The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 59
by Little PandaHas Nothing to Do with Being Shu or Not Shu1
The first snow fell. In the courtyard of Changning Palace, the blossoms of the plum trees were just beginning to bloom.
The cold wind blew past, carrying with it the pleasant fragrance of plum blossoms, heralding that a chaotic year was about to end and making one unable to help but sigh at the passage of time.
In the courtyard, a slender figure draped in a snow-white fox fur cloak looked up at the clusters of pink on the branches. A large tiger, already a full year old, stood to one side, affectionately nuzzling the woman’s hand, yet its eyes vigilantly guarded the surroundings.
After a little over half a month of recovery, Murong Yan’s muscles were no longer stiff, and she could walk for a short period of time without support. Unfortunately, the few liang2 of flesh she had lost still could not be regained, and her entire person still looked as easy to break and as fragile as a willow branch.
She lowered her head and gently scratched the large, furry head by her hand. Looking at the snow gradually piling up on the ground, she could not help but be overcome with sorrow.
Winter always brought out her best and worst memories.
Traveling alone with Ah Qin on horseback in the white snow, the enchanting moments inside the horse carriage amidst the vast, snowy sky, and embracing each other in the snow, whispering between ear and temple.
But losing Ah Qin also happened on a day when snow was drifting down.
Her hood slipped off, but Murong Yan did not mind. She just lowered her head to look at a few flower petals that had been blown off. The delicate pink, mixed with snow, was trampled into the mud, dirty and gradually rotting.
“Yue’er, Yue’er.”
Her thoughts were interrupted. The woman turned around and saw her doting elder brother, who had rushed over after court had ended.
“Yue’er, are you better?”
After entering the capital, Murong Can, as the Ever-Victorious General, had taken the place of the aging Prince Yu and, along with several young, hot-blooded generals, had gradually established a firm foothold in the imperial court. But even being so busy, Murong Can would still bring his now-routine concern to visit his meimei every day.
He asked questions while carefully observing Murong Yan, his eyes filled with anxiety, afraid of getting a bad answer.
Plucking a flower petal from the man’s shoulder, Murong Yan lowered her eyebrows and replied placidly, “I am fine, Brother, do not worry.”
Even after hearing these words, Murong Can still kept his brows furrowed, circling around his meimei as if to confirm with his own eyes that the woman was indeed unharmed.
After a pause, he spoke, “Yue’er, in another month it will be the New Year festival. Are you… going to return to the Prince’s Manor or continue to stay in Changning Palace?”
Looking at her nervous brother, Murong Yan looked up as if she had suddenly thought of something. “Speaking of the Prince Yu’s Manor, I do indeed need to make a trip back.” Her eyes darkened.
“Really? You’re coming back?”
Not expecting his meimei to answer this way, Murong Can said with some excitement, “Then I’ll have someone tidy up your courtyard when I go back later. When you come back in a few days, you can…”
“I can actually go now, no need to wait a few days.” Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Murong Yan raising her hand. “There’s no need to tidy up the courtyard either. I’m very fast.”
Murong Can was a little confused by his meimei’s words, but he still obediently supported the still-weak Murong Yan, and they boarded a horse carriage and headed for the Prince Yu’s Manor.
Murong Yan, whose body was inconvenienced, did not have the coachman stop at a side gate closer to her or her brother’s courtyard. Instead, she got out of the carriage at the main gate of the Prince’s Manor and, leading Hu’er, walked slowly towards the main hall.
Inside, Murong Wen, who was at home with nothing to do, and his mother Concubine Liu’s son, Murong Fu, were drinking tea and chatting idly. Murong Yan did not send anyone to announce her arrival; she just suddenly entered the door, walked directly to the empty head seat3, and silently sat down. Hu’er padded over and obediently lay down at the woman’s feet.
As the only Di4 daughter of the Prince and a Commandery Princess personally enfeoffed by the late emperor, in terms of etiquette, she was indeed nobler than anyone present.
Moreover, the newly enthroned Murong Wan had also once personally ordered everyone to treat Murong Yan as his own elder sister, to honor her and respect her.
“Meimei…”
Seeing his Di meimei’s expressionless face, with a ferocious, now-grown beast crouching beside her, Murong Wen swallowed, feeling nervous inside. “Why didn’t you say anything before coming home?”
Tilting her head slightly, Murong Yan’s tone was faint. “This Palace is returning to her own home. Do I need to get Ah Wen-xiong’s5 permission?”
“No, no, no, how could that be possible.” Sweat beaded on Murong Wen’s forehead as he hurriedly waved his hands. “I was just a little surprised, that’s all.”
