Starlight Has No Past

Chapter 32 Part 3

Ye Qiao was fully aware of how deliberately pretentious she sounded. But she didn’t want to stop there. Her arm aiming at the pasta swiftly changed direction and took away his salad. She raised her eyelid: “Aren’t you seeing me as being frivolous? Dissolute? And what else, playing dumb?” She paused and said in a slightly indignant tone: “So what about it? Was my acting good? Wasn’t my entire face written with the words ‘I’m throwing myself at him’?”

Zhou Tingsheng was uneasy hearing Ye Qiao bring up last night. He had realized that anyone with a reasonable mind could see how flustered and helpless she was last night, not the state of someone who just had an intimate interaction with someone else. He tightened his eyebrows: “I didn’t……”
“That’s enough.” Ye Qiao’s face fell, not wanting to hear anything about last night. She was about to leave with the plate of salad.
Zhou Tingsheng stopped her. Some of the things that he had lost the desire to say suddenly  returned to him. He subconsciously wanted to grab the chance and looked her in the eyes: “Ye Qiao, let’s talk it over.”

Ye Qiao calmed down and also looked at his eyes. The area around his eyes were slightly bluish, making him look somewhat haggard. Ye Qiao let out a long breath and took a quick glance at the woman behind who was about to reach the table: “I really want to sit down and talk, but it seems that you have your ‘Netherlandish altarpieces” coming. Come look for me after you finish talking to this one.”

Zhou Tingsheng didn’t have time to say anything before Ye Qiao left his table. Whenever it seemed that they had parted ways, Ye Qiao always had the ability to intrigue him before she walked away. He watched her walk away while the woman sat back down across from him. 

The woman put down a plate of king mushrooms with sesame sauce in front of him: “There’s only this thing left at the salad station. It might taste funny, I hope you don’t mind.” She noticed that Zhou Tingsheng wasn’t paying attention to her words but trying to dial a number on his cell phone. She understood tacitly: “Isn’t that…...Ye Qiao who was just here?”

Zhou Tingsheng was startled by the mention of her name. He looked up and said: “......I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.” She indifferently smiled: “Ziruo Jie had told me about your ‘past.’ ”
Zhou Tingsheng raised his eyebrows: “Past? You mean her?” He showed Ye Qiao’s name on his contact list.
“Isn’t she?”
Zhou Tingsheng lit up a cigarette and blew out a smoke with smile: “No.” When he thought about it, it seemed a shame that she couldn’t even count as one of his ‘past’ though he had been suffering from bouts of mood swings because of her. The smoke was blown away by the sea breeze: “It’s not the past yet.”

The woman pondered the meaning of ‘not yet’ and carefully asked: “You two had a fight?”
“No.” It seemed they were incapable of having a fight.
“The silent treatment?”
“No.” It seemed like she would give him the silent treatment, but she broke the silence on her own initiative.
“Then why are you two acting so strangely?”
The fingers that were playing with the lighter abruptly stopped. The answer didn’t come out of Zhou Tingsheng’s throat for a while. He said with a grin: “Because she’s not interested in me.”
“How can that be possible-- --” The woman snickered as if she had heard the most ridiculous thing: “No woman would be jealous about a man she’s not interested. The way she acted just now, very green……”