The Same Name
Mu Wan spent the entire afternoon at Lin Wei’s place.
At five, she left and took a taxi to Tang’er Hospital.
As she stepped out of the elevator, she brushed past someone going in.
At the moment they crossed paths, Mu Wan sensed a gaze on her.
She turned toward the elevator.
The doors were already closing.
All she caught was a pair of large eyes and lips curved slightly upward.
Just those eyes and that one expression gave him a distinctly boyish air.
Mu Wan was distracted for a moment.
He looked familiar.
She searched through her memory for a long while but still could not place him.
They probably had not interacted much.
Otherwise, she would have remembered.
Since he was clearly not someone she knew well, Mu Wan stopped thinking about it and headed toward Liu Qianxiu’s office.
Now that their relationship was public, coming to pick him up felt far more legitimate.
As she walked past the nurses’ station, the young nurses still looked up at her.
This time, Mu Wan looked back.
She smiled.
Then she knocked on Liu Qianxiu’s office door and went inside.
Liu Qianxiu closed the document in his hand and looked up.
Mu Wan glanced across his desk.
“Ready to leave?”
“Mm.”
He set the documents neatly aside and stood.
Then he walked toward the window.
The orchid was in full bloom, especially vivid beneath the setting sun.
Liu Qianxiu stopped beside the coat rack.
His long fingers caught the white coat glowing almost translucent in the sunlight as he began to take it off.
He stood partly sideways.
His profile was sharply defined.
His long lashes had turned gold in the sunset, casting faint shadows beneath his eyes.
Mu Wan watched him quietly.
Before Liu Qianxiu could finish taking off the coat, she got up and walked over.
He paused.
His eyes turned toward her.
Mu Wan stopped directly in front of him.
Sunset shone into her eyes.
For a moment, both of them seemed gilded in gold.
Even the air felt warm.
He was much taller than she was.
Mu Wan raised both arms and went slightly onto her toes.
Her hands caught his white coat.
The fabric felt thin beneath her fingers.
Looking into his quiet eyes, she slowly slipped the coat from his shoulders.
Underneath, Liu Qianxiu wore a pale beige shirt.
The cotton-linen fabric looked soft and refined.
His neck was long.
One button at the collar was undone, revealing the clean line of his collarbone.
With his head lowered, the hollow there formed a beautiful curve.
Mu Wan’s gaze lingered.
She tilted her head.
Her thick black hair fell to one side.
Beneath it, her frame looked slender, her shoulders narrow and pale.
Something flickered in her eyes.
She raised her face and met Liu Qianxiu’s gaze.
His expression remained calm.
He looked at her deeply.
A gleam entered Mu Wan’s eyes.
Then she lifted one hand.
She had only just come in from outside.
Her body was still warm.
So were her fingertips.
One slender finger touched the hollow of Liu Qianxiu’s collarbone.
Like the tail of a fish brushing lightly over the surface of a lake.
A ripple spread afterward.
Much like the change in his dark eyes.
“Pretty.”
Mu Wan traced the line of his collarbone with her index finger.
Her touch was so light that Liu Qianxiu could almost feel the fine ridges of her fingerprint.
Before she could trace it again, he caught her wandering hand.
Mu Wan looked up with a mischievous smile.
Then Liu Qianxiu led her farther into the office.
With a sharp rustle, the privacy curtain was drawn.
Mu Wan found herself sitting on the hospital bed.
She looked up at Liu Qianxiu and smiled.
Pleased.
Sly.
Tempting.
Almost wicked.
Liu Qianxiu bent down.
His hands braced on either side of her.
Their eyes came level.
Then he kissed her.
The curtain swayed softly, hiding the intimacy between them.
Mu Wan returned his kiss.
At the edge of her vision, sunlight by the window shattered into fragments.
Her composure did not last long.
Inside the narrow space, the air seemed to grow hotter by the second.
Mu Wan’s confident response gradually became uncertain.
Liu Qianxiu’s kiss grew more forceful.
The tenderness broke apart.
What remained was naked desire.
As danger pressed closer, Mu Wan turned her face away.
His lips landed on her earlobe.
Her body shivered.
Her breathing had already become uneven.
At some point, she had ended up lying back on the bed.
Mu Wan looked up at Liu Qianxiu.
His arms were still braced beside her.
His expression had not changed.
But Mu Wan could feel that something else had.
Her eyes flickered nervously.
She instinctively glanced toward the door.
The white curtain blocked everything.
Mu Wan looked back at him.
Her voice was hoarse.
“Liu Qianxiu, what are you doing?”
He lowered his eyes toward her.
His gaze seemed as vast and unknowable as the universe.
“Afraid?”
His voice was slightly hoarse too.
But his tone remained steady.
He held complete control.
She had been the one to start the fire.
Naturally, she refused to admit defeat now.
Mu Wan’s throat was dry.
Her gaze wandered.
At last, she found an excuse.
“I’m not afraid.”
She added stubbornly,
“I’m shamelessly bold.”
Then she continued,
“But this is where you work. We can’t go too far.”
Her lips curved.
“I have to protect your dignity.”
Her voice was much too sweet for the excuse to sound convincing.
Still, she forced herself to meet Liu Qianxiu’s eyes.
She watched the darkness in them gradually recede.
In the end, warmth and amusement filled them instead.
For one reckless moment, Mu Wan genuinely wanted to do it right there.
Liu Qianxiu, however, straightened.
He pulled her upright from the bed.
