Her Highness The Princess Comes from A Thousand Years Ago - Chapter 2

Shen Yanbing went into the bedroom and dug out an old set of pajamas. But when she returned and held them out to Her Highness, she hesitated.

Would this count as tampering with evidence?

If she put these clothes on the girl before reporting the matter and handing her over to the police, they would probably assume she was an escaped psychiatric patient.

This ancient person who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere had no proof of identity whatsoever. That was going to be a serious problem.

Was Shen Yanbing really supposed to take in an undocumented person for no apparent reason?

Shen Yanbing, who had always been a good, law-abiding citizen, felt a headache coming on.

Li Mingyue stood in front of the sofa, watching her without moving.

The red wedding robes made her face appear even paler. Her helpless almond-shaped eyes inspired pity, while her tightly pressed lips betrayed her unease.

Outside, the rain suddenly grew heavier again, striking the windowsill, the leaves, and the ground with a loud rush of water.

Shen Yanbing’s thoughts wandered. When her gaze unexpectedly met Li Mingyue’s, her heart trembled slightly. She made up her mind and comforted herself aloud.

“Forget it. It’s the middle of the night, and the rain is so heavy. It would be a hassle for the police to come out. I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”

Li Mingyue’s eyelashes fluttered. She twisted the corner of her robe between her fingers but said nothing.

“Now that you’ve come to the modern era, you’ll have to adapt to modern clothes.” Shen Yanbing pointed at her own short-sleeved shirt and trousers. “Like this.”

“…All right.” Li Mingyue lowered her head, then quickly looked up at her again and said softly, “I don’t know how to take this off.”

Shen Yanbing sighed inwardly.

Looking somewhat embarrassed, Li Mingyue raised both arms and allowed Shen Yanbing to do as she pleased.

The bridal attire was an extremely elaborate golden-embroidered ceremonial cape worn over a crossed-collar wedding robe. Its back was secured in place, while the fabric extended upward over both shoulders, with tiny jade pendants hanging from the lower ends.

As a princess, Li Mingyue naturally had attendants to dress and undress her.

Perhaps because she had been well nourished, she was not as short as the average person from ancient times. At around one hundred and sixty centimeters, she had even reached the average height of a modern woman.

She was also fairly well developed.

As Shen Yanbing undid the outer robe, she remembered a research topic she had once worked on and found herself curious about what genuine ancient undergarments looked like.

Even so, her hands remained proper and respectful. As she bent down to untie the sash, she looked up and saw the faint blush on Li Mingyue’s cheeks. She attempted to ease the young princess’s tension by making conversation.

“What do you plan to do from now on?”

Li Mingyue looked lost. She knew nothing about this unfamiliar world and felt even more awe toward this era a thousand years in the future.

Shen Yanbing also realized the question was far too difficult for her.

“In modern society, you need proof of identity if you want to live a normal life.”

“Your best option right now is the police station. We’ll have to see whether they believe your story.”

Li Mingyue looked at her. After a while, she asked, “And then?”

Shen Yanbing had already finished removing the complicated outer garments. She straightened and met her eyes with a faint smile.

“That, I don’t know.”

“Maybe I’ll turn you over to the state so they can conduct experiments on you.”

Remembering the movies she had seen, she even had the leisure to joke about it.

Li Mingyue tilted her head. She did not understand exactly what Shen Yanbing meant, but she could tell it was probably nothing good.

She suddenly missed the Jing Dynasty and everything familiar to her there.

Shen Yanbing hung the ceremonial cape neatly and let her smile fade. Thinking about what would happen after tonight, she said solemnly, “There are no emperors or princesses in the modern world. Everyone is equal. From now on, Your Highness will have to take care of yourself.”

Li Mingyue was now wearing only a white inner robe. She remained motionless for a long time before answering, “All right.”

She began carefully examining the pale yellow nightdress Shen Yanbing had handed her.

“Can you tell how to put it on? You pull it over your head.” Shen Yanbing stood to one side and instructed her, unable to do anything but marvel at life’s unpredictability.

Half an hour after breaking up with her girlfriend, she was teaching a princess how to dress?

