The Name She Didn’t Expect
Each word had come slowly.
Evenly.
Right now, in this moment, there are two of us.
The sentence echoed against Mu Wan’s ears like the steady swing of a clock pendulum.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Then the hour struck.
And with one clear chime, something inside her heart rang with it.
The night around them was perfectly still.
From the kitten room around the corner came a tiny meow.
Mu Wan’s lips parted.
Before she could say anything, Liu Qianxiu rose.
Her gaze followed him upward.
She tipped her head back, her dark eyes shimmering beneath the lamplight, his figure reflected clearly inside them.
“It’s awake,” Liu Qianxiu said.
Mu Wan swallowed.
Her heartbeat had not yet settled.
Then she smiled.
Small.
Satisfied.
Almost childishly pleased, like someone who had secretly stolen a piece of candy and gotten away with it.
She stood as well.
Her red dress fell smoothly around her legs as she headed toward the kitten room.
“Let me see if Ertong opened his eyes.”
Liu Qianxiu watched her disappear around the corner.
Then his gaze lowered.
It settled on the Tao Te Ching she had left behind.
Ertong had indeed opened his eyes.
They were pale gold, just like Datou’s and Zhongfen’s.
The other two kittens could already open their eyes fully.
Ertong and Zhongfen had rounder eyes, while Datou’s tilted slightly downward at the corners.
With his tiny body and vaguely mournful expression, Datou somehow looked pitifully adorable even while mewing insistently for milk.
Now that all three kittens had opened their eyes, Mu Wan prepared to leave.
She stood by the entrance with one hand against the cool wall and slipped off the oversized slippers.
Her narrow foot rose onto its toes.
Beneath the hem of her red dress, the smooth line of her pale calf caught the dim light.
Mu Wan stepped into one high heel.
The heel clicked against the floor.
Then Liu Qianxiu spoke.
“How are you getting home?”
The second click never came.
His gaze passed briefly over the legs beneath her dress.
The clock already showed nine thirty.
His expression remained calm.
“Taxi.”
Mu Wan took out her phone and checked the time.
The glow of the screen illuminated her face.
A faint crease appeared between her brows.
“It might be hard to get one this late.”
Before she finished speaking, a tall shadow moved toward her.
It covered her almost completely.
Mu Wan looked up.
The glow from her phone now illuminated part of Liu Qianxiu’s face.
He had already changed his shoes.
“I’ll drive you.”
The next afternoon, Mu Wan found a patch of shade beside the base of a city wall and sat down.
“He drove me home last night.”
She opened the prop paper fan in her hand and began fanning herself.
She was still wearing her costume.
The sleeves were wide, but the waist was tightly fitted, while layer after layer of fabric wrapped around the neckline.
There was almost no ventilation.
The temperature had climbed to thirty-five degrees Celsius.
Sweat ran down Mu Wan’s skin.
She had just finished filming a fight scene, but the assistant director would not let her change yet.
The director needed to review the footage first.
If the take could not be used, she would have to do it all over again.
“Holy shit, Mu Wan!”
Lin Wei’s voice exploded through the phone.
“You’ve got moves. So? How was Daoist Liu in bed?”
Mu Wan snapped the fan shut.
Then she raised one sleeve and wiped the sweat from her face.
“Nothing happened.”
She thought back to the previous night.
The corners of her lips rose.
With one foot, she nudged a small stone across the ground.
“He just drove me home.”
“He drove you home and you didn’t invite him upstairs?”
Lin Wei sounded personally offended.
“No.”
Mu Wan reopened the fan.
“He goes to bed at ten. Once we got to my place, I let him leave.”
Silence.
“…”
If there were awards for staying single through sheer ability, Mu Wan would have won one.
Still, Lin Wei understood.
Mu Wan was different from her.
For Mu Wan, emotional intimacy came first.
Anything physical would only happen naturally after the emotional connection had reached the right place.
“So did anything else happen?” Lin Wei asked, changing direction. “Did you figure out whether Daoist Liu likes you?”
The fan stirred Mu Wan’s bangs and sent a little cool air across her heated face.
She pictured Liu Qianxiu beneath the table lamp.
“I asked him if he liked living alone.”
“And?”
“He asked why I thought that.”
Mu Wan deliberately stopped there.
Lin Wei nearly lost her mind.
“And what did he say?”
“Oh.”
Mu Wan’s ears grew warm.
“I told him it was because he was always alone.”
Her smile deepened.
“And he said, ‘Right now, in this moment, there are two of us.’”
Lin Wei went completely silent.
She imagined Liu Qianxiu’s cool, detached face saying those words.
Goosebumps rose along both arms.
“Mu Wan! Get over here! We need another take!”
The assistant director shouted from across the set.
“Coming!”
Mu Wan stood and brushed the dirt from her costume.
Then she quickly spoke into the phone.
“I don’t know what he meant.”
