Her Highness The Princess Comes from A Thousand Years Ago - Chapter 4

There was no one here she knew.

Shen Yanbing was not surprised.

She had never heard of any Jing Dynasty, nor of any ruling house surnamed Li. Presumably, the people Her Highness had known were also entirely different from those recorded in the history of this world.

Li Mingyue remained silent. After thinking for a moment, she added, “I have never heard of your dynasty either.”

Shen Yanbing had no response. She did not know how to make Li Mingyue truly understand.

Before she could speak, Her Highness gathered her courage and could not resist confirming once more, “Is there truly no emperor now?”

“…”

Shen Yanbing’s smile froze. She cleared her throat and solemnly explained, “The feudal monarchy was abolished long ago. Emperors and empresses belong to the old society. The country we live in now is called Huaguo. It is a democratic republic, and the people govern the country.”

Li Mingyue parted her lips, understanding only a few of those words.

“…Democratic?”

Shen Yanbing felt a headache coming on. It was extremely difficult to explain this concept clearly to someone who had once been a member of the ruling class.

After all, a thousand years ago, feudalism itself could have been considered an advanced system.

Shen Yanbing lay back in the wicker chair on the balcony.

“I’ll explain it to you slowly in the future. For now, just remember that everyone is equal and there is no emperor.”

When she finished, she noticed that Li Mingyue was still standing behind the floor-to-ceiling glass doors inside.

“Why are you standing so far away?”

Li Mingyue looked nervous. From where she stood, she could already see the surrounding scenery—buildings far taller than any palace, tower, or temple rose on every side. She felt as though she were standing high in midair and did not dare move another step forward.

This place was even more outrageous than she had imagined.

The houses were not even built on the ground!

Shen Yanbing vaguely guessed what she was thinking and chuckled.

“You’re rather timid, aren’t you?”

Li Mingyue could see the open air on both sides of the projecting balcony. Her face stiffened, and her hands trembled slightly. Standing there, she constantly felt as though the entire structure might collapse beneath her.

The inexperienced princess could not tolerate being provoked. Summoning her courage, she stepped forward.

The summer breeze that morning was pleasantly mild. Traces of the previous night’s rain remained, and when she looked down, the leaves and shrubs throughout the residential complex gleamed a brilliant green.

“It’s so high,” she murmured.

She carefully moved forward. Although she was still several steps away from the railing, her normally straight and dignified posture had curved slightly inward.

The tiled floor was still somewhat slippery. Li Mingyue was wearing unfamiliar open-toed slippers, and one sole suddenly slid out from beneath her. She nearly fell—

Shen Yanbing stood and caught her by the arm, pulling her upright before she landed on the floor.

Perhaps because of the damp air around them, Li Mingyue found Shen Yanbing’s hand refreshingly cool. Once she regained her balance, she quickly released it.

“Be more careful.” Shen Yanbing sighed.

Li Mingyue nodded awkwardly. “Thank you.”

Nearly falling did not discourage Her Highness or leave her frightened. Instead, she began moving around the balcony more freely.

So she was not a pampered, delicate princess after all.

Shen Yanbing felt somewhat relieved.

“Do modern people live inside little boxes like these?” Li Mingyue suddenly looked up and asked without hesitation. “Like you do?”

“…Ahem.”

Shen Yanbing felt personally attacked.

From this angle, the apartments stacked floor by floor really did resemble rows of boxes—but these were homes modern people had to work hard to earn!

The residential complex where Shen Yanbing lived was already considered above average by Bincheng standards.

“This is a city. Residential apartment buildings like this are very common.”

Shen Yanbing could not resist repeating her classic phrase.

“You’ll understand slowly in the future.”

Li Mingyue nodded earnestly. “I will study diligently.”

Shen Yanbing raised an eyebrow. She went inside, turned on the television, and carefully selected a well-reviewed historical documentary. She prepared paper and a pen for Li Mingyue, then smiled.

“Then let’s study.”

Li Mingyue nodded blankly. Holding the gel pen, she had no idea how to begin.

Shen Yanbing demonstrated the correct grip. Li Mingyue learned quickly, but she still asked, “Do you have… a calligraphy brush?”

