A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Xia Ling felt afraid.

She had never seen Li Lei like this before. Fierce and vicious, like he was prepared to tear her into pieces.

Their bodies were very close together, so close that she could feel the rise and fall of his chest under his shirt with every breath. Another part of his body was hard against her like he was prepared to conquer her completely at any time.

She started to tremble as she recalled the rumors about him that she had heard before she met him. Many had said that he was cold-blooded and vicious, his cruelty on par with Pei Ziheng’s. However, after she got to know him, she had only seen the warm and friendly side of him. As such, she had forgotten that a beast would always be a beast, and could hurt her in a flicker of an eye.

He was the underworld, and the blood on his hands and lives under his feet would likely be more than under Pei Ziheng’s.

Someone like him could not be so kindhearted. Even Pei Ziheng had done so much to torture her, so what made her believe that Li Lei would not? Just because they had a short six-month relationship? From the pathetic words of love he had peppered on her?

All the darkness was back and swallowing her like a tidal wave.

She looked at Li Lei and opened her mouth several times before she mustered the courage to say. “Don’t…”

“Don’t what?” Li Lei asked hoarsely, his rough fingers tracing her beautiful lips, his breathing slow and heavy. “You’re my woman. In this life, you can only be my woman.”

His feather-light touch on her lips tugged at her heart, and she felt herself crumbling in his arms. It took her great concentration to stand tall again. The tears in her eyes had not dissipated as she begged. “Let me go… I beg of you.”

She was always proud and arrogant. She had never pleaded with anyone before.

However, there was one thing that she could not stand. Making love against her will was the worst kind of torture to her.

She was afraid of what he would do.

Li Lei understood what she was saying, and his hoarse voice was lined with anger again. “Is it such torture for you to be with me? Ye Xingling, why are you pretending to be so innocent? It’s not like it’s your first time.”

His last sentence sent a shock through her body, leaving her utterly insulted. Her tears started to fall without warning.

The warm tears fell on the back of Li Lei’s hand and gave him a fright. Xiao Ling… he was so angry to the point of hatred and had said that to insult her. But why was his heart hurting from seeing her cry?

“Don’t cry!” He said in a loud voice, his confusion appearing as anger.

Her tears fell even quicker as the images from her past and that devil of a man appeared again. He was saying in a gentle and commanding voice, “Xiao Ling, are you crying again? Don’t you like me? Don’t worry, we have lots and lots of time…” The whipping, the blood, the pain of her body being lashed…

She tried to control her tears but could not stop them from falling. The more she tried to control, the louder her crying became. “Let me go…” She said through her tears and pushed at his chest with one hand weakly, hoping to put a little bit of distance between them somehow. “I’ll listen to you… I’ll listen to you… don’t…”

Don’t punish me…

She begged that devil in the snippets of her memories.

Li Lei felt himself giving in. “You’ll do anything I say?”

She nodded through her tears.

Li Lei lifted her face and stared into the depths of her eyes. “Xiao Ling, stay, don’t leave me.”

“I… I can’t leave you.” Her vision was blurry from the tears as she said disjointedly.

He hugged her tightly as if she was the most precious thing in the whole world. “Xiao Ling, I’m sorry. I won’t make you cry ever again.”

Xia Ling trembled in his arms and cried for a long time, then slowly fell asleep when she got exhausted from the crying.

Li Lei carried her to the bed and covered her with the blanket. He unpacked her luggage, taking out the items one by one and returning them back to where they had been. He could not let her leave. They had broken up, and under the watchful eyes of his grandfather’s men, he would struggle to find an excuse to get close to or see her again.

He would definitely find a way to persuade his grandfather to accept her.

After that day, there was a ridge between Xia Ling and Li Lei. She carefully kept her distance from him, afraid that he would hurt her. She was also withdrawn and would not say anything to him, different from her cheerful and chatty self from before.

Sometimes, Li Lei would try to hug her.

Xia Ling would subconsciously avoid him but would quietly sit in his embrace if she could not avoid him, her body stiffening in her nervousness but unable to muster the courage to resist. It was as if every minute with him was torture.

Li Lei wanted for them to reconcile but could find no way to. Her heart’s door was shut tight, and he could find no way to open it again.

Both of them lived like that laboriously. It was March, the season that the peach blossoms bloomed, and the broadcast station announced the winners for several prestigious awards for the music industry.

Xia Ling was awarded the Best Newcomer Award.

She went up on stage to receive the award alone, dressed in a skin-colored, haute couture, long dress, the swishing of the dress somehow making her seem all the more lonely. Many people were discussing in low voices. “Is that Ye Xingling? I heard her personal life is a mess, and that she’s involved with many men. Do you know that’s why the Li family chased her out on New Year’s Eve?”

“Oh…”

The crowd gossiped about her from all around, and the gazes that they gave her were full of curiosity.

“See her dress… isn’t it N.W’s Summer Haute Couture Series? I wonder which rich man gave her that… There’s no way she would be able to afford it with her background.”

“Exactly… and I didn’t hear anything about N.W lending it to her.”

Xia Ling showed no emotion and pretended not to hear any of their murmurings. The dress that she was wearing was indeed not bought by her. Li Lei had given it to her when they were still together, and it was tailor-made in Paris. It had just been completed a short while back, and Li Lei said that it was a pity to let it go to waste, so he asked her to wear it to the awards ceremony.

It seemed like in his eyes, they were still together, and it was normal that she should wear a dress that he gave her.

Xia Ling was unable and unwilling to fight with him over the matter. Since she was unable to leave his clutches, why create trouble over something so small? She had quietly prepared a small accounts book to record all the presents that he gave to her. One day, when she regained her freedom, she would return them all to him.

The darkness of her past life taught her something — Never clash head-on with the one in power.

She stood on the tall stage as she received her award from a veteran in the industry.

The emcee smiled and asked the veteran, “Do you have anything to say to this rising star?”

Coincidentally, the one giving her the award was Zheng Chenhao, a veteran heavenly king from Imperial Entertainment. In the last Nebula Music Festival, they were on the same team. Zheng Chenhao did not particularly like this girl and felt that she was reckless and arrogant. The bias that Feng Kun had shown her during the Nebula Music Festival was something that he was still holding a grudge on.

He was a pitiful one in the industry. He had been a heavenly king in Imperial Entertainment for a long time now but suffered under the overbearing Diva Xia Ling in the earlier years. It was only until Xia Ling passed on that he had been able to catch a breath. Which heavenly king in the industry had to hold in so many grievances?

Zheng Chenhao blamed this all on the opinion that female artistes were naturally advantaged compared to male artistes, given that they were able to find rich backers. Take the Diva Xia Ling for instance. If she didn’t have Pei Ziheng to spoil her, how would she be able to take away so many resources from him?

He hated any woman that depended on rich backers, and Ye Xingling was just another one of them.