Starlight Has No Past - Chapter 34 Part 1

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



Starlight Has No Past
Chapter 34 Part 1

There were no spotlight in the temporary audition room. The room was surrounded by dark black curtains with white lights shining on each person’s face, amplifying every blemish on each face.

Ye Qiao was like a pure narcissus. With saddened face and deep voice, she slowly delivered the last sentence of the audition script without making the tiniest mistake. It was an extremely heartrending confession, written in the classical style prose. Ye Qiao was superb at delivering lines which was rather rare amongst the younger generation of actors. Even without a voice over in post production, her enunciation and emotion while delivering her lines were always precise. Her performance at the audition brought everyone present into a world of fantasy set in ancient times.

Towards the end of her last line, Ye Qiao was secretly fuming inside.
The role she was auditioning for was an orphan, Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan had a rough life growing up, becoming an assassin as an adult. There was an abundance of internal emotions for an actress to show off her acting skill for this character. Instead, the selections she had received for the audition were mostly sections about love and romance.
She believed that it must have something to do with the person who was sitting off stage watching her audition.

Zhou Tingsheng flicked his thumb and his gold lighter lit up, the bright orange flame reflected deep inside his dark pupils. The sound of Ye Qiao’s voice quieted down in his ears, followed by Wang Qingming’s applause with compliments: “Director Lai’s favorite, a well-deserved reputation.” Ye Qiao modestly expressed that she was flattered. She saw, from the corners of her eyes, the flickering flame on Zhou Tingsheng’s hand and the smile on her face slightly stiffened. Zhou Tingsheng on the other hand lowered his head and smiled. Wang Qingming was a well seasoned man and the subtle interactions between Ye Qiao and Zhou Tingsheng didn’t escape his attention.

Before Ye Qiao left the room, the satisfied middle-aged director had started to compare the strengths and weaknesses of Ye Qiao and Pei Xindan with the people sitting next to him. He even asked Zhou Tingsheng’s opinion: “Mr. Zhou, what do you think?”
Zhou Tingsheng was dialing Ye Qiao’s number on his phone and absent-mindedly replied: “Everything is up to Director Wang to decide.” On his phone, it showed that the number didn’t connect.
It had been two days that he couldn’t get through Ye Qiao’s cell phone. Zhou Tingsheng suspected that she might have blocked his number.

Xu Yinshan who had waited there for half a day came in to the audition room quickly afterwards. She was displeased at the fact that Ye Qiao came later but had gotten to audition ahead of her. Before she entered the room, her eyes were full of insidious resentment. But when she stood on the stage and raised her eyes again, her eyes were all smiles. Zhou Tingsheng captured the subtle changes on her face and sneered. Without waiting for Xu Yinshan to start, he made an excuse to leave after saying goodbye to the director and the other representatives from the movie company.

He was in the room no more than twenty minutes, as if he was there specifically to see Ye Qiao’s performance. Wang Qingming had an idea of the underlying implications and exchanged an understanding look with the other partners. He had seen actresses who brought funding with them into a project, or investors willing to spend recklessly, but he rarely saw anyone who would do it so obviously.

In the hallway, Ye Qiao looked out the window and saw banners celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival flying in the wind at the businesses across the street. The advertisement on the digital screens were showing various attractively packaged moon cakes. She lifted up her wrist to look at her watch; today was the Mid-Autumn Festival.

For the past few years, her uncle would send her a message around this time, reminding her to visit her grandma’s house and have dinner together. This year she had no cell phone and it seemed that all her social connections had been severed. The world became abnormally quiet.
It was too bad that the sky was overcast. It seemed like it might rain. The best view of the moon was impossible to see.

Ye Qiao turned into the makeup room and discovered that her bag was nowhere to be found.

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