The Little Princess's Secret Guard - Chapter 30
Chapter 30: Vomiting Bl00d
The next day, just as the sky was faintly lighting up and the mountain stronghold was still in a murky state, Shen Panyan woke up.
She hadn’t slept very well this night, and there were dark circles under her eyes, but the swelling on her face had receded, leaving only faint red marks from the slaps.
Seeing that she was awake, Lin Xiao brought in warm water for her to wash her face.
Shen Panyan was surprised, “Lin Xiao, where did you get the warm water?”
Lin Xiao: “This mountain stronghold has a kitchen. The person guarding the kitchen is a mute elderly man, and the water has always been kept warm.”
Someone was still alive? Shen Panyan was slightly startled. She had assumed that everyone in the stronghold was dead…
The moonlight was bright last night, and she had walked with the aid of the moonlight. The road was dim and dark, and coupled with the secluded location of the room where she was locked, she actually hadn’t clearly seen how many people in the stronghold had died, only noticing the eerie quietness of the stronghold.
Since no one came out to check even when Lin Xiao interrogated the Great Chief so severely, Shen Panyan had guessed that there were probably no survivors in the stronghold.
But…
Lin Xiao immediately discerned the Princess’s thoughts. “Apart from that mute elderly man, the rest of the people in this stronghold were hostages captured by them. Your subordinate released them last night.”
He had no liking for wanton killing of the innocent. He wouldn’t do things that were irrelevant.
“Mm.” Shen Panyan’s voice was barely a whisper.
She felt like she still didn’t know Lin Xiao well enough. Shen Panyan was instantly ashamed of her rash conjectures about Lin Xiao the previous night.
After washing her face, Lin Xiao reapplied the medicine for her.
“Does the Princess wish to see your maidservant?”
“Are you talking about Qiu Shuang?” Shen Panyan’s eyes widened slightly. “She’s still alive?”
She had heard the quarrel outside last night. Recalling Qiu Shuang’s defense of her, Shen Panyan’s heart felt like an overturned kitchen stove—a jumble of thoughts and mixed feelings.
She should have hated her, but after last night, she somehow couldn’t bring herself to hate her anymore.
Shen Panyan nodded. “Alright.”
“Yes.”
Lin Xiao turned and left. Not long after, the door creaked open, and Qiu Shuang walked in.
She was disheveled, her face as pale as paper, walking with a limp, and her dress was messy, looking exactly like a refugee fleeing disaster.
Seeing Shen Panyan, Qiu Shuang immediately knelt down.
“Your servant greets the Princess.”
“What does the Princess wish to ask your servant? Your servant, your servant will certainly tell you everything, holding nothing back.”
Last night, after being kicked unconscious by the Great Chief, Qiu Shuang woke up and realized something was wrong. The mountain stronghold was too quiet, quiet as if there were no living people.
She entered the room to look for the Princess but only saw bloodstains all over the floor under the flickering candlelight. She was immediately terrified and retreated repeatedly, running around in panic.
After running outside, she found dead bodies everywhere in the stronghold. Just when she finally managed to escape the stronghold, she encountered three wild wolves.
The wolves were gnawing on something. Qiu Shuang was terrified. While running away in a panic, she accidentally twisted her ankle and fell out.
She had bad luck and fell right towards the wolves. When she opened her eyes, she saw the dead eyes of the Great Chief staring fixedly at her. Qiu Shuang’s hair stood on end from fear, and she instinctively shrieked.
Her scream startled the wolves. The wolves turned their heads, their green eyes fixed straight on her neck, claws poised to strike.
Just as she was about to die in the wolves’ jaws, the wolves suddenly seemed to be struck by something and deviated from their target, howling in fury. Qiu Shuang quickly scrambled and crawled back into the mountain stronghold, daring not to leave again.
She hid like this all night until just now, when Lin Xiao knocked on her door, and she finally came out.
Shen Panyan looked at Qiu Shuang’s disheveled state. Recalling their years of friendship, she naturally felt unwell.
“Qiu Shuang, did you have a compelling reason to betray me? Did someone in the palace bully you…” She still didn’t want to believe this matter.
After a night of terror and torment, Qiu Shuang’s body trembled, but her expression was already numb. “Replying to the Princess, people aim high, and water flows low. Your servant was simply seeking a better future for herself. There were no compelling reasons. Everything was done willingly by your servant.”
Shen Panyan felt a pang of pain in her heart. “Why?”
She reached out and gripped the table beside her tightly, her knuckles turning white, making the blue veins particularly distinct.
“There is no why. Staying by your side, Princess, your servant would never have a chance to rise up in this lifetime. Your servant does not want to be a servant anymore. Your servant wants to be superior to others, to have servants in groups, instead of following you and being stepped on by anyone…”
Shen Panyan’s eyelashes trembled, and tears fell. “It was my fault for not protecting you well. If you had told me, I would have found a good future for you.”
Hearing this, Qiu Shuang laughed as if she heard something funny, raising her head to look at her. “A good future? What good future? Princess, you probably don’t know that you yourself don’t have a good future. How can you talk about finding a good future for your servant?”
After a night of panic, Qiu Shuang had already realized that she was finished.
Her life was completely over.
Neither Lin Xiao by the Princess’s side nor the master behind her would let her go. She only had a dead end now.
She smiled, a malicious look in her eyes as she looked at her.
“Princess, you probably don’t know what you would have gone through if your guard hadn’t arrived in time.”
“You would have been discovered by everyone in a bandit den, brought back to the capital in a disheveled state, and from then on, the entire capital would be filled with rumors about you.”
