A Heart That Won’t Disappear
It snowed silently through the entire night.
After the long journey and far too much happiness the night before, Mu Wan was still drowsy when she woke.
Her body was curled beneath the goose-down quilt. She opened her eyes and looked carefully outside.
Everything had turned white.
Liu Qianxiu was already awake.
The bedroom was spacious. A fire burned in the fireplace, and beside it stood a European-style sofa and coffee table over an intricately patterned rug.
He was not sitting on the sofa.
Instead, he sat beside the floor-to-ceiling window a short distance away.
A rug had been laid there, with a low table and two meditation cushions placed on top of it.
Liu Qianxiu wore a pale blue-green robe and sat there doing his morning cultivation.
Beyond the window lay thick snow.
The mountain forest had been almost entirely covered in white, with only occasional patches of green showing through.
The man sat quietly before the snowy landscape, his expression serene, his eyes slightly closed, his features calm and distant.
He looked like a figure from an old ink painting, carrying a sense of tranquility that stretched endlessly into the distance.
Liu Qianxiu was slightly below Mu Wan’s line of sight.
She shifted beneath the quilt, trying to see him more clearly.
Her small body moved beneath the snow-white goose-down blanket.
It was only the slightest movement.
Yet Liu Qianxiu’s eyelashes trembled.
He opened his eyes.
His dark gaze was clear and lucid.
He turned slightly toward the bed and met the smiling curve of her eyes.
“Awake?”
Liu Qianxiu unfolded his crossed legs and rose from the floor.
He was tall, and once standing, his figure looked straight and slender, like a pine growing from a cliffside.
“Mm.”
Mu Wan watched him approach.
She lay flat and looked up at him.
“The snow is so heavy.”
Liu Qianxiu climbed onto the bed.
Through the goose-down quilt, he gathered her into his arms and kissed her hair.
Their bodies rested together as they looked outside at the snow.
Incense burned in the room, but to Mu Wan, it did not smell nearly as good as Liu Qianxiu himself.
Beneath the sandalwood fragrance on his body was a cool, distinctly masculine scent.
Clean and restrained, yet somehow sensual at the same time.
Neither of them had anything to do.
They had woken early and were not hungry yet.
So they simply stayed in bed and watched the snow.
Liu Qianxiu was perfectly suited to quiet activities like this.
Mu Wan, however, could never stay still for long.
She turned around.
Liu Qianxiu lifted his gaze.
Mu Wan leaned over and kissed him directly on the lips.
The instant she finished, she spun around again as quickly as possible.
She buried her face and laughed quietly to herself.
Behind her, Liu Qianxiu reacted.
He caught her shoulder.
Instead of turning her around, he leaned slightly over her.
His breath drew closer.
Mu Wan’s heart jumped.
Then his teeth caught her earlobe.
Not too hard.
Not too gently.
His teeth brushed against the delicate, sensitive skin.
Half of Mu Wan’s body immediately went numb.
“Ah!”
She hurriedly tried to escape.
Before she could get far, Liu Qianxiu trapped her against him.
Mu Wan burst into laughter.
He kissed the back of her neck.
The moment his warm, soft lips touched her skin, Mu Wan’s gaze shifted.
A low sound escaped her throat.
“What are you trying to do?”
Liu Qianxiu turned her around.
Their eyes met.
His gaze was clear and calm.
“You were the one who provoked me first.”
Mu Wan accepted the accusation.
She laughed and looked at him.
Liu Qianxiu was simply too handsome.
She could never resist teasing him.
“So what if I provoke you? Am I not allowed to—”
He quietly listened to her unreasonable argument.
Before she could finish, he cupped her face with both hands and kissed her lips.
It was a soft kiss.
The rest of her words dissolved into quiet sounds against him.
For a moment, Mu Wan’s dark eyes turned hazy.
She could never handle it when he suddenly flirted with her like this.
She watched as he gently tucked her hair behind her ear.
The tenderness in his eyes seemed endless.
“You are,” he answered.
Mu Wan’s gaze blurred again.
Every time he did this, she felt like a torch drenched in honey—
and then set alight by him.
She smiled and buried her face in his chest.
In a small voice, she said,
“Liu Qianxiu, I’m hungry.”
They got out of bed.
Liu Qianxiu went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
Mu Wan explored the villa for a while, but soon grew bored.
So she wrapped herself in a down jacket and scarf and went outside.
The snowfall had been heavy.
But now it had stopped.
The sun had even come out.
