Her Highness The Princess Comes from A Thousand Years Ago - Chapter 1

It was the beginning of summer. Night had fallen, and the first heavy rain of the season had arrived.

For once, Shen Yanbing had gone out without driving—and naturally, she was caught in a downpour. Holding up a sun umbrella, she hurried through the pattering rain in high heels. By the time she reached the elevator in her apartment building, she was, unsurprisingly, soaked to the skin.

She wiped the droplets from her phone screen and unlocked it, revealing her latest unread message.

“Let’s break up.”

Her wet hair clung uncomfortably to her neck. Shen Yanbing took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.

With one hand, she replied, “Okay.”

The elevator gave a ding as it reached her floor. She took out her keys and entered her apartment, feeling strangely calm.

First, a shower.

Shen Yanbing changed her shoes, tossed her bag onto the table in the living room, then went to the balcony to fetch a change of clothes before heading toward the bathroom.

Just as her hand closed around the door handle, she abruptly paused.

Was there a noise inside?

Shen Yanbing frowned. Refusing to frighten herself over nothing, she pressed down the handle and pushed open the bathroom door.

Behind the glass partition, the vague silhouette of a person could be seen inside the bathing area.

Shen Yanbing switched on the light.

A pair of wide brown eyes stared straight at her, the face beneath them filled with astonishment.

Shen Yanbing was even more shocked. She stumbled back two steps, nearly screaming aloud.

A woman dressed in brilliant red wedding robes, wearing a phoenix coronet adorned with dangling ornaments, was lying in her bathtub!

“…This isn’t a horror movie.”

Shen Yanbing instinctively turned around, putting her back to the person in the bathtub. Her eyes went blank as she pinched herself without thinking.

The sharp pain caused her mind to crash completely. After a moment, she finally recovered. Looking at the equally bewildered woman, she forced herself to remain composed.

“Who are you? How did you get in here?”

The woman in ancient ceremonial robes widened her almond-shaped eyes and murmured in a daze, “What place is this…?”

Shen Yanbing’s hand trembled slightly. “Get out of there, or I’m calling the police!”

“Breaking into someone’s home is illegal!”

The other woman struggled to understand what Shen Yanbing was saying. Her accent sounded slightly unusual.

“Calling the police?”

Fortunately, she understood the instruction to get up. The elaborate, tightly layered ceremonial robes were stifling in the muggy summer night. Awkwardly lifting her skirts and steadying the heavy phoenix coronet on her head, she stepped out of the strange white basin and stared blankly at the unfamiliar objects surrounding her.

Only then did Shen Yanbing finally get a clear look at her.

Her skin was fair and flawless, her bearing dignified, her almond-shaped eyes bright, and her features exquisite. Combined with her elaborate attire, she looked exactly like a classical beauty who had stepped straight out of a painting.

“…Where did you come from?”

The woman stared at her in confusion, as though she did not understand the point of the question.

Several seconds later, she answered, “The capital.”

“The capital?” Shen Yanbing was startled.

This was Bincheng, more than half the country away from the national capital. She steadied herself and asked again, “What’s your name? How did you get into my apartment?”

“Li Mingyue.” The woman lowered her head, trying to remember, before speaking softly. “I remember dying.”

“…!”

Shen Yanbing decided that she must be in a terrible state tonight. Even her dreams felt far too realistic.

Her heart pounding, she backed out of the bathroom. The living room outside was still as familiar and brightly lit as ever. When her hand touched the phone on the table, she felt as though she had returned from another lifetime.

“Whew.”

She collapsed into a soft chair. The rainwater on her clothes had already turned cold.

She put on a popular song at random and tried to calm herself down.

After an unknown amount of time, she finally stood again, picked up her change of clothes, and entered the bathroom.

“…No!”

Shen Yanbing refused to believe what she was seeing.

Why was that woman still there?!

Li Mingyue had crouched down with her knees hugged to her chest, the skirts of her ceremonial robes spread across the floor. When Shen Yanbing appeared again, she merely looked up at her with sorrowful eyes.

“Is this an immortal residence in the afterlife?”

No. It was just a bathroom.

Shen Yanbing stared at her expressionlessly.

White ceramic tiles, a bathtub, a showerhead, a glass door, a toilet, and a washbasin.

Every single one of these things was beyond Li Mingyue’s understanding.

Shen Yanbing set down the clothes she had brought in and bravely approached her.

Her index finger touched Li Mingyue’s cheek, then brushed over the soft, entirely handwoven fabric of her clothes.

Everything felt so real.

Li Mingyue looked at her in confusion.

The strange woman’s clothing and the large areas of exposed skin seemed, in Li Mingyue’s eyes, almost indistinguishable from wearing nothing at all.

“Come out.”

