Chapter 28 (1/2)
Mu Wan fell asleep.
It was as if her ears had been submerged in water. By the time Liu Qianxiu’s final sentence reached her, it had turned into only a few blurred words. She did not hear it clearly. Her consciousness kept sinking, and she drifted off.
When she woke, it was already morning.
Mu Wan came out of the bedroom to find the apartment empty. There was not even a single meow. Liu Qianxiu’s bedroom door was shut. She looked up at the time. It was already eight in the morning. He had probably gone to work.
The cats had been sent to Xu Xingkong’s place yesterday, so once again, she was the only one left in the apartment.
She walked into the kitchen and saw breakfast laid out on the table, along with a glass of orange juice.
Everything was just like the first time she had spent the night at Liu Qianxiu’s place. He had prepared breakfast for her, then gone to work, leaving her alone in the house.
And yet, something felt different.
Mu Wan’s mind was still a little hazy, as if her memory had been covered with a thin sheet of paper. She could make out only the outline of it, not the details.
Sitting on the high stool at the dining counter, she listened to the patter of rain outside and tried to remember the last thing Liu Qianxiu had said before she fell asleep the night before.
She took a bite of her sandwich and set her phone on the cool marble tabletop beside her.
He had worked so late yesterday, and this morning he had gone straight back to work. He was probably busy now. Instead of calling, Mu Wan sent him a text.
Mu Wan: Liu Qianxiu.
Unexpectedly, he replied almost at once.
Taoist Liu: Mm.
A smile curved at her lips against the rim of the glass.
Resting one arm on the marble counter, feeling its cool smoothness seep into her fingertips, she listened to the rain and called him.
He picked up quickly.
There was the sound of papers being turned on the other end. Mu Wan asked, “Are you busy?”
The rustle of papers stopped abruptly.
“Not too bad,” Liu Qianxiu said.
“Oh.”
She paused, then asked, “Are we going to the Taoist temple this afternoon? Do I need to prepare anything? I’m free today, so I can go buy it first.”
Someone knocked on the door. Xiao Tan entered in response. Liu Qianxiu lifted his eyes to look at him, then lowered them again to the papers in front of him.
“Buy a few books you like,” he said. “The signal there is bad. You won’t be able to go online on your phone.”
“I don’t have any books I like,” Mu Wan said after thinking for a while. “I’ll just watch you read.”
Liu Qianxiu pressed his lips together and said nothing.
As expected, silence fell on the other end of the line.
Almost every time she said something like that, Liu Qianxiu responded with silence.
Mu Wan rubbed her fingertip against the marble tabletop, the chill of the stone soaking into the whorls of her fingerprints.
“Last night, you said something to me,” she said. “But then I fell asleep, and I can’t remember what it was. What did you say?”
Liu Qianxiu looked up at Xiao Tan. Xiao Tan pointed at his watch. They had to go to a meeting.
“It wasn’t anything important,” Liu Qianxiu said. “I’ll be back at one this afternoon. Eat something on your own. Once I’m back, we’ll go straight to the temple. I have to go to a meeting now.”
“Mm.” Her voice dipped with obvious disappointment.
His gaze lowered slightly.
Liu Qianxiu ended the call, gathered the materials at hand, stood up, and said to Xiao Tan, “Let’s go.”
“Miss Mu?” Xiao Tan asked as he opened the door.
The two of them headed for the conference room. Nurses and patients they passed greeted them along the way. Liu Qianxiu nodded in acknowledgment one by one, then finally answered Xiao Tan’s question.
“Yes.”
Xiao Tan had heard enough of the call just now to understand. Once he confirmed it was Mu Wan, he was not exactly surprised.
Liu Qianxiu was cool and clear as water. Mu Wan’s warmth and brightness suited him quite well.
Even so, he still found it a little unexpected. Looking at Liu Qianxiu, he smiled and said, “I didn’t expect you’d take her to the Taoist temple.”
“Mm.” Liu Qianxiu answered lightly. “She wanted to go, so I’m taking her.”
After hanging up, Mu Wan did not believe it had been something unimportant.
After hanging up, she thought about it for a while longer. The outline of the memory grew clearer and clearer, but she still could not pierce that thin sheet over it.
Since she could not make sense of it, she gave up for now.
After finishing breakfast and tidying the kitchen, she left Liu Qianxiu’s apartment and went home first to get her luggage.
