A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Li Lei consoled her for a long time.

The plane landed in City Y. Due to the charity fund scandal, the airport arrival event was canceled, and there were no fans or media waiting for them. There were only two Skyart photographers in charge of taking a few shots of her and Li Lei disembarking from the aircraft.

There was a mild drizzle.

Sister Mai Na was already waiting for them when they reached the hotel. She came forward and embraced Xia Ling, saying, “You’ve suffered. Do well for the concert and don’t worry about anything else. You still have Boss and me holding the fort.”

Xia Ling felt her nose crinkle as tears threatened to fall. She nodded her head resolutely.

She followed the concert staff to the venue to oversee the audio tuning, set-up, and rehearsal.

Li Lei accompanied her to the concert venue. When she was verifying things on the stage, he was calling people by the side non-stop, instructing them to investigate the de-worming medicine incident. The investigation moved quickly and by nightfall, there had already been some progress. It was Gu Lin, under the instigation of Nangong Qingya, who was responsible for doing something so despicable.

Li Lei knew that they were targeting Xiao Ling, wanting Xiao Ling’s reputation to be tarnished.

“Boss, what should we do now?” Tan Ying, who was in charge of the investigation, asked over the phone.

“I wanted to let Nangong Qingya off, but it seems that she’s adamant on pissing me off.” Li Lei’s voice was menacingly low. “Doesn’t the Boss of the Italian Hell’s Dog Mafia like her a lot? Send her to him.”

Tan Ying’s heart jumped in shock, but he answered, “Yes.”

The Hell’s Dog Mafia Boss was a cruel man, and the number of girls that been maimed and killed in his hands were countless. He had been drooling at Nangong Qingya’s beauty for a long time now but had not been able to chase her down because of the Nangong Family’s wealth and power. Now, the Nangong Family was bankrupted, but the Hell’s Dog Mafia Boss heard that Nangong Qingya’s face was disfigured. Hence, he lost interest.

“Her face is almost cured now, right?” Li Lei asked.

“… Yes.” Tan Ying was looking out of the window pensively as he spoke in the phone with Li Lei. The darkness was spreading in the sky, and he lamented how there were rules to be played by in the darkness as well.

“Cure her face, then send her to him. Don’t make him lose his appetite.”

“Yes.” Tan Ying hung up. The world was survival of the fittest — Nangong Qingya could easily take away the lives of two little kids, and similarly, Li Lei could destroy her with a flick of his fingers.

She could only blame herself for choosing to offend the apple of Big Boss’ eye.

Tan Ying called his subordinates over and gave them Li Lei’s instructions to carry out.

On the City Y concert stage.

Xia Ling completed her rehearsal and came to the audience stands to look for Li Lei. “What’s wrong? Your expression looks awful…” Xia Ling asked in concern.

Li Lei slipped his phone into his pocket and rearranged his expression before smiling gently at her. “I’m alright.”

She looked at him suspiciously. “Were you trying to settle the issue with the charity fund?”

He didn’t say anything and instead stood up and draped a scarf over her shoulders. “It’s getting cold in the night. Why are you wearing so little? Let’s go, I’ll send you back to the hotel. Rest well tonight, tomorrow you have a concert to hold.”

She lifted her head to look at him. “What’s going on with the charity fund investigation? I keep feeling uneasy… Those two kids…” She lowered her head and bit her lip. “They were so innocent… Am I a jinx to strangers as well?”

“What are you saying?” Li Lei responded. “Actually, I’ve already found the culprit. I was afraid that you would worry, so I didn’t tell you. It’s one of my enemies, and he’s targeting Skyart. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Your enemy?” As he expected, Xia Ling became nervous. “Who is it?”

“It’s one of our opposing forces overseas. They won’t be able to do much to us.” Li Lei skirted across the issue. “They couldn’t find a way to get to me, so they chose to hurt the kids in the orphanage. Don’t worry, I’ve already sent my men to take care of it. There won’t be anything like this happening again.”

“These people are terrible.” Xia Ling felt sad. “They wouldn’t even let those poor little kids off.”

He assured her. “I’ll take revenge for those kids.”

She still felt worried for him. “Will you be okay?”

“I told you… they can’t find a way to get to me, so they hurt the kids.” Li Lei spoke in a tone that was even gentler to appease her. “Nothing will happen to me.”

She felt a little better at hearing his assurances, but her expression still betrayed the fact that she was deeply concerned.

Li Lei held her hand as he led her out of the concert venue.

At the doorway, she suddenly asked, “Do underworld gangs all need to come face-to-face with life and death all the time?”

He was slightly taken aback before recalling that when he had met Xiao Ling, she had no inkling about his underworld ties. He might have appeared to be just like the Gu Family and Pei Ziheng. Even though she had found out about his underworld background, that was still a distant and surreal revelation which she had not thought much of.

However, this murder incident had brought her into the midst of it.

Would Xiao Ling be scared?

Would she regret falling in love with someone of his background?

Li Lei started to get anxious.

“Don’t be afraid.” He subconsciously started to console her. “It’s pretty safe and peaceful in China. The underworld powers can’t quite enter the country, and you have lots of bodyguards protecting you. None of my enemies will be able to touch you. You’re very safe.”

“How about you?” She asked anxiously. “Will you be in danger?” All along she had never given much thought about Li Lei being involved with the underworld. Even though he would occasionally joke about throwing people into the sea to feed the sharks when he got angry, she had never taken him seriously.

The death of the two children made her realize how cruel the world was.

“Why would anything happen to me?” Li Lei looked up at the night sky and replied to her. He was the second son of the first wife of the Li Family, the future heir to the Li Family fortune. His future was fraught with danger and conspiracy, but he did not want to burden his beloved with details of these. All she needed to do was to just sing her songs.

Xia Ling was still uneasy.

Seeing her like this, Li Lei regretted telling her that the culprit was his enemy and not Nangong Qingya. Perhaps he should have told her that it was just an accident. However, Xiao Ling would think that she was the jinx and had jinxed the two kids.

Li Lei frowned. This thing about destiny was a messy and complicated matter.

The next night was Xia Ling’s concert.

The organizers had already estimated that the concert would be badly affected by the de-worming medicine incident. As expected, many fans requested refunds for their tickets, and there were human rights activists standing at the doorway of the concert hall telling the public to boycott Ye Xingling.

Sister Mai Na consoled her. “There are peaks and troughs in life.”

She nodded. “I understand, don’t worry about me.” It would be a lie to say that she wasn’t disappointed. However, she still kept her composure on stage and showed the steadiness of a singer for two lifetimes. In the face of the activists’ chants and boos offstage, she was calm and collected, and immersed herself in the music, blocking out all distractions.

It was a perfect performance.

After the encore and thanks.

Sister Mai Na was waiting backstage for her. “That was fabulous. Full marks.”

Xia Ling responded with a smile, but she didn’t feel particularly happy. So what if she sang well? There were still sporadic boos all the way till the time she stepped off the stage.

She started to remove her makeup slowly, as she sat in the makeup room drinking a glass of warm water.

Sister Mai Na said, “Xiao Ling, let’s go. I’ll send you back to the hotel.”

She shook her head. “I’m waiting for Li Lei.”

“What?! Li lei didn’t tell you?” Sister Mai Na asked in shock.