The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 52

Are you willing? (A choice between life and death)

When Ming Qin climbed onto the windowsill, she saw Murong Yan being strangled.

Her entire spine felt numb as if struck by lightning. She quickly entered through the window and forcefully knocked the man over with one hand, while cradling the struggling Murong Yan in her other arm.

The woman lying limp in her embrace was unconscious, her body involuntarily convulsing. There were traces of saliva at the corner of her mouth, evidence of being forcibly fed drugs.

“Yanyan! Yanyan!” Mingqin anxiously called out, looking at the scattered pills on the ground. She picked up the fallen gourd and sniffed it.

It was poison.

Even without expertise in poison techniques or knowledge of medicine, she understood.

Ming Qin turned the woman she was holding tightly in her arms over, so that her back was against Ming Qin’s chest. One hand pressed on Murong Yan’s stomach, and the other placed two fingers in her mouth, pressing down on her tongue.

“Yanyan, be good, spit it out, please, spit it out.”

Ming Qin softly coaxed the unconscious woman in her ear, but her actions were forceful. Murong Yan vomited reflexively, her eyebrows furrowed in pain.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry Yanyan, you must spit it out, please.” Ming Qin’s eyes seemed to burn as she pleaded humbly.

The woman’s saliva dripped down, wetting the shadow guard’s fingers, and fell drop by drop to the ground.

She moved her wrist, pushing her fingers deeper, Ming Qin could feel the uneven muscles in Murong Yan’s throat, she steeled her heart and pressed down hard, “Yanyan, please, I beg you, don’t die, don’t die…”

Tears slid down.

Murong Yan’s stomach began to convulse involuntarily, shaking all over, half coughing and half vomiting out fragmented pills, transparent and sticky stomach acid also surged out.

Both her hand and cuff became wet, but Ming Qin still murmured carelessly, “Right, Yanyan is good, just like that.”

Bending over, she leaned both of their bodies forward, pressing on the woman’s abdomen and deepening the force of her kneading, little by little clearing out the contents of the stomach.

Ming Qin did not know how much poison had been forcefully fed to Murong Yan, nor did she know how much was still inside her. The strong shadow guard just kept praying and choking up, only hoping the person in her arms could survive.

When Song Shuqing, panting heavily, climbed upstairs, she saw a mess in the room and her junior sister holding the Princess, crying and pleading.

Seeing the person coming, Ming Qin helplessly cried out like a child, her vision blurry and shaking, “Senior Sister! Senior Sister, Yanyan… Yanyan…”

Song Shuqing, who was skilled in pharmacology, quickly knelt down to take Murong Yan’s pulse, her expression solemn but her mouth reassuring, “It’s okay, it’s okay, Qinqin did very well.”

She quickly put the woman down on the ground and took out several extremely thin silver needles from her waistband to acupuncture Murong Yan.

Ming Qin’s mind was in chaos, standing by helplessly, watching the person in front of her whose face had turned pale to the point of turning green. She felt as if she was about to suffocate as well.

In the corner of her vision, the detested snake was writhing.

It was all his fault…

Turning to the side, Ming Qin walked towards Murong Xiao.

It’s all his fault… It’s because of him that Yanyan ended up like this…

Ming Qin grabbed a two-foot-long candlestick from the ground, dragging it along and creating a piercing sound.

It’s all his fault… He made Yanyan suffer, made Yanyan afraid.

Murong Xiao leaned against the wall, just recovering from the pain of being thrown down, when he saw Ming Qin holding the candlestick high.

She ruthlessly smashed the blunt object onto the man’s right leg. Ming Qin’s face remained expressionless as she struck again and again, seemingly oblivious to the breaking bones beneath her.

Although the candlestick didn’t have any sharp edges, it was able to crush the man’s leg into a bloody mess under the shadow guard’s astonishing strength.

Blood and minced flesh splattered on Ming Qin’s face, yet she remained indifferent, only seeing vivid red in her field of vision.

『Crack!』

The copper candlestick broke with a resounding sound. Ming Qin stared blankly at the half-broken candlestick holder, then simply dropped what was in her hand and clenched her fist, delivering a heavy blow to the man’s face.

It felt as if her brain had overloaded with emotions, causing her nerves to snap.

Other than the heavy feeling of hitting, she couldn’t feel anything.

She just let her own fury spread, swinging her fists again and again, not knowing how to hold back.

“Qinqin!”

“Qinqin!”

“Ming Qin!”

After being smacked hard on the back of her head several times, Ming Qin finally stopped.

She lifted her head to look at Song Shuqing with an empty gaze.

“Don’t kill him. Maybe he has the antidote.” Looking at the man with a bruised face and his right leg barely hanging on by skin and flesh yet not making a sound, Song Shuqing said calmly.

Antidote?

Ah, the antidote.

That’s right…

Can’t kill him…

“We need to consult the Imperial Medical Institute or the Master’s wife about the Princess’ condition,” Song Shuqing said as she picked up the unconscious Murong Yan.

It’s not like she didn’t give Ming Qin a chance to carry her; it’s just that Song Shuqing really didn’t want to touch the bloodied man who had been beaten.

“Let’s go.” She hurriedly turned and went downstairs.

Ming Qin stared dazedly at her senior sister’s back, slowly coming back to her senses.

Then she grabbed the man by the collar, dragging him along as she also followed downstairs.

