The day of the compet.i.tion arrived, and Liu Jinfei found himself in Huang Shenghao’s company once more at Blue Haven Restaurant. At the same time, Lin Xiao was at Grace Palace, having a short talk with He Haotian. Again, Shen Lingqing was nowhere to be seen, which made Liu Jinfei more nervous than usual.
He thought that Shen Lingqing had accepted his little request last night to give them some moral support. What he failed to realize was that the Shen princess never gave such an answer to his request.
‘Oh, how foolish of me,’ he berated himself. Neither he nor Lin Xiao had seen Shen Lingqing that morning, and Liu Jinfei was starting to wonder if the time he had spent with her yesterday was just a figment of his imagination.
He didn’t dare to ask about her whereabouts and what she was doing, but it seemed no one was even aware she wasn’t around… except for him.
“Relax, Little Bro. Are you nervous about the compet.i.tion later?” Huang Shenghao patted Liu Jinfei’s shoulder and laughed merrily. He then poured himself a cup of tea and took a sip from the cup.
“I already told Little Qing not to bother joining the compet.i.tion and just allow you and Chef Lin to train here as much as she wanted, but she said it would be better if the two of you gained some experience through a cooking battle,” he explained.
“I’m sure Director Shen had her own reasons,” Liu Jinfei replied.
‘Yeah, she surely has enough reasons and excuses why she wouldn’t be here with them,’ he taunted himself.
Huang Shenghao shrugged. She was just as secretive as Tian Lingyu in his opinion.
“She’s always like this.” He sighed. “I feel like the only people who could truly understand what she was thinking are her parents and her Uncle Lingyu, but to this Uncle Huang of hers, Qingqing is just so…”
“So what, Uncle?” A feminine, cold voice reached their ears.
Both men turned their heads and saw that Shen Lingqing had just arrived, wearing a traditional hanfu dress that made Huang Shenghao choke on his drink. The older man coughed violently behind his hand, while Liu Jinfei was momentarily stunned, seeing his boss dressed like this.
“What?” Shen Lingqing raised a slender brow at them, “Uncle, aren’t you going to tell me what you think of me?”
“Of course, you are my prettiest niece!” Huang Shenghao exclaimed as he fawned excessively over Shen Lingqing’s look.
“I’m your only niece. Your son is still in grade school. To whom are you going to compare me to anyway?” The Shen princess retorted. Her eyes then s.h.i.+fted to Liu Jinfei who just regained his senses. “Don’t worry about my Uncle Huang. He could be loud and annoying like this, but he’s actually a nice person.”
Huang Shenghao gasped and held his chest, feigning being hurt by Shen Lingqing’s words.
“Hey, Shen Lingqing! Who are you calling loud and annoying here?!” He complained, “Boohoo… you are really Lingyu’s niece, alright. But why did you have to inherit his c.o.c.kiness and arrogance when you could be sweet and kind like Little Xinxin,” he added.
Shen Lingqing c.o.c.ked her head to one side and looked at her Uncle Huang as if he grew another head over his shoulder. Her mother? Sweet and kind? Were she and her Uncle Huang thinking the same person?
Because everyone who truly knew her mother couldn’t deny that she had a pair of tiny horns on her head and a cheeky grin that could only mean trouble not only to her enemies but also to Shen Yi who needed to clean up the mess she would leave afterward.
“Uhh? Then, why are you dressed like this, Director Shen?” Liu Jinfei inquired, his eyes giving the young woman a good look.
Shen Lingqing was wearing a deep blue-green hanfu with white sleeves. It also had intricate and beautiful embroidery all over the fabric. He then noticed that she was wearing a headdress, and her hair was excessively longer than usual.
“Oh, it’s not that I think you look bad in it. In fact, I really think it suits you well,” he said in defense when he noticed that her eyes narrowed at his words.
Did he say something wrong and offended her?
“Well, today, I decided to have my day off from work. I’m Shen Lingqing, not Director Shen! I decided to wear a hanfu to experience what the other tourists have when they come here.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Right! Our hardworking Qingqing deserves a break, too.” Huang Shenghao pulled his phone out and started snapping pictures of Shen Lingqing while grinning mischievously. “Pose for your Uncle Huang, Little Qing. Let me tease your Uncle Lingyu for not seeing you like this.”
Shen Lingqing rolled her eyes and sat across Liu Jinfei. She thought that even though years had pa.s.sed, the relations.h.i.+p between her two uncles remained the same. If they hadn’t met their respective wives today, Shen Lingqing had no doubt that her Uncle Huang would be the bottom between the two.
“Direc— Miss Shen, I thought you wouldn’t be able to join us today.” Liu Jinfei immediately corrected himself when she glared at him.
“Why wouldn’t I be here? Didn’t you say yesterday you wanted me to be there?” She said in return.
Liu Jinfei was stunned by her answer, but he easily recovered from his shock.
“Well, Miss Shen. You didn’t give me an answer, so I thought you’d declined.”
“Oh? I didn’t?” Shen Lingqing was equally puzzled by it. She also hadn’t realized that she didn’t give him an answer. She just glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and hummed.
“Then, it’s good that I’m not late. It took me some time to dress up like this.”
Liu Jinfei nodded, his mood a little better than earlier, knowing that Shen Lingqing would be there for him and Lin Xiao earlier. Indeed, it didn’t matter if they lost.