A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

There was no signing on the card.

But Xia Ling knew who had sent it. There was only one person in the world that would call her like that, “Xia Ling, my butterfly.”

He had once said that she was a butterfly. When they had met, she was just a caterpillar and had evolved slowly in his garden. He said that he was a butterfly farmer who had put in his all to rear a valuable Pteris butterfly, willingly doing everything to please it.

She had once been so grateful to hear these words, but she forgot that there could not only be just one butterfly in his garden.

The large bouquet of blue orchids fell and scattered on the sofa and Xia Ling stared at them for a long time. She pondered, almost subconsciously, if Pei Ziheng had found out about her identity? No… that could not be right. Reincarnation was unimaginable, and was not something that someone as conservative as him would think of. What’s more, if he had found out that she was Xia Ling, what awaited her would not simply be a bouquet of blue orchids, but rather a nightmarish wild hunt for her.

Xia Ling breathed deeply as she concluded that he had just taken her as someone else, a small, insignificant fry, a new butterfly.

This made her feel extremely heartbroken.

She struggled to stand up and returned to her bedroom. Throwing herself onto the bed, she lay there motionless.

Time passed slowly and the morning sun slowly turned into sunset. Her mobile rang countless times, but Xia Ling could not hear or see anything. Her consciousness was floating in a faraway place, blurry and overcome with sadness.

The doorbell rang loudly and for a long time.

After a while, it became the sound of someone opening and then closing the door.

Li Lei crashed into her room and found her lying on the soft, comfortable bed. He was alarmed at how she looked, the slender, fair girl, silently curled into a little ball, her eyes lifelessly gazing into a faraway, unknown direction. She looked like a fragile porcelain doll which could crumble and die with a simple touch.

“Xiao Ling… ” His heart suddenly felt tight in his chest and started to hurt, “Xiao Ling, what’s wrong?”

He walked beside the bed and half knelt beside it, holding her hand. “What in the world is wrong with you?” The anxiety in his voice could not be hidden, “Look at me, look at me! Xiao Ling, talk to me?”

However, she simply lay there without moving, and was still staring into the distance with her empty eyes.

Li Lei’s hand holding hers started to grip harder as he shook her, “Xiao Ling, wake up! Wake up, please!”

As he shook her, the focus in her gaze came back and she saw the face of this handsome and concerned man in front of her with clarity. Under the warm light in the bedroom, Li Lei’s eyes were more defined and clear, and the deep green of his eyes were filled with complicated emotions as he stared at her cautiously, as if looking at the most precious treasure on earth.

“Xiao Ling, what is wrong with you? Stop scaring me.” His voice was gentle, making her feel safer.

Xia Ling looked at him for a long time, until the unhappy memories in her mind dissipated. She opened her mouth and said hoarsely, “I’m fine.”

Li Lei breathed a sigh of relief.

Xia Ling removed her hand from his dry, warm hand, and pushed herself up to a sitting position with both hands.

Li Lei lowered his gaze to his empty palm, and when he had lifted his eyes again, he had donned his usual playful expression. “It’s nice to know that you are fine.” He gave a lazy smile and said, “Little beauty, can you not go into such a trance every few days? You went almost insane with the surveillance cameras, what were you triggered by this time?”

“You’re the insane one.” Xia Ling scolded him weakly.

“Tsk, tsk, you can scold me now, looks like you’re recovering well.” Li Lei laughed and continued, “Let me guess… this time it’s the blue orchids that I found on the lounge sofa?” He said this carelessly, but his eyes were trained in on her to see how she would react.

Xia Ling denied almost immediately, “No.”

Li Lei’s eyes darkened.

Almost instantly, they reverted to his usual lazy smile and he said, “If you say so.” He was not going to force her to admit to something that she was not willing to, but this did not mean that he was fooled. She did not want to admit? It’s alright, he had many subordinates who could investigate this slowly. Eventually, he would find out everything about her.

