My Princess Has Been Reborn

did not hold him accountable for this.
He was also secretly relieved, and quickly left.

It was only after he got out from the gates of Xuanshi hall did he feel that his back was already wet with sweat.
On the way back, he secretly scolded Princess Qi Yang for acting recklessly.
At the same time, thinking of that answer sheet, he secretly felt that it was such a pity that a good talent’s future became delayed because of the princess like this.

Fang Chengyue left the palace gates and returned to the Examination hall to give everyone an explanation.
Meanwhile, the Emperor was still looking at the examination paper.
His reading turned slower, and the way he looked at it became more careful and attentive.
Eventually, he became so absorbed that he even forgot to hold Qi Yang accountable.

Of course, neither Qi Yang nor the Crown Prince would bother him.
The siblings looked at each other and felt that the matter was eighty percent in the bag.

Sure enough, when the Emperor finally finished reading the pile of answer sheets in his hand, the first sentence he said when he raised his head was, “Where is this person now? Since he is so talented, why didn’t he go directly to the Examination Hall to take the exam?”

Qi Yang stepped forward to answer the question with a smile on her face, without any trace of the seriousness from before.
“I happened to meet her on my way back to the capital.
She is very talented, but has never taken an examination before, and doesn’t have any merit or fame.
I also had to spend a lot of effort to trick her into answering these examination papers on my other courtyard.” After a pause, she blinked again, acting like a young daughter.
”She’s not just good at literature, she’s also very good-looking.”

When Qi Yang mentioned her other courtyard, the Emperor had a guess in his mind – after all, there was that thing with Zhang Zhen before – after hearing Qi Yang praising her good looks and acting like that, how could he not understand her thoughts?

He became a little amused inside.
Since this matter did not really involve the imperial examination, that means it would just count as his young daughter’s mischief.
The Emperor became much more lenient, “This person is really talented.
You have made a meritorious recommendation, what reward do you want?”

With one sentence, this matter was defined as a recommendation.
And the other implicit meaning was that the Emperor was going to snatch the person from Qi Yang.

How could Qi Yang not understand that the Emperor was teasing her again? She blinked and turned her eyes slightly, then smiled and said, “I am now of age, I want to ask Royal Father for a princess’s mansion.
As for the person who wrote the essay, how about making her my Chief Historian1?”

When princesses come of age, they would all ask for a princess’s mansion, so it couldn’t really be considered a reward.
In the end, what she actually wanted was the person.

How could the Emperor not understand that? He pointed at her with his finger as he laughed, “Oh you, with such a talent, wouldn’t we be wronging him if we only sent him to the princess’s mansion as a Chief Historian?” After that, he continued, “Besides, the official position you want to ask for is not a Chief Historian, right? The Prince Consort2 position is the one you really want, right?”

Hearing that, Qi Yang blinked again and gave an exceptionally sweet smile, “Royal Father is very discerning.
I also think the Prince Consort position would be very good.”

Translator notes:

While it’s called Chief Historian, their job is usually to be an important person’s aide, and can be similar to a secretary-general or chief of staff position. The specific title the Emperor referred to here is slightly longer than the usual Prince Consort title, as it has a military title attached to it as well

Just as a reminder, he and she sound the same (‘ta’) in spoken Chinese, but written with a different character.
When Qi Yang refers to Lu Qipei she uses the female ‘ta’, but the Emperor uses the male ‘ta’ since he still thinks she’s a man.