A Star Reborn: The Queen's Return

With a gap in between them, Gu Jinxiu laughed hysterically on the other side. “Nan, just give up, she won’t survive this! Did you think I made the drug for nothing? She drank so much of it, there’s enough to kill her ten times over! Hahaha...”

The louder she cackled, the angrier he got. A horrendous urge engulfed him.

He wanted to kill Gu Jinxiu.

So what if she was the Queen? How dare she treat Yingluo this way! Yingluo looked hideous and terrifying with blood oozing out of her face at several points, but he did not despise her at all. He continued holding onto her hand tightly. “Yingluo, survive this.”

The door of the laboratory was swung open.

Wei Lingnan looked up and saw a man clad in white, leading a few other men. “Xia Moyan!” He did not question why Xia Moyan was here nor snapped at him for trespassing his territory. All he did was look at The Preceptor with a welcome expression for the first time ever, and weakly said, “Save her...”

Xia Moyan was expressionless as he bent over to pick Yingluo up and then left quietly.

Wei Lingnan watched as they left, and only when they were out of sight did he lose consciousness.

The sky was clear after the rain.

Xia Yingluo felt as if she’d been ripped apart and put together again many times over as if every cell inside her was screaming in agony. Her head was pounding, it hurt so much she wished she would just die.

But she survived it.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a room.

It was a simple but elegantly furnished room. Red candles with carvings were lit in the four corners of the room, and drawn on the floor was a complex spiritual symbol. She was lying right in the center of the symbol, clothed in a simple outfit, and a red string coiled her limbs.

She could hear a religious chant coming from outside the room and recognized that it was her uncle’s voice.

Xia Yingluo forced herself to sit upright, but she was still extremely weak. She panted a long while in that position while bits and pieces of memory came back to her. She remembered being at Wei Lingnan’s wedding, and then all of a sudden she had an uncontrollable urge to eat Wei Lingnan up, and then? What happened after...?

She only remembered having a conflict with the World Tree in her dream, but besides that, she couldn’t recall much else.

In any case, she could confirm one thing from that conflict in her dream—she had not eaten Wei Lingnan, he was still alive, and that was great. She looked down at her palm, the mark of the World Tree was faint and barely visible. “I’ve won,” she said to her hand. “Stay where you should, and if you create any more trouble, I could just abort you.”

All she got in response was silence.

She tried to feel for the state of the World Tree and realized that it was extremely weak. She had no idea how long it’d take to recover from this injury.

“One step closer to dying together.” She smiled sadly. It wasn’t so far from the truth, given how weak her vital organs were. Slowly, she helped herself out of bed and, as she walked, the red string uncoiled to the ground like a trail that she left. She opened the door and felt the fresh air in her face.

Xia Moyan was in a full religious outfit, a white robe with intricate embroidery. In his hands was a ritual implement, and he held onto it while chanting and walking rounds in the house.

She greeted him. “Uncle.”

Xia Moyan looked at her, his expression solemn. He finished chanting his last verse, bowed courteously towards the sky, and handed the implement to a fellow member before approaching her. “Yingluo, you’re finally awake.”

“How long was I unconscious for?” She looked at Xia Moyan’s haggard expression with guilt. “Was my situation really bad, and you had to use a lot of resources to save me?”

“However bad it was, I had to get you back.” Xia Moyan’s robe fluttered in the breeze. “But this time, the one you really should thank is this planet. You formed an alliance with it, and it was unwilling to watch you die just like this. Hence, the earthquake it brought about broke the Wei family’s base open, allowing us to get you out of there as soon as possible.”

She did not know that such a benefit came with forming an alliance. Xia Yingluo bowed to the sky as her Uncle did before. “Thank you.”

She then turned around to face Xia Moyan. “What happened in the base, was Wei Lingnan trying to hurt me?” It wasn’t a surprise that she thought this way. Her injury was very serious this time, and she was still in a recovering state. She knew her condition very well—this injury couldn’t be solely because of her conflict with the World Tree, there had to be external forces at play too.

Wei Lingnan loved Gu Jinxiu so much, and she went to ruin their wedding, what would he not do to get back at her?

With that train of thought, her expression darkened.

Xia Moyan was as calm as always. “I’m not too sure what happened, only Wei Lingnan has the answer to your question. Gu Jinxiu was at the scene, too.” He looked at his niece’s expression and was about to say something more but stopped himself.

When he got into the laboratory with his men, Wei Lingnan had begged him to save her. He didn’t seem like the one who hurt her.

But no matter what happened, Xia Yingluo was so badly hurt because of him. Xia Moyan harbored hatred towards that man and decided to keep some things unsaid. It wasn’t a bad idea to have Yingluo misunderstand him, staying away from that man was the best choice she could make.

Xia Yingluo was still unsure of what had happened. She swayed a little and seemed like she was about to fall.

Xia Moyan said, “You just woke up and you’re still very weak. I prepared a clean room for you to recuperate in. Come, follow me.”

Xia Yingluo followed her uncle onto the plank walkway. They were in the mountains, home of the Xia household, overlooking a beautiful scenery. Xia Yingluo did not have the heart to admire her surroundings and simply followed Xia Moyan to a nicely furnished and quiet room. Xia Moyan settled her down and got someone to send her some snacks and tea. “Rest here for now, I’ll get your Mom and Dad here.”

“Mom and Dad are here too?”

“You almost died and I wasn’t confident about saving you. How could they possibly not come?”

Xia Yingluo felt guilt rise inside her. Just how much trouble had she brought to her family recently? She’d caused them so much fear and worry. She waited quietly in her room as Xia Ling and the rest hurried over.