He had said that once he got back from work, they would head straight to the temple. That probably meant they were pressed for time. So Mu Wan decided to get her suitcase from home and bring it over first so that they could leave directly from his place later.
When she left Liu Qianxiu’s apartment, the rain was still light. By the time she got home, it had already turned into a downpour. In rain like that, even with an umbrella, she would end up half-soaked, especially while dragging luggage.
There was still time, so she was not in a hurry. She stayed home waiting for the rain to ease up and, while she was at it, looked up Qingyuan Temple online.
Xiacheng had Taoist temples and Buddhist temples, and because the city was prosperous, incense offerings were strong there. But she had never heard of Qingyuan Temple before.
She searched for it on the map but found only Qingyuan Mountain.
Xiacheng’s terrain was the northern mountains and the southern sea. Qingyuan Mountain was in the northern district. The entire northern district was mountainous, part of the Sushan range. A river called the Su River cut through the middle of it.
The scenery there was beautiful—layer upon layer of mountains, a river running across them, the landscape especially striking.
Xiacheng had developed rapidly and extensively, but the Sushan area had remained unchanged. Apart from a few resorts, the deeper parts remained undeveloped.
Qingyuan Mountain was located in the innermost part along the Su River, untouched by development. The mountain itself was not high. At its base was a small town. The town should have internet access, but the signal on the mountain itself was probably weak.
Mu Wan had grown up in Xiacheng, yet this was the first time she had realized such a place existed.
Given Liu Qianxiu’s temperament, it made sense. He did not really count as a Taoist priest, at most a man of the secular world engaged in quiet cultivation. He was not chasing immortality. He was only seeking peace of mind.
“Peace of mind…”
Mu Wan murmured the words to herself, catching onto the key phrase. A flash of realization lit her mind. Last night, what Liu Qianxiu had said had seemed to be related to peace of mind—
Just as she was about to piece it together, her phone rang. Her train of thought was cut off. She gave a regretful sigh and picked up the phone.
It was Gao Mei.
Gao Mei had been out of town filming the past two days, not working at the Xiacheng studio lot. She had returned last night, and today they were both supposed to be on the same production again—but when she got to set, Mu Wan was nowhere to be found.
“They cut your scenes?” Gao Mei sounded incredulous. “Your part was pretty important. They just cut it like that?”
“Mm.” Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Mu Wan watched the rain outside begin to ease. “I don’t have any filming this week. As for next week, Li Nan still hasn’t told me anything.”
By then, Gao Mei also sensed that something was off. But her thinking was similar to Li Nan’s. Mu Wan had always kept her head down in the industry. Because she usually played supporting roles, she had never stirred up trouble. No director or lead actor had ever had reason to target her. So why would she suddenly have no scenes all week?
“Do you know what’s going on?” Gao Mei asked. “You must have some idea.”
“Mm,” Mu Wan said.
Hearing that, Gao Mei became anxious. “Then what are you going to do? No scenes this week—and maybe none next week either. If you keep not working, how are you supposed to survive?”
“I’ll deal with it after I get back next week.”
Mu Wan already had a plan, but since it involved family matters rather than something inside the industry, she did not say more.
She was the type who had always found ways to resolve things on her own. Otherwise, with a face like hers, there was no way she could have spent so many years working in the industry without incident.
“ You’re going somewhere this week?” Gao Mei asked.
“Yeah. To a Taoist temple, to cultivate my body and mind.”
Mu Wan said it, then asked, “Do you have any good novels to recommend?”
Gao Mei loved reading novels. In recent years, online novel adaptations have become a huge trend, and Gao Mei has even landed roles in a few adaptations of books she loves. She had been thrilled.
“Of course I do,” Gao Mei said. Then she froze. “Wait. You’re going to a Taoist temple to read romance novels? Are you going there to cultivate yourself or to fall in love?”
That question hit dead center.
Mu Wan laughed.
She really was going there to fall in love.
Though it was a rather one-sided love.
After getting a reading list from Gao Mei, Mu Wan went out and bought a few books, then packed them into her suitcase.
Once that was done, it was already noon. Mu Wan ate something simple outside, then dragged her luggage over to Liu Qianxiu’s apartment to wait for him.
The surgery took longer than expected, so he got home later than planned.
