A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

The conversation was not going in a direction that Xia Ling enjoyed. She started to get angry and did not want to be in the same room with Li Lei.

She stiffly wished him a good night and returned to the guest room and got on the bed to continue sleeping. Perhaps because she had a glass of warm milk, she felt lethargy hit her pretty quickly and before she knew it, her vision got blurry and she fell asleep.

She did not have another nightmare.

The next day when she opened her eyes, it was already bright outside and sunlight was shining into the room through the lace curtain, filling the room with warmth and peacefulness. She had not slept so peacefully in a long time. She got off the bed to wash up, changed into one of the expensive new dresses, combed her messy long hair and walked out of the guest room. There was no one in the other bedroom, though she heard sounds coming from the kitchen.

She walked over to have a look and saw the general manager of the training camp, Tan Ying, clad in an apron and busily cooking in front of the stove.

“Boss had to go out for a sudden business.” Tan Ying was not surprised to see her. “He instructed me to come to fetch you and prepare your breakfast.” He did not ask why she was in Li Lei’s apartment. It seemed that Li Lei had already explained the situation to him.

Xia Ling was stunned to see Tan Ying holding a frying pan and frying an egg with ease.

“Do all of you at Skyart Entertainment… enjoy cooking as a hobby?” She asked with a newfound respect for Tan Ying.

“What do you mean ‘all of you at Skyart Entertainment’?” Tan Ying rolled his eyes at her in irritation. “You are also from Skyart Entertainment.” Following that, a bitter look came over his face as he continued, “It’s not that all of us at Skyart Entertainment enjoy cooking as a hobby. It’s just that after spending so much time with a crazy boss, you will be forced to have such a hobby.” He threw the fried egg onto a plate with agitation.

Xia Ling looked at the perfectly fried egg with a golden yellow yolk on the clean white porcelain plate. She recalled the scene of Li Lei forcing her to cook and gave a shudder. She made up her mind to stay as far away from that crazy monster in the future.

“Have you washed your face and brushed your teeth yet?” asked Tan Ying. “Your breakfast is getting cold.”

“Yup, I did.” Xia Ling responded and stepped forward to help Tan Ying prepare the fresh fruit juice and put the sushi that Tan Ying had made onto a plate. “Mr. Tan, since you don’t like making breakfast, why didn’t we just eat out?”

Hearing this, Tan Ying’s expression became even more bitter. He said, “That crazy boss said that these are fresh ingredients sent over from the mountain villa. We need to finish it as soon as possible so that it won’t go to waste.”

Xia Ling was speechless.

Well alright, at least the one being forced to make breakfast was not her. She sat down in a good mood and tucked in.

After breakfast, Tan Ying cleaned up the kitchen and Xia Ling returned to the guest room to pack her bags. After which, both of them left to return to the training camp.

There were many new security officers at the training camp.

Tan Ying looked over at her and said, “Ye Xingling, Boss asked me to tell you that as long as you are in Skyart Entertainment’s territory, nobody will be able to kidnap you by force. However, that is all that he will do.”

She understood what he meant.

This meant that Li Lei would not interfere in the affairs between Pei Ziheng and her. The heightened security at the training camp was not to help her but was simply him taking responsibility as the boss.

She nodded and said, “Mr. Tan, I understand.”

Tan Ying glanced at her. “I heard about your problem from Boss. I am surprised that Chairman Pei from Imperial Entertainment is interested in you.” He did not care that these words might be hurtful and continued in a straightforward manner. “For someone like you, submitting yourself to him might be a good move. Yet you chose to resist even though the one that will lose out is yourself.”

“Are you trying to persuade me?” She stared back at Tan Ying.

Tan Ying replied with nonchalance, “I was just giving you a warning. Pei Ziheng isn’t someone that will easily give up.”

He said his piece, left her in front of the entrance of the dorms and left.

Without Tan Ying having to remind her, Xia Ling was completely aware of how scary Pei Ziheng could be.

In the following days, Xia Ling stayed inside the training camp obediently, not taking a step out of the main gate. She simply practiced her singing and dancing alone. Occasionally, she would speak to Wei Shaoyin over the phone and discuss her recent ideas for her music.

Her life appeared to be peaceful.

However, deep down she was constantly nervous, wondering what Pei Ziheng would do next. At night, she would not be able to sleep well, having the same recurring nightmare. The chaotic memories of the past were haunting her, but she could tell no one given the gravity of the secret she harbored… Eventually, she could only keep it to herself and let it torture her. She would wake in fright every night and curl up shivering till the morning.

The vacation period came to an end and the other trainees came back to the camp one after another. Xia Ling felt safer with more people around.

However, she was called to Tan Ying’s office not too long later.

She pushed open his office door only to see a person sitting on the sofa opposite Tan Ying. He was dressed in a deep grey suit with a diagonally striped tie, a crocodile leather briefcase by his side that seemed to emit a chilling feel through its retro-styled grains.

He was Chu Chen.

She felt less terrified now that he was in front of her.

What was to come was finally here.

Xia Ling looked at Chu Chen, her face void of expression, and said, “What is it? What does your boss want?”

Chu Chen smiled as he looked at her, replying, “Ye Xingling, Imperial Entertainment believes that you have great potential and would like to invite you to join our company.”

She felt her heart fall with a thud. She had thought of many possibilities of what Pei Ziheng would do — threats, monetary gifts — but there were only so many methods and she had been confident that she was not afraid of any of them. She did not expect that they would do something as drastic as poaching her over to Imperial Entertainment to deal slowly with her.

She looked over at Tan Ying with urgency. “Mr. Tan?”

“Imperial Entertainment has given me a very good offer,” said Tan Ying. “I have no reason to reject the offer.”

“But you know exactly why they want me over there!” Xia Ling burst out in anger. She pointed at Chu Chen and said, “He isn’t in charge of the training camp at Imperial Entertainment. What right does he have to talk to you about this?!”

“Ye Xingling.” Chu Chen interrupted her rampage at Tan Ying, still maintaining his smile. “My boss has already given me the liberty to deal with anything with regards to you.”

His fearless look made her lose her cool, the new and old grudges that she had against him came flooding into her mind. She turned to look at him and said in a sarcastic tone, “Chu Chen, it looks like you are doing well after Xia Ling’s death! It was such a waste for you to have been her manager. With your abilities, you should be helping the big boss with all of his dirty jobs!”

Chu Chen’s expression changed to that of anger as he heard her insults. Yet, he still maintained his composure and did not want to lower his status to engage in a verbal battle with a small fry like her. Chu Chen looked at Tan Ying, his face dark, and said, “Mr. Tan, I think you should control your trainee.”

“She will soon be your trainee.” Tan Ying laughed and then said to Xia Ling, “Ye Xingling, my only responsibility is to think for Skyart Entertainment. I have no interest in your personal matters — those are not within my scope of responsibility.”

He used a formal tone as he spoke.

Xia Ling felt her throat grow tight. She knew he was right, she had behaved out of place.

She tried her best to calm down and compose herself. She said, “So, Mr. Tan, has the transfer already been decided?”

“Going by our due process, you have three days to consider the offer,” said Tan Ying. “But I have to remind you, regardless of what your views are, the final decision will still be taken by the management of the training camp.”

In other words, it had already been decided. He was not having a discussion with her, he was simply informing her of the decision.

Xia Ling did not say any more as she turned around and left the office.