The vast expanse of white snow reflected the sunlight, illuminating the entire world.
Mu Wan stepped down from the front steps.
Her snow boots sank into the snow until it covered her heels.
The snow was about four or five centimeters deep.
Not too deep.
Not too shallow.
Perfect for walking.
No one had passed in front of the villa yet, so the snow remained completely smooth and untouched.
Mu Wan clasped her hands behind her back and waddled across it like a little penguin, leaving a trail of footprints behind her.
She circled the villa once, almost as though she were drawing a boundary around the entire house.
By the time she finished, her body had warmed.
Mu Wan walked toward the kitchen window.
Inside, Liu Qianxiu was frying eggs.
He wore a dark navy sweater.
His tall, slender figure stood quietly by the stove as he flipped an egg with practiced ease, his expression calm and detached.
Mu Wan stood outside the window and knocked lightly on the glass.
He looked up.
The moment he saw her, his dark eyes gradually softened.
Mu Wan smiled.
She looked at him through the glass.
Her own face was reflected on its surface as well.
For a moment, both of them appeared together in the window.
After looking at him for a while, Mu Wan pulled down her scarf.
Her nose was red from the cold.
So were her lips.
She pressed both hands against the glass and breathed onto it.
A patch of white mist immediately spread across the surface.
Mu Wan straightened.
Then she used one finger to draw a heart.
It was a game she used to play with her mother when she was little.
On snowy winter mornings, before leaving for school, she would always knock on the window and leave her mother a heart.
Now Mu Wan wore a dark down jacket.
Her long black curls were pressed beneath a knitted hat.
Her lips were red.
The tip of her nose was slightly red too.
She leaned against the window like a tiny hamster, smiling from inside the heart she had drawn.
But the cold quickly erased the fog from the glass.
The heart disappeared.
Mu Wan’s brows lowered.
She hurriedly breathed onto the window again.
Then she redrew the heart.
But when she looked inside afterward, Liu Qianxiu was gone.
“Huh?”
Mu Wan stared through the window, searching for him.
Before she could find him, she heard the front door open.
Liu Qianxiu came around from the entrance.
He carried a small bucket and a paintbrush.
Mu Wan had no idea what they were for.
She looked up at him, just about to speak.
Before she could, Liu Qianxiu bent down and set the items aside.
Then he caught the scarf hanging in front of her and wrapped it securely around her face again.
“Cold?”
She had exposed her face while breathing on the glass.
Even the tip of her nose had turned red.
The scarf enclosed her cheeks.
The warmth of her own breath gradually heated her face again.
Mu Wan blinked.
Her long curled eyelashes almost seemed frosted.
She shook her head.
Then she pointed at the window.
“The heart I gave you disappeared.”
Liu Qianxiu followed the direction of her finger.
On the clean glass, only a faint trace remained where her fingertip had passed through the mist.
He lowered his eyes.
Then he crouched down and opened the small bucket.
Mu Wan could not see properly from where she stood, so she bent down too.
Inside was red paint.
She watched Liu Qianxiu dip the brush into it.
Then her gaze followed as he raised it toward the glass.
Following the faint marks Mu Wan had left behind, he painted the heart again in bright red.
The brush moved across the glass.
Mu Wan’s reflected face was once again enclosed inside the red heart.
She stared at it.
Then she turned toward Liu Qianxiu with a smile.
He set the brush aside, picked up the bucket, and took her hand.
As he led her back toward the villa, he said,
“Now it won’t disappear.”
Her entire morning suddenly overflowed with sweetness.
Mu Wan hugged him around the waist from behind.
Liu Qianxiu let her.
She rubbed her cheek against his back and whispered sweet words to him.
He walked ahead of her.
Snowlight reflected in his dark eyes.
So did tenderness.
The kitchen in the villa was similar to the one in Liu Qianxiu’s Nanfeng apartment.
Both had island layouts, with a dining table in the center.
Mu Wan sat on a high stool positioned directly across from the red heart painted on the window.
She ate while staring at it and smiling foolishly.
Liu Qianxiu handed her a glass of freshly warmed milk.
Mu Wan accepted it.
Her appetite was excellent.
She drank more than half the glass.
Then she looked back at him.
“Let’s go into town later.”
Since they had come all this way to travel, there was no point staying inside all day.
They had already seen the snow.
Now they could visit the nearby town and experience the local culture.
“All right.”
Liu Qianxiu agreed.
— To be continued in Part 2 —
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