The little Princess learns about the present
Cheng Xingfei decided to give Hua Zhao supplementary lessons; it was not a joke.
An ancient person transmigrates to the present — what kinds of knowledge need to be supplemented?
They didn’t need to put too much effort towards language. Of course, Hua Zhao knew her characters. Although they were traditional characters, she could still more or less guess at most of the simplified characters. As for Chinese pinyin, they wouldn’t teach it. Many middle-aged people currently don’t know pinyin, either, but their fingers still fly over their screens to send WeChats.1
Math needed a supplement. Hua Zhao basically knew all of the four simple operations; the Emperor had likely invited masters to teach her. But if you don’t recognize Arabic numerals,2 you can’t even read a clock, so she had to learn those. Right now, even first-graders begin learning linear equations, so Hua Zhao was not allowed to be worse than an elementary schooler. As for derivations, exponents, and such… If you don’t need it in daily life, then let’s let it go for now.
English had to be learnt from scratch! Beginning from memorizing the English alphabet, and you can’t forget about the simple daily words and phrases either. Even preschool city children have an English vocabulary of 2,000 words these days, so Hua Zhao wasn’t allowed to get away with only understanding “nod your head for yes shake your head for no.”
Also, common sense supplements.
For example, what kind of government is currently in place, who the General Secretary is, where the capital is located, the population, the number of provinces, how large the country is, how large the GDP is…
Or for example, how to use a phone, how to watch the TV, how to start the AC, why a refrigerator is cold, why a car can move…
All in all, there were quite a few things that needed to be supplemented.
Cheng Xingfei contemplated it as she organized her bullet points. Without realizing, she’d already written out a full sheet of paper.
Sister P was dumbfounded. “Xingfei, if I didn’t know, I would think that Hua Zhao was your daughter.”
Wasn’t she worrying about it too much?
Cheng Xingfei laughed helplessly. “I wish she was my daughter. At least you can spank your daughter if she doesn’t listen to you, but would Hua Zhao let me spank her?”
Sister P: “…”
……
Of course Hua Zhao wouldn’t let Cheng Xingfei spank her.
Not only would she not allow Cheng Xingfei to touch her noble phoenix3 butt, she even wanted to chase Cheng Xingfei away — this evil woman actually asked her to study?!!
What a joke.
How did the history books write about Hua Zhao? Unscrupulous, savage and wilful, which were indirectly writing the four words — learn, nope, know, nope!4
Would Hua Zhao quietly study? Even an assassination5 wouldn’t make her run away faster.
“What would I get from assassinating you?” Cheng Xingfei thought that when she and Hua Zhao were together, even though she was obviously 20 years old, she got so tired she felt like she was 40. “I’m asking you to study for your own good. Even a TV can scare you so much right now. Or else, do you not want to assimilate into this world as soon as possible?”
But Hua Zhao didn’t listen to a single word of her reasoning.
Seeing that Hua Zhao still refused to listen, Cheng Xingfei displayed a rare seriousness. “Hua Zhao, you’re living in my house right now. Please follow my rules.”
Once Hua Zhao heard it, she immediately drew her willow eyebrows together and angrily said, “Bold wretch! Are you someone who may use bengong’s royal name?”6
“…” Cheng Xingfei asked, “Then what should I call you?”
Hua Zhao raised her chin. “Naturally, you must call me Princess!”
Cheng Xingfei wasn’t annoyed and actually followed her words. With a small laugh, she called her, “Okay, Princess.”
Hua Zhao looked at the inch she’d yielded and naturally, tried to snatch a foot. “You called me ‘Princess’ and that is it? Repeat your last words for bengong again and remember to show sincerity!”
So Cheng Xingfei gently spoke: “Bold wretch, you’re living in bengong’s house right now. You must follow bengong’s rules.”
Hua Zhao’s reaction was three seconds slow, but she was so angry she yelled.
Obviously, the two of them were the same age, but Cheng Xingfei was far more mature than Hua Zhao. Comparing the two, Hua Zhao was like a lawless lion child.
Cheng Xingfei paid no mind to her tantrum.
Hua Zhao didn’t want to study, so she jumped up and down and shouted that she was going to leave.
Cheng Xingfei asked her, “You’re going to leave? You don’t know this place and you don’t have any money, so where are you going to go?”
