A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

“Why should I help cure your face?” Xia Ling cutely cocked her head to the side.

Nangong Qingya felt frustration build in her chest and felt like she was about to puke blood. This b*tch, how could she ask such a question?! If not for her, how could her face be in such a state?! However, since she was in a compromising position, she had to beg lowly regardless of how angry she felt. “Once you cure my face, that sixty billion is yours.”

“How interesting…” Xia Ling laughed lightly. “Miss Nangong, you seem to have gotten it wrong… That sixty billion is money that you’d already owed me. How can you use my money to negotiate with me?”

This b*tch!

Nangong Qingya was on the verge of ripping Xia Ling to pieces, but she controlled herself, though her voice sounded a little strangled. “Then, what do you suggest I do?”

“You should give me that sixty billion with interest up front.” Xia Ling gleefully said, thinking that she had just gotten a huge windfall. “Additionally, how much does Miss Nangong feel your face is worth?”

Nangong Qingya was furious. So, this was her motive!

She was going to extort even more money!

“Ye Xingling, isn’t sixty billion enough? Are you out to bleed the Nangong Family dry?” Nangong Qingya’s voice started to quiver.

“I have no interest in bleeding the Nangong Family dry.” Xia Ling casually responded.

Nangong Qingya breathed a sigh of relief, only to hear Xia Ling say.

“However, I’m fully interested in making life difficult for anyone that offends me.”

“You!” Nangong Qingya’s eyes seemed to spit fire.

Xia Ling smiled. “Miss Nangong, wouldn’t it have been so easy if you simply paid up in the lingerie shop? Then, it was a mere thirty billion. Later on, Li Lei invited you for dinner and the price then was only sixty billion. But you guys still refused to pay up. And now, you are going to have to pay more to cure your face.”

What did she mean “only sixty billion”?!

Nangong Qingya was almost in hysterics. Sixty billion! Did she think it was six hundred yuan?! Only?! Why didn’t she spit that money out then! B*tch!

Nangong Qingya cursed in her heart but bit her lip and did not dare make a sound.

Wei Shaoyin hollered from next door again. “Ye Xingling, where did you disappear to?! Show yourself right this moment! Your song isn’t done yet!”

Xia Ling rubbed her temples feeling a headache come on and then sprung off the table, making to leave. “Take your time to think about what I said. I’m going to go record now.”

“Hold it.” Nangong Qingya couldn’t bear to leave her face as it was any longer. She breathed in deeply and said in desperation, “I’ll give you another ten billion.”

“Oh…” Xia Ling was taken by surprise. She didn’t realize that the Nangong Family was so loaded. She had managed to get them to commit another ten billion so easily?

“Ten billion?” She asked suspiciously, trying to verify if she had heard wrong.

“Twenty billion!” Nangong Qingya felt her heart start to bleed internally. “Any more and you can just kill me!”

Xia Ling was speechless. She swore that she was just asking to check if she heard right and wasn’t out to extort any more. Nangong Qingya had voluntarily raised the amount to twenty billion. She was innocent!

“Deal.” She responded cheerfully.

She heard Wei Shaoyin hollering for her again.

Her little assistant came over to knock on the door with a sullen expression. “Miss Xiao Ling, I think you need to go to the recording studio to check it out. Brother Wei has blown his top and is scolding everyone in sight.” All the staff members loved Xia Ling because when she was around, Wei Shaoyin would only scold her and everyone else was safe. When she disappeared, they would all get the brunt of Wei Shaoyin’s fury.

Xia Ling wordlessly followed the little assistant and left the room.

“Hey…” Nangong Qingya anxiously shouted after her.

Unfortunately, Xia Ling did not hear her.

At the entrance of the pristinely clean recording studio.

Wei Shaoyin was dressed in a simple white shirt with his platinum-rimmed glasses, and his Patek Philippe almost smacked Xia Ling in the face. “You finally decided to roll yourself back here! Get yourself into the recording booth right this instant! Where’s your professional ethics?!”

Xia Ling was speechless.

Wei Shaoyin continued. “What kind of look are you giving me? Are you upset?! Don’t think I won’t put you in cold storage!”

Xia Ling asked. “Ah Wei, how much do you think you are worth?”

Wei Shaoyin was taken aback. “Huh?”

“Next time, don’t be so eager to scold me. Big Sister here is sitting on a fortune of sixty… oh no… eighty… oh wait… ninety billion.” She computed the total amount that Nangong Qingya was going to give her for the bet, psychological compensation, to cure her face, as well as the allowance that her brother had given her. She was feeling rich — she hadn’t even counted the million dollar a day interest that the Nangong Family owed and the five million allowance that Li Lei gave her every month.

This time it was Wei Shaoyin that was rendered speechless. This lass, was she dreaming?

In the next second, Xia Ling had already walked into the recording booth.

She seemed to become a completely different person in the recording booth as she fell into the music. Her voice was angelic, and everyone in the room was still basking in the song even after the recording was done.

Outside the recording booth, Wei Shaoyin was silent for a moment before saying, “Another time.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Xia Ling asked as she stepped out of the booth.

“Xiao Ling, did you realize that your voice seems to have changed recently?” Wei Shaoyin paused to collect his thoughts. “Your range is wider and higher than before. Sometimes, I can’t decide if you’re trying to sing with your head voice or falsetto.” A falsetto was a range that one could only be born with.

“How is that possi…” Xia Ling was about to disregard his statement but stopped mid-sentence, stunned.

She thought about her singing carefully and realized that it did seem like she had sung a falsetto as she did in her past life.

“Even your subconscious movements look like you’re singing with falsetto.” Wei Shaoyin said as he mimicked her action of pressing behind her ears. “The falsetto pitching is a little different from your normal voice. To make sure that they hit the right pitch, singers that sing with falsetto would tend to do such an action. For instance, the Diva Xia Ling would do the same. When you were singing the high part earlier, you had the exact same action.”

Xia Ling was in shock. No way… had her falsetto come back?!

That didn’t make sense.

She walked back into the recording booth in a daze. This time, she paid more attention to her high pitch and realized that her range was indeed wider and brighter, and she was hitting the high notes with much greater ease. When she was engrossed in the song, she would raise her hand subconsciously to press behind her ears.

The falsetto was still slightly off from her past life.

But it was definitely beyond the range of a normal head voice.

“How can this be?” She murmured to herself after completing the song.

Wei Shaoyin pushed open the glass door and came into the booth, a look of disbelief plastered on his face. “Did you have a second puberty spurt? This is a miracle in the history of the music circle! It’s even more amazing than someone being born with the falsetto!”

“I’m a little dizzy…” Xia Ling said as she pushed Wei Shaoyin aside and sat down on the little sofa in the room.

She tried to recall when her voice had changed.

“During your first concert, your high tones were stellar, but I thought that it was just a result of your hard work in practice…” Wei Shaoyin said.