Chapter 38 (1/2)
When Mu Wan left Lin Wei’s place at five, she took a taxi straight to Tong’er Hospital.
As she stepped out of the elevator, she brushed past someone. In that fleeting instant, she felt a gaze on her. Mu Wan turned and looked back into the elevator.
The doors slid shut. All Mu Wan caught was a pair of large eyes and the slight lift of a smile.
Just that much was enough to sketch out a youthful air.
For a moment, she felt the face was familiar. She searched her memory, but nothing came to mind. They must not have known each other well, or she would not have failed to place him. Since they clearly had little connection, she let the thought go and headed for Liu Qianxiu’s office.
Now that the two of them were officially together, coming to pick him up felt all the more justified. As Mu Wan walked past the nurses’ station, the younger nurses still looked up at her. Mu Wan returned the glance with an easy smile, knocked on the office door, and pushed it open.
Liu Qianxiu closed the file in his hands and looked up. Mu Wan swept her gaze across the desk and asked, “Are you off work?”
“Yes.” He set the papers aside and rose, going to the window.
The orchid on the sill was blooming beautifully, all the more vivid in the evening light. Liu Qianxiu stood beside the coat rack, fingers closing around the white coat that had gone translucent under the sun, about to take it off.
He was turned slightly to one side, the line of his face deep and sculpted. His dark lashes had caught the gold of the sunset, casting a shadow beneath his eyes.
Mu Wan watched him quietly. Before he could take it off himself, she got up and walked over.
His movement paused. He turned to look at Mu Wan.
She stood before him, the sunset reflected in her eyes. Both of them seemed plated in warm gold. Even the air felt soft and intimate.
Because he was so much taller, Mu Wan had to lift her arms and rise onto her toes. She caught hold of his white coat. The fabric was thin and smooth beneath her fingers. Looking up into his calm eyes, she slipped the coat from his shoulders.
Her face was tipped upward, lips gently closed. In the sunlight, her skin looked fine and pale, dusted with the faintest down, with a trace of pink at her cheeks.
Once the coat was off, the pale beige shirt beneath it came into view. The linen-cotton fabric was soft and well-made. Liu Qianxiu’s neck was long; the top button at his collar was undone, exposing the clean line of his collarbone. With his head slightly bowed, that hollow at the base of his throat looked almost indecently graceful.
Mu Wan’s gaze settled there.
Tilting her head, her dark hair spilling to one side, she revealed the slender whiteness of her shoulder beneath it.
A flicker moved through her eyes. She lifted a hand.
She had just come in from the heat and was still warm, her fingertips warm too. When her finger touched the hollow of Liu Qianxiu’s collarbone, it was like the tail of a fish sweeping once across still water.
Ripples spread.
So did the darkness in his eyes.
“Pretty,” Mu Wan said.
Her index finger rested on his collarbone, then traced its shape slowly. The touch was fine and light. Liu Qianxiu could almost feel the lines of her fingertip.
Just as she was about to circle it once more, he caught her wandering hand.
Mu Wan looked up and smiled, then let him lead her behind the curtain. The bed curtain rasped softly as he drew it closed.
Sitting on the narrow examination bed, Mu Wan tilted her face up at him, smiling—pleased with herself, sly, seductive, radiant.
He bent toward her, bracing both hands at her sides, bringing his face level with hers, and kissed her.
The curtain swayed, screening off the intimacy and heat between them.
Mu Wan answered his kiss. Out of the corner of her eye, the sunlight by the window had broken into scattered fragments.
Her easy confidence did not last long.
In the cramped space, the air seemed to grow hotter and hotter. The way she returned his kiss became gradually more uncertain. His assault was fierce now, the softness gone, leaving only naked desire. When danger drew close, Mu Wan turned her face slightly to one side. In the end, his lips came to rest against her earlobe.
Her body trembled.
Breathing unevenly, she was already half reclined on the bed. She looked up at Liu Qianxiu. His arms were braced on either side of her, his expression unchanged—but she could feel, very clearly, what had changed in him elsewhere.
A hint of panic flashed through her eyes. She looked instinctively toward the door.
But all she could see was the white curtain.
Drawing her gaze back, her voice came out husky. “Liu Qianxiu, what are you trying to do?”
He looked down at her, his eyes fathomless, as if they held an entire universe.
“Are you scared?” he asked mildly.
She had been the one to start the fire, so naturally, she refused to back down.
Mu Wan’s throat felt dry. Her eyes darted, then at last she found the excuse she wanted and said, “I’m not scared. I’m bold enough for anything. But this is your workplace. We can’t go too far here. I still have to protect your reputation.”
Her soft, sweet voice greatly weakened the credibility of her argument.
She forced herself to meet his eyes and watched the darkness in them recede, until what remained was only a gentle, almost amused tenderness.
For one reckless instant, Mu Wan nearly wanted to do it right there after all.
But Liu Qianxiu straightened.
He pulled her up from the bed, set her back on her feet, kept hold of her hand, and drew her down from the curtained space. Touching her face lightly, he said, “Let’s go home.”
Her face burned beneath his cool, dry palm.
She walked, but she had not fully recovered from the gentleness in that gesture; her steps felt light and unsteady.
What had she said before?
That she was not the demon here—Liu Qianxiu was.
Or perhaps he was an immortal, but one who had cultivated his way up from being a demon, and whose discipline ran far deeper than hers ever could.
When they got home, Liu Qianxiu took the groceries into the kitchen, while Mu Wan went to the kitten room and fed the three little ones and Zhou Yi. When she was done, she sat with the cats for a while. Then her phone vibrated.
She took it out. The vibration did not stop. More than a dozen unread messages—all from Gao Mei.
The chat was full of pictures and short exclamations.
Gao Meiren: Look! Li Cheng, little brother!
Gao Meiren: I never dreamed I’d end up in the same production as him!
Gao Meiren: How can he be this cute?!
Gao Meiren: Those big eyes, that tiny mouth, that creamy skin, those long legs—ahhh, I’m losing it!
Gao Meiren: How does someone this pretty even exist? He’s not human, he’s an elf!
Gao Meiren: Sobs dramatically
Mu Wan: “...”
She laughed helplessly at the stream of text.
Gao Mei was an actress herself, but she also proudly called herself a fangirl. She liked younger men and always chased that soft, puppy-like idol type. She had once been promiscuous in her affections, but ever since Li Cheng rose out of an idol survival show, she had become his diehard loyalist. Support campaigns, birthday events, fan votes—she missed none of them. Every day, she called him “little brother” and used her own account to hype him up.
Li Cheng debuted last year and exploded this year, and is now one of the hottest rising traffic stars in the country. Besides singing and dancing with his group, he had also started acting. The production Gao Mei was filming now was a modern campus drama in which he played the second male lead: a sweet, obedient puppy-boy, the complete opposite of the domineering bad-boy male lead.
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