Incurable Chapter 2 Part 1

“Hahaha.” Mu Wan laughed. Still laughing, she rolled up the car window, started the engine, and drove away.

As expected of Daoist Liu, he really was detached from worldly desires.

Mu Wan drove home. She lived in the northern district of the city and had just bought a secondhand apartment in Qinghe Mengyuan Community two months ago. Qinghe Mengyuan was in Xiacheng’s old town area, and the buildings there were all more than thirty years old.

It was the very definition of an old, run-down neighborhood in the city center. The apartments might be shabby, but the location was excellent, the surrounding facilities were complete, and living there was still fairly comfortable.

Mu Wan had only graduated two years ago. The money she had earned from acting over those two years was only enough for a down payment, and she was still paying off the mortgage month by month.

The apartment was too old. The previous owner’s décor was stuck in the eighties, and both the furniture and appliances were worn out. Lin Wei worked in interior design, and since Mu Wan didn’t want to do any major renovations on such an old place, Lin Wei had simply helped her redecorate it a little. The style leaned toward Taiwanese country chic—fresh, cozy, and pastoral.

There were no parking spaces in the neighborhood, so Mu Wan left her car at the mouth of the alley and walked the rest of the way home.

Though the community was old, plenty of people still lived there. It was dinnertime now, and elderly men and women carrying grocery baskets walked by, chatting in dialect and making plans to meet up in the little park after dinner to dance. Ivy climbed halfway up the walls of the old apartment blocks and wound itself around the iron bars by the stairwell windows. In this aging, crumbling neighborhood, everyday life thrived everywhere.

There were only six apartment buildings in Mu Wan’s community, arranged in two rows. She lived in the first building of the last row.

Pushing open the entry door and stepping into the stairwell, Mu Wan climbed to the third floor, pulled out her keys, and unlocked the apartment on the left.

The light switch was right by the entrance. With a click, the milky-white light lit up the living room. The whole apartment was only about seventy square meters. The living room wasn’t large, but it was clean and tidy, making it especially comfortable to look at.

The moment she came through the door, the tension she had been holding all day finally dissolved. Mu Wan dropped onto the armrest of the sofa, then let herself fall back completely onto the couch and lay there.

She had spent the whole morning filming, taken the high-speed rail back at noon, and without even unpacking her luggage, rushed straight to the hospital to see Lin Wei. By now, she was completely drained.

Before long, rain began to fall outside again.

Through the soft patter of rain, Mu Wan heard two cats cry.

In neighborhoods like this, even pet cats were raised like strays. At night, cats were everywhere—under the trees, in the bushes. No one bothered to spay or neuter them, so once they were left to roam, they reproduced quickly. The whole neighborhood was overflowing with cats, big and small.

Lin Wei had once said Mu Wan was a lot like a cat herself—wild, lazy, and able to settle anywhere. She had even tried to persuade Mu Wan to keep one, but Mu Wan had refused.

She wasn’t lonely, nor did she need a cat’s companionship. Bringing a cat into the home would only mean one more thing to worry about. Neither she nor the cat would be free.

Thinking of cats reminded her of what had happened at the hospital: the man lifting his lashes slightly, tiny fragments of light scattered beneath his eyes.

Mu Wan raised a wrist to cover her eyes and laughed softly.

Exhausted from the day, she went to bed soon after dinner. She slept through the night without a dream, only to be woken in the morning by her phone ringing.

When she opened her eyes, the sky outside the window was a murky gray. It wasn’t raining, but it hadn’t cleared up either.

The rainy season brought heavy moisture. The air was damp and clammy everywhere. Mu Wan picked up her phone. The screen showed Li Nan. She answered, greeting him, “Hello, boss.”

Li Nan was Mu Wan’s agent. He was the only agent at Xinzhou Entertainment, and all seven or eight artists under him addressed him that way. Mu Wan had signed with Xinzhou right after graduation. The company wasn’t large, but it paid on time, had no exploitative clauses, and offered a modest but steady flow of resources. It suited her well.

“Tomorrow night at seven, Director Zhang Chengze is hosting a dinner at Qingsong Pavilion,” Li Nan said, getting straight to the point. “He’s preparing a TV drama. Mi Yu will be going for an audition, and the two of you will go together.”

An actress as young as Mu Wan didn’t have many social obligations in daily life, but that didn’t mean she had none. In a world driven by fame and profit, dinner parties and drinks were routine. Mu Wan attended about two or three such gatherings a month.

This dinner’s real focus was Mi Yu. She was the most popular artist under Li Nan and, at the peak of her career, had played the second female lead in a hit drama. Mu Wan’s role there was only to make an appearance—sit quietly in a corner, eat and drink a little, offer a toast, show her face, and maybe end up with a small role assigned to her later.

Mu Wan acknowledged each of his instructions. After a few more reminders, Li Nan hung up.

Once the call ended, Mu Wan took off her clothes and prepared to shower. The weather was cool and damp, and her skin felt covered in a layer of misty discomfort.

After showering, she picked up a glass cup and her toothbrush and began brushing her teeth. Before she had even finished, Lin Wei called.

Setting the cup down, Mu Wan clamped the toothbrush between her teeth and answered.

“Do you have work today?”

“No.”

“Bring porridge from Xu Ji and come see me!”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

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