A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Xia Ling followed Li Lei onto the car, and the driver started up the vehicle.

She was quiet as she thought about the exchange with Xia Yu earlier and the past memories.

Li Lei said, “Don’t worry… even if Xia Yu refuses to say anything, we can still find out the truth. She killed Bao Renjiu, as well as many other people that tried to blackmail her. There has to be some relationship between all these people.”

Xia Ling nodded listlessly.

Li Lei could tell that she was preoccupied, and knew what she was thinking about. He reached out and pulled her into his arms, saying gently, “Xiao Ling… everyone has a past. Those experiences were not your fault. You don’t have to blame yourself for it.”

Xia Ling turned her head away and looked out of the window at the quickly passing buildings. She remembered that in the final year with Pei Ziheng, he would take her outside sometimes. Then, she would sit in the back seat of the car, her body hurting from all the wounds and abrasions, not daring to defy anything that that man wanted. But… she always had the urge to open the car door and jump out. Then, even death was a luxury.

Her greatest wish then was that her compliance to Pei Ziheng’s will would allow her to be kindly treated. She couldn’t fathom meeting another man or being in another blissful relationship so that she could leave the trauma behind her.

What she had today far surpassed her expectations.

Her body started to relax and she leaned against Li Lei’s chest. She said in a soft voice, “I love you.”

Li Lei smiled, his eyes reflecting the afternoon sun like sparkles of gold, making him look even more attractive with the buildings in his backdrop. “I love you, too.” Li Lei responded and kissed her forehead.

The results of the investigations came back very quickly.

Li Lei showed it to Xia Ling. “It’s been confirmed—Bao Renjiu was murdered by Xia Yu. She also killed several other people… those others are the family members of the person responsible for your death.”

“The person responsible for my death?” Xia Ling took a while to understand what he meant. During her concert, she was pushed offstage after being stabbed in the heart from the back. The actual murder was not carried out by Young Master Wang himself, but by a gangster that had been paid off.

“That murderer was sentenced to death together with Young Master Wang.” Xia Ling murmured. “By right, a gangster such as him shouldn’t be associated with Xia Yu at all… but his family sent a blackmail letter to Xia Yu, saying, ‘If you don’t give me the money, I’ll tell everyone about what you did before.’ On the other hand, the Wang family kept going on about how they were framed…”

Her face turned white.

Li Lei completed what she was unwilling to say out loud. “If Bao Renjiu’s assertion that the Wang Family was framed is true, then the true mastermind behind your murder is likely not Young Master Wang, but Xia Yu. So… when Bao Renjiu was investigating the matter, he was killed secretly by Xia Yu.” Everything fell into place with this explanation.

Xia Ling shook her head, unable to speak.

She couldn’t believe that the sister that she doted on so much was the mastermind behind her murder.

“She tried to harm Shaohui… it’s not surprising that she tried to harm you, too.” Li Lei commented. Everything was crystal clear to him since he was an independent party. “She craved Pei Ziheng’s attention, and you were in her way. It’s that simple.”

Xia Ling’s voice was weak. “I need to see the evidence.”

“Okay, then we will look for the evidence.” Li Lei didn’t like harming the innocent but also didn’t like to let enemies off. Anyone that dared touch Xiao Ling was harming his reason to live.

They started to gather the evidence.

Since they were trying to uncover the truth of an old case, then reenacting the crime scene was a good method. Li Lei willingly forked out the money to rent the tenth-anniversary concert venue and hired a private investigation house to reenact the scene from that fated concert.

Xia Ling put on the glimmering dress from the concert and stood on the vast, empty stage.

This was the exact outfit that she wore then, and she looked resplendent.

Looking down at the empty audience stands, she was in a daze. This was such a familiar scene, but everyone and everything was different. The private investigators busied themselves in the venue, trying to uncover any clues to the events in the past.

Li Lei walked onto the stage and asked, “Are you nervous?”

She shook her head.

Li Lei passed her the glass of lemon water that he had brought over. “Drink some water and have a rest. Later, we’ll do a walk-through to reenact what happened then. When the lights dim, the person rushing on stage to attack you from the back will be me. Don’t be afraid. I’ve also arranged for bodyguards and snipers with infrared weapons. If anyone other than me tries to attack you, they will fire immediately and kill the person.”

Xia Ling smiled. “Why does it feel like you are more nervous than I am?”

Li Lei lightly caressed her face. “Yeah… I’m paranoid of losing you at this same venue that you died in your past life. Even if the possibility of that is almost zilch.” As such, he chose to impersonate the murderer and come onstage himself and had arranged for so many layers of protection. He even cushioned the cement floors with safety sponges at the place where she would fall off the stage. If she fell off stage accidentally, she wouldn’t be harmed.

Xia Ling felt a warmth fill her heart. The sadness that she was feeling from Xia Yu being found to be the prime suspect disappeared in an instant. “I’ll be fine.” She told Li Lei. “I still want to grow old with you.”

Her words made Li Lei’s heart melt.

He kissed her and said, “I hope to be able to wrap this matter up before our wedding.”

She responded, “Yes, we will.”

The private investigator told them to get into position.

Li Lei kissed her again before walking off stage, hiding in a position that she couldn’t see.

She stood onstage alone, facing the empty audience stands. Imagining the ten-thousand strong audience from her tenth-anniversary concert, she raised the microphone to her lips and started to sing. “The caged butterfly, with wings but can’t fly…”

Midway through her song, the electricity cut suddenly.

She thought that she would remain calm, but the terror of her murder returned to her. She panicked as she heard the screams from her fans in the crowd, the sound of something being pushed over, and the sound of her own beating heart. She broke out in cold sweat as she tried her best to control her emotions and keep calm while she reenacted her steps from the concert. Suddenly, someone hugged her from behind.

“Don’t be afraid… It’s me, Xiao Ling.” Li Lei voice rang out from behind.

Xia Ling felt herself breathe a huge sigh of relief, as she crumpled into his chest.

After this reenactment, the private investigators replaced them with body doubles and reenacted the scene a few more times. Asking Xia Ling to reenact the scene the first time around was to stimulate her memory to see if there was anything that she missed. The additional reenactments were to ensure that they captured everything. The body double actors went as far as to be “stabbed” by knife props with fake blood and being pushed off the stage onto the sponge protected barriers.