The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 72
by Little PandaShijie Arc, Chapter Two
Life credo: helping others is joy1 (resolving a predicament)
“Strange, why would I suddenly dream of the past…”
Rubbing her eyes, Song Shuqing woke in a room that felt both familiar and unfamiliar. She turned her head and only then remembered she had come to listen to Zi Yan play the qin.
Looks like she’d drifted off without noticing…
With the teahouse drawing more customers, and Qinqin about to head off on her honeymoon, trying to manage everything with just herself and Ah Yun really was a bit tiring after all. Looked like she needed to hire a few more hands…
The Shadow Guard robe draped over her carried a trace of fragrance unique to the huakui. Sitting up, Song Shuqing glanced around but didn’t see the room’s owner.
Zi Yan had probably gone downstairs…
After all, she was the headliner with the finest qin music in Chunfeng House2; it was normal to be busy.
Near sunset, she stretched, flipped herself out the window, grabbed the tiles, and dropped to the ground in a couple of nimble moves—and was just about to leave when a commotion sounded at the mouth of the alley.
A woman as lazy and cool-tempered as she was normally couldn’t be bothered, but when a familiar voice cut through the noise, Song Shuqing couldn’t help stopping.
“Hong’er3, don’t make a scene…”
“I thought you were working as a maid in a wealthy household. I never thought you’d actually be so shameless as to be a prosti—tute?”
“Hong’er… let’s not block the main entrance. Let’s go inside and talk it through, all right?”
“Hmph! I’m a dignified xiucai4. How could you expect me to set foot in this filthy place?”
As more and more onlookers gathered, the clear, pretty lines of Zi Yan’s face flushed slightly; shame and helplessness welled up inside her.
“At least not here—be good, Hong’er…” She reached to take hold of her younger brother’s sleeve, but the man dodged as if avoiding some kind of contagion, and with a backhand swing was about to shove the frail woman away.
『SLAP』
Just before his hand could touch the huakui, a woman sprang out of nowhere and smacked it aside.
“So a xiucai’s idea of manliness is hitting women, huh?” One hand shielding Zi Yan behind her, Song Shuqing covered her mouth with faux surprise. “The world really is full of wonders. I’ve learned something new today.”
Hand stinging, the man glared at the woman smiling falsely at him and growled, “Who are you? This is family business. Butt out!”
“Aiya, that’s where you’re mistaken. The moment you bring it to my doorstep, it becomes my business!” The Shadow Guard narrowed her eyes to slits, though there wasn’t a hint of laughter in them. “After all, I’m ever so warm‑hearted—my life credo is helping others is joy.”
Babbling any old nonsense, Song Shuqing tilted her head, subconsciously revealing four or five plain, long black hairpins in her coiffure.
“You…” He’d never seen a woman this sharp‑tongued. The man in cyan stomped his foot, just about to snap back.
“Hong’er!”
“Hong’er, don’t—not in front of this honored one—please don’t in front of this honored one…” Clutching Song Shuqing’s sleeve, Zi Yan raised her voice to scold, her body trembling slightly. She pulled a pouch of silver from her sleeve. “Enough, Hong’er. Take it. When you’ve calmed down, we’ll talk, all right?”
“I…” Staring at the heavy money pouch, the man swallowed, then suddenly drew a breath and slapped the woman’s hand away. Stubbornly, he said, “I don’t want your dirty money earned with your body!” He turned on his heel and stormed off.
Casting her gaze over the crowd of gawkers, Song Shuqing took off her own cloak and draped it over Zi Yan’s shoulders, then gently pulled up the hood to shield the woman’s bloodless face.
“All right, all right! What are you all rubbernecking at? Got nothing better to do? So free, are you?”
Looking exasperated, she waved a hand to shoo them, then picked up the pouch that had fallen to the ground and patted the dust off. “What, that mutt of a man doesn’t want the money, so I can’t take it? Money’s great—how could you let it lie on the ground?”
She pulled a face at a passerby who was staring and tucked the pouch into her own sleeve.
Stepping in front of the woman who was half a head shorter, as if to block the outside view, Song Shuqing lightly steadied Zi Yan by the shoulder, her voice warm. “Hey, Zi Yan…”
“I think I left something in your room. Can you come up with me to get it?”
The woman beneath the hood didn’t answer at once; she only stayed silent. Song Shuqing simply kept patiently waiting.
At length, once she seemed to have composed herself and stopped trembling, Zi Yan gave the slightest nod.
“Let’s go.” With her palm hovering lightly at the woman’s slender waist, Song Shuqing led her back into the building, step by step, slowly climbing the stairs.
When they reached the huakui’s own room, Song Shuqing lit the oil lamp, helped Zi Yan sit, and with a fingertip gently brushed her cheek in a comforting murmur: “Don’t mind it too much.”
