A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

In the night breeze, Li Lei unraveled the story of what had happened.

Xia Ling listened in trepidation, her fists clenching together subconsciously.

Li Lei said, “I know that she went through much danger to find me. When I woke up, she… ” She was sleeping by his side, completely naked, using her body warmth to warm up his icy body that was devoid of a heartbeat. She had always been an elegant and reserved girl, but her body no longer had its previous glow, and in its place was scars and cuts that branches and the rough terrain of the forest had left behind.

Seeing that Li Lei had regained consciousness, Su Tang was so happy that tears fell. She forgot that she wasn’t wearing anything and said through laughter and tears. “Oh my God, how wonderful… Young Master, you’ve finally woken up… How very wonderful!”

He wanted to tell her to put on her clothes, but his injuries were so severe that he couldn’t say anything.

She lay down with her body pressing against him again, murmuring, “Young Master, please forgive me for this indecency. As long as you survive… everything else is not important at all.”

They spent a long, cold night together in the forest with Li Lei depending on Su Tang’s body warmth.

His thoughts drifted away.

He heard Xia Ling ask, “She what?”

Li Lei snapped back to his senses and realized that he hadn’t articulated all that went through his mind. However, he didn’t intend to tell Xiao Ling about this scene. If Xiao Ling knew that Su Tang had lain on him completely naked, she would be sad, wouldn’t she? He straightened out his thoughts and continued with his explanation.

“When I woke up, I saw her sitting in front of me looking malnourished and full of scars from the trek through the forest, as well as apparent fights with wild beasts. However, she didn’t say a word of complaint. She constructed a simple stretcher from tree branches and somehow carried me onto it.

“Then, I was severely injured with several broken ribs. I couldn’t speak or move.

“She dragged me on the stretcher bit by bit out of the forest. The road we traveled was in no way smooth. She had to hide from the enemy troops and poisonous snakes or wild beasts. Later, we got lost and the food rations weren’t enough. She ate grass, leaves, and insects, leaving the medication and food rations all to me. Once, she almost fell into a swamp with quicksand. Seeing that she was starting to sink into the mud and sand, her first instinct was to throw the rations that were wrapped in waterproof packaging to me and say, ‘Young Master, you have to survive.’”

Li Lei paused for a long time.

Xia Ling was quiet as well. Her heart was in anguish, though she couldn’t decide if it was for Li Lei, Su Tang or herself. If a woman was willing to die for a man, how would it be possible for that man not to be touched? In these direst moments when he was fighting to live, it was Su Tang that was by his side…

And she, Xia Ling… how could she bring herself to criticize him for choosing to be together with Su Tang any longer?

“And so, you decided to keep her and her child?” She asked softly.

Li Lei closed his eyes for a long time before he reopened them. “Xiao Ling, everything that I am going to tell you right now, can you promise me never to repeat to another soul?”

Xia Ling asked, “Why?”

“Because it impacts a woman’s dignity.”

“Su Tang?” She asked softly again.

“Yes.” He replied.

Xia Ling was quiet again before she responded, “You don’t have to tell me.” So what if she knew more about him and Su Tang? Did he want her to soften her heart and share him with her?

“Li Lei, I admit that this story is extremely touching, and I am very… ” She was full of self-blame that she couldn’t have been there for him at these critical moments. However, she continued, “You already have Li Rui with Su Tang, and I have Shaohui and my career. I think this is just our destiny. We were destined to be passers-by in each other’s lives.”

With that, she turned and made to leave.

Li Lei grabbed onto her arm again. “Xiao Ling!” His voice was distraught like an injured wild beast.

She forced herself not to look back.

He hugged her suddenly from behind. “I beg you to listen to this final part. Please? I owe you a complete explanation! I owe you this! After you have heard me out, I’m at your disposal!”

She didn’t say anything, but her body started to shake.

Li Lei was afraid that she would run away and continued hurriedly. “We were lost in the forest, the rations were diminishing quickly, and my injuries were getting from bad to worse. Su Tang feared for my life and would scour anything that she could find for me to eat, wild herbs for medication, etc. However, nothing seemed to be working.

“Later, we passed by a little aborigine village.

“Su Tang went into the village to steal some food but was caught and…

He took a long time before uttering the next word. “****”

“What?!” Xia Ling turned and stared at him incredulously.

“That’s right, Su Tang was ****** for trying to find food for me.” Li Lei said. “It was by all the men in the village. There were more than ten virile and strong men… I was lying on the stretcher in the bushes, hearing the men laugh as they did as they wished and Su Tang’s cries. She was always so elegant and reserved, and would be upset if anyone were to glance at her with some semblance of lust. To have to suffer this level of insult…

“I thought that she would die.

“The hard-headed Su Tang that I knew would kill herself if the men so much as touched her so that she could avoid further humiliation.

“But she didn’t… she tolerated them for a full day and night. Thereafter, she came back to look for me — naked, bleeding, but alive. Her body had all kinds of injuries — from being abused and assaulted…

“The first thing she did when she returned wasn’t to treat the horrendous injuries on herself. Instead, she took out the food and medication that she stole from the village to feed me. Then, she hid away to cry…

“When she reappeared, she was wearing a simple outfit fashioned from leaves and continued to drag me on the way forward. We spent a full half-month before she managed to find a way out of the thick forest. By then, she was so skinny that she was but skin and bones. The minute rescue forces arrived, she passed out.

“They fought to save me for a full week in the hospital and took ten days to do the same for Su Tang.

“The first question Su Tang asked when she woke up in the hospital was what had happened to me. Hearing that I was safe and recovering well, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. That afternoon, she waited for the medical staff to leave the room and took out a pair of scissors intending to pierce her own heart. Thankfully, a nurse walked by at that very moment and stopped her before she managed to stab herself deep enough. Blood was all over the floor…

“I heard the news and rushed over to her, asking her why she would do such a thing.

“At the start, she wouldn’t say anything. However, when I pressed her further, she finally said, ‘Young Master, you survived. Su Tang’s job is done here.’ I understood that she was still distraught from the **** incident, and at that moment forward, she might have contemplated taking her life. If she had taken her life, she wouldn’t have to suffer the humiliation…

“But then, she had to save me. So she chose to bear with it. She bore the humiliation of being assaulted by that bunch of animals, ensuring that I made it out of the forest safe and sound.

“With this mission complete, she had no more reason to live.”

Xia Ling’s heart was in her mouth at this horrifying tale, and she listened quietly in a daze. She didn’t expect that Su Tang’s devotion to Li Lei was so deep, so determined, like a moth flying towards the fire, expecting nothing in return.