Crossing the Line – Chapter 65
by Little PandaI Did Indeed Have Designs on You From Early On.
Morning, at Jiashibi.
“Yo.”
Duan Ning pushed open the door to Manager Wu’s office.
Manager Wu’s gaze lifted from her computer screen to Duan Ning, and she blinked a pair of dry eyes.
“Here this early?”
“You didn’t go home last night?”
“Mm. Worked too late, so I just slept here. I’d be alone at home anyway—might as well save the gas money.”
“Looking like that, where are you ever going to find romance?”
Duan Ning set a takeout bag on her desk.
“Beef rolls, fresh out of the cafeteria—people were fighting over them. I’m nice like that, so I snagged one each for you and Siyi.”
“My treat? A Living Bodhisattva1. Let me go brush my teeth first.”
“Bleh.”
Manager Wu went off to brush her teeth in the bathroom attached to the managers’ lounge.
Duan Ning sat down on the little sofa, spotted the stack of printed proposals, and said:
“Backup plans for the autumn auction?”
Manager Wu, mid-brush, mumbled indistinctly:
“Yep. Better safe than sorry.”
Duan Ning knew exactly what she was preparing for.
Siyi might transfer departments. If she left—never mind whether the autumn auction lots would shift, just the question of who would lead each auction session was headache enough.
Right now, the Gold, Stone, and Jade Department had far, far too few senior auctioneers who could anchor a large-scale evening auction.
Lose Siyi, their pillar, and it would break bones and tear sinew.
And this happened to be the department’s best chance in years to finally shine.
Duan Ning’s mood matched Manager Wu’s exactly: frazzled and anxious.
They hammered away at the backup plans together and didn’t emerge from the office until noon.
Jiang Siyi saw the two of them and said, “So you’ve been in the office this whole time. Lunch?”
Duan Ning and Manager Wu said in unison, “Sure, let’s go!”
Then the two exchanged a look, each privately disgusted with the other for acting so out of character and leaking her feelings.
Jiang Siyi saw how stiff they both were and guessed at their worry.
“Manager Wu, I’ve finished organizing the auction lot materials for the autumn auction and synced them to you. A few collectors’ proofs of ownership are still outstanding—if there’s no rush, we’ll wait; if there is, I’ll go chase them down.”
Manager Wu caught her meaning. “You’re still working on the autumn auction?”
Jiang Siyi: “Of course. We’ve spent this long preparing for it. As the backbone Manager Wu herself promoted, I intend to see it through to the very end.”
Duan Ning, blunt and quick-tongued as ever, asked outright: “Meaning what? You’ll stay until after the autumn auction and transfer in November?”
Jiang Siyi smiled gently and nodded.
Manager Wu and Duan Ning’s mouths flew open in excitement—then snapped shut at once, remembering they were in the office, joy flooding from their lips up into their eyes.
“But… you could lose quite a bit in commission.”
Happy as she was, Manager Wu still had to remind her.
However strong the Gold, Stone, and Jade Department was this year, the gulf in lot values was plain to see. It simply couldn’t compare with the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Department.
Jiang Siyi said, “I want to finish what I started.”
Duan Ning yanked Jiang Siyi into a hug. If she weren’t already married, she’d have kissed her silly on the spot.
“Siyi, how are you this wonderful?! Do you know what Manager Wu went through last night for—”
“Ahem. Duan Ning. Cut the chatter.”
Manager Wu’s phoenix eyes2 still carried a leader’s oppressive weight when they turned serious.
“Come on, let’s go eat before the seats are gone. Xiao Jiang, whatever you want, my treat.”
And the moment she finished, delight was unmistakably climbing her brows again.
While the three of them waited for the elevator, Duan Ning remembered something.
“I recall Huang Qingzheng’s painting was finalized, right? This year’s blue-chip benchmark for the autumn auction, estimated at 200 million and up. Master Huang is Siyi’s client. If Siyi transferred to the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Department before the auction, she could take the lead auction and the commission would be hers. But if she goes after the auction, doesn’t that just hand it to Oliver? That is not small change!”
The three of them did lightning math in their heads.
If the painting really hammered down at 200 million, Jiashibi would charge the buyer a 10% commission on the hammer price, then split it with the auctioneer. For an auctioneer of Jiang Siyi’s tier, her cut was 20% of the total commission.
Which meant the pre-tax commission on that single painting alone would be…
4 million!
Duan Ning was heartsick. “How is that fair?! That’s 4 million! We can’t just let Oliver have it!”
