In less than half an hour, the history lesson ended abruptly. The history instructor fled the classroom as if escaping, shaking her head at the Grand Tutor and Shen Changyin.
"My ladies… I truly have limited ability."
"As for our Crown Princess—please seek someone more capable."
The history teacher hurried away. After a moment of contemplation, the Grand Tutor said:
"The original plan today was for Her Highness the Crown Princess to be exposed to every subject first, so we could identify her strengths and weaknesses."
"After history, we had planned to arrange a classics lesson, to be taught by Lady Shen."
Her gaze shifted toward the classroom.
Xie Yu had her face pressed flat against the desk, looking utterly miserable.
The Grand Tutor continued, "But now it seems best to begin with a lighter lesson, to allow Her Highness to recover a little."
She ordered someone to summon the music instructor.
The music instructor arrived with two young attendants, bringing flutes, xiao, pipa, and other instruments. Today's goal was simply to let the Crown Princess experience the beauty of music.
Shen Changyin watched the music instructor hurry into the classroom and finally spoke in Xie Yu's defense:
"The Third Highness often hums unnamed little tunes in her daily life. The melodies are quite pleasant. She should possess both talent and aptitude in music."
The music instructor entered the classroom and began teaching.
"Your Highness, today we will only learn the basics. Music consists of five tones: gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu."
She played the five tones once on the pipa and had Xie Yu memorize them.
Then she asked Xie Yu to close her eyes and identify the tones being played.
Out of ten attempts, Xie Yu got seven wrong.
By the end, the Grand Tutor, standing in the courtyard, was already scowling fiercely. She turned to Shen Changyin and asked:
"So this is the Crown Princess's musical talent?"
Shen Changyin said nothing.
Xie Yu did like humming little tunes when she was happy—tunes without names or lyrics, just melodies, and they sounded fairly harmonious.
Shen Changyin had not expected her to be tone-deaf.
Nor did she understand how a tone-deaf person could remember so many melodies.
The Grand Tutor muttered nearby, lamenting how the Crown Princess could lack talent to such an extent.
But Shen Changyin did not listen. She only noticed that after making so many mistakes, a faint blush appeared on Xie Yu's face. She looked shy, like the first hint of pale pink blooming on an unripe peach at the edge of summer.
Inside the classroom, Xie Yu truly felt embarrassed.
Not knowing history was something she could admit openly—she had never studied it.
But being unable to hear the pitch properly made her feel guilty.
She knew she was tone-deaf. The little tunes she hummed while lying on the rocking chair Shen Changyin had bought her were all modern pop melodies, and she knew she sang them incorrectly.
Even if the original composer heard her humming, they probably wouldn't recognize their own song.
Compared to the history class she had completely given up on, she really had tried hard in this music lesson—she just kept failing.
By the end, her head hurt. She removed her crown, ran her fingers through her hair, and massaged her scalp.
This music lesson lasted less than fifteen minutes before the instructor admitted defeat. She walked out of the classroom, raised her hand briefly toward the Grand Tutor without saying a word, and headed out of the courtyard—eventually breaking into a small run.
The two attendants carrying the instruments nearly failed to keep up.
After seeing the music instructor off, the Grand Tutor sighed and prepared to switch teachers again, but Shen Changyin stopped her.
"I will teach her the classics," Shen Changyin said, extending her hand to block the Grand Tutor.
"Lady Shen, are you certain?" the Grand Tutor hesitated. "I have heard your health has always been poor. Teaching can be exhausting—especially with a stubborn student. It is easy to become overwhelmed."
Shen Changyin shook her head. "It is fine. Besides, the Third Highness will not anger me."
She stepped into the classroom just as a breeze passed through the doors and windows.
The wind stirred Xie Yu's hair, and she lifted her head from the desk.
The moment she looked up, she saw Shen Changyin standing before her in a deep purple official robe, instantly brightening the wooden, brown-toned room.
The dark purple robe made her complexion appear even paler. Her exquisite features seemed almost otherworldly. She held two classics bound in dark blue covers. Though she was only acting as a temporary instructor, her gentle and refined presence far surpassed every teacher Xie Yu had ever known.
Xie Yu straightened unconsciously.
Shen Changyin placed the books on the lectern, producing a soft sound as they touched the wood.
"In my class," she said calmly, "no matter how small the question, you may say you do not know. You may say it as many times as necessary."
She looked at Xie Yu gently.
"But you are not allowed to give up. You must try to learn."
"I will also never give up."
Xie Yu swallowed and nodded blankly.
Classics differed from history. They focused on reasoning. Though historical allusions were still used, it was far easier.
And Shen Changyin was an exceptional teacher.
Classical texts were highly condensed—sometimes two characters represented an entire story, and Xie Yu did not always recognize them.
