When Yongxing and Yongqi arrived, they saw Mianyao and Fupeidong running with their faces flushed, while Mianhua and Xiao Yucheng were having a martial arts match.

Yongqi asked curiously, "Mianyao, Mianhua, what are you doing?"

The four people who were running and fighting stopped. Mianhua and Mianyao bowed and said, "Greetings, Eleventh Uncle and Twelfth Uncle."

Fu Peidong and Xiao Yucheng cupped their hands and said, "Greetings, Eleventh Prince and Twelfth Prince."

Mianyao explained to Yongqi, "Uncle Twelfth, we arrived early, before the door was even open, so we thought we'd warm up by running and practicing martial arts..."

Upon hearing this, Yongqi couldn't hide the smile on his face. "Yesterday you insisted on going to the scholar's residence with Dong'er. Well, look what happened, you suffered on the way..."

Mianyao said weakly, "Uncle Twelfth, I'm so sleepy and cold..."

Yongqi smiled and said, "Then you might as well stay in the palace. Yuqing Palace is only a short distance from here..."

Once you exit the Rijing Gate, the Zhaigong Palace is right across the street, and next to the Zhaigong Palace is the Yuqinggong Palace.

Upon hearing this, Mianyao immediately shook her head. "No, although living in the scholar's residence is a bit far from the palace, I can still go out and play in the streets this afternoon!"

"If I were in the palace, I would have to go back to rest after class, how boring that would be..."

While the two were chatting, the Seventh Princess and the Ninth Princess, along with their companions, arrived one after another.

"The door is open." Someone said, and everyone went into the study.

After sitting down, Mianyao immediately wanted to lie down on the table and sleep.

"Xiao Hui, call me when Master arrives."

Mianyao was calling out to her study companion on her left.

Her name is E Hui, and she is six years old.

Her parents passed away the year she was born, so for the past few years, she has been raised by her grandfather, Xilinjueluo Ening (43 years old), and her grandmother, Uyahai.

When Emperor Qianlong was choosing someone to accompany Mianyao, he first selected a girl from the Xilin Gioro family.

Looking at Mianyao, who was fast asleep on the table, E Hui felt a mix of envy and worry.

She envied Mianyao, who was only one year older than her but knew more.

She was worried that if her master found out that Mianyao was sleeping, Mianyao would be in trouble.

So she could only study while keeping an eye on what was happening outside the door.

However, E Hui wanted Mianyao to rest properly, but the people behind Mianyao were unwilling.

Fu Peidong reached out and poked Mianyao's back, trying to wake her up.

However, Mianyao was sleeping too soundly and didn't react at all.

Yes, even amidst the sounds of everyone reading aloud, she still fell asleep.

This is enough to show how tired she was.

Despite Fu Peidong's repeated harassment, Mianyao still did not respond.

"He's a real sleep god," Fu Peidong remarked before joining the reading group.

-------------------------------------

At Chenshi (7-9 AM), E Hui spotted their master slowly walking towards the Imperial Study.

Without hesitation, she moved closer to Mianyao and pinched her nose.

After Mianyao felt her breathing become labored, she finally made a move.

E Hui put her hand back down. "Princess, Master is here."

Mianyao yawned, stretched, stood up, and looked out the window, "They came so quickly..."

Walking towards the Imperial Study, one was the familiar Ji Xiaolan, and the other was a newcomer who seemed to be from the same country as Benjamin.

After the two entered, Ji Xiaolan gestured for everyone to stop.

The people below the stage looked at the foreigner next to Ji Xiaolan with great curiosity.

Ji Xiaolan looked at everyone and said, "Please be quiet for a moment. Let me introduce you to a new teacher. This is Simon. From now on, you will be taking classes with me and he will be responsible for teaching you foreign languages."

"..." Everyone remained silent.

In addition to their own Manchu language, they were supposed to learn Mongolian, Chinese, music, chess, calligraphy, painting, horseback riding, archery, astronomy, and geography. Now they have to learn foreign languages ​​too?

