Starlight Has No Past - Chapter 18 Part 1

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

Starlight Has No Past

Chapter 18 Part 1

The autumn night was already chilly. Ye Qiao, wearing thin clothes,
walked back in front of the camera and dropped herself straight to the
ground after giving out a cry. She was deliberately being rough on
herself so she could portray the despair as her character broke down.
With a loud thud, pebbles on the ground embedded into her knees.
Tears naturally welled up from the sharp pain. But she immediately held
the tears back. Her character, Lu Zhiyao, at this moment had already
gone beyond the point of evading and denying the reality and was well
on her way into darkness. What had just shattered apart wasn’t her feelings,
but her sense of morality.

Ye Qiao stood up bearing with the pain. Her teary face was sad but
resolute. She staggered slightly but steadied herself right away, then
she walked without hesitation into the dark night.

In this take, she didn’t try to show the character’s determination. Her
controlled grief inadvertently gave a powerful statement, of determination
that comes from desperation.

“Cut.”

The assistant director was the first one to call out: “It’s a wrap.”

Shen Ting hurried over and placed a jacket over her and handed over
some hot water. She knelt down to check the wound on Ye Qiao’s knees:
“You fell down too hard! You have pebbles stuck to your knees.”

Ye Qiao’s tender and smooth knees were now covered in blood. Others
could feel the pain just by looking at them.

Gu Jin was behind the monitor, excitement in his eyes. He waved to
Ye Qiao: “Qiaoqiao, come over, this take is excellent!”

Shen Ting glanced over Ye Qiao’s knees and whispered: “Should we take
care of this first?”

Ye Qiao shook her head: “I’ll go over to take a look first. It’s not a big deal.”
She limped over and sat down next to Gu Jin.

Shen Ting took the untouched hot water back and mumbled: “No wonder
they were a couple before, a pair of nuts……”

A lighting technician nearby who was packing up his equipment asked in
a loud voice: “Ah? What did you say?”

Shen Ting hurriedly replied: “Nothing, nothing! Do you need help?”

It was 2am when Ye Qiao arrived back at home.

As soon as she walked out of the elevator, she smelled the aroma of
cooked food, coming from apartment 2302.

It was the smell of meat soup. Wasn’t he a vegetarian?

She had dinner at 6pm, 8 hours ago. She didn’t feel hungry while filming
in the chilly breeze, but now, after catching a whiff of cooked food, she
suddenly felt famish.

Ye Qiao stood right in front of her own door. Just when she entered the
first two digits of her security code, her cell phone vibrated.

A WeChat message------ “You’re back?”

Ye Qiao thought about last night and figured that it wouldn’t be too much
to ask for a share of his midnight meal.

Ye Qiao didn’t return the message, instead, she went over and knocked
on his door.

Zhou Tingsheng came out from the kitchen and was slow to answer the
door. He carried with him the warmth and smell of food.

Ye Qiao chose to ignore his sly smile and asked while looking at the
kitchen: “What are you cooking?”

“Rib soup.”

It was just as she had expected, but she still didn’t understand why: “You’re
cooking rib soup in the middle of the night? Did you just kill someone?”

Zhou Tingsheng let her come in: “It’s for Desa.”

“......”

So she had to share food with a dog. Desa squatted at the corner,
cautiously watching her.

Ye Qiao wanted to deny the motivation for coming here in the first place.
But she was here already, she couldn’t say that she was here because she
was lonely at night, or could she?

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.