A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Lin Yunan asked, “Miss Gu, what did you mean?”

He managed to find a microphone from somewhere and his voice was transmitted over the noise of the crowd. The crowd quietened down to await Gu Lin’s reply.

Gu Lin calmed herself down and mentally warned herself that she could not make another mistake. However, her mind was a mess. She subconsciously glanced at her personal assistant, begging for help. The personal assistant was still seething but, out of fear that he would lose his job if this idiotic madam were to offend any more people, he spoke up. “Ye Xingling wrongly accused Miss Gu of being behind the deworming incident a few years ago. CEO Gu went to look for her out of love for his own daughter. If she didn’t have a guilty conscience, why wouldn’t she meet CEO Gu?”

“Yes!” Gu Lin clung on to his words and pointed at Xia Ling with renewed confidence. “My dad didn’t go look for you for no good reason! You were the one that wrongly accused me first!”

“Wrongly accused?” Xia Ling gave a cold laugh, her gaze turning to the personal assistant. “You think so too?”

“Of course!” Even though the personal assistant didn’t know the reason behind Xia Ling’s question, he still responded definitively.

Xia Ling’s voice rang out pleasantly again, with a tinge of confusion. “But I still don’t understand? If the Gu family thinks that I’ve wrongly accused Gu Lin, then why didn’t they go to the police and explain the matter? What’s the use of looking for me?”

The crowd nodded in agreement. Yes, there was a legal system in this country… If Gu Lin had a clear conscience, why didn’t she go to the police?

Even if the police opened an investigation into the matter, if the Gu family had nothing to hide, they would not get blamed for something they didn’t do!

“What is the Gu family afraid of?” Lin Yunan laughed. “If you guys have a clear conscience, the police will make sure you get justice. You can even counter sue us for defamation. Why bother wasting the time coming to look for us?”

Gu Lin’s anger got the better of her. “You guys could be in cahoots with the police!”

The crowd stared at her in shock. Miss Gu, how daring of you to suggest something like that! Are you questioning the independence of the legal enforcement in the country?! Everyone watching from the live stream and in the venue itself started to exchange views on the matter.

Xia Ling, too, donned an expression of shock. “Miss Gu, how can you have such a scary thought? The legal enforcement system in our country has always been fair. Why would the police be in cahoots with anyone? Taking a step back, even if someone wanted to do something under-the-table, the Gu family is powerful and well-connected. How can a small female star like me compare? Don’t tell me the Gu Family Magnate cannot rival my small Phoenix Down Corporation!”

Her words drew laughter from the crowds.

Yes, the Gu Family Magnate was a multi-national corporation. They were superior to Xia Ling’s Phoenix Down Corporation in terms of manpower and resources. What’s more, Xia Ling’s company was merely for administrative purposes, only operating to break even. Its working capital was still the same since the time of registration, and there was no intention to make the company public. How could it compare to the Gu Family Magnate?

“Exactly… even if the police were to help anyone unfairly, it would be the Gu family!”

“Is Gu Lin dumb? Does she feel that her family can’t handle corrupt policemen?”

“Haha, she’s not dumb at all… that’s just an excuse. The police wouldn’t even take bribes, and her family has no ammunition regardless of how much money they have. They probably have something to hide and were afraid that the police would rule against them, thus wanting to look for Miss Ye to privately settle matters!”

“That looks like the case!”

“Yes! It’s the most logical explanation!”

“Hey, Gu Lin, stop playing dumb! We know that you were behind the deworming incident!” People in the crowd cupped their hands over their mouths like loudhailers and shouted out.

“Yes, yes! Just admit it!”

It was pandemonium. Everyone was shouting out for Gu Lin to admit her crimes.

Gu Lin didn’t expect things to turn out this way and panicked. “No… No… I didn’t! I didn’t harm the two kids at the orphanage!” She backed away as she spoke. “Let me go… I want to get away from here!”

Xia Ling’s eyes narrowed as she watched Gu Lin, who was close to hysterics. She had a gut feeling that she would be able to end this once and for all. “You really didn’t harm the kids? Why did the kids appear in my dreams yesterday with blood flowing down their faces, saying that they were killed by you and want to seek revenge on you?”

“It was not me!” Gu Lin screamed and grabbed at her own hair with both hands. “They were killed by Nangong Qingya! Nangong Qingya was the mastermind behind everything! I only helped to call the factory and the people on the ground! I didn’t know that the two kids would die! I thought that they would be saved even if they suffered food poisoning! Isn’t that how it usually happens on television?!” The dream that Xia Ling described terrified Gu Lin so much that she hysterically rambled out the truth.

“What?!”

The crowd was now truly shocked at the big secret that Gu Lin was revealing there and then! So it was true that there was a behind story for the death of the two kids. Even though Gu Lin wasn’t the mastermind, she was an accomplice in this matter!

“How cruel! Why would you bring harm to kids!”

“Murderers should be punished severely!”

“Murderers should be punished severely!”

The crowds’ chants seemed like they were going to blow through the roof.

In the midst of the chants, Xia Ling breathed a sigh of relief. She had finally made Gu Lin admit her crimes in public with much difficulty. There was no way that she was going to get away with this after blurting out the truth in front of so many.

Everyone had to pay what they owed, and murder should be paid with life. Hopefully, this would allow the two kids to rest in peace.

Someone had tipped off the police and sirens could be heard outside the building. It wasn’t long before the police arrived and took Gu Lin away.

Online and offline, netizens celebrated the fact that justice was being served after all these years, and that evil did not run free from legal action.

A reporter posted a picture online in the midst of the chatter.

It said that the CEO of the Gu Family Magnate didn’t suffer a stroke at all. He was participating in an important meeting today and had just walked out of a high-end club after a long discussion with his business partners.

Netizens reacted angrily. So CEO Gu was lying?

Netizens were not dumb and soon purported that Father Gu was probably trying to save his daughter, wanting to appear like they were on moral high ground and to put Xia Ling in a bad position. Xia Ling’s numerous fans were furious, rushing over to post angry messages and comments on the Gu Family Magnate official website and flooding online perfume forums. They went under the ruse of revealing the truth and showing the true colors of the Gu Family.

“Filled with liars — how can the Gu Family Magnate be trusted?”

“A murderer and a liar run the company. Who dares buy the Gu Family perfumes any more?”

“Kicking someone to the curb — why they had a vendetta against the endorsement model for Meteor Wings.”

Each title was more shocking and eye-catching than the previous one.

The matter kept spiraling outwards.

The Gu Family Magnate’s perfume sales plummeted, and all kinds of negative news started to be dug out — them withholding employee pay, cutting corners at the factories, bribing officials…

The Gu Family Magnate found themselves in hot soup all of a sudden and stock prices fell drastically.