Crossing the Line – Chapter 84
by Little PandaI’m Just Not the Kind of Person Who Gets Jealous Over Nothing and Doesn’t Know Better
The sky paled at the horizon; dawn broke once more.
When Bo Ting dragged her utterly exhausted body out of the police station, a Bentley swung its door open.
“Teacher Bo.”
Jiang Siyi and Lin Ji were actually here, waiting for her.
Her hearing aid broken, Bo Ting turned her left ear toward Jiang Siyi to listen, lenses of her glasses still cracked.
“I’m sorry for dragging you two into this.”
Jiang Siyi shook her head.
“That woman — is she really your wife?”
“Mm…”
Not wanting to continue the topic, Bo Ting took out her phone. “Add me as a friend. Send me the photos of the pendant.”
Lin Ji stood three paces away, watching Jiang Siyi’s back.
Back when Jiang Siyi had said she would help her find the pendant, she had never brought it up again afterward.
The matter never on her lips had, it turned out, been quietly advancing all along.
No words. Only deeds.
Pleasantly, Lin Ji rubbed the edge of her coat pocket with her fingertip.
Some people looked terribly quiet, but were in fact superb at pampering someone without making a single sound.
Jiang Siyi could tell something was wrong with Bo Ting’s ears — the way she angled her left ear was unmistakable.
And last night, at Jiashibi’s back door, she had picked the glasses up off the ground, along with something that looked like a hearing aid.
Teacher Bo actually needed a hearing aid.
To hold an unbeaten record for five years while living with such a deranged, viciously abusive wife — it was hard to imagine how she’d managed it.
So that Bo Ting could hear her clearly, Jiang Siyi stood quite close to her.
While the two added each other as friends, Lin Ji behind them did not blink once.
My wife is socializing for my sake.
Arms crossed over her chest, a decorous smile on her lips, Lin Ji soothed herself inwardly.
It’s fine.
Mm-hm, mm-hm, mm-hm — my wife does it all for me.
Dawn light spread across Bo Ting’s deathly pale face; through the cracked lenses, Jiang Siyi saw her eyes webbed with red.
Friend added, photos sent, Bo Ting closed her aching eyes for a moment. Her whole being was badly scattered; she fought to gather her consciousness and said:
“Submit an equipment-use request through the company system. I’ll teach you how to operate it.”
The equipment was actually not simple to use, but Bo Ting assumed Jiang Siyi was smart enough to learn it in one go.
“Taking turns on the modeling and matching will be faster. Not right now, though — after the Autumn Auction.”
Jiang Siyi kept watch on her condition.
“Mm, I understand… Teacher Bo, are you all right?”
Bo Ting: “I’m fine. Just a little tired.”
Depriving her of sleep was one of the ways that crazy woman abused her.
She had gone more than thirty hours without closing her eyes.
She simply didn’t want to show a weak side in front of a junior she barely knew.
Jiang Siyi knew what chronic insomnia looked like. Bo Ting’s state right now closely resembled Lin Ji back then, when she’d gone forty-odd hours without sleep.
Jiang Siyi asked her to wait a moment, walked back, and murmured a few words to Lin Ji.
Lin Ji nodded. She returned and said to Bo Ting:
“The Autumn Auction is almost here, and in your current state you certainly won’t hold up. If you’re worried about being harassed further, you can come rest at our home for a few days. My wife and I will both be there. It’s very safe.”
Just now, she had been asking Lin Ji’s opinion — whether they could help Bo Ting.
Lin Ji knew she was soft-hearted — perhaps with a hint of emotional transference mixed in — and naturally supported all her decisions.
Bo Ting: “No need. While she’s in detention, there’ll be exactly enough time for me to prepare for the Autumn Auction.”
Jiang Siyi offered her goodwill and went no further, respecting the other woman’s pride.
“All right. Then whenever you have time, Teacher Bo, I’ll come find you.”
After parting with Jiang Siyi and Lin Ji, Bo Ting didn’t go home.
She disliked that gloomy, chilling house, saturated with that woman’s presence.
She returned to Jiashibi and, on the small bed in her office, endured her body’s discomfort, willing herself to fall asleep as fast as she could.
