Her Highness The Princess Comes from A Thousand Years Ago - Chapter 3

As it turned out, things that could not have been more natural or simple in modern society were extraordinarily difficult for someone from ancient times to understand.

For once, Shen Yanbing truly appreciated the value of technology and felt profound gratitude for modern life.

“This is the faucet. Move it this way and lift it for hot water; the other direction gives you cold water. Remember, you can’t drink this water directly.”

“This is a toothbrush. You use it to brush your teeth and keep them clean. You need to brush in the morning and at night. Squeeze some toothpaste onto it—I’ll show you how.”

“You don’t need to worry about all these bottles and containers for now. I’ll explain them later. Just remember the body wash, shampoo, and toothpaste.”

…

Shen Yanbing introduced everything in the bathroom, large and small, including the toilet, shower, and bathtub. Li Mingyue listened with great attention and could even repeat everything back to her perfectly.

“You have a good memory,” Shen Yanbing praised. “Your pajamas and new underwear are over here. Once you finish bathing, use this towel to dry yourself, then put everything on the way I taught you earlier. Can you do that?”

Li Mingyue pressed her lips together and nodded.

Shen Yanbing adjusted the shower to the proper temperature and stepped outside.

She still had to prepare the spare bedroom on short notice.

Shen Yanbing’s apartment was not particularly large. Only the living room and balcony were spacious. There was also a small kitchen she rarely used, one master bedroom, one spare bedroom, and a little study between them.

The spare bedroom had limited space. A wooden bunk bed took up most of the floor, leaving barely any room to move around. Fortunately, the bay window let in plenty of light, keeping the room from feeling too cramped.

At the moment, a pile of clothes covered the lower bunk, while thick autumn and winter quilts were stacked on the upper one.

The air conditioner faced the upper bunk. Shen Yanbing stared at the remote control for a while before sighing.

“I’d better let her sleep on the bottom.”

It was midsummer, and Bincheng was hot and humid. Sleeping without air-conditioning was almost unimaginable. Yet Shen Yanbing worried that someone from ancient times might not be able to tolerate it. If anything happened, she would feel terribly guilty.

After some thought, she set the temperature fairly high, switched it to sleep mode, and programmed it to turn off automatically. Then she folded the clothes from the lower bunk and neatly returned them, one by one, to the wardrobe in the master bedroom.

Once she was finished, Shen Yanbing leaned against the back of the sofa, browsing her phone while waiting for Li Mingyue to come out of the bathroom.

She checked the news.

Something as extraordinary as time travel ought to have come with some sort of warning. Li Mingyue had been lucky enough to appear directly inside her home, but perhaps someone else had fallen into the middle of a street.

“What am I even thinking?” Shen Yanbing mocked herself with a laugh. “As though supernatural nonsense like this could become commonplace.”

The internet was perfectly calm.

The bathroom door opened with a soft click.

Li Mingyue poked her head out. When she met Shen Yanbing’s gaze, she looked away awkwardly before emerging with stiff, self-conscious steps.

Steam curled around her, lending a healthy flush to the young princess’s face and making her excellent complexion appear even more luminous.

The pale yellow short-sleeved cotton nightdress was light and thin. Li Mingyue let her arms hang awkwardly at her sides and kept her head lowered.

“That looks pretty good.” Shen Yanbing smiled. “Everyone dresses like this nowadays.”

Li Mingyue lifted her head slightly and asked in a small voice, “What will happen to my clothes?”

“They definitely can’t go into the washing machine.” Shen Yanbing thought for a moment, then carefully stored them away. “We’ll keep them for now. They’re made with fabric and techniques from a thousand years ago. They might still be useful.”

Her mother was a scholar specializing in the ancient history of Huaguo. Although the garments had not been preserved and aged through the centuries, the craftsmanship and fabric truly did come from a thousand years ago. They were undoubtedly valuable.

Her Highness was clearly still unaccustomed to what she was wearing. She remained distracted even as Shen Yanbing led her into the spare bedroom.

“I sleep in the room at the end of the hallway. You’ll sleep on the lower bunk here. Remember to keep yourself covered with the blanket.”

Li Mingyue was staring at the city lights beginning to glow outside the window. Hearing Shen Yanbing, she merely murmured an acknowledgment.

