Her Highness The Princess Comes from A Thousand Years Ago - Chapter 7

The amount of food the two of them had ordered was just right, allowing them to perfectly carry out the clean-plate principle.

After leaving the West District Country-Style Restaurant, Li Mingyue followed behind Shen Yanbing. After a while, she quietly said, “The table beside us left a great deal of food when they departed.”

Shen Yanbing was surprised and laughed. “You concern yourself with quite a lot, don’t you?”

Li Mingyue hesitated. “Waste is not good. Many people do not have enough to eat.”

After saying that, she remembered that this was the modern world and stopped speaking. Her thoughts drifted back to the distant Jing Dynasty.

Although Princess Zhaoyue held a noble status, she had once experienced a period of poverty.

The mistress of the prince’s residence had regarded her as the prince’s illegitimate daughter and had not treated her generously. It was also during that time that she came into contact with many ordinary people from the streets and alleys.

The Jing Dynasty was in a prosperous age, and the national treasury was full, yet homeless people still froze and starved to death in the capital.

Once, while outside the residence, she encountered a young child stealing a steamed bun. Although the shopkeeper cursed loudly, he did not truly chase after her. However, the child had probably gone too long without food. She fell halfway down the street and never rose again.

Li Mingyue had always remembered those dim, hollow eyes. They were like two enormous holes beneath the bright surface of a flourishing age.

They were a darkness that even year after year of abundant harvests could not conceal.

She found it difficult to imagine that such a world truly existed—a world where everyone had enough food and drink and everyone possessed dignity.

The present, a thousand years later, felt like a gift.

It felt like an enormous dream.

She feared that one day, she would open her eyes and find that everything had disappeared.

Nothing in the world was flawless. Everything came at a price.

This was something Li Mingyue had firmly believed even in the Jing Dynasty.

As usual, Shen Yanbing greeted the security guard at the entrance to the residential complex and swiped her card to open the gate. Li Mingyue still did not dare meet strangers’ eyes and hurried to keep up with her.

“This is called a residential complex. Do you see those exercise facilities? You can come downstairs for walks in the future.”

Shen Yanbing was only casually introducing the area. She did not trust Li Mingyue to wander around alone, but fortunately, the other woman had no such intention either.

It was evening, and quite a few young people were already jogging downstairs. There were also many children playing noisily among them.

Li Mingyue watched them for a little longer.

Suddenly, a young girl came running and skipping along while turning her head to shout something to her family. Not paying attention, she crashed directly into Li Mingyue.

Li Mingyue stumbled several steps but quickly regained her balance. She steadied the child.

“Be careful.”

The girl looked up. Her brilliant smile briefly disappeared before her sparkling eyes curved again.

“Thank you, Big Sister!”

Li Mingyue suddenly remembered the child who had starved to death during the prosperous age of the Jing Dynasty.

A thousand years later, on the same land, this place now radiated a vitality entirely different from that of the Jing Dynasty.

Li Mingyue lost herself in thought for a moment. The next second, however, she heard Shen Yanbing ask calmly, “Where are your parents?”

The little girl looked up with a stiff smile.

“Little Aunt…”

Li Mingyue was somewhat surprised. When she raised her head, she saw a young married couple slowly approaching arm in arm.

“This is rare. Yanbing, you came out for a walk today?” Deng Yan stroked the little girl’s head. “Yueran has been making a fuss about coming to play with you ever since her holiday began. We only had time to bring her out today.”

Shen Yanbing had never understood it. She was hardly gentle or patient with children, yet the children in her family all seemed to love clinging to her.

“Your holiday started?” Shen Yanbing bent down and asked her five-year-old grandniece, Shen Yueran.

“Mm-hmm!”

The little girl’s earlier restraint quickly vanished once her parents arrived. She awkwardly placed both hands behind her back.

“Are we going to the beach again this year?”

Shen Yanbing did not know whether to laugh or cry. “How about after a while? I’ll come find you then.”

Her cousin’s family lived in Bincheng’s East District, more than an hour’s drive from her apartment.

Shen Yanbing did not believe for a second that they had come all this way without warning merely to make Shen Yueran happy.

Li Mingyue did not dare wander off alone, so she could only stand beside Shen Yanbing and attempt to make herself invisible.

