Only Starlight - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

There was only a beam of white light shooting down from above the dark stage.

A white-clothed youngster was standing in the middle of the stage, seemingly distanced from hearing the cheers of the audience. The boy was standing in front of a black microphone stand, the microphone resembling a circle of silvery light.

He seemed to be waiting.

Outside the stadium, a young Jian Wei looked up at the giant screen. She was merely passing through the area, but the screams inside the stadium caused her to subconsciously look at the giant screen. She was just going to take a quick look, but surprisingly found herself unable to move.  She didn’t know the boy on stage but she knew that tonight the stadium was the venue for the most popular singing competition in the country, so this person must be one of the competitors.  Her heart unconsciously clenched, as if she were having a premonition, finally able to see things that she couldn’t before, the things that she didn’t know previously.

The boy stood there as if he were standing at the center of the world. Surrounded by darkness, he was the only thing that was bright.  Suddenly, without the slightest sign, dozens of white lights suddenly lit up simultaneously, resembling thousands of stars. On the big screen, the stage slowly rose higher, the camera zooming in on the boy’s face, showing a pair of closed eyes slowly opening… The audience began to scream. The drums produced a clear and loud sound, as if signaling the start of a war. The languid atmosphere of the stage suddenly burst into life.

She heard his voice, singing. Not from the live broadcast, but from the scene, coming from the outdoor stadium.  A deep and low sound, completely sexy and husky.  That kind of magnetism had even the mic was making a slightly static noise.

The people around them disappeared, as if there were only him and her left in the world, along with his song.  His hair was messy. His black eyes were shining as if they were the blade of sword, piercing people through the screen.

And straight at Jian Wei.

There was a gap in the curtain, showing the snow drifting down in the muted daylight, telling her that it was already morning.

The second day in Beijing.

This was a standard hotel room. Jian Wei looked at the bed on the other side.  It really was empty. It seemed that the sound that she’d vaguely heard was not a dream. Lai Xiao Shuang really had been awakened by a work call, leaving before dawn.

She rubbed her face. The dream had seemed so real.

That pair of eyes, the emotions coming from those eyes, the intensity had caused the downfall of a girl’s heart.

Jian Wei still remembered the day when she had unexpectedly met Jiang Yi. Before that, she never liked any stars, but after that day, well, everything changed.

The street was crowded with people coming and going as she stood on the roadside, her hand still holding a bottle of Sprite. It was just out of freezer; there were still water droplets around the bottle. Her hand was full of moisture, the water droplets falling on the floor.  As if she was unconscious, simply staring at the big screen.

He was also looking at her, his eyes were bright, with a smile on his lips. For a second, it was as if they were looking at each other face to face.

Even after 7 years, Jian Wei could still remember the thrill of that moment, the goose bumps that she felt from her fingertips to her shoulders. In the end, even her hands went limp, the soda inside the bottle pouring out, wetting her skirt.

Clutching the quilt, Jian Wei pulled it up until she was completely under it, her red face feeling hot. To actually dream of that day, it must be because she was letting her imagination run too wild last night, tossing around on the bed until 3 am when she finally fell asleep. That had to be the reason for her dreaming that dream.

Thinking about last night, many images crashed through her mind: the fans crowding outside of the airport, her fleeing the scene inside the nanny car, as well as a man’s face covered with a cap… and his pleasant appearance. It was as if she were pressing the fast-forward button on a movie, but as it happened every frame was very clear, making her convinced that it was not her imagination.

That photo, she must take a look at that photo again!

At that moment, the mobile phone on the bedside began to vibrate.  Not wanting to get up, she stretched out her hand to find it. Grabbing the phone, she got back under the covers and picked up the call. Sure enough, the call was from Lai Xiao Shuang, “Are you awake? If you are, go to the studio. I’ll tell you the address. Your pass is on the pillow. Hurry up, don’t let wuli* Male God Jiang waiting anxiously.”

