A Star Reborn: The Queen's Return

Wei Lingnan was lying on the bed in the center, with all sorts of tubes stuck into him. He looked pale and his eyes seemed lifeless, but she could still see his weak breathing. Xia Yingluo felt a stab to the heart looking at this sight, and she couldn’t explain why. It seemed that she felt terrible just knowing that he was in pain. She approached him and called out softly, “Wei Lingnan.”

The man did not look at her. Instead, his gaze was directed at the old lady behind him as he asked weakly, “Why’d you bring her here?”

The old lady seemed a little flustered but answered him anyway, “Mister, you’ve done so much for Miss, you should let her know.”

Wei Lingnan’s eyes were dull as before, but he said with conviction, “Get out.”

Xia Yingluo said, “You’re already so ill, what good is there in chasing others out?”

Wei Lingnan asked, “When have you become so caring for me?”

Seeing that he was indeed in a very bad state, Xia Yingluo did not have the heart to argue with him. “Just how bad is your condition?”

Wei Lingnan: “I won’t die.”

Xia Yingluo fumed. “I know you won’t. Because you aren’t the sort of person to sacrifice your life for someone else.” She regretted her words the moment she uttered them. After all, Wei Lingnan had expended a lot of his energy to save Jin Ling’er, how could she be so mean to him? She kept quiet for a while before saying, “I’m sorry.”

Wei Lingnan said, “You don’t have to apologize to me. In fact, you’ve just been seeing me as a perverted, weird creature at your beck and call.”

With that, he smiled in a way that mocked himself.

Xia Yingluo felt bad that he was being so sarcastic. She quietly said, “It’s not the case.”

“It isn’t?” Wei Lingnan asked, “Then, what is it like?”

Xia Yingluo recalled that he could lip-read, and had seen her murmuring about him at the front desk. “I’m very grateful that you saved Jin Ling’er, and I’m here today especially to apologize to you. Are you satisfied now? Get some rest and recover soon, don’t make me worry.”

Her last words had Wei Lingnan’s eyes light up.

He smiled. “You worry about me?”

Xia Yingluo turned away. “I didn’t know it took you so much to save someone. I thought that it was a piece of cake for you.”

Wei Lingnan said softly, “Nothing in this world is a piece of cake to achieve.” Every bit of achievement and success he had was hard-earned with blood and sweat. It always seemed so easy when he did something, but no one knew how much effort it took for him to get there.

Xia Yingluo kept quiet for a moment before saying, “In any case, I owe you a favor.”

“What do you intend to repay me with?” Wei Lingnan asked.

Xia Yingluo didn’t know what to say. Why couldn’t this man be a little more modest? But whatever it was, she did owe him a huge favor. “It’s a life I owe you. If you need me someday, I’ll definitely do my best to help you.”

Wei Lingnan said, “Don’t make it sound like I’ll get you to do something that puts your life at risk.”

Xia Yingluo said, “I really can’t think of anything that you’d need my help with.” This man was too strong and powerful. Perhaps, there was nothing left on Earth that could stump him.

Wei Lingnan looked at her. “Be my girlfriend.”

Xia Yingluo lowered her head slightly, “I’ve said it many times, I’m not your Ah Luo. I should leave.”

With that, she turned around as if looking for an escape.

Wei Lingnan gazed at her back view as she left and kept quiet for a while.

The old lady was getting worried. “Mr. Wei...”

Wei Lingnan closed just eyes. “Get Wei Shaoyin here tomorrow.”

The following day, Wei Shaoyin arrived reluctantly. He didn’t even let his guard down after seeing Wei Lingnan lying on the bed. “Little Uncle, is anything the matter?” This Little Uncle of his was too dangerous—there was nothing good whenever he asked to meet him.

Wei Lingnan still looked pale. He furrowed his brows in frustration and said, “Yingluo still isn’t convinced that she’s Ah Luo. Nothing I do moves her.”

As he guessed, it was yet another relationship problem.

Wei Shaoyin was exasperated. “Little Uncle, you’ve been alive for far longer than I have. Technically speaking, you should be way more experienced than a single man like myself. Don’t you think it’s a little inappropriate that you’re asking me for advice?” All these years, Wei Shaoyin had wooed several girls, but none of them had ended up marrying him—not that it mattered since nobody in the family was hurrying him. This caused all sorts of rumors to emerge—some said he was gay, others said he had a dysfunction, and some even mentioned something about his religion...

At the very least, this Little Uncle had been in a proper relationship before. Unlike him, an inexperienced lad.

Wei Lingnan calmly said, “Don’t you compose love songs?”

“How is it the same?” Wei Shaoyin was on the verge of going insane.

Wei Lingnan was still frustrated. “Just what do I have to do for Ah Luo to be with me?”

Wei Shaoyin couldn’t be bothered to argue whether Xia Yingluo was Ah Luo in the first place. He just wanted to be done with this for good. “I’ll get you two more books.” He was just short of buying every book about love and relationships in the market and moving them to the underground base.

Wei Lingnan seemed to be out of better ideas, and so waved him away.

***

Xia Yingluo was rehearsing for her performance in the training camp.

After building chemistry between the performers over several sessions, the rehearsal got smoother each time and they began to believe that it would be a successful and outstanding play. As the rehearsals were going well, everyone was at ease and the atmosphere was rather positive and joyous too. During their break times, the cast members would have fun chit-chatting.

“Have you heard?” Someone was about to share some gossip. “I heard that the rich Miss Pei Yan is going to revoke her marriage with Zhao Yixuan! Her elder brother Pei Chengyou wasn’t agreeable to it, and they ended up having a huge fight at home.”

“Why would she revoke her marriage?” Another person asked out of curiosity, “Did Miss Pei finally see Zhao Yixuan for the jerk he is?” At this point, everyone in the group was trying to get into Xia Yingluo’s good books. They knew that Xia Yingluo and Zhao Yixuan had an unhappy episode and couldn’t wait to condemn him, although the word “jerk” did suit him.

Xia Yingluo was drinking some water by the side and listening to their conversation. During which, some of the trainees turned around to look at her. She smiled. “Don’t look at me, I’ve no idea what’s going on now. Come, Xiao Hong, tell us all about the insider news.” She was genuinely curious. Ever since Wei Lingnan scared Zhao Yixuan off at the hospital, he’d never appeared in front of her again. She had no idea what conflict arose between him and Pei Yan.

Hence, Xiao Hong, the other trainee, shared. “It’s getting exciting. I heard that Zhao Yixuan is down with some strange disease and Pei Yan despises him for it. But Pei Chengyou doesn’t think it’s a big deal, and won’t allow her to leave him. Haha, it seems that the relationship between these siblings isn’t all that good, after all. Pei Chengyou has no qualms about sacrificing his sister’s happiness just so that he can have Imperial’s biggest manager on his side.”