My Princess Has Been Reborn: Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – Kissed her face

Because of Qi Yang’s words, Lu Qipei was in a daze for two days.

The events of the previous life were clear in her mind but now, hearing the words ‘prince consort’ again was an entirely different feeling for Lu Qipei. It was like her heartstrings were being tugged at, or like a little worm had crawled into her heart, light and ticklish, leaving barely any marks.

Fortunately, while Qi Yang was impatient, she also knew that going overboard was just as bad as not doing anything at all. In the following two days, she did not do anything more —— she had teased her enough. She temporarily extracted herself from the excitement of having reunited with her prince consort and started to quietly build up her influence.

Of course, time was short and it was hard to see any success. She just settled some general and trivial things.

By the fourth day, Qi Yang had completed most of her own tasks. She guessed that Lu Qipei should have come back to her senses already. Thus, taking advantage of the good afternoon sunlight, she had someone get her a bottle of sweet wine. She then happily took the bottle with her to look for Lu Qipei.

At the same time, Lu Qipei was counting the days and figuring out the issue of leaving the palace —— after a few delays, the day of the imperial examination was now right before her eyes. She only had to wait until the examinations started. After that, even if she was caught by the Lu family, nothing much could happen.

On the contrary, staying in the palace was a bit inappropriate because from start to end, Lu Qipei had felt that Qi Yang’s words could not be taken seriously. After all, the little princess was young and immature. Perhaps she did not understand the relationships between men and women and would say such things to her because she liked her face.

However, all else aside, this thought made her even more worried because her looks were identical to Lu Qicheng’s!

Just as Lu Qipei was going down this worrying train of thought, Qi Yang came to the door.

The little princess was carrying an exquisite wine bottle as she walked through the door of the side wing with light footsteps. When she saw Lu Qipei, she raised the bottle of wine and beamed at her, “I got a good bottle of wine today. A-Pei, why don’t you drink with me?”

Two days had passed but Lu Qipei still felt awkward when she saw her. Although she had tried to overcome her worries more than once by telling herself that Her Highness’ words were no more than the product of youth and ignorance, she was still bothered by it. Moreover, this little princess knew no restraint, her words and actions all intimate and ambiguous…

A brief moment of silence passed before Lu Qipei spoke up, “Your Highness is young, it’s better to drink less wine.”

“This is sweet wine, it won’t get anyone drunk.” Qi Yang did not think too much about it and already walked up to Lu Qipei when she was speaking. Now, she knew her limits and was no longer like when they had just reunited, when she had desperately wanted to cling to the other person. Instead, she kept a distance that would make her feel comfortable and relaxed.

As expected, Lu Qipei relaxed slightly. Even though Qi Yang was raising the wine bottle right in front of her face for her to smell it, this could not compare to the stimulation two days ago, when she would randomly touch her face and hold her hand…yes, sure enough, Qi Yang had brought sweet wine here, its fragrance strong and fruity with weak traces of alcohol.

If it was just sweet wine, then there would not be any problem with females drinking it. Moreover, in early spring, the weather was still cold. Drinking some wine could warm them up.

Lu Qipei thus did not say anything else. Qi Yang smiled brightly as she pulled Lu Qipei to sit beside the window. She then took out two cups, seemingly from nowhere, and poured a cup of wine for each of them. She took a sip first. The wine was sweet, in fact, it was more like a sweet brew than wine and this made people unknowingly drink quite a lot.

However, Qi Yang knew that though this wine was sweet, the after-effects were not mild…

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When Qi Yang and Lu Qipei were together, they never ran out of things to talk about. The two of them could talk about anything from literary arts to town gossip and from town gossip to political affairs. It was this compatibility that let them quickly get to know each other in the previous life.

Today, the two of them had also tacitly agreed to freely speak their minds. Before they knew it, much of the sweet wine that Qi Yang had brought along was already gone.

Qi Yang silently helped Lu Qipei to fill her empty wine cup. Seeing that she was already a bit tipsy, Qi Yang finally started to change the topic, “A-Pei is very knowledgeable. It’s rare to see girls who are as well-read and well-versed in current affairs as you.”

Lu Qipei was tipsy and in front of Qi Yang, she really could not keep any sort of guard up so without thinking too much, she said modestly, “Your Highness is too kind, I merely studied a few years worth of books with my brother.” After she spoke, she suddenly laughed softly to herself, feeling an indescribable sense of loneliness.

Qi Yang tightened her grip on her wine cup. This was the first time she had heard Lu Qipei mention her own family, but her expression was so lonely —— it was not very convenient for her to say these things in the past anyway. Her parents had passed on and she only had a brother but as she was using this brother’s identity, she naturally could not talk about it.

Could it be that Lu Qicheng had mistreated her from the start? Had she been suffering in the Lu family from the very beginning?

Lu Qipei had only shown an expression yet Qi Yang could not help but make many guesses. The more she thought about it, the more her heart ached and the more upset she got! However, at this point she still could not say much and could only pretend to be indifferent as she continued to ask, “Does A-Pei also have a younger brother?”

Lu Qipei raised the cup to her mouth and drank another half a cup of wine. She did not hide it from her and even nodded her head solemnly, “Yes, I have a brother. We are actually twins, he looks exactly like me.” Lu Qipei even pointed at her own clothes and said, “When I wear men’s clothing, other people can’t tell us apart.”

