My Princess Has Been Reborn: Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Wouldn’t it be better if you came back with me

“You’re really good looking.” Beside Qingshui lake in the peach blossom* forest, the young noble woman’s dimples were like flowers, her head slightly tilted as she said this to the elegant young person opposite her clothed in white.

*peach blossoms signify love and romance

That was their first meeting. Time had passed quickly and now, it was like that scene was right before their eyes again.

Her heart had skipped a beat but back then, it was only because she saw Lu Qipei for the first time. Qi Yang admitted that her younger self was very superficial but this ‘superficiality’ had also taken up much of her one, short life —— In her short life, Lu Qipei had been part of it for a short time of a year while Lu Qicheng had been beside her for more than five years. Yet, even in the face of Lu Qicheng’s acts of currying favour with her, the person in her heart had never once changed.

Correct, back then, Lu Qicheng and Lu Qipei had swapped themselves. Qi Yang had sensed a difference from the start. Thus, she distanced herself from him and was wary of him. In the end, she even investigated him. It was only after this that she understood that her prince consort had been changed and not just that; her prince consort was not even alive anymore!

Unfortunately, it was too late when she understood and moreover, she had long since lost the chance to retrieve what she had lost so she chose to hastily end it…

Now that the times were repeating and everything had returned to the past, looking at the youth who had once made her heart skip a beat, Qi Yang only felt a surge of sadness welling up within her heart. Tears flashed in her clear eyes and her throat was so dry that she almost could not make a sound. However, seeing how the carriage was about to pass by the youth, she finally raised her hand to hit the small table heavily, uncaring of her image and shocking her personal maid Zhi Ting who had already noticed something off about her.

Zhi Ting went forward and asked, panicked, “Your Highness, what’s wrong?”

Qi Yang opened and closed her mouth, momentarily too overwhelmed by her emotions to say anything. At last, she forced herself to calm down under Zhi Ting’s panicked gaze and ordered, “Stop the carriage, stop the carriage!”

Zhi Ting did not understand her actions but she did not dare to disobey Qi Yang in this situation either, hence she quickly passed the orders down.

Then Her Highness pointed at the ox cart on the roadside and ordered again, “Keep her* from leaving!” After she spoke, afraid that her subordinates would misunderstand, Qi Yang quickly added, “Don’t let anyone hurt her*.”

*pronouns are all pronounced the same in chinese, only written differently

This order was simply baffling. Zhi Ting looked at the farm boy beside the ox cart and only felt confused. However, she would never disobey Qi Yang, thus she still passed the orders down seriously. That young person was surrounded by soldiers in a blink of an eye.

Seeing that she had been kept from leaving, Qi Yang was instantly put at ease. She hastily wiped her eyes with a handkerchief before turning her head to ask Zhi Ting how she looked. Ultimately, based on Zhi Ting’s expression that was like she had just seen a ghost, she confirmed that her appearance was fine. She then rushed out of the carriage and appeared in front of Lu Qipei, pretending that this was no big deal.

The young person wearing patched-up clothing had the whip of the ox cart in hand and a face stained with dirt, still covering her face with the tree branch like an ostrich burying its head in sand. She was even showing the appropriate amount of panic and confusion, as though she really was someone from a farmer’s family who had never seen the real world and was now stupefied.

Qi Yang had never seen Lu Qipei like this but with just a glance, she could still recognise her because for thousands of nights and days, this person had always lingered in her mind. Thus, even if Lu Qipei was any more sorry-looking and disheveled, in her eyes, she was still the noble and magnanimous person from back then, smiling sweetly…

As their eyes met, Qi Yang had thousands of things to say but in the end, what she said was still, “You’re really good-looking.”

---

She did not know what the others were thinking after hearing Qi Yang’s words. It was probably that this was completely unexpected.

However, Lu Qipei was simply dazed. This sentence had reminded her of past memories —— her life had been even shorter than Qi Yang’s so their first meeting was even more recent to her.

Back then, she had just finished the imperial examinations and had come out to socialise with people beside Qingshui lake, drinking wine and writing poems*. After two or three poems had been written and five or six small cups of wine had been drunk, she was already tipsy and did not really want to stay and socialise with people whom she barely knew but she did not dare to be rude to these people, thus she used the excuse of wanting to sober up to leave the gathering and step into the blooming peach blossom forest next to Qingshui lake.

*a common hobby of the educated in the past

Then, she met a young woman in pink clothing standing beneath the trees like a peach blossom fairy.

As the wind blew, the peach blossoms on the tree branches fluttered down, landing on the girl’s cloud-like hair. She did not notice and just shot her a pretty smile that made the peach blossoms look dull in comparison. She praised her, “You’re really good-looking.”

At the time, Lu Qipei had been embarrassed, her face completely red. Yet, in her heart, while she felt guilty, there was also an indescribable feeling of delight —— although she did not deal with people frequently, the number of people who had praised her looks had never been small. However, only this young woman’s praise made her shy and secretly happy.

