A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

She walked to the door.

Peering out through the peep-hole, she saw a tall man, dressed in an ash-grey checkered suit with a cold expression standing outside the door.

It was Pei Ziheng.

He was holding an exquisite tray in one hand that had a plate of sliced apples, as well as a fruit salad with all kinds of fruits paired with mint leaves and honey jam. It looked refreshing and delicious.

“I brought you something to eat.” Pei Ziheng gently said in the phone. “Xiao Ling, open the door.” When she was in a bad mood, she loved to have snacks. As such, he had instructed the kitchen to make the fruit salad.

However, she said, “Thank you, but no thanks. Please go back.”

He asked, “Why?”

“You know the reason.”

“Because of Li Lei?”

“I’m his girlfriend.” Xia Ling said. She had gotten into many spats with Li Lei over Pei Ziheng, and this was a sensitive period since Li Lei was away. She didn’t want any misunderstandings to arise.

Pei Ziheng said, “You can’t manage alone. Let me take care of you.” He needed to try to get closer to her while Li Lei was away. Otherwise, what good was scheming to get that man out of the country?

Xia Ling replied, “Just go.” Then, she hung up.

Pei Ziheng called out to her from outside the door. “Xiao Ling, Xiao Ling.”

However, there was only deadly silence from all around. Was she drawing the line so clearly between them? Pei Ziheng’s gaze darkened. It’s useless, Xiao Ling… You’re so fragile, and you’ve been living in the crystal ball cage since you were young, oblivious to the cruelties of the world around you. Without a man protecting you, you’ll not be able to last long…

Very soon…

Very soon, you will come back to my side.

Pei Ziheng turned and left.

The next day, Xia Ling read the news in the morning.

The situation was getting worse. Netizens were having a field day cursing at her, and the voices speaking up for her seemed to be increasingly drowned out. Sister Mai Na was worried that she would take it too hard and came early to accompany her. “Xiao Ling, just tolerate this for a few more days. The company is working to manage this matter, it will be over very quickly.”

She nodded her head weakly.

At this critical time, she did not want to be an additional burden to everyone. She told Sister Mai Na, “Go busy yourself with the things you need to do. I’ll be fine alone.” After sending Sister Mai Na off, she fell into a daze in the hotel room. She had wanted to practice her singing but now could not bring herself to do so. She merely sat doing nothing till night.

One of the hotel staff came and knocked on her door, saying that a fan had a gift for her.

This was the only piece of news that gave her some comfort over two days. She thanked the staff member and received a huge gift box from him. She carried the box to the sofa and opened it.

The pink wrapping paper was peeled away to reveal a mess inside. It was a dismembered doll with blood splashed onto it. Its neck was twisted to the side and both its eyes were gouged out. On a card that was similarly blood-stained, it was written in capital letters: “Ye Xingling! Go and die!”

She screamed and threw the box away from her.

The doll looked so scary with empty eye sockets staring at her, and its smile contorted. She did not know who had played such a practical joke on her, and she shuddered.

She was alone in the empty guest room.

She felt a chill run down her spine, and she hurried to ring for the hotel staff to come to clean up the mess.

After a while, the hotel staff arrived. Seeing the scene in front of him, he too jumped in shock and had to resist the temptation to run away as he cleared the bloody dismembered doll.

“Don’t go…” Xia Ling called out to him. “There’s still that… that paper…” She pointed a shaking finger to the blood-stained card on the floor. The words “Ye Xingling! Go and die!” seemed to jump out at her.

The staff frowned, but picked up the card and threw it into the garbage bin, before carrying the garbage bin out of the room. At the door, he could not resist but turn back and said, “Miss Ye, if your conscience is clear, you shouldn’t be afraid of all this. Even though I’m just a mere staff here and shouldn’t be saying too much, I simply had to tell you this — What you did to the children in the orphanage was just too much!”

Xia Ling did not expect him to pass such judgment and could only stare after him in shock.

The hotel staff left.

She crumbled to the floor in despair. Why did all of them think it was her fault?

This wasn’t the first time that she was at the end of everyone’s finger-pointing. In her past life, she had been cold-storaged by Pei Ziheng. In this life, she had a public spat with Xia Yu. Both instances, netizens had pushed her into the limelight with their negative comments, and both times she had pulled through.

However, this time was different. There were the lives of the two children pinned onto her, and the burden was so heavy that she could barely breathe.

Subconsciously, she grabbed her mobile and dialed a familiar number.

The phone was picked up after three rings and Li Lei’s voice transmitted over. “Hello, Xiao Ling? How are you? Why are you calling me at this hour?”

“Li Lei…” She uttered his name before dwindling out, not knowing how to continue. All she wanted was to hear his voice, then maybe she wouldn’t feel so sad.

“Xiao Ling,” Li Lei said to her. “I’m sorry that I left without a word last night. There’s an emergency incident at the headquarters and I had to come back to handle it. Take care of yourself, alright.”

“I…” She could hear many voices in the background as well as random gunshots. Suddenly, she felt that her problems were inconsequential.

“Are you very busy?” She asked Li Lei. “Am I disturbing you?”

He said something in response.

There was a static interruption, and she didn’t hear him clearly.

After that, she could not get through to him anymore.

That night, she tossed and turned in bed, the many curses that she read online running through her mind. She also thought about the call with Li Lei and the gunshots in the background. Where was he? Was he safe?

There were too many unknowns.

Skyart’s PR team worked hard, but without Li Lei in the country to lead and many of the key personnel being sent to the headquarters to assist, it was challenging getting the rumors under control.

The curses hurled at her continued.

After a few days, she read an article that seemed to speak up for her: “The arrogant love — what peril did Li Lei selfishly place Ye Xingling in?”

She glanced through the entire article.

In summary, the view of the author was clear.

When the de-worming incident first broke out, Lin Yunan and the heads of the charity fund made the right decision to hold the press conference for her to apologize. That apology would be able to appease the anger of the netizens and prevent the snowballing of the incident. However, Li Lei’s appearance destroyed all of that.

Li Lei interrupted the press conference and prevented her from issuing her public apology, saying that she had no responsibility to undertake.

On first look, this made Big Boss Li look like the hero saving his damsel in distress. However, what happened in reality? After his cool and valiant act, he might have gained the reputation for being a protective boyfriend, but where did that leave his girlfriend? Most of the curses hurled at her today said that Ye Xingling had sold herself to him to gain fame, that she was a coward and despicable…

Didn’t this all boil down to Li Lei interrupting that fated press conference?