Then she went home first, cleaned up, got ready, and took a cab to Toller Hospital.
Liu Qianxiu had surgery in the afternoon. He got off later than he’d originally estimated.
Before the operation, Mu Wan had called to ask when he’d be done. He’d answered, and she hadn’t said anything else.
But he remembered yesterday.
He remembered her standing there, waiting.
Something shifted in his eyes, faint as a ripple. He put his phone away and pushed open his office door.
“Doctor Liu.”
Xiao Yun was leaning against the wall. When she heard the door, she straightened with a smile, her gaze landing on him like it had been waiting there for hours.
She’d sought him out yesterday about today’s operation. He’d helped. She’d come to thank him.
Liu Qianxiu’s expression stayed calm.
Xiao Yun said, “Let’s go together.”
He didn’t argue, just nodded, and stepped into the elevator with her.
Inside the elevator, the silence was almost awkward.
Xiao Yun stood on the inner side. She lifted her eyes and looked at the tall, straight line of Liu Qianxiu’s back. Her lips pressed together.
They were colleagues. Their schedules weren’t even that different. And yet they rarely spoke alone.
When Toller Hospital had recruited her, she’d noticed Liu Qianxiu immediately.
Good-looking. Cool, elegant, clean in a way that didn’t feel manufactured. Different.
She’d fallen fast, almost embarrassingly fast.
But she hadn’t pursued him.
On the surface, their relationship remained stiff, professional. When they spoke, it was about operations. In front of Liu Qianxiu, she kept her pride carefully arranged. Alone, she thought about him until it made her restless.
Liu Qianxiu was a mountain. Women looked up at him.
Xiao Yun had her own dignity. She couldn’t bring herself to chase a man.
But if she never moved, Liu Qianxiu would never look back.
The elevator dinged.
The doors opened.
Liu Qianxiu walked out without hesitation.
Xiao Yun’s heart lurched. She hurried after him.
“Doctor Liu!”
He was already near the exit. He turned, eyes deep and still, voice low and calm.
“What is it?”
As he spoke, they stepped out through the glass doors of the lobby together.
Maybe she’d rushed and felt warm. Maybe her heartbeat was too loud, blood too fast. Xiao Yun’s cheeks flushed faintly.
She looked up at him, indecision and hesitation flickering in her eyes.
Finally, she forced herself to speak. “Doctor Liu, I want…”
“Liu Qianxiu!”
A woman’s voice cut through her sentence.
Xiao Yun’s jaw trembled slightly. She turned toward the sound.
And Liu Qianxiu had already looked over.
It was the first time he’d seen Mu Wan in a dress.
A red dress, hem brushing her knees, making her skin look impossibly pale. She stood by the flowerbed, long black hair styled into loose waves, effortless and lazy. Her face was small, her features striking, her eyes bright as if they’d caught fire.
Against the dense green behind her, she looked like a flame.
Mu Wan wasn’t just wearing a dress. She’d done her makeup. Her hair was styled. The kind of effort people only made when they wanted to be seen.
She spotted Liu Qianxiu immediately.
He’d already taken off his white coat. A linen shirt, black trousers, his frame tall and straight, his aura clean and composed. He looked at her, expression barely changing.
But Xiao Yun’s face didn’t stay as steady.
Xiao Yun wasn’t in her coat either. She wore a soft lotus-pink blouse and cream wide-leg pants, gentle and bookish, neat and restrained. Next to her, Mu Wan’s red dress and cool, dangerous beauty created a brutal contrast.
Xiao Yun was beautiful.
But she was beautiful like a pale lily.
Mu Wan was a rose in full bloom, shamelessly red.
She drew attention the way a magnet pulls metal.
Including Liu Qianxiu’s.
This was Mu Wan’s second time picking him up. She wouldn’t have come again if he hadn’t allowed it, if he hadn’t tacitly accepted it.
Xiao Yun watched Mu Wan smiling at him, and the contempt in her eyes sharpened into something she didn’t even bother to hide.
“She doesn’t come every day, does she?” Xiao Yun let out a small laugh and said to Liu Qianxiu, “People who don’t know better would think she’s your girlfriend.”
Liu Qianxiu turned back.
He looked at Xiao Yun, one brief, flat glance.
It felt like a cold draft passing straight through her chest.
The look itself carried no expression, no overt meaning.
And yet it somehow said everything.
Xiao Yun bit her lower lip.
In front of her, Liu Qianxiu turned away and walked toward the flame.
Mu Wan watched him approach and stepped down from the edge of the flowerbed. The sky at seven had already swallowed the sun, leaving only a pale smear of light at the horizon.
People moved in and out of the hospital, their eyes drawn to her. Mu Wan didn’t care.
But when Liu Qianxiu stopped in front of her, when those dark, still eyes settled on her, her heart sped up under the curve of her smile.
“Liu Qianxiu,” she said, eyes crescent-shaped, gaze liquid-bright, “I came to wait for you again.”
His lips pressed into a line. After a beat, he answered quietly, “Mm.”
Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he asked, “What do you want to eat tonight?”
Author has something to say:Mu Wan: Eat you~
🫣 os pensamentos dele
ReplyDelete