Crossing the Line – Chapter 31
by Little PandaIs She Going to Think I’m Seducing Her?
This fusion restaurant sprawled over a large area — a full row of pseudo-classical buildings stood imposing, the lighting design giving it a refined, textured quality.
Tall, lush banyan trees grew at the entrance. On a summer night, the evening breeze carried a refreshing coolness. Jiang Siyi felt it the moment she stepped out of the car.
There was no valet service here. Lin Ji went to park the car herself, and Jiang Siyi waited at the entrance.
She took the opportunity to slip the ring back on.
The ring settled on her finger once more, and Jiang Siyi let out a breath of relief.
Better not take it off anymore. Sneaking around like a thief.
The faint sound of a guqin1 drifted from inside the restaurant. Jiang Siyi listened to the music as she waited for Lin Ji. Suddenly, a woman’s voice came from behind her:
“Wife—”
Jiang Siyi’s heart gave an involuntary skip. She turned to see a beautiful woman she didn’t recognize.
The woman swept past her and wrapped her arms around a girl in a long dress ahead of her. The two kissed without the slightest regard for anyone around them.
“You’re so slow.” The girl in the long dress tugged her ear affectionately.
The beautiful woman let her tug, indulgent. “There were so many cars. Let’s go.”
One had an arm looped around the other’s waist; the other leaned sweetly into her embrace. The two of them stuck together as they headed into the restaurant.
Jiang Siyi noticed they wore matching rings — also on their ring fingers. Married.
So this was what it looked like to be with a real wife.
Her thoughts were still drifting when Lin Ji returned.
Their eyes met briefly. Without a word, they walked toward the restaurant together.
Each walked her own path, still separated by the width of one person — like two strangers who happened to fall into the same stride.
At the entrance, a server came forward to ask if they had a reservation.
“Yes,” Lin Ji said. “I’d like to change the main hall table to a private room.”
“I’m sorry, all the private rooms are fully booked today.”
Jiang Siyi was puzzled. Why change from the main hall to a private room?
“I booked a private room too,” Lin Ji said. “Just cancel the main hall table.”
The server checked and found that she had indeed booked two tables, both already paid for.
“Of course. This way, please.”
Led by the server, they wound through meandering corridors and up the stairs to a quiet private room on the second floor.
Lin Ji was not only good at ordering food; she also had a talent for choosing seats.
The room she’d booked sat at the very center of the second floor — undisturbed, yet the guqin music came through crystal clear.
Just as the two of them sat down face to face, downstairs, Jiang Luo and Zhao Jun squeezed into a small private room in the corner of the first floor along with four or five old friends.
Zhao Jun was very unhappy. She called over a server and asked if there was a larger room.
“There are so many of us — this little room is too cramped. The room in the middle of the second floor looked perfect. Good location and big enough. Move us up there.”
“I’m very sorry, ma’am. The second-floor rooms are all reserved. We’re fully booked today and there’s no other space available. How about this — I’ll give you a few coupons, and we’ll take an additional 10% off your bill. We appreciate your understanding.”
Zhao Jun clicked her tongue, but with no other option, she had to accept.
If the cracked outer wall of their house hadn’t let rain flood every room — still unrepaired — and if she hadn’t feared her friends’ mockery, she wouldn’t have come out to eat at a restaurant.
“Fine. Give me a few more of those coupons,” Zhao Jun muttered to the server.
When Zhao Jun returned to the private room, she’d barely taken a step before she banged her knee on a chair and yelped.
Jiang Luo was busy complaining to his friends and didn’t notice her at all.
Zhao Jun gave Jiang Luo a hard slap on the back.
Jiang Luo turned around, irritated. “What’s wrong with you?”
This meal was entirely to help Jiang Luo shake off his bad luck.
That day, when Jiang Luo had gone to confront Jiang Siyi, some young punk from out of nowhere had gotten him hauled off to the police station.
