A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Xia Ling received the scarf.

The softness of the fabric touched her heart.

They had known each other for so many years, gone through breakups, reconciliations and so many other obstacles. But she had never put on a scarf for him. She tiptoed slightly and carefully wrapped it around his neck. Round and round.

He looked down at her, they were so close to each other they could feel each other’s breathing.

He could see her lashes fluttering ever so slightly, soft as an art brush, and those eyes full of life. How he wished he could hold her in his embrace.

She did not know what he was thinking, and continued putting his scarf on gently and covering part of his face, the same way she did in the ad. As she was adjusting the scarf around his scar, her hands froze for a moment — she had accidentally touched it.

“Actually, it wasn’t anything serious.” He seemed to read her mind.

She was startled by his voice, and anxiously kept her hands to herself.

“Nobody asked.” She refused to admit it.

He chuckled softly. “It really doesn’t hurt.”

She took a few steps back, as if somebody was trying to reach deep inside her. The warm glow of sunset poured in through the window panes as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. He rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes.

The memory from four years ago, in which Li Feng ambushed him and scratched his face with a dagger, flashed before him. It only just hit him — if he had died back then, he would never have been able to hold her this way again, to feel her warmth or smell her hair. This was such an amazing feeling.

Xia Ling stiffened a little, but she did not move.

His breathing by his ear made her tense up a little, but it was from a strange sense of… safety. It took a while, but that sense of safety calmed her down gradually, and she closed her eyes.

The room was silent.

Little Shaohui left the room at some point.

A long time later, Li Lei spoke, “Xiao Ling, I love you.”

Her lashes fluttered a little bit. She quietly said, “Liar.”

He reached for her hands with his calloused ones. “I’ll never, ever lie to you.”

Xia Ling wanted to rebut, but on deeper thought, he’d indeed never lied to her. But, was this love? If this really was love, then what were those years of suffering about?

She gently released herself from his embrace.

“It’s getting late,” she said. “Go home.”

“Don’t you want me to stay for dinner?” He looked at the time and smiled.

Xia Ling said, “There’s nothing nice here for you to eat.”

Li Lei responded, “I’ll cook for you.” He would not give her a chance to reject. All of these — and his ways to overcome it — had been taken into consideration on his way here. While she was still in a dilemma, he made his way to the kitchen. It did not take he and Shaohui long before a spread was prepared. They called her to the table for dinner.

Over the meal, he spoke carefully.

She responded matter-of-factly, not too dismissive, but not warmly either.

Li Lei knew that there was still a barrier in her heart that he hadn’t crossed, and that it would be better to take things slow. After dinner, he bade his farewell appropriately.

Xia Ling walked him to the door.

He gave her a last hug before leaving.

That night, Xia Ling had a good dream. In her dream was the three of them — she, Li Lei and Shaohui — sitting together by the beach as they watched the sunset. Shaohui had called her Mom, and Li Lei, Dad.

When she woke, she took a while to gather her thoughts. Was this what she truly wanted?

She drove out of the house, all ready for a day of song-recording with Wei Shaoyin. Her company had been working independently all these years, but nonetheless, it was just a management company and could not be compared to Skyart or Imperial in terms of scale and diversity. She often outsourced her music producers, and these included Wei Shaoyin and Feng Kun.

Wei Shaoyin was a proud person. Despite the fact that she was a Diva, he still made it a point for her to go to his recording studio. His studio was in Skyart, and so she didn’t take the main entrance, instead parking in the car park and taking a private lift to his floor. She opened the door.

Wei Shaoyin was in the phone with someone. “I already said it, no changes! Do you understand music at all? Once you change it, it’ll feel all different! If you’re set on changing it, then don’t work with me! And don’t put my name on that! Do you hear me?! What? You want to look for Li Lei? Well, go ahead, there’s no use even if Li Lei agrees!”

He hung up angrily.

Xia Ling had long been used to this. She hung her jacket on the rack, poured herself a cup of lemon-infused water, and found her song sheet in the drawer of materials. She began flipping it, “You modified ‘Cross Junction’ again? Not bad, it sounds even better now.”

Only then did Wei Shaoyin realize that she had come.

“You’re still the one that doesn’t worry me.” Wei Shaoyin was just in an argument, and Xia Ling appeared to be an ultimate good guy now. “New singers nowadays have a horrible attitude. They begged me to supervise the song-recording process, but refuse to sing it the way I tell them to. I don’t understand. If she could make do with such low standards, why did she spend so much time persuading me to help them in the first place?!”

Xia Ling was amused, “Who’s it this time?”

Wei Shaoyin named somebody.

Xia Ling laughed. How was she a new singer? She was already pretty famous and popular by now. She casually flipped her own set of materials. “I’d asked you to join me at Phoenix Down but you declined. If you come, you’ll just be attending to me alone, life would be so much easier.”

When she left Skyart previously, she had openly asked for him to join her.

But Wei Shaoyin was firm on his stand. “Aren’t you still recording Feng Kun’s songs? Your taste is so bad, how could I possibly go over and join you?! When you finally cut all ties with Feng Kun and record my songs exclusively, I’ll go over to Phoenix Down!”

Xia Ling sighed.

These two music producers were really each other’s nemesis. It had been so many years, but Wei Shaoyin still had something against Feng Kun. He wouldn’t stop harping on it if Xia Ling recorded even one more song with Feng Kun…

Sigh. Xia Ling shook her head.

“We’ve to record this song fast,” said Xia Ling as she flipped through the sheets. “Ah Kun still has another song awaiting me. I’ve to go over in the afternoon.” She looked up at him. “Want to come along?”

“You wish!” Wei Shaoyin was angered.

“Ah Kun said he hasn’t seen you in a long time, and even got me to bring you some good…” Xia Ling said it as she liked, “Oh, anyway, he makes very good coffee, especially your favorite Mandheling. It tastes amazing.”

Wei Shaoyin wavered slightly, hesitating. Eventually, he still refused. “I’m not going!”

“It’s so boring for me to go alone…” Xia Ling pouted.

“Get Boss to go with you!” Wei Shaoyin glared at her. “Didn’t he return just to woo you? You’ve been looking at the amulet he gave you for the past few years, don’t you dare tell me you don’t miss him. Hurry and settle your messy relationship. Now that he and Su Tang are no longer together, you should take the opportunity and get married as soon as possible!”