Shen Yanbing sighed. No matter what was going on, she could not leave the woman sitting in the bathroom forever.

Li Mingyue stood and was led into the living room with a dignified bearing.

Walls as white as freshly fallen snow. Long, soft-looking cushioned benches. An enormous black screen. All sorts of strange objects hanging from the walls. Tall white wooden cabinets. Exquisite objects made of colored glass.

And above her head, an enormous lantern that made the night as bright as day!

Li Mingyue parted her lips, gazing at Shen Yanbing with restrained curiosity.

“Those clothes you’re wearing…” Shen Yanbing’s first thought was that the woman must be filming some kind of drama, but after thinking it over, she dismissed the idea and asked sincerely, “Aren’t you hot?”

There was no air-conditioning in the bathroom, and sweat had already gathered at Li Mingyue’s temples. Hearing the question, she pressed her lips together.

“A little.”

Shen Yanbing turned on the air conditioner, plugged in an electric fan, and aimed it at Li Mingyue.

Startled by the sudden rush of air against her face, Li Mingyue closed her eyes for several seconds. When she felt the coolness, she cautiously opened them again, apparently unable to understand why the upright object with a round head had suddenly begun moving.

“…Introduce yourself first.”

For the sake of that beautiful face, Shen Yanbing—whose day had gone badly in every possible way and whose mood was equally poor—managed to summon some patience.

However, the other woman did not seem to understand what “introduce yourself” meant.

“You can’t seriously be from ancient times.”

Shen Yanbing glanced at the woman’s soft boots. She had never seen that style before.

She sighed and explained, “My name is Shen Yanbing. I’m twenty-eight years old, a university lecturer, and I live in Bincheng. Introduce yourself like that.”

Li Mingyue hesitated for a moment, apparently unused to speaking this way.

“I… am called Li Mingyue. I am nineteen years old.”

“You only just became an adult?” Shen Yanbing asked instinctively. Glancing at her attire, she added, “Are you studying, or do you do something else?”

As she spoke, she pulled up the footage from the two indoor and outdoor security cameras connected to her phone. She dragged through the recording and confirmed that no one had entered her apartment.

Had this girl truly appeared out of thin air?

Shen Yanbing lived on the nineteenth floor. There was no way anyone could have climbed in through the bathroom window, especially not while wearing something as heavy and cumbersome as Li Mingyue’s outfit.

Li Mingyue looked at the strange woman reclining against the cushions while fiddling with a thin, glowing shell. After hesitating, she replied, “I… am Princess Zhaoyue of the current dynasty.”

“…”

Fortunately, Shen Yanbing had not been drinking water. Even so, her grip on her phone loosened, and it fell directly onto her face.

She raised her eyes toward Li Mingyue and held her breath.

“A princess? Of the current dynasty?”

“…I should call the police after all.”

Shen Yanbing stood in disbelief and paced over to her.

“Time travel?”

Li Mingyue looked at her uneasily. Although she did not understand what Shen Yanbing was saying, she sensitively perceived the distrust in her voice and added, “I… believe it was the night of my wedding.”

Considering the bizarre way Li Mingyue had appeared, Shen Yanbing was forced to rule out scientific explanations such as mental illness or filming a drama.

She could only ask, “What year is it?”

Li Mingyue cautiously studied her before answering, “The twentieth year of Jiale.”

“…”

Shen Yanbing suddenly laughed. “A reign title?”

Li Mingyue looked at her anxiously.

Shen Yanbing’s expression turned serious. “It is currently the year 2017 of the Gregorian calendar.”

“Which dynasty does this Jiale era belong to?”

Li Mingyue lost her balance and took a step back, unable to process the question.

“The—the Jing Dynasty.”

What dynasty was the Jing Dynasty supposed to be?!

Shen Yanbing had majored in history as an undergraduate. This sounded like a complete joke to her.

“Can’t you at least use some common sense when making up a story?”

Li Mingyue looked bewildered. Her brows drew together in alarm.

“What are you talking about…?”

Shen Yanbing’s head hurt.

How had a living person dressed in ancient clothes inexplicably appeared inside her apartment?

Li Mingyue’s expression also turned grave. She addressed the strangely dressed woman.

“You do not know of the Jing Dynasty?”

Shen Yanbing finally suppressed the strange feeling in her chest and gave a derisive laugh.

“How exactly did you get in here?”

“I opened my eyes and found myself here…” Li Mingyue’s final words drifted away, her eyes growing hazy.

The bathroom window was tightly shut. Only the faint patter of rain could be heard outside.

Li Mingyue’s red ceremonial robes were completely dry, and not a single piece of her complicated headdress had been disturbed.

“Now this is interesting.”

Shen Yanbing’s curiosity stirred. She could not resist reviewing the perfectly ordinary security footage several more times.