He was originally going to be detained. Zhao Jun immediately hired a lawyer to file an administrative review, requesting a stay of administrative detention. She posted bail and managed to fish him out for now.
The lawyer said detention was a certainty for Jiang Luo’s situation, and the charges would likely pile higher. He told them not to provoke the other party again — she clearly knew what she was doing and seemed like a tough opponent.
Jiang Luo had never been handled so decisively by Jiang Siyi before, and he was thoroughly resentful.
Before, if Jiang Luo acted up, Zhao Jun wouldn’t have bothered with him. But now, with bankruptcy and a whole mess of problems to deal with, if he got locked up again or ended up with a criminal record, it would be even more trouble.
Zhao Jun told him irritably to stop being stubborn.
“At your age, what’s the point of acting tough?”
“Is this acting tough?” Jiang Luo said. “You’re complaining about me? Who am I doing this for? You and Jiang Cheng!”
Zhao Jun found it laughable. “Who got you sent to the police station? Your own biological daughter, that’s who. Don’t take it out on me. I don’t owe you.”
In front of so many friends, Jiang Luo felt thoroughly humiliated. He picked up his tea and drank — swallowing too fast and scalding himself. Everything was going wrong, and on top of it all, his son was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Jiang Cheng? With everything that’s happened, he hasn’t even come by to ask a single question.”
“You know what he’s like. Fooling around outside all day. I haven’t seen him in days either, and he won’t answer his phone.”
At the mention of their son, Zhao Jun’s scolding tone softened. She was just tired.
Last year, Jiang Cheng had scored around 100 points on the Gaokao2 — total. To this day, when people asked, Zhao Jun was too embarrassed to say it out loud.
He didn’t want to continue studying domestically, nor was he willing to go abroad. Everything was too exhausting, too much trouble.
Initially, Zhao Jun had a decent plan: to place him in the Song family’s company.
He certainly wouldn’t listen to either of his parents’ discipline, and with Jiang Luo bankrupt, the family company was no longer an option. No prospects.
The in-laws’ company was large, with abundant resources. Through that connection, they could still bring themselves to discipline him properly. At least he’d learn some real skills, and later they could set him up with a small company of his own — enough to make a living.
Who would have thought Lin Yunting refused to lift a finger, and that little brat Jiang Siyi was even more impulsive, breaking off her engagement to Song Ti without a word.
Now the Song family had nothing to do with them anymore — there was no way to approach them. With their own group collapsed, old Jiang bankrupt, and a mountain of debt on top of it all…
Right now, this meal costing several thousand yuan was making her heart ache.
Jiang Luo was about to open another bottle of wine, but Zhao Jun’s glare stopped him cold.
All he did was drink. Why couldn’t he drink himself to death?
Zhao Jun cursed inwardly.
In the private room on the second floor.
Seated across from each other, Lin Ji noticed the ring that had gone missing was back on Jiang Siyi’s ring finger.
A barely perceptible smile played at her lips as she passed the menu to Jiang Siyi, inviting her to order.
Jiang Siyi looked over the menu. Everything seemed exquisite in appearance, aroma, and flavor — it was hard to choose.
“I’m not great at ordering. You go ahead.”
Lin Ji took the menu back and ordered white sour soup with wild pepper beef, deep-sea yellow croaker, abalone rice porridge, wild mountain mushrooms… and, of course, the indispensable seasonal vegetable platter — the large one, six varieties, 600 grams.
Every time Lin Ji ordered, she did it with the ease of someone who’d studied the menu thoroughly — balancing flavor and health.
Jiang Siyi felt a twinge of guilt. If Lin Ji knew she’d eaten nothing but cookies as a meal yesterday, would she think they couldn’t build a life together?
After taking their order, the server left, closing the door behind her.
It was just the two of them in the room, yet it didn’t feel stifling. The guqin music drifted in leisurely. The window looked out over the distant cityscape — undisturbed, there was a view to enjoy.
Lin Ji would share things about herself from time to time, and ask Jiang Siyi questions too — deepening their understanding of each other, working toward feeling natural when they met the parents.
