Incurable Chapter 11 Part 1

Chapter 11 (1/2)

The slanting sunset at the horizon was brilliant, staining the evening clouds red—and tinting the man’s face with the same color.

His lashes, brushed with that red-gold light, lowered and lifted once. Brightness shimmered in his dark eyes. Then, with one quiet sweep of his gaze, Liu Qianxiu looked away.

A breeze came through the screen window.

The person standing inside remained still.

Mu Wan let her eyes trace the line of his profile. Then she straightened and smiled.

After dinner, she left Liu Qianxiu’s apartment.

July was just around the corner. The heat was growing heavier by the day, and so was the dampness. Nanfeng Apartments had excellent landscaping; under the lights at night, the greenery was lush and dense, so that walking through it felt almost like moving through a jungle.

At the entrance, Mu Wan raised a hand and hailed a cab. Once she got in, she gave the driver an address.

“Ou Jian Villas.”

With a sharp click, the driver dropped the empty-car sign and switched it to occupied. As he turned the wheel, Mu Wan looked back through the mottled car window toward the building she had just come out of.

Occupancy in Nanfeng was high. At eight o’clock, lights glowed in nearly every apartment. The towers rose straight from the earth. From where she sat, the windows looked small and warm, like bedside lamps in the dark, carrying a hazy kind of tenderness.

There were too many lights.

Too many floors.

By the time the car turned the corner, Mu Wan still had not figured out which one belonged to Liu Qianxiu.

Ou Jian Villas were in the south district. At night, the sea breeze was cool, damp, and touched with salt. Standing in front of the villa, Mu Wan rang the bell.

A moment later, Lin Wei came to open the door.

The instant she saw Mu Wan, she looked startled.

“Why didn’t you call first before coming over?”

Mu Wan narrowed her eyes at the bright red silk nightgown Lin Wei was wearing and said, “Make whatever man you’ve got in there leave. I’m sleeping with you tonight.”

Lin Wei: “...”

Lin Wei was an artist at heart. Like Mu Wan, she understood exactly how she wanted to live. The difference was that Mu Wan’s understanding of life meant living comfortably and forcing nothing, while Lin Wei’s meant living vividly and following feeling wherever it led.

Over the years, there had never been any shortage of men around her.

Before her appendectomy, she had just picked up a fitness trainer at a bar. During the recovery period, she had felt too miserable to meet him. Once she was discharged, the two had finally spent a little time together, and by that very night, sparks had been flying—sparks that had apparently lasted all the way to now.

After sending the trainer away, Lin Wei closed the door and went upstairs.

By then, Mu Wan had already gone to the guest room.

Lin Wei designed interiors for a living, and she had beautifully designed the villa. The first floor was her studio, the second her home, yet the two levels felt completely independent. Downstairs was severe and minimalist; upstairs had an industrial edge. Though Lin Wei herself was only one-sixty and petite, she loved strong lines and sharply cut forms.

When Lin Wei pushed open the guest room door, Mu Wan was just taking out the bedding Lin Wei had prepared for her.

Whenever Mu Wan came to sleep over, the two of them shared the guest room instead of Lin Wei’s own bed. Lin Wei herself might not care, but too many men had slept in her room over the years. She did not want Mu Wan carrying the scent of some strange man on her body.

The room was washed with warm light. Mu Wan had already made the bed.

Leaning against the door with her arms crossed, Lin Wei lifted her chin and asked, “So? What happened?”

Ever since Mu Wan bought her own place, she had rarely come over to sleep here anymore. For her to show up suddenly tonight, there had to be something too important to explain over the phone.

Mu Wan looked at Lin Wei, whose hair was still a little messy, and asked, “Did you shower?”

“Just now.” Lin Wei took a deep breath, darkening at once. “And before anything even happened, I had to send him away. You’d better have a very good reason for this, or I swear I—”

“I like Taoist Liu,” Mu Wan said.

