Starlight Has No Past - Chapter 28 Part 3

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

Starlight Has No Past Chapter 28 Part 3 When Ye Qiao walked out of the lobby, the wind had stopped. In the dusk, dark clouds
loomed over the horizon. The air seemed stagnant, unsettling her. Ye Qiao walked down the steps and saw Zhou Tingsheng’s car through all the flowers.
He was sitting inside the car with the window wide open. His hand stretched out with a
cigarette between his fingers. The side of his face, handsome but indifferent, reflected
in the rear view mirror seemed to be filled with indescribable loneliness. Two or three cigarette butts were scattered on the ground near the car door. Ye Qiao opened the door to the passenger side and sat in. She wanted to say something
to smooth out the awkwardness between them but nothing came out when she opened
her mouth. In the end, she said: “I thought you’d left.” “It’s only two hours, I can afford to wait.” Zhou Tingsheng put the cigarette in his mouth,
pulled up the window half way, and started the car without saying anything more. Ye Qiao took a deep breath and asked: “What should we eat tonight?” She only realized
after the word had left her mouth that it sounded like she was trying to please him. Zhou Tingsheng used one hand to hold the steering wheel with the cigarette in his left
hand. He blew out a long smoke and spoke with a hoarse voice: “It’s up to you.” Ye Qiao was about to speak after giving it some thought, but coughed as she choked on
the smoke. Even her eyes were irritated by the smoke. Zhou Tingsheng threw the
cigarette out of the window after hearing her cough and said: “What do you want to eat?”
“Let’s go eat crab? Autumn is the perfect time for crabs. After this period, the crabs won’t
taste as good.” He laughed all of a sudden, but even the laugh was detached and aloof: “There are
several restaurants of southern cuisine. They do good crabs.”
Ye Qiao was a bit uneasy: “En. You pick one.” They went to a restaurant which specialized in Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine. Ye Qiao
asked for two plates of spicy crabs but the dish wasn’t spicy enough for her. She felt the
crabs didn't taste as good as when they were spicy hot. She suddenly remembered
Wen Shaoqian’s theory about endorphins and chuckled.
Zhou Tingsheng just pulled off the top shell of a crab and looked up at her. Ye Qiao tried to initiate a conversation: “According to that doctor today, the reason why
spicy foods taste good isn’t because spicy tastes good. But it’s because spicy food
causes pain and the brain secretes something called endorphins from the pituitary gland
in order to protect the body from the painful sensation.”
“What?” “Endorphins. Hormones secreted within the brain and nervous system, similar to morphine.” Zhou Tingsheng found the subject quite unappetizing, and nodded absentmindedly. Ye Qiao saw him concentrate at breaking the crab apart and figured that he probably
wasn’t listening to her. She continued on her own: “Endorphins are very effective at
stopping pain. So, a person’s desire for spicy food isn’t because they enjoy the pain, rather
it’s from the endorphins. Some people will get addicted to endorphins and keep looking for
stimulants, like drugs.”
Zhou Tingsheng broke the crab in half and cleaned his hands with wipes: “As long as it
tastes good, who cares about endorphins.” Ye Qiao took another crab from the plate and pretended to be lighthearted as she spoke:
“Don’t you think it feels somewhat similar to Stockholm Syndrome?” Zhou Tingsheng totally lost his appetite. He coldly played with a lighter and said: “You
think I have Stockholm Syndrome?” “No.” He was far from that kind of condition. Ye Qiao failed to get her point across and
dejectedly said: “I don’t know how to put it.” Zhou Tingsheng sipped some beer: “Then don’t say anything, just eat.” As if afraid that
she wouldn’t listen to him, he added: “I can understand all of it.” Ye Qiao stopped talking, cast her eyes down and concentrated on the food and beer.
Half way through the meal, she got a message on her phone. It was from Wen Shaoqian.
He gave her a self-introduction and extended his regards. It looked like, though Ye Qiao
wasn’t aware that it had been arranged as a blind date for her, she had left a very good
impression on the doctor nonetheless. Zhou Tingsheng, sitting across from her, acted
like an irritable lion and grabbed the phone from her hand. He glanced at the message and noticed Wen Shaoqian delivered his regards in a rather
flirtatious manner. Zhou Tingsheng suppressed his emotions and looked up at Ye Qiao.
Her eyes were fixed on the cellphone. Zhou Tingsheng coldly emphasized: “Keep your
mind on the food.” For some reason, Ye Qiao felt she was the guilty party and didn’t get offended by his
overbearing attitude. She went back to deal with the crab legs. She noticed that Zhou
Tingsheng only drank quietly and hardly touched his plate of crabs. She had a
premonition, which were usually accurate, from his aloofness; instinctively, she felt this
would be the last meal they would eat together.
Both of them had lost the appetite for crabs. Ye Qiao slowly picked the meat out from
the crab’s ten legs and set them on the plate. She then quietly pushed the plate over
to him.
At first, Zhou Tingsheng thought she was only dawdling until she pushed the plateful of
perfectly picked out crab leg meat to him. He really didn’t know how to make sense of
this woman.

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