In truth, neither Lin Ji nor Jiang Siyi had slept much the night before.
Jiang Siyi had originally told Lin Ji not to come along to the police station — it was too early, and she wanted her to sleep a little longer.
“Of course I can’t let you go alone.”
Lin Ji had gotten up with her.
“Won’t you be short on sleep?” Jiang Siyi cradled her face in both palms, kneading it gently with worry.
“I’ve been sleeping very well lately. Getting up early once in a while is nothing — I’m not that fragile. Besides, whether that Teacher Bo will bring any other dangers with her, we don’t yet know. Only at your side can I be at ease.”
And so Lin Ji had come along to the police station.
After meeting Bo Ting and confirming the search for the pendant, the knot lodged in Jiang Siyi’s heart finally had hope of coming loose.
The Gold, Stone, and Jade Department’s Autumn Auction was over. Jiang Siyi had two days of rest, after which she’d go back to rehearse her solo special.
Today she could rest. Back home, held in Lin Ji’s arms, the two of them took a morning catch-up sleep together.
After lunch, Lin Ji went to the study for a meeting.
Jiang Siyi called Lin Xuebo and asked about that Ancestral Jade Dragon and Phoenix Pendant from years ago.
On the other end, Lin Xuebo — who knew which round of drinks she’d had — had been slightly tipsy, but at Jiang Siyi’s question her tone quickly turned sober.
【I’ve only ever seen photographs of that pendant. It was most likely resold by that goddamned trafficker from back then. It isn’t just Xiao You — Lao Kong and I have been searching all along. But the details are too blurry to confirm anything.】
Jiang Siyi nodded. It seemed matching through the equipment was the only way.
【Was the trafficker from back then ever caught?】
Lin Xuebo sighed softly with regret. 【Not yet. I’ve kept watch on every news report of traffickers being brought to justice, and I’ve never found anyone matching Xiao You’s description. There were too few surveillance cameras back then. The man vanished like a drop of water into the sea — no way to even begin the search.】
If they found the pendant, they might be able to trace it back to its source, find that trafficker, and bring the root of all this evil to justice.
That villain had put Xiao You through so much suffering, nearly destroying her whole life. A family torn from their own flesh and blood for years — and even the engagement between her and Xiao You had been thrown into chaos.
At the thought, an uncontrollable fury kindled in Jiang Siyi’s chest.
They had to catch that man. They had to make the trafficker face the punishment he deserved.
No matter how hard, how exhausting, no matter how much energy and money it cost, Jiang Siyi would see it through to the end.
For all those days she hadn’t been at Xiao You’s side, the gash torn open in Xiao You’s heart — Jiang Siyi wanted to try to stitch it closed for her, properly.
After finishing her meeting in the study, Lin Ji received a call from Fan Qing.
A brief rundown of the utter pandemonium now gripping the Jiang Luo household.
In all the days Jiang Cheng had lain in the hospital, his condition had never improved, and he’d left no advance directive. The ongoing medical bills were a bottomless pit. The Jiang family was already bankrupt, with no money to sustain further treatment, so Jiang Luo and Zhao Jun signed the consent form to abandon care.
On the very day the form was signed, with Jiang Cheng barely cold in death, Jiang Luo and Zhao Jun had a blazing row at the hospital.
The two were already preparing to divorce.
Jiang Luo was bankrupt with no road forward, and Zhao Jun no longer wanted the son who had become a vegetable either.
As early as two months ago, Zhao Jun had secretly found her next target: a small-business owner.
The man currently had just two companies to his name, plus shares in some startups — nothing compared to Jiang Luo at his peak. The good part was that his businesses were running well; there was still a future to run toward.
Surely better than continuing to suffer hard times with Jiang Luo.
Zhao Jun had seen through it: this man had no way to stage a comeback.
Behind Jiang Luo’s back, Zhao Jun had been seeing the small-business owner for a while, planning to rush into her new life once the divorce from Jiang Luo went through.
But of all timing, right at this critical juncture, Jiang Luo discovered her heart had long since strayed.
