Crossing the Line – Chapter 81
by Little PandaA Kiss Upon the Chest Tattoo
【I want… I want a Sister-Wife1!】
Three-year-old little Siyi said it with absolute certainty, good and loud.
It left twenty-five-year-old Jiang Siyi wide-eyed, her face burning.
Sister-Wife…
How had she dared call her that as a kid?
She’d once complained that Lin Ji’s meimei squad outnumbered and out-menaced everyone — turns out she herself had been a card-carrying veteran member of the meimei squad all along.
Jiang Siyi was too mortified to continue. She reached to fast-forward.
Lin Ji caught her fidgeting fingers.
Lin Ji: “No fast-forwarding. Sister-Wife is going to watch this all the way through — I want every single detail.”
Jiang Siyi: …
The address that had Jiang Siyi dying of shame got repeated, pointedly, right in her ear — and her ear went red on the spot.
In the video, Tao Xu laughed too and took little Siyi’s hand to walk on.
There was a stretch of seaside footage in the middle; the two of them went to wash up, watching as they washed, and after washing they climbed back into bed — Lin Ji resuming her hold on Jiang Siyi from behind.
Not far from the frame was the beach, and little Lin Ji and Lin Xuebo were on it.
Little Lin Ji had been building a sandcastle — already half her height, practically an art installation. She was pondering how to do the second story when she spotted little Siyi. Her eyes lit up; she abandoned the castle and sprinted toward her.
Tao Xu laughed: 【My, my — only the second day since the engagement and they’re already stuck together like glue.】
Lin Xuebo came over in an enormous sun hat, long skirt streaming.
【She’s fiercely independent at home — sleeps on her own already, and won’t even humor me when I want to keep her company. Barely acknowledges her own cousins. Never imagined she’d adore little Siyi this much. What if she grows up to be a total slave to her wife?】
This time it was Jiang Siyi’s turn to laugh.
Lin Ji: …
Ms. Xuebo, you really are…
A genuine prophet.
Jiang Siling was with their grandmother, painting at the hotel, so Tao Xu strolled the beach with her younger daughter and her future in-law — she’d come out specifically to film little Siyi and little Lin Ji.
The camera stayed fixed on the two little girls walking ahead, hand in hand, while Tao Xu’s voice carried from behind the lens.
【When the two of them grow up, we’ll dig this video out and show them. What a keepsake that’ll be.】
Twenty-some years later, Lin Ji and Jiang Siyi nodded in unison.
Yes — it was practically the only memento of their original engagement.
Mom really had been playing the long game.
Little Siyi stepped on something and flinched away in fright.
Little Lin Ji glanced down and said it was seaweed.
Little Siyi insisted it was poop, wailing: 【I stepped in poop!】
Both mothers nearly laughed themselves into the next life.
Little Lin Ji considered picking the seaweed up to prove to her meimei that it really wasn’t poop. But she thought better of it — terrified that if she picked it up with her hands, her meimei would decide she was dirty and stop playing with her.
Little Lin Ji: 【Then let’s go rinse our feet in the sea. Once they’re rinsed clean, they won’t be dirty anymore, okay?】
Little Siyi’s long lashes were clumped into little wet tufts; she pouted and nodded.
Tao Xu: 【This child is impossible to soothe at home — how does one word from her sister-wife fix everything?】
Lin Xuebo chimed in, gossipy: 【Ours is the same. Never coaxes anyone.】
Tao Xu, delighted: 【Coaxes nobody but her own wife.】
Under both mothers’ watchful care, little Lin Ji led little Siyi off to rinse her feet.
They didn’t go deep — just to the exact line where the water could reach.
The waves rolled in and swallowed little Siyi’s ankles, setting her small body swaying.
She was a little scared, and she kept looking at little Lin Ji.