Then they got to know each other, made friends and later, unwittingly, something between them changed.

Later, Lu Qipei scored top marks in the imperial examination and showed off her talents again at the Qionglin banquet. Subsequently, an imperial edict for granting marriage came. It was only then that Lu Qipei found out that this girl who would always show up in front of her was the noble princess of the royal family!

It was a mistake carved in stone. The things that happened afterwards were even further away from what she wanted. When she drank that poisoned bowl of soup and collapsed, on the brink of death, other than feeling that her life had been miserable, the last thing she thought of was actually the princess’ innocent and pure smile…

Lu Qipei knew that she was ashamed to face Qi Yang. She had deceived her sincere heart and even pushed her in front of the greedy Lu Qicheng! That cute and innocent little princess was ultimately pulled into a quagmire by her and she did not know what would become of her in the years after.

Yes, Qi Yang was the one person that Liu Qipei felt remorseful towards in her past life, to the point where in the days after being reborn, she did not even dare to think about her.

Unfortunately, fate was out of a person’s control. She could not hide from Qi Yang and this time, they met even earlier!

Faced with Qi Yang’s smile that was as bright as it was in the past, Lu Qipei felt extremely ashamed. She lowered her head slightly. As she saw the patched-up clothes on her body, she unconsciously felt even more ashamed. Thus, she lowered her head even further and timidly said, “This noble must be joking.”

Seeing this, for some reason, Qi Yang felt like she had been cast aside —— she had praised her because she wanted to see this person blush again but the time had changed, as the two people had met earlier this time, it was different.

But this small difference did not matter. Qi Yang took two steps forward and all of a sudden, raised a hand to lift Lu Qipei’s chin.

The youth’s chin was fine and smooth, completely different from the prickly stubble on Lu Qicheng’s chin…but of course it was different, the young person feigning cowardice in front of her was a girl! Not only would she not grow a face full of stubble, her aura was also much more clean and pure and Qi Yang held her in her heart. Where could there be room for the shameless Lu Qicheng?

Qi Yang’s gaze suddenly darkened slightly. Only when Lu Qipei lifted her eyes in surprise did most of it fade from her gaze. She did not care about the surprise on Lu Qipei’s face at the moment either. Keeping her hand under her chin, she used her handkerchief to clean Lu Qipei’s face.

Lu Qipei was born in a good family. Although throughout her life she had only been a chess piece in someone else’s hand, before this chess piece had been gotten rid of, she had not been treated too badly. In her education and daily life, she was mostly treated the same as Lu Qicheng and this face of hers was also extremely similar to his with the same elegance. One glance was enough to tell that she had been brought up delicately; her skin could not compare to someone in a farmer’s family that had to do laborious work.

Thus, to cover up, Lu Qipei had rubbed some dirt on her face but now that the princess wanted to clean it off, what could she do about it? Reach a hand out to stop her? She then really reached a hand out and stopped her, “Don’t, don’t dirty this noble’s handkerchief.”

Unfortunately, hearing this, Her Highness was not happy. She pushed away the hand stopping her and ordered, “Don’t move!”

Lu Qipei was unable to do anything. Looking at the soldiers behind Qi Yang who were still surrounding them, she chose to compromise in the end. She obediently stood there without moving, looking like she had nothing left to live for, allowing Qi Yang to remove the last bit of cover on her face.

Very quickly, Qi Yang’s handkerchief was dirtied and Lu Qipei’s appearance that was as elegant as jade was thoroughly exposed to everyone.

Zhi Ting, who was looking at this scene from far away, could not hold back her surprise. At the same time, she felt that the eyesight of Her Highness was really incredible. She could actually see how the youth was hiding such a handsome face beneath his ragged look when the carriage had only passed by him for a moment.

However, after her surprise, Zhi Ting felt uncomfortable —— besides what the family background of this young person was, the important thing was, what had happened to Her Highness? She had suddenly asked to stop the carriage, suddenly ordered for the person to be surrounded and suddenly run over to wipe this young man’s face… Did she favour this person and plan to forcefully bring a commoner back to the palace? This could not be, Her Highness had not married, even a princess could not be excused from this kind of reputation!

Out of worry, Zhi Ting wanted to go up to her but she was still a step too late.

She watched Her Highness hold that person’s chin and examine his face, then smile and say, “Since you’re so good-looking, it would be too dangerous for you to be left outside here. Wouldn’t it be better if you came back with me?”

At her words, Lu Qipei’s breathing stopped. Her gaze on Qi Yang instantly turned inexplicable.

The author has something to say:
Lu Qipei (shocked): No no no, my little princess is cute and innocent, she would never do something like forcefully snatching a ‘man’!
Qi Yang (smiling): You’re right, I don’t snatch men or women, I just want to snatch you.