In truth, most of the time, being around Lin Ji was quite easy.
No need to think up conversation topics, no need to worry about what to order, no need to even decide where to go.
Lin Ji took care of everything.
Jiang Siyi did have an elder sister, but Jiang Siling was even more indecisive than she was.
So this was what it felt like to be taken care of by an elder sister…
The chairs at this restaurant were individual small sofas — snug and supportive, excellent for easing fatigue.
The table legs beneath the table were also good to lean against. Jiang Siyi’s legs were sore from a long day, and she leaned right up against one — soft, too.
Jiang Siyi rubbed against the table leg. What material was this? So comfortable. She gave it another gentle grind.
The look Lin Ji cast her was inexplicably complicated. Her throat bobbed subtly several times.
Lin Ji said suddenly, “I have a tattoo, too.”
Their getting-to-know-each-other conversation was still in progress.
“Oh?”
This surprised Jiang Siyi.
“I didn’t expect you’d have one. Where is it?”
Lin Ji touched her fingertip to her left chest. “Here.”
Jiang Siyi’s gaze followed naturally. Over the heart.
“What’s the design?”
Lin Ji paused, then said, “I’ll show you when there’s an opportunity.”
Jiang Siyi agreed without a second thought.
“Sure.”
Just then, the white sour soup with wild pepper beef and the deep-sea yellow croaker arrived together. As the server ladled soup for them, Jiang Siyi suddenly realized—
Wait. A tattoo on the chest, in such an intimate spot… “I’ll show you when there’s an opportunity”?
How would she see it?
On what occasion, under what circumstances, could she see that part of the body?
How had the conversation suddenly veered into strange territory?
Her imagination conjured image after image. The memory of Lin Ji changing and showering at her apartment started playing unbidden.
As Jiang Siyi struggled to rein in her thoughts, she noticed that the “table leg” she’d been leaning against was strangely growing warm.
Just as she was wondering about this, the “table leg” suddenly moved.
Jiang Siyi startled and pulled back, looking down.
No wonder it was so comfortable. The material was unique and soft…
That wasn’t a table leg. It was Lin Ji’s leg!
Jiang Siyi pulled her legs back as far as they would go, sitting up as straight as a model student ready to answer the teacher’s question at any moment.
Even the server glanced over curiously.
The tips of Jiang Siyi’s fingers gripping her chopsticks had turned red.
What was wrong with her brain, thinking that was a table leg…
So she had been leaning against Lin Ji’s leg the whole time, rubbing and grinding against it. No wonder Lin Ji had looked at her oddly and brought up the tattoo on her chest.
Secretly rubbing legs under the table… would she think she was seducing her?
Her mind was in turmoil. Jiang Siyi desperately wanted to explain, but the server — determined to make the 15% service fee feel worthwhile — showed no sign of leaving after serving the soup. Instead, she stayed to carefully fillet the yellow croaker piece by piece.
After that, dish after dish arrived, and Jiang Siyi never found the chance to prove her innocence.
When the server finally left, Duan Ning’s voice call came through.
Duan Ning usually contacted her through WeChat. A sudden voice call meant something was up.
“I need to take a call from a colleague,” Jiang Siyi said.
“Go ahead,” Lin Ji said.
Jiang Siyi stepped out to take the call. Lin Ji called the server over and asked her to keep the dishes warm.
The moment the call connected, before Jiang Siyi could even speak, Duan Ning blurted excitedly:
【Siyi, did you see the trending topics?】
【What trending topics?】
【Weibo — go look, go look, right now!】
Bewildered and a little nervous, Jiang Siyi opened the trending list.
Her first thought was that it had something to do with her sudden marriage to Lin Ji.
Then she reconsidered. How could that be? Neither of them was a public figure. How could they possibly be trending?
Indeed, she was overthinking it. It wasn’t about her and Lin Ji’s relationship being exposed.
