The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 73

Shijie Arc, Chapter Three

If anyone saw this, they’d think I was bullying you (comforting)

Song Shuqing, who was attending to customers in the teahouse, felt as busy as a flower butterfly.

            

Even though the spring temperature was comfortable, her forehead was beaded with a thin layer of sweat from running up and down.

Cao Yun, who had been out making a delivery, returned driving the horse-drawn carriage. Frowning with worry, she looked at the woman leaning against the counter, taking the opportunity to slack off. “Shimei, I just passed by Chunfeng Pavilion, and it looked like some people were gathered there making trouble. Even people from the magistrate’s office were there…”

“Chunfeng Pavilion?” Song Shuqing, who never stood with proper posture, suddenly lifted her head. Her expression sank as she asked with rare seriousness, “Are you talking about Zi Yan?”

            

Nodding, Cao Yun replied, “There were quite a few people, and it was hard for me to get close with the carriage. Shimei, maybe you should…”

“Got it!” Song Shuqing vaulted neatly over the counter and rushed outside without a backward glance. “Ah Yun, please watch the shop…”

She hurried toward Chunfeng Pavilion. Before she even got close, she saw the young man from yesterday leading government officers and roaring at the entrance to the brothel.

            

Recognizing the lead official as an acquaintance, Song Shuqing slipped through the crowd and called out, “Officer Li, what’s going on here?”

Ever since word got out that Commandery Princess Chongwen had taken up residence here, the nearby magistrate’s office had sent a group of people to the teahouse to pay respects at the pier​¹, and everyone had gotten familiar with each other as a result.

Especially in the last half year, with the help of the several 『former』 shadow guards, the region’s crime-solving rate and public order had seen astonishing improvement. The local officials all had to give Song Shuqing some face​².

            

The official surnamed Li turned around with a troubled look on his face. Seeing the familiar woman, he cupped his hands and explained in a low voice, “Song-daren​³, this man came to report early this morning that his sister had been abducted by the people of the brothel and wanted us to step in and help him bring her home.”

He scratched his head, his expression vexed. “But when we investigated, the indenture contract​⁴ is indeed valid, and it was indeed his sister who stamped her own fingerprint… We really have no reason to drag her away by force…”

“And what about Zi… his sister’s attitude?” Song Shuqing glanced at the man yelling and screaming at the entrance, feeling annoyed.

            

“That huakui​⁵ already came down and tried to persuade her younger brother to go home… but he’s still being relentless about it.”

Officer Li seemed to find it unbearable. He leaned in quietly and said to the woman beside him, “From what I heard of their conversation, it seems their family has a bunch of old and weak women and children to support. The brother is just a poor scholar who can’t earn much, so his sister had to sell herself to the brothel.”

“But that brother of hers speaks so nastily, saying he’d rather be poor than base, putting on a look of official hats and splendid halls​⁶…”

            

“Is that so?” Song Shuqing suddenly let out a soft, ambiguous laugh.

“Officer Li, take him and your men and leave in a moment. Don’t let them block the door and get in the way of business…” After giving these quiet instructions, the woman used her qinggong​⁷ and in a few moves arrived at the center of the crowd. Looking at the man before her who was still trying to force his way into Chunfeng Pavilion despite being held back, she grabbed him by the collar and threw him heavily to the ground.

“You… you, what are you trying to do now?” Recognizing her as the brutish woman from yesterday, the man, nicknamed Hong’er​⁸, scrambled to his feet, his neck flushed red.

            

“Do?”

With a cold laugh, Song Shuqing reached out and pushed the man, who had just gotten up, back to the ground. “Nothing? You just happened to be in my way, and I find you very annoying.”

“I’m telling you, how can people like you who always make things difficult for women be so shameless?”

            

“You’re the ones who love to take advantage, and you’re the ones who love to blindly condemn? On what grounds do you think you’re standing on the moral high ground, with the right to run your mouths at others?” Feeling inhumanly annoyed, Song Shuqing’s lips tightened into a thin line as she stepped on the base of the man’s thigh, her expression icy.

“Whether it’s ancient times or the twenty-first century, how is it that people like you are always emerging one after another?”

“What… what are you talking about?” The man cried out in pain, struggling to break free. “You crazy woman, let me go…”

            

“You want to take your sister, who you find disgraceful, back home? Fine, who’s going to pay the ridiculously high contract termination fee? And if you succeed in bringing her home, then what? You’ll lecture her every day about how she sold her body to support the family?”

The pressure from Song Shuqing’s foot grew heavier, merciless. “Besides, who’s going to cover the financial gap after that? Hmm? You?”

She looked the pale, skinny man up and down and sneered, “You have hands and feet, yet you still let your own sister support you. Isn’t it obvious who should be ashamed?”

