A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return
chapter-290

Li Lei did not expose her lie as he did not wish for cracks to develop in their relationship after they had just patched it back a little.

However, he still had questions buried in his heart. That night when he returned to his apartment, he took out a few pieces of paper and sorted out all the doubts he had since he met her.

She had an extreme likeness to the late Diva Xia Ling.

Pei Ziheng was very interested in her. This made sense because he had collected many female companions that were similar to Xia Ling. However, she seemed to have deep feelings for Pei Ziheng, and sometimes, when she was in a dreamlike state, she would whisper “Ziheng.” This did not make sense. According to her personal background, she did not have any deep connections with Pei Ziheng and usually avoided him.

Moving on to Feng Kun.

Feng Kun was willing to recommend Lin Yunan to her probably because he cherished people who resembled Xia Ling. However, the fact that she trusted Feng Kun so much did not make sense. They only met a few times, and as far as he was concerned, they never had any deep relationship. In fact, she should be more inclined to the people that Wei Shaoyin and Sister Mai Na recommended.

She deliberately concealed some information like her meeting with Feng Kun.

If it weren’t important, why did she hide it? There must be some information that is so crucial that she was unwilling to let him know about even considering their relationship now.

When she was provoked, she would have a trauma-like stress response. According to her past, things were smooth, and it was impossible for her to encounter any life threating or violent situations.

He was heavily suspicious.

Li Lei’s expression darkened, and the pen tip moved back and forth between several keywords.

Gradually, he thought of some clues.

Pei Ziheng and Feng Kun had a good impression of her because she was like Xia Ling.

However, her relationship with Chu Chen was bad. Li Lei quickly scribbled a few words down in his journal and planned to let someone investigate. How was the Diva Xia Ling’s relationship with Chu Chen in the past?

In the meantime, he thought of another question. How was the Diva Xia Ling’s relationship with Pei Ziheng and Feng Kun?

Did she treat them the same way the Diva Xia Ling treated them? Furthermore, the way she was triggered by certain situations such as the dark and tight spaces, was it the same as the Diva Xia Ling?

Vaguely, Li Lei seemed to have understood something. However, it was still very unclear and uncertain, so he did not know how to put the clues together.

“Investigate.” He called for Tan Ying and gave him the journal that contained the few important questions he had gathered. “It’s strictly confidential.”

Tan Ying followed his orders, but Li Lei started to feel more uneasy.

Recently, Xia Ling had been very busy because she was rushing to finish recording songs.

Lin Yunan wanted her to have sufficient songs for an album as soon as possible and needed at least 10 songs. Thus, he also spared no efforts and had a long meeting with Wei Shaoyin to draw up the timeline and production plans at once.

Wei Shaoyin was very satisfied. As a workaholic, he was pleased to finally see a manager who was able to urge Xiao Ling’s progress sternly. Last year, Xiao Ling really relaxed too much. This was the sort of work ethic she should have.

Under the two’s strict supervision, what else could Xia Ling say?

Including the publicity activities that Lin Yunan arranged such as fan meets, her schedule was very packed every day. Sure enough, she was now living the painful life of needing to seize every opportunity to rest.

Li Lei sympathized with her and frequently visited and picked her up from the various jobs.

On this day, the event location of the publicity activity was outdoors.

Lin Yunan stopped him outside. “Why are you here again?” Since he was not Skyart’s underling, he was impolite when talking to Big Boss Li. “How many times have I told you, stop disturbing Xiao Ling at work! You have already broken up with her, so don’t create anymore love affairs with her! If you really care about her, then stop creating trouble.”

Li Lei was already fed up with him.

“Move aside.” He said lazily, but there was some overbearance in his voice. In reality, if Lin Yunan were not Xiao Ling’s manager and were not doing such a good job, he would have treated him with hostility.

Lin Yunan refused to move. “Looks like we should have a good talk.”

Initially, dating was taboo for a young girl who was at the start of her career, especially when her boyfriend was such a prominent figure like Big Boss Li as it would easily become gossip. However, Li Lei was still unaware that the drama due to their breakup was still affecting her. Did he know how badly the breakup affected Xiao Ling’s reputation?

“If you dare to destroy her image again, I will kill you.” Lin Yunan ferociously warned.

He had spent the last few years in a bar as a thug and lifted his fist contemptuously with a malicious-looking expression. Any threatening look was sufficient to make people afraid.

However, the person he was facing was Li Lei.

He was the head of the triad in the city and could destroy the small bar with a single word.

