Incurable Chapter 11 Part 1

The slanting sun at the horizon was almost indecently beautiful, staining the clouds a soft, molten red. It caught on the man’s lashes too, and for a heartbeat, even his face seemed warmed by that glow.

Liu Qianxiu blinked once, his dark eyes holding a brief flash of brilliance, then his gaze slid away as if it had never lingered at all.

A breeze slipped in through the screen window. The room didn’t change. The people inside didn’t move for it.

Mu Wan watched the clean line of his profile, traced it with her eyes like she was memorizing a silhouette, then straightened and laughed under her breath, as if she’d just caught herself thinking something dangerous.

After dinner, she left his place.

July was almost here. The nights were getting hotter, the air heavier, damp in that way that clung to skin and refused to let go. Nanfeng Apartments had lush landscaping; under the streetlights, the greenery was thick and glossy, like walking through a quiet city jungle.

Mu Wan reached the entrance, raised a hand, and flagged down a cab.

When she got in, she told the driver, “Oujian Villas.”

The driver flipped the sign down with a click. Empty became occupied.

As the car pulled away, Mu Wan looked through the slightly scratched window back at the building she’d just come out of.

The occupancy rate here was high. At eight, most windows were lit. The tower rose straight up into the night, and from this distance the windows looked small, like bedside lamps on endless nightstands. Soft. Blurred. Gentle in a way that made you want to believe in warmth.

There were too many lights, too many floors. Even as the cab turned, Mu Wan still hadn’t found the exact level where Liu Qianxiu lived.

Oujian Villas sat in the south district. The sea wind at night was cool, salty, and damp. Mu Wan stood at the gate and pressed the bell.

A moment later, Lin Wei opened the door. Seeing Mu Wan, she startled.

“You couldn’t call first?”

Mu Wan’s eyes narrowed at Lin Wei’s bright red silk pajamas, then she said calmly, “Tell the man inside to leave. I’m sleeping with you tonight.”

Lin Wei stared. “…”

Lin Wei was the artistic type, and she lived with clarity, too. Mu Wan’s version of clarity was simple: live comfortably, want nothing too hard. Lin Wei’s was more like: life is short, love hard, cut clean. Over the years, the men around her had never really stopped coming and going.

Before her appendectomy, she’d picked up a fitness coach at a bar. The surgery had been messy and humiliating, and they hadn’t met. After she got discharged, they saw each other once, and that was it—sparks, fire, and apparently, a blaze that lasted all the way until tonight.

Lin Wei sent the coach off, closed the door, and went upstairs. Mu Wan was already in the guest room.

Lin Wei worked in interior design, and her villa was designed as a signature. The first floor was a studio, clean, minimal, serious. The second floor was a living space, all industrial lines and sharp edges. Lin Wei was only 160 cm and petite, but she loved hard geometry, structure, and the feeling of something that could cut.

She pushed open the guest room door. Mu Wan had just pulled out fresh bedding that Lin Wei kept ready.

When Mu Wan stayed over, they always used the guest room. Lin Wei didn’t care where she slept, but her bed had hosted too many men, and she didn’t want Mu Wan picking up the scent of strangers on her skin.

Under the spill of light, Mu Wan finished making the bed. Lin Wei leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, chin tilted.

“So. What’s wrong?”

Mu Wan had bought her own place and hadn’t slept here in ages. Showing up like this meant something was happening that couldn’t be said over the phone.

Mu Wan looked at Lin Wei’s slightly messy hair and asked, “Did you shower?”

“Just finished,” Lin Wei said, taking a deep breath as her face darkened. “And I haven’t even done anything yet, so you’d better have a real reason, or I…”

“I like Daoist Liu,” Mu Wan said.

Lin Wei’s threat jammed in her throat. It took her two full seconds to process it.

Her expression changed completely. She straightened. “The Daoist Liu I know?”

“Yes.” Mu Wan set a pillow in place and smiled as if it were nothing.

Lin Wei looked genuinely stunned. “Weren’t you discharged? And didn’t you say he doesn’t like you?”

Lin Wei had gone to pick her up after the hospital. Back then, she’d been hinting, smugly, that Daoist Liu liked Mu Wan. Mu Wan had denied it, said he’d only been doing his job, that she just needed to thank him for bringing her back from Qingsongxuan and maybe treat him to a meal someday.

That had been last week.

A few days later, everything had flipped.

And yet, in some ways, nothing had changed.

Mu Wan sat cross-legged on the bed and nodded. “He doesn’t like me. I’m the one who likes him.”

Lin Wei: “…”

Lin Wei clearly couldn’t swallow the news. Since they’d met, Mu Wan had never talked about liking anyone. Not once. And now she was saying it, and worse, she was saying it was one-sided.

Mu Wan stood up. “I’ll go shower. You take a minute to panic.”

She disappeared into the bathroom. She’d come for a late-night talk, and tomorrow morning she had no work. There was time.

After washing off the day’s heat, Mu Wan changed into pajamas and climbed into bed. The room was dim, lit only by a small nightlight on the bedside table, a transparent 3D gear-shaped lamp. Its ring of light made it look both hard and gentle.

Lin Wei listened to everything. The kittens. The meals. The way Liu Qianxiu did things quietly, without drama, and how that quiet had somehow filled spaces Mu Wan didn’t even realize were empty.

It was an ordinary story, really.

A woman with no parents, no real family, used to loneliness like it was weather, met a man who helped her keep kittens alive and fed her dinner. Then she thought, maybe this is what liking someone feels like.

Lin Wei had always urged her to find someone to share her life with. Mu Wan had always refused. Now that Mu Wan had finally found someone, it was Lin Wei who was hesitating.

Like when Lin Wei pushed her to adopt a cat, and then, the moment Mu Wan actually picked up three stray kittens, Lin Wei asked, “Can you really raise them?”

Back then, Mu Wan had answered, I’ll try.

Tonight, when Lin Wei asked if Mu Wan was mistaking dependence for feelings, Mu Wan answered without blinking.

“It’s real.”

Mu Wan lay on her stomach under the blanket, black hair falling across half her small, pale face. She opened her eyes and looked at Lin Wei. The nightlight softened her dark gaze, making it hazy, lazy, and almost hypnotic.

“I’m going to pursue him,” Mu Wan said.

Lin Wei jolted. “What?”

Mu Wan was carefree, always drifting. But when she wanted something, she was frighteningly direct.

“You’re going to confess?” Lin Wei turned onto her side, propping her face on her hand. Mu Wan wore pink silk pajamas with little pineapples, and under the lamplight, she looked gorgeous in a way that didn’t seem fair. “Maybe he likes you, too.”

Mu Wan shook her head.

Because she already had her answer.

Earlier that evening, when she’d told Liu Qianxiu his smile was enough to make her heart move, his reaction had told her everything. He lived like a man devoted to quiet. One man, one cat. Even before he’d adopted Zhou Yi, it had been just him.

Cold, restrained, almost ascetic.

He didn’t endure loneliness. He enjoyed it.

If she confessed now, before he truly knew her, he would reject her cleanly, politely, permanently.

“So I’ll do it quietly,” Mu Wan said. “No noise. No pressure. I’ll let him get to know me, get used to me. And when he’s already moved without realizing it, then I’ll confess.”

Lin Wei stared at her for a long second.

“Mu Wan,” she said softly, “you’re terrifying.”

Mu Wan smiled into her pillow like a cat with a plan.

They talked deep into the night.

And the next morning, Mu Wan still woke up early.

After breakfast at Lin Wei’s place, the two of them went straight to the mall.

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