A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Onstage, Xia Yu had finished her song, and the emcee was dragging out the time.

The head of planning promised to gift a branded bag to Xia Ling to apologize, while half-pleading, half-dragging Xia Ling towards the stage. When she was finally on stage, the head of planning breathed a huge sigh of relief.

His assistant fanned him from the side and said, “Brother Liu, sorry that you had to clean up the mess that Planning Manager Zhou created.”

Head of Planning Liu gave a cold laugh. “This is retribution.”

Planning Manager Zhou was an upstart that had just returned from overseas and was not only from a prestigious university but had also headed up several top-notch programs. He had never regarded the Head of Planning highly. This time, when he heard that Xia Yu had contacted the program team, Head of Planning Liu knew that the opportunity had arisen to rid himself of Planning Manager Zhou. Everyone in the industry knew how difficult Xia Ling and Lin Yunan were to work with. They would nitpick on every detail of the rundown with high standard and requests that were difficult to accomplish.

Head of Planning Liu had intentionally avoided Xia Yu and sent her to Planning Manager Zhou to handle.

He had also gotten someone to hint to Planning Manager Zhou to keep Xia Yu’s request from Xia Ling so as to get a more dramatic and real reaction during the live broadcast. As expected, Planning Manager Zhou stepped right into his trap.

And Xia Ling got angry right on cue.

Head of Planning Liu had used her to remove the thorn in his flesh and was feeling extremely satisfied. But of course, he didn’t come out of it completely unscathed as well. He had to dock three months of his own salary, but that was nothing in return for removing a strong rival and holding down his position.

He smiled and instructed his assistant. “Go pick a bag that would suit Miss Ling’s tastes.”

He hummed to himself on the way back to his office.

Xia Ling walked slowly on stage, and all the cameras immediately panned towards her. They captured shots of her from all angles, from her exquisite pearl-lined dress to the impeccable makeup on her face.

Her expression was calm as she looked over at Xia Yu on the other end of the stage.

Xia Yu choked as she said, “Sister, you’re finally willing to see me!” The crowd reacted to her act of choking up from happiness, thinking that it was a remarkable show of the closeness of their relationship.

However, Xia Ling said, “I don’t have a sister like you.”

The audience and emcee were stunned. They didn’t expect things to pan out this way. Wasn’t Xia Ling supposed to be so touched after hearing Xia Yu’s song that she would run over to embrace and forgive her?

Xia Yu’s tears fell like beads of pearl. “Sister, you will always be my sister! If you are really my sister, Xia Ling, reincarnated, you won’t be so harsh to me, right? You were so nice to me before… you couldn’t bear to say a harsh word to me even though I did something wrong. I’ve been missing you every day all these years…”

Her crying became louder.

Actually, Xia Yu didn’t fully believe that Ye Xingling was her sister reincarnated. What rubbish was that about the reborn Phoenix… it was all too out of the world. For normal people, it was just a beautiful legend.

However, regardless of whether she was indeed the reincarnated Xia Ling, Xia Yu had to gain her forgiveness if she wanted to return to the Xia Family.

Xia Yu said to Xia Ling tearfully, “Sister, I beg for your forgiveness.”

Xia Ling’s gaze was cold. What was the meaning of this? Was Xia Yu trying to threaten her now? If she didn’t forgive Xia Yu, was she going to throw shade on the veracity of her being the reincarnated Phoenix? The hidden meaning in Xia Yu’s words made Xia Ling unhappy.

Her voice was icy as she regarded Xia Yu. “Some people believe that I am the reincarnated Xia Ling, but others don’t. I don’t really care if you believe me or not. The past is the past, and I’m only concerned about what happens in this life. Feigning illness in the filming site, slapping me, lip-synching… all these I can ignore. However, there is one thing that I cannot overlook. Tell me now, at Shaohui’s hundredth-day celebration, did you or did you not throw him out like garbage when no one was around?”

There was a collective gasp in the audience.

“Wha… what? Did I hear wrong?” The emcee stuttered in her shock. “Miss Ling… are you saying that Xia Yu was behind the disappearance of your child, Shaohui, at his hundredth-day celebration?”

Xia Ling continued to stare at Xia Yu with an icy glare.

The police didn’t find any evidence and this investigation was never made known to the public. There was no way of verifying if Xia Yu was truly the culprit unless she admitted it herself.

Xia Ling had originally not wanted to pursue this matter as long as Shaohui was fine. However, this woman had decided to show up in front of her, begging for forgiveness. Then, they had to be upfront about all their grievances, hadn’t they? “You’ve always been in love with Pei Ziheng. In the past, everyone thought that the child’s father was Pei Ziheng. Hence, you were jealous and not only tried to make me have a miscarriage when I was pregnant, but also tried to kill my child at his hundredth-day celebration, right?”

Everyone watching the live broadcast started to discuss this revelation emphatically. So Xia Yu had done something so horrible to Xia Ling? Who would have thought… Xia Yu looked so weak, innocent and harmless… who would have thought that she was so cruel! “Is she still the sister that Xia Ling doted on so much? She’s so cruel!” Someone commented.

However, many didn’t believe that she would do such a thing. “It can’t be… would Xia Yu really be so horrible? Is there some sort of misunderstanding? Xia Yu, hurry and explain yourself… we want to know the truth!”

Xia Yu’s fans were especially keen on hearing what she had to say.

“How could Xiao Yu possibly be in love with Pei Ziheng? How could she possibly have tried to murder a little baby?” They discussed. “There must be some misunderstanding! Ye Xingling is spinning a story… she has too much of an imagination! She doesn’t seem to be Xiao Yu’s sister, she can’t be the reincarnated Xia Ling!”

“Yes, Ye Xingling can’t be the reincarnated Xia Ling!”

“Ye Xingling, you’re too gross! Get off the stage!”

“Ye Xingling, get off the stage!”

Many of Xia Yu’s fans started to fill online forums with this chant.

However, Xia Ling’s fans overpowered Xia Yu’s manifold. They retaliated in the online forums. “You brainless fools! How can you even think that Xiao Ling is telling lies? She has to be the reincarnated Xia Ling! Xia Yu must have done something terrible to her!”

“Exactly! The one that should get off the stage is Xia Yu!”

“Xia Yu is just too cruel! How can she try to harm a pregnant woman and a child!”

“Xia Yu, get off the stage!”

“Xia Yu, get off the stage!”

Xia Yu’s fans were soon drowned out by Xia Ling’s fans.

While the two sisters on stage couldn’t see the online battle between their fans, the atmosphere at the venue was even more heated.

Xia Yu’s stared at her sister, her expression pale, thinking to herself: Should I or should I not admit? If she didn’t admit to it, there was no way that they would be able to find any evidence to prove that she was the culprit. In fact, most people would think that she was wrongly accused, garnering her a lot of pity votes and popularity. Maybe some people would even accuse Xia Ling of slander.

This was the perfect opportunity to build her own image and destroy Xia Ling’s.

But… she couldn’t.

The medicine that Wei Lingnan gave her was like a fishbone in her throat. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like if couldn’t return to the Xia Family, and her body rotted to death. If she wanted to return to the Xia Family, she needed to bow down to Xia Ling.