Hua Zhan immediately said, “Who is saying that I do not have any money? My dancing clothes, my jade pendants, my hairpins… You give them back to me and I will find a pawn shop. Then, won’t I have money?!”
Although she foolishly couldn’t recognize a “bow your head while under another’s roof” situation, there were times when she was quite astute.
She was a noble princess who had been raised wearing gold and silver. To speak of nothing else, eighteen seamstresses had embroidered the dancing clothes she’d worn during that dance for a full three months. Even the seams had been stitched with gold thread! Not to mention, the jade and pearl-filigreed hairpins she’d worn back then.
No matter what she took out, they were all priceless!
So Hua Zhao didn’t believe Cheng Xingfei. If she relied on selling her gold and silver treasures, couldn’t she gain a firm foothold in the city?
Who would think, Cheng Xingfei quickly rejected her words.
“Hua Zhao, don’t think about going down that path. The things you brought over are too dangerous. That pearl hairpin you dropped in the museum — the museum people are really interested in it and are stepping up their research. They’re trying to figure out how a pearl hairpin from a thousand years ago doesn’t have any trace of time… In this kind of situation, I absolutely can’t risk it and let those dangerous things get out into the city.”
Hua Zhao: “…” She was stunned and also frightened.
She had never thought that the world a thousand years later could be so magical. They could actually see her history based on a pearl hairpin that she’d dropped!
She couldn’t act rashly — she didn’t want to be grabbed and studied…
With no other option, Hua Zhao could only unwillingly resign herself to her fate of studying.
……
Hua Zhao was responsible for studying and getting used to the world a thousand years later; but who was responsible for teaching her?
Cheng Xingfei was currently popular and overwhelmingly busy with work. She was practically a trapeze artist all day, every day of the week. If it wasn’t TV platforms inviting her to be on their shows, it was home magazines inviting her to be on their covers. She didn’t even have time to sleep… where would she have the time to be Hua Zhao’s teacher?
Sister P was not only her agent, but was also the boss of Fengyin Entertainment. Other than personally being responsible for the work as Cheng Xingfei’s agent, she also had to plan the overall decision-making of a whole company. So, there was no way she could personally teach Hua Zhao, either.
The two of them discussed it for a bit. For now, the strange matter of transmigration couldn’t be disclosed to outsiders, but Hua Zhao’s “literacy” work still loomed above them. After thinking about it, Sister P called her own most capable assistant manager and instructed her to find a private tutor.
Sister P laid out several requirements for the private tutor. First, they had to be tight-lipped and did not like to gossip. Second, they could only teach through the internet, without turning on the camera. Third, other than language and math, they would teach starting from zero. Incidentally, they also had to bring in some life common sense, such as where electricity came from or what electrical appliances were…
While her boss’s requirements were odd, the assistant manager had never been talkative.
The assistant manager quickly found a good candidate. Keeping in mind that fertilizer shouldn’t flow to outsiders’ fields, she found her close sister, who was training to be a teacher.
This little teacher was named Li An. This year, she was in her early twenties; she was only a few years older than Hua Zhao.
When they first started, Hua Zhao looked extremely disdainfully at this “private tutor” Cheng Xingfei had found for her.
Hua Zhao was a blue-blooded imperial daughter. Of course, she was different from the daughters of the common families who couldn’t even recognize a single character.
She’d started learning the age of three. Father Emperor had held her on his lap, personally teaching her the characters. Later, when she grew up, she’d studied together with the other imperial sons and daughters in the Imperial Reading Room and paid her respects to Grand Tutors as her teachers. Even her studying companions were sons of third-grade ministers, at the very worst!
Therefore, in the few days when Li An first assumed her position as her teacher, she really couldn’t accept the gap.
Hua Zhao’s mouth ran wild: “With what identity do you dare to be my teacher? Of those who taught me before, which were not Doctors?!”7
The Doctors were the learned scholars. In the Hua Dynasty, those who were called Doctors stirred very few rumors in the entire imperial court.
Li An rolled her eyes. Actually, she’d always doubted whether or not this student was crazy? Based on her voice, she wasn’t a child. But during class, she would always be saying “bengong” this and “rebellious commoner” that, like she’d been poisoned by a period drama. Even though she couldn’t even memorize the 26 letters of the English alphabet herself, she wasn’t even embarrassed to look down on Li An’s educational background.
