Starlight Has No Past - Chapter 45 Part 3

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



Starlight Has No Past
Chapter 45 Part 3

Ye Qiao truly hoped that she could remain indifferent.
No one knew that when she was going in and out of consciousness on the hospital bed, she longed for her father to be there. Even if he were there without a warm smile nor a word of comfort, she still desperately hoped her father was right there with her. But he hadn’t come afterall. Whether it was because his poor health had prevented him from coming or he simply didn’t want to see his unworthy daughter again, in the end Xu Zang didn’t come visit his daughter.
Maybe the grudge between father and daughter would always be there.

After Ye Qiao hung up the call from the museum director, she got another call from Shen Ting.
Shen Ting’s youthful, energetic voice pulled Ye Qiao out of her sad memories.

In the meantime, Zhuo Tingsheng brought steaming hot dumplings to the table. Ye Qiao was forbidden from eating hot and spicy food and so he had made a vinegar and ginger dipping sauce for her. While he was still mixing the sauce with chopsticks, Ye Qiao, hungry, plucked one dumpling to put into her mouth. She turned speaker on her phone so she could eat while talking. Shen Ting’s voice filled the room: “Qiao Jie, have you seen the news about Xu Yinshan?”
Ye Qiao grunted from distance.

Shen Ting continued: “There are posts online that are trying to confuse people; they’re posting pictures of you and Mr. Zhou. It isn’t a big deal since not many people know about Mr. Zhou. But by posting the pictures now, people will think it’s related to the scandal and confuse you with being involved in the iCloud thing. It’s going to be hard to clarify.”
Ye Qiao looked up at Zhou Tingsheng to see his reaction. He was still mixing up his soy sauce dipping sauce. He casually asked: “How widespread is it?”

“Ah, Mr. Zhou is there as well?” Shen Ting’s voice became somewhat uneasy: “It isn’t too bad. The pictures are all normal pictures; it won’t be too hard to clarify. I’m just calling to remind Qiao Jie……”
“Well your Qiao Jie is eating right now. Let her finish eating then we can talk about this.”
He hung up the phone right after speaking.

Ye Qiao was astonished: “You didn’t even ask me before hanging up my phone now.”
“It wasn’t anything important about work. No need to talk about it any longer.” Zhou Tingsheng didn’t think it was a big deal. Seeing Ye Qiao’s bloodshot eyes, he continued: “Is your cold getting worse? Better go take a nap after you eat.”
Ye Qiao put another dumpling into her mouth: “I slept two rounds last night. Can’t sleep now.”
“You’ll be sleepy after taking the medicine.”

Ye Qiao’s nose and cheeks were reddish from the cold, making her look like a cute cartoon character. Zhou Tingsheng kept pinching her cheeks from time to time. Ye Qiao raised her chopsticks to block his hand: “Colds can be infectious.” Zhou Tingsheng didn’t seem to care, he even took away a half-eaten dumpling from Ye Qiao and put into his mouth.
After he had swallowed the half-eaten dumpling, Ye Qiao intently stared at him as if she had witnessed something unusual.

Zhou Tingsheng was concerned: “What’s wrong?”
Ye Qiao blinked her eyes and asked in confusion: “The dumpling you just ate had meat fillings……”
He didn’t notice it when he swallowed it. He only felt the taste of ginger fill his mouth and he didn’t feel ill. “It’s nothing.”

Ye Qiao however thought this was a big deal. If he could have one bite, then he could have another bite. Then maybe whatever had been troubling him would disappear. He must have experienced some bloody encounter which he didn’t want to remember and thus refused to eat meat. Ye Qiao knew very well it would take a long journey to get over this kind of traumatic experience. She picked up a dumpling, trying to entice him: “This has a pork and celery filling. The celery has a very strong smell and you’ll only taste the celery when you eat it. Try a couple of them……”
Zhou Tingsheng turned his face away without answering. Ye Qiao had failed at her first attempt and dejectedly put down her chopsticks, not wanting to push too hard.

It was a cold, snowy day.
After eating, Ye Qiao took the medicine with some water. Then she checked her friend circle. As usual, most of the posts were from Qianxi. She always started with three rows of Ahs, then what came next was even more shocking: “I got to work early in the morning and the first patient of mine is my neighbor! I’m scared to death. I ran into her last night when I was having my late night snack and this morning she’s on the emergency bed with a slashed wrist! What’s going on with young girls these days, don’t they treasure their own lives now? I broke up with my boyfriend, work overtime, and have to bear with cafeteria food. I can really be a model worker! Could you guys give me a thumbs up!”

Ye Qiao glanced at the picture Qianxi had taken. A corner of the medical chart was shown, it happened to be the latter half of the address. The picture was rather blurry, making it difficult to figure out where it was but Ye Qiao already knew who lived at that address.

At the other side of the bedroom, Zhou Tingsheng was answering a phone call with a grim face: “Yes, en…...alright, I’ll be right over.”
She had put all the clues together and took another gulp of water, trying to calm herself down. But the water she drank was too hot and burned her throat.

Zhou Tingsheng took his coat off the rack and walked over to her: “I’m going to the hospital, over at Qingjiang Road. You take a good nap. Send me a text to tell me what you want for lunch. I’ll bring it back when I come home. En?”
Ye Qiao stubbornly shook her head: “I’ll go with you.”

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