Chapter 4 (1/2)
Mu Wan was drunk.
Liu Qianxiu didn’t know how much she could normally hold, but judging by the heavy smell of alcohol on her, she had clearly had quite a bit. He had treated her wound that morning, and although the noon examination showed nothing serious, a fresh injury and alcohol did not mix. He had warned her about that.
Evidently, she had not taken it to heart.
He lowered his eyes to look at her, said nothing, and took out his phone to make a call.
“The patient in bed thirteen is at Qingsongxuan. She’s drunk. I’m having someone send her back now—have someone meet them at the entrance. Once she’s back at the hospital, redo the wound care.”
As Liu Qianxiu spoke, his tone remained utterly even, as straight and steady as rainwater falling from the eaves.
Mu Wan leaned against the wall and watched him finish the call in silence. He put his phone away, lowered his gaze to her, and in his dark eyes, the corridor lights seemed to splinter into pieces.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Mu Wan’s head felt heavy. She lifted her eyes to meet his, her voice still a little hoarse.
“Every time you run into a patient outside the hospital, do you personally drag them back yourself?”
Even as she spoke, her head slowly tipped to one side, as if it had become too heavy for her neck to hold. Liu Qianxiu didn’t move. After a moment, Mu Wan managed to regain her balance and straighten up.
“This is a first.”
Mu Wan gave a soft little “Ah.” Her red lips parted, and the broken lights in the corridor scattered across her curved eyes.
“So I’m the first one. What if it happens again?”
The alcohol was taking fuller hold of her now. She was growing dizzier by the second. Her questions were ridiculous, and even her words were starting to blur.
“You’re drunk,” Liu Qianxiu said.
“I’m not drunk.” With the alcohol dulling the part of her brain meant for balance, Mu Wan swayed slightly but looked completely certain of herself. “I just... I just haven’t revealed my true form yet.”
Liu Qianxiu listened to the drunken nonsense without any visible change in expression.
“Do you want to see... my true form?” Mu Wan asked, eyes wide and round.
Then she smiled, slyness flickering across her palm-sized face.
She leaned forward and grabbed hold of his shirt, the rougher, stiffer texture of the linen brushing across her palm.
Something shifted in Liu Qianxiu’s gaze.
The corridor lights drew his features into deeper relief, but Mu Wan could no longer see him clearly. She let out a soft laugh, her breath warm against the side of his neck, and tightened both arms around his narrow, solid waist.
Her burning cheek pressed against the cool firmness of his chest.
Comfortable at once, she narrowed her eyes with satisfaction, her voice turning soft and sweet.
“I’ve turned into... a cat.”
When Liu Qianxiu returned to the private room, Mei Yaozhi was sitting there playing a game on his phone while waiting for him.
Mei Yaozhi was very good-looking in a clean, youthful way—the classic fresh-faced idol type. He had large eyes and an easy boyishness that made him seem younger than he was. The moment he saw Liu Qianxiu return, he put away his phone and asked, “Where did you go?”
They had come to dinner together. Earlier, Liu Qianxiu had only said he needed to step out for a moment. That “moment” had taken quite a while.
“I ran into a patient,” Liu Qianxiu said after sitting down. “I sent her back to the hospital.”
For a second, Mei Yaozhi thought he had misheard.
He looked at Liu Qianxiu, who wore the same cool, detached expression as always. Turning a bamboo chopstick between his fingers, he asked, “A female patient?”
“Mm,” Liu Qianxiu replied.
“Wow.”
Mei Yaozhi was genuinely stunned. Liu Qianxiu had actually escorted a female patient back to the hospital in his own time? Had an immortal finally descended to earth?
“Was she pretty?” Mei Yaozhi asked, unable to help himself.
Liu Qianxiu lifted his eyes and looked at him.
The look was calm, but Mei Yaozhi instinctively shrank back in his chair.
The two of them were cousins, of the same generation, but whether it was because Liu Qianxiu cultivated Taoism or simply because of his temperament, being around him always made Mei Yaozhi feel as though he were in the presence of an elder.
In reality, Liu Qianxiu was only two years older than him.
Knowing that look meant don’t press it, Mei Yaozhi switched topics at once.
“You’re going to Mount Qingyuan tomorrow?”
Every month, Liu Qianxiu set aside four days to go into retreat at Qingyuan Temple on Mount Qingyuan, usually toward the end of the month. This time, he was going earlier because the third anniversary of his grandfather’s death—the former head of the Liu family—was approaching. A major third-year memorial for a clan like the Liu family would bring members of the whole extended lineage to Xiacheng to pay respects. There would be plenty to handle.
“Mm,” Liu Qianxiu said lightly. “Uncle Cai will arrive early for this year’s memorial.”
Cai Qingliang was the Liu family’s chief secretary. He mainly helped Liu Qianxiu consolidate reports from the Liu family’s auction businesses and was usually based in Northern Europe, where the family’s auction headquarters were located.
“There’s movement on Liu Qingyuan’s side?” Mei Yaozhi’s expression sharpened slightly.
“On the twelfth, an Austrian auction sold a Song-dynasty bird-and-flower painting,” Liu Qianxiu said. “After the transaction was completed, the buyer claimed it was a forgery.”
His tone was still flat, almost without emotion.
Mei Yaozhi gave a short laugh.
“So they’ve started.”
A shadow settled briefly in Liu Qianxiu’s eyes. He set down his chopsticks, looked up at Mei Yaozhi, and said, “Help me look into someone.”
Mei Yaozhi was the second son of the Mei family. He had an older brother above him, so the family’s burdens never really fell on his shoulders. He lived easily and extravagantly. When he wasn’t at parties, he was out fooling around with friends. He belonged to the top rank of Xiacheng’s wealthy second generation—one of Xiacheng’s Four Young Masters—and his network was broad.
“Who?”
“Mu Wan.”
Mei Yaozhi paused.
“...The woman from tonight?”
“Mm.”
“...”
He and Liu Qianxiu were close, but Liu Qianxiu had always been cool and distant, even with him. Sometimes Mei Yaozhi had honestly wondered whether his cousin would go through life alone and one day ascend straight into immortality.
But tonight, he had first escorted a female patient back to the hospital, and now he was asking someone to look into her.
Could he really be descending to earth after all?
After dinner, Liu Qianxiu returned to Nanfeng Apartments.
Nanfeng was a luxury residential complex only fifteen minutes by car from Tang’er Hospital. It was only a little past nine when he got back. The tall apartment towers stood in the dark with countless lights glowing from their windows.
Liu Qianxiu keyed in the passcode and opened the door.
A floor lamp had been left on, washing the interior in a thin layer of light. The air held the faint scent of agarwood. The apartment felt spacious, quiet, and cold.
The living room was perfectly still.
After one glance, Liu Qianxiu went first to the bedroom.
When he came back out after showering and changing, he returned to the living room. The room was sparsely furnished, almost austere. There were no decorative pieces, no excess furniture—only a painted mural covering one wall, a cotton-linen rug on the floor, a low table, and a lamp. On the table sat a few books and a small incense burner. The agarwood inside had already burned out, so Liu Qianxiu lit another stick.
White smoke rose slowly from the ember, and the scent in the room deepened.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he switched on the lamp, picked up a book, and began to read.
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