More Than Coincidence
Mu Wan had a chest X-ray.
The results showed that the glass had neither reached her heart nor damaged her chest wall. The injuries were superficial.
Still, because of where she had been hurt, the doctors wanted to keep her in the hospital for observation.
After Liu Qianxiu finished treating her wounds and went over the precautions she needed to follow, he left to see other patients.
A nurse transferred Mu Wan to the surgical ward.
Lin Wei went with her.
Only yesterday, Mu Wan had been the one sitting beside Lin Wei’s hospital bed.
Today, their positions were reversed.
The moment Lin Wei sat down, she crossed her legs, folded her arms, and fixed Mu Wan with a sharp stare.
“Tell me the truth. Did you know Daoist Liu before this?”
Mu Wan leaned back against the headboard.
The anesthetic was still working, so the wounds did not hurt yet. They only itched faintly.
She shifted one shoulder.
“If I knew him before, do you really think I wouldn’t have told you?”
Lin Wei believed that much.
Still, the idea of Liu Qianxiu, a man so famously detached, actually complimenting Mu Wan’s birthmark was difficult to process.
She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
“Could you have forgotten him?”
Mu Wan looked at her.
“Does Daoist Liu look like the kind of man anyone could forget?”
No.
Absolutely not.
Lin Wei had seen him once and was fairly certain she could remember that face for the rest of her life.
“Then he’s attracted to you.”
Having rounded several corners in logic, Lin Wei arrived confidently at her conclusion.
“Daoist Liu is only interested in things he likes. If he said your birthmark was pretty, that basically means he thinks you’re pretty.”
Mu Wan did not buy that reasoning.
Instead, she remembered Liu Qianxiu’s dark, unfathomable eyes.
“An immortal doesn’t develop worldly desires that easily. Maybe a bamboo-leaf birthmark is unusual. Or maybe it has some particular meaning in Daoism.”
She thought about it.
“Daoists can be mysterious.”
Compared with Lin Wei’s theory, Mu Wan’s explanation did sound considerably more plausible.
Lin Wei looked at her.
Color had gradually returned to Mu Wan’s face. She no longer looked frighteningly pale the way she had that morning on the bathroom floor.
But the memory still unsettled Lin Wei.
Mu Wan lived alone.
When something happened to her, there was no family member in the next room to hear her fall. No one to call except Lin Wei.
They had been lucky this time.
If the glass had actually reached her heart, even an ambulance arriving quickly might not have been enough.
The thought made Lin Wei’s stomach tighten.
She leaned back.
“Still, when I was doing your admission paperwork, one of the nurses told me she’d never heard Doctor Liu compliment anyone before.”
She gave Mu Wan a meaningful look.
“That means you’re special.”
Mu Wan said nothing.
“You met him yesterday. Today you somehow ended up in the emergency department, and he was the one who treated you again. You two clearly have some kind of fate going on.”
Lin Wei was warming to her argument.
“And doctors make decent money. Probably around the same as a small-time actress like you. He’s handsome, you’re gorgeous. You’d look good together.”
Mu Wan listened to the entire analysis with little enthusiasm.
The damp weather was making one of her legs ache, so she let it hang over the edge of the bed.
“At this rate, you’ll have names picked out for our children before lunch.”
She was joking, but the subject itself seemed to hold little interest for her.
Lin Wei sighed.
“Tell me something. Are you actually planning to spend your entire life alone?”
Lin Wei and Mu Wan had been classmates in high school.
Lin Wei had moved to Xia City for school and ended up in Mu Wan’s class.
Mu Wan had always been beautiful.
Boys had practically lined up to pursue her.
Yet by the time she graduated, she had never dated anyone.
College had been no different.
After leaving the Mu family home, she had spent most of her time filming, earning enough to pay her tuition and living expenses.
Romance had never made it onto the list.
She had never known her father.
The Mu family had always treated her like an outsider.
In truth, Mu Wan had been alone in every way that mattered since the year her mother died.
“We’ll see,” she said.
Living alone had given her plenty of time to think about what she wanted from life, and she had long since settled on her own standard.
“If I’m happier alone, I’ll stay alone. If I meet someone who makes my life better than it already is, I wouldn’t mind sharing it with him.”
Lin Wei’s eyes immediately brightened.
“Then Daoist Liu is a perfectly good option.”
Mu Wan gave her a look.
“Are you trying so hard to marry me off because you’re afraid I’ll get lonely and start clinging to you?”
Lin Wei stared back.
“Have you ever actually felt lonely?”
The question came out quickly.
Then something in her expression dimmed.
She scratched her head.
“You really should try living with someone someday. Or at least get a cat.”
Her voice softened.
