A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

“What?” The angrier she was, the happier Xia Ling became. “Am I wrong?” She was so happy she was almost humming. She hugged onto the bouquet of blue roses and looked around her, fondling it admiringly.

Another waiter came to give a flower. This time, it was for Pei Jingshan.

Pei Jingyu took this moment to calm down. She looked at her two bouquets of flowers and then at Xia Ling’s only one. Her heart felt more at ease. So what if her flowers were blue roses? Wasn’t that just but one rose given by the Ouyang family’s Big Young Master? She wanted to fight for the Midsummer Lady title based just on this? What a joke.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a waiter gave her another flower bouquet.

Pei Jingshan was even more eager to curry favor with her again after messing up just now. She said hurriedly, “Sister Jingyu is so outstanding. This is already her third bouquet of flowers. Unlike someone, only getting one out of pity.”

Xia Ling hummed lightly. “Is somebody scolding herself?”

Pei Jingshan glared at her. The two of them only had one bouquet each. She’d forgotten that.

Xia Ling ignored her and used her white teeth to tear apart her steak as if dealing with her enemies.

The waiters did not stop coming, and the next three flowers were all for Xia Ling. Pei Jingyu and Pei Jingshan were shocked. How could it be? Were those Young Masters all crazy? Why would they give flowers to this wild brat?! They exchanged uncertain glances with each other.

“That’s four bouquets.” Xia Ling was excited. Although she did not know why she had received so many flowers, this did not hinder her from boasting. “Lalala, Sister Jingyu, how many do you have?” She asked deliberately.

Pei Jingyu was so angry she almost folded her fork in half. “Impossible, they must have made a mistake!”

“Haha, how could it be a mistake?” Xia Ling was ecstatic. She pointed to the cards between the flowers with her fair white fingers and said, “Look, the cards write who the flowers are for.”

Pei Jingyu’s face darkened and she couldn’t say anything.

At the side, Pei Zhenyuan was observing everything. Now, he couldn’t help but say, “Ziheng, what have you done?” At this point, if he were to say that he did not know Pei Ziheng had tempted them with something, he would have wasted his years being the patriarch of Imperial Entertainment.

Pei Ziheng remained expressionless. “That child Xun An has good insights. He could tell that Xiao Ling is good, I appreciate him.”

Pei Zhenyuan’s heart leaped in anger. “How have you shown your appreciation?”

Pei Ziheng said calmly, “I’ve delayed signing the contract with Flying Eager Entertainment because there wasn’t any suitable leader then. Now, I see that Xun An is not bad.”

“You’ve agreed to sign the contract with the Xun family?!”

“I’ll sign it right after the banquet.”

Pei Zhenyuan finally understood why the Young Masters were trying to outdo one another and striving to give flowers to Xia Ling first. The reason was simple. As long as they were good to Xia Ling, Pei Ziheng would accord them with appropriate returns!

They could receive such good rewards by simply giving a flower, which idiot wouldn’t do that!

Pei Zhenyuan’s whole body trembled with anger. “How could you abuse the Pei family’s business!”

“How am I abusing it?” Pei Ziheng did not even move an eyebrow. “Grand Uncle, I’ve evaluated that the business doesn’t have any business risk and the conditions are all beneficial to the Pei family. Don’t you agree?” Regarding the contract with the Xun family, he and the other directors had actually discussed beforehand and had come to a resolution to sign it. They had only delayed it to make the Xun family anxious so that they would give more benefits to Imperial Entertainment. The appropriate behavior had already been completely controlled by Pei Ziheng.

After hearing what Pei Ziheng said, Pei Zhenyuan was absolutely speechless.

He already knew that Pei Ziheng was messing around, but he really couldn’t speak logic!

Pei Zhenyuan glared at him. He began to feel more and more that this Grand Nephew of his was getting out of control…

Xia Ling listened to their conversation and could only understand half of it. She asked Pei Ziheng apprehensively, “Brother Pei, have you put in a lot of effort to help me win the flowers?”

Pei Ziheng smiled warmly. He said to her in a tone that he never used on anyone else, “That’s not true. The Young Masters only gave you the flowers because they liked your song.”

“Really?” She was doubtful.

He caressed her head and spoke no more of this matter.

His affection towards her could be seen in the eyes of the Pei family. Pei Jingyu both admired and hated her. Since when had they seen Big Cousin being so good to the other sisters? It turns out that it was not that he didn’t know how to be good to people, he was just not good to them! Xia Ling… was really detestable!

What happened next made her even more detestable.

Along with the increase in the number of waiters coming her, Xia Ling’s flowers also increased.

However, Pei Jingyu’s and Pei Jingshan’s flowers did not increase and were even fewer than some of the other noble ladies. This wasn’t strange at all. The whole banquet already knew that if they wanted to curry favor with the Pei family, they simply had to give flowers to Xia Ling. Those who wanted to worm their way into being friends with them also naturally knew what to do.

This caused Pei Jingyu and Pei Jingshan’s harvest to fall short of last year’s.

The expression on the two ladies’ faces was not good.

If not for the fact that they were concerned about their images as distinguished ladies, they would have already flipped the table.

The flower-giving segment ended and the organizer came forward to count the number of bouquets each lady had received. The total number of bouquets stunned everyone—unexpectedly, it was really Xia Ling! Her total number of bouquets far exceeded that of the second place!

“This year’s Midsummer Lady is a new face…” The organizer was both shocked and congratulatory. “She is Miss Xia Ling from the Pei family. Congratulations!”

All the guests looked over to the Pei family’s tables. Regardless of whether it was hypocrisy, they all clapped their hands politely and congratulated Xia Ling on winning the title. The music sounded and a group of waiters came in carrying a plate of delicate tray. On the tray were various fresh flowers that had been weaved into flower crowns. They walked towards Xia Ling.

Xia Ling’s beautiful eyes shone with joy. She stared in disbelief at Pei Ziheng. “It’s really me?”

Pei Ziheng looked at her warmly. “It’s you.”

Her two pupils shone brightly like dazzling stars lighting up the whole sky. Great, she had finally won the title of Midsummer Lady and had not thrown Brother Pei’s face! Under the stares of the guests, she sat with a graceful stance and let the waiter put the flower crown on her head.

She was already naturally beautiful, but she became even more enchantingly gorgeous with the flower crown on her head. At that moment, many of the guests were unable to avert their eyes from her—this girl was simply too beautiful. She was like a beautiful shooting star in the twilight, the most resplendent star, making people want to look close-up.

“I really want to dance with her now…” The Ouyang family’s Big Young Master Ouyang Yunlong said. The words that he had told the waiter to say when giving the blue roses had only been out of courtesy, but at the moment as he stared at Xia Ling who was more beautiful than all the other ladies combined together, he really—

His heart palpitated with eagerness.

While all the other Young Masters’ hearts were palpitating with eagerness, all the other ladies were all feeling uncomfortable. How could this wild brat have won the title?! Where would they put their faces now?!