The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 35

Reward for Ah Qin

The biting wind carried with it fine snowflakes.

Ming Qin stood alone by the well, cleaning her nose. The water she drew up in her bucket, mixed with shards of ice, was frigid. Nonetheless, her expression remained unchanged despite the extreme cold.

It must have been an injury, probably from running around so much, that caused her nosebleed, she thought distractedly.

For Ming Qin, who felt no pain, such trifles were hardly a cause for concern. However, the persistent bleeding was indeed troublesome.

She bowed her head to immerse her face in the barrel, hoping the cold water could suppress the warmth in her nasal passages.

After a while, realizing the bleeding had indeed stopped, Ming Qin changed the water to wash her bloodstained lining and robe. Her fingers, soaked in the icy water, became cracked, yet she felt no pain.

She hung the washed clothes to dry in the warm stable before returning to her room.

The room was in disarray. As Ming Qin intended to clean up the bloodstains on the floor, she noticed Murong Yan curled up on the bed, her slender body shivering slightly.

“What’s wrong?” Ming Qin immediately sensed something amiss with Murong Yan, and hurriedly went forward to embrace her.

“Ah Qin!” Murong Yan, upon seeing the approaching figure, reached out to touch her cheek, scanning frantically back and forth, “Blood, there was so much blood just now, does it hurt, Ah Qin?”

“It doesn’t hurt, I’m fine,” Ming Qin assured her softly, laying her hand on Murong Yan’s, “Your hands are cold; shall I heat some water for you?”

Murong Yan didn’t reply, instead trembling as she repeatedly confirmed that the person before her was unharmed.

Seeing she got no response, Ming Qin turned to head towards the charcoal stove but was suddenly clutched around the waist in a panicked grip.

“Don’t go!” Murong Yan cried out, then held Ming Qin tightly, her body shivering as she sobbed, “Where are you going?”

Ming Qin bent slightly, her tone patient as she spoke, “I’m not leaving; I was thinking of heating some water for you.”

“No!” The woman seemed still trapped in terror, adamantly refusing to let go, “I don’t need water; you’re not allowed to leave.”

Observing Murong Yan’s somewhat aberrant behavior, Ming Qin understood she was startled by the bloody scene earlier and gently soothed her, “Alright, alright, I won’t go.”

Ming Qin helped the woman lie down, then prepared to sleep beside her on the bed board, her hand gently coaxing her to sleep.

But that night, Murong Yan slept terribly.

Clutching tightly to the person beside her, daring not to let go, Murong Yan would wake up in a sweat not even half an hour later, reaching out to confirm Ming Qin’s breathing.

Only after making sure that indeed she was still breathing, Murong Yan would again grasp the corner of Ming Qin’s clothing and lie down, repeating this act of assurance no less than ten times throughout the short night.

Ming Qin, who was frequently disturbed by the slightest movements, was not annoyed. Each time the woman panicked and opened her eyes wide, she gently stroked her back soothingly, until the person in her arms fell asleep again.

Before dawn, as Ming Qin was about to quietly rise from the bed, she was suddenly caught by the wrist by the wide-eyed Murong Yan.

Clutching the wrist of the person before her, Murong Yan’s fingertips trembled, shouting in terror, “Where are you going?!”

“I’m just getting up to wash up and prepare the horse; you get some more sleep,” Ming Qin explained in a calm voice.

“No, you can’t go!”

Murong Yan struggled to sit up, saying anxiously, “You can’t leave me!”

Ming Qin was somewhat puzzled and comforted the woman, who was unsteady, “I’m not leaving; I’ll be right back.”

“No, you can’t.”

Murong Yan insisted, her voice trembling, “I’ll go with you to wash up; I don’t want to sleep.” Still clutching Ming Qin with one hand, she fumbled to don her prosthetic leg that lay on the bedside with the other, her usually neat hair now in disarray.

Seeing the hastily buckled belt and the woman’s anxious look, Ming Qin knelt down reluctantly, tenderly securing her right leg, then gently cradled her in her arms to assist with her ablutions.

It was not until this moment that Murong Yan’s odd behavior truly began to worry Ming Qin.

Whenever she attempted to exit Murong Yan’s field of vision, she would become panic-stricken, clutching at her hand desperately to prevent her from leaving.

Even when she gently persuaded Murong Yan to let her step away for a quick moment due to a pressing need, with only the thin door between them, she would ask almost every few seconds if she was still there.

Murong Yan would insist on Ming Qin’s company or embrace in doing anything, whether it was washing her face, brushing her teeth, or even attending to nature’s call, which she previously preferred to handle on her own without any help.

Ming Qin had no complaints about this, but seeing the redness in Murong Yan’s eyes and her wan complexion made her realize this couldn’t continue.

Especially when a light snow began to fall, Murong Yan insisted on not entering the warm carriage, preferring instead to manage the horses alongside the shadow guard outside. At this point, Ming Qin’s worries reached their apex.

“This won’t do,” Ming Qin fretted, frowning as she cradled the woman who was now coughing incessantly in her arms, “It’s too cold outside, you’ll get sick.”

“Cough…cough cough, I won’t go in… you’re not allowed to leave,” Murong Yan’s voice was scratchy, her hand clutching tightly at Ming Qin’s collar, her weak complexion still showing determination, “Cough… not allowed to leave… leave my side.”

