Chapter 275: The Despot

Pei Ziheng silently contemplated her again.

Xia Ling started to feel sheepish under his watchful eyes. She did not want to give him any hope, but given the current situation, this was merely a stop-gap measure. If she did not make Pei Ziheng give up hope of inviting her to Imperial Entertainment, then even if she rejected him, he would find all ways and means to block her from entering other companies and force her to go to Imperial Entertainment.

Giving him a ray of hope was better than going back to Imperial Entertainment to be his puppet.

Moreover...

Xia Ling's expression softened. She found that she was not as afraid and resistant to him as before, after the few incidents over New Year's and Valentine's Day. Even if they did not reconcile, it would still be nice to consider him a friend, or even family.

"Boss Pei, thank you for your kind offer." She reiterated. "Perhaps we can be friends in the future, but that has to be built without any conflict of interest business-wise. I hope you understand."

"Just friends?"

She lowered her head slightly and did not answer.

There was a sound at the door, and the door swung open.

"Xiao Ling, Xiao Ling!" Luo Luo's voice rang out from behind the partition near the doorway. "Sorry, I'm late coming back! Are you hungry? Shall we go out for dinner? Do you know how crazy Pei Ziheng is? I heard that his meeting with senior management today was almost six hours long, and he gave them all quite an earful. As a result, morale is very low in the office right now... Boss Chu from the managers' department lectured all the managers in the office, and the managers, in turn, lectured all of us! We finished so late because they were scolding us all for so long... I'm telling you that Pei Ziheng is a despot! A crazy despot! Animal! Monster!"

It seemed that all the anger that Luo Luo had kept within her throughout the day was being released as she rattled all of these out at breakneck speed while changing to her house slippers.

Xia Ling quietly looked up at Pei Ziheng, who was sitting opposite her.

Pei Ziheng's face showed no emotion.

Luo Luo finished changing her shoes and turned in from behind the partition, still keeping up with her complaints. "What do you think? Why does Imperial Entertainment have such a crazy and monstrous Boss managing us all? I'm telling you... go anywhere but Imperial Entertainment! Pei Ziheng is just a... Pei... Boss Pei?!" Luo Luo lifted her head, saw the additional person sitting in the living room, and gave a yelp of surprise, the bag in her hand falling to the floor in her shock.

Pei Ziheng continued to stare at her with his face void of emotion.

Xia Ling could not bear to see what would happen and gave Luo Luo a sympathetic glance.

Luo Luo was speechless from fright. Oh... Oh my God! Her heart felt like it was going to give way from shock. How terrifying is it to see Big Boss Pei, this ten thousand year ice mountain, sitting in your own living room after pushing the door open?! Definitely as terrifying as discovering an alien in your house!

What's more, she was just ranting about Boss Pei and saying so many terrible things about him... Did he hear everything?

Luo Luo blinked her eyes blankly and was close to tears.

"See... didn't I say Imperial Entertainment is too serious?" Xia Ling said in a lighthearted tone and tried to save the situation with a nonchalant smile. "Luo Luo is a diligent artiste, but occasionally she'll have some grievances. Don't take it to heart."

"You..."

"Hm?"

"Don't talk to me so formally."

Xia Ling was momentarily stunned before smiling. "Okay. It's getting late now, and you seemed really busy today. Why don't you head home to have a rest and we can continue our conversation another day."

Pei Ziheng took a look at the time and saw that it was indeed getting late. He had to catch a red-eye flight to Los Angeles for a conference. As such, he stood up and walked towards the door. As he passed Luo Luo, he glanced at her like a giant king dragon looking down at a trembling little white rabbit. The little white rabbit looked like she was about to scream and flee in terror.

Did he have such a dark sense of humor? Was seeing someone so terrified amusing to him?

Xia Ling was speechless and stood in his way, blocking Luo Luo from him as she walked him to the door.

Pei Ziheng caught this small movement, and his gaze became gentler. Very few were not afraid of him. His Xiao Ling was one such person, and clearly, this girl in front of him was the second. He wished that she would come to his side.

"It'll be really tough for a girl to be in the entertainment industry all alone." He turned to speak to Xia Ling after walking to the door. "If you have any problems feel free to contact me. You have my number."

Xia Ling nodded her head.

Pei Ziheng had many numbers, and the number that he gave her was one that few people were aware of. It was reserved for some relatives, his gym instructor, and other people that had a close relationship with him.

In fact, in her past life, the number that she used was another, more exclusive one. It was a number that was exclusively set up for her and only her, and only the two of them were aware of it. Now, he did not give her that number, and Xia Ling did not know whether to be relieved or sad. Perhaps that number was no longer in use? This thought flashed across her mind before she dismissed it quickly.

She watched Pei Ziheng as he walked further and further away.

Xia Ling closed the door and returned to the living room.

The little white rabbit, Luo Luo, who turned into a fossil for quite a while in the living room seemed to come back to life. "Xiao Ling! Xiao Ling! Was I mistaken?! Was that man Pei Ziheng? Oh my God... it's Big Boss Pei Ziheng from Imperial Entertainment, right?! Quick... quick, pinch me! I need to check if I'm having a nightmare!"

Xia Ling gave her a good, hard pinch. "Can't you be a little more tight-lipped? Why did you tell everyone that I'm staying here?"

"Ouch!" Luo Luo yelped out with pain, her eyes tearing up. She realized that she had made Xia Ling upset and apologized, feeling contrite. "I've only said it once in the recording studio at Imperial Entertainment... There were only artistes present and no reporters or fans, so I thought it would be fine..."

"There you go!" Xia Ling glared at her angrily. "If you didn't let that slip, why would that Big Boss come here?!"

"Oh my God, it was really Pei Ziheng? I wasn't dreaming?!" Luo Luo fell onto the sofa dramatically, grabbing onto her heart. "I can't take it... I need to get some help! Oh God... that was just too terrifying! Do you know that this was my first time seeing him up close? Xiao Ling, why is there such a terrifying person on this earth? Just a glance from him will make a person freeze into a popsicle! And I said so many bad things about him earlier! Will he fire me... oh noooo..."

"He won't. Relax." Xia Ling said weakly. She also felt like she needed help and sat down beside Luo Luo, who was sprawled on the sofa, and picked up her cup for a drink of water.

"He really won't?" Luo Luo was not convinced and rolled about on the sofa in despair. "I said that Pei Ziheng was a despot and a monster and that anyone that offended him would not come to a good end. How could he possibly let me off?"

"Someone of your level is of no concern to him." Xia Ling calmly leveled Luo Luo a light punch with her statement. In her past life, Xia Ling had stayed with Pei Ziheng all her life and knew him really well. His despot tendencies and monstrous attitude, coldness, cruelty, and vengefulness would only be targeted at someone like Li Lei, or Chu Chen, Mai Na, Feng Kun, Ah Wei... people of that level. For small fries like Luo Luo, who was just a new singer, that was being disrespectful in her statements? If Pei Ziheng were to take it to heart, he would be wasting all the time in his life to get back at them.

Luo Luo's glass heart seemed to have shattered again with Xia Ling's statement. "Okay... I'm just a small fry... I'm utterly transparent..."

But after a while, Luo Luo came close to Xia Ling again, asking, "Ultimately... if he doesn't take revenge on me it's a good thing." Miss optimistic and energetic came back in an instant. She seemed to have suddenly thought of something and struggled to sit up to look at Xia Ling. "Xiao Ling, Xiao Ling, was Boss Pei here specially to look for you? What was he talking to you about? Wow, you guys know each other?!"

Her questions came out one after another, making Xia Ling feel like a headache was coming.