So six-year-old little Lin Ji, with all the sense of duty of a caretaker of her meimei-wife, stepped around behind her: 【Now that I’m standing behind you, it’s not so scary anymore, right?】
Little Siyi leaned against her, happily bobbing her round head — even thrusting out her little belly, brazen as anything, fearless in the surf.
They soaked in the sea together, stacked sand together.
When she got tired of playing and couldn’t walk another step, she demanded little Lin Ji carry her.
She even tugged at little Lin Ji’s hem, acting spoiled.
Little Lin Ji had in fact surrendered ages ago — she just wanted to watch little Siyi be cute a little longer, and held out a whole extra minute before saying yes.
The carry wasn’t easy, but it was steady.
Little Siyi trusted her completely, and fell asleep in her arms.
Little Lin Ji kissed her cheek. Sweat beaded on her forehead, but she was smiling in pure contentment.
Tao Xu and Lin Xuebo said in unison: 【Born a pair.】
The video had been filmed in fits and starts — several little segments, which Jiang Siling had thoughtfully edited together.
Before long it reached the end.
Back at the hotel, Tao Xu came to take her younger daughter up to the room.
But little Siyi hung off little Lin Ji’s body, still refusing to have anything to do with her own mother.
Even Tao Xu laughed: 【Can’t bear to be apart from your sister-wife for even one second, hm?】
Lin Xuebo said gently: 【Little Siyi, you’ll get to see Jiejie again tomorrow.】
Little Siyi gazed reluctantly at the sister holding her, blinked slowly — and then said the one thing nobody saw coming.
【I want a kiss.】
Three little words, and the heat that had barely subsided from Jiang Siyi’s cheeks came flooding back.
Lin Ji, wrapped around her from behind, said nothing at all — but Jiang Siyi could feel the smiling gaze resting on her.
In the video, little Lin Ji gave a shy little smile and said: 【Okay.】
She was just turning her cheek for the kiss when little Siyi planted one right on her lips.
Both mothers standing by went “wow.”
【Was that the first kiss?!】
Little Lin Ji, caught completely off guard, was kissed red in the face.
She stared, stunned, at little Siyi.
Having finished the kiss, little Siyi supplied her own sound effect: 【mua】.
Then she climbed down and thanked her with great seriousness: 【Thank you, Sister-Wife, for carrying me.】
Little Lin Ji: 【…You’re, you’re welcome.】
That was where the footage ended.
The moment the phone screen went dark, Jiang Siyi curled in on herself.
How could this be…
How could she have been that forward as a child?
Lin Ji, glued to her back, only held her tighter and said nothing.
In the black screen’s reflection, she could see Lin Ji’s chin resting on her shoulder — smiling without a sound.
Waiting for her to deliver her closing statement on the theft of her first kiss.
Jiang Siyi: “Back then… it was definitely a very innocent kiss.”
Lin Ji: “Mm-hm. What other thoughts could a three-year-old possibly have?”
Jiang Siyi: “It was purely to thank you for carrying me…”
Lin Ji: “Mm-hm. What other thoughts could a three-year-old possibly have?”
Jiang Siyi: .
She turned around to face Lin Ji.
“You’re gloating, aren’t you?”
The moment she said it, two words surfaced in her mind — and overlapped exactly with what came out of Lin Ji’s mouth.
“I might.”
Jiang Siyi: …
She clamped Lin Ji’s face between her palms.
Lin Ji let her, talking through pinched lips, air leaking out the sides.
“I’m not sch-gloating — it’sh more like being overwhelmed by favor.”
As if Jiang Siyi couldn’t hear the teasing in that.
“It really was very innocent.”
Lin Ji: “Then let’s have something not-so-innocent now.”
The words pricked at the tip of Jiang Siyi’s heart.
Ticklish.
The Lin Ji before her — letting her squish her face as she pleased — overlapped with the girl who had once carried her.
Sure enough…
Back on that engagement island, the one who’d planted the little seed of “like” in her heart hadn’t been Lin Ji alone.
