We meet the 2nd Qing Shi today! (If anyone is confused please comment, and another reader who understands or I will reply!)
Yun Cheng holds so many secrets and so much experience behind his weary and somewhat-old vise. There’s so much to understand about the situation, and everything begins now! 🙂
Chapters 1-2
Night in the Protector General’s estate. As the guests party with their wine goblets and gamble together, a dancing girl in red begins a flying dance.
No one besides the master of the estate noticed the dancing girl suddenly stiffen.
The dancing girl knew that today was the fiftieth birthday of the great Protector General. Under these kinds of circumstances, she could not misstep… With one step, her body went askew, and she fell onto the ground, the chaotic sounds in her ears faintly going silent.
“Help her up.” A deep and kind masculine voice spoke, that seemed to dictate great vicissitudes. Immediately, two people came forth to lift her up. When she glanced up she saw that the person who had spoken was the great Protector General, Yun Cheng. Though he was late in his years, the general did not look old. His pupils were full of deepness that was becoming of his years, and the great change in his eyes could shake one’s eyes further. He asked, “What is your name?”
“This servant..is called Qing Shi [1].”
[1] Qing Shi (卿时). 卿 is a term of endearment between spouses, or a term for a high ranking official; an honorific in general. 时 means time; period; season. This is a different person from the Qing Shi mentioned in the Prologue. Whenever Yun Cheng reminisces on the past, he is thinking of the Qing Shi mentioned in the Prologue. Whenever Yun Cheng is in the present, he is with the Qing Shi dancing girl. Yun Cheng probably asked this dancer girl to enter his household because she shares the same name as the person he yearns for.
Yun Cheng was startled as his lips began to continuously repeat the dancer’s name. After quite awhile, he suddenly spoke, “Are you willing to enter my household?”
The scene silenced. All the guests appraised this dancer curiously. As the Protector General had never taken a wife or a concubine, it was their first time hearing such a request. Qing Shi became disheartened as she accepted the decree and knelt to kowtow. Her pupils were dark as she said, “This servant thanks the general.”
A servant helped her wash her face and rinse her mouth. She was then given a gauzy fabric to wear and sent to the general’s room. She did not know how long she had waited before the banquet finished. Qing Shi fisted her two hands into two balls tightly. Her body was so cold that she began to tremble.
The door to the room was opened, and Yun Cheng entered the room. The moment he walked in, he saw the shivering Qing Shi and was startled. Presently, he shook his head and laughed in spite of himself, “These servants who act on their own initiative!”
He went outside and yelled, “Come, someone bring her red clothes over.”
Yun Cheng waited on the other side of the screen, waiting for Qing Shi to finish changing into her clothes. The flames of the candle in the outer room cast his tall and straight silhouette onto the screen. Qing Shi was full of misgivings. She had once heard of the legendary Yun Cheng, who became a Protector General. He had been extraordinary all his life, and had lived through three dynasties.
With her shoulder, her waist and the position of her dress, Yun Cheng painted the girl’s form with difficulty. He looked up at Qing Shi and looked down again. How come he couldn’t draw her face? What did it look like? The figure in his memories was extremely fuzzy. He closed his eyes in deep thought, but it became even more indistinct. What did she look like…
Putting down his brush, Yun Cheng was extremely frustrated as he looked at the figure of the girl on the paper. The black eyes that had filled numerous people with fear were filled with helplessness, extreme helplessness.
How come… he couldn’t remember?
—
***Just a reminder that when Qing Shi is in italics, it refers to the Princess Qing Shi from the prologue!
As he fell into a deep sleep, the figure of the girl clothed in red seemed to merge with the scarlet wedding dress from back then. He saw the pear blossoms fall like snow in the courtyard, one after another. The servant girl waited upon her and helped her put on her complicated wedding clothes… this was the last step in completing the wedding garment- adorning her beautifully to send her away to a foreign monarch whom she had never seen before.
The window had not yet closed. Qing Shi’s gaze looked past the copper mirror and fell on the man outside. Without caring what the servants behind her were still altering, she stood up. The servants were all shocked. “Princess?”
“You may all leave,” she indifferently ordered. Though the servants were puzzled, they did not dare go against her orders. When the maids passed the man, they alarmed him. He turned around, as his gaze passed through the courtyard and clicked with that of her own. The plum blossoms in the courtyard slightly rustled as they fell and the breeze swayed Qing Shi’s hair that had not been bound yet. She slowly walked out of the room, and stood in the courtyard, calling him. “Yun Cheng.”
