On August 26, Chinese actress-director Vicki Zhao was scrubbed from the Internet in China, her name removed from the credits of her shows, and her Weibo Supertopic deleted.

The sudden cancellation of Vicki sparked a media furore, as well as a spate of new rules and regulations from the authorities. Other celebrities, some of whom are (were?) pals with Vicki, also rushed to delete all mention of the star from their social media.

Amidst everything, Vicki laid low. The 45-year-old posted (and then deleted) an Instagram post, which suggested that she's with her parents in Beijing, while one netizen claimed that the actress had fled to France, where she owns a vineyard in the Bordeaux countryside, to be with her husband Huang Youlong.

Then, after 18 whole days of radio silence, Vicki appears to have re-emerged again, and on Weibo, no less.

According to netizens, on September 12, the actress left a comment on the Weibo post of Chinese director Queena Li, wishing her a happy birthday.

Queena had collaborated with Vicki on an eight-episode monologue series Hear Her in 2020. Vicki was the producer, while Queena was one of the many directors who worked on it.

Although Vicki’s comment was a simple “Happy Birthday”, her fans were very heartened to see that Vicki was still on Weibo.

The comments section was filled with messages from netizens celebrating the ‘return' of Vicki.

“I love and miss you so much Vicki-jie, I’m so happy to see a comment from you here,” gushed one netizen gushed.

Photos: Vicki Zhao/Weibo, Queena Li/Weibo