A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Waiting to receive any benefits?

Everyone was about to faint. Xiao Ling, you have really done it this time trying to provoke Xia Yu like that!

Xia Yu stubbornly raised her head. “I refuse to admit defeat.”

“You refuse to admit defeat?” Xia Ling sneered. “Twice. Xia Yu, including this round, you have lost to me on stage twice. You refuse to admit defeat? Sure. You can use your voice to defeat me. I’m just afraid that you don’t have that sort of ability.”

Since everyone already knew that she had fallen out with Xia Yu, she did not hesitate to be impolite.

Xia Yu did not lose her confidence. “There will be a day like that.” Since she could not win anyway, she decided to say something inspirational to let everyone know that she would continue to persevere and cause Ye Xingling to seem haughty and overbearing at the same time.

However, Xia Ling did not care. She had always been arrogant. After hearing what Xia Yu said, she smiled and replied, “I will wait for it.”

Xia Yu turned around and left the stage.

The emcee’s excited and emotional voice rang on the stage. “The first person! The first person in the history of the Nebula Music Festival! Ye Xingling has done it. She has defended her team from the start to the end successfully to become the fully deserving Arena Queen!”

“Arena Queen!”

“Arena Queen Ye Xingling!” Waves of cheers erupted.

She smiled at the cheering audience and elegantly bowed many times. The glory of victory always belongs to the strongest competitor, and she was the most deserving and powerful goddess!

Even the producers on the stage were clapping for her.

“Thank you, everyone.” Xia Ling smiled. “I will continue to work hard.”

Colorful confetti and soap bubbles cascaded down and covered her body.

She turned around and left the stage amidst this scene of victory and magnificence.

“Sister Xiao Ling, there are flowers for you.”

Her assistant Wei Wei, who had stayed in the dressing room, greeted her and handed her a bouquet of blood red roses. The roses blossomed very well — there was dew on the layered petals, and the fragrance was intoxicating. Looking at them, Xia Ling suddenly had a premonition in her heart. There was once a man who asked someone to send her a bouquet of red roses after every concert she performed. That person was…

As she pulled out a black card from the bouquet, she saw a dark-colored embossed on it. Sure enough, there was a familiar sketch of a golden butterfly with its wings spread. Her hand lightly trembled and the card fell to the ground.

Pei Ziheng.

This butterfly was their secret symbol. In the past, he said that his signature would be exposed easily, so he thought of this secret symbol to let her know what items were given by him. However… he said that the butterfly symbol only belonged to two of them. So, why did Pei Ziheng present the symbol to Ye Xingling, a third person, now?

She stared blankly at the card on the floor and felt so uncomfortable that she could not breathe.

Beside her, Wei Wei’s voice seemed to come from a very distant place. “One, two, three, four… eight roses. Oh, what do eight red roses symbolize? Let me check… Hmm, an apology and compensation?”

Wei Wei doubtfully shut her mouth.

She continued to look at that small card until a hand picked it up.

It was Feng Kun’s hand.

He lowered his head to look at the card. She was confident that he recognized what it was, but his expression was normal. He only passed the card to her and said, “For you.”

Xia Ling did not take it.

He placed the card on the table.

“Feng Kun, what are you doing?!” Ah Wei’s voice could be heard.

Hordes of people were streaming in, which indicated that everyone must have left the studio. Among them, Ah Wei was the first to insert himself between her and Feng Kun and protected her by standing in front of her. After that, he furiously glared at him. “Let me warn you. Don’t get any ideas with Xiao Ling. No matter how well she sings, she is an artiste of Skyart Entertainment and the person I will produce for. She will never join Imperial Entertainment!”

Feng Kun could not help but laugh and ignored Wei Shaoyin. He spoke to Xia Ling. “We agreed that after the filming ended, we would go for a drink.”

Only then did she remember their agreement.

After some thought, she came to the conclusion that some things had to be explained eventually. The more she tried to hide, the more suspicious others would get. Xia Ling called Li Lei and told him he did not have to pick her up. Afterward, she said goodbye to Wei Shaoyin who was going crazy and entered Feng Kun’s car.

“Moonlight” bar.

This was Feng Kun’s business. Xia Ling remembered that she cut the ribbon during the bar’s opening ceremony. It had a rotating hall which overlooked the city. In the past, when she was in a bad mood, she liked to go to the bar and order a cocktail. She would sit in front of the glass wall and experience the bar’s intoxicating atmosphere of soft music and quietness. Unknowingly, her feelings were slowly lifted.

How many years had been since she had last gone there…?

Ever since she was imprisoned by Pei Ziheng, it was almost three years.

As Xia Ling was lost in a trance, Feng Kun had already opened the door for her. “Come in. I have booked the entire place tonight.”

There was no one in the bar. The soft music was flowing, and the bartender wiped a glass leisurely. Xia Ling looked around. Everything seemed familiar — the long frosted glass table, the floor to ceiling window, and the city’s shining lights.

Memories flashed before her eyes.

A familiar and low-pitched male voice interrupted her thoughts. “The view here is very nice. Someone once said that looking at it is like basking in a sea of stars. I think you will definitely like it too. Oh yes, recently, there is a new type of raspberry fruit wine. It is very delicious.”

Basking in a sea of stars…

That was what she said that year. She really missed that feeling and could not experience it anywhere else. There was also raspberry fruit wine, her favorite flavor. She asked for a glass of raspberry fruit wine and walked to the seat she was familiar with.

Ice Throne.

It was the most uniquely designed object there and was located at the outer edge of the rotating bar in a semi-enclosed space which was connected to the main area of the bar through a narrow pathway. The most unique thing about it was that its walls and floors were made of transparent tempered glass. Stepping on it was like stepping into a void, away from the city and into a vast starry sky…

A thrilling sort of beauty.

Xia Ling always liked that area as no other place would allow her to immerse herself in the starry sky. It was also quiet and very few people dared to cross the gradually transparent high altitude pathway to disturb her.

She walked to a familiar seat and sat down.

She slowly took a sip of wine from the goblet and relaxed her mind and body. Her thoughts started to float. She thought about many events of the past. Whether happy or unhappy, pieces of her memories surrounded her like rotating stars.

Feng Kun also took a glass of wine and sat opposite her. “We are on the 80th story. The fact that you walked past the transparent glass floor and dared to sit here means you must be very courageous.”

She looked down and glanced at the city with lights beneath her feet. It was very far away from her like another vast and mysterious world. As the bar slowly rotated, she felt as if she was slowly flying. She gently shook the wine glass in her hand and said, “It’s clean here.” When she faced Feng Kun, she unknowingly became calm and let her guard down. This was because she already knew that he was the only person in her past life who was truly her friend and never harmed her before. Instead, he was always doing his best to protect her.

Unfortunately, she realized this too late.

Feng Kun smiled and pushed the glass of wine beside him to Xia Ling. “Try this.”

That was a glass of a brightly colored cocktail. The deep red liquid had specks of blue in it; red like fire and blue like ice. She took a sip. It had the sweetness of raspberries and an unknown psychedelic taste.

She experienced comfortable dizziness. “What’s this?” she asked.