The words jammed straight into Lin Wei’s throat.

She took two seconds to process them. Then her whole expression changed.

“The Taoist Liu I know?” she asked.

“Yes,” Mu Wan said, smiling as she fluffed the pillow into place.

Lin Wei stared.

“I can’t believe this. Weren’t you discharged already? And didn’t you say Taoist Liu didn’t like you?”

Lin Wei had been the one to pick Mu Wan up from the hospital that day. At the time, she had still been quietly pushing the idea that Taoist Liu liked her, but Mu Wan had denied it. She had only said that she wanted to thank him for bringing her back from Qingsongxuan and invite him to dinner. There had been no sign of this.

And that had only been last week.

How had everything changed in a matter of days?

Everything had changed, and yet somehow nothing had.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Mu Wan nodded.

“Taoist Liu doesn’t like me,” she said. “I’m the only one who likes him.”

Lin Wei: “...”

This was clearly more than Lin Wei could process all at once. In all the years they had known each other, this was the first time Mu Wan had ever talked to her about liking someone.

And to make it worse, it was one-sided.

“I’m going to shower first,” Mu Wan said, generously giving Lin Wei time to absorb the blow. She got off the bed and headed into the bathroom.

She had come over precisely because she wanted a long night of talking. And since she had no work the next morning, they had all the time in the world.

After washing off the day’s heat, Mu Wan changed into pajamas and got back into bed. The guest room was lit only by the small lamp on the nightstand. It was a transparent 3D gear-shaped light, hard-edged and mechanical, yet softened by the halo around it.

Lin Wei listened as Mu Wan told her, from beginning to end, how she had come to like Liu Qianxiu.

It was, in one sense, an ordinary story.

A woman with no parents, no one to rely on, someone long used to loneliness, met a man who raised kittens for her and cooked her dinner—and then thought that must be what liking someone felt like.

Lin Wei had always encouraged Mu Wan to find someone to share her life with. Mu Wan had always refused.

But now that she had actually found someone, she had grown cautious.

It was the same as with the cats.

Lin Wei had always told her to get one, yet when Mu Wan really decided to take in the three strays from the hospital, Lin Wei had only asked if she could properly care for them.

Back then, Mu Wan’s answer had been uncertain.

I’ll try.

Tonight, when Lin Wei asked whether perhaps it was only dependence that Mu Wan had mistaken for love, Mu Wan answered with absolute certainty:

“It’s real.”

Mu Wan lay on her stomach beneath the blanket, black hair spilling over half her small, pale face. She opened her eyes and looked at Lin Wei beside her. The bedside lamp had cast a blurred glow over her dark eyes, making them look hazy and languid.

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

“What?” Lin Wei nearly jumped. Turning over, she stared at her with wide eyes.

Mu Wan was easygoing and spontaneous, but if she truly liked someone, she could be fiercer than anyone.

“Are you going to confess?” Lin Wei rolled onto her side and propped her face on one hand.

Across from her, Mu Wan was wearing pink silk pajamas patterned with pineapples. In the softened light, her face looked beautiful and vivid, her neck long, her collarbones fine and straight. After thinking it over, Lin Wei said, “Maybe Taoist Liu likes you too.”

Mu Wan shook her head, rejecting the suggestion.

In truth, Liu Qianxiu had already given her the answer that evening, when she told him his smile was enough to make a person’s heart move.

Liu Qianxiu was a Taoist. His home held only one man and one cat. In fact, before Zhouyi, it had held only himself. He was cold in temperament, austere, inclined toward solitude and inner quiet. It wasn’t that he had gotten used to loneliness.

He enjoyed it.

Honestly, in that regard, he wasn’t so different from a monk.

If Mu Wan confessed abruptly now, she would only be rejected before he had even had the chance to know her well.

“I’m going to pursue him quietly first,” Mu Wan said. “I’ll wait until he knows me, gets used to me, and falls for me. Then I’ll confess.”

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