Incurable Chapter 32 Part 2

Chapter 32 (2/2)

The sky changed quickly. Before long, darkness had already begun to gather.

Thunder rolled through the valley.

Mu Wan asked with some worry, “It’s not going to come down while we’re still on the way back, is it?”

Even as she spoke, she felt the first cool drop strike her cheek. Her brows lifted as she tipped her face upward.

Beside her, Liu Qianxiu remained calm. He studied the direction of the wind moving through the bamboo grove, then took Mu Wan’s hand and led her away from the path.

They headed deeper into the bamboo.

Before long, a small bamboo-and-thatch hut came into view. Liu Qianxiu pulled Mu Wan inside. The moment they crossed the threshold, a streak of lightning tore across the sky, and the rain came down.

Dense rain beat against the bamboo and against the wet earth below.

Standing by the door, Mu Wan looked around the hut. There was almost nothing inside—only a bamboo bed. Directly opposite the entrance was a little square window, and whenever the wind blew, rain slanted in through it.

“How did you know there was a hut here?” Mu Wan turned back to Liu Qianxiu and reached her hand out into the stream of rain spilling from the roof.

“My master built it. Sometimes he comes here to cultivate in solitude,” Liu Qianxiu said.

For Taoists, solitary cultivation meant seeking the Way. One did not always cultivate in the temple itself, but often in places closer to nature—like the cliff where Liu Qianxiu meditated at dawn, or this thatched hut.

Wherever it was, Mu Wan liked it.

She stood in the doorway, letting rain collect in her palm. The pool in her hand kept growing larger. Just before it was about to spill over, another hand slid beneath hers and caught it.

His palm was large enough to enclose hers entirely.

Mu Wan turned to look at him.

He stood beside her, looking out toward the bamboo grove. Sensing her gaze, he turned back to her.

Rain fell into their joined hands, sounding delicate and endless. At last, there was too much water even for both hands together to hold. Mu Wan tipped her hands and poured the rain away, then clasped his wet hand in hers and drew it back inside.

Their hands were damp where they were linked.

Looking out at the rain-washed bamboo, Mu Wan smiled and said, “I like bamboo groves. When I was first born, my name was Mu Qingzhu. It was changed later because my cousin was named Mu Qing.”

Mu Qing’s name had been chosen by Yan Mei after consulting someone. They had said the Mu family surname paired well with the character Qing, but Yan Mei had not wanted her daughter to share a name element with Mu Wan. So she had made Mu Wan’s mother change Mu Wan’s name instead.

And Mu Qing had certainly lived up to Yan Mei’s hopes—now together with Shen Cheng, suppressing Mu Wan without effort, living comfortably while making sure others could not.

The name had not been stolen in vain.

At a moment like this, Mu Wan did not want to be thinking about Mu Qing. She returned to herself and said to Liu Qianxiu, “I was first named Mu Qingzhu because I have a bamboo-leaf birthmark.”

The first time she had gone to the ER, when Liu Qianxiu had treated her wound, he had seen it when he pulled down her clothing. At the time, he had looked at it for a moment too long. Later, all he had done was calmly say it was beautiful.

Thinking of that memory, Mu Wan lifted a hand to the button at her chest and asked, “Do you still remember where it is?”

She smiled as she spoke and made to undo the fastening. Before she could, her hand was caught in his.

“What’s wrong?” Mu Wan smiled, feigning innocence.

Liu Qianxiu lowered his gaze to her, his throat moving as he let out a quiet sigh. His arm tightened, drawing her against him.

The gauzy shirt she wore had already fallen half open, the neckline slipping to one side and revealing nearly all of one collarbone. Beneath it stretched a soft sweep of pale skin. Liu Qianxiu’s gaze paused there before he looked back up at her.

“On purpose?” he asked.

Her hand was still trapped in his, and her body was pressed to his chest.

Mu Wan smiled without hiding it. “Mm. On purpose.”

His black eyes rested on her, long and deep, as though ready to draw her in completely. Mu Wan’s smile slowly faded. Color rose through her pale cheeks. A flicker of nerves passed through her. She tried to twist free of his hold and could not.

Then he lowered his head and kissed her.

The instant their lips met, Mu Wan caught the scent of desire mixed into the bamboo leaves. Her whole body tightened. Her eyes widened at him. Very quickly, though, she was no longer in control. He led. She followed without realizing she had surrendered.

Her body felt like a torch suddenly set alight.

Drawn along by his kiss, she could do nothing but go wherever he took her.

At the end of it, she heard a soft laugh by her ear. Then Liu Qianxiu bit lightly at her earlobe, and a numbing weakness swept through her all over again.

Mu Wan opened her eyes.

Liu Qianxiu’s last kiss fell against her forehead.

It was as though someone had opened a box of fruit candies and scattered them across the whole room. The air had turned sweet with them, and the culprit simply let that sweetness linger. Mu Wan’s red lips remained slightly parted. Her breathing came fast. Her eyes were wet, bright, and lit with tiny flames.

She grabbed the front of his Taoist robe.

Knowing he had done it deliberately, she felt both flustered and a little angry.

“You did that on purpose,” she said, her voice roughened.

The man looked at her, then lifted a hand and smoothed it through her hair. His voice was low and grave.

“No. I just couldn’t hold back anymore.”

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