“I won’t go, I won’t leave you,” Ming Qin kept assuring the woman, but Murong Yan just kept shaking her head stubbornly, causing Ming Qin much distress.

She flipped through the map in her hand; the journey was still very long, unclear why the woman had suddenly become like this. With a face drawn tight with concern, Ming Qin muttered under her breath, “But if this goes on, what are we to do? Your body can’t take this.”

Looking at the reins resting on her lap, she suddenly had an idea.

She stopped the horses, then Ming Qin suddenly reached out to embrace the fragile woman, jumping down onto the snowy ground. She opened the carriage door and placed her on the soft cushion lined with fox fur, and then said, “Wait for me here for a moment.”

“Ah Qin! Ah Qin! Where are you going?” The sudden loss of warmth by her side sent a wave of panic through Murong Yan, desperately wanting to pull the person turning away back to her.

But Ming Qin only gently yet firmly held her down, whispering in her ear, “A quarter of an hour, at most. Wait for me here.” Then she turned, closed the carriage door, and dashed away.

Murong Yan clutched at the door handle, crying out, “Ah Qin, come back!” But the door was barred by something and wouldn’t budge.

“Ah Qin!” Her delicate hands frantically pounded on the door, her mind filled with frantic unease. The overwhelming desire for Ming Qin to stay made her blurt out without thinking, “This Princess orders you to come back, Ming Qin, come back! This Princess… cough… cough cough…”

A fit of coughing that felt like it would pierce her lungs forced Murong Yan to double over in pain. As the strength went out of her from the violent coughs, she curled up in the seat, trembling involuntarily, her voice muffled and choked with sobs.

“Ah Qin…”

Murong Yan felt as if she were engulfed in darkness, a bone-deep pain and emptiness spreading throughout her being, torturous as if thousands of ants gnawed at her heart, causing unbearable agony.

Where has Ah Qin gone?

Does Ah Qin not want me anymore?

What if Ah Qin is dead?

Countless questions tumbled in her mind, a near-explosive panic made each breath she took unbearably heavy, as if she might faint the very next second.

As consciousness wavered, faint sounds of chains reached her ears.

The carriage door opened, and Ming Qin, with snow accumulating on her shoulders, stooped into the warm interior and helped the weakened woman up from the seat.

“Ah Qin?” Murong Yan snapped back to reality, suppressing a shiver and biting her teeth, “Where did you go?”

Ming Qin smiled, though her expression carried a hint of distress, “I’ve just run to a small village over there.”

In her hand, she held a delicate chain about eight feet long, slipping the leather loop at its end onto Murong Yan’s wrist, “I intended to find some hemp rope, but unfortunately, I could only find this.”

The young shadow guard spoke as she fastened the iron ring at the end of the chain around her own neck.

“Stay inside the carriage. If you want to make sure I’m still there, just pull on this iron chain. Don’t come out and catch a cold.” Handing the key to the stunned woman before her, Ming Qin continued, “I reckon this chain was used for a newborn calf, so don’t worry! I left a bag of silver coins at the front door of that family’s house. It’s not stealing.”

Seeing how Murong Yan was just biting her lip and not speaking, Ming Qin grew anxious, “You’re not angry with me, are you?” Her tone was somewhat aggrieved, “Don’t give me the silent treatment; it’s rather frightening.”

Murong Yan stared steadily at the person tied before her. Her throat was sore and swollen, struggling to speak. After a long while, she swallowed her out-of-tune voice, murmuring softly, “Ah Qin…why are you so good to me?”

Ming Qin scratched her forehead, the sound of metal clanking at her neck, “Does one need a reason to be good to someone?”

Confused, Murong Yan shook her head, pulling on the iron chain in her hand and hugging Ming Qin’s head, as if unsure of what more she could offer, she repeatedly, silently pressed kisses upon it.

“What’s wrong?” Feeling the kisses over her eyelids, the woman’s extended silence worried Ming Qin, prompting her to ask.

“…It’s a reward, a reward for Ah Qin.”

It was a mix of winding tears, both sweet and salty.

The author has something to say:

PS. I’ve posted outlines for two new stories in my author’s column.

The first is a future-set online game story (?)

The CP is a melancholic beauty and a world-weary serial killer (?)

(I know it sounds strange, but I can’t help it… the story just exists in my head.)

The second is a campus + urban romance story

The CP is a sunny, sincere younger veterinarian and a gentle, healing older flight attendant.

(One of my teacher friends begged me not to write campus-based stories because she feels physically ill every time she reads them, but I can’t help it either… the story’s just in my head.)

You can check out the outlines of both; if you like them, consider bookmarking them~ (It will be more motivating for me)

However, I don’t want to play a game of wits with the censors anymore, so it might not be as sensual as the “Princess and the Shadow Guard” (don’t be disappointed!)

If your preferred themes aren’t in these two, I’ll write more varied themes in the future, so look forward to that.

It’s just that, once this one’s finished, I might want to take a break, accumulate manuscripts – it will probably be a while before I start a new piece (I really am exhausted~)

As always, I send my prayers your way and hope you are happy~

LP: Re-translated on February 15, 2024