A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Her heart clenched again seeing his sorrowful expression.

“What if I tell you that I’m losing this war?” He asked softly.

Xia Ling gave a start, and knocked over the glass cup on the table, spilling half its contents. “You… will lose?”

His eyes narrowed and contemplated her for a moment. “No.”

Unknowingly, she heaved a sigh of relief. Of course, Pei Ziheng was unbeatable, how could he lose? However, she became nervous. “Then… he?” She did not dare to say Li Lei’s name out loud in front of Pei Ziheng.

Pei Ziheng’s eyes narrowed even further, and he was like a tiger whose mood was unpredictable as he sinisterly contemplated his prey. She shrank back into her chair under his gaze as goosebumps formed on her skin.

Yet, he did not do anything else as he got up and walked towards the bedroom.

Xia Ling felt uneasy. She did not know what would happen to Li Lei, and her fingers subconsciously wrung the edges of her shirt. After a long while, she heard a low voice ring out. “I will not kill him… if that is what you want.”

She lifted her head and realized that Pei Ziheng had returned and was watching her from beside the stairs.

The lights were dim, and his tall stature was half-hidden in the shadows. He looked a little out of the world and blurry. Xia Ling was uncertain if he really could beat Li Lei or not.

In the following days, he was even busier than before.

There were many days that they did not see each other at all. Occasionally, Xia Ling would suddenly jerk awake in the middle of the night and find him sitting by the bedhead, watching her with a gentle expression on his face, his fingers tenderly touching her face or smoothing her hair, like she was his greatest treasure.

Xia Ling was worried about him but was at conflict with herself. If Pei Ziheng were good, then Li Lei wouldn’t be. She did not want anything bad to happen to Li Lei either.

She missed Li Lei.

Now, she was by Pei Ziheng’s side and could see how his busy schedule ate at him.

However, there was no one by Li Lei’s side. He was in this war alone and must be feeling very lonely.

She wanted to hear about the situation in Skyart Entertainment, but she was constantly under Chu Chen’s watchful eye and had no chance to speak to anyone there. He would accompany her even when she went to see Feng Kun. Xia Ling spent a lot of time scouring the entertainment and finance news, trying to glean even a small bit of news about the situation in Skyart. Yet, there were many technical terms that she was unfamiliar with. As such, she bought a dictionary to check up on them.

She realized that their war was very intense, and it had already spread to many of their other businesses. The real estate businesses, financial investments, manufacturing industries, etc. They were embroiled in an unending war in every facet that they could.

Chu Chen was right. This was a war that meant life and death for both sides.

Some financial analysts said that Li Lei had lost it and that Skyart Entertainment’s years of foundation had no bite against Imperial Entertainment’s hundreds of years of experience. Yet, other experts remarked that even though Imperial Entertainment had deep roots, their internal power struggle was complicated, and Pei Ziheng had to balance these internal forces as well. In contrast, Li Lei had built Skyart Entertainment himself, and there was an overarching company culture that held up the company, and he also had support from the Li family from abroad. There was no way to tell how the war would pan out.

No one knew who would win.

At the end of every article, they would discuss the genesis of the war in the first place. Someone had done their public relations well, and the reports now said that the war between Skyart Entertainment and Imperial Entertainment was inevitable. Xia Ling switching companies was just the trigger. The public relations was done well, and the negative impact on Xia Ling was brought to a minimum. Even though there were still many speculating on the relationships involved, they were not as ugly as the rumors she heard before.

Because of these, she continued to be the most searched topic in the entertainment circle, and schedule requests multiplied exponentially. Chu Chen was kept extremely busy tending to her schedule, as well as helping Pei Ziheng with business matters. He was very responsible and made sure to give her his utmost attention, saying that this was a good time for her to be pushed into the position of unwavering stardom.

Xia Ling did not want to gain fame from the difficulty that Pei Ziheng and Li Lei were facing. What was more, she had to think of the child she was carrying.

However, Chu Chen said that the timing was right, and she had to ride the waves of her luck in the circle.

She followed the schedule that he arranged for her to the T. Unexpectedly, she bumped into Wei Shaoyin.

She had not seen Ah Wei in what felt like a lifetime. She saw him arguing with a representative from the broadcast station, or rather, he was the one that was shouting, and the representative was merely giving him an uneasy smile and listening reverently.

She walked closer and could hear what he was saying loud and clear.

“I don’t care what program you have after this. In ten minutes, I want you to empty out the studio. It’s your lousy director that made a mess of the show. If we don’t film it again, you can be sure that you will never see me again!”

Wei Shaoyin’s voice was clear and domineering, speaking with no room for negotiation. Xia Ling was aware that he was producing a music critic program recently, and the audience loved how sharp and harsh he was. The show was breaking records in terms of viewership, and he was now someone that the broadcast station could not afford to offend.

The representative wiped the sweat that was forming on his forehead. Lifting his head, he saw Xia Ling standing behind Wei Shaoyin.

“Miss Ye!” He shouted out as if seeing a lifesaver. “Can you please help me persuade Mr. Wei here? He wants to use your recording studio at the last minute.”

Xia Ling was taken aback, and Wei Shaoyin turned to look at her, the shock on his face equalling hers.

There were a few seconds of silence before she opened her mouth. “Which recording studio do you want?”

Wei Shaoyin turned to the representative and said coldly, “Why didn’t you tell me that the person recording next is Ye Xingling?”

The representative looked wronged and said, “I hadn’t finished my sentence. You interrupted me when I said Imperial Entertainment…”

Wei Shaoyin kept quiet.

Xia Ling was speechless.

Chu Chen looked on with crossed arms and asked Wei Shaoyin, “Do you still want to use it?”

Wei Shaoyin glanced coldly at Chu Chen before barking out at the representative. “Tomorrow at this time. And I want a change of director. We’re filming it again.”

The representative heaved a sigh of relief and thanked him profusely for his understanding.

Chu Chen gave a knowing smile. Xia Ling felt uncomfortable seeing his expression, and turned away, lifting her head to speak to Wei Shaoyin. “If you need it urgently, I can let you have the studio.”

Wei Shaoyin said, “Don’t you know, Li Lei said that Skyart Entertainment is not going to fight for any schedules that involve you.”

Xia Ling remembered the intense war between the two companies. From Wei Shaoyin’s words, she understood that fighting over schedules was a common occurrence. However, her impression of the war stopped at the news in the papers and the frown that Pei Ziheng had on his face all the time. Otherwise, it did not seem to have an impact on her life at all.

However, it appeared that not only Imperial Entertainment was protecting her, but Li Lei was also giving in to her in all ways possible as well.

Sadness entered her heart, and she lowered her head.

Wei Shaoyin walked up to her and said, “Xiao Ling, I want to speak to you privately.”

Xia Ling did not have time to reply before Chu Chen came between them. “Miss Ye is very busy. I’m sorry, she has no time to chat with you.”

Chu Chen had many roles, and one of them was to follow and watch Xia Ling at all times. Xia Ling was furious and glared at him, almost breaking out in curses. However, Chu Chen was unfazed as he refused to let Wei Shaoyin and her speak privately.