The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 30

My family’s young lady (spoiled)

By the warm stove.

Ming Qin gently wiped Murong Yan’s damp hair with a cloth, stroke by stroke. As she looked at the silvery strands amongst the hair in front of her, it seemed there were more than before. Her gaze trembled slightly, and her touch became more and more tender.

Wrapped in a blanket, Murong Yan comfortably squinted her eyes, much like a cat being stroked, slightly lifting her head. Her delicate jade-like feet dangled off the edge of the bed, the soles a bit rosy from just having bathed.

After a while, as if overcome by sleepiness with her hair still slightly damp, she leaned softly into the embrace of the person standing beside her.

“Wait, you still have to eat.” Murong Yan hasn’t been eating well these past few days, and Ming Qin couldn’t help but express her concern, “Eat first, then sleep, okay?”

“Mm.”

Murong Yan’s assent came softly from her throat, but her hand movements seemed to protest, tightly grasping the clothes of the person before her.

Ming Qin gently patted Murong Yan’s hand to soothe her, and then said, “I’ll go check the kitchen first.” She walked out the room door and ran into the servant who had come to deliver a message.

“Ah! Miss, you’re just in time.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Boss is asking what your young mistress would like to eat?”

“Of course, prepare the best of everything. My family’s young lady is very particular about her food.”

As the sound of their footsteps descending the stairs faded, Murong Yan, who was listening behind the door, combed her hair with a smile tugging at her lips.

『My family’s young lady.』

She repeated to herself, over and over again in her heart.

This is indeed a novel moniker.

Hearing it, with a touch of the airs of a merchant’s family and the swagger that comes from Ah Qin’s lips, was particularly bold and brash.

But she did not dislike it.

Murong Yan took out a black cord to tie up her hair, then tossed aside the blanket covering her and picked up the clothes Ming Qin had laid out, dressing herself unhurriedly and methodically.

Only after she had fastened her belt and smoothed out the sleeves did Ming Qin enter, pushing the door open with her shoulder while carrying a tray of food.

“The food here really can’t hold a candle to that of the capital.”

Ming Qin laid the items in her hands on the table, then gently picked up the delicate-framed Murong Yan and placed her on a cushioned chair, speaking her dissatisfaction, “Moreover, I think the chef’s skills are really not up to par—they are, at most, a tiny bit better than master’s wife.”

She stretched out her little finger, gesturing in the air.

Murong Yan, amused at the indignant expression of the standing person, said, “If your master’s wife heard you say this, she’d probably get angry.”

“But I’m not lying. However…” Ming Qin replied, adding food to her bowl and casting a glance at the glistening pork trotters on the table, she sighed, “I think the boss lady has done her best, too.”

When the boss lady saw Ming Qin generously pull out a heap of copper coins, asking her to bring the best food the inn had to offer, the boss lady indeed gave it her all.

Apart from the pork trotters, she also prepared several dishes of green vegetables that are hard to come by in winter, and had there been enough time, she probably would have wanted to personally slaughter a chicken in the yard.

Ming Qin didn’t want to fault the boss lady’s intentions; it’s just that this mountain town really couldn’t present much in the way of good cuisine or have any skilled chefs.

She could only blame herself for not having learned a few tricks from the chef in the Shadow Guard Camp beforehand.

After passing the bowl and chopsticks to Murong Yan and arranging the dishes for her, the shadow guard could only pray that the person in front of her would eat a little more to make up for the weight lost in the past few days.

Murong Yan looked at the pitiful Ming Qin and felt a bit amused. Faced with dishes that really couldn’t spark any interest, she started eating with a calmness that lacked her usual pickiness.

The somewhat yellow rice was a bit hard, not as soft, fragrant, and sticky as the white rice usually sent by the Imperial kitchen, but it was still a lot better than the throat-scratching dry rations they had had in the past few days.

The vegetables were somewhat listless, the flavor too bland, while the pork knuckle was too salty and too oily.

It was probably because the boss lady wanted to show her sincerity, she might have overdone it a bit.

Using a lot of oil, salt, and sauce doesn’t necessarily make food delicious, Murong Yan thought to herself, as she bravely swallowed the food along with the rice.

She forced herself to eat just under half a bowl, but after that, she couldn’t eat any more.

Ming Qin understood her and didn’t insistently persuade her to eat; instead, she devoured the remaining food like a whirlwind sweeping through leaves, without any hesitation.

