Crossing the Line – Chapter 54

A Gentle Bite

“Don’t wives who are truly in love always hold hands?”

The moment she said this and hooked Lin Ji’s pinky, her reason came rushing back along with it.

            

She realized she was acting coy with Lin Ji.

In public, no less.

The shame arrived late—far too late.

            

Her hand was clasped by Lin Ji, so tightly that not a sliver of space remained, so tightly that her bones ached in silence.

This intensity of closeness was just like Lin Ji’s kiss.

Overwhelming without reason, leaving her breathless.

            

Like the sweltering heat that had been stifled beneath a long span of time, suddenly finding an outlet.

Walking with her through the winding streets beneath a river of stars.

Parting the cool night air with its thin silk texture, leaving behind clusters of brightly colored, neatly pruned lollipop hydrangeas.

            

Marveling at herself tonight.

With the help of alcohol, she actually dared to boss Lin Ji around.

She said she wanted to hold hands, and Lin Ji actually held on the entire time.

            

Even after getting into the car, their fingers remained interlaced, never letting go.

Without any need to perform in front of family and friends, Lin Ji still indulged her.

As if stealing a sliver of joy from time itself.

            

As if they truly belonged to each other.

The dizziness from the alcohol kept amplifying the unreality of the night.

The car was dry and cool, carrying the scent Jiang Siyi knew so well.

            

Lin Ji’s fingertip gently brushed across her knuckle, sparking a faint trace of itch.

It was the touch of someone caressing something they cherished—so comfortable that Jiang Siyi’s gaze grew hazy.

In the quiet, comfortable surroundings, the alcohol worked its magic.

            

She wanted to keep enjoying this joyous night, but Jiang Siyi’s brain couldn’t escape the pull of sleepiness.

She drifted off.

The London car had a three-seat row.

            

The sleeping Jiang Siyi slowly tilted toward Lin Ji.

Lin Ji watched her lean closer and straightened her posture.

Adjusting so that when Jiang Siyi rested against her shoulder, the height was just right—her neck wouldn’t tilt at an uncomfortable angle.

            

Noticing the quiet in the back, Fan Qing glanced at the rearview mirror.

「She’s asleep.」

Lin Ji said these three words in the faintest breath.

            

Fan Qing gradually eased off the accelerator, driving smoothly to the hotel.

At eleven at night, the car pulled into the hotel’s underground parking garage.

Jiang Siyi still hadn’t woken.

            

Nor did Lin Ji wake her. She guided Jiang Siyi’s head onto the headrest, stepped out of the car, and then lifted her out steadily.

Lin Ji said to Fan Qing, 「Please press the elevator for me.」

Fan Qing, having secured the car, had already stepped into the elevator lobby and pressed the button, swiping the access card.

            

As a million-dollar-salary assistant of excellence, Fan Qing knew she shouldn’t ask a single question right now—yet she couldn’t not ask.

After a moment’s thought, duty compelled her to ask anyway.

It wasn’t like BOSS would reject her in a second anyway.

            

「BOSS, do you need me to take over?」

Need her to carry Miss Jiang?

In the two years serving as BOSS’s assistant, Fan Qing had witnessed firsthand the frequency with which Lin Ji immersed herself in the gym.

            

BOSS had once mentioned, unintentionally, that if her psychological state couldn’t recover immediately, she should at least possess a healthy physique first.

Beyond three weekly strength training sessions, she also immersed herself in badminton, tennis, and various other racket sports.

At the time, Fan Qing had felt that BOSS seemed to be preparing for something, yet strangely held no hope.

            

Now it all made sense.

BOSS’s physical fitness was beyond question, but cradling a sleeping adult woman for this long would still tire anyone.

Moreover, they needed to take an elevator ride.

            

Lin Ji: 「Thank you. No need.」

It didn’t even take a second.

Fan Qing smiled. 「Understood.」

            

Entering the elevator car, Lin Ji closed her eyes, fighting to ignore the oppressive sensation of being in a confined space.

She had to overcome this.

