Chapter 36 (2/2)
Her voice was pitched just right. Not loud enough to draw the whole floor, but loud enough for the cluster of doctors and the nurses at the station to hear every word.
Almost at once, every gaze shifted.
Xiao Yun looked at Mu Wan, her brows pulling together, then turned to Liu Qianxiu.
Liu Qianxiu’s expression did not change. He closed the file in his hand and looked at Mu Wan with quiet, dark eyes.
“Where?”
The woman smiled, showing white teeth between red lips, and pointed delicately to herself.
“Here~”
The corridor was bright and crowded with the noise of life and death moving past in scrubs and white coats.
And in the middle of all that brightness and chaos was the place his heart had chosen.
Liu Qianxiu’s lips curved. Sunset softened him. He reached out and gently touched the top of her head.
Their relationship becoming public caused quite a stir in the hospital.
Within minutes, nearly everyone knew: Liu Qianxiu, the Taoist-like doctor from surgery—the man people joked had descended from heaven—had a girlfriend now.
And she was an actress. A little nobody in the entertainment industry. A woman so beautiful she looked like trouble.
Even when Liu Qianxiu got off work, and the two of them walked toward his car together, eyes were still following them.
His hand remained around hers.
When they reached the car, Liu Qianxiu opened the passenger door for her first. Only after Mu Wan got in did he close it and take his place behind the wheel.
Mu Wan sat in the passenger seat, but her gaze was still fixed on the entrance to the emergency building.
Several of the younger nurses were still standing there, glancing over while whispering to one another.
When she and Liu Qianxiu had passed them earlier, the nurses had not noticed they were being overheard and had been gossiping enthusiastically.
One had asked, “She’s an actress, right? Now that they’re public, do you think our Doctor Liu will end up in entertainment news?”
Another had answered, “Definitely not. At her level? She’s basically unsearchable. What entertainment reporter would bother writing a no-traffic story like that?”
A third had chimed in, “Actually, I think this actress is pretty good. I’ve seen her act. She’s really not bad, and she’s gorgeous too. I just don’t get why she’s never become famous.”
The second nurse had said, “Probably because she refused to sleep her way up. If that’s true, then she’s actually got real principles.”
The conversation had gone from gossip to admiring her moral strength with such a sharp turn that Mu Wan had nearly laughed.
She might be a nobody actress, not worth a reporter’s time, but supporting actors moved in their own steady circles.
Sooner or later, Liu Qianxiu would brush against that world too.
And somehow, that led her to think of what Mu Qing had said to her earlier that day—about her being kept.
Mu Wan was not afraid of shadows when she stood straight in the light.
But if Mu Qing had chosen that line of attack, then whether it was baseless or not, it meant there were at least rumors, fragments, and implications.
And Mu Wan wanted Liu Qianxiu to hear it from her first.
“If you ever hear any nonsense about me, don’t believe it,” she said, cutting straight through.
The car had not started yet. Liu Qianxiu turned toward her, reached across to fasten her seatbelt, and asked calmly, “What kind of nonsense?”
“Oh.” Mu Wan wetted her lips and looked at him. “Like people saying I’m being kept, or something…”
Liu Qianxiu’s expression did not change, but Mu Wan quickly added,
“I mean, I’m not actually being kept. It’s just that with actresses, once their resources look even a little better, people immediately start making those kinds of guesses behind their backs…”
Lately, her resources did look better.
From this week into the next, she had work every day, and all of it was the kind of role she actually wanted.
Liu Qianxiu’s lips pressed together slightly.
“I can invest in your productions,” he said.
“Huh?” Mu Wan blinked, then laughed, finding him oddly adorable. “Doctors make good money, sure, but investing in an entire production is still a bit beyond you.”
Then, generously, she added, “You just focus on being a good doctor. If you want a better house and a better car, I’ll earn them for you.”
“How?” Liu Qianxiu asked, seriously.
“I’ll do more acting jobs.” Mu Wan sounded utterly unconcerned. “I’m telling you, I’m just lazy. If I actually get serious, I’m very good at making money. I’ll definitely earn more than you do.”
Her tone was so certain, so earnest, that before she had even finished, Liu Qianxiu leaned over and kissed her.
One kiss.
And all the steel in her dissolved into water.
Her heart softened at once. Mu Wan turned to look at him. Liu Qianxiu’s lips curved faintly as he said,
“All right. You make the money and keep me. I’ll serve you.”
Her ears turned red enough to drip.
Everything inside her went soft.
Still, she held on with sheer stubbornness, looking at him directly and asking,
“And how exactly will you serve me?”
The man looked at her, deep and dark. Then he leaned close again and kissed the edge of her ear.
His voice was low as spring water.
“What do you think?”
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