But no matter how she asked, even if she mispronounced words, Shen Changyin always understood her meaning and patiently explained every allusion.
She was endlessly patient. For a short passage of one hundred characters, Xie Yu might ask dozens of questions, and Shen Changyin answered every one.
Half an hour passed. Xie Yu finished two short passages and even began asking Shen Changyin questions of her own.
The water clock made a dull sound.
Shen Changyin closed the book. "That concludes today's lesson."
She turned to leave, but Xie Yu called out to her.
Xie Yu sat behind the desk, her hair still slightly messy, smiling brightly.
"Teacher."
"You taught wonderfully."
Shen Changyin pressed her lips together and walked out.
The Grand Tutor had watched the entire lesson from outside the window. When Shen Changyin emerged, she stepped back and slowly bowed.
"Lady Shen has greater talent for teaching than this old woman."
Shen Changyin hurriedly helped her up. "It was merely a coincidence."
She knew the next lesson would be poetry, taught personally by the Grand Tutor. After a moment's hesitation, she said:
"The Third Highness had a lonely childhood and a weak foundation, but she truly wishes to learn and is intelligent. I ask that you be more patient in the next lesson and do not scold her."
The Grand Tutor nodded. She allowed Xie Yu a short rest before entering the classroom.
Shen Changyin stood quietly in the courtyard, watching.
At first, the lesson went smoothly. The Grand Tutor explained a long poem. Xie Yu asked many questions and eventually understood it.
But when it came time to appreciate the poem's emotional beauty, she froze.
She lacked sensitive emotional perception and could not grasp subtle expressions. She often parted her lips, pondered for a long time, and said nothing.
The Grand Tutor demonstrated this by analyzing a line that expressed sorrow through joyful imagery, then selected another line and asked Xie Yu to analyze it.
Xie Yu only recognized that it described someone longing for her beloved—and could say nothing beyond that.
The Grand Tutor scratched her head in frustration, but remembering Shen Changyin's request, she restrained herself and guided patiently:
"If you were forced to part from your beloved, what would you do?"
Xie Yu replied, "Then I would go find her."
Outside the window, Shen Changyin gently covered her eyes with one hand.
The Grand Tutor continued, suppressing her anger: "And if you could not go find her? If you had other obligations?"
Xie Yu answered, "Then I would finish them quickly and go find her afterward."
The Grand Tutor exploded:
"You have not truly imagined anything! You are merely deducing! One who cannot perceive subtle emotions is cold-hearted and emotionless, and will abandon family and friends in the future!"
Xie Yu snapped back, "Poetry and songs are useless to me. I'm not learning this anymore."
"Good-for-nothing! Hopeless and unteachable! Ignorant and proud of it!" the Grand Tutor shouted as she stormed off.
As she passed Shen Changyin, she left behind a final remark:
"Lady Shen, I advise you to cancel the engagement as soon as possible."
Shen Changyin covered her face with both hands. After a long moment, she lowered them.
Xie Yu walked out of the classroom and saw Shen Changyin.
Shen Changyin sighed softly. "Third Highness, poetry and literature are a major branch of scholarship. They are not useless."
But one look at Xie Yu's expression told her the words had not reached her.
This was bad.
When Shen Changyin had been too poor to study as a child, she had despised those with the privilege to learn yet lacked diligence or ability.
She had also looked down on those who gave up at the first sign of difficulty.
And now, Xie Yu has given up on poetry.
Yet all Shen Changyin wanted to do was press her into a chair and carefully smooth and rearrange that slightly messy black hair.
Over the next few days, Xie Yu continued suffering through her studies.
Aside from Shen Changyin's classics lessons, every other class was agony—especially poetry.
She even began skipping classes, attending only Shen Changyin's lessons.
The other instructors complained to the Grand Tutor, especially the music instructor. She could not understand why, when everyone was a teacher, only Lady Shen had earned the Crown Princess's favor.
After hearing this, even the Grand Tutor fell silent. Looking at the music instructor, who lived immersed in music and detached from worldly affairs, she spoke the cruel truth:
"Do you think they are merely teacher and student? Lady Shen and the Third Highness are engaged."
The music instructor felt relieved—at least it wasn't her fault.
But the Grand Tutor had no intention of giving up.
She was ruthless.
She moved Shen Changyin's classics lesson to the very first period, forcing Xie Yu to attend every day.
She also strengthened the security in the courtyard.
When Xie Yu swaggered out the front gate the previous day, she had the gate locked from the outside.
Xie Yu climbed out over the courtyard wall again. She had secretly arranged for broken porcelain shards to be set upright along the top of the wall overnight.