After marrying Jiang Siyi, Lin Ji wanted more than ever to heal the seared gaps in her life.

            

Only then could she give Jiang Siyi a flawless rest of her life.

One floor passed quickly. Lin Ji held her breath, keeping the person in her arms steady the entire time.

The elevator doors opened. Her breathing resumed. Her field of vision expanded once more.

            

A slight sigh of relief.

No problem.

With Jiang Siyi in her arms, it seemed her fixation on enclosed spaces had shifted elsewhere.

            

The elevator doors stood open. As they stepped out, two people walked in.

Bringing with them a distinct smell of alcohol.

Lin Ji, carrying Jiang Siyi, brushed past them. Before the elevator doors had fully closed, the two were already kissing loudly, oblivious to the world.

            

Even after the doors shut, they couldn’t completely muffle the exaggerated sounds from inside the car.

The person in her arms fluttered her eyelashes once, then quickly stilled—as if nothing had happened.

Lin Ji’s gaze fell lightly upon Jiang Siyi’s face.

            

So she was awake. Pretending to sleep?

Jiang Siyi had indeed woken up three minutes ago, when Lin Ji carried her out of the car.

She had wanted to open her eyes, but discovered that Lin Ji had no intention of waking her—instead carrying her back to the hotel room.

            

She knew Lin Ji had a habit of working out; the home gym was frequently in use.

Previously, Lin Ji had wrapped an arm around her waist to guide her over a puddle.

And… she had also lifted her during their kisses.

            

She knew Lin Ji was strong, but she was even stronger than imagined.

Able to carry her this effortlessly, walking as if bearing no burden at all.

The sensation of dangling feet, being carried like a little puppy, was entirely unfamiliar.

            

But she was so close.

Her whole body was gathered into that embrace, saturated in her scent.

If she woke up now, Lin Ji would have no reason to keep holding her…

            

She didn’t want to leave this warm, soft place that made her linger.

It felt like she had experienced something similar before in her memory.

With Lin Ji, many, many years ago—had there been a similar moment of contact?

            

Her sluggish thoughts churned slowly, unable to recall the specific event for now.

Even if it meant being a little shameless, Jiang Siyi kept her eyes shut, wanting to linger in Lin Ji’s arms a while longer.

Until she heard that blush-inducing sound just now—her thoughts swayed involuntarily, nearly betraying that she was already awake.

            

Perhaps Lin Ji’s presence was too intense; even through closed eyelids, she could feel that descending gaze.

Lin Ji was observing her.

Oh no—had she given herself away?

            

Under the sway of her emotions, her eyelashes nearly fluttered again involuntarily.

Jiang Siyi, who thought closing her eyes would make her pretense seamless, had overlooked one thing.

The cradling position pressed their bodies together, bringing them impossibly close.

            

The change in her heartbeat could be detected far more easily.

There was no need to watch her eyelids—the thundering heartbeat alone had already betrayed her emotions.

Lin Ji slowly withdrew her gaze from Jiang Siyi’s overly calm “sleeping face.”

            

She couldn’t help but worry—was that heartbeat racing a bit too fast?

If this kept up, even if Lin Ji wanted to give her the chance to keep pretending, Jiang Siyi would probably be too embarrassed to maintain the act.

Meanwhile, a hint of amusement touched Lin Ji’s brow and eyes.

            

Getting this flustered over a little shameless indulgence—how adorable.

…

After swiping BOSS’s room card, watching them enter, and closing the door behind them, Fan Qing’s mission was accomplished.

            

These past few days, Lin Ji had been negotiating with government officials, and Fan Qing had been by her side the entire time, maintaining intense focus—she was quite exhausted too.

She was off the clock for now.

Fan Qing returned to her own room upstairs, took a shower, ordered a glass of wine and dinner, and ate casually.

            

In the two years following Lin Ji around the globe, Fan Qing had come to see that cities in different countries, bearing different names, were really all the same.

The same roads, the same skyscrapers, the same endless streams of traffic.

Entirely different from her barren, muddy hometown.

            

The same sense of unfamiliarity.

