The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 63
by Little PandaMy Peony Flower
At Changning Palace, a huge tiger lay prone on the long corridor, yawning as it watched the winter snow flutter outside.
Inside the room, three to five jade vases held several blooming plum blossoms, but even so, the fragrance of the flowers was still unable to cover up the thick smell of Chinese medicine in the room.
On the bed, Ming Qin had just been force-fed a spirit-calming soup medicine1, and was now in a rare, deep sleep.
Looking at the unconscious person lying in her own bedding, whose tightly closed eyelids concealed Ming Qin’s always pure and clear eyes, Murong Yan sat down by the bed, her fingers lovingly and gently stroking her cheek.
Her fingertips slid over several whitish scars on Ming Qin’s face; even though the wounds had healed, they still had a clear color difference from her original skin tone, breaking the originally delicate and clean appearance of her face.
Seeing Ming Qin’s side profile in her field of vision, the originally soft auricle was gone, and on her right ear, only a pitch-black hole remained. Murong Yan still felt no fear, only stroking it with heartache and affection, her fingertips circling the wound.
Ming Qin’s tightly pressed lips were a deathly pale, completely without the color of blood; only the corners of her mouth were slightly torn from being fed daily, showing an eye-catching red.
Murong Yan tucked the hair at her forehead behind her ear, bent down, and gently pressed her lips, which were coated with lip rouge, onto hers, slowly rubbing them.
A bitter medicinal smell and the aura of sickness emanated from the mouth of the person who had been in a coma for a long time, but the woman did not mind, only using her warm lips to evenly apply the lip color, extremely carefully, for fear of hurting her beloved person.
Little by little, the original light rubbing turned into fine, sipping kisses, making suggestive sounds in the room where there were no outsiders.
With one hand on Ming Qin’s shoulder, Murong Yan’s clothed upper body lay prone on the bed. The iron lock that bound Ming Qin dug into her waist and abdomen, causing some pain, but she still paid it no mind, only pressing herself tightly against her.
The so-called story of 『Sleeping Beauty』 that she had heard from Song Shuqing, although strange, seeing how she swore by it, Murong Yan could only believe.
No.
It was that she had to believe.
Ah Qin, you are my most cherished person.
Without a doubt.
So I can awaken you, right?
Murong Yan’s hand wrapped around the waist of the person in her arms, her face resting against her neck, as if to ease the feeling of suffocation in her heart, taking in large gulps of air.
When you wake up, we will escape from here.
Escape this place that triggers my nightmares day and night.
This time, we must be together. Wherever we go, we must go together.
Her fingers touched Ming Qin’s collarbone, stroking it back and forth.
She leaned her body closer, as if wanting to merge into one with Ming Qin.
Suddenly hearing footsteps in the corridor, after two knocks on the door, 『dong dong』, Song Shuqing walked in.
Murong Yan, who had originally heard the sound, propped herself up, protecting the Ming Qin beneath her in her embrace. Her white hair fell loose, her eyes staring coldly in the direction of the newcomer.
After seeing clearly that it was Song Shuqing, her tense body finally relaxed.
“It’s you.” Murong Yan glanced at Song Shuqing and then ignored her, not caring about the woman’s gaze, and lowered her head to lovingly kiss Ming Qin’s forehead. “No wonder Hu’er would let you come in.”
She never liked to be disturbed, especially when Ming Qin was in a rare, peaceful sleep, and she herself could touch her.
“…Commandery Princess.”
“You’d better not have Hu’er stand guard. Just now, Imperial Physician Wang was still telling me that he’s scared to death every time he comes for a diagnosis.” Song Shuqing opened the medicine box in her hand and took out gauze and medicinal plaster. “Besides, you yourself are half a patient, letting others help you take care of Qinqin…”
“Not needed.”
Rejecting coldly, Murong Yan got up and took the things from Song Shuqing’s hands, bending over to carefully apply them to Ming Qin’s red and swollen limbs. “There is no need to use the hands of others. Besides, I don’t want other people touching Ah Qin.”
The movements of her hands did not stop. Murong Yan just silently raised her eyes, looking at Song Shuqing as if in warning, seeming to say that allowing her to come near was already an act of mercy beyond the law.
Looking at the obvious dark circles under the noble Commandery Princess’s eyes, who bent her body day and night to watch over and care for her beloved person, Song Shuqing sighed helplessly and murmured in a low voice, “You two really are a pair.”