Then she stepped back, tipped her head and smiled at Zi Yan as if for confirmation, and after one last long look, the Shadow Guard strode to the window and leapt out without hesitation, vanishing into the night.
Seeing the money pouch—at some unknown moment quietly set on the table, clearly her own—Zi Yan felt her nose sting.
Clutching the cloak Song Shuqing had left behind, she caught a faint tea fragrance, mingled with her own scent.
It was like this again…
She didn’t mind Zi Yan’s status in the least and always offered comfort when Zi Yan had no idea what to do…
That strange woman was always like that.
Feeling the lingering warmth on her cheek, Zi Yan remembered her first encounter with Song Shuqing.
It was the spring two years ago.
When she had gone out alone to buy powders and was threatened by four or five local thugs in broad daylight…
“Hey! Girl, you’re so pretty—come home with me and be my wife.” A man blocked Zi Yan’s way, bending down to try to see the face hidden beneath her hood.
“Bro, this girl looks real familiar to me,” another man said, hands in his pockets, eyes narrowed. “I think I saw her playing the qin at Chunfeng House?”
“Ohhh, so she sells her body. What a pity. Too cheap for my wife.” Putting on a regretful look, the man eyed Zi Yan up and down through her outer robe, as if appraising the figure beneath. “But if you beg me, maybe I’d let you be my little concubine and give you a title.”
Long used to such filthy language, Zi Yan didn’t want trouble. She silently held her newly bought face powders and rouge, lowered her head, and tried to slip past the men blocking her.
“What, still won’t answer?” Angered by the lack of response, the man flew into a rage, grabbed at the woman trying to leave, clamped down on her wrist, and tried to drag her into an alley. “I’m giving you face5 here!”
The rouge she’d just bought shattered on the ground and was ground into paste beneath their scuffling steps, turning filthy and ruined. Zi Yan stared at it all, numb…
No one would help her.
No one would be willing to offend a bunch of vicious hooligans for a woman of the dust6…
She had always known that…
Just endure it, just endure it…
“Hey! You lot.”
“A bunch of guys bullying a girl—are you even human?”
Suddenly, a lazy voice rang out—crystal clear amid the chorus of coarse male voices. Without waiting for an answer, it continued, self-Q&A style: “Right, just the scum of society. Maybe not human after all.”
The men turned their heads but saw no one at the alley’s mouth.
The mockery went on. “Hilarious. She didn’t ask you to marry her—acting like it’d be some huge sacrifice. What, you think you’re as beautiful as Xi Shi7? Like everyone’s dying to marry you?”
“Who’s there? Get out here!” the ringleader bellowed, face flushing.
“A girl earning an honest living, not stealing or robbing—and you ruffians try to force her, yet you think you’re somehow the upright ones? Who’s cheap, exactly?”
Unable to hold back a chuckle, the speaker turned to ask her companion, “Qinqin, do you think their brains have atrophied from disuse, so they only know how to think with what’s below the waist?”
At last realizing the jeers were coming from above, the men looked up to see two women in black cloaks standing on the roof tiles, their downcast faces full of disdain.
“Shijie, after all that talking, shouldn’t we get to it now?” The woman crouching on the eaves had her hair tied high, faint white scars tracing her face. Her eyes were guileless as she sought instruction from the person beside her.
Hands clasped behind her back, an excessive number of silver hairpins pinning her coiffure, the standing woman smiled. “Sure. I already used a magic attack to shatter their poor little self-esteem. Next, Qinqin can use a physical attack to shatter all their bones—so the next time they even think of taking liberties with someone, they’ll remember what happened today.”
At such outrageous words, the swaggering leader drew in breath to roar—when the woman with her hair up suddenly leapt down. Without drawing any weapon, just using the edge of her hand, she flickered through the alley in a few swift passes and knocked out the hulking ruffians.
Song Shuqing, a smile on her lips, hopped down as well—and happened to land squarely on the leader’s crotch. At the hog-slaughtering howl from beneath her, she covered her mouth in feigned alarm. “Oh no, my mistake. Didn’t see you there.”
Only after grinding her heel twice did she lift her foot and step away.
“Shijie, should I check next door for hemp rope? We can tie them up and send them to the yamen8?” Ming Qin regarded her shijie’s shameless antics without much reaction, just tilting her head to ask.
“Good idea. These ruffians have been giving them headaches for ages—we can consider it helping the young folks at the yamen pad their performance metrics9.” Hands behind her back, stepping over sprawled bodies, Song Shuqing looked gently to the still-shaking Zi Yan. “Are you all right?”