[TN: *Wuli: It’s a Chinese Internet meme and a transliteration of Korean word meaning ‘my’.]

Finishing that last sentence, the person who said it laughed amusedly at her own words.

Jian Wei fumbled around and held an object before her eyes through the quilt. In the faint light, she examined the object carefully. It was a name badge with a blue ribbon, two sheets of paper pressed together by a plastic cover. Printed on top of it was the crew name as well as her name. The center was left blank, the space reserved for a photo to be inserted.

With this thing, she could enter the crew, and once again…

See him.

That boy on the stage, and the man inside the car; those two images suddenly overlapped. She immediately threw off the quilt and cried out, “I’ll definitely arrive in half an hour! Wait for me!”

Just imagine! To wake up every morning and discover that I’m really am not dreaming, it really is MY MALE GOD!

The hotel was located outside the city. The whole crew of the drama ‘If There Is No Love’ was staying here. Last night when Lai Xiao Shuang brought her over, Jian Wei had wishful thinking that Jiang Yi’s destination would also be here, and that there might be a possibility to encounter each other again at the hotel.

Unfortunately, yy* all the way…, she didn’t even run into an odd-job worker.

[TN: *yy: yì yín (意淫), fantasizing, sexual thoughts.]

‘If There Is No Love’ was the first drama that Zhou Peipei signed after her burst of popularity. It naturally attracted a widespread attention from both media and fans. It had been two weeks since the shoot started and there was always a group of reporters who wanted to visit the set. The production team, however, still insisted on a closed set until it was completely finished.

Today’s shooting was in the vicinity. Thanks to the pass, Jian Wei was allowed access inside the film location. She was wearing a big mask; with her bangs down, concealing a pair of big eyes filled with curiosity as she looked around the area.

The theme of this part of drama was an urban workplace. As there was not enough space for the details, the production team rented a two-storey warehouse and spent a great deal of effort to renovate the warehouse to create the most important setting in the drama – the protagonist’s law firm.

At the moment, people were coming and going in the business office set as all of the departments were frantically working. Jian Wei looked around at an expensive-looking camera dolly, silver rail tracks, and all kinds of unidentified power cords. Every aspect of it was making a clamor simultaneously.

“Lighting?! When will the lighting be ready? The director wants to start urgently!”

“The earrings that Zhou laoshi wore yesterday are missing! Help!, They’re needed in today’s scene, quickly help me find them!”

“Xiao Zhang, gives Li jie a phone call. Asks her what’s going on. She’s taking so much time getting that stuff that if the assistant director doesn’t get angry,  I will get angry!”

The more Jian Wei saw, the more she became excited she became. Wow, this is the crew ah, the place where he works ….

Lai Xiao Shuang saw her first and took a few steps over, “How is it, everything going well?”

“Smoothly. And you, how come you’re not following Zhou Peipei around? Doesn’t an assistant have to offer 24 hours of personal service?”

“The second assistant,” corrected Lai Xiao Shuang, “That person’s personal assistant is not me. I am only with this part of the drama, in charge of the errands. Everything else I don’t have to personally attend to.”

In other words, assistant to the assistant.

That’s right; Lai Xiao Shuang’s boss was Zhou Peipei. Jian Wei had very much admired this friend of hers for so many years, having the ability to suffer in silence* while serving Jian Wei’s lookalike.

[TN: * 忍氣吞聲 – idiom meaning to submit to humiliation; swallowing an insult]

Really flexible, ah. This girl was absolutely going to achieve great things!

Just when the two people wanted to say something, from the upstairs came a loud, earth-shattering noise. The surroundings suddenly became deathly quiet.

Everyone looked up, as if to see the situation through the ceiling above., Lai Xiao Shuang suddenly reacted, “FML, who provoked Her Highness the Empress Dowager?! Really want to me to die?!” She cursed while quickly running towards the stairs.

Jian Wei roughly guessed the identity of ‘Her Highness the Empress Dowager’. She hesitated for a second before following her friend upstairs.