It was Zhao Jun who had persuaded Jiang Luo to give up on Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Luo had been reluctant beyond measure — a hundred thousand times over. That was his son, his lifeblood.
But there was truly no way around it. The money was gone.
He’d abandoned treatment through tears — and who could have guessed that Zhao Jun had done it all to slip away completely?
Jiang Luo flew into a rage, arguing from the ward to the morgue, from the morgue to the crematorium.
Everyone around was intensely curious about this couple — that they could still scream themselves red-faced at a time like this.
Zhao Jun left before Jiang Cheng’s first seventh day1 had even passed. The divorce, ironically, was still dragging on unfinished. Jiang Luo’s mind had begun to slip; he spent his days loitering near Zhao Jun’s new home with a knife in hand.
Lin Ji could already foresee the ending: Jiang Luo and Zhao Jun would destroy each other.
Fine by her. Let the wicked grind each other down, lifetime after lifetime.
Just never let them come near Jiang Siyi again.
After a moment’s thought, she messaged Cen Lu on WeChat, asking how the acquisition of Tao Xu’s art restoration company was progressing.
An hour later, Cen Lu replied: 【Should make it in time as a New Year’s gift.】
Period: 【You’re the best* * *gif】
Across the city, Cen Lu — skateboarding out of sheer boredom — nearly pitched off her board, face-first toward the ground.
She looked once. Looked again. It really was Lin Ji.
Lin Ji had gone completely “Jiang Siyi-fied” now.
Why was every last one of them force-feeding her dog food2?
Hmph. Disgusted, Cen Lu sent back an eye-roll sticker.
After that night’s Autumn Auction, Jiang Siling’s name had exploded across the West 5th District overnight.
Her agent said every major gallery and auction house was begging for her new work.
She’d sent her agent photos of that earlier painting, 《Happiness》, and the agent video-called her, telling her to ship 《Happiness》 back — the appraisal had already reached eight million dollars.
Hearing “eight million dollars,” Jiang Siling automatically converted it into RMB in her head, counted the zeros for a quick thrill, and then turned her agent down.
【That’s the wedding gift for my little sister. It’s already hanging on her wall, and she loves it. Let me paint another one — inspiration’s exploding lately.】
The agent called her “BB” and “Bunny” at every turn, sending over countless kissy-face and “you got this” emojis.
Jiang Siling was still in China and couldn’t feel firsthand how hotly sought after she’d become in West 5th District circles; she simply kept painting face-to-face with Glenda at the hotel, the two of them trading critiques.
After two more visits to the rehabilitation department, Glenda’s cervical spine felt far better.
With her neck loosened, her mind grew sharper too — perhaps the roads above and below had finally been unclogged. The final detail of her new painting, the one she’d been wavering over, resolved itself; these past two days her inspiration ran wild like an unchained dog, and in one burst she finished the new work.
Jiang Siling absolutely adored Glenda’s new painting.
It was a work built from the elements of Jiang Siling’s own hands and eyes.
It carried on her usual abstract, grotesque style, but the palette had a different brightness — a brightness that made her personal style all the more distinctive.
Even someone who knew nothing about oil painting would be struck straight through the heart at the first sight of that colossal canvas.
The painting’s name was — Siling.
Siling, in Chinese characters.
Glenda herself was satisfied too. Once her agent had seen it, the agent was thrilled beyond measure.
The agent predicted the hammer price would surely exceed forty million dollars.
The name “Jiang Siling” was destined to lay down a stroke of the richest ink and color across Glenda’s artistic career.
Ten years, twenty years, a hundred years from now — whenever anyone spoke of Glenda, they would speak of this painting, and of the name Jiang Siling.
Before the canvas, Jiang Siling and Glenda kissed hungrily, tangled in each other, possessing one another until their strength gave out.
They fell asleep in each other’s arms and woke to go on loving.
Three days passed steeped in sweetness.
On the third morning, Glenda woke on the floor, Jiang Siling cradled in her arms.
The first thing she saw on waking was her beloved. The second was the painting.
The beauty inside the painting and out composed an indescribable divinity.
In the morning light, Glenda kissed her muse.
