Starlight Has No Past

Chapter 8 Part 1

Ye Qiao was still wearing the gown for the party and started to walk towards

the door.

Zhou Tingsheng sized her up and down: “You're going out wearing this?”

“En.”

A short one-shoulder c.o.c.ktail dress with a chiffon bow on the shoulder, it was a

bit too formal for a simple dinner but at least she wouldn't be mistaken for a

runaway bride.

The two took the elevator down from the top floor. Along the way, many guests

who had just attended a wedding came in. They knowingly or unknowingly glanced

at her, some of them probably having recognized her. Zhou Tingsheng cuddled Ye

Qiao close and said to those people: “My woman. Doesn't she look like a movie star?”

The people thought he was acting weird, but he started laughing without care for the

others' reactions. Ye Qiao pinched him hard, he acted as if he didn't feel anything and

lowered his head to smell her hair: “It smelled like alcohol. How much did you drink

just now?”

“Let go of me.” Ye Qiao lowered her voice and tried unsuccessfully to pry his hand o

pen.

It felt like he was the person who was drunk.

When they got to the underground garage, a Maserati happened to drive in.

Zhou Tingsheng took a glance at the license plate before he fastened the seat belt

for her.

Ye Qiao caught the moment when he checked the license plate: “What, you recognize

the car?” She paid special attention to the plate, it was a plate from the neighboring

city and the first letter of the plate indicated that it belonged to the military. A car with

a military license plate? She carefully remembered it yet still couldn't figure out which

office it was from.Zhou Tingsheng stepped on the accelerator and turned the steering

wheel in one smooth motion: “What should we eat?”

Ye Qiao somehow felt that he was avoiding the question, but she was too hungry to be

curious at the moment: “Whatever.”

He raised his eyebrows, when a woman said whatever, it meant trouble for the man.

Ye Qiao didn't expect him to take her words literally, perhaps he was trying to get even

with her.

It was near 11 o'clock at night; even the storm was too tired to go on, the rain had stopped.

He drove out of the business district, pa.s.sing the residential area which only had a

few lights still on. The car pa.s.sed by a 24 hour convenience store which hardly had

any customers.

Zhou Tingsheng turned into a small street lined with eateries right next to the side gate of

the key university, C University, in G City. There were many restaurants still open selling

midnight meals. In the middle of the street, there were vendors selling BBQ food.

The street was filled with the choking yet fragrant smoke from BBQ.

Zhou Tingsheng seemed very familiar with the area; he parked the car in front of an

internet cafe, then led the way down the street.

The sidewalk of the street was filled with tables and chairs for outdoor dining.

There were kebabs, fruits, and BBQs. Most of the customers were very young; they

must be the college students next door. They were eating, drinking, chatting, and having

fun; their laughter lingered in the air.

He led her to the end of the street and sat down in front of a place which wasn't

as crowded as the others.

Ye Qiao's dress was sponsored by the maker, 30,000RMB. It was said that the dress

couldn't be dry cleaned, nor washed with water, nor ironed, nor dried by a drier; it could

only be cleaned by wiping with a damped cotton cloth.

She sat down with her 30,000 dress on the half-wet long wooden bench and looked

around her: “You come here to eat hot pot?”

A couple of college sweethearts sat at the table next to theirs. Each one had a small

hot pot in front of them. They were talking and eating. The young girl's chopsticks hardly

touched any food; she kept her head looking upwards at the boy with a sweet smile on

her face.

Ye Qiao chuckled: “It'll feel like a old goblin coming out of his cave to peek at young

foxy girls.”

Zhou Tingsheng bit on a pencil and looked down at the menu. After he had done

checking the menu, he handed it over to her: “What do you want to eat?”

Ye Qiao pulled out another pencil from the pencil holder and teased him while marking

the items she liked: “Haven't you heard when you were a kid that biting the pencil will

make you stupid?”“I'm not biting it.” He held the pencil in between his fingers as if it was

a cigarette, then put it back horizontally between his lips. He felt that there must be

something wrong with his head to take her words seriously, so flipped the pencil back

into the holder. The stub of the pencil flipped between his fingers as if he was doing

magic trick.

Ye Qiao commented when she took a look at him as he was holding the pencil in

between his lips: “You look like Desa.”

Zhou Tingsheng cursed: “It's the dog that looks like me.”