The following morning, Ping Ping and He Biyu came early to their Empress room, they wouldn't want what happened yesterday to repeat itself.

Her Highness must not be allowed to do anything for herself, not to mention bathing and dong other arduous task.

To their dismay, they met Her Highness combing her soft hair, she was already wearing a lime green dress that highlighted her pretty figure.

"Your majesty" Ping Ping was slightly disappointed. "You should have just let us do this, or did we come late?"

The third rooster just crowed from the Palace Farm, it was just sunrise and she should still probably be in bed.

"Let's greet her Majesty, we've not done that" He Biyu told Ping Ping.

Even if she was quite confused, Ping Ping bowed and greeted the little Empress a good morning.

"You should stop doing that" Shan's fave had no expression as she spoke. 

"Stop what Your..."

"Stop calling me that, and stop doing that" She interrupted He Biyu before she could complete her sentences.

The two maids exchanged both shocked and confused glances.

Even if the Empress had told them to stop addressing her as 'Majesty', would the Emperor be okay with that?

No way!

The two were not ready to lose their jobs and get themselves locked in the dungeon for months.

Ping Ping almost knelt. "Your majesty, please we beg you, we could lose our job and suffer horribly if we stop, please understand your majesty" tears were on the verge of falling from her eyes.

Shan had an indifferent look, she sat down on top of her stool then continued combing her hair.

"You both told me to feel comfortable" she began. "I'm not comfortable with that name, please I beg you both" she sounded very desperate.

"But your majesty..."

"If you're scared of His Majesty, then don't be" she cut them off again. "It's my name you're calling not his, he wouldn't do anything to you"

The two maids stared at each other, wishing they never found themselves in such a tight corner.

The Empress wants them to stop, the Emperor wouldn't be happy about that.

Who were they going to obey now?

They can't carry out the two orders at once.

Shan saw the looks on their faces and felt that she was making them uncomfortable.

They've done a lot for her, so making them feel this way was not right.

"I'm sorry, I never meant to make you feel..."

"No you Majesty" He Biyu politely interrupted her. "We know you are trying to be warm but his majesty would not like it" she told her. "It's also very inappropriate to be calling you by your name"

Shan had no choice but to lose the hope of hearing her name been called by other people aside from the Emperor and his mother.

Later on, she was introduced to her lesson teacher.

Shen Xiang had carefully selected the people who would be teaching his wife.

As for singing and dancing, he gave the job to a Palace maid called Song Wan, she was a very good dancer and singer, and she was the only person he could trust.

Her reading and writing teacher was an old man from the village, popularly known as Uncle Kan.

He was a very good teacher and was said to have begin learning reading and writing ever since he turned 4.

Uncle Kan came with a few books and some writing materials, including ink, inkstone, and a piece of brown paper.

Shan was as excited as a little kitten as Uncle Kan introduced himself to her.

"Thank you for wanting to teach me Uncle Kan, I would be a good student and never let you down" she beamed.

Uncle Kan was carried away by her sweet and genuine words.

"Don't thank me Your Majesty"

Shan couldn't believe that even her teacher would have to be addressing her in such a way, she voiced out her dissatisfaction.

"Teacher please call me by my name please, you're my teacher"

Uncle Kan was lost, how could he offend the Emperor by calling his wife's name?

He nervously chuckled. "I'm fine calling you that Your Majesty, so let's go to our main topic of the day" he quickly changed the topic to prevent her from speaking further.

Excited by that word, Shan faced the paper on his hands.

"If you can write, you'll definitely know how to read, if you can read, you'll know how to write, both are quite like brothers and sisters born by their mother and father, the paper and the ink"

The girl almost laughed at his explanation.

"We'll start learning the basics first" he brought out a long book where lot's of symbols were written with black ink.

"These are they symbols, also known as the characters, they make up the entire word in a sentence" he went further to show her how the symbols were formed. "We have the strokes, curves, and straight lines" he wrote them on the paper for her. 

At first, Shan was confused that she asked a lot of questions.

"Teacher, but the stroke looked quite like a straight line" she pointed at a stroke drawn on the paper.

"No your majesty, they're different" 

Uncle Kan explained everything to her, but the girl could only stare dumbly, trying to prevent herself from asking more questions which she think would anger him.

"Do you get it now Your Majesty?" Uncle Kan was asking this question for the eighteenth time now. He hoped to see the Empress nod, but she only shook her head to his dismay.

The Empress was far worse than the kids had taught.

Uncle Kan was well known to be a good teacher, almost every children in the village learned from him, and he do brag that the children he taught would grow up to be very intelligent.

But look at Her Majesty...

She wants to wipe that good teacher name from him.

She was still struggling with just the stroke and curves, her Highness really is disappointing.