The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 66

The Ugly State of Having One’s Head Muddled by Jealousy​¹

Murong Yan hurriedly passed through the screen wanting to comfort her beloved person, when a figure, fumbling about its surroundings somewhat uneasily, appeared in her field of vision.

The unlined garment​² on Ming Qin’s body had been pushed off halfway, and the exposed back was covered with scars, some deep and some shallow, making one who saw it feel uncontrollably distressed.

            

“Is anyone there? Why has everyone disappeared?” She frowned slightly, seeming to be troubled by why the serving girl beside her had vanished just like that.

One hand was touching the edge of the bathing tub​³, while the other hand waved in the air; with every step she took, the iron lock on her right ankle would emit a crisp clanking sound.

“Ah! It’s the scent of Yanyan.”

            

Ming Qin, whose eyes were closed, suddenly revealed a brilliant smile. The wings of her nose twitched slightly, and the apprehension on her face receded. “It’s Yanyan, isn’t it?”

Smelling the familiar fragrance, she turned her head in the direction where Murong Yan was.

“Yanyan, where did you just go? Where are you… wu.”

            

Ming Qin was about to reach forward, but was suddenly pulled into an embrace by the woman. The unexpected hug, accompanied by inertia, made the unseeing Shadow Guard habitually retreat. Unexpectedly, she stepped on the iron lock by her feet and, in a moment of inattention, fell into the bathing tub full of hot water, taking Murong Yan with her.

Even so, she still carefully protected the woman, allowing herself to become a soft cushion for the person on top of her. After absorbing the impact, she raised her hands, gently fumbling over Murong Yan’s body as she asked worriedly, “Yanyan, did you get bumped anywhere? Does it hurt?”

Murong Yan straddled Ming Qin’s waist, looking at the clothes before her that had not yet been fully removed, now clinging wetly to the body. The white unlined garment was soaked by the water, becoming transparent.

            

“Ah Qin…” Extending a hand to brace herself on Ming Qin’s shoulder, she looked down.

“Where did you let people touch you just now?”

Ever since Ming Qin had moved into Changning Palace, everything had been personally taken care of by Murong Yan.

            

From major things like changing clothes and bathing, down to small things like every ladle of water and every meal.

Her attachment to and possessiveness of Ming Qin made her forbid anyone from getting close.

“Where did those people touch you?” Murong Yan leaned in close to the corner of the person’s lips before her, murmuring in a low voice as she caressed them.

            

She did not trace characters in her palm, merely unable to stop herself from questioning aloud, followed by a kiss as if marking her territory, because Murong Yan did not want Ming Qin to know about her ugly state of having her head muddled by jealousy.

Deeply afraid that the person on top of her would get cold, Ming Qin pulled the person in her arms tighter, letting the water submerge the woman’s shoulders, obediently allowing her lips to be plundered.

Even though she felt like she was being torn at and bitten, Ming Qin remained completely unaware of Murong Yan’s abnormality, merely enduring it quietly while slipping the unlined garment off her arms.

            

Murong Yan’s hands caressed Ming Qin’s cheeks, but her fingers inadvertently touched an ear piercing where the auricle was missing. The uneven scar left by the wound made her come back to her senses.

“Where did Yanyan go just now? Was it to see Hu’er?”

Feeling her lips being released, Ming Qin, with a vacant gaze, tilted her head and guessed, “I smelled Hu’er’s scent just now… wu, and also mung bean cake. Did Yanyan eat mung bean cake just now?”

            

Ignoring Ming Qin’s question, Murong Yan took a deep breath and grabbed her palm, writing something on it.

“En… Why let the serving girl? Ah, is Yanyan asking why I let the serving girl help me bathe first?”

Ming Qin patiently felt the characters the woman wrote on her hand, and then answered, “When I mentioned the fragrant balm just now… you seemed to get angry. I wondered if the medicinal smell on my body was unpleasant… and bothered you, so I wanted to wash myself to be a bit more fragrant before you came back.”

            

“I’m sorry… Is Yanyan, are you still angry?”

Asking cautiously, Ming Qin furrowed her brow, her face full of concern, as if terrified of provoking the woman’s dislike or displeasure.

