Crossing the Line – Chapter 15

Fingertips to the Back of the Neck

March sixth was an unusually sunny day.

The blazing sunset gradually stained the glass curtain wall of the Yilan Hotel’s West Restaurant red. The light sliced through the display stand for the “Oriental Aesthetics Art Salon” like a blade, cleaving it in two.

            

Song Ti sat on an avocado-green sofa, meticulously groomed from head to toe. She wore a new designer dress from the latest season, her ears adorned with a pair of three-carat diamond earrings—a birthday gift she’d bought herself, worn for the first time today.

Her elegance was deliberate, the kind anyone could see at a glance. Even among the wealthy gathering, she stood out as the most eye-catching presence.

A short-haired woman approached, hoping to discuss modern art with her, but Song Ti dismissed her coldly after a few words.

            

Noticing her restlessness, Xie Shuyi walked over with a Burgundy wine glass in hand and sat beside her.

“I had them call Jiang Siyi over.”

Song Ti shrugged one shoulder.

            

“No need. I’m not here specifically for her.”

Despite her words, her gaze had been fixed on the entrance since she arrived. Whenever a staff member in uniform appeared, her eyes would flicker toward them, and when she looked away, her disappointment was hard to miss.

Xie Shuyi saw through her act. She smiled and pointed to the painting in the display case.

            

“Of course. We’re here to unwind. Stella, I remember you haven’t participated in an auction before, right? Why don’t you join me next time? Give it a try. It’s a lot of fun. Especially when someone competes with you—you bid, they bid, and you bid again to beat them. The thrill of snatching away your rival’s most coveted treasure… how should I put it?”

Xie Shuyi patted the back of Song Ti’s hand, which rested on the sofa. “It’s the joy of stealing someone’s love.”

Xie Shuyi’s words and touch annoyed Song Ti.

            

She instinctively disliked Xie Shuyi’s description of the auction mentality.

As for why she disliked it, she didn’t have the energy to analyze herself right now.

On the other side of the salon, in a corner.

            

Oliver walked through the crowd to Wan Xin’s side. Gazing at the landmark skyscraper across the street, he slowly and elegantly swirled his champagne flute.

“The event’s going well, but the wine could be better. I really helped you out this time, Wan Xin. You need to steady yourself, be more sensible. You’re almost thirty; you can’t keep relying on me. You need to grow up, mature. Not that I’m your father, but even if I were, I couldn’t always be by your side to clean up your messes.”

Wan Xin’s lips twitched, and she managed a hoarse “yes.”

            

She had been frantic these past few days, a cold sore blooming on her lip. She couldn’t ask Manager Wu for the salon’s budget, as that would expose her role in sabotaging Siyi’s venue. Wan Xin had wanted the Calligraphy and Painting Department to cover the costs, since the company could reimburse them. But Oliver, that old fox, wouldn’t leave any evidence for someone to use against him later. Whenever she brought up the budget, he either played dumb or disappeared, his excuses growing more creative each time. Even Wan Xin, slow as she was, had seen through his shamelessness.

This salon—from the venue rental to the decorations, the wine, the lecturers, and the transportation—had all come out of Wan Xin’s own pocket. Or, more accurately, from her parents.

Oliver, on the other hand, had not only turned the salon into a joint effort between the Calligraphy and Painting Department and the Gold, Stone, and Jade Department, but he’d also stolen the spotlight, acting as if he were the host.

            

And now, his words were implying that Wan Xin, who had put up the money and done all the work, owed everything to him.

Wan Xin felt the cold sore on her lip throb with pain.

Oliver raised his thick eyebrows and let out a dramatic sigh. “I wonder where Jiang Siyi is hiding, wiping her tears. What would she think if she saw us holding the salon she worked so hard to prepare, in the place she dreamed of, while she failed?”

            

He laughed to himself for a moment, then pointed at the four highly stylized characters for “Yunding Hotel” on the towering landmark building across the street.

“This venue and the collectors we managed to invite aren’t quite up to par, but that’s understandable given the time crunch. Next time, I’ll set a bigger goal for you. Plan a truly top-tier salon. I’ll talk to CEO Gu myself and try to secure the Huixiang Space at the Yunding Hotel.”