There were fewer people on the second floor than the first floor. A large box was on the floor, probably the source of the loud noise just now. The lid was opened, the contents spilled everywhere. Many people were squatting down near the box to it to clean up the messy floor.

Looking past the mess, Jian Wei could see that one meter away from the box, the light was reflecting on a person who was stepping over a pair of black leather high-heels. She raised her line of sight a little bit. Beautiful ankles, elegantly overlapping legs, and a beautiful red-colored skirt. And above all of that was, is a small and exquisite face.

A very familiar face.

Female star Zhou Peipei was sitting on a black rotating chair, playing with her crystal nails in total boredom.

There was a crowd squatting at her feet as if they were kneeling and worshipping her. The sun was coming through the glass window behind her, causing it to look like she was glowing.  Jian Wei couldn’t help but to gently sucked in air.

This was the first time she saw Zhou Peipei in real life, even though that name had greatly affected her life in the last 4 years.

She looked much thinner from than she did on TV, her cheeks slightly sunken. Jian Wei was considered to be thin in a normal way, but this star was thin to the point of looking a little bit sick.  Their looks… the difference between them was so big. No wonder Jiang Yi was able to recognize that it was a wrong person faster than the fans.

Also letting out a breath was the one who had been just beside her, Lai Xiao Shuang. Forcing herself to smile, she asked, “Is everything alright, Zhao laoshi? Just now from downstairs, I heard a sound. Did we do anything wrong?”

Zhou Peipei looked as if she was going to say something, but hesitated and looked up at her, “What? Oh, you mean the box, ah? I’m not the one who did it.” Showing a sweet smile, she continued, “Do you think that I have that kind of temper? Are you accusing me of being a diva?”

Lai Xiao Shuang, surprised for a moment, quickly said, “No, of course not. I was just…”

“It was its fault. I wanted to catch it, and I accidentally hit the box…” Another woman from the crowd came forward, her arms still holding a white cat, “I am sorry for the trouble, everyone.”

Lai Xiao Shuang’s face changed a bit, “This cat is?”

“I made a special trip to find it. It’s for the ‘Fatty’ role,” the woman said naturally.

In the drama, Zhou Peipei’s character Xia Yi Ran had a pet cat called ‘Fatty’. Before this, the crew had found a cat, but unfortunately Zhou Peipei had only seen the cat for half an hour before she told the crew that she could not work with it, so the crew had to find a new one.

Jian Wei was frowning. She clearly remembered that this ‘looking for a cat’ job was Lai Xiao Shuang’s responsibility. Seemed like this woman wanted to use this trick to make a reputation for herself in front of Zhou Peipei!  Jian Wei found this thing to be interesting; this was stealing someone else’s job ah. But looking at Zhou Peipei’s attitude, it seemed as if she was not satisfied with it.  Sure enough, the woman holding the cat said, “Peipei ah, you really don’t want to take a look at it again? I specially borrowed it from my sister-in-law; it’s very beautiful. It certainly looks good when you hold it in front of the mirror!”

The woman was called Bai Lu, and she was Zhou Peipei’s new assistant. Every three months on average, Zhou Peipei would change her assistant. Bai Lu was now on her second month, so she was anxious to win the boss’s favor, forcefully snatching over the job of looking for a cat from someone else.

But she still underestimated the difficulty of pleasing Zhou Peipei.

Taking a glimpse at the cat, Zhou Peipei coldly said, “Beautiful? Not really. It doesn’t like to be close to people at all, it won’t let me touch it…. Why would I want it? Take it away.”

Bai Lu secretly complained. In fact, just now when Zhou Peipei saw the cat, she looked very interested. But when she wanted to hold it, the kitten was shocked so it began shrieking loudly to escape.

“Small animals are like this, they are afraid of strangers. You give it a little time; it will certainly be close to you…”

Zhou Peipei sneered, not answering.

