Her Highness The Princess Comes from A Thousand Years Ago - Chapter 8

The evening breeze swept past, stirring the leaves with a soft rustle.

Beneath the daylight-bright glow of the streetlamp, Her Highness sat as still as an icy beauty—or a porcelain doll.

“Were you waiting for me?”

Shen Yanbing spoke with a smile and extended one hand.

Li Mingyue nodded. After a brief hesitation, she also reached out. The moment their palms touched, Shen Yanbing quickly closed her hand around hers and pulled her to her feet with hardly any effort.

The hem of her pale green dress fluttered in the night breeze.

Shen Yanbing had already calmed down on the walk back. Now, seeing how obediently Li Mingyue had waited, the thought of handing her over to an uncertain fate faded a little further.

“Did anyone speak to you?”

Li Mingyue nodded, then added after some thought, “I did not speak.”

She looked at Shen Yanbing with clear, bright almond-shaped eyes.

“There are so many people outside at night here.”

Nightlife in ancient times had been extremely limited.

Her Highness could not help marveling inwardly at how extraordinary electric lights were.

After briefly explaining the modern concept of “exercise and physical fitness,” Shen Yanbing led her toward the elevator in Building A.

“Nineteenth floor, Unit C. Have you remembered it?”

This was only Li Mingyue’s second time riding an elevator. When she felt the metal box shooting rapidly upward, the strange sensation made her feel almost as though she were suspended in midair. She endured the pounding of her heart but could not bring herself to say a single word.

Only when the elevator gave a ding and its doors opened did she answer, “I remember.”

Her memory was almost photographic. She clearly remembered the route from the apartment to the residential complex and even all the way to Bincheng University.

She simply did not yet dare travel alone.

Li Mingyue lowered her head, her spirits somewhat low.

Shen Yanbing unlocked the door, switched on the lights, and changed her shoes. Then she suddenly turned around and said softly, “I’m sorry about tonight.”

Li Mingyue raised her head and looked at her in confusion.

“I’m sorry I suddenly left you outside by yourself.”

Li Mingyue shook her head.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Although she had been frightened.

Although she had also worried that Shen Yanbing might never return for her.

There had always been a voice deep inside her telling her that Shen Yanbing was a good person.

In the living room, Li Mingyue changed into the open-toed slippers. A faint smile appeared on her face as she tried her best to seem understanding.

“Did you enjoy spending time with your family?”

Shen Yanbing suddenly smiled.

“I did.”

Li Mingyue raised both hands to cover her forehead, amusement in the corners of her eyes. Then, remembering something, she asked, “Why do you live alone?”

Whether in the Jing Dynasty or any other dynasty, it was rare for families to divide their households. A woman living entirely by herself was even more unheard of.

Shen Yanbing poured herself a glass of milk and sat down.

“Modern families usually live as smaller households. Once children begin working, they normally move away from their parents.”

Strictly speaking, many people began living apart from their parents while they were still students.

Li Mingyue frowned, apparently disapproving.

“Then what happens to the parents?”

“They have their own lives.” A smile touched Shen Yanbing’s eyes. “We have mobile phones, so we can contact each other whenever we like. We can also visit them when we have time.”

Li Mingyue accepted this only reluctantly, but she did not argue further.

After a while, she spoke again.

“Where is your husband?”

Shen Yanbing was drinking her milk and immediately choked. After coughing violently, she asked in astonishment, “My husband?”

Where had this young princess gotten the idea that she had a husband?

Li Mingyue stared at her in confusion.

Shen Yanbing did not know whether to laugh or cry.

“I don’t have a husband.”

She never would have imagined that Li Mingyue had regarded her as a married woman this entire time.

“You said that you are twenty-eight,” Li Mingyue insisted, apparently unable to understand.

“…”

Shen Yanbing was speechless.

As a young university lecturer with a doctorate, she was definitely considered young. But in the Jing Dynasty, she would practically have been a middle-aged woman.

That image…

Shen Yanbing found it both ridiculous and amusing.

“Listen carefully and remember this. In the modern world, no one says you have to marry in your teens. It doesn’t matter if you’re still unmarried at thirty. As long as that’s what you want, it doesn’t matter if you never marry at all.”

Shen Yanbing spoke without the slightest guilt. As long as someone was financially independent and possessed a heart fearless of gossip, it truly did not matter.

Just like her.

Li Mingyue looked at her, stars seeming to flicker in the depths of her eyes.

She said solemnly, “I understand.”

After accepting that Shen Yanbing did not have a husband, Li Mingyue became fixated on another question.

“Will you marry?”

Shen Yanbing began scrolling through her phone and refused to answer.

Li Mingyue leaned closer and tilted her head.

“Will you not marry?”

Her Highness’s breath was faintly audible. Shen Yanbing could no longer endure it and sat upright.