Even if Siyi wasn’t hurting for money these days, what was rightfully hers should stay hers.
Her words sank all three of them into thought. It really was a problem.
Manager Wu folded her arms, mulled it over, and slowly a smile spread across her face.
“I have an idea. As long as CEO Gu nods, not a cent of Xiao Jiang’s commission goes anywhere else.”
While the three of them were quietly plotting, a tall young woman with glasses and long, straight black hair came down the corridor from the far end.
“Hi, Teacher Bo.”
A certified social butterfly3, Duan Ning greeted her without a second thought.
The woman called “Teacher Bo” was none other than the pillar of Jiashibi’s Oil Painting Department—the super-rookie who’d taken the Global Emerging Auctioneer title five years ago, the legend holding the consecutive #1 sales record at Jiashibi’s J City branch: Bo Ting.
Bo Ting ignored Duan Ning’s greeting entirely. A pair of cold eyes swept once across Jiang Siyi’s face, then stingily withdrew. Without half a word, she walked away.
Duan Ning: …
Once Bo Ting was well out of earshot, Duan Ning smoothed over the awkwardness: “Haha, maybe her ears aren’t what they used to be.”
Once autumn set in, the days grew cooler one after another.
Jiang Siyi’s favorite season had finally arrived.
Given that Siyi’s lower back had been aching lately, her legs felt wobbly-soft, and she kept catching fevers, Lin Ji planned to take her to play badminton for the exercise.
Racquet sports had endless benefits—sustained cardio, plus training for hand-eye coordination.
Jiang Siyi had long since noticed the badminton and tennis rackets in the home gym.
She’d wanted to exercise with Lin Ji too.
Only…
Jiang Siyi: “I’m not very good at it, though.”
Lin Ji: “Neither am I. We’ll just rally casually—it’s mainly for the workout.”
Lin Ji booked out the entire badminton hall at ECHO Club so Jiang Siyi could play undisturbed, to her heart’s content.
The two changed into athletic wear from the same brand, in the same color palette, and entered the hall.
While Lin Ji was tying up her hair, the phone in her open sports bag rang.
A glance: Yan Yu.
Lin Ji: “Siyi, get that for me.”
Jiang Siyi hesitated.
“What if it’s something important?”
Is it really okay for me to answer?
Answering Lin Ji’s calls felt so intimate.
She’d only been her wife a short while—she wasn’t used to it yet.
Seeing that Jiang Siyi hadn’t yet settled into being woven through every corner of her life, Lin Ji said:
“It’s fine. Everything about me, you’re allowed to know. Besides, Yan Yu never has anything serious to say.”
The moment Jiang Siyi connected, before she could get a word out, a fierce female voice came barreling through first.
【You-jie, where are you! I haven’t laid eyes on you in ages. Did you get married and forget everyone but your precious wife, shutting the door and living in your little world of two?】
Jiang Siyi: …
She forced the words out. 【Miss Yan, hello. I’m…】
Lin Ji’s precious wife.
【I’m… Jiang Siyi.】
The other end paused, then instantly switched registers, all sweet and adorable:
【Oh! It’s Little Jiang Meimei! You two out somewhere?】
She had caught some noisy outdoor sounds through the line.
Jiang Siyi said, 【Mm, we’re at ECHO Club right now, playing badminton.】
Yan Yu turned her head and relayed to Cen Lu, sprawled across her sofa: “They’re playing badminton at ECHO.”
Cen Lu—certified drifter of no fixed address—sat up. “Ask if there’s room for us in the game.”
Yan Yu had asked. What could Lin Ji say? Anything else and they’d roast her for doting on her wife.
【Come on over.】
The call ended and Cen Lu got ready to head out immediately.
“All summer cooped up at home with the AC on—I’m rusting over. Time to move around.”
Yan Yu: “You’re asking for a beating. Remember last time we played You-jie? I nearly cracked my tailbone. She can thrash the three of us single-handedly.”
Cen Lu: “Her wife’s there today. Maybe she’ll behave like a human being.”
When the two stormed into ECHO, they saw the score.
The set score: 1–0.
Normal. You-jie played at a professional level.
Then a second look—wait, the one who’d taken that set was Jiang Siyi?
Lin Ji returned a soft, fluffy ball, landing it in the most comfortable possible spot for Jiang Siyi’s forehand.
Jiang Siyi smashed. Lin Ji’s reaction came half a beat late—the ball went unreturned.
Jiang Siyi lit up. “Ah!”
Lin Ji shook her head. “Beautiful smash. Impressive.”
