A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Luo Luo nodded her head. For Bai Murong, she’d give her all!

On the day of the Nebula awards ceremony, Xia Ling was sitting in a limousine as it made its way to the venue slowly.

Lin Yunan had gone with her and instructed the chauffeur. “Drive slowly.” He then turned around and told Xia Ling, “A lot of female celebrities have not arrived yet. You should wait a little longer and make the final appearance like you did the past few years.”

The female celebrity who made the final appearance commanded a higher status.

Xia Ling turned around and saw that there were indeed several luxury cars around her traveling at a tortoise’s pace. They were evidently trying to arrive a little later for the red carpet. She couldn’t help but smile and say to Lin Yunan, “It’s alright.”

She was proud and ambitious when she was younger and very particular about details like this. Whenever she was attending an event, nobody could make the final appearance but her. Back then she was extremely popular and had Pei Ziheng’s backing; hence, everyone went with it her way.

But now in her second life, she’d learned to take things a little easier.

Making the final appearance was a given, it was simply a statement of her status and reputation. She was the top-notch Diva in the country and nobody could hold a candle to her—whenever she was around, every other female celebrity would have to give in to her and show respect. Hence, even if someone else arrived after her and made the final appearance instead, nobody would think of them as being better than Xia Ling in any way.

Xia Ling was completely relaxed as she closed her eyes for a rest.

Meanwhile, Lin Yunan was very invested in this. He made a phone call. “Hello, Old Han? You and Lu Yisi are on the Lamborghini in front of us, right? Stop your dilly-dally, this year’s final guest is still none other than our Xiao Ling. You might as well make your way there earlier and settle down… Hey, you’re trying to fight it out with us? Haha, hahaha.”

Before he was done laughing out loud, the car in front had already sped to the venue.

Xia Ling was speechless. He’d managed to scare them away just like that?

Lin Yunan was getting smug. “Did you see that? You’re now the Queen of the entertainment circle and everyone’s running away just from hearing your name.” He loved this feeling, this sense of power and authority to thumb everyone down. Wasn’t that exactly why he insisted on managing only the best and most popular celebrities?

Lin Yunan hummed a little tune and made one call after another.

There was no denying that Manager Lin had a big part to play in Xia Ling’s success at being the final guest all these years. He always had a way to fend off the other competitors, chasing away even the most ambitious of female celebrities.

Xia Ling smiled. It was nice having a partner like that.

She closed her eyes again for a rest and heard Lin Yunan say, “It’s settled, all the other female celebrities have given their word to arrive first. You’ll be the last to make an appearance.” At this point, the car was already near the red carpet and there were a few cars in line like hers.

The red carpet ceremony proceeded smoothly as each celebrity walked up, stopped, and posed for photos.

A few other big shots alighted from the cars around her and slowly made their way to the red carpet.

Lin Yunan appeared more relaxed now and began counting the number of people who were already present as he hummed a tune.

Xia Ling felt her ears itching to shut out, “this manager’s singing was as bad as Big Boss’,” but also happened to enjoy singing. Seeing that most celebrities had alighted, she quickly instructed the chauffeur. “Let’s go.”

They were hanging back a little and had to arrive right at the red carpet for someone to open the door for her. The reporters would also be snapping the precious moments—from her stepping out of the car to setting foot on the carpet.

The chauffeur started the car.

All of a sudden, Lin Yunan yelled, “Wait!”

Xia Ling was startled. “What?”

“46, 47, 48… That’s not right, only 49 groups are here.” Lin Yunan looked puzzled. “I’ve checked, there are supposed to be 51 groups present today. That means that besides you, there’s one more person who hasn’t walked the red carpet! If you go down now, you’ll be the second-last, letting someone else take your place to make the final appearance.”

Xia Ling was getting a little impatient from all the waiting. “It doesn’t matter, it’s not as if it’ll cost me anything.”

In any case, she’d still have the greatest coverage. Reporters and fans loved seeing her more than anyone else.

Lin Yunan rolled his eyes. “You’ve already waited so long, you might as well wait a little more. And even if you don’t bother about being the last appearance, could you spare a thought for me, your manager? I just made so many calls out, using incentives and threats to get other celebrities to give it up. If it turns out that you aren’t the one, do you know how long I’ll be mocked for?”

“Probably a whole year…” All the way until the following year’s red carpet ceremony.

Xia Ling said after some serious thought.

“Exactly!” Lin Yunan slapped his thigh. “For my sake, could you please hold it out a little longer? Let me check who the last person is…”

He began making calls again while looking through information.

Xia Ling rolled her seat down. Thankfully, Lin Yunan stopped humming when he was busy.

“I got it!” Lin Yunan figured it out. “I was wondering who was the daring one, and turns out it’s Xia Yu! Her manager has called the organizing crew to say that they’ll be late. Pfft, what an old trick. I’ve used this more than a decade ago. They just want to make the final appearance at the red carpet.”

The female celebrities would do all it took to make the last appearance.

Xia Ling was shocked. It was actually Xia Yu! She was glad she hadn’t been impulsive enough to get the chauffeur to go ahead—she could give this place up to anyone, just not Xia Yu!

Back then, Xia Yu had tossed Shaohui into the trash bin. Even though Shaohui had survived, the seed of hatred had been sown nonetheless. She was not about to take revenge actively, but there was no way she would give up anything that belonged to her to Xia Yu!

“We’ll wait.” She decided without hesitation.

Wasn’t it a game of who was arriving later? No problem, she could afford it.

Each minute went by…

10 minutes, 20 minutes…

The reporters had seen many different luxury cars come and go, but now, only one white limousine was left. Seeing that the car was not about to move, they couldn’t help but begin discussing.

“Is that Miss Ye Xingling! It seems like she’s the only one left.” A reporter told a fellow friend beside him.