Without releasing her hand, he helped her down.
Then his palm brushed her cheek.
“Let’s go home.”
Mu Wan’s face burned.
His palm was dry and cool.
Even after her feet touched the floor, she had not recovered from the tenderness in his eyes.
She felt almost light-headed.
What had she said before?
She was not the dangerous spirit.
Liu Qianxiu was.
Or perhaps he was an immortal who had once been a demon himself.
Either way, his cultivation was far deeper than hers.
Back home, Liu Qianxiu took the ingredients into the kitchen.
Mu Wan went to the cat room and fed Zhouyi and the three kittens.
Afterward, she stayed there to play with them.
Before long, her phone began vibrating.
Mu Wan checked it.
Gao Mei had sent her a string of WeChat messages.
The phone kept buzzing in her hand.
More than a dozen unread messages.
All from Gao Mei.
Mu Wan opened them.
Almost everything was photos and short exclamations.
Gao Beauty: Look! Little Brother Li Cheng!
Gao Beauty: I never dreamed I’d end up in the same production as him!
Gao Beauty: How can Little Brother be this adorable?!
Gao Beauty: Those huge eyes, that tiny mouth, that milky-white skin, those long legs! Ahhhhh, I’m losing my mind!
Gao Beauty: How can there be a boy this beautiful in the world?! He isn’t human. He’s an elf!
Gao Beauty: Sob sob sob!
Mu Wan stared at the screen.
“…”
She laughed helplessly.
Gao Mei was an actress herself.
At the same time, she proudly considered herself a fangirl.
She liked younger men and almost exclusively followed the sweet, puppy-like type of male celebrity.
At first, she had been rather fickle.
But after Li Cheng stood out on an idol competition program, Gao Mei had become a devoted solo fan.
Fan support.
Birthday events.
She never missed one.
She called him Little Brother Li Cheng every day and even used her own Weibo account to vote and promote him.
Li Cheng had debuted through the competition last year.
This year, he had exploded in popularity and become a nationally popular idol.
Besides singing and dancing with his group, he had begun acting.
The drama he was filming with Gao Mei was a modern campus series.
He played the second male lead.
A sweet, obedient younger-boy type.
The complete opposite of the school-bully male lead.
Mu Wan looked through several behind-the-scenes photos Gao Mei had sent.
Li Cheng really was handsome.
And young.
Only twenty.
Everything about him radiated youth.
Especially those large eyes.
He looked so harmless that he instinctively inspired an older-sister, even aunt-like urge to protect him.
Mu Wan, however, was immune to that type.
Lin Wei’s younger brother, Lin Zifan, was exactly the same kind of boy.
He was even younger.
Eighteen this year.
Just starting university.
Mu Wan had known Lin Wei long enough to watch Lin Zifan grow from an annoying little brat into a young man.
So boys like that inspired absolutely no improper thoughts in her.
Mu Wan: Crying isn’t useful. Work hard, make money, and keep him!
A reply arrived soon afterward.
Gao Mei had apparently calmed down.
Gao Beauty: Since when did you start talking like some filthy-rich tycoon? You think I can afford to keep him?
Mu Wan burst out laughing.
But Gao Mei had a point.
With Li Cheng’s current explosive popularity, even a single sponsored Weibo post could cost an absurd amount.
She certainly could not afford to keep him.
Thinking about it, Mu Wan suddenly felt grateful that Daoist Liu had never entered the entertainment industry.
Her finger continued sliding through Gao Mei’s photos.
Li Cheng’s large eyes slowly overlapped with another pair of large eyes in Mu Wan’s memory.
Then realization struck.
Mu Wan frowned.
She immediately got up from the floor.
She knew who the man she had passed outside the elevator was.
Mei Yaozhi.
No wonder she had not remembered him immediately.
Mu Wan had only met Mei Yaozhi once.
It had been at a yacht party.
At the time, the actresses there had practically fixed all their attention and conversation on him.
Mu Wan could hardly have avoided noticing.
But she had only glanced at him once before going to drink on Mi Yu’s behalf.
Mu Wan went into the kitchen.
Liu Qianxiu was cutting vegetables.
His back was tall and lean.
Sunlight spilled across him, outlining him in gold.
Mu Wan walked over and stopped beside him.
“Do you know Mei Yaozhi?”
The knife paused.
Liu Qianxiu looked back.
His dark eyes were perfectly calm.
Before he could answer, Mu Wan touched her chin thoughtfully.
“I ran into him when I got out of the elevator today.”
She continued,
“He was probably there to see someone.”
Then she raised her eyes.
Caution and curiosity entered her expression.
“Was he there to see you?”
Liu Qianxiu looked at her quietly.
After a moment, he returned his attention to the cutting board.
“No.”
“Oh.”
Mu Wan did not seem surprised.
She watched pale lotus-root slices appear beneath the blade.
“That makes sense.”
Then she said casually,
“If he really had come to see you, I’d start wondering whether you were Young Master Liu from the Four Young Masters of Xia City.”
She smiled.
“You even have exactly the same name.”
“What if I were?”
Liu Qianxiu transferred the lotus-root slices to a plate.
Then he turned on the faucet and washed his hands.
His tone was almost careless.
Mu Wan smiled brightly.
“Then it would be your turn to keep me.”
Liu Qianxiu dried his hands with a paper towel.
Then he reached over and stroked her hair.
His palm was slightly cool.
“All right.”
Mu Wan burst out laughing.
— To be continued in Part 2 —
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