Jiang Siyi thought: I haven’t played badminton in so, so long—who knew I still had the touch.
Lin Ji—who could thrash three people single-handedly—couldn’t return or smash a single ball in front of her wife, running all over the court to feed her shots, feeding them with perfect calibration, spoiling her wife so seamlessly it left no fingerprint.
Cen Lu and Yan Yu, courtside, drooped their eyelids in unison.
“Ewww—”
Without even glancing their way, Lin Ji scooped up the shuttle with her racket, then aimed the racket’s tip at the two of them. The “ewww”-ers fell silent at once.
Yan Yu: “This woman is vicious to death. How does someone like her have a wife? Little Jiang Meimei—”
Jiang Siyi, good-natured as ever, dabbed the fine sweat from her chin with the back of her hand and waved at her with a smile.
Lin Ji: “Who are you calling Little Jiang Meimei?”
I haven’t even called her that myself.
And they hadn’t wronged her—this person really was a fiend.
But Yan Yu’s greatest virtue was knowing when to bow and when to bend. She switched instantly: “Saosao!”
Lin Ji: …
Jiang Siyi had just walked to the courtside for a sip of electrolyte drink—thankfully it hadn’t actually reached her mouth, or that face-to-face “Saosao” would have had her coughing for three minutes straight.
Yan Yu said “Saosao” with every other breath, and tattled to the Saosao besides: ever since Lin Ji got married, she replied to her best friends’ WeChats at a crawl—invited ten times, declined ten times. At this rate she was going to lose her beautiful, gracious, brilliant, and pure best friend.
Lin Ji: “Do I have a best friend like that?”
Yan Yu: “You’re just banking on the fact that I can’t beat you! Saosao, look at her!”
Arm hooked by Yan Yu, Jiang Siyi was shaken back and forth in a frenzy of clingy whining, well on her way to becoming an inflatable tube man outside a mall.
As the only person on the court who actually wanted to play badminton seriously, Cen Lu finished her warm-up while side-eyeing their bickering.
Cen Lu: “Two on two?”
Lin Ji: “Siyi and I on one side. You two on the other.”
Jiang Siyi was a little worried. Judging by Cen Lu’s taut physique, her head-to-toe professional gear, and her history as a volleyball captain and high-jump champion, she’d probably dominate at badminton too.
Jiang Siyi pinched the hem of Lin Ji’s shirt. “Neither of us is any good. Will we be okay?”
“Relax,” Lin Ji said. “They’re not any better.”
Cen Lu and Yan Yu: ?
Lin Ji smiled at the two of them. “Right?”
Under a bright and lawful sky, a chill wind suddenly swept through.
Yan Yu: “Right…?”
Cen Lu: …
The badminton coach at ECHO Club heard that the three great beauties were back again.
The level of those three great beauties was the highest she’d seen since she’d started coaching in J City.
Rivaling professionals, even.
Last time they’d come to play, the coach had watched from the sidelines with relish.
She hadn’t seen them in a while—not a show to miss.
She bounded eagerly over to the court and looked.
The coach, her smile frozen on her face: ?
The shuttlecock floated up weightlessly, traced a leisurely curve through the air, and drifted back down.
No brutal smashes, no delicate net flicks—both sides looked like slow-motion beginners.
Gunpowder smoke: none. Pure, cozy harmony.
Half a game in, Cen Lu’s freshly warmed-up body had gone completely cold again.
So they were playing the kids’ division now.
Still—watching Xiao You and Miss Jiang win a point together and high-five, glowing with happiness… that was nice too.
She exchanged a look with Yan Yu—speechless yet gratified—and kept serving low-quality balls.
…
Facts proved that sandbagging with perfect calibration for an entire match was no easy feat either.
It demanded laser focus—no different from grinding through a whole stack of physics exam papers.
After the game, they showered in comfort and went to eat together.
As veteran members of ECHO, Lin Ji and the others each kept private clothes and personal items stored there, so they could change straight away after working out.
Fresh from the shower, they put on bathrobes and handed their sportswear to the butler for laundering; they’d change back on the way out.
Jiang Siyi had no robe stored here, so she wore Lin Ji’s.
A cherry-colored belted robe, a size too big—carrying that particular intimacy and cuteness of wearing your wife’s clothes.
The four of them settled into a garden-view private dining room, a wash of green meeting gold outside the windows. After exercise, everything tasted delicious.
Yan Yu heard that their old classmate Jiang Siling was back, and jabbed Cen Lu’s arm:
“Then shouldn’t we get our Jiejie out for a reunion? Haven’t seen her in years.”
