The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 53

Whether it’s giving a kiss, keeping company, or even fighting for her life

The moment Ming Qin was about to open her mouth to answer, Song Shuqing directly reached out, covered her mouth, and forcefully dragged her out of the prison cell.

At the entrance of the dungeon, Song Shuqing, with her lips pursed and an unhappy expression, asked, “You… weren’t really going to agree, were you?”

Nodding, Ming Qin, despite her gloomy expression, still said with a matter-of-fact tone, “This is the most secure method.”

“Secure my ass, how did I teach you math, huh?!”

“A life for a month?”

An irritable Song Shuqing slapped her junior sister’s head and said, “Let’s not even talk about whether that cunning snake of a man would keep his promise. Suppose you live to be fifty, right? That still leaves you with over ten thousand days. Ten thousand divided by thirty, how could that possibly equal? Were you sleeping through your negotiation classes? This sounds like a super bad deal!”

Standing upright, bowing her head and obediently getting scolded by her senior sister, Ming Qin suddenly raised her voice.

“It’s worth it, it’s worth it.”

Her body couldn’t help but tremble, “As long as it’s for Yanyan, even if it means I have to prepay thousands of cycles of reincarnation, it’s still worth it!”

Thinking of Murong Yan, who she stayed with day and night, the dry hands and sunken cheeks, with the vitality that continued to drain away as time passed, Ming Qin murmured as if she were talking to herself, “Even if there’s just a sliver of chance, I must seize it.”

“…Qinqin.”

Looking at her junior sister, whom she had raised with tender care, Song Shuqing felt a tightness in her heart, saying with a bitter taste, “Sometimes, life and death are destined, and mortals cannot force it…”

“I refuse!”

“Senior sister, you see, I have never demanded anything in my life, right?” Ming Qin clenched her fists, interrupting the person in front of her with emotion, “But Yanyan… Yanyan is different… I can’t just watch as Yanyan dies… and do nothing…”

Blinking back tears, her voice choked up.

“This…it’s not because we are monarch and subject, nor because we are friends. Senior Sister…” Ming Qin stood tall and looked straight at her Senior Sister, her voice clear.

“I am fond of her, I am willing.”

Affection arises from an unknown place, but looking back, it feels deeper with each moment.

She paused, seemingly pondering how to explain the surging feelings in her heart to the person before her, and then said, “On the way to the capital, I have been thinking, if it weren’t for Yanyan, I probably would never love someone so much again in my life.”

“I am willing to do anything for her, whether it’s kissing, being by her side, even having sex, or even now, fighting for her life.” Ming Qin’s tone was perhaps never so determined, unconsciously speaking the sweetest yet most bitter love words.

“If the heavens wish to snatch Yanyan away, I would fight my way into the netherworld to get her back! As long as Yanyan is alive, I fear nothing.”

Facing her junior sister, whose tone was fervent and conviction strong, Song Shuqing was left speechless, her heart filled with complex emotions.

She hadn’t expected that her junior sister, who was previously completely clueless about emotions and had her head smeared with paste, would, after breaking through the bottleneck, understand so clearly what she wants, charging forward like a derailed train.

Even if there were cliffs ahead, even if the train wrecked and lives were lost, she would never look back.

“Sister, I won’t die.” Seeing her sister remain silent, Ming Qin became somewhat anxious, racking her brain to persuade her, “You always say I’m as strong as a bull, and besides, the shadow guards are not afraid of poison, right? I was shot by a poisoned arrow from Xiao He before and nothing happened.”

Thinking of her junior sister’s wound on the right shoulder, if she were forced to undergo bone scraping surgery, leaving behind uneven, spider web-like scars spread across her back muscles, and still calling that ‘nothing serious’…

“I will absolutely not be defeated by poison!”

Ming Qin placed one hand over her heart, swearing, while the other hand shook her senior sister, Song Shuqing’s, shoulder, trying hard to suppress the sourness in her nose, “Senior Sister, please, let this extra month be for Master’s wife and the Imperial Medical Institute to develop an antidote. Yanyan must survive; she has to live safely and joyfully.”

Always carefree, Song Shuqing held her head, looking at her junior sister, whose eyes were brimming with tears, humbly pleading with her, and she really felt an unbearable agony inside.

Living through two lives, she faced this difficult multiple-choice question, also genuinely clueless.

“You…”

Lifting her head to gaze at the sky, as if this could stop the sourness threatening to overflow in her heart, Song Shuqing said in a mixture of helplessness and resignation, “Whatever.”

“Qinqin has grown up, your Senior Sister can’t control you anymore.”

Changning Palace.