“Everyone would say you are unfit to be a royal princess. Civil and military officials would petition the Emperor to let you preserve the royal reputation with a bolt of white silk. However, you definitely would not die, because the Second Young Master Chu would request the Emperor to grant marriage.”
“You would marry the Second Young Master Chu, and everyone would say how deeply devoted the Second Young Master Chu is to you, and how despicable and unworthy the Princess is…”
Before she could finish, a sharp sword landed on her neck. A line of bl00d appeared, and Lin Xiao’s voice was cold as ice. “Say one more word, and I will kill you.”
Qiu Shuang instantly froze like a chicken being choked, her body trembling, unable to utter a single word.
Shen Panyan’s eyelashes fluttered, and clear tears rolled down her cheeks like strings of pearls.
“Lin Xiao, let her speak.” She closed her eyes, letting the tears fall. “I want to hear what else there is…”
“Princess!” Lin Xiao frowned.
“Lin Xiao, put it down. I want to know.” Shen Panyan opened her eyes, her eyelashes lightly trembling. “I can’t just be calculated against by others without knowing why.”
Only then did Lin Xiao sheath his blade, his gaze fixed on Qiu Shuang with a chilling pressure.
Stared at by him, Qiu Shuang dared not speak nonsense again. She swallowed hard and spoke normally.
“The Second Young Master Chu is actually an eunuch. The reason he agreed to marry the Princess is because the Empress Dowager promised him benefits. She never actually intended for the bandits to violate your body. The Empress Dowager only wanted to humiliate you, not truly taint the royal reputation.”
“However, the Second Young Master Chu already has a volatile temperament and cares deeply about a woman’s chastity. Many of his wives, concubines, and mistresses have been tortured to death by him. Princess, you have lost your reputation. If you fall into his hands, even if you haven’t truly lost your virginity, but…” Qiu Shuang paused. “Princess, you have, after all, stayed in a bandit den. Any man would mind, let alone the emotionally twisted Second Young Master Chu.”
“The Empress Dowager ordered that you must not die, so the Second Young Master Chu wouldn’t torture you to death, he would only, only…”
By the end, Qiu Shuang dared not continue, but Shen Panyan had already understood her meaning.
To be misunderstood and despised by everyone without having actually lost her chastity, to be tortured and humiliated by her husband, who was also an eunuch… Unable to live and unable to die, that would only cause her more pain than killing her.
If they wanted her dead, so be it, but why torture her like this…
Shen Panyan’s hands were clenched tightly, her face deathly pale, and her body swayed precariously. A feeling of suffocating air was stuck in her chest, and a sweet, metallic taste rose in her throat. Bright red bl00d flowed from the corner of her lips…
Lin Xiao’s pupils contracted slightly. With a quick step, he swept her up into his arms, his voice urgent. “Princess, your subordinate will take you down the mountain right now!!”
“No… no need…” Shen Panyan’s breathing was ragged. “The medicine, in my waist, is… is there…”
Lin Xiao quickly found the medicine at her waist and fed it to her lips. Shen Panyan’s rapid breathing slowly subsided somewhat, but then, the next moment.
“Princess!!”
Lin Xiao’s martial robe was soaked in bl00d, dripping to the ground. Without thinking, he sped down the mountain with the Princess in his arms.
Shen Panyan still didn’t want to leave. She gripped his clothes with trembling fingers. “I, I don’t want to go. Lin, Lin Xiao…”
“Go… go back…”
She still hadn’t figured out whether the Empress Dowager Qiu Shuang mentioned was her mother, and why she would want to harm her like this.
“Pardon your subordinate’s inability to comply.” Lin Xiao’s voice was low and calm, but his speed increased even further.
“You—”
Another mouthful of fresh bl00d gushed from her lips. She wanted to say something more, but the next moment, darkness overtook her, and she fainted.
Qiu Shuang collapsed onto the ground, looking at their departing figures, and smiled bitterly without making a sound.
She never imagined that the usually weak and submissive Princess would develop her own ideas.
A single move difference, and the entire game was lost.
Before, after she escaped, she stayed with a commoner’s family because she lacked travel permits. Unexpectedly, that family had ill intentions toward her, not only robbing her of all her valuables but also planning to sell her to a widower.
In that moment of crisis, it was the Empress Dowager’s people who found her, rescued her, and gave her a chance to redeem herself.
But now, she had botched this task too.
She wouldn’t get another chance.
The Princess let her go, but with the Empress Dowager’s methods, she wouldn’t have an easy time.
Meanwhile, Imperial Physician Lin had happily finished the New Year and was riding in a carriage back to the Royal Resort with his medicine chest.
The Princess had told him to return directly to the Royal Resort after the New Year was over. Who knew that when he got back, the West Wing would be empty.
“Where is the Princess?”
During his routine check-up, he saw nothing. Imperial Physician Lin looked at Mu Ying.
Mu Ying shook her head, only saying the Princess was still in the capital, refusing to say anything else.
The General’s Mansion had already informed her that she absolutely must not leak the news of the Princess’s disappearance casually, lest it harm the Princess’s reputation.
“Alright then.” Imperial Physician Lin carried his medicine chest and went back.
Unexpectedly, not long after, someone hastily knocked on his door.
“Imperial Physician Lin, hurry!! Hurry!! Something has happened to the Princess!!”
Imperial Physician Lin was greatly startled.
“Princess, what has happened to the Princess this time?!”
“The Princess is vomiting bl00d! She is vomiting a lot of bl00d!!”
Oh heavens!!
Imperial Physician Lin grabbed his medicine chest and ran as fast as he could, fearing he might be a second too late.
He sighed inwardly, lamenting that the Princess was fine in previous years, but this year, incidents kept occurring frequently, all landing on him.