Incurable Chapter 2 Part 1

Mu Wan burst out laughing. Still laughing, she rolled the window back up, started the car, and drove away.

Daoist Liu truly lived up to his reputation as free of worldly desires.

She drove home.

Her apartment was in the northern part of the city. Two months ago, she had just bought a secondhand place in Qinghe Dream Garden. It was in Xiacheng’s old district, and the buildings there were all more than thirty years old.

It was the sort of old, crowded apartment complex you could find in any city center. The buildings were run-down, but the location was excellent, and everything was within walking distance. Overall, it was a comfortable place to live.

Mu Wan had graduated only two years earlier, and the money earned from acting during that time had been sufficient only for the down payment. She was still paying the mortgage month by month.

The apartment was old, and the previous owner’s style seemed stuck in the eighties. The furniture and appliances were worn out, too. Lin Wei worked in interior design, but since Mu Wan didn’t want a full makeover, Lin Wei just helped her freshen things up a bit. The place ended up with a soft, cozy, slightly rustic Taiwanese feel.

There was no parking inside the complex, so Mu Wan left her car at the mouth of the alley and walked the rest of the way home.

Even though the neighborhood was old, it stayed lively. Around dinnertime, older men and women with grocery baskets chatted in the local dialect, making plans to dance in the small park after eating. Ivy climbed many of the building walls, twisting around the iron bars on the stairwell windows. The place looked shabby and worn, but it was filled with the warmth of everyday life.

There were only six buildings in Mu Wan’s complex, arranged in two rows. She lived in the first building of the back row. Pushing open the stairwell door, she climbed to the third floor, took out her keys, and unlocked the apartment on the left.

Right by the entrance was the switch for the living room light. It clicked on, and milky white light spilled across the room.

The whole apartment was just seventy square meters. The living room was small but tidy and clean, so it still felt very comfortable.

As soon as she walked in, all the tension she’d been carrying melted away. Mu Wan sat on the arm of the sofa with a thump, then let herself flop onto it completely.

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

Rain had begun falling again outside. Through the soft patter, Mu Wan heard two meows.

In old, run-down neighborhoods like this, even pet cats lived almost like strays. At night, cats were everywhere—under trees, in the bushes, and in the shadows between buildings. No one bothered to neuter them, so they multiplied quickly. The whole complex was full of cats, big and small.

Lin Wei once said Mu Wan was a lot like a cat herself: wild, lazy, adaptable, and happy wherever she landed. She even tried to talk Mu Wan into adopting a cat, but Mu Wan said no.

She wasn’t lonely and didn’t need a cat for company. Having another living thing at home would just mean more to worry about. Neither she nor the cat would feel free.

And with that thought came the scene from the hospital: the man lifting his lashes, broken lights scattered beneath the darkness of his eyes. Mu Wan raised a wrist to cover her eyes and laughed softly to herself.

After such a long day, she went to bed right after dinner.

Her phone rang the next morning, waking her from a dreamless night. When she opened her eyes, the sky outside the window was still a flat, dim gray. It wasn’t raining, but it hadn’t cleared either.

The rainy season made the air feel heavy and damp. Everything seemed wet.

Mu Wan picked up her phone. The screen showed Li Nan.

She answered, “Hello, boss.”

Li Nan was her agent. He was the only agent at Xinzhou Entertainment, and all seven or eight artists there called him that. Mu Wan had signed with Xinzhou right after she graduated. The company was small, but it paid on time, didn’t trap people in bad contracts, and had just enough resources to manage. It worked well enough for her.

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

Minor actresses like Mu Wan didn’t have many social events, but they still had some. In a world focused on fame and money, dinners and drinks were normal. Mu Wan went to two or three of these each month.

The dinner was mostly for Mi Yu. She was Li Nan’s most popular client and had once played the second female lead in a hit drama at the height of her career. Mu Wan was just there to fill a seat: sit quietly, eat and drink, offer a toast or two, and let people see her face. Eventually, a small supporting role would show up for her.

Mu Wan agreed to everything one by one. Li Nan added a few more instructions, then hung up.

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