A smile returned to her face.
“But I think I like him even more now.”
“I have to work. Talk later.”
She ended the call.
Lin Wei remained frozen long after the line went dead.
She could practically see the scene.
One small lamp.
One man.
One woman.
He was distant and otherworldly, elegant enough to resemble an immortal.
Mu Wan was vivid and alluring, soft when she wanted to be and shameless when she pleased.
An immortal and an enchantress.
But no matter how clever the enchantress thought she was, how could she possibly escape the immortal’s palm?
Mu Wan might have fallen first.
Lin Wei had a growing suspicion that one day, Liu Qianxiu would be the one to turn everything back on her.
Right now, in this moment, there are two of us.
Lin Wei clicked her tongue.
Daoist Liu really was something else.
Usually, he looked as though worldly desire had absolutely nothing to do with him.
Then he opened his mouth and said something like that.
Now that was dangerous.
After filming the scene again, Mu Wan finally had a short break.
She carried her paper fan to the resting area.
The crew’s rest space was one large open room filled with supporting actors and extras.
Assistant directors shouted scene and shot numbers across the room.
Makeup artists called for actors.
People came and went constantly.
It was loud and crowded.
A little after two.
Mu Wan had only one scene left.
Once that was finished, she could leave.
If everything went smoothly, she should be done by four.
She found an empty corner, sat down, and rested both elbows on her knees.
Then she took out her phone.
She had not contacted Liu Qianxiu since leaving his apartment the previous night.
Over the past several days, she had usually only called after filming to ask what time he finished work.
Then she would go and wait for him.
Mu Wan rarely used her phone on set.
When she was bored, she used to play a few rounds of Plants vs. Zombies.
After spending enough money to clear every level, even that had stopped being interesting.
There were barely any apps on her phone.
She opened her contacts.
Found Liu Qianxiu.
She had saved his number as:
Daoist Liu
The impression Liu Qianxiu left on people was so distinctive that even his phone number somehow seemed to carry the same quality.
Cool.
Distant.
Untouched by ordinary life.
And Mu Wan liked it.
Ridiculous as it was, she even liked the string of numbers attached to his name.
She was still smiling when Gao Mei appeared beside her.
Mu Wan did not notice until it felt as though an entire volcano had suddenly settled next to her.
She turned.
Gao Mei’s round figure filled her vision, along with the narrow, gleaming eyes of someone who had just discovered excellent gossip.
“Are you dating someone?”
Mu Wan locked the screen.
For a second, the dark glass reflected her smiling face.
Her hair was tied into a high ponytail, leaving her small face completely exposed. Beneath her usual sensual beauty was something unexpectedly spirited.
She put the phone away.
“Not yet.”
“Oh?”
Gao Mei’s voice rose.
Her little eyes struggled to open wider.
“What does that mean? You’re in the flirting stage?”
Gao Mei had blocked what little breeze was reaching Mu Wan.
Feeling hot again, Mu Wan opened the fan and cooled her cheeks.
Then she admitted it without embarrassment.
“Pretty much.”
“I knew it!”
Gao Mei tapped Mu Wan with the script in her hand.
“You’ve been going to see those kittens every day, but you’re actually going to see your crush.”
The script sent a small breeze toward her.
Mu Wan laughed.
Then her attention caught on the cover.
“You’re in this drama too?”
The title Red Embroidery was printed across it.
Apparently, Gao Mei would be working on the same production.
That was good.
At least neither of them would be bored between scenes.
“Yep. We start on the thirtieth.”
Gao Mei counted quickly.
“Today’s Friday, so that’s next Monday.”
Then she grinned.
“You and your crush are about to enter a long-distance relationship.”
Red Embroidery was a Republican-era medical drama.
Many of its scenes would be filmed at Wen City First Hospital, a well-preserved historic hospital dating back to that period.
Li Nan had not yet told Mu Wan her exact shooting schedule.
But once filming began, the actors would need to remain available to the production.
The fan in Mu Wan’s hand stopped.
Heat immediately gathered against her face.
She started fanning herself again.
Wen City was not far.
But if she had night shoots, there was no way she could return to Xia City afterward.
She did not want to spend that long away from Liu Qianxiu.
Then again, she did not have many scenes.
Maybe she could finish everything within a week.
“Oh, right.” Gao Mei suddenly remembered something. “Do you know who the female lead is?”
Mu Wan looked over.
“Top billing. They announced her today.”
Gao Mei smiled.
“She has the same surname as you.”
The restless heat inside Mu Wan abruptly vanished.
Auntie Wu’s words came back to her.
Mu Qing had brought home a boyfriend.
A man from the Shen family.
Mu Wan turned toward Gao Mei.
“What’s her name?”
“Mu Qing.”
Mu Wan’s lips closed.
The paper fan continued moving slowly in her hand.
But the expression in her eyes had gone still.
— To be continued in Part 2 —
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