquet early, hesitated for a moment before speaking in his still-immature voice, “I… no… Zhen13, Zhen knows your health is not good, you don’t need to perform salutations to Zhen.”
“Your Majesty has just ascended the throne and has countless matters to worry about. For Your Majesty to be distracted with concern over this servant’s health is truly this servant’s dereliction of duty.” Murong Yan said, her eyes still lowered and her posture respectful, but her tone was indifferent.
“It’s not! It’s not a bother!” the youth said, hurriedly waving his hands. “It’s because Ming Qin told me, that’s why I…”
Hearing this, the woman suddenly raised her head and asked in a low voice, “Ah Qin has mentioned me to Your Majesty before?”
“Yes,” Murong Wan nodded. “Previously, at the Imperial Academy, we would always chat while eating lunch. Ming Qin could not go four or five sentences without mentioning Commandery Princess Chongwen.”
“Ah Qin… what did she say about me?” Murong Yan asked, her voice somewhat pained.
The youth tilted his head, recalling, then scratched his head a little shyly. “Ming Qin… always said you are very beautiful, the most beautiful and also the most powerful woman in the world.”
He remembered the two of them sitting on the long corridor, the woman eating the food sent by the imperial chefs while gesturing happily and with eyebrows flying and face dancing14.
“Whenever Ming Qin found something delicious outside, she would share a little with me. But if there wasn’t enough, she would refuse me with righteous principle and stern speech15, no matter how much I stamped my feet… she wouldn’t give it to me.”
Murong Wan’s overly precocious expression rarely showed a hint of the playful smile befitting his age. “She always said that was to be saved for Commandery Princess Chongwen.”
“You are Ming Qin’s most cherished person.”
Murong Yan tightly closed her eyes and tilted her head back, trying to hold back the surging heat. She spoke with a tremble, “She… is also my most cherished person.”
The considerate and sensitive youth thoughtfully offered a handkerchief, but the woman refused it.
“Ming Qin will come back.” He nonchalantly put his hands behind his back, turning sideways to look at the towering palace walls. “We promised each other that we would be victorious on our respective battlefields.”
In the night, the figures of the young emperor and the delicate commandery princess, seen from behind, possessed an indescribable loneliness.
The execution of the rebel faction was set for early summer.
Although the deposed crown prince was not captured, his maternal clan and the other corrupt and wicked officials who supported him were successfully captured in one net16.
The new emperor was benevolent and unwilling to execute the nine relations17. He only had the heads of each clan executed in the bustling city, while the remaining family members were demoted to commoners, exiled from the capital, and forbidden from holding official positions for three generations.
Murong Yan had no intention of going to the streets and being tainted by the blood of a group of vermin, but while taking a carriage back to Cangyue Tower, she unintentionally saw the richly-dressed young master she had encountered in the mountain village.
A far cry from his previous appearance as an arrogant silk-trousers-wearing younger brother18 harassing women, the man’s figure was now dejected and dispirited. His eyes were vacant, and a scar, as if slashed by a beast, ran from his right cheek down to his jaw.
He sat in a wooden wheelchair, his legs bent at an unnatural angle. His left hand, faintly concealed beneath his sleeve, had no visible palm.
Along the way, some common people threw stinking, rotten vegetable stems at him. He was shackled along with a group of others, being yelled at by government officials as they were driven out of the city.
The second young master of the Vice Minister of Personnel19, who had injured Ming Qin and was arrogant to the extreme, now looked so amnesiac and down-and-out20.
After just a faint glance, Murong Yan lowered the carriage curtain. Murong Can, sitting opposite her, asked with some worry, “Yue’er, are you really going back to that tall building?”
With the deposed crown prince having fallen, Murong Yan no longer needed to be a hostage, imprisoned at the will of others.
His younger sister could very well live in the prince’s manor in the capital. If she did not like living with the others in the manor, she could also reside in Changning Palace, which had been imperially bestowed upon her.
If she were willing, he could even postpone his military affairs and take her to roam the jianghu21, to tour the mountains and play with the water22. There was no need for his sister to remain immersed in this capital city, which held such man-eating memories.
There was clearly no longer any reason for her to return to Cangyue Tower.
Hearing this, Murong Yan’s expression showed no change. She just lightly stroked the stone on her earlobe, lowered her eyes, and whispered, “She will get lost…”
“Hm?” Murong Can didn’t quite understand and tilted his head.
An image of Ming Qin flashed through the woman’s mind—her head peeking over the windowsill each time, always with a brilliant smile and sparkling eyes.
She said again, “If I’m not there, she will get lost.” After that, she said no more.
If she did not stay in this place that connected them, she was afraid that if the foolish Ah Qin returned, the first thing she would do is panic, not knowing where to find her.
She had to stay there and wait.
Just like a year ago, when she had waited for Ah Qin’s arrival every day.
The author has something to say:
Ming Qin will be back online in the next chapter~ Where will she appear? (I’m so curious)
PS. The collection count has broken nine hundred! (Happily scattering flowers and setting off firecrackers!)
I’m actually very surprised that my collection count is still rising a little bit after falling off the new author rankings, especially since I don’t have much exposure and don’t use social media apps…
It’s clearly not a genre favored by the platform at all, so for this story to still perform so well really makes me very proud of it!
In that case, can I be a little greedy and look forward to the day it breaks one thousand collections? (laughs)
If you like this story, please feel free to recommend it to more and more people!
I really want to know how far Yanyan and Ah Qin’s story can go. Can it, at the very least, prove that the stories readers enjoy are not necessarily the ones officially promoted by the platform, and that popularly chosen stories can still break free from the platform’s current confinement to a single genre?
