A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

“Brother Ziheng…” Xia Yu’s whiny voice rang out. “Where are you? Can you bring me to my sister’s grave today?”

“What’s up?” Pei Ziheng asked in a low voice. Ever since Xia Yu insulted Xia Ling, he had been cold to her and was reluctant to give her access to anything related to Xia Ling. He would not even allow her to visit Xia Ling’s grave as she wished.

On the other end of the line, Xia Yu bit her lip. “I folded a thousand cranes for my sister to give her my blessings. I’ve only just completed that and was thinking that she would be lonely today since it is Valentine’s Day… Brother Ziheng, the caretaker of the graveyard wouldn’t let me in… Can you come with me? I want to give my sister the cranes. I… I miss her…”

Her voice sounded like she was close to tears.

A tinge of gentleness entered into Pei Ziheng’s cold gaze. Xia Yu was Xiao Ling’s sister, after all, joined by blood, and only she would pine after Xia Ling other than him.

“I’ll come to fetch you in about half an hour.” Pei Ziheng said before hanging up.

“Are you leaving?” Xia Ling asked.

Pei Ziheng picked up the half-peeled apple and continued to turn it in his hands against the knife skillfully. The thin apple peel continued to come off smoothly. “There’s something I need to tend to.” He said to Xia Ling gently. “Eat this apple and rest early. If you have any issues, just give me a call.”

Xia Ling had heard the voice in the phone vaguely. “Was that Xia Yu?”

Pei Ziheng looked up at Xia Ling, and there was sharpness in his eyes as if she was prying on a secret she was not supposed to. Xia Ling grimly laughed to herself inside. She was still an outsider to him in this life, even if they were friendly on the surface, there was no way they would be as intimate as before.

“I didn’t mean anything else.” She said lightly. “I was just surprised that you would spend Valentine’s Day with her.” Did this mean that her good sister had succeeded? Had she managed to remove all those in her way one by one in her quest to get close to Pei Ziheng and finally was able to summon him to spend a romantic evening with her? All those years of scheming seemed to have paid off then…

There was a hint of disdain in her lips.

Pei Ziheng felt upset seeing the disdain in her words and smile.

Unknowingly, he started to explain himself. “Xia Yu wanted to go see her sister at the graveyard. I’m just going to send her there.”

Oh, so Xia Yu had used Xia Ling to get him to spend time with her. The disdain in Xia Ling’s expression intensified, and she looked up at him with a queer expression. “Didn’t Xia Yu just insult Xia Ling recently? Why would she want to go see her sister?”

Pei Ziheng frowned. “It’s natural for sisters to have small spats, but there wouldn’t be any true hard feelings.” This was the reason that he was willing to forgive Xia Yu. After that incident, Xia Yu had apologized to him in tears, saying that she had somehow been momentarily overcome with anger, and was angry with her sister for hurting herself so much just for love and for finally taking her own life, leaving her all alone in this world.

Pei Ziheng had believed her.

After all, Xia Yu had been playing the role of Xia Ling’s good sister for more than a decade.

Xia Ling did not care to engage Pei Ziheng in more discussion. If he chose to believe Xia Yu, so be it. She was not interested in getting mixed in the matters pertaining to her past. She lazily lay against the bedhead and watched as he peeled the apple, her expression relaxed.

Seeing her indifference, Pei Ziheng somehow felt irritated and lost his concentration, breaking the otherwise perfect apple peel. Xia Ling gave a pfft as she laughed out loud, seeing this rare scene of him messing up.

Pei Ziheng lifted his eyes to look at her.

Xia Ling hurriedly stopped laughing. “You’ve done really well already. Hmm, compared to Li Lei…” She wanted to say that he had done a lot better than Li Lei but caught herself just before the words left her mouth. Li Lei’s handsome and smiling face appeared in her mind. He did not bother to peel the apple like Pei Ziheng patiently, but would simply cut it into huge pieces, skin and all, and throw them to her like feeding a dog.

Ha, being willing to cut the apple for her was a bonus. Most times he would simply make her cut the apple herself.

Xia Ling’s mind drifted off, and her pensive expression fell into Pei Ziheng’s eyes.

“You’ve already broken up… what’re you still pining about?” Pei Ziheng lowered his gaze and finished peeling the apple in his hands. He cut the apple up into neat slices and put them on a plate. “Being chased out on New Year’s Eve… let me guess… the Li family was not willing to accept you as Li Lei’s partner? The Old Master in the Li family is known to be stubborn… Li Lei… hmph… useless fellow…”

Xia Ling’s expression darkened.

Pei Ziheng pushed the plate of apple slices to her. “Eat up.”

She looked down at the evenly cut apple slices. Every slice had a seed in the middle forming a five-pointed star. His way of cutting the apple was very different from normal people… he liked to cut it horizontally…

She remembered that one year she had joked that she wanted a star from the sky. It was the thick of summer then, and there was a mild aroma blowing over from the rose garden. He retrieved a dew-covered apple from the cooler near the long bamboo table, cut it horizontally, and passed it to her.

He was not a romantic, and hence, his disparate attempts at being romantic were even more memorable.

He had told her, “Xiao Ling, every apple contains a star from me to you.”

This habit appeared to be sustained until now.

She reached out and picked up an apple slice, lightly bit into it, and allowed the mild sourness to permeate her taste buds.

Pei Ziheng watched as she ate, a gentleness entering his eyes again. “Is it good?”

She shook her head.

Pei Ziheng raised an eyebrow at her.

“You should go.” She felt tears start to spring into her eyes and did not dare lift her head to look at him. “Xia Yu is waiting for you.”

“Is it really not good?” He refused to leave and doggedly asked her again. He bent over to take the apple slice from her hand and bit into it where she had bit the apple before. It was a little sour.

“Hurry up and go, you’re going to be late.” She hurried him.

Pei Ziheng lifted his wrist to look at the time before standing up. “Next time I’ll peel a sweet apple for you.” He retrieved his coat from the coat hanger, pushed open the ward door, and left.

Amidst the silent ward, Xia Ling stared at the plate of apple slices for a long time, until they turned brown from oxidation. The tears in her eyes blurred away, and her expression became colder and colder. Missing out on someone was forever… whether it was Pei Ziheng… or Li Lei…

So be it.

She rested in the ward for several days before the bruise on her abdomen dissipated slowly but surely.

During this time, Pei Ziheng came to see her twice. Both times he was in a rush and did not sit for more than ten minutes. She lay on the bed flipping through the newspapers from the entertainment pages to the finance pages feeling bored. She found that Pei Ziheng was several times busier than when she was by his side as Xia Ling.

She also saw a piece of news about Li Lei.

The newspapers reported that he was about to return to the country.

Seeing this brought a sharp pain to her heart. Since when did she need to find out about him through the newspaper?

The earpiece on the bedhead was playing the song “Happy Breakup,” but she was far from happy. But what was done was done, what somebody doesn’t know/see can’t hurt them. She had to move out quickly so she wouldn’t bump into him at the apartment.

But, where would she go?