Wan Xin sneered inwardly.

            

He’s actually thinking about the Huixiang Space. He’s got some nerve.

The Yunding Hotel was J City’s most luxurious hotel. The Huixiang Space, an art exhibition hall connected to the West Restaurant, was one of the hotel’s signature features. When major art exhibitions came to J City, it was their first choice. Not only was the price astronomical—the auction house would almost certainly never approve such a budget—but its schedule was also incredibly tight. You had to book one to two months in advance just to have a chance.

Both of them were lost in their own complaints and calculations when their attention was suddenly drawn to a vaguely familiar figure in the Yunding Hotel across the street. Their gazes converged on the same point.

            

The two buildings weren’t that far apart, but they were still close enough to make out a human shape with the naked eye.

The champagne glass Oliver had been swirling for a while stopped moving. His eyes were fixed on the figure.

“Am I seeing things? Doesn’t that person look like Jiang Siyi?”

            

Wan Xin was momentarily speechless. She squinted, trying to get a better look.

It did look like her.

But how was that possible?

            

As an auctioneer who dealt with art every day, she naturally had a good magnification app on her phone.

Oliver immediately opened the app and zoomed in on the figure. His usually nimble fingers gradually stiffened.

Wan Xin asked urgently, “Is it her?”

            

Oliver felt like he had a fishbone stuck in his throat.

It was indeed Jiang Siyi. It was Jiang Siyi in her Jiashibi uniform.

If it were just Jiang Siyi appearing at the Yunding Hotel, that alone wouldn’t have given Oliver and Wan Xin any sense of crisis. But the current situation made them both feel that something was wrong.

            

The Yilan Hotel’s West Restaurant, where they were, was located on the mid-to-upper floors of the building. Judging from the slightly upward angle, Jiang Siyi was in the Huixiang Space.

Jiang Siyi, whose venue had been stolen, was now appearing in another space capable of hosting a salon. The implication was obvious.

The same realization sent a wave of panic through both of them.

            

Wan Xin’s lips trembled. “She… is she holding a salon in the Huixiang Space?”

“Impossible,” Oliver said. “Do you know how expensive that place is? Not only would the budget never be approved, but even if she sold everything she owned and paid out of her own pocket, there’s no way she could have rented it in such a short time.”

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Song Ti normally wouldn’t drink wine of this quality.

            

Today, she was definitely drinking out of boredom, glass after glass.

By the sixth glass, Jiang Siyi still hadn’t come. She was sure Jiang Siyi wasn’t coming.

No longer willing to endure the tedious salon, Song Ti picked up her handbag and stood up.

            

“Where are you going? Leaving already?” Xie Shuyi asked.

Song Ti was already at the door. “My time shouldn’t be wasted in a place like this.”

Watching Song Ti’s retreating figure, Xie Shuyi thought that Song Ti herself probably hadn’t noticed how she’d stopped trying to hide her sharp edges lately.

            

With Song Ti gone, Xie Shuyi found the place boring too. Without salespeople and fitting models to order around, everyone was just pretending to discuss tedious art. It made her eyelids droop.

She might as well leave too and find some fun at the club.

Just as she was about to ask a server to bring her coat, she overheard a familiar name in a daze: Lin Ji.

            

Someone was talking about Lin Ji. Something about her being across the street, something about another salon.

The footsteps of people leaving were excited and hurried. Xie Shuyi then noticed that the room had become much emptier.

At least a third of the people were gone.

            

At the same time, Xie Shuyi noticed a crowd gathered in front of the largest glass curtain wall.

Logically, although the view was open, there wasn’t much to see. The people who could come to this salon weren’t so lacking in experience. They weren’t crowding together to look at the scenery.

Curious, Xie Shuyi walked to the edge of the crowd.

            

As soon as she got there, she heard Oliver growling at Wan Xin, “Jiang Siyi can rent it, why can’t you!”

Jiang Siyi?

Xie Shuyi followed everyone’s gaze into the distance, and suddenly her eyes froze.

            

In the building across the street, Jiang Siyi was whispering with a woman, their heads close together.

The two of them blurred into an intimate silhouette, and Xie Shuyi’s eyes widened instantly.