What’s more…

“Do you still want to fight?” Li Lei also smiled, showing his gleaming teeth.

Lin Yunan was speechless.

He remembered a painful memory from a few days ago when Li Lei visited. After Li Lei was stopped at the door, he got into a fight with two large men. It turned out that the self-proclaimed skilled fighter Lin Yunan was no match for the two men and was beaten up. Although he had practiced many fighting techniques and was in the bar scene for so many years, he could not compare to people from Li Lei’s triad who fought in life-threatening situations.

Lin Yunan fell silent. He hated people like Li Lei the most. He could not win him in a fight, through influence, or even through reason. The more he tried chasing him away, the more he refused to leave. Li Lei wanted to visit her, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He watched as Li Lei entered the enclosed area and even gave a tip to the security officer at the entrance.

The security officer respectfully smiled and let the Boss in. Then, he looked at Lin Yunan with a sympathetic look.

Lin Yunan was about to explode.

After Xia Ling was done filming the scene, the director shouted for a break. As Xia Ling took the bottle of mineral water from her assistant and turned around, she saw Li Lei standing amidst the crowd.

The corner of her lips curled into a smile and she walked over to him.

“Why are you here?”

“To deliver you food.” Li Lei swayed the lunchbox in his hands.

During the outdoor shoots, conditions were usually harsh. It was already fortunate for someone to have lunch, but nutrition and freshness are not expected. Before he could get her heart, he had to win over her stomach first. Li Lei had first-class cooking skills and was willing to cook for her every day if it could win her heart.

With Big Boss Li’s foresight, Xia Ling became used to his cooking. When she saw the lunchbox, her eyes lit up. “What delicious food did you bring today?”

The two of them laughed and joked as they walked to the trailer used by the artistes for resting.

Along the way, many people constantly watched them.

Li Lei was too handsome. Even though he was standing among many other handsome men in the entertainment industry, he still stood out like a crane among chickens. Furthermore, he naturally shined in a crowd as one of the most prominent people there as he had many underlings. As such, he naturally emitted an unordinary aura of power and influence.

Although he did not appear too much in the entertainment industry in the past, he visited her every day, so even the workers found out who he was.

“Boss Li seems to treat Ye Xingling very well. I thought they broke up?” Some people gossiped.

• XOMatsumaeohana

  ヾ(¯∇¯ ๑) Li Lei, seems like your figuring it all out and connecting all the pieces together. I’m actually surprised nobody else has noticed the similarities. But then again why would anyone make that connection? Reincarnation isn’t normal in the modern day world ~

• Mkrygs

  Smart boss

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Someone else said, “Can’t they reconcile after a breakup? I think Boss Li is chasing her, and it’s not like the spreading news which claims that she was ditched because her plan to marry rich was exposed is true.”

This industry was always a mix of truth and falsehoods, and the reliability of gossip news was questionable.

Now, after personally seeing how eagerly attentive Li Lei was, many people felt that Big Boss Li was definitely chasing after Ye Xingling.

“Such a lucky girl.” Many people who were at the scene had been part of the entertainment industry for many years and all knew that with Li Lei’s status today, it was easy for him to send her flowers, villas, and rings, but for him to appear personally and deliver a lunchbox that he prepared for her was truly difficult.

“I think it will be interesting once Ye Xingling marries into a rich family.” A staff member commented as he ate.

“The chicken leg can’t stop your mouth.” Another staff member smiled. “I think it will be interesting too. She is such a good girl, if she doesn’t obtain perfect love, it will be a pity.”

These staff members were different from the ordinary public. They interacted with different types of celebrities every day, and the celebrities did not really cover up their temperaments. Some celebrities smiled very sweetly when they saw their fans, but oppressed the staff behind their backs. Other celebrities had their reputations ruined by the media representatives but were low-key and polite in person.

In their eyes, Xia Ling was the latter type.

She was very professional when shooting, and almost all scenes were completed in one shot. She also never threw a tantrum for no reason. Although she would not deliberately smile at the staff members to greet them or say that everyone worked hard, she simplified matters during filming by doing her own part well and allowed everyone to end work easily.

The staff members liked this sort of celebrity.

“I just met a reporter outside.” A staff member said as he ate. “He asked me why Boss Li was there since he had a clean break with Ye Xingling. I said that Boss Li treated Ye Xingling very well.”

