Incurable Chapter 25 Part 1

Chapter 25 (1/2)

When the movie ended, the two of them walked out of the screening hall.

It was already nine o’clock at night, and the cinema had quieted down considerably.

A moment ago, when they were still inside the theater, Liu Qianxiu had been walking behind her. Now he had come up beside her. Mu Wan turned her head to look at him. His expression was as calm as ever, and the fatigue that had shown in his dark eyes earlier was gone.

Back in the theater, he had slept almost the entire time.

Only when her scenes came on did he open his eyes and watch for a while.

After that, he had closed them again.

I woke up to look at you.

The sweet scent of popcorn still lingered at the tip of her nose. Biting lightly on her lower lip, Mu Wan smiled.

“How did you get here?” she asked as they walked out. The corridor split in two directions—one toward the elevator leading down to the underground parking lot, the other toward the mall exit.

Liu Qianxiu stopped and answered, “By taxi.”

That made sense. He had just come out of surgery and had been so tired that he fell asleep. He probably had not had the energy to drive.

Mu Wan tipped her head back to look at him. The tub of popcorn in her arms was already more than half empty, all eaten by her alone. Liu Qianxiu did not care much for things that had been so heavily processed. He had not touched a single piece.

“You haven’t eaten yet, have you?” Mu Wan asked.

After confirming it, she glanced around the mall. This whole level of the cinema was packed with restaurants.

“Do you want to eat something? You don’t have to go home and cook tonight. You look pretty tired.”

The cinema lights flickered in the woman’s eyes.

Liu Qianxiu lowered his gaze to the popcorn bucket in her arms and asked, “Are you hungry?”

Her fingers curled slightly around the bucket.

With a stomach full of popcorn, Mu Wan looked at Liu Qianxiu and answered honestly, “Not anymore.”

“Let’s go home,” Liu Qianxiu said, refusing gently.

When someone was extremely tired, they usually had no appetite at all. All they wanted was rest. She was the same way every time she spent a whole night filming.

Thinking of that, Mu Wan nodded.

“Then I’ll take you home.”

This time, Liu Qianxiu did not refuse.

Mu Wan followed him, and the two of them walked out of the mall together. Once they had gotten a taxi outside, Mu Wan gave the driver the destination. When she turned back, Liu Qianxiu had already closed his eyes again.

After seeing Liu Qianxiu off, he went straight to his bedroom.

Mu Wan fed the three little ones, filled Zhouyi’s food bowl, and finished tidying up. After that, she did not linger and went home.

It was just as well that yesterday’s shoot had been canceled. Otherwise, she would have been filming through the night. Her next shoot was scheduled for the early hours of the morning, so she got up at dawn and headed to set.

The heavy rain two days ago had thoroughly beaten the damp heat out of the air, but after only one day, the humidity had come roaring back. Even before sunrise, it was already hot and oppressive.

Today Mu Wan was filming a historical drama.

After years of supporting roles, her typecasting was more or less fixed. Because she had a slim, graceful figure and moved cleanly and sharply, in costume dramas she usually played women of action—either the heroine’s loyal sidekick if the role was bigger, or a female assassin sent to kill the heroine if the role was smaller. In modern dramas, she usually played the male lead’s pure first love, like the role she had played in yesterday’s film.

Relatively speaking, Mu Wan preferred modern dramas in the summer.

In period action roles, she had to wear fitted black costumes made of synthetic fabric, sealed tight at the wrists, ankles, and neck, with no ventilation. They made her sweat all over. The only good thing about costume dramas was that the hair was easier—she could wear it up in a high ponytail.

By all rights, her scene today should have started shooting before dawn.

But after arriving at set, changing, and getting through hair and makeup, she waited and waited—until ten in the morning.

The sun had become vicious. Even standing in the shade in a full black costume, Mu Wan felt as though she were being roasted alive.

She looked over the set. Three different shooting areas, all busy as hell.

Gao Mei was away filming out of town, so there was no one to talk to. Mu Wan opened another round of Plants vs. Zombies.

She waited another hour.

It was nearly noon.

Mu Wan put away her phone and decided she was done waiting. Being a supporting actress meant waiting around was normal enough. But today still felt unusual. If they were still shooting her scene, she could keep waiting. If they were not, she needed to head off to find Liu Qianxiu for lunch.

Most of Mu Wan’s scenes were filmed by the assistant director. Only when she had scenes with the leads did the main director step in.

She moved through the crowd and stood beneath the blazing sun, waiting until one of the group scenes had wrapped before calling out to the assistant director.

The assistant director on this production was a fat man, and summer did him no favors. He had rolled his T-shirt sleeves all the way up until they looked like tank tops, and the whole thing was drenched with sweat.

When Mu Wan came over to ask, his thick brows knotted, and the flesh on his face shifted with the movement. He glanced at the assistant nearby and demanded, “What happened? Her scenes got cut and nobody told her?”

Mu Wan pressed her lips together.

She understood enough already.

The assistant glanced nervously at the director, then at Mu Wan, and hurried to explain, “I went to look for her at the time, but I couldn’t find her. There were too many actors around.”