Murong Yan’s lips curled up slightly, but there was nothing in her eyes but ridicule. “This Palace has recovered and returned to the manor. Why does Ah Wen-xiong seem not very happy?”
Without waiting for the stammering man to answer, she added, “Seeing that This Palace has recovered, His Majesty the Emperor was so happy that he has given This Palace full authority to handle the punishment for the Deposed Crown Prince.”
Hearing these words, Murong Wen frowned and asked haltingly, “Is that so… Then how does Meimei plan to deal with the Crown… the Deposed Crown Prince…?”
“How should This Palace deal with him…?”
Her fingers tapped lightly on the mahogany table. Murong Yan pretended to ponder while observing the man’s reaction. “The Deposed Crown Prince plotted rebellion and usurped the throne, committing such a monstrous crime. Naturally, he should be given the death penalty.”
“No, no, no, you mustn’t. How can His Highness the Crown Prince be executed?” Murong Wen’s eyes widened in panic. “Meimei must think it over carefully.”
Adding water to the teapot at her side and heating it, Murong Yan sneered, her face dark as she spoke, “The Deposed Crown Prince did such an unconscionable thing, nearly taking This Palace’s life, and Ah Wen-xiong still chooses to plead for him?”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop by several degrees.
“His Highness the Crown Prince is the Empress’s son, born of the legitimate line. Even if his methods were a bit radical, this throne originally belonged to him.” The man stood up nervously, hoping to get a response from his indifferent Di meimei, but Murong Yan did not look up, merely staring at her own fingers.
After a long while, she looked up and, as if she had thought of something funny, let out a chuckle. “So this is the reason why Ah Wen-xiong helped the Deposed Crown Prince?”
The mocking expression on the woman’s face was plain to see. “Because he is of the legitimate line, he can do anything? Ridiculous. You yourself are clearly just a Shu6. Ah Wen-xiong’s pedantry has truly been an eye-opener for This Palace.”
“This… I…”
“How did the Deposed Crown Prince persuade you that day, to make you willingly reveal This Palace’s whereabouts and withdraw the guards at Cangyue Tower?”
Murong Yan’s tone was nonchalant, but her eyes were fixed on the anxious man. “Did the Deposed Crown Prince tell you he wanted to talk with his meimei? Or, did the Deposed Crown Prince directly tell you he wanted to kill This Palace?”
Murong Wen wanted to argue, but the tiger lying on the floor suddenly raised its head.
Hu’er, who had never liked Murong Wen and his father, stared at him intently, as if eyeing delicious prey, revealing its sharp, snow-white teeth.
The timid man’s hair stood on end, his legs trembled, and he could not help but blurt out, “I… I, I really didn’t think at the time that he would want to kill you…”
“What!”
Leaning against the doorframe, Murong Can heard his Shu xiong’s words, which were a roundabout admission of what he had done, and his eyes widened in disbelief. “So it was you! How dare you…”
During the days Murong Yan was unconscious, he had pondered day and night, investigating repeatedly, but just could not figure out who had managed to let the Deposed Crown Prince get close to his meimei.
Hearing this today, the culprit was not a spy in the army, nor a remnant of the rebel faction, but this Shu xiong who prattled on about pedantic literature all day and idled about at home.
Murong Can was overcome with anger, devoid of his usual gentleness. He strode forward, grabbed the trembling Murong Wen, and seized him by the collar. “Are you insane… How dare you? On what grounds? Who gave you the nerve… How dare you do this to Yue’er?”
“Brother, don’t get excited.”
Watching with cold eyes, Murong Yan slowly poured tea for herself while saying sarcastically, “Ah Wen-xiong is always unwilling to appear inferior in front of us, but who would have known? In this Prince’s Manor, the person who cares most about the distinction between Di and Shu is also him.”
He had clearly always put on the airs of an elder brother since childhood, unwilling to accept his identity as a Shu son.
After growing up, he was outshone by more than a head by his younger brother, who was brave and skilled in battle and had been bestowed the name of Ever-Victorious General. So, in order to protect that fragile self-esteem, he began to style himself a man of letters, calling those national-protecting martial generals who were wrapped in a horse’s hide7 as barbaric, reckless brutes.
Now, just because the Deposed Crown Prince was born of the Empress, he foolishly pledged loyalty to him, thinking he was on the righteous path and dreaming of the merit of following the dragon8, yet he did not have that kind of decisiveness, being half up, not down9.
Sour pedants10 and old scholars are not as stinky as him. Thinking about it is truly laughable.
Taking a sip, Murong Yan found the tea unbearably bad to drink. Frowning, she casually tossed it onto the ground.
