A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return
Chapter 1244: Little Leopard Cub

Li Lei and Xia Ling saw her too. Xia Ling turned around and smiled at her. “Yingluo, come over.”

She walked towards her parents and sat down. “Dad, Mom, sorry to have worried you.”

Xia Ling had a gentle expression on her face. “What’s most important is that you’re alright. Yingluo, tell us about what’s happened this past year. How did Wei Lingnan find you?” In fact, they’d conducted their investigations after Wei Shaoyin alerted them about it, and were informed about the general situation. But they still hoped to hear it from Xia Yingluo herself. After all, her version was still going to be a little different from the reports.

Xia Yingluo shared everything from start to finish and sighed. “It’s all that pervert’s fault that I failed at my independent experience.” Since her family was involved now, it was definitely considered a failure.

Xia Ling comforted her. “If anyone dares to laugh at you when you get back, I’ll help you deal with them!”

“Yup!” Xia Yingluo nodded. It was always nice to have Mom around. But she had her worries as well. “Mom, if I really have something to do with that alien, I mean, if I’m the alien girl he’s been looking for, I-I…”

She had no idea how to go on.

Xia Ling hugged her daughter and stroked her hair. “You’re the daughter I carried for nine months, the daughter I gave birth to, not some alien. Even if you are an alien, you’ll always be my daughter. Yingluo, your father and I will always love you.” Her sweet voice had the power to assure others, and Xia Yingluo felt calmer now.

Li Lei said, “Yingluo, follow us back to the headquarters, we will provide you with the best protection possible.”

Xia Yingluo nodded. “Yup, but I want to make a trip to the training camp first, to bid my friends farewell.”

This made Li Lei a little unhappy. “Why’d you go to Imperial’s training camp for, isn’t Skyart good? And you actually fell for someone like Zhao Yixuan? You should learn from your mom, she had such good judgment, as you can tell by your father’s thoughtfulness and handsomeness.”

Xia Yingluo was speechless.

Dad, you’re obviously jealous now. We know you don’t like Imperial Entertainment. 

Xia Yingluo thought to herself while glancing at her mother. Her mother was smiling so sweetly, like a little girl who’d just fallen in love, looking at her lover.

Oh well, she had the most loving parents in the world alright.

They showed off to her every day.

Xia Yingluo, who was still single, did not want to watch on. She got up and was ready to leave. “Dad, Mom, I’ll be going back to my room to prepare some things. I’m going to the camp tomorrow to bid my friends farewell.”

Only then did Xia Ling snap out of her endearing gaze at Li Lei. “Let Second Brother follow you there.”

“Second Brother?”

“He has plenty of time to spare, anyway. Rather than spending it all on drinking and whiling away time, he might as well follow you to the training camp, and your friends will get to see how handsome your brother is.” To be fair, Li Rui was pretty good-looking, having inherited Su Tang’s delicate features and a mixed-blood father’s unique charisma. Moreover, he was always up to date with the latest fashion trends and knew how to dress himself to appeal to the young girls.

Xia Yingluo laughed. “I’m afraid he’ll be stopped in the camp and asked to be an instructor there.”

Li Lei wasn’t too happy. “He wouldn’t dare.”

“What are you guys talking about?” A lazy voice was heard. “I think I heard my name?”

They turned around and saw that Li Rui had come. He was wearing a bright pink shirt with crystal buttons—of which only one was done—revealing his well-toned chest. In his hand was a flower from somewhere, and on his shoulder was a baby leopard gripping tight onto his shirt.

Xia Yingluo greeted him first. “Second Bro.” She then laughed. “Dad said that if you sign a contract to work at Imperial’s training camp, he’d break your legs.”

Li Rui walked closer to them and laughed. “You horrid girl, stop coming between Dad and me. If he really wanted to break my legs, he would’ve done so when I took you to have a look at the red-light district. So what have you been talking about me?” He looked at Li Lei and Xia Ling and greeted them. “Dad, Mom.”

For as long as he could remember, he’d known that he wasn’t Xia Ling’s biological child. But the image of his biological mother Su Tang almost hitting him to death had been etched in his mind; it had caused him so much trauma, he eventually opened up to his kind and gentle stepmother. When he was a little older, he found out that he wasn’t Li Lei’s biological child either. That meant that technically, he didn’t deserve to enjoy the perks and privileges as Young Master Li. But Xia Ling and Li Lei never breathed a word about it, and simply treated him as their own throughout.

In fact, they hadn’t even told Xia Yingluo that he wasn’t her biological brother.

Li Rui would never forget all that they’d done for him.

Now that the whole family was close-knitted and living in harmony, he genuinely treated them as his kin too.

Xia Ling looked at Li Rui. “Where did you go to pick up girls again? In this outfit?”

Li Rui gave a smile. “I’m hardly back in the country, so of course I have to pay some visits to my close female friends. In the morning I remembered that it was time to send my little leopard back here, so here I am.” He stroked the little cub on his shoulder.

The leopard cub licked his hand affectionately.

Xia Yingluo reached out to play with it too. “It’s so cute, did Hairball give birth to it? How many did she have?”

Hairball was a mother leopard that they kept at home, and she was Er Mao’s daughter. When she was away for her individual experience, she’d heard that Hairball was due soon, but didn’t expect to see the little cub the next time she met her family.

Li Rui placed the leopard cub on the table for Xia Yingluo to entertain herself with. “She has two cubs, this one is called Rong Rong, Shaohui’s is called Mao Mao.”

“Huh? I don’t have one…” Xia Yingluo was upset.

Li Rui grinned at her. “Well, you were absent.”

Xia Yingluo was devastated, she’d always wanted a little leopard cub to play with. Back when Er Mao had little Hairball, she was still young. She grew up with Hairball and waited in anticipation for her to have a cub, but now that she had two, she wasn’t entitled to owning any.

Li Lei laughed. “You’re a girl, why rear a leopard? I’ll find you a pet another day.” Two little leopards, just right for the two brothers to have one each as battle partners. For a girl, it was a little too much to be rearing such an animal.

“Who says a girl can’t rear a leopard?” Xia Yingluo pouted and asked Xia Ling for a hug, “Mom, they’re all being mean…”