Starlight Has No Past - Chapter 53 Epilogue

Hello everyone.

This is the last chapter to Starlight Has No Past.  We hope you all enjoyed reading.

Instead of picking up a new story, we plan to fill Saturday and Monday posts with more You’re Beautiful When You Smile as there’s still a lot to go through.

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


Starlight Has No Past
Chapter 53 Epilogue

In the first year of Ye Qiao and Zhou Tingsheng’s marriage, they faced for the first time the question of whose family to spend Chinese New Year with.

Liang Zirao had come back from abroad before the New Year and called Zhou Tingsheng from the airport as soon as she landed: “I rushed home from my business trip to spend the New Year with dad, but you’re going to Ye Qiao’s family. You’re married to her family?”
Zhou Tingsheng patiently listened to his sister rant with a smile. After he hung up, he was met by a questioning look from Ye Qiao
“Your sister’s not happy about it?”
“Liang Zirao always likes to stir up trouble.” Zhou Tingsheng leisurely checked his cell phone: “You haven’t spent a New Year with your father for so many years, now we should get to your family first.”

He saw a news picture on his cell phone and showed it to Ye Qiao: “Who’s this again?”
Ye Qiao went over to take a look. It was the lead actor of the movie she had just agreed to do, a popular young actor. There was always gossip about him and any actress who worked with him. Now the media was making some gossip about him and Ye Qiao.
Ye Qiao dismissed it with a sneer: “It’s Jiang xx, don’t you know him?”
Zhou Tingsheng pretended to check him out: “He seems a little better than the last one.”
Ye Qiao pinched his arm: “What are you talking about?”
Zhou Tingsheng tried to avoid her: “I mean, I think we should find time to announce the news that we’re married.”

Ye Qiao paused and her expression became somewhat serious. Zhou Tingsheng understood that an actress had to listen to her agency. He pulled Ye Qiao over and kissed her hair: “It’s alright. Actually, it’s quite fun this way.”
But Ye Qiao didn’t find the fun in the situation.

On the way to her father’s house, both of them avoided the topic or anything regarding her work until a clicking sound came from Ye Qiao’s cell phone. Zhou Tingsheng knew that she’d snuck a picture of him and tried to take a look. But Ye Qiao had already posted it to her Weibo account which rarely had anything posted on it. But now there was a post wishing everyone a happy New Year and a special picture along with it.
Zhou Tingsheng didn’t know how to react: “Shen Ting won’t have a quiet New Year’s holiday now.”
“She won’t care about this.” Ye Qiao logged off Weibo before the wave of comments came rolling in. She would let the public relations people deal with it.

When they arrived at Xu Zang’s house, Cheng Su had already started preparing a banquet at home.
They entered the house as fireworks began exploding in the night sky.
Cheng Su had given birth to a baby boy in the fall. She had recovered well but gained some weight. Her slightly chubbier face made her appear even more kind and gentle. She greeted Ye Qiao and Zhou Tingsheng as they walked in: “Your father is in the study. Go get him for me.”
She had placed the baby boy in a stroller and pushed the stroller into the living room so the baby could celebrate with the rest of the family. The baby was wearing new red clothes and a red cap was hanging on the side of the stroller.

Zhou Tingsheng went to the study by himself to get his father-in-law. Ye Qiao stayed in the living room to play with the baby. She carefully put the new cap on her half-brother’s head. The baby giggled, totally oblivious of the rift in his family’s past.
Ye Qiao’s mind wandered as she looked at the baby’s innocent face.
She used to feel that it was disrespectful to the deceased to put the past behind her, but now she was thinking how wonderful the future was going to be.

Zhou Tingsheng quietly walked over to her from the study and put his arms around her from behind: “What are you thinking about?”
Ye Qiao turned around and gave him a sly look: “I’m thinking whether in the future he’ll raise his voice at me just like you treat Liang Zirao. I’ll be really mad.”
Zhou Tingsheng kissed her on the cheek and said without any room for arguing: “He won’t. You’ll definitely be a better sister than Liang Zirao.”
Ye Qiao laughed: “If she heard this, she’d drive me out of your family.”
“How can that happen?” Liang Zirao had been getting closer to Ye Qiao lately since Ye Qiao respected her as an actual sister, unlike Zhou Tingsheng who had always ignored her. Zhou Tingsheng mocked himself: “I feel like she’s closer to you than me now.”

Ye Qiao laughed and turned to look outside; a car was driving in, its headlights illuminated the front door.
Cheng Su went to welcome the guest. Ruan Feiyan got out of the car.
Xu Zang often invited her to come to dinner at his house that Ruan Feiyan was quite familiar with the place now. But she still looked around uneasily.
Zhou Tingsheng went out with Ye Qiao to greet her: “Xiao Yan.”
Ruan Feiyan nodded and walked towards the house. Cheng Su took out all sorts of fireworks she had prepared earlier and handed them over: “It’ll be a while before the dinner’s ready. How about you two play with some fireworks with Xiao Yan out here?”

Cheng Su had treated Ruan Feiyan as their adopted daughter and enjoyed buying toys for her as if she was still a young girl, even though she would be an adult this year. Ruan Feiyan set one off and quietly sat on the bench in the yard to watch the fireworks explode in the sky.
Ye Qiao also set another off and sat down next to her.
The chilly breeze had turned the tips of their ears red. They remained quiet for some time until Ruan Feiyan suddenly smiled and said: “The last time I played with fireworks was when I was little and my mom was still around.”

The corner of Ye Qiao’s mouth twitched slightly. Ruan Feiyan shrugged and said: “It’s nothing. It just happened to come to mind. I didn’t mean to bring up the past.” She pulled out her cell phone from her pocket and showed a picture to Ye Qiao.
A young man was smiling on the screen.
Ruan Feiyan told Ye Qiao: “I’ve gotten used to my school now. This is the guy sharing the same desk with me. Doesn’t he look good?”
“......” Ye Qiao was surprised and reminded Ruan Feiyan like an old fashioned elder lady: “You have the college entrance exam this year.”
“I know. I won’t do anything before I graduate!”
Ruan Feiyan laughed and Ye Qiao also smiled, breathing out a sigh of relief.

Zhou Tingsheng finally got a bucket of fireworks ready and ran over to them after he had set them all alight. The fireworks flew into the sky amidst their laughter and burst into sparkles above their heads.
The sparkles spread out in the night sky, then fell down like shooting stars, landing all around the yard.
Ye Qiao looked up at the fireworks, then turned to look at Zhou Tingsheng who was also looking at her.
He looked as if he was all alone in the yard surrounded by brilliant sparkles. Ye Qiao could see all the splendid fireworks in his bright eyes for the rest of their lives.

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