Incurable Chapter 1 A Doctor in the Rain (2)

Beneath Her Car

“But it’s probably just the same name,” Lin Wei added. “The head of the Liu family must have a hundred things to deal with every day. Why would he work in a hospital as a doctor? How much can a doctor even make?”

“Maybe he doesn’t need the money,” Mu Wan said. “Maybe he saves lives because he’s looking for spiritual redemption.”

Lin Wei tilted her head and gave her an exaggerated eye roll.

Mu Wan laughed.

She stayed with Lin Wei until the rain finally stopped.

When she stepped out of the inpatient building with her umbrella in hand, the storm that had lingered over Xia City for two days seemed to have washed the warmth straight out of the air.

A cool breeze swept past her.

It was almost cold.

Night was beginning to settle over the hospital grounds, though every building still glowed brightly.

Puddles reflected the lights overhead.

Mu Wan stepped through one, shattering the reflection beneath her foot, then found her car and climbed inside.

The moment she sat down, her phone chimed.

The screen lit her face.

She unlocked it and saw a transfer notification.

Her payment for the drama had arrived.

Mu Wan had chosen to attend film school for one very practical reason.

Acting paid quickly.

Even without chasing fame or fighting for leading roles, the supporting parts she took were enough to support herself.

She had grown up without a father and had lived with her mother in the Mu family home.

After her mother died, Mu Wan moved out as soon as she graduated from high school.

By then, she was entirely on her own.

No parents. No family waiting for her. No one whose life was tied to hers.

She had signed with a small agency and spent her time playing minor characters few viewers ever remembered.

Still, she earned enough.

One person to feed.

One person to worry about.

Life was not bad.

Not every actor in a production could be the lead anyway. For most people in the industry, supporting roles were simply the norm.

Mu Wan suspected she might be one of the least ambitious actresses in the entertainment industry.

She sent the company accountant a quick thank-you message, put her phone aside, and prepared to start the car.

Her foot pressed down on the clutch.

Before she could hit the ignition, something tapped against her window.

Mu Wan paused.

Someone was standing outside.

The tinted glass revealed only the outline of a tall, lean figure.

She lowered the window.

As the dark pane slid down, it felt almost like a theater curtain slowly rising.

The man outside was no longer wearing his white coat.

Without it, some of his polished, urbane air had fallen away, making the otherworldly quality about him even more pronounced.

He wore a loose linen shirt, simple and comfortable, yet somehow impossibly elegant on his tall frame.

In one hand, he held a folded long umbrella.

Long fingers rested around the black handle, the knuckles sharply defined beneath pale skin.

The evening sky had darkened beneath a thin gray-black veil.

Against it, his cool, pale complexion seemed almost luminous.

Up close, his face was even more striking.

Especially his eyes.

Dark and clear.

Still, yet impossible to see through.

When Mu Wan lowered the window, his expression remained composed.

He pointed beneath her car.

“Wait a moment. There’s a cat underneath.”

His voice was low and cool, clear as spring water.

Daoist Liu.

Without another word, Liu Qianxiu walked toward the rear of the car.

Mu Wan rested one wrist against the window frame and glanced into the side mirror.

Inside the narrow reflection, Liu Qianxiu bent his long legs and crouched beside the back wheel.

He held what looked like a small biscuit in his right hand.

In the dim evening light, his profile looked softly unfinished, like a watercolor waiting for its final wash.

He peered beneath the car.

“Come here.”

His voice was steady and unexpectedly gentle.

A cat emerged from beneath the car.

Mu Wan’s gaze shifted.

It was a calico, pleasantly plump with a round belly, its fur dusty and slightly grimy.

The moment it crawled free, it lifted its head and meowed at Liu Qianxiu in a soft, almost spoiled little voice.

As though it knew him.

Once the cat was safely clear of the wheel, Liu Qianxiu bent and gathered it into his arms.

The ground was still slick with rainwater.

Mud coated the cat’s paws, and the moment it settled against his chest, dark paw prints bloomed across his linen shirt.

He did not even glance down.

Lin Wei had said he barely interacted with people.

Yet he was remarkably gentle with a stray cat.

Mu Wan watched him standing there with the animal in his arms.

Tall and quiet beneath the hospital lights, he seemed strangely removed from the ordinary world, as though some immortal had wandered down from the heavens and happened to stop beneath the rain-darkened sky.

For one absurd second, Mu Wan thought Lin Wei’s nickname suited him perfectly.

“Is that your cat?” she asked.

She rested both arms along the window frame and looked up at him.

Liu Qianxiu turned.

The calico in his arms turned with him.

Inside the car, Mu Wan seemed almost incandescent against the muted evening, all dark eyes, red lips, and easy laughter.

She smiled at them.

“No,” Liu Qianxiu said. “It’s a stray.”

“It seems pretty attached to you.”

Mu Wan glanced at the calico.

Its pupils had widened until its eyes looked almost entirely black.

“I feed it sometimes.”

That was all.

Their conversation followed a simple pattern.

She asked.

He answered.

Never one word more than necessary.

Lin Wei had been right.

Even his silences seemed restrained.

“You like cats?” Mu Wan asked, a faint smile touching her lips.

“Mm.”

Another short answer.

That smile deepened.

Mu Wan lifted one shoulder slightly, her face scrunching with playful amusement.

“Meow.”

The tiny sound came wrapped in laughter, soft, sweet, and shamelessly teasing.

The calico’s ears twitched.

Confused by the imitation, it opened its eyes wider and looked at her.

Behind it, Liu Qianxiu lifted his gaze.

His dark eyes settled on hers.

Silent.

Still.

And impossibly deep.

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— End of Chapter 1 —

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