“…No.”

“Why?”

Shen Yanbing looked at her helplessly and sighed.

“Life is already difficult enough.”

Li Mingyue did not understand.

“Modern life is very good.”

“…”

Perhaps an ancient person without a job would never understand.

Shen Yanbing could only make something up.

“It’s already difficult enough to support myself.”

Li Mingyue blinked, leaned back, and hugged a cushion. She seemed to think of something.

“Am I causing you a great deal of trouble by living here?”

Shen Yanbing suppressed a smile.

“Not really.”

Her Highness was adorable and very considerate.

Who could look at a princess like this living in their home and say directly that she was troublesome?

Li Mingyue did not see it that way. She seemed convinced that she was burdening Shen Yanbing.

Yet she did not dare leave.

After a while, she came up with an idea.

“My headdress and those clothes—you could pawn them. Perhaps they would sell for a good price.”

“…”

The thought had crossed Shen Yanbing’s mind as well, but she had only dared entertain it for an instant. Seeing that Li Mingyue was genuinely anxious and uncertain, she comforted her.

“Don’t worry. Those things have considerable research value. They’re enough to support you while you live here.”

Li Mingyue immediately brightened and smiled.

“Mm.”

She did not know what “research value” meant, but Shen Yanbing had said the items were useful.

That night, with Shen Yanbing’s help, Li Mingyue used shampoo to wash her hair for the first time.

Her long hair was difficult to manage and troublesome to wash. Li Mingyue felt Shen Yanbing massaging and rubbing her scalp. The fragrant foam was unfamiliar, yet it brought a strange sense of comfort.

Soft, damp, and warm.

Shen Yanbing’s fingers moved across her scalp and through her hair. She picked up the showerhead and rinsed it clean. Li Mingyue closed her eyes and felt the warm water flow over her.

Afterward, Shen Yanbing placed an absorbent towel over her head. With a few rubs, she properly wrapped all of Li Mingyue’s hair inside it.

“Wash it like this by yourself in the future. Have you learned?”

“Mm,” Li Mingyue answered.

She stood and looked at the bathroom mirror, which was covered in mist and reflected only a blurred silhouette.

Shen Yanbing picked up a comb, removed the hair-drying cap, and combed her long hair straight.

Damp and heavy with moisture, the long strands were dark, smooth, and glossy. Shen Yanbing took down the hanging hair dryer, adjusted the setting, briefly explained how it worked, then switched it on and began drying her hair.

“How miraculous.”

Li Mingyue remained perfectly still as she felt the hot air blowing over her.

“Why does hot wind come from such a small tube?”

Why did those screens and flat boards glow and produce sounds? Why did that small box automatically dispense drinking water?

She had accumulated countless questions. Seeing that the person drying her hair seemed free to speak, she restrained herself and asked only one.

Shen Yanbing heard Li Mingyue’s voice, but the noise of the hair dryer drowned it out, and she could not make out what she had said.

She weighed the half-dry hair in her hand, switched off the dryer, and asked. Her voice echoed clearly through the enclosed room.

“What did you say?”

Li Mingyue repeated the question.

“Because it uses electricity. Electricity is… a type of energy that exists in matter.”

Shen Yanbing had enjoyed the convenience of electricity all her life, but aside from her middle-school physics classes, she had never seriously thought about such things.

Each of these things that appeared perfectly ordinary had required unimaginable effort to create.

Li Mingyue, meanwhile, was amazed by this world that possessed “electricity.”

After thinking for a moment, she said, “I only know of lightning.”

“You’ll understand once you have an opportunity to study physics.”

Shen Yanbing smiled, stepped forward, and used a cleansing towel to wipe the condensation from the mirror.

Then she switched the hair dryer back on and continued drying Li Mingyue’s long hair.

An ancient woman’s hair truly was far too long. Shen Yanbing’s hand was beginning to ache from holding the dryer. In the end, she decided the remaining slightly damp ends were good enough.

“They’ll dry naturally after a while.”

She combed the hair straight again and raised her head, only to see Li Mingyue smiling at her in the mirror.

Her dimples were faint, and her eyes were brilliant.

Shen Yanbing was slightly taller than her. She lightly tapped Li Mingyue on the head.

Li Mingyue smiled.

“Why is everyone’s hair here so short?”

She remembered the people she had seen outside that day. The men’s hair was astonishingly short, while most women’s hair reached only their shoulders. Hair that extended past the waist, like hers, was exceedingly rare.

Shen Yanbing ran a hand over her smooth, glossy hair.

“Because short hair is more convenient and better suited to modern life.”

“You can think of it as a custom or habit.”

Li Mingyue nodded and gazed somewhat sadly at her long hair in the mirror, apparently conflicted.

In the Jing Dynasty and the dynasties after it, shaving someone’s hair was a humiliating punishment.