Every city was a foreign land to her, a temporary foothold of waning interest.

Leaning against the sofa with the TV on, playing something random she didn’t watch—just listening to the noise as she mindlessly scrolled through her phone.

            

Opening WeChat, amid a pile of work messages, she found that Qiao Jin had replied six hours ago.

Qiao: 【The youngest girlfriend I’ve dated—how old was she? Let me think.】

Qiao: 【About twenty years younger than me.】

            

She calculated in her head.

Which meant Qiao Jin’s youngest girlfriend was still three years older than the twenty-seven-year-old Fan Qing.

She wanted to reply, but didn’t know what to say.

            

It was morning on the other side right now; sending a meaningless 「oh」 would only disturb someone’s sleep.

Never mind—the other person probably didn’t have time to read a kid’s reply anyway.

Setting the phone aside, she prepared to sleep.

            

The TV stayed on, volume turned to the minimum—just enough to catch the faint murmur of voices.

Like the rundown house from her childhood—ground floor, drafty, with zero soundproofing—where she could always hear the sounds of passersby and her mother’s footsteps as she drifted off to sleep.

These fragmentary sounds wove themselves into a fragile net, spinning a long-lost homeland that guarded her slumber.

            

As she fell asleep, she had no idea that on the other side of the world, in a penthouse in J City, Qiao Jin had opened her eyes.

Cold morning light spread across the bedroom. Qiao Jin picked up the phone beside her pillow, glanced at it, set it down, and closed her eyes.

There was no message she had been hoping for.

            

…

The door closed. Lin Ji carried Jiang Siyi to the edge of the bed.

She bent down and carefully set her down.

            

As she withdrew her hand, her palm inevitably brushed across Jiang Siyi’s back.

Through the thin summer clothes, she could distinctly feel each segment of spine beneath the skin.

In the days they had lived together, Lin Ji had tried every day to cook her good meals, carefully balancing her nutrition.

            

Her portions had increased, but she had only gained a tiny bit of weight.

Easy to carry, yet still far too thin.

Lin Ji made a mental note to keep working at it. Beneath her, Jiang Siyi shivered slightly at the touch, as if an electric current had passed through her.

            

She turned over uncomfortably, guiltily turning her back to Lin Ji.

Like an ascetic who had broken her fast and acquired a taste for desire, her body had become extremely sensitive, her imagination all the richer.

The lightest touch was almost unbearable, her whole body burning.

            

Jiang Siyi, now turned away, opened her eyes, clenching her fists and shrinking her shoulders, hoping Lin Ji would just go shower and rest.

Praying she wouldn’t notice her current state.

The tacit connection between her and the person behind her suddenly went dead.

            

No sound of footsteps.

Only the creak of a knee pressing into the mattress.

Lin Ji leaned forward, drawing closer and closer, her right hand planted beside the back of Jiang Siyi’s neck, descending just above the little wing tattoo.

            

Jiang Siyi was completely enveloped beneath Lin Ji.

Jiang Siyi hastily shut her eyes.

But she heard a soft laugh from impossibly close to her ear.

            

Lin Ji, leaning over her from behind, gently uncurled Jiang Siyi’s clenched fist.

One by one, her fingers relaxed.

Jiang Siyi was still wondering whether Lin Ji had noticed she was awake, when the person above her said:

            

「Aren’t you going to shower? You can come back and keep pretending to sleep after.」

Jiang Siyi: .

She inched forward. Inched forward again.

            

Keeping her back to Lin Ji the entire time.

Reaching the edge of the bed, she immediately got up and dashed straight for the bathroom without looking back.

After finishing her shower and pushing open the door, she found Lin Ji—having also completed her bath in the other bathroom—leaning against the bathroom doorway, flipping through a book.

            

Jiang Siyi: 「Hmm?」

Why are you standing here?

Seeing that Jiang Siyi’s face was only slightly flushed and she seemed fine.

            

Lin Ji closed the book. 「Waiting for you to go to sleep together.」

Could she be worried I’d pass out in the bathroom if I showered after drinking?