……
With Jiang Siyi leading the charge and Wu Yilu, Duan Ning, and the other colleagues all pulling together, the Gold, Stone, and Jade Department’s Autumn Auction closed out flawlessly.
Everyone had performed beautifully. Wu Yilu secretly ran the revenue numbers ahead of time.
Halfway through, before even adding in Wang Tai Tai’s grand-finale bead necklace, she didn’t dare keep counting.
She was afraid that if she kept going, she’d wake up laughing in her dreams tonight.
That little throw-in department had truly made something of itself…
Revenue this high — higher than the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Department in any past year.
Duan Ning had just gotten word through the grapevine, and she shut the door before telling her:
“Oliver really thought Huang Qingzheng’s paintings counted toward his department — that any auctioneer could hammer it for two hundred million — and he even handed Xiao Duo’s work to another auction house on a silver platter, certain the Autumn Auction was in the bag. Who’d have thought you’d played him? Huang Qingzheng’s paintings are selling in Siyi’s solo special, counting toward her personal numbers. Oliver won’t even have time to cry. This year the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Department is heading for a defeat unlike anything in its history.”
Remembering how many women Duan Ning had entangled herself with out there — so many Wu Yilu didn’t even recognize them all — she gave her side a vicious pinch, drawing a shriek of pain.
“Wu Yilu! How can you pinch someone!”
“What do you mean, I played him? Wasn’t that his own greed? Well, congratulations — President Yan just happens to be here inspecting. If the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Department, holding every advantage in lot value, still loses to our department, his run as manager is over. Even his uncle’s protection won’t save him.”
Thinking of how, during the Spring Auction, Oliver had egged Wan Xin on to hijack Jiang Siyi’s auction session, Duan Ning still found the man shameless beyond belief. Now he was reaping what he’d sown.
Duan Ning: “Serves him right. May President Yan unleash her full wrath and banish him to the frontier — forever.”
Perhaps Duan Ning’s mouth really had been consecrated.
Before the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Department’s Autumn Auction deadline, Oliver failed to sign a single centerpiece lot appraised at over a hundred million.
One of the house’s pillar departments facing an Autumn Auction without a blue-chip benchmark — a first since the J City Jiashibi’s founding.
Before the auction even opened, Oliver claimed he’d fallen ill and couldn’t lead the team, shamelessly turning himself into a hands-off manager.
Fortunately the department still had Vice Manager Yao, who could shoulder the load, and she convened an emergency department meeting on the spot.
Eight at night.
After the final rehearsal of her solo special, Jiang Siyi passed the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Department on her way to find Bo Ting and saw the whole department blazing with light.
She withdrew her gaze, crossed the corridor, and reached the Oil Painting Department.
Only Bo Ting remained in the entire office.
Bo Ting had already changed into a new pair of glasses, and the hearing aid had been fitted.
Seeing Jiang Siyi come over — that clean, fair young face — the girl’s brow creased almost imperceptibly the moment she stepped into the room.
Bo Ting opened the window to air out the smell of smoke.
Jiang Siyi: “Teacher Bo, I’ve already submitted the equipment-use request.”
“Mm. I’ve approved it.”
Jiang Siyi saw that Bo Ting was still terribly haggard, and the office bore traces of being lived in — she was probably sleeping here these days.
When Bo Ting went to the printer for the equipment instructions, through the hair hanging down, Jiang Siyi saw a shocking old scar behind her right ear.
When Bo Ting turned back, Jiang Siyi’s gaze didn’t withdraw in time, and the two of them locked eyes without warning.
Bo Ting touched the back of her ear reflexively, her expression dimming slightly.
“An old wound, from long ago. Don’t dwell on it, and don’t pity me.”
Jiang Siyi gave an “Mm.”
“About my situation — please don’t tell anyone.”
“Of course I’d never reveal your private matters to anyone.”
Jiang Siyi noticed Bo Ting holding an unlit cigarette, kneading it anxiously.
“If you’re not at ease, I could tell you one of my own things, in exchange.”
After a stifled pause, Bo Ting said: “Then you’d be getting the worse end of the deal.”
For the first time, Jiang Siyi spoke with someone she barely knew about the pain from before she met Lin Ji.
