Incurable Chapter 34 Part 1

Chapter 34 (1/2)

When Mu Wan returned to the private room, it was still just as lively as before. Nearly everyone at the table, whether by their gaze or the angle of their bodies, was oriented toward Shen Cheng and Mu Qing.

Mu Wan went back to her seat and said quietly to Mi Yu, who was checking her phone, “Sister Yu, I’m heading out first.”

The screen Mi Yu had been looking at showed Tang Qin’s Weibo page. She put her phone away, glanced at Mu Wan, then leaned back against her chair and took a sip from the stemmed glass in her hand.

Her eyes moved once around the room, passing over Mu Qing and Shen Cheng, before she nodded.

“All right. Go ahead.”

Mi Yu was one of the main cast, so she had to stay until the dinner broke up. But Mu Wan was only a minor supporting actress. No one would notice whether she stayed or left.

After thanking Mi Yu, she got up and walked out.

Beside her, Shen Cheng handed Mu Qing a glass of water. Mu Qing lowered her eyes and took a sip. As she did, her gaze flicked toward the door just in time to catch the graceful outline of the woman’s back disappearing beyond it.

The corner of Mu Qing’s mouth curved. Turning to Shen Cheng, she said softly, “Thank you.”

After leaving the Qinghu Business Club, Mu Wan took a cab home.

She had left on Thursday. It was only Saturday now. Just two days, yet a layer of stale dampness had already settled inside the apartment. It smelled nothing like the sandalwood calm of the Taoist temple.

Once home, Mu Wan opened the windows first to air out the place.

The wind in Xiacheng was not as cool as the wind at the temple. Even after the rain, it still carried a sticky heat. After a full day of running around, she was sweaty all over. She stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower.

Water from the showerhead hit the floor in a steady rhythm. After washing her hair and tying it up, Mu Wan stood beneath the spray and let the water run over her.

She had left the temple in too much of a hurry today and had not brought her suitcase. Tomorrow, she would tell Liu Qianxiu to help bring it back for her.

At the thought, she tilted her neck slightly. Water pooled for a moment in the hollow of her shoulder before sliding away in a clear, crisp line.

She wondered what time he would return tomorrow.

After showering, Mu Wan changed into her nightclothes, shut the windows, dried her hair, and climbed into bed.

The bedroom lights were off. Only the glow from distant buildings reached in through the curtains. The room was so quiet it felt lonely.

Mu Wan turned over once. She could not fall asleep.

She missed Liu Qianxiu terribly.

If she had known sooner that Mu Qing would interfere with this production as well, she would have stayed at the temple. Even if all she did there was sit beside Liu Qianxiu while he read, it would still have been better than this—being alone in an empty room.

Thinking back over everything that had happened tonight, Mu Wan lifted one arm over her head and slowly gathered her thoughts.

Mu Qing had blocked every road in front of her. She was clearly just waiting for Mu Wan to go beg her, so she could feed her own vanity with it.

Mu Wan was not afraid to endure hardship. But Aunt Wu’s implication had been obvious—Mu Qing would likely marry Shen Cheng in the future. Mu Wan, on the other hand, only knew how to make a living by acting. She had no real foundation in anything else, and nothing else would pay as well or come as naturally.

Being caught by the throat like this, handled and squeezed back and forth at someone else’s will, was suffocating.

Still, Mu Wan was not without options.

If she truly could not hold out any longer, then at worst, she would drag everyone down with her. Mu Qing was still too young. She only knew how to satisfy her immediate sense of triumph. Her mother, Yan Mei, had most likely warned her long ago not to provoke Mu Wan at all.

If Mu Wan was pushed far enough, she could expose Mu Qing’s real background. That would cost the Mu family the face they had spent half a lifetime preserving. It might even affect Mu Qing’s chances of marrying into the Shen family.

Of course, that would also drag her own mother’s name into it.

But Mu Wan had always been practical.

Her mother was already gone.

She still had to keep living.

After a full, exhausting day, she lay there thinking for a while before drifting into a hazy sleep.

The next morning, Mu Wan was woken by Aunt Wu knocking at the door.

She climbed out of bed and went to answer it. Aunt Wu came in carrying ingredients for breakfast.

Seeing Mu Wan’s sleepy face, Aunt Wu smiled. “Just got up?”

Still not fully awake, Mu Wan nodded, stepped aside to let her in, then followed her into the kitchen.

Aunt Wu began neatly sorting the ingredients in her hand. Mu Wan leaned against the counter and asked, “Have you not been busy lately?”

Usually, Aunt Wu only came to see her about once a month. Even with her mother’s death anniversary approaching, this was still unusually frequent. The Mu family never liked her much. If Aunt Wu came too often, Mu Wan worried they would blame the old woman for it.

“I’m not busy,” Aunt Wu said. “Mu Qing is away filming, and only Master and Madam are at home.”

