A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

On the high stage, Zhang Suxin was in tears as she said, “Ye Xingling, I’m sorry. When the news first came out, I knew you were innocent but I did not dare to step forward in your defense as eyewitness because I’m an Imperial Entertainment artiste and need them to support me…”

“However, the situation got out of hand and I never thought it would become so serious that it almost ruined your career. Hence, I decided to stand here today and help clear your name.”

“You are a good and kind girl who didn’t reveal the truth yourself in consideration of me even though you were being falsely accused by everyone. I know you were afraid that I would be embarrassed if you had revealed the truth…”

She spoke through tears.

Xia Ling was staring with her mouth agape. This… Zhang Suxin’s acting was impeccable. All of them at Imperial Entertainment were like award-winning actresses. She had not revealed all these details not because she was concerned about Zhang Suxin, but because Sister Mai Na had refused to let her speak!

At this point, she finally understood the reason why Sister Mai Na had refused to let her say a thing. It was because they had such an elaborate plan in place!

“You guys had intended to get Zhang Suxin to step forward as an eyewitness from the very beginning, right… ah!” Xia Ling turned her head to ask Li Lei but did not expect his handsome face to be so close. Her nose knocked into his as she turned her head around, making her yelp out in pain.

“You… why are you sitting so close to me?!” She held on to her nose and questioned him with tears in her eyes.

Li Lei looked at her with a guilty expression, and asked in concern, “Where did you knock your nose onto? Does it hurt?”

“Why don’t you try to see if it hurts?!” Xia Ling shouted out in anger, her tears almost flowing out of her eyes. Darn, what was this man’s face made of? Why did it feel like she had knocked into a metal plate?! Why was she in so much pain whereas he was perfectly fine?!

Xia Ling felt wronged.

Seeing that Xia Ling was still able to throw her temper at him, Li Lei felt relieved. He dug around in the back seat compartment and found a tissue. “It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have knocked into you. Here, let me help you wipe…”

He lifted his hand intending to wipe off her tears, but Xia Ling snatched the tissue out of his hand and wiped it across her face carelessly.

He saw that the tip of her nose was a little red. Looks like it was a rather hard knock.

“There, there…” He tried to console her in a low voice while stealing glances at her. She looked so cute with her wronged and upset expression that he wanted to embrace her in his arms…

Xia Ling did not know that his mind was in the gutter, and seeing that he had admitted his mistake so readily, she could not bring herself to continue flaring up at him. After all, she had knocked into him herself and it was not entirely his fault.

She curled her body back nearer to the door to avoid being too close to him such that they would knock into each other again and dryly said, “Forget it, it’s alright.”

Li Lei did not come any closer to her, but secretly felt slightly disappointed that the distance between them had grown further again. He said, “It looks like you had quite a hard knock. I’ll give you a tube of moisturizer when we go back.”

Xiao Ling did not like receiving gifts from him and every time he wanted to give her something, he had to think hard to come up with an excuse. He had been meaning to give her a tube of moisturizer after seeing that she was using a cheap brand the last time he had been to her place. He had felt bad for her — women tended to care for their face more than their own life, after all. How could his Xiao Ling use something so cheap on her face?

Xia Ling shook her head wanting to reject him, but seeing that his expression was full of guilt, she could not bring herself to reject him.

“Okay, then.” She softly agreed.

The driver was watching this scene through the rearview mirror and silently gave the Young Master a big “like” for his performance. Young Master, you are the real award-winning actor.

On the high stage, Zhang Suxin had finished relating the entire incident.

Offstage, the audience was discussing what she said.

“Who would have known that Xia Yu was someone like that?! It’s so scary that she would seek revenge and bully other artistes while filming!”

“Exactly, you can’t judge a book by its cover!”

Everyone felt for the girl that was crying onstage.

Yet, there were some that held a different view. “Even if Xia Yu was wrong, she has a weak disposition. How can Ye Xingling slap her till she had a heart attack?”

“Xia Yu did not have a heart attack.” Zhang Suxin said.

The crowd reacted in shock. What? The news about Xia Yu having a heart attack was false?!

“Zhang Suxin, you need to take responsibility for what you say.” Some in the audience did not believe her.

“What I have said is true. The rumors online say that Xia Yu was sent for emergency treatment that night, but in actual fact she was with me that night, watching me get slapped by someone else!” Zhang Suxin covered her face as tears started to flow again. “So I know without a flicker of doubt that she did not have a heart attack. I also went to find out more about her illness. She had an operation at JY Hospital before, which is the best cardiology hospital in the world. I heard that her operation was a great success, so how can it be possible that she had a relapse?! If you don’t believe me, you are welcome to investigate for yourself!”

Now, everyone believed this girl on stage, who had broken down in tears.

If it were not for the fact that she had so much pent-up pain and humiliation, how could it be possible for her to be so overcome with emotion?

Who would have thought that Xia Yu was so evil?!

“Let’s go, we should go question Xia Yu!” Someone said in the crowd. “She has fooled all of us and brought us on a wild goose chase. We can’t let her go just like that!”

“Yes!” The audience agreed unanimously. “To think I was defending her throughout the incident!”

“She doesn’t deserve it!”

“She doesn’t deserve it!”

The crowd flooded back into the stadium. Xia Yu had just finished her song and was thanking the crowd.

She had initially been worried that there was only a small bunch left in the stadium and that there would be no way for her to beat Ye Xingling. However, to her amazement, the crowd had come back.

She smiled sweetly, saying, “Please give me your support and cast your precious vote to me.”

“Curse your family!” Someone in the audience shouted angrily at her, but hurriedly retracted his statement after realizing that this seemed to be cursing Diva Xia Ling as well. “You don’t deserve to be Xia Ling’s younger sister! You’re an embarrassment to Xia Ling!”

“Yes!”

“You devious and cunning person!”

“You devious bitch!”

“You bitch!”

The angry voices of the crowd culminated in a high decibel sea of shouts.

The audience that had remained in the stadium stared in shock. What was going on?

Xia Yu was also in shock. Why… why were things turning out like that? What happened? Why was everyone so angry at her? She had never faced something like that and was momentarily stunned.

Pa!

“Ah!” Xia Yu felt a pain on her left shoulder like it had been hit by something. She lowered her head and saw that it was a mineral water bottle. The cold mineral water was flowing down her shoulder and rapidly drenched through her sheer dress.

She was completely disheveled and covered her chest with both hands. However, she did not expect another bottle to come crashing toward her. This time it was a juice bottle, and the red liquid splashed over her head and body. Her hair was in a mess and she became increasingly disheveled as more things started being thrown toward her. As she backed away hurriedly, her high heels stepped on the train of her dress accidentally and caused her to fall hard.

“Miss Xia!” Staff from Imperial Entertainment rushed onstage and helped her up and offstage hurriedly.

Behind them, the stage was a mess.