Fortunately, Qinqin’s body was indeed improving. The number of times she groaned in pain slowly decreased, and more often, with the help of the calming soup, she just lay there peacefully, no longer struggling.
Next, it could only depend on Qinqin’s own fortune.
“Regarding the Deposed Crown Prince.”
Speaking of proper business, Song Shuqing respectfully cupped her hands. “It has already been handled according to your instructions…”
Murong Yan looked at the person beneath her, her eyes full of affection, absent-minded toward the report from the person at her side, only asking faintly, “How long did he last?”
“In the barn with the bull in heat, he didn’t last half a shichen2. Afterward, he was kept alive with medicine…” Song Shuqing recalled those dense, fish-scale-like, bloody knife marks, while pinching her fingers. “He had not yet reached a thousand cuts3; he breathed his last upon the three hundredth.”
“Only three hundred? Was the remainder completed?” Her palm resting on Ming Qin’s face, Murong Yan’s expression was peaceful, as if she were just asking if the weather was good.
“It was completed. The corpse has already been cremated to ash.” Song Shuqing explained, then scratched her head. “It’s just that tomorrow is Chuxi4, so wait until the day after tomorrow, and I will dispatch people to send it out of the capital city to be scattered in the mountain forests.”
As a former hard-working wage earner, she really didn’t want her subordinates to have to work overtime during the New Year.
“So it’s already Chuxi…”
Muttering with lowered eyes, Murong Yan turned her head towards Song Shuqing and said, “Thank you, you did very well, you may go down.”
Facing such an obvious intention to see a guest out, Song Shuqing rubbed her nose and picked up her medicine box. Before opening the door, she suddenly said, “If you are going home tomorrow for the festival, you can let me come over. In any case, I’m just idle in the palace.”
Murong Yan did not answer, only letting Song Shuqing leave.
She looked at the person before her, buried her head in Ming Qin’s chest, her hands tightly clutching her lapels, and murmured in a low voice.
“Besides being by Ah Qin’s side, where else is there a place that can be called home…”
Ming Qin was falling.
Or perhaps she was not.
But the light before her eyes faded, growing smaller and smaller, and farther and farther away from her.
In a stretch of silence, memories sealed in dust suddenly poured into her mind, so distant that even she did not know if they were real.
『Where’s the money? The family has no more money?』
『You took the last remaining money to buy wine yesterday.』
『Aren’t there still some things in the house? Take them to pawn for money?』
『But… I’ve already pawned all of my bracelets…』
『How are you so useless, now not only is there no money to buy wine, we can’t even buy firewood for the winter! We definitely can’t get by now.』
『You can’t drink anymore, maybe go help escort a shipment, the family still has three children to raise…』
『Go, sell the girl-child.』
『What?! But… but she’s so small, even a qinglou5 won’t want her.』
『Are you telling me to throw away our son?』
『I…』
『Just find a random place and throw her away!』
So dark.
So cold.
Ming Qin did not know if it was because of the piercing cold of winter, or because of this unpleasant memory, that made her feel a heart-rending, lung-tearing pain throughout her entire body.
It was as if she had fallen into a lake, things that did not belong to her surging into her lungs. Her nasal cavity ached, causing her to cough uncontrollably, but with every cough, more water scrambled to pour in, making her feel as though her chest was about to explode.
She wanted to make a sound, to call for help, but found that opening her mouth only caused the air in her lungs to disappear like a fish blowing bubbles, in exchange for only more coldness, more pain.
The long-absent, intense pain made Ming Qin think of the past, a time when her broken self could still feel pain.
How did she endure it back then?
By gritting her teeth and holding on?
But now she was in too much pain to hold on, so what should she do?
Give up.
Only continue to sink, can only continue to sink.
Something coiled around her feet, pulling Ming Qin slowly downward, into the abyss.
She did not care, and closed her eyes.
Anyway, everything within my sight is already pitch-black, isn’t it?
『Ah Qin.』
『Ah Qin.』
『Live on.』
『For my sake, live on.』
A woman’s voice sounded. Ming Qin, whose consciousness was covered by a layer of fog, did not know who it was, only feeling as if from a long, long time ago, this familiar voice had already penetrated deep into her heart.
Following the calls, one after another, she felt as though she was being embraced, being kissed. In the darkness where she was clearly all alone, that little bit of warmth was so very precious.
Twelve years old.
Red.
Candy.
The images in her mind gradually became clear.