“If I did something wrong, just tell me, and I will change. Yanyan, don’t be unhappy…”

            

The person who could not see fumbled her way up the woman’s arm to her face, wanting to discern her expression.

“I’m not angry, I’m not angry with Ah Qin.” Murong Yan looked at the person before her; that earnest appearance, that caring look, filled the anxiety and emptiness within her that had been born from jealousy. It was as if all the wild turmoil in her heart was smoothed over in an instant, leaving only tender affection.

She grasped the hand pressed against her cheek, and instead of writing on it, she just kissed it delicately, as if she were simultaneously comforting her and conveying her own helplessness at being unable to ever stay angry with the person before her.

            

Traveling up along the wrist, Murong Yan’s lips pressed against the hollow of Ming Qin’s neck.

Her fingers encircled Ming Qin’s back. Because of the many days she had been in a coma, the Shadow Guard’s originally lean and solid muscles had atrophied considerably, and she had become more gaunt. Each and every one of her vertebrae protruded distinctly, reddened slightly from bumping against the wooden bathing tub.

Helping the person half-lying beneath her to sit up, Murong Yan’s fingers touched the sunken scar on Ming Qin’s right shoulder. It was like a giant, flesh-colored poisonous spider crawling on her shoulder—ferocious and horrifying.

            

Murong Yan knew clearly how the scar on Ming Qin’s shoulder had been obtained; it was during a winter she could never forget, in the forest that always disturbed her deep sleep when she revisited it in her dreams at midnight.

She undid the clothes on her own body. The red silk outer robe, embroidered with exquisite patterns, floated limply like that, mixed with the white unlined garment, bobbing up and down on the surface of the water.

The water in the bathing tub was still warm, allowing the person soaking in it to relax their body and mind, their consciousness drifting away.

            

But even so, the two of them still embraced tightly in the water, their skin pressed together more scorching than the steaming water.

The steam, mixed with the fragrance of crushed flower petals, could not be contained even by the screen, and it scattered throughout the entire room.

After a long while, worried about the water temperature that was turning slightly cool, Ming Qin, who could not hear anything, spoke to the person lying limp on her body, “Yanyan will get cold, the water is cool.”

            

Lifting her right arm from the water to rest it on Ming Qin’s shoulder, her fingertips reflecting a sparkle brighter than water droplets, the hoarse-throated Murong Yan’s eyes brimmed with tears as she slowly used her left hand to write characters below the collarbone of the person before her.

“Rest?” Ming Qin understood, and she obediently hugged the woman sitting on her, who had not yet recovered her senses, even tighter, kissing her wet temple hair.

“Okay, then Yanyan can rest a little more.”

            

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March was a time of birdsong and fragrant flowers.

The iron lock on Ming Qin’s right foot was firmly looped around Murong Yan’s wrist. The two of them, with their fingers intertwined, strolled by the side of the fish pond in Changning Palace.

Sensing the scent of tender flower buds carried on the air, Ming Qin took a deep breath, feeling an inexplicable happiness in her heart.

            

This was the first time the two of them had walked so leisurely under the sun.

No mission, no pursuers, free.

After more than a month of recovery and self-training, Ming Qin had already regained twenty to thirty percent of her original martial strength. Deeply afraid that the woman beside her would feel tired, she carefully supported Murong Yan’s body, also allowing the woman to lead her as they walked aimlessly in the gentle breeze.

            

The warm sunlight shone on her face, and Ming Qin’s eyes inexplicably felt hot, involuntarily shedding physiological tears.

She blinked and looked up. Her originally pitch-black field of vision was as if the clouds had parted to reveal the sun; several beams of light pierced through the thick, dark clouds, bringing in the morning light.

Before her eyes, it was no longer dark…

            

Although she still could not see very clearly, she was already able to faintly distinguish outlines and colors.

The blue of the sky, the white of the clouds, the green of the forest trees—large blocks of color stacked up in what had been a dark field of vision, blurry but far better than nothing.