Jiang Siyi and… Lin Ji?

            

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A few minutes earlier.

Someone walked up behind Jiang Siyi, who was standing in the Huixiang Space.

Lin Ji was dressed in her usual style, one that didn’t try to please anyone—simple, cool, and aloof. In the climate-controlled room, her unique and powerful cold fragrance mingled with the scents of bergamot aromatherapy and pastries, softening her otherwise unapproachable aura.

            

“Lin Ji-jie…”

Jiang Siyi’s face was flushed from the alcohol. She looked up at Lin Ji slightly.

Wherever Lin Ji went, she drew the eager gazes of those around her, and Jiang Siyi could clearly feel the spotlight shift to her.

            

“You’ve been drinking?”

As the host of the salon, Jiang Siyi had to network between collectors and lecturers, so of course, she couldn’t avoid social drinking. Before she knew it, she was on her fourth glass. Lin Ji had been counting from across the crowd, not missing a single one, even though she already knew.

“Mm… can’t be helped. It’s part of the job.”

            

Jiang Siyi smiled faintly, already a little tipsy.

The most obvious sign was that the fear she’d shown in their previous encounters was nowhere to be seen.

And because the salon had been so well-received by the collectors, she was in a great mood. Fueled by the alcohol, she even dared to get close to Lin Ji, putting up a brave front.

            

“I have a high tolerance. I won’t get drunk.”

The height difference meant that when she leaned in to speak, her lips were right at the level of Lin Ji’s neck. Her soft, nude-lipstick-colored lips parted and closed, her breath flowing across the skin of Lin Ji’s neck, stirring a shiver that only Lin Ji herself knew.

Lin Ji looked down at Jiang Siyi in silence.

            

Jiang Siyi didn’t seem to notice the subtext in her silent gaze. She was still smiling.

She was clearly in a great mood.

“You-jie!”

            

A cheerful call broke the intimate atmosphere between them.

Yan Yu, wearing a custom black velvet one-shoulder gown that had just been shipped from overseas, quickly descended the spiral staircase. This year’s trend of maximalism was on full display in her outfit. Jewelry, crystal embroidery, and a pigeon-blood-red ruby on her earlobe were piled on without restraint. She had clearly gotten over the pain of her breakup, looking like a beautiful and excited peacock re-entering the mating season, positively glowing.

Yan Yu’s eyes sparkled with laughter as her gaze darted rapidly between Lin Ji and Jiang Siyi.

            

“I was wondering where you were. So you’re here with Miss Jiang… Am I interrupting?”

Lin Ji looked at Yan Yu, her eyes seeming to say, You’re pretty self-aware.

Yan Yu had only met Jiang Siyi a few times before, so they didn’t really know each other. Today, she finally had a chance to chat. Ignoring Lin Ji’s look, she said to Jiang Siyi, “Miss Jiang, are you satisfied with the exhibition layout?”

            

The Yunding Hotel was a Yan family property. More specifically, it was a brand created by Yan Yu’s parents to celebrate her coming of age when she turned eighteen.

As the nominal manager, Yan Yu had already promised Lin Ji that she could reserve the autumn season at the hotel’s Chinese restaurant. A few days ago, Lin Ji had made a rare request, saying she wanted to borrow the Huixiang Space.

After asking her assistant, Yan Yu learned that the Huixiang Space was originally scheduled to host a jewelry exhibition by an independent designer today.

            

Yan Yu asked Lin Ji what she needed it for. Lin Ji’s answer was short: “Jiang Siyi needs it.”

The three words “Jiang Siyi” were no longer ordinary words. They were the three words that had inexplicably made Lin Ji, that iron tree, blossom. They were also the keywords that had Yan Yu eating up all the gossip lately.

Yan Yu was more excited than if she were the one in love. She immediately bought out all the independent designer’s works, allowing her to finish her J City exhibition plan ahead of schedule and beyond expectations, skipping the city and happily moving on to Tokyo.

            

The space was decorated by Yan Yu’s staff working overtime, strictly following Jiang Siyi’s requirements.

It was only when she arrived at the scene that Jiang Siyi understood that the “small place a friend of mine has, you can go see if it works as a backup” that Lin Ji had mentioned was actually the Huixiang Space.