“Maybe then you’d realize you’re not someone who doesn’t fear loneliness. You’ve just been alone so long that you’re used to it.”
Mu Wan knew Lin Wei was worried about her.
She knew the concern came from a good place.
But she had no desire to turn the life she was perfectly content with into something tragic.
So she changed the subject.
“Do you have anything here I can wear outside?”
Lin Wei glanced at her hospital gown.
She was still caught in the previous conversation.
“Why?”
“I have a dinner tonight. I can’t exactly show up wearing this.”
Lin Wei’s face hardened.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“The chest X-ray was fine. It’s only a superficial injury.”
“You were brought into the emergency department this morning!”
“I skipped the last dinner. If I skip this one too, it won’t look good.”
“Then tell your agent you ended up in the emergency department and nearly died.”
Mu Wan shook her head.
“No. I still have work scheduled this week. If I stop taking jobs, who’s going to pay my mortgage?”
Lin Wei fell silent.
There was no arguing with that.
In the end, Mu Wan only borrowed Lin Wei’s clothes long enough to go home.
Once there, she changed into a loose red dress made of linen and cotton. The soft fabric did not press against her wound.
By evening, however, the anesthetic had worn off.
Her left shoulder was practically useless.
Even lifting it took effort.
Li Nan arrived with Mi Yu.
As the most successful artist under him, Mi Yu rarely went anywhere without Li Nan managing her schedule personally.
She was thirty and took good care of herself, though years of heavy makeup, late nights, and long filming schedules had begun to leave their traces.
For an actress, that still meant she looked no older than twenty-six or twenty-seven.
She remained beautiful.
Mu Wan greeted them.
“Your Lordship. Sister Yu.”
Mi Yu wore sunglasses.
She was recognizable enough that going out in public required at least some attempt at disguise.
At Mu Wan’s greeting, she glanced over.
Whatever expression she wore remained hidden behind the dark lenses.
Li Nan noticed the way Mu Wan was holding her left arm.
“What happened?”
“Got hurt.”
“Mm.”
His response was flat.
Then he glanced at Mi Yu before turning back to Mu Wan.
“Mi Yu still has filming tonight. Director Zhang likes to drink. At dinner, help her handle the toasts.”
Mu Wan had attended enough industry dinners to understand the arrangement.
She could hold her liquor reasonably well. Normally, a few rounds of drinks would not have been a problem.
Besides, some of the agency’s smaller opportunities came from projects Mi Yu had auditioned for or recommended to others.
Helping her drink tonight was hardly unreasonable.
“All right.”
The elevator arrived.
Mi Yu stepped in first.
Mu Wan followed.
The doors closed.
Neither woman spoke.
Mi Yu was the agency’s biggest artist and Mu Wan’s senior.
She also had a proud temperament and rarely interacted closely with the company’s other actors.
When Mu Wan first signed with Xinzhou Entertainment, Mi Yu had already been there.
At the time, Mi Yu had been at the height of her popularity.
Even then, Mu Wan had sensed a certain hostility from her.
That was the entertainment industry.
Young actresses arrived one after another.
Youth and beauty could carry someone most of the way toward success.
Mu Wan was simply missing the final ingredient.
Ambition.
Once Mi Yu realized she had almost none, the hostility gradually faded.
Someone was waiting for them when the elevator doors opened.
Qingsong Pavilion was enormous, designed in an elegant traditional Chinese style.
Wooden screens and carved doors framed ink-wash landscapes. Large red lanterns hung overhead.
The restaurant was divided into four sections: east, south, west, and north.
At its center lay a pond with a pavilion built over the water. Four small bridges stretched from the pavilion, each leading toward a different section.
The setting was quiet and refined.
Director Zhang’s dinner was being held in the north section.
Mu Wan followed Mi Yu behind a server dressed in hanfu.
After crossing the central pavilion, they entered the corridor leading north.
Just before turning the corner, Mu Wan glanced toward the east section.
A tall, straight-backed figure passed briefly through the edge of her vision.
She stopped.
When she looked again, the corridor was empty.
Mu Wan had visited Qingsong Pavilion several times before.
She knew the east section was reserved exclusively for VIP guests.
Money alone did not necessarily get someone through those doors.
And yet, for one fleeting second, she had thought that silhouette looked like Liu Qianxiu.
She remembered his back surprisingly well.
After meowing at him in the hospital parking lot, she had watched him through the rearview mirror as she drove away.
Still, she had probably imagined it.
Why would Liu Qianxiu be in a place like this?
— To be continued in Part 2 —
Coragem, ela acabou de sofrer um ferimento e ainda tá meio medicada... Tomar uma bebida não é o ideal...
ReplyDelete