It was her elder sister who was being discussed.
The painting that Jiang Siling had personally burned, leaving only half behind, along with the livestream of the burning, had spread from foreign websites back to the domestic internet.
The provocative act, the pain relatable enough to stir empathy, and Jiang Siling’s beauty — all of it had begun to ferment slowly several hours ago.
Jiang Siyi scrolled through the comments. They were all sympathizing with Jiang Siling’s ordeal.
Some said she was too extreme, too impulsive — that even if she’d been deceived, there was no need to burn years of hard work to ashes.
Others said this was true performance art, and the half-burned painting’s artistry surpassed all her previous work.
The volume of discussion exceeded anything Jiang Siyi had imagined.
Duan Ning: 【Is that your elder sister?】
Jiang Siyi: 【Yeah…】
Duan Ning: 【I knew it — what’s going on with our elder sister? Why burn the paintings? What a waste, all those years of hard work. If it were me, I wouldn’t burn the paintings — I’d wrench the bastard’s head off and burn that instead.】
Jiang Siyi was amused by Duan Ning’s words. 【It’s a bit complicated.】
Duan Ning immediately sensed she didn’t want to elaborate and tactfully didn’t press further.
【You’re with Lin Ji-jie, aren’t you? I won’t keep you. I’m hanging up. If you need anything, just say the word.】
【Okay.】
She hung up and returned to the private room, figuring Lin Ji had probably finished eating by now.
Someone was treating her to dinner, and she’d left them waiting for ages. It didn’t feel right.
Lin Ji was sitting at the table reading a tablet. The dishes on the table were exactly as many as when Jiang Siyi had left.
The moment Jiang Siyi sat back down, she set the tablet aside.
“Why haven’t you eaten?” Jiang Siyi said.
Lin Ji looked up and said, “Waiting for you.”
Something stirred in Jiang Siyi’s eyes.
They were sharing dinner together. She had stepped away, and Lin Ji had hit pause for her.
The food had even been carefully kept warm.
Even in a restaurant, she suddenly felt as though she were sharing a family dinner.
When Jiang Siyi picked up her chopsticks, she told Lin Ji about her elder sister’s painting-burning gaining attention on both domestic and international internet.
She asked if it had anything to do with Lin Ji.
“I didn’t do much,” Lin Ji said. “I just made sure more people saw your sister’s paintings.”
No claim of credit — one simple, understated sentence and it was done.
But Jiang Siyi understood. The effort behind it was surely more than she made it sound.
It seemed that beyond “thank you,” Jiang Siyi didn’t know what to say anymore.
“No need to thank me,” Lin Ji said.
“…I haven’t even said it yet,” Jiang Siyi said.
“I guessed,” Lin Ji said. “Answering in advance saves you the trouble. Shall we keep eating?”
Jiang Siyi gave a small smile and nodded.
After dinner, Lin Ji offered to drive her home.
The two of them walked into the parking lot together. Zhao Jun’s group had also finished eating and was coming from the other end of the lot.
Zhao Jun had sharp eyes. She spotted Lin Ji right away.
She immediately recalled the gossip that had been circulating in their circle lately.
Word was that Lin Ji — who had never dated a day in her life and had impossibly high standards — was actually getting married.
The wedding banquet venue was already booked, at the Yunding Hotel no less, yet no one knew who she was marrying.
When Lin Ji had first returned to the country and a crowd of people were eager to set up dates with her, Zhao Jun had entertained the thought too.
If not for a shred of self-awareness, she would have actually dragged her son to meet Lin Ji.
If she could latch onto Lin Ji, wouldn’t that be enough to make Jiang Siyi unable to show her face ever again?
Song Ti was decent enough, but compared to Lin Ji, one was on the ground and the other in the sky.
Her thoughts stopped there. Even she found it ridiculous.
As if that could happen. With her good-for-nothing son — even she couldn’t stand him.
The parking lot lights weren’t bright enough. There was a figure beside Lin Ji, partially blocked by a car.