“What are those?” she could not resist asking.

“The city at night. When there’s a chance, we can go out and have fun after dark.”

Below the window, colorful lights glowed through the night. Rain fell in a fine curtain. A few office buildings still had illuminated windows. Looking farther down, the streetlamps inside the residential complex shimmered indistinctly, while distant car lights sped through the wind and rain.

Li Mingyue moved closer to the bay window and held on to the bars of the safety grille. She lowered her head slightly to look down, then quickly pulled back in fear.

Shen Yanbing closed the bay window curtains, shutting out the city’s nighttime glow.

“It’s late. You should get ready to sleep.”

After saying that, Shen Yanbing showed her how to operate the light switch.

Li Mingyue found it astonishing. She carefully pressed the button, turning the light off, then on, then off and on again as though playing with it.

“How miraculous.”

“It’s much brighter than any candle or palace lantern I’ve ever seen.”

Shen Yanbing turned off the light for her.

Li Mingyue obediently lay down on the lower bunk and pulled the blanket up to her chest.

“When I close my eyes and wake again, will all of this disappear?”

She stared at the wooden underside of the upper bunk and asked softly just as Shen Yanbing was about to close the door and leave.

Shen Yanbing paused.

“No,” she answered slowly. “It won’t.”

“Good night, Your Highness.”

Li Mingyue remembered what Shen Yanbing had told her and replied quietly, “You said there are no princesses anymore.”

“Good night.” Shen Yanbing smiled and repeated the words.

Li Mingyue seemed to understand their meaning. Slowly imitating her, she replied, “Good night.”

Outside, the rain continued to whisper without end.

Its restless patter shattered dreams of home.

By the time Shen Yanbing woke early the next morning, the rain had stopped.

Li Mingyue had risen even earlier. She was brushing her teeth somewhat clumsily while staring at her reflection, her mouth full of white foam.

She had never seen a mirror so clear and flawless, nor had she ever examined herself in such detail.

Even now, everything that had happened still felt like a dream.

Shen Yanbing leaned against the doorway and watched Her Highness wash up while wondering what she should do next.

Li Mingyue turned to look at her, completely at a loss over her long hair. She took the comb Shen Yanbing handed her and carefully tried to work through it.

Hair that fell all the way to her waist was difficult to manage. Without attendants to help her, Li Mingyue felt an unfamiliar sense of melancholy.

“Would you like to cut it short?” Shen Yanbing asked.

Li Mingyue turned around. She looked at Shen Yanbing’s shoulder-length hair, then remembered the women with short hair she had seen on the screen the previous night. Frowning, she said, “One’s body, hair, and skin are gifts from one’s parents. How could I dare damage them so?”

It was the most fluent sentence she had spoken since arriving in the modern world.

Shen Yanbing did not argue. She merely smiled faintly.

“You’ll slowly become accustomed to modern life.”

With that, she moved closer and helped the princess put her hair into a simple updo, securing it with a type of hair clip Li Mingyue had never seen before.

“This is called a hair clip.” Shen Yanbing demonstrated how it worked. “Try doing it yourself next time.”

Li Mingyue nodded and stared blankly at herself in the mirror, dressed in a thin pale yellow garment with so much of her skin exposed.

It was Sunday. The university where Shen Yanbing worked had already reached the end of the semester, leaving her pleasantly free.

She took a bag of frozen osmanthus cakes from the refrigerator and steamed them for a simple breakfast.

Li Mingyue sat on a wooden chair at the dining table, surprised by how quickly Shen Yanbing emerged from the kitchen with a plate of pastries.

“I didn’t see a stove,” she said. Then she curiously weighed the metal chopsticks in her hand. “They resemble the golden chopsticks I used before.”

“…They’re stainless steel.” Shen Yanbing smiled. “Try them and see whether you can hold them steadily.”

Li Mingyue picked up a piece and ate it in small bites.

“It’s delicious.”

“Osmanthus cake,” Shen Yanbing explained. Then she asked, “Did the Jing Dynasty have these?”

Her Highness shook her head.

“We had cherries with clotted cream and crisp flower cakes.”

“All right, then. You probably won’t be able to eat those in the modern world.” Shen Yanbing had never heard of either of them. “But there are plenty of other delicious things. I’m sure you’ll find something you like.”

