Incurable Chapter 24 I Woke Up to See You (2)

I Woke Up to See You

Sandwiches were simple to make.

By the time Mu Wan finished feeding the kittens and went to the kitchen, breakfast was already ready.

Liu Qianxiu stood beside the dining table, speaking on the phone.

“Mm. I’ll be there soon.”

Mu Wan only heard the end of the conversation.

But that was enough to know he needed to leave immediately.

She did not sit down.

“You have to go?”

Then she added,

“I’ll leave too.”

“No.”

Liu Qianxiu put away his phone.

He looked at Mu Wan, who was already preparing to go.

His lips pressed together slightly.

“Stay. Eat first.”

Breakfast sat on the table.

One sandwich.

One glass of orange juice.

Only one serving.

He had apparently known he would need to leave and had made breakfast just for her.

Mu Wan’s lashes trembled.

She followed him toward the living room.

Morning sunlight lay softly across the apartment.

The three kittens, now full, were meowing energetically in the cat room.

Liu Qianxiu looked at Mu Wan.

She stood there alone.

Straight.

Slender.

Her eyes remained fixed on him.

His movement paused.

“The movie is at seven thirty?”

Mu Wan blinked.

Then she smiled and nodded.

“Mm. Yes. It’s okay if you’re late.”

“I know.”

Liu Qianxiu opened the door and left.

Mu Wan watched him disappear.

It felt as though all the warmth inside the apartment had gone with him.

The place became cold almost immediately.

No different from her own home.

Mu Wan finished the sandwich.

She cleaned up the kitchen.

Then she left too.

Liu Qianxiu spent the morning in meetings.

In the afternoon, surgery began.

It lasted eight hours.

When it finally ended, his fingers were stiff and numb.

The anesthesiologist stopped the anesthesia.

An assistant helped remove his surgical gown.

Liu Qianxiu sat on a bench in the staff lounge and quietly flexed his hand.

Xiao Tan had been waiting for the operation to finish.

He went to the operating room first.

When someone told him Liu Qianxiu was resting in the lounge, he followed.

Liu Qianxiu sat upright on the bench.

His posture remained straight.

His expression was calm.

Only the fatigue beneath his eyes revealed how tired he was.

Eight hours of surgery would exhaust anyone.

“Your hands are probably too tired to drive.”

Xiao Tan looked at Liu Qianxiu’s nearly numb fingers.

“I’ll take you home.”

Liu Qianxiu looked up at him.

He opened his palm.

His long fingers remained slightly curled, the joints sharply defined.

“No need.”

Then he asked,

“What time is it?”

Xiao Tan immediately checked his watch.

“Seven thirty.”

Something shifted in Liu Qianxiu’s eyes.

He stood and began taking off his white coat.

Beneath it was a light-brown shirt and cream-colored trousers.

His tall frame gave the cotton-linen clothes an understated elegance.

The sleeves had been rolled back, exposing clean wrist bones and faint veins beneath his pale skin.

Liu Qianxiu’s presence was quiet and restrained.

Yet everything about him, from his appearance to his temperament, was refined.

No wonder women liked him.

That thought reminded Xiao Tan of something.

“Why hasn’t Miss Mu been coming to see you lately?”

Liu Qianxiu closed his locker.

He fastened his watch around his wrist.

Then answered calmly,

“I’m going to see her.”

Xiao Tan looked up sharply.

“What?”

Surprise crossed his face.

“Wait, you two are…”

Liu Qianxiu clearly had no intention of explaining.

Instead, he said,

“I’m taking leave Wednesday afternoon. I’ll be back next Monday.”

Xiao Tan understood that the subject had changed and did not press.

“Going to Qingyuan Temple?”

“Mm.”

Liu Qianxiu turned and left.

Eight o’clock was prime time at the cinema.

By the time Liu Qianxiu arrived, the lobby was crowded with people waiting for their screenings.

His gaze passed across the crowd.

Then found Mu Wan in the seating area.

Her hair was woven into a fishtail braid that rested over her left shoulder.

Fine strands escaped around her hairline, leaving her looking soft and slightly fluffy.

She wore a floral camisole.

Her shoulders were delicate and straight.

Her collarbones finely defined.

Both arms rested across the back of the chair, her chin on top.

Beneath white shorts, her legs stretched lazily in front of her.

Long.

Pale.

Relaxed.

Her beautiful eyes kept drifting toward the cinema entrance.

Like a cat curled behind a chair, waiting for someone she was certain would come for her.

Her gaze swept across the crowd again.

Then stopped.

It fixed on a tall, lean figure.

Mu Wan’s eyes lit immediately.

Like a puppy seeing something it desperately wanted, she sprang from the chair and hurried toward him.

“You came.”

She slipped through the crowd and stopped beside Liu Qianxiu.

Then looked up.

Starlight seemed to shine inside her eyes.

“Mm.”

Liu Qianxiu lowered his gaze toward her.

“Sorry. I’m late.”

“You’re not.”

Mu Wan shook her head and smiled.

“My scenes don’t appear until later anyway. Come on.”

They entered the screening room.

Mu Wan had chosen seats near the center of the back rows, where the view was wide and unobstructed.

After sitting down, she glanced at Liu Qianxiu.

His gaze was already on the screen.

City of Prayer was a modern romantic comedy.

Mu Wan played the male lead’s high-school first love, the beautiful memory he had never quite forgotten.

She did not appear until later in the film, when the relationship between the male and female leads began to deepen and the hero remembered his past.

Mu Wan had read the script.

She already knew the general plot.

A truly skilled director could make a film far more compelling than the script itself.

This director was merely competent.

He could tell the story clearly enough.

Mu Wan watched for a while.

Then she turned toward Liu Qianxiu.

Images shifted across the screen.

Light and shadow moved over his face.

He leaned back against the seat.

His eyes were closed.

The flickering glow sharpened the lines of his features.

Only then did Mu Wan notice the faint exhaustion between his brows.

Her teeth slowed around a piece of popcorn.

Even her heartbeat seemed to quiet.

He had fallen asleep.

That morning, Liu Qianxiu had told her he had surgery tonight and might be late.

At the cinema entrance, Mu Wan had been so happy simply because he came that she had not looked at him carefully.

He must have been exhausted.

And she had not noticed.

Mu Wan’s brows drew together faintly.

Suddenly, the screen brightened.

A low murmur of admiration passed through the audience.

Liu Qianxiu opened his eyes.

He looked toward the screen.

On it, a woman in a white dress stood beneath a cherry blossom tree.

She smiled.

Clean.

Beautiful.

The sweetness of popcorn spread across Mu Wan’s tongue.

She looked at Liu Qianxiu’s sharply defined profile.

Then asked softly,

“Why did you wake up?”

Liu Qianxiu turned toward her.

Mu Wan held an enormous bucket of popcorn in her lap.

She leaned sideways against the seat, looking up at him.

The light from the screen gradually dimmed.

Darkness covered her features like a sheer black veil.

“Mm.”

Liu Qianxiu turned back toward the screen.

Toward Mu Wan beneath the cherry blossoms.

“I woke up to see you.”And ran toward him.

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— End of Chapter 24 —

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