Starlight Has No Past

Chapter 43 Part 2

The reviews of <The Watcher>’s midnight premier show was quite good. But due to the accident, the story lines around the lead actor and actress had to be modified. The integrity of the plot had been invariably affected. Despite this, Gu Jin was ingenious at adapting the story. He had changed the original inspirational story surrounding the development of the character played by Cheng Jiang into a case study of the rites of passage in the life of “Lu Zhiyao”, played by Ye Qiao. The movie suddenly transformed from a simple inspirational story into a more complex case study that probed at human nature.

In the movie, “Lu Zhiyao” was a controversial character who when backed into a corner, chose to go astray. Furthermore, the rebirth of the movie after the explosion accident coinciding with the modified storyline created the perfect publicity stunt.

A famous film critic, after giving a detailed analysis of the plot, focused his review on Ye Qiao’s performance. The title of his review captured the essence of his point-- --<Her Beauty is the Hardest to Hide>.

Zhou Tingsheng couldn’t agree more.
On the big screen, Ye Qiao only had crude makeup on, sometimes deliberately to look uglier. Yet, her face was bright and smooth, her eyes lucid and translucent like the lake on top of a snowy mountain. That was probably the reason why despite playing as a criminal, when she was beaten up by the families of her victims, Zhou Tingsheng couldn’t feel any satisfaction that justice had been done. He frowned: “Was the beating real or fake?”
Ye Qiao knew that most people could tell whether the actions in the movie were real or fake and didn’t plan to hide the truth from him: “......It’s real.”
She then turned to look at his face for his reaction.

Zhou Tingsheng’s face turned darker: “Gu Jin let you do it?”
“No.” Ye Qiao was telling the truth but felt like she was trying to cover something up: “I asked for it myself.”
Zhou Tingsheng frowned again as she had expected: “Really?”
“Really. I asked to do it that way myself.”
Zhou Tingsheng spoke disapprovingly: “You aren’t covering up for Gu Jin, are you?”
Ye Qiao found the question a bit amusing: “Why would I want to cover up for him?”

She and Gu Jin worked in the same business. It was hard to avoid seeing each other, especially when they happened to collaborate on a film. Zhou Tingsheng knew about it, but he had witnessed far too many times how Ye Qiao became agitated and despondent over this man when he first met her. He knew what that man meant to her. Ye Qiao had worked with many actors, many young idols, but she never cared for them. Gu Jin was a different story. That’s why at the beginning of the movie, when Ye Qiao’s name appeared right next to Gu Jin, Zhou Tingsheng couldn’t help but glance at her to check the expression on her face.

Ye Qiao knew what Zhou Tingsheng was thinking and felt somewhat irritated that she had to make an effort to prove herself.
Zhou Tingsheng had his arm around her shoulder and patted her stiffened back to appease her: “You see your ex-boyfriend more than you see me. Can’t you let me just check?”
Ye Qiao wasn’t pleased: “What do you want to check? To see whether I have feel sorry for him and went back to him when he’s down and out?”
“I’m not.” Zhou Tingsheng was only trying to tease her a little and didn’t expect that she’d become so irritated. He brought her closer into a hug: “How can I do that. Is my Qiaoqiao that kind of person? Who else can satisfy you except me.”

Hearing the latter half of the sentence, Ye Qiao pushed him away and complained: “That’s all you think about.”
“What’s wrong with that.” Zhou Tingsheng caught her hands and picked her up, placing her onto his lap.  One of his hands went under her top along her waistline, caressing her. His palm was calloused from holding a gun. The caress was rough but warm. Ye Qiao tried wiggle out, but somehow ended nestling in his arms.
What was playing on the big screen had gone beyond them.