            

Constantly reminding herself that the man under her foot was Zi Yan’s brother, Song Shuqing suppressed the urge to snap his bones. She took a deep breath, bent down, and hauled the man up by his collar, tossing him casually to a nearby officer.

“Get lost. Come back when you’ve cleared out the fossils stuffed in your head and learned to speak human!”

After watching with disdain as the wailing man was dragged away, she nodded to Officer Li.

            

Once the crowd had dispersed, Song Shuqing flicked her sleeves, preparing to walk back to the teahouse. But after not even two chi​⁹, she suddenly hesitated.

Zi Yan, she should be okay, right?

She’s an adult. I shouldn’t have to worry.

            

Ugh, but I’m still a little concerned.

Stomping her foot in conflict, Song Shuqing, who never liked to meddle in other people’s business, let out a low, frustrated growl.

Ah… should I go or not?

            

Forget it.

I’ll just go up and check on her.

After all, a free zitherist is so precious. I have to take good care of her.

            

Ducking into a small alley, in a moment when no one was looking, Song Shuqing flipped herself up onto the eaves. Gripping the gaps between the tiles, she nimbly climbed her way up to Chunfeng Pavilion.

For some reason, the woman felt more anxious than usual. Along the way, the pad of her finger was scraped by a sharp stone, leaving a small cut, but she paid it no mind.

Pushing open the half-closed window, the first thing that met her eyes was an overturned screen.

            

Glazed porcelain jars were shattered on the floor. Rouge powder had been knocked over, its red dust looking as if it had been trampled, leaving chaotic, bright red footprints on the wooden floor.

She saw Zi Yan sitting alone before the zither, not holding her head high and straight like a swan as she usually did, but with her head slightly bowed, letting her loosened coiffure cast a shadow over her eyes.

Clutched tightly in her hand was a black cloak that did not belong to a huakui.

            

The air in the room was heavy and oppressive. Song Shuqing felt only that the five flavors were all jumbled up​¹⁰ inside her. Hating trouble, she somewhat regretted her nosiness in coming upstairs. But seeing the slender, lonely figure in the corner, she slowed her steps and quietly walked toward the woman.

“Song… Song-daren…” Sensing the movement beside her, Zi Yan raised her head and forced a smile, her voice hoarse. “…Could today’s music be postponed? Perhaps in three days, would that be all right?”

“Don’t smile.”

            

Looking at the woman’s strained expression, her usually clear and cool voice now tinged with a nasal tone, Song Shuqing couldn’t bear it. She knelt on one knee and took a handkerchief from her robes. “I’d rather you give me that cold face you usually do… Your smile right now is hideous.”

Her words were gruff, but her hand was incredibly gentle as she held the woman’s bare ankle, wiping away the red powder staining it. “I’m not in the mood to listen to music today anyway. You not playing suits me just fine.”

The white cloth was stained red by the rouge. Watching the person kneeling beside her with her head lowered, Zi Yan propped herself up, a sour numbness spreading through her chest. Her fair toes curled. “…Don’t be like this.”

            

Her voice trembled.

“Song-daren, don’t be like this…”

Don’t treat me this way… as if I were truly precious…

            

If a sullied person like me were to misunderstand, what would I do?

Don’t…

“If you don’t wipe your feet clean first, you’ll just track mess everywhere again once the room is tidied up,” Song Shuqing retorted irritably. Disregarding all propriety, she reached under the huakui’s skirt, pulled out her other foot, and began to wipe it carefully.

            

“Besides, with all these shards on the floor, you’re just walking around barefoot? Aren’t you afraid of getting cut?” Wiping away the red powder from between her toes, the shadow guard felt her annoyance grow. “Bleeding hurts. Don’t let yourself get hurt over some worthless person!”

One after another, why is everyone I meet so much trouble?

“…He’s not a worthless person,” the silent woman said with difficulty, her voice faint.

            

“Huh? What did you say?” Unable to hear clearly, Song Shuqing tossed the handkerchief aside and turned her head to ask.

Taking a deep breath as if mustering all her courage, Zi Yan raised her voice. “That man is my younger brother. I lied to him. I never thought he would actually come here from Jiangnan.”

“I… I had no choice. After Father passed away, our family suddenly had no support. No one would hire my mother, who can’t hear. My other two younger siblings are still little. Eating costs money, and even Hong’er’s participation in the county examination​¹¹ costs money…”

            

Her voice faded, then became hysterical. Zi Yan hugged her shoulders, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.

“Without a letter of recommendation, I couldn’t even become a servant in an official’s household. I… I… I really had no choice… It’s all my fault. I lied to them. It’s all my fault. I’m so dirty, so dirty…”

The usually calm woman seemed to have lost her senses. She scrubbed fiercely at her own skin as if trying to wipe away a layer of filth that had never been there, her eyes vacant, already deaf to any sound.