Did she think that she’d suddenly become a princess? That was just too unreasonable.
Li An said, “Only a doctor will do? I only have a bachelor’s, but after I defend my thesis and get my master’s and PhD, I’ll also be a doctor!”
Hua Zhao was shocked. Although she couldn’t understand most of what Li An said, there was one word she could understand — the teacher Cheng Xingfei invited for her was actually a bachelor?!
Hanlin8 Bachelors were fourth-grade officials! Li An was only in her early twenties, and moreover, a girl, but she could actually become a fourth-grade official?
Hua Zhao was stunned.
She had originally thought, the young miss that Cheng Xingfei had invited to be her “female scholar” was from a certain fallen government family. She hadn’t thought that she was actually a “female daren” with an official position!
She continued to chase after answers. The more she listened, the more panicked and confused she became.
As it turns out, in the world a thousand years later, it doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female; everyone can study. Education is compulsory for nine years, which the government pays for. Even poor families can send their children to school.
As it turns out, in the world a thousand years later, there is also a type of imperial examination system called the “gaokao.” No matter if you’re male or female, you can take the test. As long as you pass, you can get a bachelor’s. After the bachelor’s, there’s the master’s. After the master’s, there’s the doctorate…
As it turns out, in the world a thousand years later, there are countless bachelors like Li An, and masters are quite common too. Li An graduated from a history major. If it was in the past, wouldn’t that be compiling the historical records?!9
Hua Zhao no longer dared to take Li An lightly.
— She was a highly-educated bachelor of the historical records!
Utterly defeated, Hua Zhao became much more honest.
She, as a person, was unlearned. Faced with educated people, she had always been slightly afraid.
For the following week, she stopped making trouble as Li An gave her lessons and listened honestly… although she still didn’t know what on earth this “ay be see dee ee eff gee” was, nor what “H-Hee Lee-Bee Bee-Cee Nof-Nee”10 was used for, she still bit the bullet and memorized them.
After her first week of learning was completed, their relationship had become a bit closer.
Li An asked her if she had any questions she wanted to ask.
Hua Zhao hesitated. Finally, she mustered up the courage to ask about the question that had been plaguing her for several days—
— “Teacher, you said that you studied history… then can you tell me about the subjugation of the Hua Dynasty?”
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1 There are a few different types of way you can input Chinese characters into your phone/word processor. One of them is pinyin, which is basically a romanization of the pronunciations. Another is just the swipe input, which works with touchscreens where you can basically handwrite it.
2 Before Arabic numerals were implemented in China, they used Suzhou numerals instead. They are the only surviving rod numeral system and were used as shorthand in number-heavy tasks, like accounting.
3 The phoenix is a symbol of high virtue and grace and was used to represent the Empress, while a dragon represented the Emperor.
4 So, this is a famous idiom that Hua Zhao gets wrong. It’s originally supposed to be “learn nothing and know nothing,” which refers to an ignorant and incompetent person.
5 I can’t tell whether this is just a typo/censorship/another joke at Hua Zhao’s illiteracy, but “kill,” which is pronounced as sha, also sounds similar to “shark,” which is the word Hua Zhao uses. However, considering that Cheng Xingfei also uses the same word in the next paragraph, it may just be a typo or a way that the author gets around actually writing “kill.”
6 It’s actually a “taboo name,” which is usually reserved for members of the royal family. There would be a ban on speaking or writing the names of exalted people.
7 It gets a bit lost in translation but what Hua Zhao is referring to are the Court Academicians. In Chinese, the word is the same, but nowadays its used to refer to people who have PhDs.
8 The Hanlin Academy was a prestigious academic and administrative institution whose membership was confined to an elite group of scholars. It’s not actually a school, but rather a group of people who had received the jinshi degree, which was the highest level of the imperial examination.
9 Specifically, the “official history,” as opposed to an “unofficial history.” Each new dynasty, the government would compile one of these detailing the history of the previous dynasty.
10 In Chinese there’s a mnemonic to help students memorize the elements of the periodic table in order; it’s impossible to translate so I just wrote it how you might read it aloud if you didn’t know what the atomic symbols were… (H, He, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Ne)
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Cheng Xingfei’s “I’m doing this for your own good” is too realistic…..
lilypad translations 