Chapter 25 (2/2)
Mu Wan did not stay under the sun any longer. She flagged down a taxi and made a call.
“Liu Qianxiu, I’m done filming. Can I come over for lunch?”
When she reached Liu Qianxiu’s place by taxi, she stood outside and rang the bell.
The door opened not long after.
There he was in a long shirt and trousers again, standing quietly in the doorway, looking at her.
“You didn’t go to work?” Mu Wan asked with a smile, giving him a quick once-over as she stepped inside.
The shirt and trousers he wore at home were always loose and relaxed. After spending so much time around him, she had already more or less figured out his habits. His work clothes were more fitted and precise. At home, he dressed for comfort and freedom, like some wandering Taoist immortal.
As she bent to change into slippers, her long calves curving slightly, Liu Qianxiu closed the door behind her.
“I just got back.”
The air-conditioning inside scattered the heat that had clung to her outside.
Once she changed shoes and stepped inside, the three little ones came toddling out from the cat room on their short legs.
“I haven’t fed them yet,” Liu Qianxiu said.
Mu Wan had become quite casual by now.
She went straight to the cat room doorway, sat down on the floor, and gathered all three fluffy little bodies into her arms. Holding them, she looked up at Liu Qianxiu and smiled.
“Then you go make lunch. I’ll feed them.”
Her face was flushed from the heat, the redness hidden beneath her fair skin in a faint, soft pink. Holding the kittens made her slight shoulders hunch. With her legs tucked up and her small body curled there, she looked rather like a cat herself.
Liu Qianxiu looked at her but did not leave.
He stood there watching her hold the kittens, her long pale fingers disappearing into their fur.
“Tomorrow I’m taking them to my friend’s place,” he said.
Her arms paused.
Mu Wan tilted her face up toward him. Long lashes swept over her eyes as she blinked.
“Didn’t you just bring them back?”
“Mm.” Liu Qianxiu nodded. “I’m going to Qingyuan Temple Wednesday afternoon. I’ll be back Monday.”
Her arms loosened slightly. The three kittens rolled out of her hold like little glutinous rice dumplings. She lowered her bent legs and pressed the soles of her feet together, making a circle with her legs to keep the three within it.
Their cries were soft and sweet, but Mu Wan did not seem to hear them.
She sat there very still, like a lonely island standing alone in the sea.
And lonely was exactly what she was.
She had no work for the next half week. With Liu Qianxiu gone, she had no idea where she would even go.
The living room was faintly scented with agarwood, mixed with the sound of little kitten cries. Under ordinary circumstances, it should have been soothing.
Instead, she remained crouched there. She did not stand up. Lowering her head, she reached out one white, slender finger and began circling it over Zhongfen’s head as the kitten wandered past.
After a moment, she said quietly,
“What if they miss you while you’re gone?”
When she finished, she looked up at Liu Qianxiu once. The light in her eyes had dimmed.
Then she lowered her head again and kept tracing slow circles on Zhongfen’s head as she added,
“What if I miss you?”
The words were so light they might have been the brush of a cat’s paw against a carpet, soft enough to disappear into the pads and leave no sound at all.
Liu Qianxiu’s lashes stirred faintly.
He looked at the back of her neck as she bent her head, pale and slender, with loose unpinned strands of hair scattered there, soft and downy.
His lips pressed together.
Then the man spoke, voice low.
“Any other questions?”
She froze.
The circling motion of her finger stopped. She tilted her face up toward him. Her shoulders had slumped. Soft fur and tiny paws brushed against her fingertips.
Her heart skipped.
Then, deciding she might as well seize the courage while it was there—after all, he was the one who had asked if she had more questions—she gathered herself and asked the one she really wanted to.
Her eyes lit up again as she looked at him, holding her breath.
“Then... can I come with you?”
“Mm.”
Liu Qianxiu gave a soft, acknowledging sound.
Looking at her eyes widening in disbelief, he said,
“You can.”
Thanks for the chapter! Stay safe!
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