Li Mingyue nodded and moved to pull the nightdress directly over herself.

“Wait!” Shen Yanbing hurriedly stopped her and sighed. “You have to take off the clothes underneath first.”

Li Mingyue looked troubled. She stared at Shen Yanbing’s bare arms, clearly finding the concept difficult to understand.

“You… appear before others dressed like that?”

“…”

Shen Yanbing decided not to take offense and explained patiently, “In the modern world, people everywhere dress like this. It isn’t shameful, and it isn’t strange.”

Li Mingyue did not seem convinced.

Shen Yanbing felt exhausted. What she was wearing was already quite conservative. If the princess saw crop tops, shorts, or bikinis, she might faint on the spot.

“You have to dress this way if you want to adapt to society.”

After thinking for a moment, Shen Yanbing returned to the bedroom and found a set of underwear she had bought in the wrong size and never worn. She offered it to Li Mingyue, who did not dare reach out to take it.

“Do you know how to put these on?” Shen Yanbing also felt a little awkward. “These are modern undergarments. Wait… I’d better find a video to explain it to you.”

She opened the laptop on the small round table in front of the sofa.

Li Mingyue watched in astonishment as the large book-like object began to glow. Colorful images and dense rows of writing shifted constantly across its surface.

It was nothing short of a divine miracle!

Shen Yanbing quickly found several instructional videos demonstrating the proper way to wear a bra. She clicked on the most-viewed one and instructed, “Just watch what she does. Don’t touch the screen.”

Li Mingyue stared fearfully at the real person who appeared on the screen, then looked at Shen Yanbing.

“Can she see us?”

“No. This isn’t a live broadcast.” Shen Yanbing checked the time. “I’ll explain it to you later. I’m going to shower first. You need to have changed by the time I come out, all right?”

With that, she started the video, adjusted the volume, and left Her Highness staring wide-eyed at the woman on the screen.

In the bathroom, Shen Yanbing picked up a fallen phoenix-shaped hairpin from the bathtub and placed it outside the glass door before beginning her shower.

Worried about the unreliable ancient person outside, she finished much earlier than usual.

As expected, Li Mingyue had not moved at all.

“What’s wrong?”

Shen Yanbing had changed into her pajamas, and a faint mist from the shower still clung to her body. Because she was slightly nearsighted, she did not notice until she drew closer that the princess was flushed from her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears.

The video was still playing.

Accompanied by soft music, a model wearing only a bandeau over her upper body was bending forward and demonstrating how to adjust the bra straps.

Looking at the crimson-faced Li Mingyue, Shen Yanbing sighed.

“Forget it. We’ll take things slowly. This really is too much of a shock for someone from ancient times.”

The video happened to be nearing its end. Shen Yanbing closed the laptop and led Li Mingyue to sit down.

“Remember this. It is currently the year 2017 of the Common Era. This country is Huaguo, and this city is Bincheng.”

Still dressed only in her inner robe, Li Mingyue cautiously sat on the soft sofa and asked curiously, “Are you the daughter of an official, or from a merchant family?”

Everything she had seen was so strange and far beyond anything she could have imagined. Shen Yanbing moved through such an environment with complete ease and casual confidence. Surely this was not the bearing of someone from an ordinary household.

Shen Yanbing laughed.

“I’m a member of the proletariat.”

Li Mingyue looked confused.

Shen Yanbing stopped teasing her and smiled. “An ordinary commoner. Do you understand?”

Li Mingyue nodded. She sat perfectly straight on the sofa and could not resist glancing at the wooden chairs beside the dining table on the other side of the room.

Shen Yanbing reclined on the sofa, stretched her legs out onto the footstool, and casually switched on the television.

Li Mingyue’s almond-shaped eyes widened as the enormous black screen suddenly lit up with flashing colors and images.

Shen Yanbing randomly chose a modern domestic drama. She only needed some background noise for herself; the main purpose was to give the princess a basic introduction to modern life.

“This is called a television,” Shen Yanbing explained. “The people and the story you see inside it are fictional. They’re recorded using a special device, and then everyone can watch them.”

Li Mingyue tried hard to understand.

“Is it like a theater stage?”