This was Lu Qipei’s tip-off for Qi Yang but Qi Yang had long since seen the similarity between these two siblings. Were it not for the adoration she had developed for Lu Qipei early on or their extraordinary compatibility, when the person next to her had changed, she would most likely not have been able to tell —— this could be said to be Lu Qicheng’s bad luck. If it had been some other princess who was more ‘fickle’ in love, he could have stayed unnoticed or the princess could have suspected him but not bothered to look into it.

Lu Qicheng’s face appeared in Qi Yang’s mind. The face that looked extremely similar to Lu Qipei’s, the face that drank poisoned wine and died with his eyes wide open…

Thinking about it felt inauspicious so she shook her head to clear her mind of that person. She then continued the conversation, “So that’s really the case? I have seen identical twins but I have never seen a brother and sister still resembling each other so closely after growing up. But back to what you said, A-Pei, since you’re a girl dressing up as a man, back then you still lied to me that you were escaping the imperial examination*?”

*girls can’t take the exam

Lu Qipei was already a bit drunk and her mind was working a lot slower than usual. Even so, she did not answer Qi Yang.

How was she supposed to answer Qi Yang? Tell her that she was intentionally raised to be her younger brother’s substitute so the two of them obviously had to look like each other? Or tell her that she had not lied to her because even if she was a girl dressing as a man, she still had to participate in the imperial examination to help her brother earn an official rank?

Lu Qipei could not be entirely indifferent to this. She raised her hand and downed the rest of the wine in her cup. Opposite her, Qi Yang saw that she was already quite drunk so she did not plan to help her pour any more wine. However, Lu Qipei simply took the bottle and poured herself a cup of wine.

Seeing how Lu Qipei poured and drank the wine herself, Qi Yang suddenly regretted bringing wine with her to question Lu Qipei —— she was still young in the previous life and although she adored Lu Qipei greatly, when she looked back years later, she realised how superficial it was. She knew that Lu Qipei was good at all kinds of things like poetry, writing, horse-riding, archery and painting, as well as that she was self-assured and talented. However, she had never really known something as basic as who she was!

In the previous life, Qi Yang had regretted more than once that her understanding of Lu Qipei was too shallow so when they met again after she was reborn, she always wanted to find out more about her. However, to avoid superficial interactions, other than using wine to start a conversation, she could not think of a faster way.

Yet, Lu Qipei’s depressed and silent appearance made Qi Yang feel like she had exposed the other’s wounds. Her heart ached inexplicably.

However, she had to finish what she started. There were some things she had to clear up with Lu Qipei sooner or later. Qi Yang herself had also drunk a full cup of wine. She felt that the wine was not that good, it just had an alcoholic smell with a sickly sweet flavor. She said, “A-Pei, do you want to participate in the imperial examination and compete with others?”

This time, Lu Qipei answered resolutely, “I don’t want to.”

Her name should not appear in front of others, or else it would bring much unnecessary trouble. Moreover, when it came to competing, in the previous life she had already experienced how it felt to be the top scorer. Doing it again would not have much meaning.

Qi Yang twirled the empty cup in her hand. She did not ask any more about this. She swiftly thought about it then turned the topic back, “A-Pei, is the relationship between you and your twin brother good?”

She no longer wanted to investigate too deeply into things and whatever she wanted to know, she could look into them herself. Although that way was slightly slower, she at least would not have to see Lu Qipei’s depressed and lonely appearance again. However, she had to know what Lu Qipei felt about Lu Qicheng. This would decide what method she would use to deal with Lu Qicheng this time around!

Lu Qipei seemed to go a bit out of sorts because of this question but it only lasted for a moment. She lowered her eyes and said, “It’s just…like that.”

This answer was not very clear but from her expression, Qi Yang could somewhat understand what she meant —— it was not that she did not care about him but her concern had already been whittled down so she had no choice but to let it go and be indifferent about it.

Lu Qipei was actually a very magnanimous person. Her noble and benevolent personality was not just an external show; it had long since become a part of her nature. The word ‘hate’ did not take up much space in her heart, or perhaps it had vaguely existed there before but was quickly given up by her, leaving only faint emotions behind.

Of course, it was not possible for her to foolishly let herself be bullied and taken advantage of again but she did not want to take revenge either so she could only keep her distance.

At this point in time, Qi Yang did not know that Lu Qipei had had the same fate as her. She only knew that being used to take an examination made Lu Qipei upset. She thus started thinking of a plan. She thought about how in the previous life, Lu Qicheng had already died by her hands and her revenge could be counted as taken. If Lu Qipei still cared about her brother, Qi Yang did not mind leaving him alive —— it was never good to spoil a relationship because of a third party*.

*aka Lu Qicheng

Only, even if she did not touch him, she would not give him another chance to hurt her prince consort again…

By the time Qi Yang finished mulling over her thoughts, she did not know how many cups of wine Lu Qipei had downed on her own. Or perhaps the alcohol had finally kicked in but regardless, when Qi Yang returned to her senses, Lu Qipei already had her eyes closed and was napping on the table, appearing thoroughly drunk.

Qi Yang’s eyes softened. She stood up to get a large cloak and draped it over Lu Qipei’s shoulders.

As she looked at Lu Qipei’s faintly flushed cheeks, Qi Yang could not stop herself from bending over to place a soft kiss on her cheek. It was only a light and simple touch but when Qi Yang got up to leave, her eyes were full of contentment.

The author has something to say:
Qi Yang (serious): I’m here to worm information out of someone and settle a plan for the near future, not to get someone drunk and take advantage of them!
Lu Qipei (distant voice): Your Highness, are you not in the least bit clear of what you yourself have done?!