Grumbling internally that 「I’m not that fragile,」 she couldn’t suppress the smile tugging at her lips.

            

Passing out in the bathroom was unlikely, but after being dragged by Qiu Yeran to meet the senior executives tonight, she really hadn’t drunk less.

This was probably the most she had drunk in years.

Lying down on the bed, she was soon overtaken by drowsiness again.

            

Before drifting into true dreams, Jiang Siyi suddenly remembered.

Why being held by Lin Ji had felt so familiar.

A long time ago, Lin Ji had carried her on her back.

            

Their interactions during adolescence had been very, very few—so few that Jiang Siyi had once joked to Duan Ning that she and Lin Ji had spoken fewer than ten sentences to each other.

That time Lin Ji carried her home was the closest contact in her memory.

Perhaps because she had recalled this past event, she strangely dreamed of that brief intersection.

            

It was either second or third year of middle school—she remembered wearing her middle school uniform when she sprained her ankle during PE.

Song Ti had gone to an escape room with friends. Jiang Siyi was injured and couldn’t go, and with exams approaching, she didn’t want to be distracted—so she hobbled home alone.

After getting off the bus, on the route she had to take home, there was a long, narrow flight of descending stairs.

            

In the past, she would have bounded down them in a few quick steps.

Today, she didn’t quite dare to step forward.

Holding the wall, she shuffled down slowly.

            

Every time her sprained foot touched the ground, a piercing pain shot through it.

She had never felt these stairs were so long.

Jiang Siyi pressed her lips tight, walking very slowly.

            

Entirely tense, determined not to tumble down the stairs, Jiang Siyi didn’t notice that someone had been following her the entire way.

Lin Ji knew she had twisted her ankle, and it wasn’t minor.

Whether she had already been treated at the infirmary, Lin Ji wasn’t quite at ease, so she had followed in silence.

            

On a sweltering summer evening, old banyan trees stretched their lush branches over the walls.

Dappled shadows, singing cicadas, and a young girl with a backpack, a layer of cold sweat forming on the back of her neck from pain.

Suddenly sensing someone behind her, Jiang Siyi turned around.

            

Their eyes met, and Lin Ji’s expressionless face came into view, instantly summoning all sorts of rumors about her.

Those exaggerated rumors—Jiang Siyi had genuinely believed them.

Later, she heard her elder sister say that Lin Ji had skipped a grade to enter second year of high school and was in the same class. She felt that while this person was quiet and withdrawn, she didn’t seem like someone who would do bad things.

            

Jiang Siling had also said: 「Last time my pen accidentally fell near her feet, she even picked it up for me. And she immediately took the top rank in the year—a proper super scholar.」

Jiang Siyi had a natural filter for top students, and besides, while Lin Ji was gloomy, she was also far too beautiful.

Super scholar, beauty senior.

            

These two qualities combined made her seem unlikely to do anything outrageously bad.

Jiang Siyi shifted to the side, a bit embarrassed.

「Ah… am I in your way? Are you trying to go down?」

            

The narrow stairs couldn’t accommodate two people side by side. Jiang Siyi tried to press herself against the wall to make room, not wanting to hold anyone up.

Lin Ji had her hair in a simple ponytail, wearing the high school uniform, tall and long-legged.

Her features betrayed no emotion. Her gaze fell on Jiang Siyi’s foot, and to mask her worried trailing, she asked something she already knew:

            

「What happened?」

As if questioned by a teacher, Jiang Siyi didn’t dare hide anything, answering truthfully:

「I accidentally twisted it during PE.」

            

How could she get Jiang Siyi to agree to let her carry her?

After a moment’s thought, Lin Ji asked Jiang Siyi:

「Going down stairs with a sprained ankle—aren’t you afraid of tumbling down?」

            

Jiang Siyi: …

Her heart lurched. She almost burst into tears.

It seemed she really was in the way.

            

If I don’t get out of the way, she won’t push me down, will she?

Jiang Siyi was about to flatten herself completely against the wall when Lin Ji said:

「I’ll carry you.」

            

「Ah?」

Jiang Siyi thought she had misheard, stammering before saying:

「That’s… not appropriate, is it?」

            

Her fiancée’s Biaojie—they would become relatives eventually.