She drew Lin Ji’s face in slowly, parting her lips against hers.
Lin Ji cradled the back of her head, fingertips threading into her hair with relish, kneading gently.
She ceded the lead to Jiang Siyi entirely, savoring the pull of her inexperienced, green caresses.
From lips to neck, kitten-soft kisses fell one by one.
A kiss landed on the chest tattoo — tender lips reading the scars beneath the ink.
She kissed them with aching tenderness.
“I want this tattoo too. One just like yours.”
Jiang Siyi, chin resting on Lin Ji’s abdomen, said it softly.
Lin Ji gave her hot, flushed ear a gentle roll between her fingers.
“Mm? This little line drawing?”
Jiang Siyi nodded, perfectly serious:
“I want your matching one.”
“First I wanted your matching one, and now you want mine. So whose matching one is it, exactly?”
“What are you even saying.” Jiang Siyi laughed despite herself.
“Once the honeymoon’s over, we’ll go to Yan Yu’s studio, and I’ll ink it on you.”
“Okay!”
She gave Jiang Siyi’s ear a light tug.
“Then keep kissing me now.”
That one light tug — feather-light — sent a tingle spreading down from her ear.
She propped herself up, trailing kisses from the faintly rippling muscle of her abdomen all the way up to the tattoo.
Hot kisses fell on it, over and over.
The old wounds, covered in love-filled kiss marks.
That subtle happiness blurred Lin Ji’s gaze out of focus.
They did nothing else the entire morning.
Just stayed “impure,” loving each other the whole time.
By noon, after a morning of strenuous labor, Jiang Siyi’s stomach was growling.
Lin Ji ordered room service with one tap.
They ate, cuddled up, and napped a while. Toward dusk they went back to the beach, hoping to find the spot where they’d rinsed their feet in the video.
Using the position of the distant island in a screenshot, they locked the location in.
They sat side by side in the very same spot — talking about the past, talking about the future, saying whatever came to mind.
Beloved at her side, waves the same as ever, drowsy smiles on their lips.
Jiang Siyi leaned her head on Lin Ji’s shoulder and watched the sun sink below the sea line once more.
Used to a life of constant busyness, Jiang Siyi wasn’t quite accustomed to the slower rhythm — she worried Lin Ji might find it dull.
Lin Ji stroked her face: “How could it be slow? This is the happiest time of my whole life — if anything, it’s going too fast. Every minute and every second with you is wonderful. It could never be boring.”
Being loved unconditionally sent sweetness washing through Jiang Siyi; her fingertips tapped happily against Lin Ji’s knee.
Being her wife, sure enough, was bliss.
…
After more than half a month on the island, they planned to drive themselves back to J City.
They’d head straight home. While packing, Jiang Siyi spotted two unfamiliar medicine bottles in the hotel trash can.
All-English labels. She gave them one glance, something thoughtful passing behind her eyes, and didn’t dig further.
They made the return trip a leisurely one, sightseeing along the way and picking up local specialties and gifts for family and friends.
The day they got back to J City, gifts in hand, they went to Yan Yu’s tattoo studio.
Receptionist Xiao Shen spotted the missing person and gasped: “Teacher Lin, you’re here!”
Then she noticed the beautiful young woman at Lin Ji’s side — and remembered instantly: the one Teacher Lin had named, back then, insisting on inking her personally.
And now they’d come in together?
Another glance at the rings on their hands.
These two… were married?
Xiao Shen immediately staged an entire epic romance — destiny striking from clear blue skies — inside her head.
Lin Ji gave Xiao Shen a faint smile and asked whether Yan Yu was in.
“She is — she’s about to tattoo a client, in Operation Room No. 1.”
They were about to go wait in Yan Yu’s office when a woman with a distinctly unfriendly face came through the front door.
She was early thirties, gold wire-rimmed glasses, elegantly styled French-cut mid-length hair brushing her shoulders. Her features were refined and rational — the dream partner of sapiosexuals everywhere — except that, for reasons unknown, a faint anger simmered in her brow.
