The moment Shen Ruoyan appeared on the circular stage, Leng Chuanjin's gaze darkened.
He'd been deceived.
The hands hanging at his sides clenched tightly into fists.
He should have taken Xia Sanghuan away right then.
Under normal circumstances, he would never have been so flustered.
But this was Xia Sanghuan, the most important person to him.
He took out his phone and called her.
The call didn't go through.
The girl was probably in a place where the signal was blocked.
His expression grew even grimmer.
He could sense the people around him stealing glances at him. After all, he and Shen Ruoyan had just been involved in that "engagement" fiasco not long ago.
He couldn't show his displeasure, or these people would misunderstand.
So he resumed his usual expressionless demeanor.
Shen Ruoyan was dressed extremely resplendently today. There were even freshly - picked flowers sewn onto her skirt, which made Xia Sanghuan feel a twinge of pain.
She briefly introduced the process of the Flower Goddess Convention. Only the second part, flower arrangement, caught the girl's attention.
Because she didn't know how to do it.
She'd spent the first eighteen years of her life in the countryside, mostly delving into medicine. How could she have had the time to learn flower arrangement?
It was obvious that Shen Ruoyan was targeting her.
When Shen Ruoyan announced that she herself was also a contestant, the girl's eyes widened in surprise.
On closer inspection, the other four contestants standing beside her showed the same reaction.
"If I'd known Miss Shen was going to participate, I wouldn't have signed up," one of the contestants lamented.
"Why do you say that?" another contestant clearly didn't understand the situation.
"That's Miss Shen Ruoyan. The Flower Goddess Convention has only been held five times, and she's been the Flower Goddess for five consecutive sessions," the woman who had been rude to Xia Sanghuan explained arrogantly. Her face was practically overflowing with scorn, as if she were the one who'd won five championships.
It seemed that she had a special relationship with Shen Ruoyan.
The girl didn't say a word. She just silently observed these people.
After hearing this, she curled the corner of her mouth.
If that was the case.
She would make Shen Ruoyan lose miserably.
After Shen Ruoyan finished introducing the rules, the Flower Goddess Convention officially began.
The first step was the lottery.
The girl followed the other four contestants onto the circular stage. It hadn't been so obvious backstage, but now on the stage, compared with the other five people, she looked like an ungrown ugly duckling.
But she didn't look the least bit ill - at ease. Instead, she stood there gracefully, exuding the aura of a noble young lady, somehow making people unable to take their eyes off her. She even faintly outshone Shen Ruoyan.
Shen Ruoyan could only endure it with a forced smile.
"Miss Xia, please," the host said, handing her the lottery box.
The girl randomly picked out a folded piece of paper from it. When she opened it, it was a serial number.
Presumably, it was the number of one of the contestants.
Could it be Shen Ruoyan?
She looked up in Shen Ruoyan's direction and found her staring straight at the audience seats below.
The girl followed her gaze and saw Leng Chuanjin with a sour expression.
But Shen Ruoyan seemed not to notice. She just kept smiling at him.
But for some reason, there seemed to be a hint of sourness in her smile.
Her expression naturally didn't escape the eyes of the audience.
For a moment, except for the people around Leng Chuanjin, the other tourists started discussing the "engagement" between the two of them. Someone even said regretfully,
"Master Leng and Miss Shen would have been such a perfect match. It's a pity that they were broken up by that Miss Fu..."
Before he could finish his sentence, a sharp look from behind stopped him.
He turned around fearfully and saw Leng Chuanjin staring at him menacingly.
A drop of cold sweat trickled down his forehead, and he shut his mouth, no longer discussing this matter with the people around him.
When did he get behind him? Wasn't he at the periphery of the audience seats?
After the lottery, the result was shown on the big screen.
Xia Sanghuan looked up and found that in this round of the elimination round, her opponent wasn't Shen Ruoyan but the woman who had just mocked her.
She glanced at the woman, but the woman didn't look back at her, leaving her a haughty back.
The six people were divided into three groups, and the girl was in the last group.
The first part of the competition required the contestants to recognize the flowers in the pictures shown on the screen and then briefly summarize their characteristics.
Those who misidentified the flowers would be directly judged as losers. If both contestants recognized the type of flower, the winner would be determined by the detail of their descriptions of the flower's characteristics.
The winner would get one point. After the end of the competition, the one with the higher score would win and advance successfully.
There were a total of five sets of pictures in each round, and the fifteen sets of pictures were all different.
After watching Shen Ruoyan's competition, the girl had a rough idea of her capabilities.
She really knew a lot about flowers. Among these families, she should be the young lady who knew the most about flowers.
Moreover, the girl also noticed that when facing the last two sets of pictures, Shen Ruoyan's opponents clearly gave way.
How many of these people were her planted agents?
Or were all the others in collusion with Shen Ruoyan except her?
However, it didn't matter.
As the previous round of the competition ended, the host led them to the center of the competition venue.
Because she wasn't going to lose.
Her opponent clearly came prepared - and was very likely to have memorized the answers in advance.
But unfortunately, she had met her.
No matter how precisely and perfectly the woman had memorized the answers, she was always slightly inferior to Xia Sanghuan.
This made the woman a bit impatient, and she started to lose face.
After all, she hadn't won a single game, and throughout the competition, only she was anxious, while the girl seemed like a young lady enjoying the flowers and sipping tea in her own back garden.
She was not willing to accept this.
She had promised Shen Ruoyan, and she couldn't lose like this.
So when the last set of flower pictures came out, she didn't hesitate to shout loudly,
"Rose!"
Before she could continue, the girl calmly replied,
"This is a Chinese rose."
The woman's expression froze instantly.
"Look at the petals and the stems," the girl continued.
"Although they both belong to the Rosaceae family, the flower in this picture is clearly a Chinese rose." She looked at the woman with a smile.
"Impossible, because..."
Just as the woman was about to refute, she saw Shen Ruoyan behind Xia Sanghuan.
She was sitting in the rest area at the moment, looking at her with a mysterious expression.
She'd been deceived.
"Because what?" Seeing that she didn't answer, the girl wasn't angry.
Before the woman left the stage, the girl delivered a final blow.
"I quite like Chinese roses. Drinking Chinese rose tea can regulate liver qi. You're so hot - tempered. Drinking more will do you good."