"I hope so."
Xia Sanghuan gave the host an ambiguous smile.
Beside her, Shen Ruoyan waved to the staff, and they brought her a wooden tray.
On the tray were three teacups, a box of tea leaves, and a pot of hot water.
"It's a rare opportunity for us to be together. I'd like to invite Miss Xia to taste the tea I've brewed," she said as she dried her hands with a wet towel.
All the girl could think when she saw Shen Ruoyan's actions was that there was a whiff of feudal dogma left over from the last century.
She had learned traditional Chinese medicine from her master since childhood and was extremely familiar with all kinds of ancient books, let alone the ancient etiquette.
Shen Ruoyan seemed like a "monster" who had learned a bit of every generation's etiquette.
But she didn't care. She just wanted to end this painful flower - arranging competition as soon as possible.
Shen Ruoyan rinsed the tea leaves with clean water and then put them into the teacups.
Then she poured in the hot water while gently stirring the teacups with a tea strainer.
To make it easier for herself to brew tea, she also placed her floral foam in the space between herself and Xia Sanghuan.
The girl glanced down at the floral foam with flowers sticking out haphazardly and quietly shifted her position to the side.
After about ten minutes of brewing, Shen Ruoyan held a cup of hot tea in both hands and presented it in front of Xia Sanghuan. She looked so sincere as if she hadn't just targeted the girl.
Xia Sanghuan even heard someone in the audience say that they were so envious and they also wanted to drink the tea brewed by Miss Shen.
This tea is not something to be drunk casually.
The girl forced a smile.
Who knew if this woman would take her life after she drank this cup of tea.
She reached out and carefully took the teacup from Shen Ruoyan's hands.
To avoid touching the floral foam, the girl even deliberately raised her hand higher.
But she underestimated how shameless this woman could be.
Just as she was about to pull her hand back, Shen Ruoyan's floral foam, as expected, toppled over towards her.
The water in the floral foam was instantly squeezed out and splashed directly onto her clothes.
The flowers stuck in it were also scattered in a mess, with petals falling all over the floor. They looked so pitiful.
Before she could say anything, Shen Ruoyan screamed.
"Ah, my flowers—"
The amplifier on the round platform had been turned on at some point, and every word she said was clearly transmitted to everyone present. The high volume even caused the microphone to distort.
The girl placed the teacup on her own table and then raised her hand to save her eardrums.
As Shen Ruoyan's work was destroyed, the audience below were as excited as if they had been injected with adrenaline and were desperately looking up at the stage, as if they weren't the ones who had been dozing off boredly just now.
Before Xia Sanghuan could prove her innocence, Shen Ruoyan covered her face with her hands and burst into tears.
She cried so heart - wrenchingly that she seemed on the verge of vomiting blood.
But Xia Sanghuan wasn't fooled because she knew that if this woman took her hands away, there wouldn't be a single tear to be seen.
Facts proved that no matter whose fault it was, the one who cried first always had the upper hand.
"Miss Xia, if you can't compete, that's fine. But why did you ruin Miss Shen's flowers?"
Another contestant stood up from her seat with a look of pity on her face. She walked over and put her arm around Shen Ruoyan's shoulder.
While constantly soothing Shen Ruoyan's emotions, she didn't forget to sneer at Xia Sanghuan. She was really a good dog raised by Miss Shen.
The girl curled the corner of her mouth and sneered.
"Do you believe that I didn't even touch her flowers?"
"How is that possible? I saw with my own eyes that you knocked over Miss Shen's flowers!" the woman said confidently.
After all, apart from Shen Ruoyan and Xia Sanghuan, the only other person on the round platform was this woman.
No wonder the three tables were arranged so close together and there were partitions between them.
So this was what was waiting for her.
The girl suddenly felt bored.
At first, seeing Shen Ruoyan so confident, she thought she could see some wonderful works from her.
But this was all she had?
During the competition, she had noticed that this woman was not good at flower - arranging at all.
She claimed to have learned the art of flower arrangement from her mother, but in fact, she only knew a few basic techniques and was just a fraud.
The girl curled her lips and glanced at the flowers that had fallen to the ground in a mess.
They're not even as good as the ones I arranged.
The audience below couldn't sit still anymore and began to speak up for Shen Ruoyan one after another.
"I think this competition should just be judged in Miss Shen's favor!"
"Miss Xia must have thought she couldn't compete with Miss Shen, so she ruined her flowers. Otherwise, why wouldn't she compete fairly?"
The audience chattered away, accusing Xia Sanghuan of the "injustice" that Shen Ruoyan had suffered, completely unaware that they had been used as guns by the woman.
On the stage, Shen Ruoyan was still crying and saying between sobs.
"Miss Xia, I know you like Brother Chuanjin, but you can't treat me like this!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the audience exploded.
The noisy voices made the girl frown.
Shen Ruoyan continued, crying and talking so tearfully that she had finally managed to squeeze out some tears and had taken her hands away from her face.
"I know I can't compete with you, so I chose to withdraw. I'm giving Brother Chuanjin to you."
"I've already done this. Why won't you let me go?"
Looking at her tear - streaked face, the audience were even more convinced that the "kind and innocent" Second Miss Shen must have been bullied.
"Miss Xia, although the Fu family is powerful, that's not a reason for you to interfere in other people's feelings," a sarcastic voice said.
"Stealing Miss Shen's fiancé is bad enough, but you've also targeted Miss Shen everywhere at the Flower Goddess Conference. I really don't know what your intentions are."
"The young master of the Leng family actually got together with her. I don't know what he sees in her," someone sneered.
"What else could he see? It's nothing but the Fu family's money," another said.
"For just her birthday, the Fu family has made such a big deal. If he marries her, won't the assets of the Fu family be within his reach?"
People talked one after another as if they had discovered the secret truth.
They nailed the girl to the pillar of shame and launched an attack on her in the name of "justice".
Xia Sanghuan just watched expressionlessly. She wanted to stand up, but her legs were numb and she couldn't move at all. So she could only sit there and wait for the feeling in her legs to recover before leaving.
But as the verbal attacks from these people became more and more excessive, she couldn't help but feel impatient.
Where on earth was Leng Chuanjin?
Why hadn't he come to pick her up even in this situation?
It would be better if she relied on herself.