A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

“Who’s singing first?” Zhao Wanyang looked over arrogantly. Since Ye Xingling was bound to lose, she was happy to be the gracious senior and allow Ye Xingling to pick the order. Then she would have nothing to say after she lost.

Xia Ling laughed lightly and replied, “Up to you.”

What? Up to me?! Zhao Wanyang was momentarily stunned, then became furious. This newbie… what was with her careless attitude? Did she even regard her as a senior in the industry? Zhao Wanyang’s tone became even colder. “Then, I’ll go first, in case anyone complains that I’m bullying a newly debuted singer.”

“It’s too early to say who’s the bully.” Xia Ling responded coolly.

The audience offstage were getting excited. The sparks were firing so early on for this head-to-head. They had high expectations for this battle, especially for Ye Xingling’s performance given that her scandal with Li Lei was just published in the afternoon. Everyone was curious what abilities this girl had to make a big shot like Li Lei make such a heartfelt declaration.

The audience was anxious to hear Xia Ling sing, but Zhao Wanyang said she was going to go first, so they had to be patient and listen to her performance first.

Xia Ling picked “Meteor Wings” for Zhao Wanyang to sing. While this song seemed flamboyant, it was in fact much easier to sing than “Glass Fingertips.” “Glass Fingertips” was a song that would allow the audience to easily differentiate a good singer from a mediocre one, whereas “Meteor Wings” was easy enough that any mediocre singer could manage it well enough.

However, Zhao Wanyang did not appreciate her choice. “‘Meteor Wings’? Ye Xingling, you picked the harder song of the two for me, didn’t you? Nevermind, I can handle it!”

Seeing her arrogant expression, Xia Ling almost sighed out loud. Even if she were dumb, she didn’t need to display her ignorance so openly… As expected, one of the producers had an expression of disdain on his face.

The emcee was sharp and saw this change in expression. She hurriedly passed a microphone to that producer and asked, “Brother Li, you look like you have something to say. Care to share it with us?”

The director of the show signaled for a cameraman to give Brother Li a close-up shot.

That producer named Brother Li did not shy away, and gave a wry laugh, saying, “Zhao Wanyang thinks that Ye Xingling is trying to make life difficult for her? In my opinion, Ye Xingling is letting her off easy by picking ‘Meteor Wings’ — it has a tune that is easy to pick up. ‘Glass Fingertips’ might sound easy, but in fact, requires one to convey the emotions of the song well. It would be easy to mess up ‘Glass Fingertips’ without a strong singing foundation.”

So that’s why.

The audience listened with interest. Many started to look down on Zhao Wanyang even before she had started singing.

“Is that Zhao Wanyang a singer? How could she not know that?” For an outsider of the industry to not be able to tell if a song was easy or difficult to sing would be normal, but how could a professional singer make such a low-level mistake?

On stage, Zhao Wanyang’s face turned red as she knew she had made a fool of herself. To save face, she argued back. “I don’t think Brother Li is right. I think ‘Meteor Wings’ is still the harder song to sing…”

The emcee interrupted her and turned to Xia Ling, asking emphatically, “Ye Xingling, you are in the best place to be the judge of that. Which do you think is the harder song to sing?”

Xia Ling had chosen the easier song to sing for Zhao Wanyang and did not intend to make her look bad in this segment. However, she did not expect Zhao Wanyang to be so ignorant.

“I think… there is someone else here that is more suited to be the judge of that.” Xia Ling tiptoed around the question and looked over at Wei Shaoyin.

The emcee understood what she was getting at and turned to Wei Shaoyin immediately. “Ah Wei, you’re the producer for both ‘Glass Fingertips’ and ‘Meteor Wings.’ What do you say? Which of the two is the harder song to sing?”

“Of course ‘Meteor Wings’ is the easier one.” Wei Shaoyin replied coldly. “I didn’t know some singers had degraded to such levels that they are unable to discern the difficulty of songs.”

This apparent insult made some in the audience to burst out in laughter. Even some of the producers could be seen trying to hold their laughter in.

Zhao Wanyang felt even more embarrassed, her face turning a bright crimson. She wished she could dig a hole to hide in.

Xia Ling smiled nonchalantly. “Miss Zhao, do you have anything else you want to say? Perhaps we can look for another opinion on the matter.”

Another opinion? With Wei Shaoyin already voicing his opinion, who would say otherwise? He was known to be extremely strict and righteous. He would not say anything counter to his real opinion just to side with someone.

Zhao Wanyang glared at Xia Ling angrily, her face still red, and did not say anything.

Xia Ling was unaffected. She was not going to lose anything from an extra glare. What’s more, the audience was watching Zhao Wanyang, and her glaring was just going to make her seem even pettier. As expected, the chatter in the audience became more numerous, all saying things along the lines of “So much for Zhao Wanyang being a veteran in the industry, how could she not match up to a newbie singer,” or “Ye Xingling is just so much better in comparison”…

Zhao Wanyang had already lost half the battle before the head-to-head had even begun.

Xia Ling confidently said, “Then, Miss Zhao, would you like to start now?” She stood in the middle of the stage with a wry smile on her face, her expression taunting, a completely different picture from her red-faced opponent. It seemed that she was born to shine, and everyone’s eyes turned towards her even though she was dressed simply in her white dress.

The broadcast director instructed the cameramen to give her a few more solo takes.

And Zhao Wanyang? She began her song reluctantly. Distracted by the earlier insults from the two producers, her rendition of “Meteor Wings” was shoddy, making several mistakes. The broadcast director and cameramen were disinterested in her altogether, choosing instead to film Xia Ling, and then Wei Shaoyin and Feng Kun. The cameras even panned the audience several times, completely neglecting Zhao Wanyang. There was no one else to blame since her singing was so bad and could not draw the attention of others.

Boos rang out from the audience offstage.

The song finally ended.

Zhao Wanyang’s expression was even more upset. “Ye Xingling, if not for me having the flu and being in bad condition, I would definitely have sung that more perfectly.”

“Ha, perfect?” Xia Ling almost laughed out loud. “I don’t know what Miss Zhao’s definition of perfect is, but in my opinion, you made tons of errors in the song earlier. If you were recording that with Ah Wei in the studio, he would definitely have stopped you and made you do it over. Let’s put it this way… that wasn’t even close to the standard required to release a song.”

This was a huge insult. Yet, Xia Ling was used to picking fights and had her guns ready to open fire. She did not care about Zhao Wanyang’s feelings.

The atmosphere in the room became more heated. Ye Xingling had vocalized everyone’s thoughts, and some producers even starting clapping in agreement.

Zhao Wanyang was close to tears on hearing the insult. “How could you say something like that?”

“You’re not Xia Yu… don’t try to act all innocent and weak to get others to pity you. It doesn’t work, and you don’t look the part.” Xia Ling sniggered. “Stop wasting time and pick a song for me. There are many others in your team behind you… preparing to get beaten by me.”

Her arrogance was off the charts.

Nebula Music Festival encouraged singers to taunt each other on camera, but it was still rare to see someone be like Xia Ling and brush everyone off.