Then she glanced over and asked, “What do you want for breakfast?”

Mu Wan looked at the ingredients for a moment, pressed her lips together, and said, “Plain noodle soup.”

Aunt Wu’s eyes paused on her, faintly surprised.

“You never used to like noodles much. This is the second time you’ve asked for plain noodle soup lately.”

In the past, Mu Wan rarely requested specific dishes. Aunt Wu simply cooked whatever she wanted, and Mu Wan ate it. Home-cooked food, even the plainest congee and side dishes, was healthier and tastier than anything outside.

Why had she suddenly started naming dishes now?

Because someone had spoiled her.

With her relationship with Liu Qianxiu as it was now, Mu Wan found herself looking back on all the small moments from before they had officially gotten together. From the beginning, he really had treated her differently.

Sometimes she wanted to ask him when he had started liking her.

But it also felt a little too sentimental.

No matter when it had begun, what mattered was that they were together now.

As she thought of that, her eyes slowly brightened, a smile gathering naturally at their corners.

Aunt Wu watched her eagerly. Mu Wan collected herself, pulled back the smile a little, and said, “My boyfriend made it for me once. Now I’m hooked.”

“Boyfriend?” Aunt Wu seized instantly on the keyword, her whole face lighting up.

“Mm.” Mu Wan nodded with a smile.

Even though Aunt Wu looked delighted, there was no real surprise in her expression. One of Mu Wan’s brows lifted.

“You already guessed?”

“Not exactly guessed.” Aunt Wu stood there smiling broadly. “I overheard Mu Qing talking with Madam. They said you might have a boyfriend now.”

Mu Wan poured herself a glass of water and took a sip, her expression unchanged.

“Oh. They really are so concerned about me.”

“Concerned, my foot,” Aunt Wu said bluntly. “They’re just afraid you might find a man better than Mu Qing’s and come back to outshine them. Their vanity is outrageous.”

A smile tugged at Mu Wan’s mouth.

“He really is better than Shen Cheng.”

Aunt Wu’s eyes widened as if she had just been gifted the ultimate cheat code in a game.

“Really? Which young master’s family is he from?”

“I mean he’s a better person,” Mu Wan corrected her. “And he treats me well. Didn’t you say from the beginning that all I needed was someone willing to eat meals with me?”

“Well, that’s true, but…” Aunt Wu muttered.

It was true, but she still wanted Mu Wan to find someone from an even better family than Shen Cheng’s, so that no one in the Mu family would ever dare bully her again.

“What does he do?” Aunt Wu asked, reluctantly letting go of the fantasy.

“He’s a surgeon,” Mu Wan said.

She did not mention the Taoist cultivation part. Ordinary people did not really understand Taoists. Most of them simply lumped Taoists together with monks. In truth, Taoists were far freer—they could marry, fall in love, live like any other person.

“That’s not bad.” Aunt Wu felt a little relieved. Being a doctor is a good profession. At the very least, they would not have to worry about food or clothing in the future, and life would be comfortable.

But after that relief came a flicker of dissatisfaction. Aunt Wu looked Mu Wan up and down and asked unwillingly, “Just a doctor?”

The old woman stood there as if she were digging for treasure, her eyes bright with hope.

Mu Wan set down her cup, smiled, and kindly shattered that hope.

“Yes. Just a doctor.”

Aunt Wu turned back to cooking.

Mu Wan smiled and was just about to go take another rinse when her phone rang in the bedroom. Thinking it might be Liu Qianxiu, she hurried in to get it.

Instead, the screen showed Li Nan’s name.

She accepted the call.

“Hello, boss.”

“This afternoon at four. Go audition at Runze Tower, Room 1306.”

So the company had not given up on her after all. They were already trying to find her auditions.

Standing in the bedroom doorway, Mu Wan looked out at the heavy, overcast sky and felt a strange weariness.

She had no problem with auditions. But even if she won a part, it might still be snatched away afterwards. As long as her conflict with Mu Qing remained unresolved, she probably would not be working much anytime soon.

“Boss…” Mu Wan began, intending to explain.

But Li Nan laughed before she could continue.

“It’s for the empress role in Thousand Threads of Snow. Wasn’t that one you wanted from the start? You don’t need to worry about the audition. It’s basically just for the director to look you over in person. The contract has already been sent.”

After Li Nan said that, there was silence on the line.

“Mu Wan?”

“Got it,” she replied at last, finally snapping back.

“All right. Prepare well. They start shooting next week. The character has a strong setup. If you do this role well, you won’t have to worry about finding work afterward.”

He hung up.

At the very moment when she had felt trapped with nowhere left to go, Li Nan’s call had suddenly opened everything up again.

This absolutely could not have been Mu Qing’s doing.

If it were Mu Qing, she would never have let Mu Wan get a role with such a strong character setup.

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