A woman lay on a wooden bed, her hair, no matter how closely inspected, devoid of any black strands, making her seem like an old woman from afar. However, upon closer approach, one would find her tightly closed eyes and eyebrows still picturesque, her face without a wrinkle, just excessively pale and thin, inciting even more pity.

At the foot of the bed, a tiger lay beside, swishing its tail back and forth.

Though unconscious, the woman’s body had been carefully attended to, with meticulously applied lipstick ensuring her lips remained moist even in the dry autumn season.

There she lay quietly, to the unknowing passerby, just a peacefully sleeping person.

The woman’s palm was smeared with hand balm, Ming Qin held her soft fingertips gently, carefully filing her nails, and then stained them with the bright red of rouge.

Yanyan loved beauty, Ming Qin knew this. If she woke up and found herself having lost her grace, she would sulk unhappily.

Ming Qin carefully did her best at the task she was not skilled at, with a focused expression.

“…Qinqin.”

“…Qinqin, Qinqin”

“Qinqin!”

Holding the medicine, Song Shuqing shouted in her ear, causing Ming Qin to finally stop her work in confusion and turn to look at the newcomer.

“What are you doing? You didn’t even respond to the knocking, let me call for so long…”

While handing over the bowl of medicine to Ming Qin, Song Shuqing complained, but her words suddenly stopped halfway, “Could it be, you can’t hear? How could it be so fast! What kind of bullsh*t poison is this?”

Looking anxiously at her junior sister, Song Shuqing wanted to reach out to check.

“It’s not that, don’t worry,” Ming Qin said with a smile, warding off the hand reaching for her ear, “I was just too focused and didn’t hear, plus, ever since my right ear was damaged, it hasn’t been working well.”

Half-doubtful, Song Shuqing was about to speak, but the person in front of her interrupted.

“Seven days have already passed, how is Master’s progress?” Ming Qin’s smile froze on her face, and she asked with an anxious expression.

“All the physicians from the Imperial Medical Institute are trying their best…”

Song Shuqing gave an answer, yet it seemed like she didn’t.

“I see.” Ming Qin lowered her gaze, without saying much more.

Pulling out a bamboo tube as thick as a pinky finger from her embrace, Song Shuqing directed her junior sister to hold the unconscious woman with her neck back, slowly extending the object in her hand into Murong Yan’s slightly opened mouth, all the way down her throat.

“Be gentler.” Holding the person she cherishes, Ming Qin said with a frown and concern, “Don’t let her feel pain.”

“I am being gentle, okay! Don’t be so neurotic every time.” She rolled her eyes at her overly anxious junior sister while slowly pouring the medicine into the bamboo tube.

Her junior sister, whose protective instincts were excessively strong, seemed to have gone mad since returning to the capital.

Whenever someone touched the princess, she would become extremely nervous, fearing that the princess would get hurt or bumped.

Ming Qin was fine with herself and the imperial physician, but if a stranger entered the room, she would react violently, guarding against the newcomer with vigilant eyes, just like a tiger, staring death at the person, barely stopping short of baring her teeth.

At first, not understanding the situation, she almost mistook the princess’ brother, General Changsheng, for a villain and almost threw him out. The two of them went back and forth in the yard, demolishing several rockeries.

It wasn’t until the master’s wife came out to stop them that the tense junior sister reluctantly ceased, and she probably would have twisted the man’s arm off if not intervened.

As Song Shuqing slowly withdrew the tube, she asked casually, “Do you need my help with the nursing work later? How long have you not slept?”

“No need, I can manage,” Ming Qin decisively shook her head, “I’m not sleepy.”

She wiped the brown medicinal soup leaking from the corner of the woman’s mouth, slowly placed the person in her arms down, her eyes filled with an indescribable attachment.

“Alright, then.”

Seeing her junior sister, whose eyes were trending towards becoming as dark as a panda’s, Song Shuqing felt somewhat helpless, yet she didn’t want to persuade her further.

After tidying up, the woman silently turned to leave with what seemed like an effortless grace. Not stopping her movements to open the door, she suddenly spoke up in a probing manner, “That…”

“About the antidote for the Princess…”

Her voice was not low, yet the person behind her showed no reaction.

As expected.

Qinqin, this liar.

Big liar!

Song Shuqing wanted to turn back and curse out loud, wanted to grab the collar of the person behind her and lecture her on her foolishness, wanted to shake this deeply affectionate person awake to face the reality.

But in the end, the woman did nothing and merely opened the door, striding away.

The author has something to say:

I, Forest, hereby solemnly promise that after finishing this heart-wrenching part of the story, candies and a ride will be given out (if this app allows it).

I reckon the main text should be concluded before Christmas.

LP: Re-translated on March 19, 2024