She was too embarrassed to admit that she was not accustomed to the paper either.

Thanks to her mother, the history professor, Shen Yanbing had studied calligraphy since childhood. She really did have brushes, rice paper, and felt mats at home.

“I only have a large calligraphy brush for writing big characters. It isn’t suitable for this.” Shen Yanbing had not practiced calligraphy in a long time. “Try using the gel pen. You’ll have to get used to it sooner or later.”

Li Mingyue looked slightly disappointed but still replied, “All right.”

“I’ll buy you a few stiff-bristled brushes later.”

Once Shen Yanbing decided to buy something, she did it immediately. She placed an online order for the brushes together with the other things she had previously promised.

Wait.

I still haven’t contacted the police.

Shen Yanbing fell into deep thought. While blaming beauty for clouding her judgment, she comforted herself with the idea that Li Mingyue could serve as a living subject for historical research.

Li Mingyue’s beautiful eyes were curiously fixed on Shen Yanbing as she stared into space.

“Forget it…” Shen Yanbing murmured.

She reassured herself that she was merely doing a good deed. The young woman had no ability whatsoever to survive on her own outside.

The television documentary was a comprehensive history of ancient civilization, spanning several thousand years from the founding of the Xia Dynasty to the establishment of Huaguo. With more than twenty episodes, it would be enough to keep Her Highness learning and digesting information for some time.

“This is the remote control. It controls the television. Whenever you don’t understand something, press pause and ask me. Press this button to go back and watch an earlier part. Do you understand?”

Li Mingyue indicated that she did.

Awkwardly gripping the black gel pen, she paused the documentary every few seconds. She struggled to recognize the subtitles beneath the narration and slowly copied them down.

By the time she finished a single episode at half speed, she had already filled the paper with numerous terms. They were arranged neatly, accompanied by questions annotated in the traditional script of the Jing Dynasty.

She was an exemplary student.

And exceedingly adorable.

Without making it obvious, Shen Yanbing studied the absorbed Li Mingyue. Her powers of concentration and memory were somewhat astonishing.

Shen Yanbing, who had been looking up information on her laptop the entire time, paused the documentary. She left the sofa and sat in front of Li Mingyue, looked over the notes and questions on the coffee table, then began explaining them one by one.

Truthfully, Shen Yanbing had never been this enthusiastic while teaching at the university.

Nor had teaching ever exhausted her this much.

A thousand years separated a feudal dynasty from a democratic society. The divide involved far more than the passage of time. It encompassed the enormous leaps created by the accumulation and transformation of countless technologies, while the gulf between their ways of thinking was even wider than an ordinary person could imagine.

Fortunately, Li Mingyue was willing to accept new ideas rather than being a stubborn, decaying aristocrat whose mind could not be changed.

“You learn very quickly,” Shen Yanbing praised without hesitation.

Li Mingyue could not hide her delight. Shallow dimples appeared on her cheeks as she replied modestly, “There is still a great deal I do not know.”

Shen Yanbing smiled and deliberately teased her.

“That’s right. Even in terms of theoretical knowledge alone, there’s history, language, politics, foreign languages, geography, mathematics, physics… You still have a great deal to learn.”

Although Li Mingyue did not entirely understand, that did not prevent her from looking astonished.

“So much?”

Shen Yanbing was genuinely delighted.

“There’s even more than that. You’ll have to work hard.”

Her Highness looked troubled and confused—until Shen Yanbing lightly pinched her cheek.

“You…”

Shen Yanbing quickly withdrew her hand, her expression perfectly natural.

“What?”

Li Mingyue was forced to swallow the words on the tip of her tongue. She suddenly asked, “How should I address you?”

“That…” Shen Yanbing truly had not thought about it. “Anything is fine. You could call me Teacher, perhaps?”

Li Mingyue continued looking at her.

Remembering something, Shen Yanbing picked up the gel pen and carefully wrote her own name, stroke by stroke, on the white paper.

Li Mingyue nodded and read the characters aloud.

“Shen. Yan. Bing.”

