A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return
chapter-99

However, her boyfriend hesitated. “If we sign this petition, does it mean that we support Ye Xingling and no longer support Xia Yu?”

“Argh, don’t care about these minute details!” The female audience was sanguine. “Do you want to stay here to listen to Xia Yu’s song, which isn’t good at all, or do you want to follow me to check out this big reveal?”

“Of course I want to follow you to see the big reveal!” Her boyfriend was no longer torn.

Thus, both of them walked out of the stadium together.

Similarly, many in the audience were attracted by this piece of exciting news and were more interested to go out to see Ye Xingling be rid of her accusations than to remain here listening to Xia Yu’s song. Very soon, the stadium was much emptier than before, and the originally packed stadium was visibly emptying out.

The lightsticks became dimmer and dimmer, and the people fewer and fewer…

As Xia Yu was singing onstage, her heart and mind were no longer on the song. She did not know what had happened offstage. Why were so many people leaving? There was only less than half of the audience left, and even if all the remaining audience voted for her, she would still be really far off from that bitch Ye Xingling.

Was her singing that bad? No, that could not be.

As she lost her focus, she accidentally sang off tune.

“She sang off tune, she sang off tune!” There were jeers and boos offstage.

She gave a start and tried to maintain her composure to bring the tune back to the right track. Yet, while she was able to right the tune of her song, after this mistake, more people started to leave.

Darn it…

Darn it! Darn it!

Xia Yu’s heart was full of grievances.

At this moment, it was much more crowded outside the stadium than inside.

The black throngs of people stood looking at a high stage with a huge screen. On the screen, Xia Ling was exceedingly and beautifully singing “Meteor Wings” in a blue satin dress. Her fair skin, clean and defined features, and the slightly arrogant and distant expression on her face was as if she had an inborn charm that kept the audiences’ eyes riveted on her.

A row of letters was on the screen in an eye-catching font: Ye Xingling, I support you!

There was a rolling bullet screen being shown on the top of the screen, and on it were all kinds of signatures, slogans, and words from the audience.

Many that were looking up at the screen took out their phones and connected to the software for the bullet screen to leave their signatures as well. Not long later, the number of signatures broke the ten thousand mark.

“Ten thousand! It reached ten thousand!” Someone staring intently at the count on the big screen shouted excitedly.

“The truth! We want to know the truth!” Many in the audience shouted out loudly.

“Ye Xingling, we support you!”

“The time to prove your innocence is here!”

Countless voices were like waves from the sea, echoing out under the night sky.

An insignificant Audi was parked along the road not too far away.

In the car, Xia Ling was watching everything that was happening near the high stage, and there was audio tapping equipment that was broadcasting the sounds in the square clearly in the car. She finally understood what Li Lei meant by watching a good show. He was using this ingenious method to help her prove her innocence. She also understood why they were not sitting in the Lincoln limousine and were not sitting in the upgraded Jaguar that he would usually drive, but had chosen this black Audi — they were only able to watch quietly from the side in a discrete car such as this.

“Guess who we found?” Li Lei smiled as he asked.

Xia Ling cocked her head slightly. “Hmm… an eyewitness?”

She had just finished her sentence when a girl walked out onto the tall stage. The girl was dressed in a goose-yellow long dress, but because she was too far away, Xia Ling was unable to make out who she was and just felt that she looked familiar.

Li Lei said, “You’re right, an eyewitness.” He reached out his slender fingers and pressed a button in the car. The small screen in the car lit up with a high definition image — the girl appeared and Xia Ling realized that she was Zhang Suxin. She was the only person that had heard their entire conversation that day when Xia Ling slapped Xia Yu.

“What is she doing here?” Xia Ling was very shocked.

“Zhang Suxin had long wanted to stop being Pei Ziheng’s lover, but Pei Ziheng did not want to let her go.” Li Lei said. “It was very simple. I sent someone to find her and tell her, if she is willing to step forward and be the eyewitness, I would send her and her family overseas, to a place where Pei Ziheng cannot reach her.”

“It’s great to have money and power.” Xia Ling remarked.

Li Lei was very happy. “Xiao Ling, do you like people with money and power? I have that! We can…”

“Dream on.”

And Li Lei was rejected again.

In the front row, the driver that usually kept silent could barely keep in his laughter. Young Master, it’s so rare that there’s a girl you cannot succeed in charming, this is just too interesting. He continued listening to Miss Ye lecturing Young Master as he held in his laughter—

“There are tons of people around with money and power, is that all you have to impress a girl? How will you find real love like that?”

“Yes, yes, yes, you’re right.” Li Lei nodded profusely and put on an expression that looked like he was listening to her lecture intently. “Then what do you suggest I do?”

“You…” Xia Ling stopped herself mid-sentence. Why should she teach him how to chase girls? Why did she feel a little reluctant to teach him how to chase girls?

Hence, Xia Xiao Ling simply arrogantly turned her head away and said, “Don’t change the topic! We should first see what Zhang Suxin has to say.”

She forced herself to look away from that handsome face but did not know that the person beside her was carefully shifting nearer and nearer to her until they were so close that he could smell the natural sweet fragrance that she emitted. It was only here that he settled satisfied, and accompanied her as she watched Zhang Suxin’s witness statement.

On the tall stage, Zhang Suxin gathered up her courage and said, “I’m the third person in the photo from the news the other day.”

The crowd erupted in chatter.

Initially, when the news about “Ye Xingling” slapping Xia Yu emerged, there was indeed a photo that showed three people present. The identity of this third person had also been revealed early on by the prying and curious internet readers — Zhang Suxin, a small artiste that had recently joined Imperial Entertainment.

“It’s her, I recognize her face. She’s the real deal.” Someone said.

“Zhang Suxin, what do you have to say?” Many curious onlookers shouted out loud.

Zhang Suxin looked down at the crowd beneath her, took a deep breath, and said, “Ye Xingling did slap Xia Yu, but that was out of righteousness to help me, not because she was bullying the weak…”

Xia Ling gave a start upon hearing this statement. “Helping her out?” She clearly remembered that she had no intention to help Zhang Suxin at all, she had slapped Xia Yu simply because Xia Yu had insulted her.

Li Lei laughed lazily. “Since Zhang Suxin is the only eyewitness, then she can say what she likes. Why shouldn’t we get her to make you look even better? What’s more, regardless of the motive, you slapped Xia Yu and that act is helping her get back at Xia Yu, isn’t it?”

Okay, Xia Ling had nothing to say. Big Boss was just too sly.

On the tall stage, Zhang Suxin was giving a full account of her witness statement. Broadly, she said that she had offended Xia Yu and, resultantly, Xia Yu had instructed another actress to slap her many times during the filming as revenge. She could not take it anymore and begged Xia Yu to let her go when they were taking a break from filming, but Xia Yu only showered her with snide remarks and insults. Ye Xingling had walked by at this point and stepped forward in her defense.

However, this only dragged Ye Xingling down with her and she had to hear many hateful comments from Xia Yu as well.

In addition, Xia Yu had also declared that she was going to make sure that Zhang Suxin was slapped until she had scars on her face that would not go away. In a fit of anger, Ye Xingling had slapped Xia Yu.

From the start to the end, Ye Xingling did not insult the former Diva Xia Ling at all.