Li Mingyue finally smiled, revealing two charming dimples.

“All right.”

Remembering something, Shen Yanbing stood, took a large carton of milk from the refrigerator, unscrewed the cap, and poured two glasses.

“Try this. It’s milk.”

Li Mingyue touched the cold glass and looked at the milky-white liquid, unable to understand what it was.

Shen Yanbing took a sip first. After hesitating, Li Mingyue followed her example and cautiously tasted it.

“…What a strange flavor.” She looked up.

“Do you like it?”

Li Mingyue hesitated, but in the end, she nodded.

Shen Yanbing laughed and took the glass from her.

“You don’t have to drink it if you don’t like it.”

She was also somewhat worried that an ancient person’s stomach might not tolerate milk.

“What is that large box?” Li Mingyue asked, glancing toward it.

Shen Yanbing had taken the osmanthus cakes from inside it, and then the drink as well. It seemed almost like sorcery.

“You mean the refrigerator?”

Shen Yanbing opened it for her to see.

“This is an electrical appliance used to store food. Do you see the plug? It has to be connected before it works.”

She then had Li Mingyue put her hand inside.

“Cold, isn’t it? It keeps food fresh, so it won’t spoil even if you leave it for a long time.”

Li Mingyue nodded rapidly.

“It is like a cellar. I heard the imperial kitchen also had an ice chamber.”

Shen Yanbing introduced her to the vegetables, fruits she had never seen before, and the carbonated drinks beloved by happy homebodies.

“Take whatever you want to eat. Wash the fruit with clean water first. Understand?”

“I understand.”

Li Mingyue looked pleased.

Later that morning, while Shen Yanbing was looking up information, she received a phone call from her mother.

“Are you on break yet? When are you coming home for the summer?”

“A few more days. Once I finish grading the exams, I’ll be more or less done.”

Shen Yanbing pulled open the floor-to-ceiling curtains in the living room. After the rain, the sunlight was brilliant, spilling golden light across the floor.

She glanced at Li Mingyue, who was sitting in front of the coffee table and leafing through a book, then answered the second question.

“I’m not sure when I’ll be coming home.”

“Why? Staying with your girlfriend?”

Shen Yanbing paused, then deliberately answered in a light tone.

“We broke up.”

There was silence on the other end for several seconds before her mother continued, “All right. I told you it wouldn’t last. Take care of yourself.”

Shen Yanbing murmured her agreement. After a little casual conversation, she suddenly asked, “I remember your recent research project had something to do with ancient clothing?”

Her mother was a history professor at Shacheng University. Unlike her daughter, who had nearly failed to finish her doctorate, she was a scholar with considerable academic ambition and dedication.

“Yes. Ancient clothing and the social hierarchy. Why are you suddenly interested in that? Have you finally realized modern literature is boring?”

“…I’m merely showing some interest in your work.”

Shen Yanbing fell silent.

She had studied history as an undergraduate and found it dull. For her master’s degree and doctorate, she switched to modern literature within the Chinese department. After graduating, she took a teaching position at an entirely ordinary university, where she coasted through her work while occasionally writing articles.

Li Mingyue looked up when she heard the words “ancient clothing.”

Shen Yanbing leaned against the balcony railing and beckoned her over.

Her mother repeated once more over the phone, “Remember to come home during the summer.”

“All right.”

Shen Yanbing ended the call and looked at Her Highness, who had walked over to the balcony doors.

“Can you understand the book?”

She had given Li Mingyue a modern edition of commentary on ancient poetry.

Li Mingyue nodded, then shook her head.

“I recognize some of the characters.”

Recognizing simplified characters was not too difficult, but understanding what the words meant when strung together gave her trouble.

The horizontal layout was also unfamiliar to her. Still, she was very fond of the smooth paper and neatly printed type.

Shen Yanbing had not expected her to understand it immediately.

“Take your time. These are simplified characters. They aren’t too different from ancient writing. Later, I’ll buy you a few dictionaries comparing simplified and traditional characters. You’ll get used to them.”

The balcony was still damp after the rain. As Shen Yanbing spoke, she used a dry cloth to wipe down the wicker chair and round table, then moved the flowerpots into different positions.

“There isn’t a single person here whom I know,” Li Mingyue suddenly said.