Dragging her feet as she exited the Imperial Study, Yun Shu's eyes were dull, her expression lifeless. She looked so utterly defeated that Ting Xue, waiting outside, nearly collapsed to her knees on the spot.
"Princess, what happened?"
"Nothing."
Yun Shu waved a limp hand, looking like a salted fish that had lost all hope and dreams.
"Father wants me to start studying in the Imperial Academy again starting tomorrow."
"But didn't you just graduate not long ago…?"
Ting Xue was clearly startled by the news and instinctively began to ask more, but after seeing the blank look in her mistress's eyes, she quickly lowered her head and changed tone.
"Then I'll go back and prepare your brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone."
"Mm."
Yun Shu gave a half-hearted reply.
The Imperial Academy...
Before transmigrating, she had come across a netizen's list of daily schedules for imperial children in ancient times. She'd scoffed in the comments—Not even dogs would want to be emperors!
Aside from the few rulers who only knew how to indulge in pleasure, the rest all started grinding from childhood and didn't stop until they died. A life so grueling it'd silence men, reduce women to tears, and make dogs howl at the heavens!
And now, the fortune of waking up before dawn to attend class at five in the morning, which meant setting out at four thirty and waking at three if the palace was far… had finally come for her too.
"At least the Sixth Prince is suffering with me," she mused numbly.
...
"Wait."
Yun Shu froze mid-step.
"The Sixth Prince!
Holy—that's the future tyrant protagonist! The same one who'd executed five of his six brothers, sparing only an infant too harmless to kill.
A literal wolf in princely robes!"
The Sixth Prince should be around eight years old by now, right?
She had no idea if he'd already started going down the crooked path…
"Princess?"
Seeing Yun Shu suddenly stop with a serious expression, Tingxue stepped forward carefully.
"Is something wrong?"
"It's something very wrong."
Yun Shu snapped out of it and quickly gave instructions.
"Go to the Imperial Kitchen and tell them this Princess needs milk and caramel. If they have tapioca starch, even better. Then stop by the Household Department and fetch some unsteamed tea leaves. I'm making milk tea!"
With Grand Preceptors monitoring the Study and a budding tyrant lurking nearby, Yun Shu couldn't just relax and "rest her eyes" like she normally did, letting her mind slip into the villa.
So the only option was to find a way to make milk tea appear naturally, to comfort her fragile soul, now burdened with the cruel reality of going back to school after transmigrating.
—
Fortunately, Ting Xue was efficient. Yun Shu had just strolled back to Fengyang Palace when her maid returned with everything.
Milk, caramel, tea leaves—no tapioca starch.
"The kitchen steward said he's never heard of anything called tapioca starch. He even asked me what a tapioca looks like and what it tastes like, but… I didn't know."
Ting Xue busied herself, taking out the small jar of milk and setting it on the table. She tilted her head curiously.
"Princess, what exactly is tapioca?"
"No tapioca, huh."
Yun Shu paused. Then she remembered. Tapioca hadn't been introduced to China until the nineteenth century in her original timeline.
So of course the Tian Sheng Dynasty didn't have it.
Too bad. No pearls in her pearl milk tea.
"I haven't seen it myself either."
Yun Shu made up a quick excuse.
"I just read about it in a book. It said the starch made from tapioca tasted pretty good, so I wanted to try. But if we don't have it, never mind."
"Oh, I see."
Ting Xue didn't question it. She moved on quickly.
"So without tapioca starch, can we still make that… milk tea you mentioned?"
"It should work."
Yun Shu nodded.
"You'll need to boil the milk, then add tea leaves and a little caramel to the pot and stir it on low heat… Actually, never mind. I'll do it myself!"
She stood up in a burst of energy and headed toward the small kitchen.
"Bring everything with you!"
"This kind of thing can be left to me, Princess, you really don't have to—"
Ting Xue scrambled to pack the ingredients back into a food box and followed, panicked that her pampered little mistress was actually about to cook with her own hands.
But Yun Shu might be lazy, yes, yet when it came to food and drink, she took things seriously.
Especially in a world with so little entertainment. Making milk tea herself was at least something to pass the time. She waved off the two maids originally stationed in the kitchen, keeping only Tingxue to help tend the fire.
Grabbing a small handful of tea leaves, she tossed them into the pot along with the caramel and started dry-roasting them.
As the caramel slowly melted, she poured in some hot water from the kettle beside her. The bubbling syrup and the now-fragrant roasted tea leaves met the heat with a hiss. Steam swirled upward, carrying a light, sweet aroma that instantly filled the air.
"Princess, the milk is ready!"
Ting Xue brought over a bowl of hot milk, sniffed the air, and lit up.
"It smells amazing! I never knew tea could smell like this!"
"Tea leaves roasted like this taste better too. You should try it yourself sometime if you get the chance."
In this world, tea-making methods were similar to early techniques from her original time. Leaves were mostly steamed, then crushed and dried into powder for chewing.
One sip, and your mouth would be full of leaf bits.
Maybe others didn't mind, but Yun Shu couldn't get used to it.
With one hand, she gently stirred the caramel-tea mixture. With the other, she took the porcelain bowl from Ting Xue and slowly poured in the milk.
The creamy richness of the milk blended with the deep fragrance of the tea. The warm, sweet aroma drifted from the pot, drawing the curious eyes of the palace maids and eunuchs loitering outside.
Yun Shu took a small spoon, scooped a sip, and tasted it. Not bad.
"I think this'll do. Did you remember the measurements and steps? Tomorrow—"
She was about to instruct Ting Xue to prepare another cup along with her breakfast the next morning, when she turned and saw her maid staring longingly at the pot.
Yun Shu laughed.
"Once I've had my share, you can divide the rest with the others.
And tomorrow morning, be sure to make a fresh batch for me."
"Thank you, Princess!"