616 The Butterfly is Dead

She lowered her head to look at his hand.

It was so familiar — she knew every joint and wrinkle on it. Ten years ago, she would never have thought that there would come a day that they would be like strangers to each other.

"Pei Ziheng," Her voice was soft and seemed to dissipate in the wind. "don't be like this."

"Be like what?" He was exceedingly patient in front of her, and now all he wanted to do was to drag the time out and speak to her for a longer period of time. Just to be standing so close in front of her, being able to touch her, was looking to be a scarce scenario for the rest of his life.

Xia Ling slowly but surely extracted her hand from his grip. "I've said that he won't be happy." She did not say exactly who "he" was, but both of them knew who she was talking about.

"You… you really care so much for him?" He couldn't bring himself to use the word "love" to describe her relationship with Li Lei. Even the word "care" was one that he could barely bear to use. He changed the topic almost immediately after his question. "Is it so hard to give me your autograph?"

He did not want to hear anything about her "care" for Li Lei.

"Will you leave if I give you my autograph?" She asked.

"If you prefer for me to stay, I would be glad to." His voice remained low and deep.

Xia Ling took a pen from her staff and wrote the three characters for "Ye Xingling" on his palm. Her neat handwriting was similar to his — he had taught her calligraphy when she was young.

In the quiet summer's night, his deep breathing could be heard clearly.

Xia Ling extended the last stroke of the word "Ling" such that it was almost at his wrist. Her gaze fell on the damaged Patek Philippe on his wrist. She remembered that it was the watch that she had custom-made for his birthday. After her reincarnation, he had thrown aside her hand to retrieve the watch when she was struggling in the water.

The butterfly was dead.

She returned the pen to the staff standing to the side and raised her gaze to Pei Ziheng's face. "Don't waste your time on me. Find a girl that loves you and be happy."

With that, she turned and left without looking back.

Pei Ziheng stood alone with the night wind blowing on him, watching as she went further and further away from him, and finally disappeared from sight.

The nearby concert venue was still playing her album in the background. It was a moving song — "If we had never met that fateful year, would our ending be a different one…"

If they had never met.

How could they have not met?

He raised his head in the wind. Xiao Ling, there are so many people bent on breaking you and Li Lei apart, so how come you are willing to hold on for so long? Do you think that it's just a coincidence that he has to go overseas now? The web is cast, and both of you cannot run away.

The Old Master Li wanted his grandson back.

And he, Pei Ziheng, wanted his butterfly back.

Xia Ling returned to the hotel and took a shower to wash away her tiredness. She crawled into bed and switched her laptop on to read the news. The de-worming incident continued to be in the limelight. The police revealed their investigation results, concluding that it was an accident. The factory had carelessly mixed up the expired drugs and distributed them as the approved batch.

She recalled what Li Lei said. This was not an accident but a revenge attack from Skyart's enemy.

Why wasn't the police continuing with the investigation?

She felt indignant for Li Lei and rang Tan Ying. "Tan Ying, why did the investigation for the de-worming incident stop? Is there some conspiracy behind it? Can you put pressure on the police to seek greater justice on the matter? They can't just let the culprit go!"

Tan Ying gave a bitter smile.

Big Boss might be intelligent and wise in front of them, but this girl that he fell in love with was so innocent. She didn't know that the conclusion of the police investigation was the work of Skyart Entertainment, and it was the best outcome for her and Skyart. If the police continued digging into the matter, the truth of Nangong Qingya and the Gu Family trying to take revenge on her would come out and push her back into the midst of the scandal.

Rumors were scary, and the netizens were blind followers.

They wouldn't care to think if she were the victim and simply say that she had caused the death of two innocent kids. Her reputation would take a huge hit and would be a dent that she could never make good.

Did she know at all how much Big Boss was protecting her all this while?

While Tan Ying was chiding her in his heart, he consoled her out loud. "This is the result that Boss wants. He has his considerations. Miss Ye, don't worry, everything is within Boss' control."

Xia Ling hung up but was still not convinced.

She continued reading the news and saw that Skyart's PR team had released a sincere apology to the general public, saying that it was their first time handling a charity event and this incident was a result of their inexperience. They promised to learn from this experience and be more careful in the future. Skyart also promised to pay for the funeral expenses for the children, as well as to give handsome compensation to the orphanage that could go toward treatment for the other children that had taken the inferior drugs. Additionally, they committed to providing for priority entry opportunities to Skyart Entertainment when the children grew up and were seeking employment.

The PR statement was comprehensive.

The anger of netizens started to cool off, though there were still some that said that apologies were useless in light of the dead children who would not be revived no matter what Skyart promised. Others also commented: What about Ye Xingling? She was the one who had handed out the pills to the kids. Was she going to keep hiding out? Why wasn't she apologizing when the PR team had already issued an apology?

The report from the previous day was dug out again.

It showed the press conference that was interrupted by Li Lei's appearance and his strong stance that she was not responsible for anything.

Netizens argued over this to no end. Some said that Xiao Ling indeed had no responsibility at all. Others said that being a charity endorser gave her many benefits, and now that there were problems, she was just going to hide behind her man? Didn't this just prove the point that she had sold herself to gain her fame?

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Xia Ling looked over several forums and saw that many anti-fans were digging up old news about her. News about her being chased out of the Li Family headquarters… News about her marriage and subsequent divorce from Pei Ziheng… Her dead child and her going to Li Lei when she was having a bad time in the Pei Family. All kinds of things were being said about her, many that were unpleasant to the ears.

Some even said, "Two children died yesterday and Ye Xingling can still have a concert as if nothing happened at all. Did you guys see? She was smiling so happily and looked ravishing. There was nothing to show that she was grieving at all!"

Below that comment was another round of cursing at her, saying that she was cold-hearted, cruel and horrible.

She could not tolerate any longer and replied the post anonymously. "It's not like that…"

Countless started to say that she was being retarded for being Ye Xingling's die-hard fan.

She felt so wronged that she wanted to cry and shut the laptop decisively.

The telephone rang. When she picked up, she realized that it was Pei Ziheng.

His voice was warm on the phone. "You're not in a good mood?"

"No, you're wrong." She answered reflexively.

"Liar." He said in a light tone. "I can hear that you're about to cry."

"It's none of your business." She stared out of the hotel window at the city lights. They looked resplendent. How odd… the world looked so beautiful out there, so why was her world full of curses? Why won't netizens give her a little more leeway and compassion?

She sniffled again.

Pei Ziheng said, "Open the door."

Xia Ling was taken aback. "What?"

"I'm outside your room. Open the door."