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In the half underground dark prison, besides occasionally hearing the clang of iron chains dragging on the ground and the squeak of rats fleeing, there was only the clear sound of moisture dripping along the iron window.

Three days had passed since Song Shuqing and Ming Qin entered the capital, and they came one after the other to this iron prison.

As the jailer opened the somewhat rusty door, Murong Xiao, leaning against the stone wall, raised his head, with several wine cups placed beside him.

The man’s hair was unbound, looking disheveled and wretched. His right leg, apart from the remaining stump, was missing, and the wound was carefully bandaged. His right eye was covered with a bandage, and his cheek was swollen and bruised.

Yet, even reduced to a prisoner, his expression remained arrogantly proud.

“Take it.”

Holding the wooden box, Song Shuqing placed the item heavily in front of the man, then lazily leaned against the wall and impatiently said, “We’ve already done as you said; treated your wounds, gave you alcohol, brought you everything you wanted. Stop dilly-dallying, where’s the antidote?”

Murong Yan, who had been poisoned and still unconscious despite being induced to vomit and given injections, continued to deteriorate, her vitality ebbing away as time passed. It was then Song Shuqing had no choice but to seek out the man imprisoned in the dungeon.

Dragging his body over to the wooden box, Murong Xiao’s mouth curved up as he opened the item in front of him, revealing countless bottles and jars of all sizes inside. He let his fingertips brush over them, the sound of the bottles clashing particularly grating in the cramped cell.

After a long while, the pale-faced man faintly opened his mouth, “There is no antidote.”

His gaze was as if he was looking at something amusing, like a toy.

“What the f*ck?” The usually lazy woman stepped forward, raising her leg to kick the disgusting man in front of her, unable to hold back cursing.

“But…”

Murong Xiao tilted his head and smiled mischievously, a playful expression on his face. “I do have a prescription that can alleviate the poison affecting Sister, which should extend her life for a little over a month.”

“Damn it, what’s the use of that?” Song Shuqing kicked the man in front of her and stomped on his head. She couldn’t wait for Ming Qin to beat him to death that night. “Can’t you say something useful, for f*ck’s sake?”

“I really have limited abilities and haven’t developed the antidote yet,” Murong Xiao lay on the ground, bleeding slightly from his right leg but seeming not to care, showing a pretentiously innocent expression. “But an extra month might just be enough for the Imperial Medical Institute’s talents in pharmacology to completely cure Sister’s poison.”

Song Shuqing looked at this man who clearly had a severe antisocial personality disorder and thought he should be isolated in a psychiatric hospital. Thinking of the still unconscious Murong Yan, her head started throbbing. She raised her foot and reached out her hand, “…better than nothing. The prescription, give it to me, quick!”

“I can give you the prescription. But…her.” The man slowly got up, dusting himself off, and pointing towards Ming Qin leaning against the door frame, he slowly started speaking with a malicious look, “Must make a deal with me.”

Song Shuqing rolled her eyes. Being called a negotiation genius in the Shadow Guard Camp, facing this lunatic, she felt like flipping out, “Dragging it out, are you even a man…”

The irritated woman pulled a long pin used as a hairpin from her hairdo, about to get rough with the sinister man in front of her, when Ming Qin, who had been silent all this time, calmly walked forward and sat down in front of Murong Xiao.

“Okay.”

Although Ming Qin’s complexion looked haggard and dark circles hung under her eyes, she still looked at the person before her with bright eyes and asked, “What deal?”

With a smile that seemed like he had caught his prey, Murong Xiao rolled up his sleeves and thought for a moment. Then, he slowly took out a Liuli container from the box, which contained a bright red pill, “Eat this, and I will give you the prescription for Sister’s antidote.”

“What the f*ck is wrong with you, that thing obviously has problems.” Shaking the weapon in her hand, Song Shuqing stood up agitatedly and shouted, “Qinqin, don’t listen to him!”

“What is this?” Without reacting to her senior sister’s words, Ming Qin just calmly took the Liuli bottle and gently shook it. The egg-sized pill inside made a clear clashing sound.

“I don’t understand why a lowly person like you could earn my sister’s favor… So, I want you to prove that you’re worthy.”

Murong Xiao’s eyes were bloodshot, and he spoke slowly, “I personally concocted this poison. After ingesting it, within a month, you will gradually lose each of your senses.”

A sinister smile crept upon his lips, and his gaze turned gloomy. “Your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin will make you feel as if you’re alone in the darkness, unable to seek survival or embrace death. It’s as if the world has abandoned you, and you won’t feel anything at all.”

The man licked his lips, gesturing with excitement. “When the month is up, you will experience pain worse than bone-crushing, as if a thousand needles are piercing your heart. After three days and three nights, exhausted and devoid of strength, you will ultimately die in loneliness.”

He looked at the mediocre woman before him, stained with the blood of the lowly.

He hates.

Why does sister delight in her?

In this world, the person who loves sister the most is oneself.

If the person before him agrees to his condition, then sister must watch her die in front of her eyes, and sister will understand that in this world, only oneself will not leave her.

If the person before him refuses his condition, then it can only prove that she does not deserve sister’s love, and oneself will go to hell with sister, accompanying each other.

So, choose.

The cold voice was like a devil’s whisper.

“Are you willing?”

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LP: F*ck! If Ming Qin decided to take the trash’s pill then I hope her poison resistance will withstand it!

Re-translated on March 18, 2024

Ah f*ck, I forgot how irritating and disgusting this trash is!

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