Having gotten “Saosao” out, now “our Jiejie” rolled right out too.
Cen Lu didn’t have many memories of Jiang Siling—just that she was forever sitting in a corner, head down, drawing.
“Sure. The weather’s supposed to be great all next week. Hiking? Siyi?”
There was no way she could bring herself to call a girl several years her junior “Saosao” the way Yan Yu did.
Jiang Siyi said, “Works for me. I’ll ask my Jiejie.”
Jiang Siling had been having a ball touring the museums and exhibitions lately, saying she was hunting inspiration for new work.
Just yesterday at work, Siyi had received photos from her.
Lin Ji, gloved, devoted herself to peeling crab for Jiang Siyi.
Cen Lu chatted idly and asked why they’d registered their marriage but still hadn’t held the wedding.
This was Yan Yu’s home turf; she automatically spoke for the reticent Lin Ji.
“Oh, we’re holding it. October. The date’s already blocked off.”
Cen Lu: “At your family’s Yunding?”
“Yep!”
“What year is Yunding not packed to bursting in October? There’s still time to prepare?”
At that, Yan Yu laughed. “I’m right here, why are you worrying about that? Besides, for an October wedding, You-jie booked the venue back in February…”
Yan Yu was used to having no filter around old friends—halfway through the sentence, she suddenly realized something.
At the same moment, she did indeed catch the astonished look Jiang Siyi turned on her.
Yan Yu: …
I seem to have run my mouth.
Jiang Siyi’s chopsticks slowed.
Booked back in February?
Back then, hadn’t Lin Ji only just returned to the country?
At that point, the biggest intersection between her and Lin Ji had seemed to be the spring auction, and nothing more.
They hadn’t actually registered their marriage until July 6.
How could the wedding have been booked nearly half a year in advance?
Lin Ji felt Jiang Siyi’s questioning gaze and, without a ripple, peeled all the crab roe into a small bowl, set it before Jiang Siyi, and smiled faintly.
Yan Yu, squirming on pins and needles even with no one’s eyes on her: …
She shot Cen Lu a pleading look.
Can I leave ECHO with my head still attached?
One glance at her—looking like she’d been struck by instant menstrual cramps—and Cen Lu knew she’d put her foot in it again.
Out of friendship, she heaped a giant mound of food into Yan Yu’s bowl.
Eat more, talk less, live longer.
…
By the time they got home it was dark. Jiang Siyi took Xueqiu out for a stroll around the community.
Xueqiu trotted along and, sure enough, forged ahead of its owner again.
It looked back, curious.
Today’s walk seemed even more… wellness-paced.
She took her time strolling Xueqiu home, wiped its paws, and found Lin Ji still in the study on a conference call.
Curling Xueqiu in her arms on the sofa, she treated herself to some brainless TV for once.
By eleven at night, Lin Ji still hadn’t come out.
Probably the London business—still on calls at this hour.
Bzzt bzzt bzzt—
She stood at the sink, brushing her teeth.
Lin Ji had been in meetings since the drive back from the club, all the way until now.
Done brushing, she turned around—and there was Lin Ji, out of the study.
She’d been waiting for Lin Ji all evening, wanting to ask about that one thing.
Now the woman was walking toward her, and she didn’t know how to begin.
Their eyes met. The words rose and stalled.
Lin Ji stepped forward; Jiang Siyi instinctively retreated half a step, and the small of her back met the edge of the sink counter.
That lately very familiar hand cradled her cheek, thumb grazing past the corner of her mouth, wiping away the last fleck of toothpaste foam.
The warmth lingered at her lips. Jiang Siyi’s lashes fluttered; she was about to say thank you.
Lin Ji’s gaze shifted and settled on her eyes.
And she answered the question Siyi hadn’t yet asked, straight to the point.
“I did indeed have designs on you from early on.”
The author has something to say:
Lin Ji: Wife-pampering step 31—obediently answering all of my wife’s questions.
Footnotes
- 活菩萨 | huo Pusa | Literally 'living Bodhisattva'—a common Chinese exclamation hailing someone as a saintly benefactor, here for the small mercy of a free breakfast.
- 瑞凤眼 | ruifengyan | 'Auspicious phoenix eyes,' a classical Chinese physiognomy term for elegantly upturned eyes, traditionally read as a mark of nobility and natural authority.
- 社牛 | sheniu | Internet slang, literally 'social bull'; the opposite of 'social anxiety' (shekong), describing someone utterly fearless and outgoing with strangers.
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