On another day, Xie Yu pretended to be ill and skipped class. From then on, the Grand Tutor summoned an imperial physician to sit in the courtyard every day.
After several rounds of struggle, Xie Yu seemed to have exhausted all methods of skipping class. She behaved quietly for two days in a row and even stayed in the courtyard after lessons each afternoon to review her studies, not returning until late at night.
The Grand Tutor was extremely pleased and even summoned Shen Changyin to show off her achievements.
"Lady Shen, you were right. The Third Highness truly does have the will to learn—she just needed my stimulation."
She even turned around and advised Shen Changyin instead:
"Lady Shen, your gentle approach is effective, but the efficiency is too low. You might as well learn from me."
"This old woman understands students like the Crown Princess better than you do."
Shen Changyin lowered her eyes and listened, but doubt lingered in her heart.
By intuition alone, she knew her fiancée was not such an obedient person.
Three days later, after Shen Changyin finished teaching her classics lesson and left, the music instructor hurried into the classroom. She first set down her pipa and said with her head lowered:
"Today we will learn the piece Phoenix Seeks Its Mate."
When she looked up again, the room was completely empty.
She looked around once, twice—still no one.
She cried out in alarm, "Your Highness the Crown Princess?!"
Outside the courtyard wall, in a hidden corner, Xie Yu—her face covered in dirt—pushed aside the grass concealing a tunnel entrance and stuck her head out, her body still inside the tunnel. She tossed her shovel out behind her.
Blinding sunlight appeared together with Shen Changyin standing before her, forcing Xie Yu to squint.
"Shen Changyin?"
Shen Changyin looked at the scene before her. The shovel was still smeared with damp soil. Xie Yu's hair was even messier than usual, and her clothes were no longer neat.
Yet she was undeniably clever.
Over the past several days, she had endured quietly, digging the tunnel every night after staying behind in the courtyard.
She had chosen a corner thick with shrubs inside the courtyard and tunneled outward to another plant-covered corner beyond the wall. Each day, she carefully concealed the opening with grass and soil so it would not be discovered.
If her camouflage had been slightly better, she might have escaped several times before the Grand Tutor ever learned how she did it.
With such intelligence, such execution, and endless ideas for skipping class—why would she stubbornly refuse to persevere in studying poetry?
Shen Changyin could not help but ask:
"Poetry still has its place in our dynasty. The imperial examinations include poetry. And an empress who does not understand poetry will find it difficult to gain the support of the scholarly world."
Her voice was gentle.
"I know this is difficult for you and not something you wish to learn. But it is useful. And you are intelligent enough—you can learn it. Why won't you persist?"
Xie Yu shook her head violently, flinging dirt from her ears.
"Then let me ask you—like swimming. Why must you learn it?"
"There are things everyone cannot learn, even if they are useful. I am simply ignorant, and I accept that I cannot learn it."
She stopped moving and looked up at Shen Changyin.
"Are you disappointed in me? You are always competitive—but I am not."
Shen Changyin looked at Xie Yu, who resembled a groundhog emerging from a hole, dirt still clinging to the tip of her nose, at her fluffy head.
Her heart began to beat faster and harder.
A secret, helpless panic rose within her.
Because she was not disappointed.
Instead—
She crouched down and reached out, roughly rubbing the head of hair she had been thinking about for days.
The sensation was exactly as she had imagined—soft, messy, light and fluffy.
What frightened her was this.
Over these past days, Xie Yu had failed often, returned dirty and disheveled often, been utterly miserable often—yet Shen Changyin never felt disappointed.
She only felt—
That she was cute.
She gripped the strands in her hand, then slowly released them. Her heart, long tormented by an itchy restlessness, filled with satisfaction and swelled, and the panic vanished with it.
"I like you."
What was there to fear in that?
The military physician had been right that night.
To determine whether you like someone, you do not look at whether you like her when she is radiant and perfect—you look at whether you still like her when she is messy, filthy, and failing.
I like you.
I like you.
I like you.
I want to keep you by my side—not merely out of control, not merely to make use of you.
I want to spend long, quiet days in the countryside with you—not merely because it would be easy.
I want to kiss your cheeks and lips, want you to touch my skin—not merely out of desire.
All of it is because I like you—so much that every moment, I find you adorable.
These four words were like flowers that must burst from their buds in spring—taking root in her heart, pushing toward her lips, desperate to spill out toward Xie Yu.
They were also like a cough during illness, with faint pain and faint itch, wanting to break through everything.
But as she looked into Xie Yu's dark, bright eyes and her expression, another sentence blocked her lips.
Do you like me?
You do not like me yet.
Why don't you like me yet?
When will you like me?
Countless questions roared within her.
She pressed her lips together, covered her heart with one hand, and felt its violent beating.
At last, she spoke.
—
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