Xiao Shen was a little frightened, but she still went up to greet the client.
The dream partner, angry as she was, maintained basic courtesy: she asked whether the studio had received an underage girl.
Xiao Shen thought it over. “There was a young client surnamed Yu who came in for a tattoo, but she said she was of age.”
The dream partner: “Where?”
Xiao Shen trembled, glanced instinctively toward Operation Room No. 1, then said: “I, I’ll go ask for you.”
The dream partner swept toward Operation Room No. 1 like a gust of wind. Xiao Shen chased after her trying to block her, but alas — those legs were simply too long; there was no catching her.
The operation room door swung open, and the two people inside flinched in unison.
Yan Yu was standing in front of a pink-haired girl — her mask hooked by the girl’s finger, dragging her whole body downward, a hair’s breadth from a kiss.
This was her client, booked for today. The girl wanted a tattoo on her collarbone and had asked Yan Yu to help mark the position.
Yan Yu, thinking nothing of it, was helping her mark it with full professionalism — when the girl pulled her mask aside, saw her face (prettier than even the studio’s official website photos), bit her lip, and said:
“Jiejie, could you tattoo a kiss right on my lips?”
Before Yan Yu could even register that this was flirting, she’d been hooked down — ambushed completely.
The pink-haired girl’s sudden move had already given her a fright; and now the door had to open at this, the most awkward possible moment. Her scalp had barely begun prickling when her eyes turned toward the door — and she froze solid.
The sister she’d pined over for days on end. The one she’d dreamed of just last night.
The absolute dream type who’d swapped shoes with her in Forest Park — and then walked off without even adding her as a contact.
Pinned by the icy gaze behind those gold wire-rimmed glasses, Yan Yu snapped bolt upright, and the mask’s ear loop snapped clean off.
The pink-haired girl turned in the middle of her own surprise, saw who it was, and said mournfully:
“Yu Qingshi, you’re a lawyer, not a cop — do you really have to tail me this tightly?”
Waves of heat surged through Yan Yu’s chest.
Yu Qingshi. Even the name — she loved it this much.
Her type, from now on, would simply be called “Yu Qingshi.”
Yu Qingshi walked straight up to Yan Yu, planted herself between her and her sister, emotionless lips moving:
“《Measures on the Governance of Tattooing for Minors2》, Article Four: no enterprise, organization, or individual may provide tattoo services to a minor. Would you rather pay a massive fine — or have your business license revoked?”
At first Yan Yu hadn’t heard a single word Yu Qingshi said. She’d just been looking at that face — even more beautiful than the stolen glance in Forest Park.
Yu Qingshi was issuing a warning; she was seeing hearts and flowers.
Yu Qingshi waited for the tattoo artist to argue back — she had sharper rebukes loaded and ready.
She waited an eternity, and got nothing but a besotted stare.
Yu Qingshi: ?
Lin Ji, standing at the door, took one look at her childhood friend in this state and knew she was smitten to the point of death — soul scattered to the four winds. Unable to watch any longer, she prompted:
“Did she use □□?”
Yan Yu came back to herself and asked the girl seated before her: “You’re a minor? Why did the ID you showed just now say you were twenty-one?”
The pink-haired girl said, perfectly blasé: “It was fake, obviously.”
Yan Yu: …
Kids these days dye their hair pink, fine — but they use □□ to get tattoos now too?
Thank goodness my sister — no, her sister — arrived in time, or this already ill-fated tattoo studio would truly have gone under.
But it hadn’t, had it.
Yan Yu’s greatest virtue was that she never dwelled on anything for long. The small rain cloud in her heart evaporated on the spot, and she stepped around the pink-haired meimei and walked up to Yu Qingshi.
Yan Yu: “If I really had tattooed her — would you have arrested me?”
