Chapter 231 - Upstaged (1/2)

Tung Mei and Lei Yong arrived to find only Xiao Ting's personal maid standing where they had left Lei Xing. Tung Mei knit her brows and asked the maid, ”Where's Xing jie?”

The maid who had zoned out jumped, quickly bowed and reported, ”The older Miss had to leave early.”

”Ying jie~ you're back!” Xiao Ting immediately bounced over on seeing Tung Mei, she cast a quick glance at Lei Yong. And hoping that her brother and smoothed over things with Tung Mei, Xiao Ting asked, ”Are you still leaving?”

Tung Mei turned to Lei Yong, who was narrowing his eyes at An Hao, who had suddenly developed an interest in the plant life around him.

Tung Mei ignored Xiao Ting's question and turned to Lei Yong, ”Let's go to the palace.” And immediately turned to lead the way, but Lei Yong promptly stopped her and said, ”It's okay, forget it.”

Tung Mei eyed him suspiciously with an accusing gaze. He finally sighed and said, ”I apologise.” It appeared that he had poked a sore spot, he not only brought up her mother's death but also called her a liar.

Tung Mei studied him for a bit and then flatly commented, ”It's understandable. I might have done the same...I guess.”

Lei Yong scratched the back of his head feeling uncomfortable with the situation. He was not sure what else to say. He fixed his eyes on Xiao Ting who had been worriedly glancing back and forth between the two of them.

Xiao Ting noticed Lei Yong looking at her and innocently blinked back at him wondering what he wanted. Lei Yong's eyes then motioned to Tung Mei, who was narrowing her eyes at An Hao wondering what he was doing. He looked like a complete idiot scanning the ground for nothing.

Xiao Ting finally got a clue and immediately latched on to Tung Mei's arm and gently swung it, ”Ying jie, why don't we go back to the party? Or if you're still unwell, I can take you to your room. I received some very interesting things today and you can open them~ Oh, yes! Hao ge~...” Xiao Ting glanced behind her and waved An Hao over.

An Hao warily looked from Xiao Ting to Lei Yong, who was now frowning at him. He looked back at Xiao Ting's smiling and waiting face, gave an awkward smile and sluggishly came over to her.

Xiao Ting promptly opened the box and brought out the jade panda and excitedly showed it to Tung Mei and Lei Yong, ”Hao ge made it!”

An Hao almost got a heart attack when Tung Mei leisurely grabbed the jade panda with one hand to appraise it. But Lei Yong promptly arrested his attention when he menacingly bit out, ”Hao ge?...Quite generous of you.”

An Hao looked off to the side as he said, ”It was nothing.” through a cough. This was getting uncomfortable. It was time for him to leave, but before he could bow out, Tung Mei handed over the panda back to Xiao Ting and asked, ”You really like this?”

Xiao Ting nodded as she stroked the head of the jade panda, ”They're very cute...”

Tung Mei nodded and then reached into her sleeve and started searching. It was obvious she wanted to pull out something, most likely for Xiao Ting. But then she was taking an unnecessarily long time digging and her sleeve could not possibly be that deep. She was starting to look stupid too.

Tung Mei flashed them an awkward smile and then turned away from them as she closed her eyes and continued digging in privacy.

{...Panda. I can produce a panda too...Why can't I find a good one?... Oh, okay, not bad. Perfect!...}

Tung Mei finally turned around with a triumphant smile as she watched Xiao Ting inhale sharply in delight as she saw the object in Tung Mei's hand. The other three blinked in surprise as well, they had never seen anything like that.

The base looked like a rocky hill, with grassy green little beds up and down the hill, with baby pandas in various adorable positions on them. Then there was a glass casing the top of half of the hill, with a larger grass bed where a mother panda sitting, busy eating what looked like grass with two little ones playing by her legs. And the most mesmerizing thing was that it seemed to be snowing inside.

”Is that snow? How?” Xiao Ting asked as she touched the glass.

”Obviously not, it just looks that way...It's called a snowglobe, shake it and it snows.” Tung Mei said with a smile as she plucked the jade panda from Xiao Ting's hands and replaced it with her snow globe. Then she plopped the jade panda in the box An Hao was still carrying.

”Where did you get this?” Lei Yong asked as he touched the glass of the snow globe with raised eyebrows.

An Hao, who was now pouting at his panda clearly being overshadowed mumbled, ”And how did you carry it in your sleeve? It looks quite heavy.”

Tung Mei smiled and promptly responded, ”I bought it at the merchant festival and yes, it was quite heavy.” She said narrowing her eyes at An Hao with a victorious glint in her eyes.

”They really do sell all sorts of strange things there.” Lei Yong commented as he studied the snowglobe. Unfortunately, he did not have the time to go check out the merchant festival because he was too busy worrying about a certain missing person, who apparently did find the time to shop.

An Hao knit his brows and mumbled under his breath, ”Why didn't I think of that?” He had gone there three days out of the seven. But he had been too busy trying out the unique snacks and buying recipes to have bothered about things like that.

Tung Mei smiled, pleased with herself. She pat Xiao Ting's head and said, ”Enjoy your present~ I have plans, I'm leaving.”

Lei Yong immediately knit his brows and looked up at her, thinking that she was going to disappear again. Xiao Ting also promptly looked up from the snowglobe with puppy eyes then Tung Mei sighed and said, ”I'll be back tomorrow.”

Xiao Ting smiled and nodded, ”En, I love the present! Thank you.”

Tung Mei smiled, sent a passing glare at Lei Yong and then sauntered off. He deserved some cold treatment for a bit. If she was too happy with him too soon, he would get suspicious of her. It was best to escape to give herself room to breathe.

Today had been such a stressful day for Tung Mei. From Lei Xing to the old aunt and then to Lei Yong. She was exhausted. All this was honestly starting to feel suffocating.

Lei Yong watched Tung Mei disappear around the corner and then sighed. He turned back to the trio before him and then his eyes focused on An Hao, who was now glancing from the snowglobe in Xiao Ting's hands to his jade panda in the box. Obviously comparing them and his displeasure at being upstaged was palpable.

An Hao did not expect that someone else would know of Xiao Ting's love for the panda. After all, he had only told her about them recently and so he thought that his present was special. But now he wondered how many other pandas he had to compete with.