But they weren’t yet…

Just a senior from the same school.

            

Having a barely acquainted senior carry her—Jiang Siyi hesitated, not daring to agree.

Lin Ji bent down and waited for her to get on, but saw her face darken as she hesitated, not moving.

Lin Ji: 「I’m in a hurry.」

            

Jiang Siyi: 「…Sorry!」

Too scary.

She could only climb onto Lin Ji’s back with tears in her eyes, terrified, letting herself be carried down the stairs.

            

Too scared to even hold onto Lin Ji’s shoulders, she gripped Lin Ji’s uniform with only two fingers on each hand.

Her heart was turbulent with fear, but the person carrying her walked very, very steadily.

Every step was taken with care.

            

Even if she could only escort her part of the way, she would make sure it was done without a single misstep.

…

Delivered to her doorstep, just as she was about to say thank you, Lin Ji didn’t give her the chance—she turned and walked away.

            

Jiang Siyi’s gaze followed her, a bit dazed.

After going through the gate, she didn’t close it right away. Poking her head out again, she watched Lin Ji’s retreating figure once more.

That figure, growing ever more distant in the summer light, merged into the tail end of her dream.

            

Spanning a long stretch of time—a full ten years—when twenty-five-year-old Jiang Siyi gazed through her dream at that silent figure, she felt a dense loneliness whose source she couldn’t identify.

She turned over uncomfortably and checked her phone.

She had already set it to London time.

            

Only 5:10 AM.

The alcohol from yesterday had all caught up with her today.

Her head throbbed slightly.

            

Forcing her eyes open again, she checked on Lin Ji.

Lin Ji lay flat with her eyes closed, her face turned toward Jiang Siyi.

Her breathing was even—she seemed to still be asleep.

            

The feelings from the dream lingered in her heart.

At first it was happiness, but as she continued thinking, her emotions were pulled by the ten years of disconnection—as if she had missed a stretch of life that should have been cherished.

Her heart felt hollow, gradually overlaid with a sour ache, and something like wistfulness.

            

She inched closer to Lin Ji.

Counting her eyelashes, her gaze tracing the tip of her nose.

Finally, her gaze landed on those full lips that knew so well how to kiss.

            

So why had Lin Ji been willing to carry her back then?

Was it simply because of the familial tie between them, or was there another reason?

Was there another reason?

            

Jiang Siyi’s thoughts stirred. She propped herself up, hesitated, and then pressed her lips to Lin Ji’s.

Gently, like a feather brushing past—a brief taste.

That shallow, fleeting kiss set Jiang Siyi’s own heart racing beyond endurance.

            

Her forehead rested against Lin Ji’s arm once more.

She’d just blame it on bad sleeping posture—an accidental touch.

She didn’t dare press too close.

            

Fortunately, even just a little contact brought her peace of mind.

From last night to this morning, how much sleep could Lin Ji have gotten?

Jiang Siyi closed her eyes, the corners of her lips curving slightly.

            

Wishing for eight hours.

…

One hour after Jiang Siyi fell asleep again, Lin Ji woke.

            

She felt something warm and soft on her arm. Looking down—it was Jiang Siyi.

Curled into a little ball on her side, forehead pressed against her arm, yet her body kept at a distance.

—Not holding my hand?

            

Last night’s Jiang Siyi surfaced in her mind.

A little aggrieved. Not an illusion.

Now she was leaning against her, yet not daring to truly draw close.

            

Lin Ji rolled over and pulled the sleeping Jiang Siyi entirely into her arms, holding her close.

Still asleep, Jiang Siyi made a confused yet comfortable 「Mm?」

Not knowing what was happening, the wonderful scent made her instinctively draw closer.

            

Letting herself be held, sinking into that soft warmth.

What was this soft warmth? It seemed… delicious…

She took a gentle bite.

            

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The author has something to say:

Lin Ji: Wife-pampering step 22, pampering since childhood

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