The Little Princess's Secret Guard - Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Entreaty
“Your Highness!!”
Qiushuang pushed the door open and found the Princess fully dressed, sitting at the table eating, with a man in black wearing a dark iron mask standing behind her.
The moment she shoved the door open, the man in black raised his eyes. His gaze was sharp, like a keen scimitar plunging straight into one’s heart.
Qiushuang’s breath hitched. She stumbled back two steps, quickly averted her eyes, and dared not meet his gaze.
Hearing Qiushuang’s voice, Shen Panyan put down her chopsticks, looked up at her, and a hint of surprise appeared in her eyes. “Qiushuang, why did you come?”
Qiushuang swallowed hard, afraid to look at Lin Xiao, and fixed her gaze on Shen Panyan. She immediately frowned, her impatience and disgust barely concealed.
“Your Highness, who is he? How can you allow a man of unknown origin into your private chambers?”
“Do you not know that if this matter gets out, everyone in the capital will laugh at you and the Empress, saying the Empress taught her daughter well, letting any ill-defined man into her boudoir? Do you want to ruin the Empress’s reputation in the capital?”
“Even if you are not the Empress’s biological child, she raised you from childhood and treated you as her own daughter. Even if you don’t think for yourself, you must consider the Empress’s reputation!”
She unleashed a torrent of heavy accusations. Shen Panyan opened her lips, wanting to defend herself, but a knot of anger tightly choked her chest, making it impossible to speak. Her fingers clenched and unclenched, leaving only her frail body trembling beneath her dark hair. Large tears rolled down her cheeks.
Seeing her state, Lin Xiao’s brow furrowed deeply. He stepped forward and positioned himself in front of Shen Panyan, drawing a command plaque from his waist and presenting it to Qiushuang.
“I am here under His Majesty’s command to protect the Princess.”
Shadow Guards do not carry their own plaques, but a legitimate reason was needed for him to look after the Princess. This plaque was given to him by An Ying (the head of the Shadow Guards).
“You?” Qiushuang looked at the plaque in his hand, her brow immediately twitching, her eyes filled with suspicion and uncertainty.
His Majesty sent someone? Why didn’t I know?
Lin Xiao turned his fingers, put the plaque away, and his voice was cold. His gaze towards her held a sarcastic mocking tone. “As the Princess’s personal maid, you neglect your master but yell and boss her around. The maid taught by the Empress…”
He looked her up and down, then suddenly let out a laugh. “Heh—”
“You—!”
Qiushuang felt a rush of bl00d to her head from the black-clad man’s cold ridicule. However, constrained by his identity, she dared not say too much. She ground her teeth. “This is the Princess’s sleeping quarters. Even if you are here under His Majesty’s orders to protect the Princess, you should not step into her chambers.”
“What is your status, and what is the Princess’s status?”
“The Princess is of noble birth. How dare a low-ranking person like you violate her purity?”
“Get out immediately!”
Lin Xiao’s eyes suddenly turned fierce. He took a step forward. Qiushuang was startled and quickly retreated two steps, only to realize that doing so made her look too weak. She walked back, but dared not look into his eyes, focusing elsewhere. Her voice softened, completely losing its previous assertiveness.
“The Princess has me to look after her here; she doesn’t need an outsider like you.”
If the Princess’s chambers hadn’t been empty, he truly wouldn’t have appeared. Although Qiushuang’s words were harsh, they were not unreasonable.
Lin Xiao turned to Shen Panyan and bowed. “This subordinate takes his leave.”
As the tall figure blocking her view moved away, Qiushuang’s face reappeared before her eyes. Shen Panyan immediately panicked. She tried to reach out and grab him, but suddenly remembered what had happened moments before, halting her movement. She looked at him with near-pleading eyes. “Lin Xiao, don’t go.”
She didn’t want him to leave.
If he left, Qiushuang would start criticizing her again.
She didn’t want to listen.
Before Lin Xiao could speak, Qiushuang interjected. “Your Highness, how can you let an outsider stay by your side? Who knows what intentions he might have towards you?”
Shen Panyan shook her head repeatedly. Qiushuang’s accusations made her stumble over her words. “No, he won’t. Lin Xiao was given to me by Imperial Father. He won’t.”
“Your Highness!!”
Qiushuang looked at her, her voice slightly frantic. “If you are so disobedient, when the Empress comes, this servant will surely tell her everything.”
The mention of the Empress made Shen Panyan’s body uncontrollably tremble. A wave of suffocation tightly constricted her chest, making it impossible to take a breath until a dense, needle-like pain spread across her chest.
From her earliest memories, her Imperial Mother’s attitude towards her had never been good.
She was ill almost every season of the year. Every time she fell ill, her Imperial Father would come to see her.
Every time her Imperial Father came, her Imperial Mother would be very happy, and even her demeanor towards Shen Panyan would improve a little. At the time, she naively thought that as long as she was ill, she could make her Imperial Mother happy, and her Mother would like her a little more.
So, she would intentionally wear fewer layers of clothing, eat two extra plates of pastries, and deliberately fall to the ground—using every method she could think of to make her Imperial Mother happy and make her Imperial Father come to see her.
But she hadn’t expected that when her Imperial Mother learned what she was doing, far from being happy, she severely reprimanded her and made her kneel on the bluestone slab in front of the Kunning Palace to reflect on her mistakes.