Ming Qin was overjoyed. She turned her head to look at the woman whose hand she held tightly beside her. Murong Yan’s fingers tucked the silver strands from her forehead behind her ear. Her white outer robe concealed her wrists, and on its wide cuffs were embroidered red flowers, one after another, so conspicuous that they swayed slightly with every movement and step.

            

Even being covered by a layer of mist could not hide Murong Yan’s beauty and radiance in Ming Qin’s eyes.

Just as the jubilant Shadow Guard was about to speak, she felt a long-absent, furry sensation in the palm of her left hand.

“Hu’er!”

            

The huge tiger nudged her palm, circled around to Ming Qin’s side, and stood up on its hind legs, propping its front paws up. Its sharp claws were retracted, merely resting its fleshy pads on her chest as it intimately raised its head to lick its beloved master’s chin.

“Hu’er, long time no see! You’ve gotten so big! Wait, don’t lick…” The barbs on the tiger’s tongue​⁴ scraped against Ming Qin’s face, making her unable to help but dodge. Feeling her center of gravity was a bit unstable, she consciously let go of the hand she held with Murong Yan and fell backward.

Sitting on the ground, Ming Qin dotingly stroked Hu’er’s furry head. Looking at the bright orange fur mixed with black before her, she couldn’t help but smile dotingly and ask, “Hu’er has grown up, hasn’t he? While I was away, did you listen properly to Yanyan’s words, hmm?”

            

Hu’er seemed to understand. As if to prove himself, he waved his somewhat rough, fleshy paws and responded with a low purr, continuously burrowing into the hollow of Ming Qin’s neck as if he had returned to the days when he was still a cub.

The two of them played and roughhoused on the ground, the chain clanking as it collided. The big tiger, having gone wild with play, was rolling about, swinging its thick, long tail, which swung heavily again and again, and was just about to hit the completely unaware Ming Qin.

“No, you can’t do that.”

            

Murong Yan, who had been smiling quietly at the side, suddenly spoke up, looking at the beast rolling on the ground. “Hu’er, quiet down a bit.”

The tiger, which was exposing its belly, immediately rolled over and stood up the moment it heard the woman speak. Its high spirits cooled, and it drooped its head like a child who had done something wrong, secretly watching Murong Yan’s expression.

“Good boy. No more playing, go and eat.” Her tone was gentle, yet it felt as though it allowed no questioning. Murong Yan nodded at Hu’er, gesturing.

            

The majestic tiger snorted lightly in dissatisfaction, its tail drooping dejectedly. It looked reluctantly at Ming Qin sitting beside it, yet it still remembered to obey Murong Yan’s command. It lifted its paws and started walking toward the palace interior, looking back with every step, slowly leaving with a patter patter.

“What’s wrong with Hu’er? Why did he suddenly leave?” Ming Qin, who could not hear anything, patted the dust off her clothes, stood up, and asked in confusion.

Taking Ming Qin’s hand, Murong Yan tidied her messy hair, and then patiently wrote something on her palm.

            

“Oh, so he was hungry, I see.” Ming Qin felt Murong Yan’s answer and did not doubt it. “He doesn’t even forget to eat when he’s playing with me; no wonder he could grow so big.”

Murong Yan smiled and picked a flower petal off the Shadow Guard’s shoulder.

The two’s hands clasped tightly once more as they continued to stroll under the sunlight along the unfinished cobblestone path.

            

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The author has something to say:

The main text will be completed on Christmas Day~

I originally thought that if I finished writing the main text quickly, I could get to sleep sooner. Writing novels is really so tiring. Little did I know that the Shijie’s extra story would keep running around in my head… It’s really one wave has not yet subsided, and another has risen​一波未平一波又起 (yī bō wèi píng, yī bō yòu qǐ): A Chinese idiom (chengyu) that literally means “one wave has not yet subsided, and another has risen.” It is used to describe a situation where one problem is solved, only for another to appear immediately after, indicating a continuous series of troubles or events./efn_note

            

The Shijie’s story will probably be about ten chapters long (Damn it! That’s way too many, right? I’ve obviously already deleted and cut many parts)

I hope everyone can receive a Christmas present they like~

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LP: Re-translated on September 12, 2025

            

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