“Mm… I… I’m fine.” Clutching her reddened wrist to steady herself, Zi Yan bowed to the two. “Thank you, honored benefactors10, for saving my life. I have nothing with which to repay you…”
“No need to be so polite. They were an eyesore, we just lent a hand. But…”
Before Ming Qin—the one who’d actually done the hitting—could speak, Song Shuqing answered first, naturally taking the woman’s lightly trembling hand and patting her shoulder. “I heard you can play the qin. Do you play well?”
Feeling warmth spread from that palm, Zi Yan seemed to calm, her breath evening. “My qin craft… is passable.”
“Perfect!”
Sweeping the loose strands from in front of Zi Yan’s ear, Song Shuqing’s tone turned bright. “Then we won’t need any thank‑you gifts. If you have time, just let us listen to you play.” Paying no mind to Ming Qin, who’d done all the heavy lifting, she set the pact as casually as that.
Thinking of such a chaotic first meeting, Zi Yan couldn’t help pressing her lips together.
Even now, Song Shuqing still felt she’d found a great bargain back then—the chance to hear a masterful huakui play for free.
Little did she know, in Zi Yan’s heart, she was the one who had truly profited from the deal.
Whenever she saw Song Shuqing lose herself in the music, or dozing from exhaustion during a visit, or fawningly begging for mercy after her sharp tongue ran away from her, she always recalled the black-cloaked woman standing tall on the roof tiles, her heroic posture, valiant and brisk11.
The way she spoke up for Zi Yan without a care—seeming not only to rescue a body in peril but to save a heart long mired in self‑disgust.
Looking at the window that had never been locked these past two years, the huakui, alone in her room, pulled the cloak tighter around herself, as if persuading herself she was nestled in a warm embrace.
The author has something to say:
Zi Yan and Ming Qin are the same age, so she also calls her Qinqin.
Song Shuqing is five years older than Zi Yan, so Zi Yan still calls her Song-daren12 (of course, there are other reasons too~).
I’m currently traveling to rest up, but I still found myself typing even on the train… (facepalm, helpless)
At this level of obsession, I’m not sure whether it’s because I spoil you all too much or because the story in my head is controlling me (lol).
P.S. Oh, right, there’s no update tomorrow, but there will be one on Friday~
LP: Re-translated on October 15, 2025
Footnotes
- 助人为乐 | zhù rén wéi lè | A four-character idiom (chengyu). Literal: To help others is joy. It means one finds happiness and purpose in being altruistic.
- 春风楼 | chūnfēng lóu | Literally “Chunfeng Tower/House.” A proper name for an elegant pleasure house or high-class brothel where courtesans entertained guests with arts and companionship.
- 宏儿 | Hóng’er | A familiar address for a person named Hong (宏). The suffix 儿 (-er) is a diminutive that implies closeness and is often used by elders or intimates for a younger person.
- 秀才 | xiùcái | A degree holder in the imperial civil examination system of pre-modern China, having passed the county/prefectural level exams. It is the lowest scholarly rank, granting certain social prestige and privileges.
- 面子 | miànzi | Literally “face.” A core Chinese cultural concept representing a person’s social standing, reputation, prestige, and honor. Giving, saving, or losing face are critical to social interactions.
- 风尘女子 | fēngchén nǚzǐ | Literal: “woman of wind and dust.” A poetic euphemism for a prostitute or courtesan, evoking the transient, difficult, and so-called “unclean” nature of their lives in the public sphere.
- 西施 | Xī Shī | One of the legendary “Four Great Beauties” of ancient China, famed for her peerless beauty. Her name is used proverbially as the epitome of feminine beauty.
- 衙门 | yámén | The administrative office and/or courthouse of a local government official in imperial China. It served as the local seat of law enforcement and civil governance.
- 冲业绩 | chōng yèjì | Literally “to rush performance results.” Modern business slang for boosting sales figures or key performance indicators (KPIs), often through intensive short-term effort. Its use here is anachronistic for comedic effect.
- 贵人 | guìrén | Literally “noble person.” A respectful term for a benefactor, a person of high status, or someone who provides critical help, often implying they are a source of good fortune.
- 英姿飒爽 | yīng zī sà shuǎng | A four-character idiom (chengyu). Literal: heroic posture (英姿), brisk and valiant (飒爽). Used to describe someone with a dashing, heroic, and spirited martial bearing.
- 宋大人 | Sòng dàren | 大人 (dàren) is a respectful form of address for an official or person of high authority, roughly equivalent to “Lord/Lady” or “Honorable Sir/Madam.” The use of “Song-daren” indicates Zi Yan sees Shuqing in a position of authority or high status.
Now I’m rootinh for Zi Yan and Song Shu Qing
Now I’m rootinh for Zi Yan and Song Shu Qing