            

“Zi Yan.”

“Zi Yan!”

Seeing that the woman’s arm under her wide sleeve was already rubbed red and that she wasn’t responding no matter how she called, Song Shuqing gripped the huakui’s hands, moved closer, and stared straight into her reddened eyes.

            

“Zi Yan, listen to me.”

An inexplicable anger rose in the usually languid woman’s heart, though it wasn’t directed at the huakui before her. With a rare, forceful tone and a resolute expression, Song Shuqing said, “You are not dirty, you understand?!”

“A brothel? So what? You didn’t steal or rob; you supported a whole family. Who dares say you’re wrong? Your brother is a grown man with able hands and feet, yet he still relies on you for help. I find him laughable.”

            

“Those people who dare to say three and speak four​¹², who say you’re dirty, what right do they have? Did they give you any other choice when you were in trouble? Did they ever try to see things from your perspective and help you solve your problems?” The woman’s tone was fierce, her face full of contempt. “Besides, if the person earning the money is dirty, how clean are the ones paying it? How come I don’t see them getting cursed out?”

“It’s all just bullshit!”

After her unstoppable rant, Song Shuqing paused to catch her breath, exhausted. Feeling Zi Yan still trembling slightly, she hesitated before pulling the huakui into her arms. “Anyway… don’t listen to other people’s nonsense. You did nothing wrong, and you don’t need to apologize to anyone.”

            

She patted the woman’s back stiffly, as if offering comfort.

After a long while, though the breathing of the person in her arms gradually calmed, Song Shuqing could still feel the weight of tears soaking into her clothes. Sighing helplessly, she lifted the woman’s chin. “I don’t have any more handkerchiefs, you know…”

Under the candlelight, tear tracks snaked down the huakui’s elegant, cold face. Her tightly pressed lips seemed to be holding back all her grievances and unwillingness to submit. Her eyes shimmered with tears, stirring a feeling of pity in Song Shuqing’s heart. “Make do with this for now.”

            

Avoiding the rough calluses on her palm, the shadow guard bent the knuckle of her middle finger and gently wiped away the woman’s tears, then chuckled. “Tsk, so pitiful. If anyone saw this, they’d think I was bullying you.”

She undid Zi Yan’s hopelessly messy coiffure and ran her fingers through the woman’s soft hair to smooth it. “You really have to stop crying. I have nothing left for you to wipe your tears with.” Looking down at the person with red-rimmed eyes, Song Shuqing teased, “Strange. When did you become such a crybaby? Are you trying to make me go bankrupt buying handkerchiefs?”

“…In the cabinet.”

            

Resisting the urge to punch her, Zi Yan went limp in Song Shuqing’s surprisingly reliable arms and said in a low voice, “…In the cabinet, there are more handkerchiefs.”

“Heavens, please, I was joking. I don’t actually want your handkerchiefs…” Song Shuqing brushed the strands of hair stuck to the woman’s cheek, her tone both helpless and amused.

“In any case, just stop being sad. It’s not worth it.”

            

The huakui didn’t reply, merely lowering her gaze, not daring to look the person before her in the eye.

Her chest felt sour and tight, but not from the self-loathing that had bruised her wrists. It was another, more fervent, more heart-shaking emotion.

Her eyes drifted to the cut on the pad of Song Shuqing’s index finger. The blood had already dried, leaving only a dark red mark. Zi Yan took hold of the shadow guard’s wrist, gently opened her mouth to cover the tip of the finger, and extended her tongue to lick it carefully.

            

“Hey! Zi… Zi Yan, what are you doing? Are you part dog?”

Startled by the warmth on her fingertip, Song Shuqing was so shocked that if she hadn’t been aware of the living person sitting in her lap who couldn’t just be dropped, she might have performed an on-the-spot takeoff.

“Song-daren, you’re bleeding…” Tasting a hint of rust, Zi Yan answered vaguely, still not pulling away. “You just said, bleeding hurts…”

            

Song Shuqing felt inhumanly strange, her ears turning red. “You call that bleeding? I didn’t feel a thing.” She couldn’t help but pull her hand back. Staring at the silver thread on her fingertip, she avoided the huakui’s gaze. “The cut is smaller than a mosquito bite. If you’d just left it alone, it would have healed in the next second.”

Licking her lips, Zi Yan curled up in Song Shuqing’s warm embrace, her expression no longer its usual calm but now veiled with a trace of haze.

Before either could say more, they heard a woman of about fifty knocking on the door outside and calling, “Zi Yan, tomorrow is the fifteenth. Remember to clean up.”

            

“…This month it’s Jia-daren. You must serve him well.”

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LP: Re-translated on October 21, 2025

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