It was as if she had returned to that year, nestled in the embrace of the woman in red. Under the moonlight, she was like a salvation descended from heaven, carrying a bright and brilliant light, driving away the endless pain of a self that was like a sewer rat.
Perhaps when she had dazedly looked at that person’s glistening eyes, and was fed a sweet rice candy with a smile, her young self had already fallen, and had handed over a piece of her true heart.
Her fragmented consciousness pieced together memories, frame by frame gradually clearing, mixed with the calls coming from above, again and again. Ming Qin struggled to open her eyes, tilting her head up, wanting to see that single point of light clearly.
It was Yanyan.
That one and only, the only person she placed in her heart, who became her reason for living, from beginning to end, was always Yanyan.
Her peony flower.
…Was she crying?
A sour, suppressed, heart-wrenching sob.
『Ah Qin, I miss you so much.』
Don’t cry.
『Ah Qin, don’t leave me.』
My peony flower, my light, don’t cry.
『Don’t die.』
Ming Qin wanted to speak to comfort her, but the moment she opened her mouth, she was swallowed by water. The words welling up from the depths of her heart could not be conveyed.
Yanyan, don’t cry.
Although she was deeply submerged, Ming Qin still knew the woman was shedding tears, was wailing in grief. That feeling broke her heart, far more unbearable than the pain in her body.
She wanted to wipe away her tears, wanted to hold her and gently coax her, wanted to kiss away the tears meandering down her cheeks.
But reaching out her hand, Ming Qin discovered just how helpless her continuously falling self was.
The distance grew farther and farther, but the calls by her ear grew clearer and clearer, every one making her heart tremble.
This won’t do.
I can’t bear it, I cannot bear to leave a crying Yanyan alone.
Struggling in the water, Ming Qin felt her soul being pulled, as if it were being split in two, but she still tried hard to reclaim control of her body.
Ming Qin’s mind was filled with only one person, driving her to break free from her bonds, resisting, fighting with all her might.
Yanyan.
Stop crying.
Finally, perhaps because of her will that would rather die than submit, or perhaps because the voice calling out was too sorrowful, the thing coiled around her ankle loosened slightly.
Seizing the opportunity, Ming Qin immediately and tenaciously resisted. The moment she was free, she swept her arms upward.
Towards the point of light, striving to get closer, she felt her body slowly floating up.
She looked up.
Yanyan, wait for me.
Don’t cry anymore.
LP: Re-translated on September 05, 2025
Footnotes
- 安神的汤药 (ānshén de tāngyào): Literally “spirit-calming soup medicine.” A type of traditional Chinese medicinal decoction designed to calm the mind, soothe nerves, and induce sleep.
- 时辰 (shíchen): A traditional Chinese unit of time, equal to two hours.
- 千刀 (qiāndāo): Literally “thousand cuts.” This refers to 凌迟 (língchí), translated as “death by a thousand cuts” or “the slow slice.” It was a form of execution used in China, reserved for heinous crimes, involving the methodical removal of portions of the body over an extended period.
- 除夕 (chúxī): Literally “evening of elimination/passing.” This is the term for Chinese New Year’s Eve, the final day of the lunar year.
- 青楼 (qīnglóu): Literally “green/blue-green houses/towers.” Originally referring to the lavish homes of the wealthy, the term later became a poetic euphemism for high-class brothels or houses of courtesans.
Yay she’s waking up at last! Although usually I don’t think you’re supposed to go towards the light lol
Thanks for the chapter! But also when I clicked on chapter 63 on novelupdates I think it went into your account? So um don’t know what’s up with that
Hi! Thanks for pointing that out! I checked it out, and that was dangerous. It was a caching error that was causing it. If it happened again, feel free to point it out!
Despertó, despertó!!! Tu puedes qin qin! Puedes llegar a Yan yan!!! Tengo fe!!
Yay she’s waking up at last! Although usually I don’t think you’re supposed to go towards the light lol
Thanks for the chapter! But also when I clicked on chapter 63 on novelupdates I think it went into your account? So um don’t know what’s up with that
Hi! Thanks for pointing that out! I checked it out, and that was dangerous. It was a caching error that was causing it. If it happened again, feel free to point it out!
Despertó, despertó!!! Tu puedes qin qin! Puedes llegar a Yan yan!!! Tengo fe!!
Qin Qin starting to hear yan yan is probably a sign that she is starting to regain her senses
Qin Qin starting to hear yan yan is probably a sign that she is starting to regain her senses