A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

She was a little uneasy, but her curiosity won. She followed him into a small shop.

The shop was serene and well hidden. The first floor was covered with ivy and various green plants. The steep and narrow wooden ladders led to the second floor. He took her hand and sat down on the soft suede sofa.

A grey-haired old man with gold-rimmed glasses came out from the inside and his wrinkled lips revealed a graceful smile. “Is this Mr. Pei? And the pretty lady Mr. Chu talked about,” he said and nodded kindly to Xia Ling before his eyes returned to Pei Ziheng. “Welcome. What do you want to drink? Tea, or coffee?”

“Tea,” Pei Ziheng said. “Give her a glass of lemonade.”

The old man turned and left. Soon, he carried two drinks out and placed the tea at Pei Ziheng’s side and the lemonade at Xia Ling’s side. “Mr. Chu told me you like to eat sugar,” the old man said with a smile to Xia Ling. “I prepared some sugar at first, but Mr. Pei said it’s not good for your teeth and didn’t let me offer it to you.”

Xia Ling gave Pei Ziheng a resentful look.

Pei Ziheng said gently, “You’ve eaten so much sugar these past few years and already have tooth cavities. You cried in pain the last time I brought you to the dentist, but you still want to eat? If it hurts again I won’t help you find a doctor at night.”

A few years ago, he was younger and had just adopted her, so he had wanted to give her all the good things in the world. When he had seen how much she liked sugar, he had let her eat it indiscriminately until she came crying to him in the middle of the night, holding her cheeks in pain and crying about how painful her teeth were.

He had brought her to the dentist in his pajamas and had spent a whole night there. He even had to follow up for a year.

Thus, he was still worried.

Xia Ling said in grievance, “Big bad guy.” Her voice was very low and he didn’t hear it.

The grey-haired old man sat down across the sofa and spread a tray across the table. The bottom of the table was covered with a thick layer of velvet mat which had diamonds on them. It sparkled in splendor and dazzled brightly, like stars lighting up the whole sky, bewitching people.

“Wow…” Xia Ling exclaimed softly.

“Which one do you like?” Pei Ziheng asked. “Choose one for yourself, I’ll make you a ring.”

“Make me a ring?” Xia Ling was slightly stunned. Her heart skipped half a beat and she couldn’t help but let her imaginations run wild. Why did he want to make her a ring? This ring… what did it mean?

She looked at him with a beautiful pair of eyes unblinkingly.

“What are you looking at, there’s no ring on my face,” he said.

“You, why,” she swallowed and asked with difficulty. “Give me a ring?”

“I want to see you wear it,” he said, his eyes lingering at her slightly exposed chest for a moment. The scars left by the robbed diamond necklace on her white skin was faint now. “Even Xiao Yu knows how to buy what she likes. I give you so much pocket money, so why aren’t you buying anything?”

She followed his line of sight and thought of the necklace uneasily. “I, I brought a lot of things.”

“The small hairpin on the roadside, ice cream, candies behind my back, and the slot machines you sent so many coins on when you and your friends went to the amusement park…” He was a little resentful towards her for failing to meet his expectations. “Why are you randomly buying things when even Xiao Yu knows how to buy expensive and valuable things?”

She felt a little guilty. “How do you know everything?” She had clearly been careful not to tell him about her secretly buying candies and going to the amusement park to play.

He said with a smile in his eyes. “What do I not know about you?”

She lowered her head and bit her lip gently. “This isn’t fair.”

“What’s not fair?” he asked.

She glanced at him and said with courage, “You know everything about me, but I don’t know so many things about you.”

“What do you want to know?” he asked.

“I…”

Pei Ziheng looked warmly at her. “Seeing as how obedient you’ve been today, I’ll let you know anything.”

She steeled herself and clenched her teeth before finally asking, “Have you given a ring to other women? For example, the sister I met that day, and…” And the woman at the Blue Dream Club. She remembered Xia Yu had warned her numerous times not to leak the information she had obtained from following Pei Ziheng and held back the latter half of her words.

Pei Ziheng asked, “And?”

“And…” She was frustrated and didn’t dare look at him. She averted her eyes and made a lie quickly. “Do you have a lot of women outside? They all say many women are willing to be with you.”

Pei Ziheng was slightly stunned. His voice brought a smile as he asked, “Are you jealous?”

“I’m not!”

“Do you mind if I have a lot of women?”

“Why would I! What does this have to do with me?!” She denied it, flustered, and got up, wanting to escape.

Pei Ziheng grabbed her hand immediately. Her hand was soft and delicate, and the palm of his hand was a little cold like a small piece of moist jade. He slowly pulled her back to her seat and looked into her eyes. “You’re jealous.”

His tone was without a single doubt.

She tried hard to pull her hand away but failed. Thus, she said angrily, “Do you care if I’m jealous? What qualifications do I have to be jealous? I was only adopted by you, and I’m not even your girlfriend. What does it have to do with me how many girlfriends you have? Why are you giving me a ring, just give it to them!”

He stared at her and didn’t speak.

Her chest heaved up and down and she spoke as if she were pouring all the thoughts she had been suppressing in her mind these few days. “Pei Ziheng, what on earth do you think I am? Your sister? Then why are you doing this to me?! Your girlfriend? You’ve never even confessed to me! You even have so many women outside! What on earth are we?!”

What were they?

This was the most uneasy part of her heart, and she didn’t know where to put him.

Still silent, he slowly pulled her hand over and spread her slender and beautiful fingers on the table. The crystal clear light reflected against her soft and delicate skin, which looked as good as jade. He used a pair of tweezers to pick up a few diamonds and compared it to her left middle finger before finally choosing a brilliant pink diamond.

“This one,” he said. “Pink suits you.”

She choked for a moment and glared fiercely at him. Had he not heard all her questions?! Her heart was sour and astringent and tears rose inadvertently. After all the things that had happened, she seemed to love crying more and more.

Pei Ziheng put the selected diamonds in a separate small tray and gestured to the grey-haired old man.

“FancyVivid.” The old man smiled and praised in English. “Mr. Pei has such good taste. This Typella diamond you’ve selected is quite rare even in the pink diamonds series. I won’t hide it from you, there’s only this last one left in the entire Paris. It’s a rare treasure.”