I am very grateful to everyone who loves this story. I have taken all of your encouragement and love to heart, and I cherish having met you all~
I hope everyone has a happy and pleasant end to 2022 and is ready to welcome a brand new 2023.
As always, praying for you.
LP: Re-translated on August 15, 2025
Footnotes
- 嫡女 | dínǚ | The daughter of the principal wife or legal wife, as opposed to a daughter from a concubine. The di daughter holds the highest status among all daughters in a household.
- 上首 | shàngshǒu | The seat of honor at a banquet or gathering, typically reserved for the host or the most distinguished guest. Its position is usually facing the entrance.
- 酒酣耳熱 | jiǔ hān ěr rè | Literally “wine drunk, ears hot.” An idiom describing the state of being pleasantly tipsy, flushed, and cheerful from drinking alcohol.
- 作揖 | zuòyī | A traditional Chinese salutation performed by bowing with one’s hands clasped together in front. It is a formal gesture of respect.
- 妹子 | mèizi | A colloquial and familiar term for “little sister” or a younger woman. In a formal court setting, addressing a high-ranking Commandery Princess this way is overly familiar and considered impolite.
- 萬壽無疆 | wàn shòu wú jiāng | Literally “ten thousand longevities without boundary.” A traditional and highly formal blessing wishing someone an extremely long life. It was typically reserved for emperors and empresses, making its use here for a Commandery Princess an over-the-top, if well-intentioned, gesture.
- 百年好合 | bǎinián hǎohé | Literally “a hundred years of good union.” A traditional blessing used almost exclusively for newly married couples, wishing them a long and happy marriage. It is completely inappropriate for an unmarried woman.
- 老魏 | Lǎo Wèi | An informal and familiar way to address a friend or colleague with the surname Wei. The prefix 老 (lǎo), meaning “old,” does not necessarily mean the person is elderly; it’s often used between peers to show familiarity and respect.
- 不足挂齒 | bùzú guàchǐ | Literally “not enough to hang on the teeth.” An idiom meaning something is not worth mentioning or is trivial and insignificant.
- 拱手 | gǒngshǒu | A formal gesture of respect where one cups one’s hands together at chest level. It is a common form of greeting or salutation.
- 蹲膝行李 | dūn xī xínglǐ | A type of salutation performed by women in ancient China, involving bending the knees in a curtsy-like gesture. The formality and depth of the bow would vary based on the rank of the person being greeted.
- 平身 | píngshēn | Literally “flatten the body.” A formal command given by a superior (like an emperor or high official) to someone who is bowing or kneeling, telling them to rise or stand up straight.
- 朕 | zhèn | The royal “I” or “We.” A self-referential pronoun used exclusively by the emperor, established by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.
- 眉飛色舞 | méifēi sèwǔ | Literally “eyebrows flying and face dancing.” An idiom describing someone being extremely animated and expressive with joy or excitement.
- 義正嚴詞 | yìzhèng yáncí | Literally “righteous in principle and stern in speech.” An idiom describing someone speaking with great conviction and moral authority, often in refusal or admonishment.
- 一網成擒 | yīwǎng chéngqín | A variation of the idiom 一網打盡 (yīwǎng dǎjìn), which literally means “to catch everything in one net.” It means to capture or round up all targets at once.
- 株連九族 | zhūlián jiǔzú | To implicate and execute the nine degrees of kinship. This was an extreme form of collective punishment in ancient China, where an entire clan, including relatives by blood and marriage, would be executed for the serious crimes of one individual, such as treason.
- 纨裤子弟 | wánkù zǐdì | Literally “silk-trousers-wearing younger brother.” A term for a profligate and hedonistic young man from a wealthy, influential family; a fop or dandy who relies on his family’s status.
- 吏部侍郎 | Lìbù Shìláng | An official title. The 吏部 (Lìbù) was the Ministry of Personnel, one of the Six Ministries in imperial China, responsible for civil service appointments, promotions, and demotions. 侍郎 (Shìláng) was the title for the Vice Minister or Deputy Head of a ministry.
- 失憶潦倒 | shīyì liáodǎo | Literally “amnesiac and down-and-out.” The term 失憶 (shīyì) means to have amnesia or memory loss. This is an unusual description for someone’s appearance and may be a typo in the source text for the more common phrase 失意 (shīyì), which means “disappointed” or “dispirited”.
- 江湖 | jiānghú | Literally “rivers and lakes.” A term referring to the world of martial artists, wanderers, and pugilists, which operates under its own code of ethics and is largely independent of mainstream society and government control.
- 游山玩水 | yóushān wánshuǐ | Literally “tour mountains, play with water.” An idiom that means to travel for pleasure, enjoying natural scenery.
I like that getting murong Yan on the throne was not the main conflict and we got it over with pretty quick although I’m sure the crown Prince will still be a problem for a while
Me too! I love that the focus is them and not the nonsense power struggle crap.
And ohgawd, the ending of this chapter gave me deep feels. 😫
Thank you for the chapter! We’re waiting for you to be together again! And still wondering where her wife is..
Pleas ming qin come back 😭
I like that getting murong Yan on the throne was not the main conflict and we got it over with pretty quick although I’m sure the crown Prince will still be a problem for a while
Me too! I love that the focus is them and not the nonsense power struggle crap.
And ohgawd, the ending of this chapter gave me deep feels. 😫
Thank you for the chapter! We’re waiting for you to be together again! And still wondering where her wife is..
Pleas ming qin come back 😭