Shen Yanbing understood what she was thinking and smiled.

“Keep it. Whether you have long or short hair is your own choice. No one will interfere.”

After saying that, she could not resist ruffling Li Mingyue’s hair before leaving the bathroom.

Li Mingyue remained before the mirror, lost in thought.

Bincheng’s summer nights were pleasantly cool. The air conditioner was running in the spare bedroom, so Shen Yanbing brought in another thick blanket, afraid that Li Mingyue might not tolerate the artificial cold and catch a chill.

“How did you sleep last night?”

“Very well.”

In truth, she was not accustomed to the dark, cramped wooden underside of the upper bunk above her head. But the mattress, blanket, and pillow were all extremely soft.

Shen Yanbing removed her shoes and stepped onto the bay window seat. She pushed the window open a narrow crack, looked at the night scenery below, then closed the curtains.

Li Mingyue remained obedient to the point of restraint.

Unless Shen Yanbing brought something up, she never touched or searched through any object in the apartment without permission. Even now, she had never investigated the furnishings of the kitchen, study, or master bedroom.

She always kept her curiosity carefully restrained within her heart.

That was also one of the principles she had learned to remember while surviving in the depths of the imperial palace.

“Come here.”

Shen Yanbing stood in the doorway of the master bedroom and looked at Li Mingyue, who had fallen behind while lost in thought.

Unable to guess what Her Highness was thinking now, she could only sigh.

“Come see whether there are any clothes that suit you.”

She had selected several new outfits online, but they would not arrive for a while. Their figures were not very different, so there was no problem with Li Mingyue temporarily wearing her clothes.

Once she came back to herself, Li Mingyue stepped into the room in her slippers. She suppressed her curiosity about Shen Yanbing’s private chambers and dared let her gaze rest only on Shen Yanbing.

“Why are you looking at me? Look at the clothes.”

Shen Yanbing laughed and pulled several outfits she had worn as a student from the wardrobe.

Li Mingyue’s ears grew slightly warm. She turned her gaze toward the wardrobe.

Neatly folded clothes, hanging coats and dresses, unfamiliar modern styles, and designs and colors that appeared somewhat plain—all of them seemed novel to her.

Shen Yanbing found it difficult to choose anything. Her own style of dress was simple: shirts and trousers, with very few brightly colored, youthful designs.

“I’ll take you to buy clothes tomorrow.”

As she spoke, Shen Yanbing entered it into the schedule on her phone. Then she looked up at Li Mingyue.

“Afternoon or evening?”

Several seconds passed before Li Mingyue realized Shen Yanbing was asking for her opinion.

She pressed her lips together and answered, “Evening.”

In her understanding, the daylight hours were precious. Candlelight at night was too dim, making reading and writing far less convenient than during the day.

Although she now knew that modern nights could also be bright, she could not immediately change the way she thought.

The same was true of her daily routine. At this hour in the Jing Dynasty, she would already have been preparing for bed.

Li Mingyue yawned.

Shen Yanbing felt helpless. She casually chose a new set of underwear and some loungewear for her.

“Go take your bath.”

There were still more than three hours before Shen Yanbing’s usual bedtime.

She rubbed her brow, reorganized the wardrobe, then returned to the sofa and poured herself a glass of iced milk.

The LCD television screen was dark. The only sound in the quiet apartment was water flowing from the bathroom shower.

Shen Yanbing’s hand paused as she scrolled through her phone. She remembered the night Li Mingyue had suddenly appeared.

It had only been last night, yet it felt as though a very long time had passed.

The monotony of one identical day after another dulled a person’s perception of time. Even a small injection of novelty could make time seem to pass far more slowly.

Let alone a living princess from ancient times who had traveled through time.

It was nothing less than an earth-shattering transformation of her life.

She replied to her phone messages one by one and read the news, though she was somewhat distracted.

Before long, Li Mingyue finished bathing and changed into her clothes. She opened the bathroom door and stood there looking at Shen Yanbing, apparently having encountered a problem.

Hearing the door, Shen Yanbing turned around.

“What’s wrong?”

She put down her phone and walked over.

Li Mingyue pointed toward the underwear she had taken off.

Shen Yanbing laughed helplessly. She taught her how to wash them with laundry detergent and hang them to dry on the balcony.

Under Shen Yanbing’s gaze, Her Highness forced herself to remain composed as she scrubbed them clean, then clumsily used a clothes hanger.

Shen Yanbing noticed the red flush spreading over the tips of her ears and suppressed her amusement.

Li Mingyue cupped water in her hands and washed her face, afraid that Shen Yanbing would notice the heat rising across her cheeks.

But the more she thought about it, the less she could control it.

Her face grew even redder.

At last, Her Highness entered the spare bedroom and spoke first.

“Good night.”

Shen Yanbing smiled.

“Sweet dreams.”