Afterward, she raised her head to seek confirmation. Shen Yanbing nodded helplessly.

Li Mingyue then wrote her own name on the paper.

“Li Mingyue.”

Shen Yanbing pronounced the three characters in standard Mandarin.

Li Mingyue’s hand paused.

Suddenly, she smiled.

It was as radiant as sunshine after the rain, as luminous as a faint glimmer refracted through dew upon a leaf.

When life became new and unfamiliar, the days seemed to pass especially quickly.

By the time Shen Yanbing noticed the hour, noon was already approaching.

She had always been casual about her meals. At the university, she ate in the cafeteria. At other times, she relied on frozen food or delivery.

There were no fresh ingredients at home, so she ordered delivery as usual, then stood and sliced a plate of chilled watermelon.

Li Mingyue tirelessly continued watching the documentary, awkwardly writing with the gel pen as she studied.

The temperature inside was comfortable. Shen Yanbing placed the watermelon and a fork in front of her, then paused the television.

“You need to let your eyes rest.”

Li Mingyue blinked. She seemed to realize that her eyes were indeed dry and tired, so she nodded and looked at the red fruit before her.

“What is this?”

Shen Yanbing speared a piece with the fork and put it in her mouth. As the chilled, sweet juice filled her mouth, she picked up the pen and wrote the two characters for “watermelon” on the paper while pronouncing them aloud.

Li Mingyue copied her. She picked up a small piece with the fork and cautiously bit into it.

Her eyes immediately brightened.

She was quickly won over by the refreshing fruit, which cleansed the palate perfectly.

“The black seeds are for growing new plants. Spit them out,” Shen Yanbing added with a smile. “There are many kinds of fruit nowadays. You can try them slowly.”

Li Mingyue nodded, suppressing the pleasure at the corners of her mouth. After a moment, she asked, “Can ordinary people eat these as well?”

“Of course.” Shen Yanbing rested her chin on her interlaced hands. “Some varieties are relatively expensive, so people eat them less often. But as long as someone really wants them, they can still get them.”

The young princess looked surprised.

“In the Jing Dynasty, even within the palace, fruits and melons were available only when they were distributed.”

Concern appeared on Li Mingyue’s face.

“Many common people could barely obtain enough food to fill their stomachs.”

Shen Yanbing was surprised that she cared about such matters.

“You understand the lives of ordinary people rather well. I assumed you were merely a sheltered princess who paid no attention to worldly affairs.”

Li Mingyue’s face reddened slightly.

“Until I was fourteen, I lived outside the palace.”

So she was a princess raised among commoners.

Shen Yanbing did not press for details. She casually asked what Li Mingyue usually did.

“Practiced calligraphy, read books, painted, rode horses, and practiced archery. Mm… I did whatever I wished.”

“Your life was quite varied.” Shen Yanbing sighed and glanced at her. “It seems your Jing Dynasty was fairly tolerant toward women.”

Li Mingyue did not see anything unusual about that.

Shen Yanbing briefly explained, “You’ll understand once you reach the later parts of the documentary. As feudal society progressed, the restrictions imposed upon women eventually became cruel.”

She casually gave several examples of the moral rules imposed on women.

Li Mingyue listened in astonishment.

“Although the Jing Dynasty also placed many demands upon women, it was never so harsh.”

She thought of her own elder sister, who was free-spirited and uninhibited and had remarried three times. Had she lived in one of those later dynasties, people would undoubtedly have condemned and vilified her.

Li Mingyue had been deliberately avoiding thoughts of the past and her longing for the Jing Dynasty.

Although she was curious about how the world had developed into this after a thousand years, she had restrained herself and never actively asked.

Her feelings toward this new world were complicated.

The Jing Dynasty might not have possessed any of these miraculous things, but it was still the homeland where she had lived for nineteen years.

Yet the documentary she watched today said that every feudal dynasty would inevitably fall.

She seemed to see the tattered banner bearing the character Jing beneath the surname of the House of Li.

She saw trails of blood beneath long skirts collapsed across the palace floors.

She saw gaunt, desolate households stretching across mountains and plains.

A chill of fear ran through her.