Could it really be time travel?

Had a princess fallen into this world from some other parallel universe?

What was one supposed to do after encountering something so unscientific?

Shen Yanbing’s answer was obvious: turn the matter over to the state.

She put down her phone. Their eyes met, and Li Mingyue’s almond-shaped eyes carefully studied her.

“Tell me about the Jing Dynasty first.”

Something stirred in Shen Yanbing’s mind. She suddenly became interested in this seemingly fictional dynasty.

Li Mingyue hesitated, unsure where to begin.

“The Jing Dynasty is a new dynasty established by our present holy sovereign…”

“Wait.” Shen Yanbing interrupted her and asked directly, “How many years of recorded human history does your world have?”

Without hesitation, Li Mingyue gave her a figure. She even thoughtfully listed the names of several previous dynasties that had fallen.

Her gaze was sincere. She did not appear to be lying.

Yet Shen Yanbing had never heard of a single dynasty she mentioned.

A parallel world?

Shen Yanbing suddenly remembered all those unreliable theories and laughed soundlessly.

Judging by the length of recorded human history in Li Mingyue’s world, the dynasty she came from should already have been gone for a thousand years.

Had Shen Yanbing truly picked up an ancient time traveler?

“You’re an ancient person who has come to the modern era. For all we know, you might soon catch some infection and die because of any number of minor causes.”

Shen Yanbing looked directly at her.

Li Mingyue did not understand most of what she had heard, but instinct told her it was nothing good. Lowering her eyes, she asked, “How am I supposed to return?”

Shen Yanbing stood and poured herself a glass of water.

“What were you doing before you came here?”

“I drank poisoned wine.”

Li Mingyue stared without blinking at the large box that automatically dispensed clear water.

The fan blew her disheveled hair around. She raised a hand to smooth it, then struggled to remove the heavy golden phoenix coronet studded with gemstones from her head.

Watching her, Shen Yanbing took out a new glass and poured her some water.

“Then you probably can’t go back.”

Dying a second time was hardly a reliable method. What would Shen Yanbing do if a corpse ended up inside her apartment?

It was not as though time travel could be mass-produced.

Shen Yanbing raised her eyes and suddenly smiled.

“Modern society isn’t so bad. Even if you went back, you might only have to die all over again.”

Li Mingyue fell silent, but she still could not help asking, “How far is this place from my home?”

“Your home probably isn’t in this world,” Shen Yanbing replied.

The slight furrow between Li Mingyue’s brows deepened.

“What do you mean?”

Shen Yanbing considered how to explain it.

“The world you came from is separated from the present by at least a thousand years. It’s like how people in the Jing Dynasty look back at the history of earlier dynasties. Except the Jing Dynasty has not merely become history—it is history that never existed in this world.”

“This is not the world you knew.”

Li Mingyue looked somewhat dazed. She lowered her head, then suddenly asked, “Are you a swindler?”

“…”

Shen Yanbing was rendered speechless. She nearly choked on her own breath.

But when she saw the pure innocence in Li Mingyue’s eyes, she forced herself to answer, “I am not a swindler.”

Li Mingyue pressed her lips together. “What kind of person are you?”

Shen Yanbing’s face turned cold.

“I am an upstanding citizen.”

Li Mingyue did not entirely understand, but she had enough sense not to ask anything further.

Shen Yanbing drank some water to calm herself, then handed Her Highness a glass of clear water.

Li Mingyue carefully cradled the glass in both hands and could not resist saying, “This colored glass is even more beautiful than anything I saw in the palace.”

Shen Yanbing glanced at her and sighed.

“Drink the water first.”

Li Mingyue noticed the row of upside-down glasses arranged on the table and frowned.

“You are far too extravagant.”

“These are mass-produced. You can buy one for just a few yuan.” Shen Yanbing attempted to explain, only to realize that she had used even more words Li Mingyue could not possibly understand.

Sure enough, the other woman looked completely lost.

Maybe I should smash a few to show her.

Shen Yanbing pressed a hand to her forehead. Considering the danger and the mess she would have to clean up, she ultimately decided against it.

“Nowadays, this kind of cup…” She gestured toward the glass in her hand. “It isn’t called colored glass. It’s called glass. It’s very ordinary, about as common as the clay jars used by ordinary people in your dynasty.”

“Glass.” Li Mingyue nodded to show that she had remembered.

Shen Yanbing breathed a sigh of relief. At least the girl’s mind had not remained stuck in ancient times.

The cool air gradually spread throughout the room. The rain outside had already stopped, and the muggy heat had been replaced by refreshing coolness.

Shen Yanbing checked the time, then looked at Li Mingyue, who was still dressed entirely in red.

At last, she spoke.

“Take off your clothes first.”