Chapter 5 (2/2)
Then, the moment a figure appeared, Liu Qianxiu clicked the mouse and stopped it.
On the screen, the woman was long-limbed and beautifully put together. She stood in front of the shrubs, bent down, and when she straightened up, there was a fuzzy little bundle in her arms.
She stood there, holding the kittens a bit awkwardly while talking to another woman. Then, after a few moments, she lifted her head and glanced in the direction of the camera before walking out of frame.
The light on the monitor shifted and flickered over the man’s features, making them seem deeper and more remote. His gaze rested on the frozen image after the rewind, light reflected in his eyes, though they remained as still as a deep pool.
“What’s she carrying there?” one of the security guards asked, glancing at the screen. He had clearly been distracted by the woman’s looks, but with Liu Qianxiu standing beside him, he wisely moved the subject to the kittens instead. “The stray’s litter, maybe? That lady seems kindhearted. They’re awfully small, though. Hard to say whether she’ll be able to keep them alive.”
Liu Qianxiu stood, thanked him, and left.
Mu Wan got Liu Qianxiu’s call just after being lowered from the rig.
The stretch of rainy days had finally ended, and the air was full of steam rising under the sun—humid and stiflingly hot. Mu Wan stood in the shade beside the city wall, dressed in a man’s costume for the shoot, her whole face flushed from the heat.
“Hello,” she said. Her forehead itched, and when she scratched it, sweat ran down the tips of her fingers.
“This is Liu Qianxiu.”
His voice was still low and cool, like mountain spring water running over stone.
That was unexpected.
Today was Monday. The nurse had said he would return to the hospital on Monday. When Mu Wan was discharged, she and Lin Wei said that once he came back, she ought to treat him to a meal. But once filming started again, she had gotten busy and forgotten all about it.
“You’re back,” she said. “About last time—I’m really sorry, and thank you again.”
She crouched down as she spoke, the trapped heat inside the costume rising up against her skin and making her face even hotter. Still smiling, she added politely, “My injury’s already healed. If you’re free after work today, how about I treat you to dinner?”
“No need.”
The refusal was brief and clean.
The smile on Mu Wan’s face drew in slightly, like cloud edges retreating in the sky. But her tone stayed bright as she asked directly, “Oh? Then why are you calling me?”
Liu Qianxiu sat in his office.
It was very quiet there, save for the faint crisp sound of paper. On the desk, the corner of an ambulance record lifted in the breeze. His tone remained steady and calm, just as concise as ever.
“The cats.”
That was all he said.
And at once, Mu Wan understood.
He had been familiar enough with the calico that he probably knew it was pregnant. He came back from leave, found out the cat had died, checked the surveillance footage, and discovered that the kittens had been taken by her.
Still, when they had first met, Mu Wan had asked him directly, and he had said the calico was not his cat.
If that was the case, then strictly speaking, he did not have much right to reclaim the kittens.
Resting the tip of her tongue lightly against her teeth, Mu Wan smiled.
“Oh?” she said lightly. “Which one do you want?”
Her voice unfolded like a flower.
At first, while answering the phone, the petals were closed tight. Then, little by little, they opened, releasing the unmistakable fragrance of a woman.
Just like that, she turned into a cat again.
The sound of her voice in his ear overlapped with the memory of her voice in that corridor. The warmth of her body seemed almost still to linger in his arms, her slender arms wrapped around him, her skin carrying the heat lifted by alcohol.
She had been drunk and forgotten it.
Liu Qianxiu had not.
At last, the air conditioner flipped one page of the record book beside him. The A4 paper was thin and white, the printed form neat and orderly.
Name. Phone number. Address.
Liu Qianxiu did not answer.
From the other end of the line came the assistant director calling for the next take. Mu Wan pulled herself back together, and her voice returned to normal.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Liu, but the cats are mine. I can’t give them to you. If there’s nothing else, I need to get back to work.”
And with that, she hung up.
By the afternoon shift, the nurses had already moved on to discussing what to buy during Taobao’s mid-year sale. No one mentioned the calico anymore.
After a brief moment of regret, the dead cat disappeared into memory like frost slipping soundlessly from a winter branch.
That afternoon, Liu Qianxiu finished a surgery. After signing off on the records, he left work on time.
He got into his car, started it, and drove out of the hospital, disappearing into the evening traffic.
The sky had cleared that morning. After a full day of sun, the asphalt had dried into a hard, baked heat. The earth, however, was only half dry. Dark brown soil pushed up little weeds that looked vividly alive beneath the shade of the trident maples.
Compared to Nanfeng Apartments, this neighborhood was old and worn.
The sunlight was clear and bright, falling through the treetops onto mottled walls and bringing out a kind of weathered decay. Utility poles stood pressed against the buildings. Wires ran over the rough exterior in straight, tangled lines, linking one block to the next. From time to time, a bird landed on one of the antennas stretched between two buildings.
Liu Qianxiu walked into the first building in the second row.
The stairwell was dim and still carried the damp, moldy breath of the recent rain. The white paint on the railings had long since flaked away, leaving rust underneath in mottled spots like speckles on a quail’s egg.
The building was old. The entrance opened directly onto the stairs, with a basement tucked beside them. Its doorway was dark and quiet, with odds and ends stacked nearby. The steps were low and worn smooth at the edges, polished by countless feet over countless years.
The stairwell was narrow. On the landing between floors was a small window. After days of rain, the glass had been washed clean, and sunlight now streamed through it, cutting the floor into strange shifting patches of light.
Just as Liu Qianxiu was nearing the third floor, he heard a door open.
He stopped on the landing between the second and third floors and looked up.
Mu Wan was standing there on the stairs.
She wore a green halter top and denim shorts. Her hair was tied up, exposing a pale, straight line of collarbone. Above her long, fair neck, her palm-sized face was bright and vivid, her brows drawn slightly together—until she saw him, and the small crease between them eased.
Backlit as he stood, the man’s cool, pale skin made his features look deeper, more sculpted. His presence was light and distant. In the cramped, shabby stairwell, he was like porcelain recovered from a sunken ship: only one corner touched by light, yet enough to reveal the nobility hidden beneath.
Mu Wan looked at him.
Her red lips parted, and when she spoke, her voice echoed faintly through the stairwell.
“Dr. Liu... did you come here to see me?”
He did not answer the question.
Instead, his gaze settled on what she held in her arms: a green blanket wrapped around a black-and-white kitten.
“What’s wrong with it?” he asked.
Mu Wan lowered her eyes to Zhongfen in her arms. The corners of her mouth dipped slightly, and her voice softened.
“It’s not doing well.”
he wants you~ HAHAHA thank u for the chapter!!
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