Yongyan, who enrolled this year, seemed somewhat dejected, asking, "(Why do we have to learn a foreign language?)"

"hello everyone, I am Simon, 25 years old from far away Great Britain. I am delighted to e to china and study with you."

(Hello everyone, I'm Simon, 25 years old, from faraway Great Britain. I'm very happy to be in China and study with you all.)

As soon as Simon came in, he started speaking a lot of English to everyone.

The students who were accompanying him had basically never heard of foreign languages ​​before, so they were completely bewildered and had no idea what he was saying.

Those princes and princesses had all dealt with Benjamin before, so they could understand some of what he said.

E Hui asked curiously, "Princess, what is he saying?"

Mianyao explained, "He is introducing himself to us. Like the previous court painter Benjamin, he is from Great Britain and he is 25 years old this year."

"But I didn't understand what he said in the next sentence..."

Simon glanced at all the children in the class, and finally fixed his gaze on Mianyao.

"This beautiful girl, you seem to understand what I\\u0027m saying."

(This beautiful girl seems to understand what I'm talking about.)

"..." When Mianyao saw Simon talking to her, her mind went blank.

She looked at him blankly, "Can you speak Chinese?"

(Can you speak Chinese?)

This phrase was taught to her by Benjamin.

Because she couldn't remember "Chinese," Benjamin made her copy it several times as punishment.

Simon chuckled, "You must be... the little girl Benjamin was talking about..."

Upon hearing Benjamin's name, Mianyao and the others looked at him with bright, excited eyes. Mianyao asked, "Have you seen Uncle Benjamin?"

"Yes, I saw him on my way here..."

Mianyao then asked, "When will Uncle Benjamin be back?"

Simon shook his head helplessly. "Sorry, I don't know."

"Maybe... he won't come back until he has a wife..."

Mianyao sighed, "Uncle Benjamin is almost thirty years old, will anyone still want him?"

"Don't worry about this."

"After he goes back... there will still be many people... who like him..."

Seeing that their conversation was getting more and more rambling, Ji Xiaolan quickly interrupted, "Simon, let's save this time for chatting after class."

"Let's talk about the upcoming course schedule first."

Everyone could only listen quietly and attentively to Ji Xiaolan's rambling on.

"From now on, we'll read our own books one morning and foreign languages ​​the next..."

"After reading it, we started writing it from memory."

"Those who fail will be punished by copying. I think Princess Mianyao should know this all too well..."

Mianyao looked at Ji Xiaolan with resentment, "Master Ji!"

When Ji Xiaolan saw Mianyao pouting again, he glared at her and said, "Don't try to act cute, it won't work."

“In the morning, we’ll set aside half an hour for studying the foreign language.”

"Don't take advantage of Simon's young age and newbie status to bully him. I'll be here watching you..."

"Don't even think about messing around, the Emperor is right across from us."

"He'll come over to watch your class when he's done with his work."

"You're daydreaming in class, be careful he doesn't catch you!"

Everyone looked dejected.

Simon comforted him, "Don't look so gloomy. Once you get into it... you'll discover the joy of learning a foreign language..."

"I've given each of you a set of twenty-six cards. Go back and take a good look at them. We'll start our formal lessons next class."

The cards on those cards represent the 26 letters of the alphabet from Benjamin's side.

This was their first time having a reading companion, but the princes and princesses already knew several letters.

"Today I'm giving you... a task: without having studied any foreign languages, write down, based on your intuition, combinations of words that you think might be words..."

“For example, China means China,” Simon said, writing the word “China” on a piece of paper and passing it around to make sure everyone understood.

"This word is made up of the uppercase letter c, the lowercase letter h, i, n, and a."

Mianyao went up and wrote down the word "old" that Benjamin had taught her, and she passed the paper down in the same way. "Old is made up of the three letters o, l, and d."

"Yes, you seem to have... some talent..."

Mianyao smiled and said, "This is what Uncle Benjamin taught me."

Simon nodded. "I think so too."