A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Xia Ling was agitated. “It’s not illegal to kill cats! So only I can avenge them!”

The old grandma pulled her tighter and cried. “Xiao Ling! You must not be impulsive! I’m already sad enough to have so many cats die. If anything happens to you too, what should I do!”

Xia Ling finally calmed down.

She crouched down and hugged her old grandma’s thin and frail body. The grievances that had accumulated these days came to her heart and she cried together with her grandma, tears falling like rivulets.

“The most important thing now,” said the grandma as she cried. “is to gather the cats that are still alive and take them to the pet hospital for examination. What if they have accidentally taken the poison and it comes into effect later?”

Xia Ling wiped her tears and went home with her grandma to take a cage and a backpack. She put a few wild cats that didn’t look very comfortable inside and sat on a car to the pet hospital.

When she arrived at the hospital, she found that the door was closed.

The guard said to them, “The hospital is closed early today. Go to another hospital.”

Xia Ling was too anxious. “How could you close it early? Our cats have been poisoned by rat poison, and they might die if not treated on time! How could we go to another hospital and save them on time?” The kitten she was holding closed its eyes slowly and seemed to be taking shallow breaths and was even twitching a little.

The guard was very sympathetic. “The nearest Baoyun Pet Hospital is more than an hour away by car. Even if you get there, they might already be off duty. There’s no other choice, this is life. VIPs came to our hospital today and the whole hospital has to accommodate them, so even the reception is closed and the emergency department was stopped.”

Pet hospitals were not like people’s hospitals. Even if the emergency department stopped for a day, nobody would complain.

The grandma was dizzy with anxiety and couldn’t help but say, “What should we do…”

Xia Ling was also anxious. She felt the kitten in her arms grow weaker and weaker, and her heart felt like it had been set on fire. But now was not the time to vent her emotions, so she clenched her teeth and acted decisively. “I have to go to Baoyun Hospital to try anyway, otherwise there is no chance.”

She turned around and brought her grandma along, planning to stop at Baoyun Hospital.

Suddenly, someone behind them called, “Please wait.”

Xia Ling turned back and saw a tall and broad man standing in front. The muscles under his shirt were bulging out and he gave off a huge sense of oppression. The man said to her very politely, “Lady, my young master has seen that you have met into some kind of trouble and has let me ask you if you need any help?”

Xia Ling took two steps back with vigilance. “Who is your young master?”

Her heart jumped madly inside, could it be that Pei Ziheng had found her?!

The strong man smiled. “My family’s young master is Li Lei, he said you must have heard of him before.”

Li Lei! Xia Ling had heard of him before, and her impression of him was very strong—wasn’t he the man who had driven her home the day she went to find Wang Jingwan to negotiate but was humiliated beyond salvation?

The faint scent of sunlight and leather on his body still lingered on her nose.

She didn’t know why, he was clearly a stranger, but somehow, he made her heart feel settled in a strange way. She said to the man, “My cats are dying soon and need immediate treatment. Please ask your family’s young master to save them.”

The strong man took the two cats from her as well as the cat cage from the grandma. “Follow me.”

After that, he took big steps and led them inside the hospital.

The pet hospital had been closed, but it was a special trip for his young master—Li Lei. The guards and security guards all recognized that he was Li Lei’s bodyguard, so they brought them in without obstructing them. The bodyguard led them into the cat department immediately and several doctors jumped into action to treat the cats.

Xia Ling had not had a breather until now, and she helped the grandma sit down in the corridor outside the clinic and wiped her forehead that was full of sweat. The grandma leaned on her and prattled on. “Today we met a good person. If not for the young master letting us in, we don’t know until when it would be delayed.”

Xia Ling was a little tired and just smiled but didn’t speak.

Unexpectedly, a young man emerged in her mind—he had a lazy smile on his face, and his voice was low and blurry. When he talked, he gave off an unorganized ray of sunshine and a mysterious enticement that was hard to pinpoint.

He was totally different from Pei Ziheng.

Just as she was lost in her thoughts, she saw a young man coming down the corridor. He stopped in front of her and said with a lazy smile on his face, “Hi, we meet again.”

Xia Ling looked up and saw Li Lei.

Today, he was wearing a casual T-shirt, but the seemingly casual shirt was very expensive. He had a hand in his trouser pocket and looked very relaxed.

Xia Ling started admiring the beautiful man unconsciously, and she asked with some vigilance, “Do you know who I am?”

In order to prevent being recognized, she had gone out wearing the old clothes left behind by the grandma’s daughter. Now, she was wearing sunglasses, a scarf, a coat with the collar perched high, and was fully covered. Nobody would think she would mix in as part of the ordinary people’s community, and nobody would even think she would throw the garbage personally and raise cats. So, all these days, even though she was a household name, nobody recognized who she really was.

But how could Li Lei have found out?

Li Lei smiled radiantly at him, then sat down beside her. “I know who you are. When I was bringing Er Mao into the hospital, I already recognized you at first glance. No matter what, I still have a friendship with you from sending you home from the coffee shop.” He didn’t directly expose her identity, perhaps taking note of the grandma beside them.

But once he talked about the coffee shop, Xia Ling knew he had not mistaken her.

Xia Ling was silent for a while before she said, “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing much.” Li Lei was still smiling. He nodded slightly to the grandma beside her as a way of greeting. “Why are you here, didn’t Pei Ziheng say you were resting at home?”

At the mention of this, Xia Ling’s heart was sour and uncomfortable.

She calmed down and whispered, “Could you help me with something?”

“What?”

“Don’t tell anyone I’m here, don’t tell anyone you saw me here, please.”

Li Lei’s eyes showed a hint of surprise, which slowly become understanding. “Your inside story is more complicated than I thought, right? You escaped.”

Xia Ling didn’t deny it.

Li Lei said, “What are your plans in the future? You can’t hide for a lifetime.”

Xia Ling was a little stunned. “I don’t know.” She originally wanted to find a job to support herself, but she was a big star and her face couldn’t be exposed to everyone, so she couldn’t do most of the work in this world. Now, it was already not easy to live with grandma and have a proper meal, so she couldn’t live there forever.

Her eyes showed a hint of sorrow. “I’ll take each step and think.”