Yu Qingshi’s brow creased faintly.
Was this about an actual arrest?
It was a line of flirtation. Lawyers, of course, don’t arrest anyone.
Yan Yu realized the other woman still didn’t recognize her.
“You really don’t remember me?”
She’d joked with Cen Lu before: if they ever met again, she’d propose on the spot.
And the woman had wiped her from memory entirely.
Yu Qingshi turned her face away, expressionless, and gifted Yan Yu two words:
“Frivolous.”
Yan Yu: …
She’d been filed away as a random street-flirter.
Which, admittedly, she was.
Yu Qingshi didn’t look at Yan Yu again. She grabbed her sister and left.
Absolutely, definitively no recognition.
Or perhaps she had recognized her — and, exactly as in Forest Park, simply had no interest in getting to know her further.
Yan Yu melted into the sofa.
The person she’d pined over for so long finally appeared — and left her with nothing but the impression of “frivolous”…
In all these years, only this Miss Yu had crossed paths with her and still forgotten her clean.
Yan Yu pulled out her phone and switched to the front camera.
Am I really that unremarkable?
She was mid-study of her own features when a WeChat message arrived.
From the pink-haired meimei.
【You like my sister? No chance. She’ll probably go her whole life without knowing what an org..asm is.】
Yan Yu: ?
She’d barely finished reading when the pink-haired meimei recalled the message.
Then sent an eyelid-pulling, tongue-out sticker.
Yan Yu furiously replied: 【Show some respect for your sister. She cares about you, you ungrateful little brat!】
What a rotten kid.
And then she blocked her.
A moment’s thought: with pink-hair blocked, how was she supposed to reach Yu Qingshi?
No good. She’d been called frivolous, sure — but Yu Qingshi was far too much her type.
She unblocked her immediately.
And discovered that the pink-haired meimei had deleted her.
Yan Yu: …
“Pathetic.”
Lin Ji, making preparations to tattoo Jiang Siyi, said:
“The one you’ve been mooning over all this time is her?”
Yan Yu nodded, soul adrift.
Jiang Siyi saw the state she was in and quietly poured her a glass of water.
“Have some water.”
Yan Yu took it with drooping eyelids, murmuring her thanks.
“Saosao Baobao really is the best.”
Two sips in, Yan Yu asked Lin Ji: “You-jie, you’ve got schemes coming out your ears — you said ‘marry’ and actually got married. Can you teach me a few?”
At the word “schemes,” Jiang Siyi went quiet and simply watched Lin Ji.
In her heart, Lin Ji was wringing Yan Yu into five different colors; on the surface, the water stayed perfectly calm.
“What schemes? I had none.”
Avoiding Jiang Siyi’s probing gaze, Lin Ji beamed.
“That was called courting her with genuine, painstaking care. Sincerity brings success.”
Yan Yu: “Mm. Ms. Dai speaks the truth.”
Ms. Dai, you keep on pretending.
Jiang Siyi: ?
Ms. Dai? As in… the Ms. Dai of the toast-bagging fame?
Rendered somewhere between tears and laughter by the pinpoint accuracy of the jab — ears burning — she sneaked a glance at Lin Ji.
Lin Ji: …
The author has something to say:
Lin Ji: Step thirty-nine of wife-pampering — truly, in the fullest sense, pampering her since childhood
Footnotes
- 姐姐老婆 | jiejie laopo | Literally 'big-sister wife' — a toddler's mash-up of the address for an older girl and the word for spouse. Three-year-old Siyi's coinage for Lin Ji during their childhood engagement, revived decades later as an intimate pet name between the two wives.
- 未成年人文身治理工作办法 | Wei Chengnian Wenshen Zhili Gongzuo Banfa | China's Measures on the Governance of Tattooing for Minors, a State Council regulation effective June 2022 that prohibits any enterprise, organization, or individual from providing tattoo services to minors, backed by hefty fines and business license revocation.
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