Her gaze swept faintly over Concubine Liu and Murong Fu, who had been quiet as a chicken11 from beginning to end with pale faces. Murong Yan slowly stood up. As she passed by her Shu xiong, she spoke, “Ah Wen-xiong, This Palace looks down on you merely because you are incompetent and ignorant. It has nothing to do with being Shu or not Shu.”
Without a sideways glance, not even giving a single look to the man whose face was turning blue as he was held by the collar, she departed with the huge tiger, not looking back.
Behind her came the sounds of several punches landing on flesh and Murong Wen’s painful wails. The woman was not moved in the slightest. She called for the coachman, intending to return to Changning Palace.
Her straight back slumped, and she wearily pinched the bridge of her nose. Murong Yan sat in the horse carriage, leaning listlessly against the door panel.
She knew that her brother would absolutely not tolerate this any longer this time. Towards the Shu xiong who had crossed the bottom line and almost indirectly killed her, that little bit of remaining affection, that so-called brotherly friendship and brotherly respect12, could be said to have been completely worn away.
Her protective brother would not let Brother Murong Wen have an easy time.
If he couldn’t beat him up at home, her brother and those hot-tempered colleagues of his did not seem like the type who had not done things like covering someone with a burlap sack in a small alley.
Moreover, based on Murong Wen’s foolish actions this time, being driven out of the Prince’s Manor, removed from the family genealogy, or even being executed as an accomplice of the Deposed Crown Prince, were all possible.
And even if Prince Yu was partial, as long as the crime of treason was involved, he could not say anything.
But even so, Murong Yan felt no joy at having caught the traitor in the manor. Her expression was still without much ripple, and the bottom of her heart was still empty.
As if sensing the woman’s desolation, Hu’er, who was curled up in the carriage, propped itself up on its front legs and licked Murong Yan’s palm comfortingly.
The tongue covered in barbs scraped the soft skin, causing a little pain, but Murong Yan did not care at all, merely stroking its head gently.
“Tell me, where could your master be?” Looking at the beast before her, who did not understand human speech but was loyal, the woman asked.
“I really, really miss her.”
LP: Re-translated on August 31, 2025
Footnotes
- 与庶不庶的无关 (Yǔ shù bù shù de wúguān): Literally “Has nothing to do with being shu or not shu”. 庶 (shù) refers to a child born of a concubine, as opposed to 嫡 (dí), the legitimate child born of the principal wife. In ancient Chinese society, the distinction was crucial for matters of inheritance, status, and social standing. The title plays on this social hierarchy.
- 两 (liǎng): A traditional Chinese unit of weight. In modern usage, it is standardized to 50 grams. Historically, its value varied, but it was typically around 37-40 grams. It is one-tenth of a jin (斤).
- 上首 (shàngshǒu): The head seat or seat of honor, typically the one facing the entrance, reserved for the person of the highest status.
- 嫡 (dí): Refers to the child born of the official, principal wife. This status conferred legitimacy and primary inheritance rights over children born of concubines (庶, shù).
- 兄 (Ā Wèn xiōng): Ah Wen-xiong. 阿 (Ā) is a familiar prefix for names. 兄 (xiōng) means elder brother. This is a form of address for Murong Wen.
- 庶 (shù): Refers to a child born of a concubine. As a Shu son, Murong Wen’s status is inherently lower than that of his Di siblings, Murong Yan and Murong Can.
- 马革裹尸 (mǎ gé guǒ shī): A chengyu (four-character idiom). Literally “to be wrapped in a horse’s hide”. It means to die on the battlefield and have one’s body brought back wrapped in a horse’s hide; a glorious death for a warrior.
- 从龙之功 (cóng lóng zhī gōng): The merit of following the dragon. An idiom referring to the great merit and rewards gained by being an early supporter of a new emperor who successfully ascends the throne (the “dragon”).
- 半上不下 (bàn shàng bù xià): An idiom meaning to be in an awkward, indecisive, or stuck position; unable to advance or retreat.
- 酸儒 (suānrú): Sour scholar/pedant. A derogatory term for a stubborn, bookish, and impractical scholar who is often seen as arrogant and out of touch with reality.
- 安静如鸡 (ānjìng rú jī): A modern Chinese internet slang phrase. Literally “quiet as a chicken”. It means to be utterly silent, often out of fear, intimidation, or embarrassment.
- 兄友弟恭 (xiōng yǒu dì gōng): A chengyu meaning “the elder brother is friendly, the younger brother is respectful”. It describes the ideal harmonious relationship between brothers.
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