It was a complete surprise.

            

When she had first started planning the salon and chose the Yilan Hotel’s West Restaurant, she had thought it met all the requirements.

But it wasn’t the best.

If the budget had allowed, there would have been better options than the Yilan.

            

The “better option” she had in mind at the time was the Yunding Hotel’s Huixiang Space.

After the Yilan broke the contract, she had been running around exhausted trying to find a new location. She never imagined that not only would she not have to settle for second best, but she could also have her ideal venue and make this salon even more perfect than she had envisioned.

A smile bloomed on Jiang Siyi’s lips, and a shallow dimple appeared on the side of her jade-white cheek.

            

“I’m very satisfied. I really have to thank you this time, Miss Yan.”

“No need to be so polite with me. Since You-jie asked, I’d go through fire and water to get it done for her.” Yan Yu lowered her voice mysteriously. “Let me tell you one more thing for free, Miss Jiang. This is the first time You-jie has asked me to do something for someone else’s sake…”

“Yan Yu.”

            

Before Yan Yu could finish, Lin Ji interrupted her.

Lin Ji lightly shook her phone. “Your mom is asking me where you are. I can hear ‘Autumn Whispers’ in the background.”

The background music in the Yunding Hotel lobby today was “Autumn Whispers.”

            

Yan Yu’s expression changed. “Then isn’t she right downstairs?”

After breaking up with her ex-girlfriend, her mother had unfrozen her credit card and had been pressuring her to go on blind dates. Yan Yu had been playing cat and mouse with her for a while, and today, the news had definitely leaked.

Yan Yu immediately said goodbye to Jiang Siyi and Lin Ji.

            

She didn’t want to run into her mother here.

As she picked up her heavy skirt, Yan Yu said, “Come over for a family dinner when you’re free. I should be in the country all month. Have You-jie bring you. I’m off now, Miss Jiang. See you—”

With that, the rapid, continuous clicking of her high heels on the floor faded into the distance. It was a perfect escape.

            

Only the two of them were left.

This time, Lin Ji spoke first.

“You is my childhood name.”

            

“Mm, I know. Before…”

Jiang Siyi had been about to say, “Before, I heard Song Ti call you Little You-jie,” but she really didn’t want to mention that woman, so she changed her words. “I’ve heard it before.”

The corners of Lin Ji’s lips curved slightly. She thought, So she’s been paying attention to my affairs since before.

            

The two of them chatted as they walked toward the end of the empty corridor.

“How’s the tattoo healing?”

“I’ve been too busy… I haven’t really noticed.”

            

“Let me see?”

Jiang Siyi agreed, but then remembered that her Jiashibi uniform was form-fitting and the collar was buttoned tightly, completely covering the tattoo on the nape of her neck. It wouldn’t be easy to see.

Noticing Jiang Siyi’s hesitation, Lin Ji reminded her, “If you fold the collar down halfway, you can see it.”

            

Jiang Siyi let out a soft “Mm,” and her fingertips went to the back of her neck, pressing down on the collar’s seam to fold it over.

Because it was in her blind spot, she couldn’t see what she was doing, and it was hard to manage. She folded it halfway, but it slipped back.

Lin Ji said, “If you don’t mind, let me do it?”

            

Jiang Siyi’s eyelashes fluttered. “Okay…”

When Lin Ji actually moved to her side and slightly behind her, and her cool fingertips slipped into the warm collar, hooking onto the fabric that wrapped around her body, the nerves in Jiang Siyi’s skin were pulled by the friction of the cloth. She suddenly snapped out of her hazy drunkenness.

Lin Ji was so close. Her scent and breath were already restrained and polite, but the warmth lingering by her ear was still clear.

            

A strange, tingling numbness shot from her ear to the tip of her heart. A faint electric current danced through her body, and her thoughts swayed uncontrollably.

At the same time, in the spot closest to Lin Ji’s field of vision, Jiang Siyi, who seemed unchanged in her silence, was actually turning red at a speed visible to the naked eye.

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The author has something to say:

            

Lin Ji: Step four of the wife-luring plan… How did I end up being seduced by my wife instead?

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