Clearly, that was impossible.

“And who is this?” As expected, her cousin Shen Yuan asked.

Shen Yanbing answered vaguely, unwilling to explain too much. “A friend.”

“You were taking a walk?” Shen Yuan worked within the government system and was extremely perceptive. Who went strolling around their own residential complex with an ordinary friend?

“You came all this way just to take a walk beneath my apartment?” Shen Yanbing countered.

Deng Yan laughed and smoothed things over, suggesting that they go upstairs and sit for a while, as they usually did.

“…”

Shen Yanbing thought of the sheets of handwriting practice paper scattered over the coffee table and the prepared spare bedroom. A bad feeling arose in her heart.

Li Mingyue sensed the change in the atmosphere and lowered her eyes, standing perfectly still.

Shen Yueran was jumping around nearby, demanding to go play. Shen Yanbing simply crouched down and smiled at her.

“How about going to Happy Playground?”

“Okay! I love the trampoline!” Shen Yueran immediately changed direction and looked toward Shen Yuan and Deng Yan. “I want to go play on the trampoline and the slide!”

“You little rascal.” Deng Yan tapped her lightly on the head, then looked at Shen Yanbing with helpless amusement. “Let’s go.”

The child grabbed Shen Yanbing and pulled her forward at top speed. When Shen Yanbing finally managed to stop, she saw Li Mingyue still standing where they had left her.

She waved helplessly.

“Sorry about today. You go back first!”

Li Mingyue saw Shen Yanbing wink at her and nodded.

She had no idea how to return, but she understood that she should not speak at that moment.

The family amusement center was on the third floor of a shopping mall near the residential complex. Whenever school holidays arrived, it was packed with children accompanied by their parents.

Shen Yuan was dissatisfied with Shen Yanbing’s obvious attempt to avoid bringing them upstairs. He joked, “What’s wrong? You won’t let us go up? What have you done that you’re hiding so carefully?”

“We wouldn’t object if you had a girlfriend,” Deng Yan added with a gossiping smile. “But that girl just now looked unfamiliar. She wasn’t the one we met last time, was she?”

Shen Yanbing sighed. “No.”

“What is going on, Shen Yanbing?” Shen Yuan exclaimed. “No wonder. What sort of game are you playing? Are you dating two people at once?”

Shen Yanbing was amazed by her cousin’s imagination. The small amount of sadness she had felt over the breakup disappeared entirely.

“What are you thinking? I broke up with the previous one.”

“The next one will be better,” Deng Yan immediately comforted her before smoothly continuing, “I think that young woman just now was very pretty.”

“How can you judge someone by her face alone? I don’t think she’ll do. She didn’t even say a single word!” Shen Yuan immediately objected.

Shen Yanbing felt both speechless and helpless. She stared absently at the children who had already removed their shoes and were running wild inside the playground.

Li Mingyue probably had no idea how to get home.

Shen Yanbing checked the time.

Fifteen minutes had already passed.

Could she be tricked or abducted? The princess knew nothing. She did not even know what a phone was, and her appearance attracted far too much attention.

She did not know how to communicate with modern people either. What if something happened?

Shen Yanbing stopped herself from imagining the worst.

Public security in Bincheng had always been excellent, and the flow of people inside her residential complex was simple and controlled. An accident was highly unlikely.

Shen Yuan’s arrival had been far too perfectly timed. Her mother had most likely sent him to investigate.

Shen Yanbing had only mentioned the breakup during their phone call that morning. Her mother probably assumed she was now drowning in heartbreak and unable to pull herself together.

Coming out for love only to suffer a painful breakup really was enough to leave someone depressed. Yet who could have imagined a princess falling from the sky? Shen Yanbing had been so busy communicating with an ancient woman that she had completely forgotten her heartbreak.

But Shen Yuan, who knew none of that, had arrived carrying comfort and well wishes.

Shen Yanbing watched the husband and wife trade remarks like a comedy duo, her expression difficult to describe.

Her cousin Shen Yuan lived casually, but his work was highly proper and serious. He frequently dealt with the public security authorities.

From the moment she saw him, Shen Yanbing had worried that he might notice something unusual about Li Mingyue.

Shen Yanbing suddenly froze.

Had she not been searching for an opportunity to hand Li Mingyue over to the government?