She had been sitting in that black costume for most of the morning. Saying they could not find her was nothing but an excuse.

Mu Wan smiled and looked at the assistant.

“So there’s nothing left for me this morning?”

Seizing the chance to step down from the issue, the assistant nodded quickly.

“No. Everything’s been cut.”

In that case, Mu Wan had nothing else to say.

She greeted the assistant director politely.

“Then I’ll head out, Director.”

The assistant director gave her a once-over from head to toe, then waved her away. Mu Wan turned and left the set.

She had been acting for years. Studio life was usually stable, uneventful. She had waited for scenes before. She had been forgotten by assistant directors before, too.

But today felt different.

And once again, she thought of Mu Qing.

Mu Wan’s brows drew together. She went to change out of her costume.

Since her scenes had been cut, she had no filming today. Once out of the black costume, she was drenched in sweat. Even her pale skin had flushed red from the trapped heat. She rubbed at her arms lightly, washed her face in the restroom, and started toward the studio exit.

When she passed the filming area of some modern drama, Mu Wan stopped.

Under a sunshade, a woman sat drinking iced water.

Mu Wan pressed her lips together, then changed direction and walked over.

Mi Yu noticed her first.

She was wearing sunglasses and a sun hat. Even under the umbrella in the shade, with the sun this brutal, she clearly did not trust it would be enough to block UV rays. A female celebrity’s face was her brand. She could not afford to age or tan. Her sun protection was meticulous. She rarely saw anyone like Mu Wan walking around under the full sun in a tank top and shorts.

Still, it looked good on her.

Slender, tall, with long pale skin exposed, fine-boned, and eye-catching. She had just washed her face, and her eyes looked washed too—dark and bright. Seeing Mi Yu looking at her, Mu Wan smiled faintly, her lips like they had been tipped with honey.

“Sister Yu. Boss.”

After greeting Mi Yu, Mu Wan turned to Li Nan, who was seated to one side, marking up a script.

Mu Wan was a Buddhist-style actress through and through. After signing with the company, she kept very little contact with the other performers. She only showed up at group events when necessary, and even then, she was not particularly close to anyone.

That included her agent.

Most of her communication with Li Nan was through WeChat. He told her where to go act, and she went. Mu Wan acted well, never picked roles, and always had enough work. Even if they were all supporting parts, her earning ability was still decent enough. Aside from having no ambition, there was not much to criticize.

For her to come looking for him in person meant something was wrong.

Li Nan lifted his eyes from the script and gave her the news before she even had to ask.

“The production team just told me your scenes for tomorrow and the day after have also been cut. No need to come in either day.”

Mu Wan was not surprised.

She did a little math in her head and said, “So I have no jobs at all this week.”

The way she put it finally made Li Nan sense that something was off, though his thoughts had not yet gone too far. Mu Wan was a small supporting actress. She had never blocked anyone’s path. Her roles were minor, and she did not outshine anyone. There should have been no reason for someone to target her. Besides, she was not the kind of person who caused trouble, and she was smart enough to handle social relationships well. At the very least, even someone as difficult as Mi Yu had managed to coexist peacefully with her.

“Then take this week off,” Li Nan said. “Think of it as a vacation.”

Then, in the most official tone possible, he added, “Don’t worry about the rest. There’ll definitely be jobs next week. Since you signed with our company, the company isn’t about to stop finding resources for you.”

Mu Wan had only come to confirm things.

Of Li Nan’s explanation, she only half listened.

Nearby, they were filming a water scene. The heroine had just been shoved into the water and climbed back out, only to be told she needed to do another take. Her face was already dark with anger.

Mu Wan had filmed plenty of water scenes herself.

She had been shoved into freezing water, shivering all over, only to be made to do it again because the lead had not performed well enough.

Drawing her mind back, Mu Wan looked at Li Nan and smiled.

“Got it. Thank you, sir.”

Li Nan said nothing else.

Mu Wan turned to leave. Before going, she said goodbye to both Li Nan and Mi Yu.

She had only just finished when Mi Yu, still drinking iced water, spoke.

“You probably ran into an enemy.”

Mi Yu had also had a dawn shoot today. That morning, she had seen Mu Wan heading toward another production. If Mu Wan had come to look for Li Nan now, it probably meant she had waited there half the day only to be told her scenes were gone.

Mi Yu had been through that herself back when she was still nobody. These tricks were old, and the entertainment industry kept using the same ones over and over.

Not only Mu Wan, but Li Nan, too, turned to look at Mi Yu.

Mu Wan watched her expression and waited quietly for her to continue.

“Three straight days of scenes getting cut? There’s no way that’s coincidence,” Mi Yu said, almost as though she were speaking to herself, though it was clearly meant for Mu Wan too. “In this industry, you have to get your attitude straight. We’re all slaves to capital. If you have talent but no backing, crushing you is as easy as crushing an ant. A person can have backbone—but you need to be able to eat first.”

The words were blunt and efficient. Harsh, practical, and not without a trace of advice.

After listening, Mu Wan smiled.

“Understood. Thank you, Sister Yu.”

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