“Exactly!” Shen Yanbing said with satisfaction. “The entire performance is recorded, and then it can be played over and over again without the actors having to perform it again.”

Li Mingyue nodded. “I rarely watched plays.”

Shen Yanbing pressed play. “That’s all right. In the modern world, you can watch television whenever you like.”

The theme music immediately began, and the powerful female lead made her entrance in a luxury car.

Shen Yanbing began fiddling with her phone. She did not care whether Li Mingyue understood everything yet. The important thing was for her to become familiar with it first.

It was what one might call “immersive learning.”

The pinned conversation at the top of her WeChat was still the message containing her reply: “Okay.”

Shen Yanbing’s hand paused. She deleted the other woman from her contacts, then began checking her unread group chats one by one as usual.

Today should have been a miserable day.

She had been forced to come out in front of her colleagues at the university, then broken up with the girlfriend she had dated for a year.

Everything had gone wrong after she left the house as well.

She had planned to return home, take a shower, and go straight to sleep.

She never could have imagined how the night would unfold.

“What is that?”

Hearing the question, Shen Yanbing looked up. Li Mingyue was pointing at the phone in her hand.

“A mobile phone,” Shen Yanbing answered. “You can use it to make calls. Even if two people are very far apart, they can hear each other’s voices. They can even see what the other person looks like.”

Li Mingyue seemed utterly incapable of imagining that such an object could exist. She frowned.

“How far is very far? And how is that possible?”

“As far away as you can possibly imagine. As for how it works, I’ll explain it another time. It’s too complicated.”

Shen Yanbing had studied the humanities. She was not sure she could explain it clearly herself.

Li Mingyue’s curiosity did not diminish.

“Could it reach the capital?”

“Of course.” Shen Yanbing considered how best to teach her basic common knowledge. “Once you’re familiar with the modern world—and especially once you have an identity card—I can take you to see the present-day capital.”

After a moment’s thought, she added, “Assuming you’re still here.”

I might hand you over to the police tomorrow…

Li Mingyue’s expression became complicated at the mention of visiting the capital. Then, after hearing the next sentence, she looked confused again.

“Where else should I be?”

Shen Yanbing glanced at her and was about to answer when she was interrupted by a sudden rise in the deliberately affected voice coming from the television.

“Oh, what are you doing?”

A woman’s coquettish voice came from the screen, while the booming background music of a nightclub was loud enough to make one’s ears ache.

A nationally famous actress was being jostled around inside a private room by several men who looked like hooligans. One of her shoulder straps had slipped down, and her gaze was unfocused.

“…”

Shen Yanbing could barely look at it.

Terrible domestic dramas truly never disappointed.

She glanced at Li Mingyue and found her lips slightly parted, her face filled with shock.

“Bastards! Perverts!”

The female lead kicked wildly in her high heels until one shoe flew off. The next moment, the door burst open, and the male lead made a dazzling entrance dressed in a police uniform. With a stern shout, he held up his identification and frightened away the men who had been about to attack her.

Shen Yanbing felt deeply embarrassed. Turning her head, she happened to meet Li Mingyue’s gaze.

Her Highness pressed her lips together.

“I don’t quite understand what I’m watching.”

Shen Yanbing paused the program and reluctantly explained, “Do you see the person wearing a blue shirt with insignia on his shoulders? He’s a police officer. He’s also part of the public security authorities…”

Li Mingyue nodded.

“He is one of the people who will treat me badly.”

“…”

Shen Yanbing fell silent.

She had not expected an ancient person to be so quick on the uptake that she would take even a joke completely seriously.

“That isn’t what I meant.” No matter what, Shen Yanbing had to explain. “They wouldn’t treat you badly. It’s just that your background is unusual, so things would become complicated if you encountered them.”

Li Mingyue indicated that she understood, then continued asking, “That woman…”

“Forget it, forget it.” Shen Yanbing interrupted her and switched off the television altogether. “Forget what you just saw. I’ll explain things to you slowly later.”

Li Mingyue continued sitting upright, watching her.

Shen Yanbing simply stood and looked at her.

“I’ll take you to have a bath first. It’s getting late.”

Her Highness blinked and nodded.