Although she loved gourmet food and had a taste for fine cuisine, she was never picky.

As a shadow guard, eating during missions was merely a means to maintain strength.

Whether it was a variety of exquisite delicacies or bland, waxy coarse grain dumplings, or even the leftovers from someone else’s meal, it was all just a tool for survival.

Ming Qin could swallow anything.

As night fell and after finishing the meal, Ming Qin took the dishes downstairs, and along the way, she brought up a basin of hot water to the well. Under the freezing cold sky, she mixed the hot water with the icy well water to rinse her body, making sure that as a shadow guard, she carried no scent on her.

Afterward, she changed her clothes in the carriage and casually checked on the horses and the carriage wheels. When she returned to the room, she saw that Murong Yan hadn’t gone to bed yet and was just silently watching the snow falling outside the window, with her hand on her stomach and a slight frown on her face.

“Feeling unwell?”

Murong Yan turned her head toward the concerned Ming Qin and reassured her, “Just a bit of bloating.”

Yet inwardly, she couldn’t help but sneer at herself.

She was indeed a spoiled princess.

Deprived of the refined rice and fine flour of the imperial kitchen, her body seemed to protest as if it had been spoiled.

Wasn’t she just like a caged canary that, once released, couldn’t survive without its owner’s hand-feeding?

Truly annoying.

Ming Qin stepped forward to embrace Murong Yan, who had reached out her hand, and brought her back to the front of the bed. While gently massaging her stomach, Ming Qin apologized, “I was careless today, I will pay more attention in the future.”

“Today was very good, I have nothing to complain about.”

Suppressing the self-loathing inside her heart, Murong Yan half-lay down and turned her head to look at the guilt-ridden Ming Qin sitting on the edge of the bed, and with a bitter smile said, “It’s me who is being too delicate. Ah Qin, you don’t need to apologize to me.”

“You’re not delicate at all.”

Ming Qin protested, with a sincere look in her eyes, “I should cherish all of your feelings.”

Murong Yan’s heart fluttered, her hand touching Ming Qin’s fingertips that were pressed against her belly, holding them tightly. Despite the suppressed emotion, her voice remained calm, “Ah Qin, treating me like this, what should we do if I become spoiled?”

Ming Qin’s movements halted, gazing into the woman’s eyes, “You are someone who should be loved and cherished by the whole world, meant to live freely and happily every day. How could there be any talk of spoiling?”

After responding without hesitation, Ming Qin lowered her gaze deep in thought.

Those who heartlessly stripped her of freedom, those who clipped her wings, those who silently choked her throat—those are the ones who deserve to die.

It was she who should treasure and support Murong Yan, allowing her to live a carefree and comfortable life.

Murong Yan must be protected from those damned people.

Ming Qin stared at the hands interlocked with Murong Yan’s, her eyes swirling with a rare ferocity and fierceness.

Feeling her grip involuntarily strengthen, afraid of hurting the tender interlaced fingertips, Ming Qin’s expression cleared in the next breath, returning to its usual tranquility as her palm resumed gently massaging the belly of the person beneath her.

Murong Yan was oblivious to Ming Qin’s turmoil, merely dazed and immersed in the words just spoken, mulling over them in her heart, feeling as if something was stuck in her throat.

It was always like this; Ah Qin could always instantly pull her into an embrace when she was on the verge of losing control and falling into an abyss, so effortlessly penetrating the walls around her heart to soothe her emotions.

Just as it was the first time she saw the prosthetic limb, so it was when she felt phantom pain, when she escaped from Cangyue Tower, in the forest, and so it is now.

Time and again, so effortlessly, she could make her tension-filled self no longer feel irritable.

It’s as if with her around, one could live willfully and recklessly, always able to look back and see the safety net she tenderly wove.

In the silence, she lifted her now-empty hand to cover her eyes with the back of it, as if to suppress the warmth welling up from the bottom of her heart to her eyes.

Ming Qin simply thought she was tired and just silently blew out the oil lamp.

When she felt the person on the bed was breathing steadily, ready to turn and leave, her clothes’ hem was tugged in the darkness.

“Ah Qin, don’t go.”

A plea.

“Stay with me.”

The author has something to say:

If this green app doesn’t cause trouble, there should be a follow-up in the next chapter.

LP: Re-translated on February 09, 2024