When he returned, Mu Wan was sitting at the low table reading. Of course, she was not reading the Dao De Jing. The book in her hands had a much lighter-colored cover. It was clearly a novel.
The moment Liu Qianxiu stepped inside, Mu Wan looked up. She closed the book, got up from the rug, and asked, “You’re back. Do you want to rest for a while?”
He had just come out of surgery. Mentally and physically, he had to be tired.
But after she asked, he only shook his head.
“No. We’ll leave now.”
Mu Wan had little with her—just a small suitcase and the book in her hand. Liu Qianxiu had even less, only a black backpack.
The two of them carried their things to the car, and Liu Qianxiu drove toward the Sushan range in the northern district.
It was only one in the afternoon, and traffic was smooth. It had rained in the morning, then cleared for a while, but now the sky had clouded over again.
Mu Wan had checked the map. It would probably take about two hours to drive to Qingyuan Town at the foot of the mountain, and then another climb up the mountain to reach the temple. They should arrive around four or five.
The road stretched out wide ahead of them. The car was quiet.
Mu Wan had not put her novel away. After glancing at it, she raised her head and asked, “Is your shixiong easy to get along with?”
The last time she had asked, Liu Qianxiu had said that his shixiong was the only one there at the temple.
His shixiong had probably been cultivating there all along and was surely far more Taoist in temperament than Liu Qianxiu. Mu Wan was following Liu Qianxiu there, not to cultivate at all, and was even bringing romance novels to read. She suspected his shixiong might not think much of her.
“More or less,” Liu Qianxiu said.
They were stopped at a red light. Liu Qianxiu glanced at the book in her hand.
“Even if he isn’t easy to get along with, it’s fine,” Mu Wan said. She looked at Liu Qianxiu and added, “Once we get there, I’ll just stay with you. As long as I’m only dealing with you, I’ll be fine.”
The light turned green. Liu Qianxiu looked back at the road.
“Mm.”
By three in the afternoon, they arrived in Qingyuan Town. Liu Qianxiu drove for another half hour before finally reaching Qingyuan Mountain.
He parked beside a small thatched hut at the foot of the mountain. Then the two of them got out and prepared to hike up.
The sky was still overcast, but the mountain air was far cooler and cleaner than the air in the city.
At the foot of Qingyuan Mountain was a path paved with blue stone slabs. Their surfaces were rough, showing that few people walked there. The path wound all the way upward like steps leading into the heavens.
The climb took them an hour.
At the top stood a Taoist temple.
In front of the temple was a flat patch of ground, packed hard with earth. It had just rained, so the ground was damp, littered with scattered leaves. To the left of the temple stood an old pine tree, its crown broad and dense, its shadow sheltering the stone table and benches beneath it.
Mu Wan’s breathing was uneven from the climb.
She turned and looked out below. The entire Sushan range spread before her eyes, and the Su River wound on and on toward the east.
Distant mountains. Flowing water.
The view cleared the heart.
She had not even stepped inside yet, and already she felt much calmer.
Compared with her, Liu Qianxiu seemed perfectly at ease. His expression had barely changed, and even his breathing remained steady. He had carried her suitcase the whole way up.
Tall and straight, he stood before the temple doors and pushed them open.
Mu Wan came back to herself and followed him inside.
Qingyuan Temple was not large.
The courtyard was paved with uneven flagstones. In the center stood an incense burner. Facing the gate was the main hall. Inside were the statues of the deities, and beside them a low table and prayer cushions.
On both the left and right sides of the main hall were side halls. There were four rooms in total, two of them with doors and windows tightly shut. Those were probably the rooms for resting.
A narrow path ran beside the main hall and led toward the rear.
Ordinary Taoist temples usually had three levels, each dedicated to different Taoist patriarchs. But Qingyuan Temple was small and simple. There was only one main hall, and the three patriarchs were all enshrined together there.
As soon as they stepped through the gate, a little novice ran out of the main hall.
He looked only seven or eight years old, with long hair twisted into a bun and secured with a wooden pin. His small face was clean and delicate. Dressed in a water-blue Taoist robe and black cloth shoes, he looked as if he had been painted directly into the landscape of the temple.
When he saw who had arrived, he hurried toward them. Once he reached Liu Qianxiu’s side, he tipped his head back and called out in a bright, crisp voice,
“Junior Brother Qianxiu.”
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