A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

In the elevator.

Pei Ziheng pressed Xia Ling to the back of the elevator and grabbed onto her shirt collar. “You want to escape? How can you possibly escape from me?! How did you dare sing that song?! Who are you? Who the hell are you?!”

“Let me go!” His breath was blowing on her face, and it made her terrified and hysterical. “Pei Ziheng, let me go! I’m Ye Xingling from Skyart Entertainment. I’m Skyart Entertainment’s artiste! Let me go right now!”

She struggled to get away from him and reached forward trying to open the elevator door, but he pushed against her even more emphatically.

All of a sudden, the lights went out and the elevator plunged into darkness.

The elevator started to shake, and suddenly, it was free-falling downwards.

The sudden loss of balance made Xia Ling scream out loud, but immediately she felt herself being pulled into an embrace, and he was using his body and arms to protect her. The elevator continued to fall extremely quickly, free-falling like it was going to crash to the bottom at any moment.

Was she going to die here?

It was barely two years since her reincarnation, and she was about to die here with him? There was a sense of despair and absurdity, emptiness and sadness. She closed her eyes and awaited her death. This time, there was no sounds of wind blowing, just the sound of his heartbeat, quick and clear.

Boom!

She felt a big impact as they crashed to the floor.

The darkness remained.

At that moment, she felt that she was already dead. However, she was able to feel pain coursing through her body, like all the bones in her body were about to shatter, and every vein in her body was about to burst.

Yet, she was… still alive.

After what seemed like an eternity, Xia Ling woke up from the shock of the impact. She tried to move her body but realized that she was being embraced tightly by someone — Pei Ziheng, he did not let go of her.

“Are you okay?” In the pitch darkness, she asked anxiously. At this moment, she realized that she still cared deeply for him, and a terrifying thought entered her mind. What if he was injured…

No, he needed to be alright! He was always so strong and domineering! How could anything happen to him?!

“Are you alright?! Say something!” Xia Ling’s voice got increasingly anxious, and she struggled to get out of his embrace, but to no avail. “Pei Ziheng! Are you injured?! Talk to me!”

“Don’t move.” His low and hoarse voice sounded different from his usual self.

“Are you alright?” Xia Ling’s voice was trembling.

He did not reply, but she felt a drop of liquid falling on the back of her hand.

Her heart dropped along with the drops of liquid.

“Pei Ziheng! You’re bleeding! Where are you hurt?! You… ”

The light flickered and then lit up.

She anxiously turned her head to look at the back of her hand. And then, she was quiet.

That was not blood.

That was a teardrop.

Since the time she had followed him when she was twelve until the year she turned twenty-eight, fell out with him and died, even up until the many times he had chased after her since she had reincarnated. In so many years, she thought she had seen many sides of him — gentle, domineering, nice, evil, happy, angry, confident, monstrous…

Yet, there was a side she had never seen before.

She had never seen him cry. Not even once.

That teardrop felt like cement pumped into her heart, burning in her chest such that she could hardly breathe.

Pei Ziheng, why are you crying? Do you only ever cry to yourself in darkness, where nobody can see? Xia Ling’s heart was throbbing with pain. If that tear had not fallen onto the back of her hand, she would never have known that he was a person with emotions. He wasn’t God or Satan, he was a human that would feel sad too?

Pei Ziheng, why are you in so much pain? For… whom?

She did not move as she remained in his embrace, shocked and confused.

In so many years, she had never seen him in anguish and did not know that when he was sad, she would feel so sad as well. Subconsciously, Xia Ling stretched out her hands and wanted to embrace him to console him, but when her fingertips touched the corner of his shirt, she stopped herself abruptly.

She did not dare.

She did not dare embrace him as she did in the past, baring all her emotions.

There was the huge gap between them, filled with the love and hate, life and death from the past.

Her fingertips grazed the surface of his shirt as she carefully tried to extract as much gentleness and warmth from him. She did not dare move forward another inch, afraid that he would realize, and afraid that she would lose control and reveal too much of her emotions.

After God knows how long.

The elevator door opened with a “whoosh” without warning.

There was commotion outside the door. “Be careful, be careful! The elevator malfunction hasn’t been fixed completely. Be careful in front of the door, don’t be careless!”

“Is everyone inside okay?”

“Luckily the safety mechanism caught the elevator on the first floor. If the elevator had fallen all the way to the ground at the basement carpark, they would definitely have died.”

“Don’t spout nonsense… Mr. Pei from Imperial Entertainment is in there…”

Xia Ling raised her head subconsciously, looking up to the source of the commotion. She saw that the elevator landing was filled with people from Skyart Entertainment and Imperial Entertainment, and there was also staff from the broadcast station and other unfamiliar faces.

They were deep in discussion and trying to have a look inside the elevator shaft.

Then, the voices died down and shock registered on everyone’s faces.

“Oh my God… ” said someone in a low voice. “Am I mistaken? Isn’t that Ye Xingling from Skyart Entertainment? Why is she and Mr. Pei from Imperial Entertainment… why… why are they hugging each other?!”

It was only then that Xia Ling realized that she was still in Pei Ziheng’s embrace, and was momentarily stunned.

She was an artiste, and Pei Ziheng was an untouchable figure in the industry. This image of them hugging was going to be groundbreaking news. She could already hear reporters snapping away with their cameras, with the clicking of the shutters and the flashes.

“Stop taking photos!” Skyart Entertainment’s staff blocked the reporter’s cameras.

“This gentleman over here. Put down your camera.” Feng Kun’s voice rang out as well, his face grave.

That reporter was undeterred. “I have the official pass from the broadcast station. No one can prevent me from taking photos!” As he spoke, he rushed forward with his camera, trying to break past the barricade that Feng Kun and the staff had created.

There was momentary chaos.

At this moment, Xia Ling saw a familiar figure appear, raise his hand and grab the reporter’s camera out of his hand. Ignoring his cries of objection, he retrieved the memory card from the camera in two or three smooth motions before throwing the camera towards the wall. He then picked it up again and threw it to the ground with all his might. Pang! The camera shattered, and pieces of it flew in all directions.

“Li Lei!”

“That’s Boss Li from Skyart Entertainment!”