The man outside of the courtyard walked in and knelt in front of her, “This servant is here.”
“In the tenth year of Mingguang [2], my Imperial Father made you the leader of the Imperial bodyguards, but why did you not go?” Qing Shi’s sudden question made Yun Cheng stumped for words. He had not replied when Qing Shi spoke again, “In the first year of the Yuanbao dynasty, the high general wished to confer you the title of general, but why did you reject him?”
[2] Mingguang- A Chinese era name. Does not refer to a specific dynasty or emperor, but was just a name of the era of a specific time period within a dynasty, given by the emperor. This era is most likely made up. The author does not give the name of an emperor or a dynasty either, so that is probably irrelevant.
Why… Yun Cheng bitterly laughed in his heart. Why else? He silently lowered his head, waiting for Qing Shi’s next words.
After a silence, Qing Shi spoke forthrightly, hardly avoiding the taboo topic, “I don’t mind it if you were to like me.”
He had never dared to face his deep feelings that he had always hidden in his heart. When he suddenly heard Qing Shi speak of his lowly feelings, Yun Cheng looked up at her foolishly, forgetting the so-called etiquette between ranks.
Qing Shi lowered her head and looked at him. Then, she crouched down with him and looked straight into his black pupils, just like when they would catch long-horned grasshoppers in the underbrush when they were little. Both their faces would become filthy. The moment they looked up at each other, their faces would touch, and they would laugh foolishly at each other. They were clearly so close.
“Like me.” If there were any doubts about any of the words she had just said, the words she spoke now were certain. Qing Shi looked at him fixedly, waiting for him to nod in assent.
Though he was reluctant to leave her gaze for a long time, Yun Cheng still looked down again, “Princess, tomorrow you are going to be… married off. Please rest more.”
As she could not see his eyes, it would be a lie to say that she was not disappointed. Qing Shi’s gaze also fell on the floor, as she looked at his hands that looked rough from learning martial arts at a young age. It was these hands that had always protected her and accompanied her, never to leave her. “I will only ask you one more time,” Qing Shi dimly spoke again, “If I want to leave, will you take me away?”
She would let go of her status as the princess of the Qi nation, abandon her responsibilities, and renounce the sovereign king and the people, as she embraced her pitiful wishes. It was thus that she asked him intimately and without any dignity-
Was he willing to take her away?
He lifted his head, stunned, as he looked up at Qing Shi with shock. He didn’t dare believe she would ask something like this. But seeing the seriousness on her face, Yun Cheng fisted his hands, and suddenly fell upon the ground, bending his head to pay his respects. His voice was hoarse as he said, “This lowly servant… cannot.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, or that he wasn’t willing, but he could not. Yun Cheng… he had always lived his life honestly.
Qing Shi slightly curved her mouth. At an angle that Yun Cheng could not see, her almond-like pupils finally became moist, filled with countless despair. However, from her expectations, she had also come to her own understanding, “I know, I know… but I like you.”
She returned to her room, and sat in front of her window as she silently fiddled with the hairpins among the various head accessories. The window had still not closed; Yun Cheng was still guarding her outside the courtyard. From this angle, Qing Shi could see his back from a glance. She called him, “Yun Cheng.” The man looked back, and Qing Shi looked at the item in her hand. From Yun Cheng’s perspective, she was closing her eyes and resting. The pear blossoms in the courtyard swirled in the air. It almost seemed as if the Queen Mother of the West’s hairpin* had created an unreachable distance between them, “Tomorrow, you do not need to leave the Capital with me.”
*Wang Mu Niang Niang, Queen Mother of the West, is the Chinese Daoist goddess of life, fertility and immortality. She has immense power and is often depicted as the wife of the Jade Emperor.
Yun Cheng was shocked, as his mind went blank momentarily.
“After I leave the Capital, you will no longer be my Imperial bodyguard.”
Did this mean, she… didn’t want him anymore? Did this mean that they would never meet again…
Yun Cheng clenched his fist as he nodded and assented with a low tone.
Translated by tranzgeek
Edited by Ely
MerakiTranslations 
Thank you for the chapter~
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