A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Xia Ling lifted her head, her eyes red and swollen from crying.

A huge, fluffy, and pink cotton candy materialized in front of her eyes, with Li Lei’s handsome face behind it. It was slightly queer seeing this well-built man with muscles peeking through his shirt crouching down in the corner of the bedroom with a huge cloud of cotton candy in his hands.

The bedroom was dark with the lights off, and moonlight shone through the window.

She sniffled as she took in this scene in confusion. Hadn’t she just been dumped?

“For you.” Li Lei said as he stuffed the cotton candy into her hand.

“What are you doing?” Her voice was a little nasal from just having stopped crying.

“You’re not allowed to be together with Pei Ziheng.” He said. Li Lei had felt overwhelmed after their quarrel and was bent on breaking up. However, he regretted the moment he stepped out of the bungalow’s main gate. What had he promised before? He had promised to never hurt Xiao Ling, even if she no longer loved him and chose to be with someone else. Yet, that person could not be Pei Ziheng. Pei Ziheng had imprisoned and tortured her. There was no way that he would let her go back to him.

He had walked by a little stall selling cotton candy and had stared at the old lady tending the stall in a daze. The sweet scent of strawberry and white icing sugar mixed together wafted towards him, and he recalled that Xiao Ling loved to eat cotton candy, as well as the many wonderful memories they had together.

“Young man, buy one for your girlfriend.” The old lady had smiled and coaxed.

However, Li Lei did not move.

“What’s wrong, Young man? Did you quarrel with your girlfriend?” The old lady asked.

Li Lei replied with a bitter voice, “We broke up.” He felt his heart break the moment he uttered these three words.

The old lady stared at him intently before asking, “Why did you break up? You look like you still love that girl. If you love her, go get her back. If you let her go, there’s no turning back. You would have just done a favor for the next man.”

This random piece of advice was like a knock on Li Lei’s head. Yes, why was he doing a favor for the next man?

He said, “Granny, give me a stick of cotton candy. I want it to be very big and extremely sweet.”

“Sure thing.” The old lady smiled. “That’s the way.” She whipped up a big and sweet cloud of cotton candy for him to take back to the bungalow.

Now, Li Lei watched as the fluffy cotton candy covered almost half of Xia Ling’s face. Her nose stuck out from the top, a little bit of the pink candy on her nose.

He reached over to wipe the candy off her nose. “Did you hear me?”

Xia Ling, who had buried her face in the cotton candy to take in the intoxicating scent, felt her happy mood sink down again, tears filling up her eyes again. She grabbed Li Lei’s outstretched hand and bit down on it hard.

Her bite was deep, and she could taste the fishiness of blood permeating her mouth.

She didn’t let go and continued to bite him.

Li Lei felt the pain from the bite but did not retract his hand, letting her vent her anger. Actually, he was the one that wanted to bite someone. He wanted to throw this woman, who was having a complicated relationship with the man next door, onto the bed and teach her a lesson, to show her who was Boss.

He looked down at her fair side profile, his breathing becoming deeper.

She bit him for a long time before he felt her teeth relax a little. As expected, there was an additional row of teeth marks on the back of his hand. It was deep and likely to leave a scar.

She was still crying. “You’re a bastard!”

Li Lei was speechless. She was the one that had bit him. Why was he the bastard now?

“Why are you learning from the dogs?” He lifted her chin up so that she was looking at him, and used a finger to wipe away the remaining traces of blood from her lips. However, he didn’t manage to clean it up, but instead, the blood mixed with the tears on her face.

Li Lei thought to himself, Would Pei Ziheng want her like this? I should just make her look dirtier and uglier, then she would perhaps forget about going over next door.

As such, he wiped his blood-covered finger over her face.

She sniffled and said chokingly, “I didn’t sleep with Pei Ziheng! Why did you accuse me?” All her disappointment came rushing to the forefront of her mind. She remembered the feeling of being wronged and not having the trust of the man she loved in her past life, who did not believe her even after she denied so vehemently that she had killed Wang Jingwan.

How could the man she loved question her character?

Thus, she was angry and had to bite off a piece of him.

However, Li Lei reacted with a confused expression. “Huh?”

“I didn’t sleep with him!” This time, she shouted at him while crying. “Li Lei, you bastard! Bastard! Bastard!”

He understood now why she had bitten him.

He suddenly felt his mood lift as her words sunk in.

But…”Wait, wait, didn’t you admit to sleeping with him the other day?”

“I just said that in anger! Why did you believe me?” She was close to tears again. “If you didn’t treat me like that in the caravan, would I say something like that to spite you?! It’s all your fault, all your fault!”

Li Lei was overjoyed. So that was just her words in anger?

He carefully probed. “Then, what about that morning when he walked out of your bedroom in his pajamas? You were lying on your bed naked. What happened then?”

Xia Ling stared blankly at him. “I don’t understand what you are talking about.”

Li Lei started to get flustered. “It was that day when you were sick! You woke up and saw Pei Ziheng and me talking. Wasn’t he in pajamas that day?” He had to admit that even though Pei Ziheng was getting older in years, he still kept in shape, such that Li Lei had the urge to kill him.

Xia Ling was still confused. “Was he in pajamas? I didn’t notice.” She was so sick that her memory was blurry. How could she recall what Pei Ziheng was wearing? But…”Why did he wear pajamas to my house?!”

They stared at each other and, suddenly, came to a realization together.

Pei Ziheng, that scheming uncle!

“Xiao Ling, tell me what happened that day from the beginning.”

Xia Ling collected her thoughts and recounted. “The day before I sprained my ankle, he brought some medication over and then went home. The next day, I woke up and saw both of you quarreling. That’s all I know.”

Li Lei felt a headache coming on. Was he duped by Pei Ziheng? “When I entered the bedroom, I saw you lying on the bed covered by the blankets. You seemed to not be wearing anything underneath.” That was why he had been so jealous he saw red.

“No…” Xia Ling said. “I was feeling terrible that day and didn’t change out of my evening gown before going to bed. Oh right, that evening gown was an off-shoulder piece…” Maybe that was why she looked like she was not wearing anything?

Li Lei didn’t know how to respond.

So this was the truth.

He felt the urge to give himself two tight slaps. Why did he get into such a misunderstanding with Xiao Ling? If he had listened to her explain herself, maybe there wouldn’t be all those things that happened after.

He brought the cotton candy nearer to her lips. “You’ve had a tough time. Have some candy.”

“I’m not eating it.” She turned her head away from him and pouted.