Now the opportunity was standing plainly before her.

Shen Yuan raised an eyebrow. “Why are you suddenly staring at me?”

Shen Yanbing’s lips moved. She spoke as though asking casually, “Is it difficult nowadays to get an identity card for someone with an unclear background?”

Shen Yuan was busy waving to his daughter inside the playground. Hearing the question, he looked puzzled.

“Why?”

Shen Yanbing told him to answer first.

“Difficulty depends on the person, of course.” Shen Yuan smiled. “Did someone ask you to handle it for them?”

Shen Yanbing neither confirmed nor denied it. Instead, she tested the waters.

“I recently watched a movie about time travel.”

“What do you think would happen if someone from ancient times traveled into our world?”

Shen Yuan burst out laughing. “They’d probably die very easily.”

“…”

Shen Yanbing had no response.

His words were not without reason. According to scientific research, modern viruses and bacteria were far beyond what an ancient person’s body could endure. Even a common cold might prove fatal.

Then again, science also said it was impossible for ancient people to travel into the modern world.

She carefully chose her words. “I said hypothetically.”

Deng Yan looked over and laughed. “What, Yanbing? Are you writing fiction again?”

Hearing that, Shen Yuan smiled and gave the question serious thought.

“How much influence could an ancient person have in the modern world? Their ideas and skills would all be outdated. They’d probably be dazzled and overwhelmed by everything they saw.”

Deng Yan disagreed. “Researchers could study how they traveled here. Wouldn’t that alone be valuable?”

Shen Yuan nodded and said solemnly, “Fine. Then that person would probably be kept inside a research institute for ten or twenty years without being allowed out.”

Li Mingyue had died unexpectedly and arrived through time. The event could only be described as bizarre rather than scientific.

Even a century of research might not produce an answer.

In the end, Shen Yanbing still did not tell them about Li Mingyue.

Her cousin and his wife would not treat it as a joke. They would certainly take the matter seriously.

Given the nature of their work and their personalities, they would unquestionably report it to higher authorities.

Then Her Highness would almost certainly be surrounded, observed, and researched.

That had been exactly what Shen Yanbing intended at first.

But now, her thoughts had changed slightly.

The couple’s playful argument quickly carried the conversation in an entirely different direction.

Shen Yanbing pulled herself together and suddenly sighed.

“I just remembered I still have a pile of exams to mark and a report I haven’t written.”

Shen Yuan gave a dismissive snort. “I think you’re missing your new girlfriend.”

Shen Yanbing laughed weakly. “She really isn’t.”

“You haven’t won her over yet?” Deng Yan asked cheerfully. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

Shen Yanbing, who had always considered herself conservative, replied, “You’re joking.”

“Go on, then.” Shen Yuan waved her away. “Auntie sent me to check whether you’d become depressed, but it seems you’re living quite comfortably.”

A faint smile appeared on Shen Yanbing’s face. She felt both helpless and touched by her mother’s actions.

Not far away, Shen Yueran jumped high on the trampoline, calling Shen Yanbing’s name and laughing at her.

Shen Yanbing waved and smiled back.

“I’ll come visit you in the East District later!”

The child waved as well and shouted, “Okay! Goodbye, Little Aunt!”

The streetlights beneath the residential buildings shone brightly. People were jogging and playing badminton, laughing and chatting together.

But beneath one of the streetlights, Li Mingyue looked especially lonely on the bench.

She sat with perfect posture and aimlessly observed the people coming and going.

To her, every form of contact with the modern world was a learning experience.

Occasionally, elderly residents approached and asked her questions. She answered only by nodding or shaking her head. When someone tried to strike up a flirtatious conversation, she behaved as though she were mute until they lost interest and left.

The moon was bright, and few stars were visible.

Beneath the green leaves and climbing vines, Li Mingyue occasionally raised her head to look at the sky. There were no countless stars. A thick darkness pressed over everything, while red points of light occasionally flashed and sped past.

When her neck grew tired from looking upward, Li Mingyue lowered her gaze and stared at the tips of her shoes.

Suddenly, another pair of shoes entered her field of vision.

Clean white sneakers.

They looked somewhat familiar.

She raised her head and saw an even more familiar, graceful face.

Shen Yanbing had found her.