“Yes.” Everyone nodded in response. “Why are the reporters always trying to damage Ye Xingling’s reputation? It is time that someone stood up for her. If any more reporters ask about this, we should say that they’re getting along well. Ye Xingling is a good person, not like those unscrupulous people who were ditched because they wanted to marry into a rich family.”

Everyone agreed.

This was necessary after developing a good opinion of her. Due to Xia Ling’s high professionalism and ability to complete her shoots in one shot while not causing trouble for others, she had won the hearts of the staff members there. As such, they were willing to protect her from the reporters.

A person’s heart was made of muscles, and respect was mutual.

Inside the trailer.

Xia Ling happily ate with Li Lei. Today, he brought over delicious beef brisket and stir-fried vegetables. They were cooked using an appropriate flame and ingredients, so the taste was no less than a top chef’s cooking.

“What do you think?” Li Lei realized that she fell into a trance after taking a bite.

“If you decide you don’t want to be in charge of your company anymore, how about you be my personal chef?” Xiao Ling frequently lost her intelligence when she indulged in food. She would say whatever was on her mind.

“I can move into your house now and cook for you for a lifetime.” Li Lei smiled and hoped that she would quickly agree to it while she was in a confused state of mind.

Unexpectedly, Xia Ling came back to reality.

“Dream on!” She ate the beef brisket in small bites. “Your salary is too expensive. I can’t afford to hire you.”

“I don’t need a salary.”

“Then what do you want?”

“To be able to eat and stay with you for free.” Li Lei eyes twinkled. “And also to sleep with you.” His last few words were almost a whisper.

This took Xia Ling by surprise, causing her to bite on her chopstick by accident and almost cry in pain. She choked for a bit before taking a breath to recompose herself. “Can you be any more shameless? You can sleep in Hairball’s bed!”

“Sure.” He continued to smile and replied in a gentle voice.

Xia Ling was speechless again. No wonder it was said that shameless people were ever-victorious.

Big Boss Li continued speaking. “I heard Luo Luo say that Hairball would climb on your bed for comfort when it is cold. Xiao Ling, you can’t favor one more than the other.”

Climb on my bed for comfort?

Not only did Hairball climb on her bed, but its favorite thing was also to sleep in her arms. Xia Ling could not help but imagine how Big Boss Li’s satisfied face would look like if he slept in her arms…

Wait, stop.

Her face could not help but turn red.

There was a slight ambiguity in the air. Li Lei mischievously smiled as he used his hand to remove a tiny rice grain near the corner of her lips and put it in his mouth.

Xia Ling stared at him, and her face turned red like a cooked prawn.

Someone opened the door of the trailer.

Looking at the scene inside, Lin Yunan snorted. “Well, it seems that I did not come at the right time.”

Li Lei turned around to look at the killjoy and silently wished he could either boil or braise him in soy sauce.

Lin Yunan sauntered in and sat in front of them. “I have serious business to discuss with you.”

“What… what is it?” Although nothing was going on between her and Li Lei, Xia Ling still felt awkward that someone accidentally saw what they were doing. She desperately tried to calm herself down and asked him.

Lin Yunan looked at Li Lei. “Aren’t you going to leave?

“The one who should leave is you!” Li Lei gritted his teeth. This Lin Yunan really thought highly of himself! How dare he interrupt his meal with Xiao Ling! Now he was even trying to chase him out! Li Lei thought that it was time to contact the family headquarters to ask if there were any lack of human organs recently…

Lin Yunan was unbothered by his anger.

“He is part of Skyart Entertainment, doesn’t he need to leave?” He said directly to Xia Ling. Now, Xia Ling was an artiste under Dongyue Culture and Entertainment. Logically speaking, her company was competing with Skyart Entertainment, and Big Boss Li should have known better and left.

How could there be people like him who had no self-awareness in this world?

Lin Yunan did not know anyone who sold human organs, but he had the same plan for Li Lei.

Both men were staring sternly at Xia Ling.

Xia Ling felt extremely uncomfortable and lost the charming feeling she felt just now. She put down her half-eaten lunch and sighed. “As long as it does not involve something top secret that would cause Dongyue to collapse, just tell me directly. Otherwise, he will always be able to find out about it.” She said to Lin Yunan.

She did not wish to be probed by Li Lei after their conversation because it was bothersome to repeat it to him.

It would be better if they listened to what Lin Yunan had to say together.

After she finished speaking, in Xia Ling’s blind spot, Li Lei smiled victoriously at Lin Yunan.

Lin Yunan had a difficult time restraining himself from impulsively punching him.