Starlight Has No Past

Chapter 42 Part 1

Life inside the hospital was peaceful and quiet, however, the news of the accident was growing bigger and bigger .
Cheng Jiang and Lu Qing were near the point of the explosion and suffered the brunt of the blaze . Both of them had burns over 30% of their bodies . The movie production now faced the immense burden of compensating for the damages . At the same time, the movie itself was having trouble wrapping up . Related news about the movie occupied the hot search list for over a whole week . Among all the news, the fact that Ye Qiao had shielded Jiang Yu from the fire received the most coverage . The attention she received from the incident was even more than the premier of any of her movies; some of the lesser known films she had acted in were dug up and began to trend .

After Ye Qiao left the hospital, her agent arranged for her to appear in several highly rated talk shows and variety shows . With those appearances, the name “Ye Qiao” became well known . When Director w.a.n.g Qingming announced the actors he’d chosen for his movie, , Ye Qiao was the most well received .

Advertis.e.m.e.ntIn three months after she had been released from the hospital, Ye Qiao was busy with appearances and filming . She was hardly at home and kept contact with Zhou Tingsheng only with an occasional phone call .

Three months later, at the premiere for , Zheng Xishuo performed the theme song of the movie and went down the stage to sit next to Ye Qiao at the special guest area .
Zheng Xishuo had makeup for the stage performance, with glitter at the corners of his eyes . His smile glistened in the light and he began to chat with Ye Qiao: “You’ve recovered well!”
Ye Qiao smiled back and listened to his rambling: “While you were in the hospital, I went to visit you several times . Does your cousin have some kind of grudge against me? Everytime I went, she said you were asleep!”
Ye Qiao knew instantly who had instructed Qianxi to do so, she secretly laughed at the Zhou Tingsheng’s childishness but still replied: “I was sleeping a lot back then . ”

Zhen Xishuo had no interest in getting to the bottom of the issue . Instead, he sulkily asked: “I heard that you had gone to reshoot some scenes for ?”
“ . . . . . . ”
Zhen Xishuo couldn’t believe it: “It can’t be, Qiaoqiao . Are you really this generous? Gu Jin is in a pitiable plight now . The compensation is one thing; if he couldn’t get the film released, not only would all the production cost go down the drain, the pressure from all the investors would also crush him . Even if he can survive the blow this time around, any of his future projects will have difficulty finding any investors . If doesn’t release, he’d be totally destroyed . ”

Finally Ye Qiao opened her mouth: “So you think I should kick him while he’s down?”
“I don’t mean that . ” Zheng Xishuo exasperated that Ye Qiao missing his point: “I mean, you’re already kind enough not asking for any compensation nor terminating your contract with him . Why do you keep shooting scenes for him so that he can complete the film?”

“If I don’t, then I’m kicking him while he’s down, right?” Ye Qiao pretended to be kind hearted: “If I tell you that he had given me a sum of money for the breakup earlier and I had returned it after the accident, would you feel like not having me as a friend?”
Zheng Xishuo really wanted to nod: “ . . . . . . ”
Ye Qiao chuckled: “Am I that stupid?”

She took her time to explain: “I agreed to reshoot certain scenes not because I wanted to help . It’s because if the film can’t be completed then all my effort for the last four months would be wasted . My att.i.tude won’t have much effect on what’s already happened, but it’s very important to me . There’s no need to hurt myself just to get even with him . ”

The accident had been a huge impact on Gu Jin’s finances and reputation . Even if he could make a lot of money with the release of , it would still be hard to make up for the huge shortfall . But for Ye Qiao, this film had become a milestone in her acting career . Not only would she do any reshoots, she would do them as well as she could .

Zheng Xishuo dejectedly said: “Then how about the breakup fee?”
Ye Qiao replied with a smile: “Just because I don’t want to owe him anything . ”

The host of the premiere happened to call on the main actors of the film to go on stage . Because of the reshoot, Ye Qiao’s part in the film became more prominent . She was indeed the first female lead in the film . Xu Yingshan had become the supporting actress and was so annoyed by the change of circ.u.mstances that she refused to attend the premiere .