<p>You are given a string <code>s</code>, where every <strong>two</strong> consecutive vertical bars <code>'|'</code> are grouped into a <strong>pair</strong>. In other words, the 1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup><code>'|'</code> make a pair, the 3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup><code>'|'</code> make a pair, and so forth.</p>
<p>Return <em>the number of </em><code>'*'</code><em> in </em><code>s</code><em>, <strong>excluding</strong> the </em><code>'*'</code><em> between each pair of </em><code>'|'</code>.</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong> that each <code>'|'</code> will belong to <strong>exactly</strong> one pair.</p>
<strong>Input:</strong> s = "yo|uar|e**|b|e***au|tifu|l"
<strong>Output:</strong> 5
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The considered characters are underlined: "<u>yo</u>|uar|<u>e**</u>|b|<u>e***au</u>|tifu|<u>l</u>". There are 5 asterisks considered. Therefore, we return 5.</pre>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><code>1 <= s.length <= 1000</code></li>
<li><code>s</code> consists of lowercase English letters, vertical bars <code>'|'</code>, and asterisks <code>'*'</code>.</li>
<li><code>s</code> contains an <strong>even</strong> number of vertical bars <code>'|'</code>.</li>