A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Sister Mai Na’s eyes narrowed into a dangerous line. “Miss emcee, do you also think that Xiao Ling has insulted her?”

The emcee glanced at her unfriendly expression and felt a chill enter her heart. It was only now that she realized she had said something wrong — even if there were tons of rumors spreading, but there was no hard evidence to prove anything. As an emcee, even if she wanted to bias the conversation a certain way, she had to be wary of her public image and could not state anything with certainty.

Otherwise, she would risk ending up like that man who had been taken away by the police.

She laughed dryly. “I was just regurgitating the rumors.”

Jeers rang out from the audience. Rumors? And she dared ask the question so indignantly?

The emcee did not know where to hide in the midst of the rumors as she started to regret receiving the bribe from Imperial Entertainment, putting herself in this embarrassing situation.

Sister Mai Na smiled and lifted the microphone to her lips. “Not everyone will believe rumors, and before the truth comes to light, we should not splash dirty water on others. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Gu Financial Magnate for being able to tell right from wrong, and to not have been misled by the rumors, thus being willing to hand the endorsement deal for ‘Meteor Wings’ to Xiao Ling.”

Her words were befitting of the situation, neither humble nor pushy, and making others think deeper.

Before the truth had come to light.

The Gu Financial Magnate was willing to use Ye Xingling.

The Gu Financial Magnate’s reputation has always been good…

Stringing all these together, someone in the audience tugged on the arm of the friend she had come with and asked, “Do you think that Ye Xingling was really falsely accused? The Gu Financial Magnate’s criteria for choosing endorsers is extremely stringent, and would never choose an artiste with a bad record. Before they chose Ye Xingling they would probably have investigated the truth thoroughly. The investigation must have revealed that she did nothing wrong and, hence, they decided to pick her.”

“That’s impossible…” Her friend was suspicious. “If Ye Xingling is innocent, then is Xia Yu the one lying and falsely accusing Ye Xingling of insulting Xia Ling? Xia Yu looks so innocent and kind, it can’t be…”

“We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Who knows if Xia Yu is truly so innocent?”

“That’s true…” Her friend started to waver.

Those in the audience that had started to waver were numerous. Even though they liked Xia Yu, but a large part of that was because she was the beloved younger sister of the Diva Xia Ling who had passed on, and they were simply redirecting their love for Xia Ling. In actual fact, in terms of temperament, that girl named Ye Xingling was more similar to Diva Xia Ling. That arrogant air that she had when onstage, the courage that she had to face all the harshness of the world with an unchanging expression, that was the continuation of the temperament of a Diva.

What about Xia Yu? Xia Yu was nothing like her sister in temperament. Many of Xia Ling’s fans had become Xia Yu’s fans only because of their devotion to Xia Ling. How many actually admired Xia Yu from the depths of their hearts?

“Let’s be more rational.” Many were discussing in low voices, “It has been tough for that girl called Ye Xingling as well, being embroiled in something so devastating to her career this early on. Even the Gu family believes that she did not insult Xia Ling, maybe there is some misunderstanding after all?”

It could not be denied that the Gu Financial Magnate was helping her to get a lot of brownie points.

Xia Ling stood onstage, watching the commotion in the audience. In the darkness of the audience stands that was like the night sky, slowly but surely, light boards bearing the words “Ye Xingling”, “Cheering for you”, “We support you” started to appear. They got more numerous, flashing and waving about, and soon became a huge bright sea of light boards.

She smiled. Fans were always so adorable, they would be furious one moment and support you wholeheartedly after learning the truth of the situation in another.

Her gaze swept past the sea of light boards and, subconsciously, searched for a familiar face — Li Lei. If it were not for him, she would not be able to land the endorsement deal for “Meteor Wings,” and it would not have been so easy for her to regain her reputation.

It was he who had tied the Gu family name to her battle chariot and used the Gu family’s century-old repute to vouch for her.

The laughter in the corner of her eyes became more prominent, and even she did not realize how gentle and sweet she looked in this moment.

The emcee could not hold steady as she watched this scene unfold. At this rate, Xia Yu was going to lose. Imperial Entertainment spent so much money and effort to organize this head-to-head battle and had bribed her handsomely. They clearly did not want to see Xia Yu lose! She stole a glance at Xia Yu’s face and, as she expected, she saw that the attractive smile on Xia Yu’s face was disappearing quickly.

“Now, let us move into the next segment.” The emcee said hurriedly, in hope that it would break the momentum. “Could the audience please cast your vote. Those who support Ye Xingling, please press the button on the remote control that you are holding.” In the time that the “Meteor Wings” promotional video was playing, she had sorted out what the next segment would be backstage.

Xia Yu was even more furious. Was this emcee an idiot?! Why was she asking the audience to vote now, just as the momentum was leaning towards Ye Xingling’s favor and the audience was wavering?!

However, Xia Yu was unable to do anything to stop them from voting.

On the big screen, the votes being cast were spiraling upwards rapidly —

One hundred, two hundred…

One thousand, two thousand…

Five thousand, eight thousand…

The votes rapidly sped past the middle mark of the more than ten thousand strong!

Finally, the total votes cast stopped at the eleven thousand mark. The good result was something that no one had expected. Other than Xia Yu’s crazily loyal fans, almost everyone else voted for Xia Ling, including some that were originally Xia Yu’s supporters.

“Eleven thousand votes.” The emcee announced, her face turning slightly white. There were fifteen thousand people present here, and even though all fifteen thousand would be able to vote for Xia Yu after she sang later, this vote count was still going to be difficult to beat. She searched her mind before being able to think of what to say. “It’s such a surprise to see Ye Xingling getting such a high vote count. I believe that after we hear Miss Xia Yu later the voting might be even more exciting.” Since she had already offended Skyart Entertainment, she gritted her teeth and made up her mind to support Imperial Entertainment until the end.

Boos rang out from all around the stage. Why was this emcee embarrassing herself like that? She was being completely biased.

However, Xia Ling simply smiled and slowly said, “Xia Yu, I’m waiting to see what you’ve got.”

Full of arrogance and swagger.

“Nice one, Ye Xingling!” Many in the audience started to cheer her on. They were pleasantly surprised in finding someone that resembled Xia Ling so much more than Xia Yu, even though they had come here initially to support the Diva’s younger sister.

“What am I going to do, I think I’m going to become Xia Yu’s anti-fan.” A girl said as she put a hand over her heart.

“Me too, me too…” Many young boys and girls were exchanging whispers, as they waved their light sticks more aggressively.

In the midst of this atmosphere of an upset in the making, Xia Ling confidently took a graceful bow and made the perfect exit from the stage.

Onstage, the intro of the Ideal C Perfume’s logo song started to play, and Xia Yu hesitantly began singing in the midst of the chaos.

She had never liked singing since she was young, and after debuting as a singer, she was simply trying to one-up her elder sister. Since Pei Ziheng liked her elder sister’s voice, she had thought pridefully that as long as she was able to sing sufficiently well, she would be able to capture Pei Ziheng’s heart. However, her talent was limited and her singing was mediocre at best. When it was produced in the recording studio, with the help of autotune equipment, it was still acceptable, but now that she was singing live, it was clearly a trying task and her standard was very different from the songs produced in the recording studio.

There was commotion offstage again. This time, it was all directed at Xia Yu —

“It can’t be, Xia Yu’s singing is this bad?”