A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Tan Ying, understanding the hidden meaning behind his gaze, said with a tinge of a smile in his voice, “We are commencing the examination now. You six, introduce yourselves first.” As he spoke, he gestured to the six of them beneath the stage with the fountain pen in his hand.

Shen Manyao had no choice but to stop talking.

Trainee number 67, who was beside Xia Ling, stepped forward. “Good morning examiners, I am number 67, Zhou Yu. I entered Skyart Entertainment last year. My interests are…”

“Next.” Tan Ying interrupted him abruptly.

Zhou Yu was taken aback, and then hurriedly stepped back. Xia Ling did not have to turn her head to be able to sense his panic. She secretly shook her head. Sometimes, being too keen to impress could have the opposite effect. This was only a small examination, the self-introduction section was just a test of the politeness and elegance of the trainees. Who would be interested to hear a small fry tell his life story?

She stepped forward as she was thinking, and then introduced herself. “Second year, Class C, Ye Xingling.”

A short and sweet introduction. Easy for Tan Ying, and easy for herself.

Tan Ying took a second look at Xia Ling before indicating for the next person to continue.

The next trainee was not as succinct as Xia Ling, but learned from Zhou Yu’s mistake and kept it relatively short. An expression of satisfaction came across Tan Ying’s face, and the next trainees immediately followed suit. As a result, the self-introduction segment was completed smoothly.

Next up was a standard dance segment.

“Standard dance” referred to the different foundation dance songs that were used in the training camp on a regular basis. The examiners would randomly pick a song to test the trainee’s foundational abilities. Given that they were picking trainees to appear in Shen Manyao’s MV, Xia Ling thought that the standard dance style would be more toward Shen Manyao’s flamboyant style. However, the song that Tan Ying picked was unexpected. It was a slow practice dance song.

Xia Ling glanced at Shen Manyao and saw that she was completely disinterested, her eyes still glued on the man seated next to her. She had no spare capacity to care about anything else happening in the examination room.

The man in the main seat placed a hand under his chin, looking on indifferently, allowing Tan Ying to call the shots.

The music slowly started playing.

Xia Ling followed everyone as they started to dance, focusing on making sure she would not stand out. This was similar to asking a taekwondo black belt holder to pretend that he cannot fight, and yet not be too obviously bad, such that nobody would be able to tell. Executing this was terribly awkward.

Even though it was a little narcissistic to think like that, at this moment, Xia Ling was immensely grateful to Tan Ying for choosing a slow song. If he had chosen a difficult piece in the flamboyant style, which was Xia Ling’s forte, pretending to be mediocre would be even more torturous…

As her mind started to wander, the standard dance segment ended. Xia Ling was satisfied with her performance as she saw several of the trainees give her looks of contempt. Very good, in the next freestyle dance segment she just needed to keep it together and victory would be hers.

Each trainee was given five minutes for their freestyle dance. There would be no accompaniment music, thus the trainee would have the freedom to show whatever they wanted.

Typically, trainees would use this segment to present the dance they were most confident in, as it was the best time to show the examiners their talent. As expected, an atmosphere of excitement started brewing once Tan Ying announced the start of the freestyle dance segment. The trainees who were feeling unhappy that they did not flaunt their skills in the standard dance segment immediately took their places and focused on showing the best of what they had prepared.

Xia Ling remained unaffected, continuing to mind her own business and dance with her mediocre dance steps. She had choreographed these moves with careful calculations. As long as she made no mistakes, given Skyart Entertainment’s end-of-month examination grading rubric, she would not rank bottom. With regards to Shen Manyao’s MV selection, she would definitely not be selected.

Passing the examination and failing in the selection for the MV would be the perfect scenario.

As Xia Ling completed her dance with satisfaction, she raised her head only to see the man sitting in the main seat looking at her.

Behind the thin spectacle glasses, she could not make out his expression. Very quickly he shifted his gaze, used his finger to push up his glasses, and turned to say something to Tan Ying in a low voice.

Tan Ying nodded, stood up and announced the end of the examination.

Xia Ling was uncertain, what did that man tell Tan Ying? Did he say something about her, or did he simply ask to announce the end of the examination?

That cold, distant glance made Xia Ling feel mildly uneasy. On the other hand, maybe it was just a misunderstanding… Xia Ling was of the view that she had danced as mediocre as it could possibly get. If she could be selected just like that, Skyart Entertainment should just close down.

Or maybe, that man was expressing his disdain of her to Tan Ying.

As she thought more about it, this latter explanation seemed more likely. She immediately felt relieved.

As Xia Ling followed the last group of trainees out of the room, she had only taken a few steps before spotting Luo Luo, who had been waiting in the large hall for a long time. Luo Luo jumped up and got ready to pounce on Xia Ling, but Xia Ling was prepared this time. She sidestepped and the small shadow of pink missed its mark.

“Xingling~” Luo Luo blinked her puppy dog eyes at Xia Ling, her voice laced with a slight disappointment.

Xia Ling was unmoved and simply received the bottle of mineral water that Luo Luo handed over. “Let’s go back to the dorms and have a shower before going for food.”

Luo Luo did not raise any objections and walked with a spring in her steps alongside Xia Ling. This kid had boundless energy and could not sit still. “Xingling, Xingling, how did you do? Any chance of being selected? You know everyone has been saying how lucky Shen Manyao is, the MV that she is going to film this time is…”

“Stop–” Xia Ling felt her head throbbing. She stopped walking and looked at Luo Luo. “I did really badly, there’s no chance that I will be selected.”

Luo Luo immediately stopped talking, disappointment written all over her little face. She scratched her head and attempted to console Xia Ling. “It’s ok, Xingling, it’s alright even if you don’t get selected. There will be many chances, you don’t have to be too sad…”

Oh my God, Xia Ling was anything but sad.

Xia Ling looked on at this exasperating kid, wishing that she could wrap Luo Luo up and throw her 108 thousand miles away. Controlling herself, Xia Ling weakly squeezed out. “I have never liked Shen Manyao. I don’t want to film her MV…”

Pfft , a light laugh sounded.

“Who’s that?!”

Xia Ling turned alertly and saw that behind her was a tall plant, about half the height of a normal person, with a thick foliage of leaves. Behind the plant was a quiet rest corner with a man relaxing on the wide, real leather sofa. He was wearing a well-fitted white shirt, platinum-rimmed glasses, and a Patek Philippe on his left wrist.

This was the man that was sitting in the main seat in the examination.

He picked up the coffee cup that was on the glass coffee table and signaled a toast to Xia Ling from afar. Behind his glasses, his eyes were clearly filled with amusement.

Xia Ling and his eyes met for a moment, before she turned away, her face void of expression. She said a single word to Luo Luo. “Go.”

Luo Luo followed behind her in confusion. “Xingling, was he not that…”

“Whoever he is, it has nothing to do with me.”

After dying once, it seems that all her curiosity had died with her. Now, she just wanted to live life uneventfully. Big shots that cannot be read, it would be better to be as far away from them as possible.