At that time, she only wanted to please her Imperial Mother and didn’t know what her mistake was. She knelt until she fainted, and her Imperial Mother never came to see her.
Later, as she grew older, her Imperial Mother required her to study the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and demanded excellence in everything. Any slight mistake resulted in either a reprimand or a palm strike.
Shen Panyan still remembered that year.
The snow that year in the capital was heavy, thick layers accumulating on the palace walls, covering the ground in silver frost.
In the freezing cold, her body was burning up with fever. She felt extremely unwell, dizzy, and unable to summon any strength.
She felt so awful that, for the first time, she refused to go to school in the inner palace.
The palace servants urged her repeatedly, but she wouldn’t get out of bed until someone went to inform her Imperial Mother.
Her Imperial Mother entered the room with a cold face and headed straight for her!
Shen Panyan remembered the terror of that moment even now.
The slap across her face hurt so much!!
Her face remained swollen for three days.
She did get her wish: she didn’t have to go to school in the inner palace. But her Imperial Mother summoned a female tutor, ensuring her studies would not stop even if she wasn’t in the inner palace.
The tutor was strict. At the slightest mistake, a ruler would strike her heavily, leaving red marks on her fair skin.
Shen Panyan wanted to cry, but the tutor forbade her, saying a Princess must act like one, and crying easily disgraced the royal family’s reputation.
The charcoal brazier had been taken away. So, she endured the tears, trembling in the cold winter snow, practicing the zither again and again.
Her condition was poor that day. Her body kept burning up, her head was spinning, and her hands were constantly shaking. She couldn’t remember how many times she was hit with the ruler, only that she eventually fainted.
When she woke up again, she saw her Imperial Father.
It turned out she had been lying unconscious for seven days and nights, nearly dying that winter.
Since then, she developed a nervous palpitation disorder. She was extremely fearful whenever she saw the tutor or her Imperial Mother, and it was feared she might die young if it continued.
For this reason, her Imperial Father often let her come to the Imperial Retreat to recuperate.
However, since that incident, her Imperial Mother’s attitude towards her only worsened.
Shen Panyan was terrified of the Empress.
The moment Qiushuang mentioned the Empress, she dared not speak again. She could only lift her eyes, her almond pupils looking pleadingly at Lin Xiao, silently begging him not to leave.
Seeing the Princess’s pale face, her white knuckles tightly gripping the clothes over her chest, cold sweat beading on her forehead, while her eyes desperately fixed on him, Lin Xiao’s intended departure was suddenly halted.
Seeing that he hadn’t left, the breath that Shen Panyan had been unable to take was suddenly released.
She managed to tremble out the words, “Lin Xiao, don’t…” go.
However, before she could finish, a wave of dizziness washed over her. Darkness enveloped her mind, and Shen Panyan’s body instantly went limp and fell downward.
Lin Xiao’s brow twitched violently. He quickly stepped forward.
“Your Highness!”
Qiushuang, standing nearby, also rushed over. “Your Highness!!”
Lin Xiao scooped Shen Panyan up under her knees and headed towards the bed. Seeing Qiushuang still standing beside him, his gaze instantly turned severe, and he coldly ordered, “What are you staring at? Go fetch the Imperial Physician!”
“You…”
Scolded by Lin Xiao again, Qiushuang was furious, but she knew this wasn’t the time to argue with him, so she rushed out.
Not long after, Imperial Physician Lin arrived in a hurry, carrying his medical box.
Because the Princess was frail, an Imperial Physician always accompanied her to the Imperial Retreat every year.
Imperial Physician Lin carefully checked her pulse, his heart filling with unstoppable melancholy.
Seeing the fierce-looking man in black and the Princess’s personal maid Qiushuang standing by the bed, his headache worsened.
The outside world might not know about Princess Mingyue’s situation, but how could people inside the palace not know?
Imperial Physician Lin had survived in the palace for over a decade by being cautious—not listening to what he shouldn’t, and not speaking what he shouldn’t.
Now, looking at Princess Mingyue’s weak pulse, he feared that if things continued this way, she might not survive the winter.
Imperial Physician Lin immediately felt his own life was in danger.
Back then, the Empress and Consort Shu appeared friendly on the surface but fought fiercely behind the scenes.
Consort Shu had been His Majesty’s favorite, but on the day she gave birth, she had a weak fate and died from excessive bleeding.
Her child, Princess Mingyue, was subsequently taken by the Empress and raised as her own.
To say the Empress didn’t intentionally cultivate Princess Mingyue’s timid personality was something he would never believe, even if killed.
Years ago, there was a rumor in the palace that the Empress was secretly responsible for Consort Shu’s death.
However, the Empress had quickly stamped out the rumor before it could spread.
Thinking of this, Imperial Physician Lin couldn’t help but sigh.
Consort Shu had died young, and His Majesty held a special affection for her child. Although Princess Mingyue’s temperament had made her less favored by His Majesty over the years, she was still his daughter. If she died at the Imperial Retreat, none of the attending staff would survive.
As the matter concerned life and death, Imperial Physician Lin dared not hold back his words and actions as he usually did.
“The Princess’s pulse is weak, and her heart palpitation disorder is severe. If the Princess’s body continues to weaken like this, I fear she may not survive this winter.”