A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Xia Ling glanced at the newspapers and laughed. “How confident.”

Lin Yunan still appeared relaxed, but in his eyes, an indubitable light flashed. “How sure are you of winning? If a man knelt before a woman and sang ‘Conquered,’ it could make a great story. But if it’s the reverse, it doesn’t seem too appropriate, right?”

Xia Ling looked up at him, confident. “Why would I lose?”

“Well, nobody’s going to save you if you lose.” Lin Yunan tossed the papers aside. In fact, he did have a backup plan for Xia Ling if she were to lose, in order to save her from embarrassment. But he didn’t intend to tell her, he wanted her to have a sense of urgency.

Meanwhile, Xia Ling did not bother if anyone was going to save her — beating Bai Murong was a piece of cake.

This head-to-head battle had hit the headlines and was a highlight now. Besides the fans of both parties, many others had their eyes on this competition and had great expectations for their performance. The media was also conducting interviews with both of them, monitoring their schedules and activities as they tried to figure out who the victor would be.

Bai Murong was right to say that if Xia Ling won, that would be the last of it.

Since she was competing with the most popular Heavenly King of the time, her win could only mean one thing — that she was a Diva.

There were rumors about how Phoenix Down Corporation had it all planned out. They were going to use Heavenly King Bai as her stepping stone. Of course, this stepping stone was a steep one.

Tan Ying was angry over it again.

How could this Ye Xingling be so sly?

What he didn’t know was that this wasn’t a sly trick at all. She was only acceding to Lu Tao’s plea for her to let him off — that was the only reason she pushed Skyart to send their best singer to compete against her.

With this change made, Lu Tao wouldn’t have to kneel down before her.

However, she didn’t expect it to cause such a stir.

Tan Ying was extremely frustrated by it, and wouldn’t stop reminding Bai Murong that he had to win this for the rest of Skyart. Bai Murong agreed lightly. “Don’t you worry. I’m the Heavenly King, how could I lose?”

He did not really consider Tan Ying’s worries seriously.

Tan Ying got down to business very quickly, trying his best to enhance Bai Murong’s performance in every way — the music equipment had to be the best, the lighting had to be well designed, even the publicity and ticket sales components had to be in Bai Murong’s favor.

It was a long preparation.

The venue for this concert was the well sought after star theater in City J. As per the previous round of competition, Xia Ling and Bai Murong were supposed to rent the venue during the same time slot on consecutive days. Bai Murong would perform on the first day, while Xia Ling would perform on the second, which was a Sunday night. However, Xia Ling’s time slot was already taken by another party for a violin activity.

Xia Ling had no choice but to release the statement online.

Some people made snide remarks about how Xia Ling was trying to withdraw from the competition at the last minute. However, the majority expressed understanding as they recognized that it was a prime location for performers. A number of fans even suggested that Bai Murong postponed his performance so as to accommodate Xia Ling’s.

Tan Ying simply chuckled coldly.

“Murong’s performance will go on as planned,” he said. Why did a company as big as Skyart have to accommodate just one girl?

Meanwhile, Bai Murong had his legs propped up on a table in the meeting room, without a care for the comments.

However, just a few days later, the tables turned in Xia Ling’s favor. The comments online said that Bai Murong was afraid of competing with her, and hence, wanted to avoid having a performance so close to hers.

Tan Ying was enraged by these comments. “Rubbish!”

Bai Murong was still as relaxed as ever. “Let’s change the date.”

Tan Ying glared at him closely.

Bai Murong was extremely calm. “Let’s accommodate Ye Xingling’s date and time. Since we want to compete, we should do it with no ambiguity and controversy. And since we’re going to win, we might as well leave no room for gossips and excuses.”

Tan Ying was extremely reluctant, but as the comments spun out of control and became increasingly disadvantageous for Skyart, he had no choice but to go along with Bai Murong’s wishes.

It was postponed to a Saturday two months later.

Xia Ling’s performance would be the following day at the same time.

Only then did the public and the media let Skyart off. Two months was ample time for them to prepare for the performance, and the two singers ended up spending their days having fun instead of practicing properly.

Even the bigger press firms posed a question: Was Heavenly King Bai and Little Diva Ye planning to beat each other based on their confidence levels?

“It’s just a challenge issued by a little girl, not much preparation is needed.” Bai Murong said.

“Heavenly King Bai? I’m confident of beating him, what’s there to prepare?” Xia Ling said.

The concerts had not arrived yet, but the forums, blogs, and fan pages were already buzzing.

Two months was more than enough time for news and comments about this event to spread, turning this into the greatest entertainment event of the year. Even members of the public who were fans of neither singer kept their eyes on the news.

The excitement and atmosphere built up until the day of the performance.

The first one was Bai Murong’s concert on a Saturday.

The ultra-popular Heavenly King Bai arrived to a sea of fans screaming their lungs out as they cheered for him. Tickets for his concert went up to 20,000 yuan each on the black market, and with that, the demand still exceeded the supply.

Bai Murong’s performance came to a beautiful close as the audience was kept in high spirits.

Even the most professional of critics had said that his concert was perfect in every way — in terms of ticket sales, audience engagement, singing skills, lighting and sounds, organization and all other aspects, there was really nothing that one could criticize.

Some commenters were even worried for Xia Ling.

But Xia Ling herself wasn’t too bothered. She even called Bai Murong late on Saturday night to congratulate him on the success of his concert. She even said that he’d achieved an impressive breakthrough since his performance half a year ago at the music festival.

Bai Murong smiled as he leaned against the wall. “You’re so calm? Are you that confident about beating me?”

Xia Ling smiled as well. “Yup.” Her answer was short and sweet, and very calm indeed.

To be fair, Bai Murong only managed to improve on his singing because of her guidance in their last performance together at the music festival. She could be partially considered his mentor, or even coach, so how could she possibly not match up to him?

Bai Murong said half-jokingly, “So I guess I should start thinking about how I’m supposed to kneel when I sing ‘Conquered’?”

“It’s still not too late, you can get the photographers to snap a few shots of you for a special feature.”

They joked a little more before ending the call.

From the outsiders’ point of view, they seemed to be competing with each other very fiercely. However, the truth was that at such a high level, only they were able to acknowledge and respect each other’s strengths in ways others could not.

It wasn’t that Bai Murong didn’t bother about whether he’d lose.

Rather, it was that he had given his all and done his best. He could only leave the rest to Heavens’ will.

And now, it was her turn.