A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Li Lei looked at him and broke into a grin. “No wonder Xiao Ling’s close to you.”

Xia Ling nodded her head vehemently by the side and proudly said, “Of course, my friends are the best.”

Feng Kun was silent. He wanted so badly to remind her of how she had taken Chu Chen to be her bosom friend back in those days but decided against it. “How do you intend to expose Xia Yu?”

Xia Ling looked towards the stage—the fifth round of the head-to-head competition had commenced.

Xia Yu’s voice was tender, and as usual, flawless. With her beautiful makeover, she won the hearts of many fans in the audience. The fans were no longer objective at this point and just hoped for Xia Yu to be on a winning streak. Hence, if they felt that Xia Yu and her opponent were not too different in their standards, they would very much rather vote for Xia Yu and support her instead. As long as Xia Yu maintained her current standard, it would be difficult to beat her.

And would Xia Yu maintain her standard? That’s for sure.

She had produced so many songs and albums, how could she make any mistake at this juncture?

Xia Ling squinted her eyes slightly and slowly said, “Let her sing. I’ll be the last one up on stage.” She wanted Xia Yu to rise in all the support and popularity she was gaining. This way, the higher she rose, the greater she would fall.

She would deliver Xia Yu’s fatal blow.

Li Lei smiled and nodded. “My Xiao Ling is the best.” He didn’t know much about music, but he knew how to defeat an enemy. Xia Ling didn’t have to explain much for him to understand her strategy.

Feng Kun got it too. “How ruthless.” He didn’t know what had been going on in that period, why did Xia Ling suddenly have so much hatred for Xia Yu? In the past, however much conflict they were in, Xia Ling was never the one to take active action against her.

But since Li Lei was around now, he didn’t ask.

The three of them went to a nearby cafeteria for a rest as they watched the performances on stage. Xia Yu was getting better each round, and her supporters were expanding.

Every singer that went up against her left the stage defeated.

Only Xia Yu was standing strong, albeit with beads of perspiration on her forehead. She took a short break in between and returned even better than before.

“Xia Yu, Xia Yu, Xia Yu!”

The fans were cheering for her. It had almost become Xia Yu’s personal concert.

“It’ll be hitting tomorrow’s headlines.” Feng Kun looked at the mountain of reporters with their cameras and shooting equipment.

“And the one on the headlines will be me.” Xia Ling finished her last glass of juice and went off to take a walk with Li Lei at the backstage. Just before she left, she had smiled at Feng Kun and said, “Sit back and enjoy watching my performance!”

Feng Kun smiled as well.

Maybe only a girl this simple and innocent could be this good at music. Usually, she appeared childlike, even silly, but when it involved music, she seemed to transform into another person altogether. It was as if she were made for this field. Even when she had to battle against ten-odd competitors in a row the last time, she seemed to have achieved it with no stress.

Xia Ling changed up in the backstage — off went her simple black hoodie and on went her eye-catching, glamorous costume. The costume was tight-fit and emphasized her perfect figure. Despite having a child just less than six months back, her body had recovered its shape and form splendidly, leaving no trace of it.

In the backstage, a few singers greeted her. “Ye Xingling, you’ve registered for this head-to-head competition too? Why haven’t you gone up there to battle Xia Yu?” They wanted to have her know that it was riskier to go up later. If they lost to Xia Yu in the first few rounds, it could simply be that Xia Yu was slightly better than them. But towards the end, as the competition proceeded, Xia Yu would become more fatigued. By then, whoever lost to her would simply be seen as incapable.

Hence, a lot of the contestants had hoped to go up against her first.

Someone said, “Ye Xingling, are you actually waiting for everybody to tire Xia Yu bit by bit before you go up against her to deliver the final blow?”

“Don’t be silly,” another said. “Can’t you see how Xia Yu is getting better each round? A few others had entertained this idea but gave up eventually.”

Everybody felt for each other after being defeated by Xia Yu and wanted to offer her some words of advice.

Xia Ling attached a hair accessory to her head and smiled. “Yup, someone has to go last anyway. I’ll make a small sacrifice then.”

All of them heard the joking tone in her voice and were virtually shaking their heads. This girl was pretty ambitious, thinking of beating Xia Yu in the final round. But she had not shown her face in the arena in a year, how could she possibly beat Xia Yu who was at her peak now?

Well, she would learn her lesson once Xia Yu defeated her.

Everyone stopped trying to convince her.

The audience’s cheers reached a crescendo as everyone became increasingly excited. Would Xia Yu manage to last from the first round to the last? That would be a miracle.

“Big news. This is definitely some big news. It’s never before seen at the Heavenly Voice Music Festival.” The reporters were thrilled as well.

The emcee echoed the exhilaration on the floor, “Last round! There’s one, last round! And will Xia Yu manage to claim victory for all eighteen rounds, setting a record! Will she be able to defend her win in this last round and emerge as the final champion?”

“Keep going, Xia Yu!” The audience cheered.

“Xia Yu’s the best!” Some of them were going mad from the excitement.

Xia Yu smiled sweetly and humbly in the sea of roars, making her appear even more appealing to the crowd.

The emcee continued, “Let us see who the last contestant is — Ye Xingling! It’s Ye Xingling! It’s been a year since we’ve seen her perform, this must be her first time returning to the stage since then?!”

There was a brief pause in the crowd before an even louder roar erupted.

The tickets were well worth their price — not only did they get to see Xia Yu’s 18 consecutive wins, they even managed to catch Ye Xingling’s first appearance on stage in a year! After one year of being a Madam to a rich family, was her voice still as mesmerizing as before?

The crowd was full of hopes and expectations.

Xia Yu was a little shocked. What was Ye Xingling doing here?

The name list that she had received was already set very early on, and Ye Xingling’s name was not on it. It seemed like Ye Xingling had only registered at the last minute, and Xia Yu’s name list had not been updated.

She was flustered for a while but quickly composed herself.

She knew that her voice was no match for Ye Xingling’s, but given that she was just lip-syncing to a recording, and her opponent had not performed a song in a year, she should stand a good chance.

Xia Yu’s face darkened grimly as her lips curled into a wry smile.

“Ye Xingling, I wasn’t expecting you.” Xia Yu said quietly as she saw Xia Ling approaching. “There’s been so many changes in your family recently — your divorce with Brother Ziheng and the passing of your son. Don’t you need to rest and recuperate for a while more? How could you just push all that sadness aside so quickly and face the audience with a smile?”