Zhao Jun immediately craned her neck to look.
She couldn’t see who got into Lin Ji’s car, only the motion of Lin Ji closing the passenger door for the person in the front seat.
Who could it be? What luck. What a charmed life.
Zhao Jun thought enviously. She wondered who could have won Lin Ji’s favor enough to enter Lin Xuebo’s household.
Never mind being set for life — wouldn’t every distant relation and hanger-on rise with her?
When Lin Ji dropped Jiang Siyi off at her apartment building, she arranged to pick her up at 7:30 the next morning for breakfast together.
“It’ll be convenient for continuing to get to know each other,” Lin Ji said.
Jiang Siyi didn’t seem to have much room to refuse.
Besides, Lin Ji was truly excellent at ordering food. Whether the last breakfast or tonight’s dinner, everything she ate had been comfortable and satisfying, with no sense of imposition.
No — there was a burden in one particular respect.
“Then let me treat you tomorrow morning?” Jiang Siyi said.
Even though they’d gotten their marriage certificate, the two of them weren’t partners in any real sense. Having Lin Ji pay every time made her feel a bit uncomfortable.
Seeing Jiang Siyi say this with utmost seriousness, Lin Ji inexplicably thought of Xueqiu curiously sizing her up.
One person, one dog — exactly the same.
Very cute.
“Alright. It’s your call,” Lin Ji said.
After returning home and walking Xueqiu, Jiang Siyi logged onto social media again and saw that the topics related to her elder sister were steadily gaining heat.
Jiang Siyi video-called Jiang Siling. It took ages for the other side to pick up — she was outdoors.
Jiang Siling already knew about it too.
【I never expected it to turn out like this.】
Jiang Siling’s tone was distressed, but the corners of her mouth were turned up.
【In just one day, I’ve received countless messages and emails from people saying they’re interested in my work. Who would have thought that my desperate act of madness would actually win me new hope… Ha, it’s really ironic. I’m meeting several agents today — I’m almost at my first appointment. Don’t worry, I’ll be much more careful this time. I’ll let you know as soon as there’s any update.】
Jiang Siling kissed the camera and hung up.
Her elder sister was full of energy again, and now she had more paths to choose from than before.
The heavy worry that had been pressing on her heart vanished completely. Jiang Siyi hummed as she showered. While blow-drying her hair, she looked at herself in the mirror, thinking. She felt like she’d forgotten to do something.
What was it, anyway?
On the way to bed, she passed by Xueqiu, who rubbed against her ankle. It tickled.
She was already lying in bed with her eyes closed when, suddenly, the sensation against her inner thigh surfaced from memory.
A thought flashed through her mind, and her eyes flew open.
She remembered what she’d forgotten to do—
She’d forgotten to explain that she hadn’t rubbed Lin Ji’s leg on purpose!
Explaining now, after the moment had passed, would seem very deliberate.
Along with it came the memory of the time she’d tried to call Lin Ji “Biaojie3” and been rejected.
Curling into a shrimp once more, Jiang Siyi barely managed to find sleep.
In the swaying world of dreams.
She was back at the restaurant entrance. Someone behind her called out “Wife” again.
This time, it really was Lin Ji.
Lin Ji wrapped her arms around her from behind, kissed her ear, and murmured, “Good girl.”
And she, like a cat devoted to its owner, tilted her chin back and let herself be kissed.
Lin Ji’s hand traced from the outside of her thigh inward, stroking, caressing, toying.
The texture of skin rubbing against skin from reality seeped into the dream.
Hot. Damp.
A shudder ran through her entire body, and Jiang Siyi jolted awake.
A film of hot sweat covered her back. The tips of her ears were flushed red through.
Her eyes, touched with desire, were soft and slightly damp.
She gazed at the ceiling, bewildered, and asked herself—
What… what kind of dream was that…
The author has something to say:
Lin Ji: Wife-pampering Step 3: If wife wants to rub, let her rub.
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