Seeing the awkward atmosphere, Lai Xiao Shuang suddenly spoke, “Lu jie, you don’t understand, not all cats are afraid of strangers. Zhao laoshi obviously wants to care for that lively creature. Not to mention, although the cat you found bring is pretty, but it’s not good- looking enough. Nowadays on weibo, there are many meng* accounts. The owner of those accounts often shared photos of their adorable kittens.”

*meng (萌 )- a loanword borrowed from the  Japanese 萌え moe, slang describing affection for a cute character

Bai Lu looked like she was ready to kill her. Raising her eyebrow, she said, “Ah, I know. I also followed a few on my Weibo. Xiao Shuang, your meaning is that we should contact these popular accounts? You go and try. See if it is possible.”

“You don’t need to look at the whole network. Zhou laoshi is so popular that if we want to give her a pet, you should definitely find the one that is the most popular as well,” said Lai Xiao Shuang.

The girls were surprised for a moment, “You mean…”

Lai Xiao Shuang smiled and said, “Of course it’s ‘Yuan Gulu’ (round grunt).”

[TN: I decided to use the original name instead of its translation because I think it sounds more adorable]

When this strange name came out, more than half of the girls present gave a clear look of understanding. If someone hadn’t heard of the name, the person next to her would explain in a low voice, “It is a well-known cat, very popular. It has nearly one million followers on Weibo. It should be among the top 3 meng accounts on Weibo.”

Lai Xiao Shuang: “In fact, the number of followers exceeded one million last week.”

“If we were to invite it, I would completely approve. I am its diehard fan, wuli Yuan Gulu Beauty! Every night I have to brush her picture, it’s my spiritual food!”

“I don’t think it will be easy for us to invite it. I have a friend who crewed on ‘Advertising Queen’. I heard that they also heard of Yuan Gulu’s online fame and wanted to invite it to play the actor’s pet, but they were ruthlessly rejected. The cat’s owner didn’t want her pet shooting a movie.”

“Let’s try and see how it goes. The star power and investment of our drama compared to ‘Advertising Queen’, the investment is not remotely the same…”

“Who are you?” Zhou Peipei suddenly asked.

Everyone was quiet. Zhou Peipei was still sitting on the chair idly listening as her eyes fell upon her opposite. That was when everyone noticed that there was an unknown person among them. Zhou Peipei’s eyes moved from her forehead, to her eyes, and finally stopped on the mask.

She repeated the question, “Who are you?”

Jian Wei felt that her eyes were as cool as ice. Along her nose, the skin was a little tense.

Although she was wearing a mask, based on her slim figure, people could see that she was not an average person. Moreover, this habit of wearing mask was the common way for the stars to dress, so they immediately misunderstood, “Is it a new actor? Hello laoshi…”

“No,” said Jian Wei. She shook her head and raised something in her hand, “I am not an actor.”

It is a cat holder. Just now, no one was paying attention, but now that they saw it clearly they couldn’t help but widen their eyes.

What’s going on? Another cat delivery?

Bai Lu’s face became ugly, “Who brought you in? We already have a cat. Even if it is unsuitable, we still can’t have a cat from who-knows-where? Has it passed the security check? Who’s going to be responsible if it scratches Peipei?!”

Her words were quite harsh. Although some people didn’t agree with her expression, most people secretly agreed with her words.

Zhou Peipei was so difficult to serve that if she really got hurt by something, the whole crew would have bad luck.

Moreover, who knew what her cat looked like? If it wasn’t beautiful enough, it was better to use Bai Lu’s.

Jian Wei didn’t answer. Instead she put the cat holder onto the ground and opened the zipper. The girls heard a wailing sound as a lump of white fur hesitantly exposed its little head. The next second it came out, winding around Jian Wei’s feet just like a puppy, burying its head and hiding behind Jian Wei.

Before the surprised and disbelieving eyes of the crowd, Jian Wei picked up the cat, shook its front paws, smiled, and said, “Say hello.  This is Yuan Gulu.”