A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

At night.

Xia Ling stood in front of the entrance to a bar.

She was wearing a low-key black, one-piece dress with a jacket of the same color draped across her shoulders. Her makeup was thick and smoky-eyed, and her hair was set at an angle that made it seem like it was falling naturally, but specifically hid half of her small face behind it. Standing there in the midst of the people walking by the bar entrance, under the dim lights of the corridor, Xia Ling appeared to be a normal teenage girl that had come to let her hair down and did not attract any special attention.

She lifted her head and squinted at the logo of the bar under the dim lights to make sure that she was at the right place before quickly heading inside.

The bar was not a high-classed one, and the narrow, deep corridor near the entrance led straight into the dance floor. The smell of low-quality perfume mixed with the pungency of cheap cigarettes wafted from all around the dance floor. Men and women were dancing crazily left and right, shaking their hips and grinding into each other, depicting a scene of lust and depravation. Xia Ling pushed through the crowd and felt tears spring into her smarting eyes from the polluted air in the place, and her throat felt uncomfortable. She swore that this was the worst place she had ever been into in her two lives so far, other than the bungalow she was imprisoned in by Pei Ziheng.

She psyched herself to bear with the deafening music and weird smells as she scanned the place looking for someone.

She was here to find someone, and that person was Lin Yunan. Feng Kun told her that since Li Er committed suicide seven years ago, Lin Yunan had been in a state of despair and became a security officer in this little bar. In fact, security officer was a nice way of putting it. More literally, he was a bouncer and a hitman all-in-one for the bar.

Xia Ling did not understand how someone like Lin Yunan, who had been so highly regarded and successful in the entertainment circle, would forsake his high salary and position to put himself in this place of desolation. She remembered Feng Kun mentioning that Lin Yunan was from a wealthy background. How did his family allow him to wallow in such a place?

She lost focus as she got lost in her thoughts.

Suddenly, she felt a hard knock at her shoulders.

She lost balance and took many steps backward before managing to catch and steady herself. She lifted her head and struggled to identify the person that had knocked into her amidst the dim and constantly changing colored lighting. It was a tall man with a dragon and tiger tattoo on his left arm, who was embracing a voluptuous woman dressed in a skimpy outfit, and dancing really close to her.

Xia Ling was not dressed to impress and was small and petite. Given that she was afraid of being noticed, she was walking with her head to the ground.

This knock caused her to lift her head, and that man caught sight of her face.

Even though she was in heavy, smoky-eyed makeup, it did not hide her clear gaze that was like a calm pond, which was special in the midst of the craziness in the bar. Her unique elegance was highly attractive to that man, and he felt like a kitten had gone around his body. He itched to get closer to her.

“Hey, you, little beauty.” The man released the dance partner he was hugging and walked before Xia Ling. “Are you just going to leave like that after knocking into me?”

Warning signals flashed in Xia Ling’s mind, and she backed into the shadows to her side. With her thick makeup, the dim lightings and, since she was not so well-known that everyone knew about her, the man did not recognize her as an artiste and was merely interested in hitting on her.

“Sorry.” She hurriedly apologized, not wanting for the matter to be blown up, and turned to leave.

However, the man grabbed her before she could leave. “Little beauty, dance with me before you go.” He moved closer to Xia Ling such that his body was pressing onto her and reached out his hand to caress her face.

Xia Ling turned her head to avoid his touch instinctively.

“Don’t play games while I’m being nice!” That man started to become agitated and raised his voice.

“Master Biao, ignore this little bitch that doesn’t know what’s good for her. Come here, dance with me instead.” His voluptuous dance partner came over and gave Xia Ling a death glare, before trying to seduce him away from her. “Don’t be so fickle… Don’t forget what you said earlier… Tonight we’re going to go for three hundred rounds of pure pleasure…”

Her blatant offer made Xia Ling’s expression darken.

Before she came, Feng Kun had warned her that this was not a pleasant place. However, Lin Yunan was friendly with the hooligans in this place and was always in this bar — for his meals, sleep, and entertainment. Coming here was the only way she could find him.

Feng Kun was from Imperial Entertainment, and it was not appropriate for him to be seen bringing her here.

If Feng Kun were too close to her, Pei Ziheng and Li Lei would both be suspicious of their relationship.

There was no other way but for her to come alone. Originally, she wanted to give the bouncers at the door a tip to get them to invite Lin Yunan out to meet her. However, nobody had heard of the name Lin Yunan, and they informed her that the security officers here rarely used their real names.

As such, she had no choice but to come into the bar herself to look for him.

Fortunately, she was well-prepared under Feng Kun’s advice. There was a pepper spray in her jacket pocket, and she had also learned many defense techniques from Pei Ziheng in her past. While these techniques were futile against professional bodyguards, they were more than sufficient for the hooligans in this bar. Xia Ling narrowed her eyes and watched the man that dared hit on her coldly.

She did not want to make a commotion for fear that it would blow her cover and make it difficult for her to find Lin Yunan. As such, she could not decide whether she should use the pepper spray or simply punch him to free herself.

Just as she was trying to come to a decision, the man lifted his filthy hand to touch her face again.

She immediately struggled out of his grasp, backed away from him, and felt her back against the bar counter on the end of the dance floor.

“F**k!” The man cursed, annoyed and embarrassed at the fact that this petite girl would not succumb to him after several tries.

Several onlookers started to come over, attracted by the commotion.

“Yo, Master Biao, who’s this little beauty? You have people that you can’t handle as well?” One of the onlookers spoke up, fanning the flames.

“Haha, Master Biao, are you unable to get it up? Why else would this little beauty refuse to follow you?” It was unfortunate that the people crowding over were those that were in an opposing faction from Master Biao, and they were out to see him make a joke of himself. “You can’t handle a little girl? Are you a man at all?”

Seeing this scene play out, Xia Ling knew that she was in a sticky situation. She turned up the collar on her jacket to cover her face even more and contemplated her next move. She had to keep things quiet… if she were to be recognized here that would truly be a big problem. It looked like her quest to look for Lin Yunan would have to be put on hold today as her first priority would be to find a way to escape from this mess.

With her decision made, she quietly reached into her jacket pocket.

Master Biao was getting more agitated by the second as he was goaded on by the crowd and made to lunge toward Xia Ling. “You dare to hide from me!”

Xia Ling’s hand grasped the pepper spray bottle and was just about to whip it out.

However, Master Biao’s filthy hand did not reach her. There were shouts and yelps before Master Biao somehow ended on the floor and was unable to get up.