There had never been a person that he had set his eyes on that had manage to escape.

“Oh yes,” He passed something to her, “your mobile. You’ve been lying here on the bed all day, right? Wei Shaoyin’s been looking for you, and he called many times but you did not answer, so he got Sister Mai Na and Tan Ying to help look for you. He only approached me when they were at wits’ end.” If Wei Shaoyin had not come to him for help, he wouldn’t have found out that she was acting so abnormally today.

Xia Ling’s brain was still slow from her trance, “What’s he looking for me for?”

Li Lei’s eyes sparkled as he answered, “‘Glass Fingertips’ is selling like hotcakes, better than we all expected. Ah Wei wants to film two more promotional videos and was looking for you to get your views on it. However… ” He looked over at Xia Ling, “in your current condition, I think you shouldn’t talk to him yet. He’s furious for not being able to find you, and if he sees how out of it you are…”

She understood, Li Lei was afraid that Wei Shaoyin would berate her.

Yet, her mobile started to ring off the hook just as Li Lei ended his sentence.

Xia Ling took the mobile out of Li Lei’s hands and saw that it was Wei Shaoyin calling as expected. Even though she was mentally prepared to accept his fires of fury, she still gave a big jump when she heard the furious shouting that began the moment she picked up the call. It was like he was ready to bite her head off and like he had a deep-seated hatred for her. Subconsciously, she threw the phone away from her with her hands shaking.

Li Lei was amused at this scene and gave a light laugh, crossing his legs to be in a more comfortable sitting position, and listened to Wei Shaoyin’s fury together with Xia Ling. On the other end of the line, Wei Shaoyin’s shouting was unceasing, and after a long while, when he had seemingly let everything off his chest, he finally stopped to catch his breath, saying, “Ye Xingling, say something.”

Xia Ling weakly stared at the mobile, not daring to answer.

Wei Shaoyin was on the brink of losing his temper again, “Why are you not saying anything?! Are you dead?!”

Xia Ling hesitated as she reached out for the phone, retracting her hand mid-way, a conflicted expression on her face.

Li Lei gave her a look and calmly reached out his thumb and index finger, picking up the phone from the edge of the bed, and said, “Hello, Ah Wei?”

At the other end of the line, Wei Shaoyin was stunned for a moment, before replying, “Boss?” He did not ask Li Lei what he was doing at Xia Ling’s. The fact that she was staying at Li Lei’s apartment building was not unknown to the core people like Tan Ying, Sister Mai Na and himself even if it was unknown to everyone else.

“Mmhmm, it’s me.” Li Lei’s voice had a tinge of laughter, “Someone is too afraid to pick up the phone after hearing all your scolding. Just tell me and I’ll pass the message.”

Wei Shaoyin asked, his voice still discourteous, “Is Xiao Ling alright?”

Li Lei gave her a look and replied, “She won’t die yet. She seemed to have caught a cold and was sleeping at home the entire day.”

She kept silent. Since when had she caught a cold? This person was simply lying with his eyes wide open. However, it was a pretty good excuse and could perfectly explain her situation today. She could not tell Wei Shaoyin that she had just lain at home all day for no good reason, right?

Luckily, Li Lei had covered for her.

Wei Shaoyin relaxed and said, “As long as she’s fine… ” But his tone suddenly became urgent, “No, she’s fine but I’m not fine! How can she skip coming to the recording studio over a small cold?! Didn’t we agree that she was going to come over today? I cleared my schedule just to wait here all day! How can she act like a big shot without making it big yet?! Acting like she’s bigger than me, huh?! Huh?! She…”

Li Lei calmly changed his sitting position and put the phone further away.

After a moment, he brought the phone closer when Wei Shaoyin paused to take a breath and said, “If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up now.”

“Don’t!” Wei Shaoyin sounded like he was going to jump up from where he was, “Get Xiao Ling to take the call! I have a new idea with regards to the promo film!”