A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Ah Wei was right, she was too free and lazy, which was not the attitude an artiste should have. How could she forget about their appointment and disappear for so many days? No, no, she had to change. When she went back, she would change this lousy phone that had switched off on its own accord.

As her mind drifted off, Xia Ling suddenly felt her hand go light and realized that Li Lei had grabbed the phone out of her hand.

“Hello.” He said.

The shouting from the other end of the line stopped momentarily.

“Hello hello.” Li Lei said again.

All of a sudden, the rampage started again. “Li Lei! Don’t think that I won’t do anything to you just because you’re my Boss! I knew it was you who hid Xiao Ling! It had to be you! What are you thinking? Do you want the entertainment company to close shop?! What kind of Boss are you, sabotaging your own staff like this?! If you’re so free, go spend some time reviewing some of your properties and entertainment cities! Go play somewhere else, stop hanging around Skyart Entertainment! Stop being a bad influence on my artiste!”

Ah Wei’s volume was just too loud, Xia Ling could hear him loud and clear from the side. She gave Li Lei a look of pity, while also breathing a sigh of relief as Ah Wei’s target for his frustrations was no longer her. However, Ah Wei, is it okay for you to be shouting at your Boss?

Li Lei looked a little sheepish, and he rubbed his nose while listening to Ah Wei lecture him for a long while. Finally, he gave a loud cough and, as sternly as he could manage, he said, “Wei Shaoyin, if I ever hear you scold Xiao Ling again, I’m going to…”

“Going to what?! Fire me?!” Wei Shaoyin shouted back arrogantly. “If you dare fire me, I’ll just go over to Imperial Entertainment and bring Xiao Ling with me!”

Hey hey, Ah Wei, Pei Ziheng is not going to let you shout at him like that at Imperial Entertainment.

Xia Ling thought to herself as she heard Li Lei retort almost immediately —

“What do you mean, ‘fire you’?” He paused before saying, “I’ll hang up on you.”

Xia Ling was speechless.

Ah Wei was at a loss for words.

Li Lei calmly added, “I’m a man of my word.”

“Li Lei, you rubbish of a Boss! You inhuman person! Stop abusing your power! Get Xiao Ling on the phone right now!” Ah Wei shouted in exasperation.

“You’re not going to scold Xiao Ling anymore, right?”

“What is it to you whether I want to scold her or not?! Shouldn’t I lecture an artiste when she made a mistake? How would she learn otherwise?! How can you not know that as the Boss, huh?! Do you know the importance of punctuality?! Do you?!”

“You have three seconds to reply to my question, or I’m hanging up on you.”

“I said to stop abusing your power! You’re going to spoil her rotten!”

“Three…”

“If you’re letting her do anything she wishes in Skyart Entertainment, she’s just going to get in trouble at her schedules in no time!”

“Two…”

“… Okay, okay, I’m not going to scold her. Give her the phone.”

“See how easy that was?” Li Lei proudly gave Xia Ling a triumphant look and handed her the phone.

Xia Ling received the phone from Li Lei and said a careful “Hello.”

Ah Wei did as promised and did not lecture her anymore. He just angrily said, “Xiao Ling, you better come back here immediately! The invitation for this year’s Nebula Music Festival has arrived, and we need to go over the game plan. We need to push your popularity up to its peak to vie for the Best Newcomer Award.”

Nebula Music Festival — no wonder Ah Wei was so agitated.

That was the biggest, most popular, and most prestigious music festival in the country. In actual fact, it was merely an annual music competition. Every autumn, they would open up for the public to nominate and vote for ten or so new and veteran singers… She could not remember the exact number. In any case, these singers would receive an invitation from the organizers to participate in the competition.

If she were able to win the award, it would be a very good accolade to her name. In her past life, she had received the Best Female Singer Award several times. Singers like Ke Yunpei, Chen Jingqiu, and Wu Tong… the best A-list singers in the industry had all received this award before as well.

She told Ah Wei, “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

After hanging up, she turned and saw Li Lei staring at her with a pitiful expression. “Xiao Ling, you didn’t even discuss with me…” He came over and hugged her while whining.

She tiptoed and patted him on the head. “Be good and don’t distract me from my work.” His hair was short and fluffy as usual.

Li Lei lowered his head more so that she could continue to pat him and complained. “I can afford to take care of you.”

“I don’t want to live off you.” As she spoke, Xia Ling quietly estimated their height difference and realized that he was almost a head taller than her. This realization made her slightly upset. She was eighteen now, which meant… she had stopped growing already? She didn’t need to be too tall, she just wanted to be tall enough that she did not need to tilt her head up to look at him…

As she was thinking about this trivial matter, she heard him say, “We’re family. Why do we have to draw the lines so clearly? It’s a given that I should provide for you…”

“Why don’t I provide for you?”

“What?” He looked up at her in shock.

“I said I’ll provide for you.” Xia Ling raised her hand to pinch his face playfully. “You just need to wait for me, the Diva, to work hard for a few more years. Once I become a Diva, I’ll earn big bucks and will be able to bring you out and around for parties and to eat sumptuous meals…” She started to laugh as she spoke.

Li Lei laughed as well, his eyes sparkling. “Mmhmm sounds good! I’ll wait!”

He drove her back to the city.

There were seven people from Skyart Entertainment invited to the Nebula Music Festival this time — Wei Shaoyin, Xia Ling, Lu Tao and his partner Leng Hui, as well as three other popular singers: Bai Murong, the dream boy of countless fangirls; Xie Linlang, the rising songstress; and Shu Wanyi, the elegant goddess.

At this moment, the seven of them were gathered in a meeting room listening to Sister Mai Na’s commands.

“I’m in charge of the backstage operations for this music festival,” said Sister Mai Na. She was dressed in a sleek, business suit, her hair a vibrant wine-red, and she was elegantly leaning against the back of the sofa. Her gaze ran across each of their faces. “Murong, Linlang, and Wanyi, I won’t say too much more to you guys. You three have participated in the music festival before and should not have any problems. I’ll place greater emphasis on you four, Ah Wei, Xingling, Lu Tao, and Leng Hui. You four are participating for the first time. Listen closely as I explain the rules and things to watch out for for the competition.”

Ah Wei was participating for the first time? Xia Ling was shocked at hearing this and turned to look at him.

He noticed her shocked gaze and disgruntledly said, “What are you looking at? If not for you, I wouldn’t attend this time as well.”

Because of her? Xia Ling was even more confused.

Hearing his words, Sister Mai Na nodded and explained. “Xiao Ling, Ah Wei is indeed attending for your sake. Every year he receives the invitation, but every year he declines. On this year, he decided to attend to give you support. The quality of the newcomers this year are great. Xia Yu, Luo Luo, and a few others are all strong contenders. The competition is tough. With Ah Wei present to take care of you, things will go much smoother.”

Xia Ling felt slightly touched but also slightly awkward as Lu Tao and Leng Hui were still in the room. After all, they were a new group this year as well, and if Sister Mai Na and Ah Wei were backing her, then…

“Xiao Ling, you should do well!” She hadn’t finished her thought before feeling Lu Tao clap his hand on her shoulder, almost smacking her face down to the floor. He had a bright smile on his handsome face. “If not for the fact that our popularity is lower than yours, I wouldn’t give up the award for you.”

His partner, Leng Hui, nodded in agreement from his side.