It was, in fact, somewhat similar to Bo Ting’s situation.
The bewilderment, the confusion, the helplessness — all of it had long receded. Looking back now, she marveled at what she’d ever been hesitating over, what she’d been reluctant to let go of, why she hadn’t cleanly and decisively left someone who didn’t love her at all.
After hearing Jiang Siyi’s past, Bo Ting’s eyes went somewhat unfocused. Only after a long moment did she speak:
“She and I… have been bound together by fate for many, many years. I can no longer tell whether she cares about me too much, wants to possess me too much, or simply takes pleasure in tormenting me, to fish for some comfort.”
Jiang Siyi didn’t know the specifics of Bo Ting’s history with her wife, but one thing was certainly true of everyone.
Jiang Siyi: “I once thought love meant searching for meaning inside pain. Until I met a true heart. That true heart is what made me certain — someone who truly loves you could never bear to hurt you.”
A faint glimmer of being moved flashed through Bo Ting’s eyes, and her chest rose once, beyond her control.
Not wanting to expose too much emotion, she changed the subject:
“Tonight I can only teach you some simple operations for now. We’ll continue when I’m back.”
“Back?”
“I’m flying to Paris tonight.”
The Oil Painting Department’s Autumn Auction was right in front of them. As the department’s manager and its pillar, this was the moment she should have been pouring herself into rehearsals.
Flying to Paris?
Jiang Siyi: “Did something happen?”
As Bo Ting stapled the printed instructions together, she didn’t look up, only saying:
“My… the family of the woman I married — because of the conflict between her and me — canceled the centerpiece lot the Oil Painting Department had already secured for this year. I need to go to Paris to negotiate with another agency we’ve been in contact with and ship a new painting over. Any later and the approvals won’t clear in time.”
In an instant, Jiang Siyi remembered how it had felt when Song Hui had made things difficult for her.
Furious — and helpless.
Flying to Paris tonight to source a painting — the timing was impossibly tight. A desperate operation within a desperate operation.
Bo Ting was already packing up. When she rose, her vision suddenly whitened, and she swayed on her feet.
More than thirty hours without sleep had wrung her out. If Jiang Siyi hadn’t caught her with quick eyes and quicker hands, she’d already be on the floor.
She eased her slowly onto the sofa. Bo Ting’s face, deathly pale to begin with, was now entirely drained of color. Helpless, Jiang Siyi poured her a glass of water.
“You can’t go on like this. Forget Paris — you won’t even make it out of this building.”
The hand Bo Ting held the glass with was trembling beyond her control.
Jiang Siyi thought for a moment, then sent out a WeChat message.
A reply came quickly.
Her eyes lit up.
It could work. Thank goodness.
Jiang Siyi said: “Teacher Bo, I have a proposal. See if this works for you…”
Listening weakly to Jiang Siyi’s words, Bo Ting was somewhat astonished.
“You actually know her… If this really comes together, I don’t know what I could ever repay you for a favor like this.”
“Consider it repayment for helping me and my wife find the pendant.” Jiang Siyi smiled. “Rest well tonight. Tomorrow I’ll arrange for you two to meet.”
Bo Ting raised her bloodshot eyes. Exhaustion shrouded her cool, clear features, but the poise of a years-long ace auctioneer remained; however weary, the timbre of her “thank you” was still limpid.
……
Leaving the Jiashibi tower, in the parking lot not far away, that familiar Bentley had been waiting for her who knew how long.
The owner of that “true heart” stood outside the car in the cold, rising night wind, waiting as she always did.
Just to catch sight of her wife one moment sooner.
“Sorry — something held me up.”
In her wool coat, Jiang Siyi trotted quickly up to Lin Ji, breathing out an adorable puff of white mist.
“Have you been waiting long?”
Lin Ji took her hand. Why was it so cold?
So she simply gathered her whole body into her arms, wrapping her inside her own coat.
“Not long. Don’t rush — it’s not like I’m going to run off.”
The person saying “don’t rush” was in fact more anxious than anyone.
Her mind spat out the thought “why isn’t she out yet, should I go in and check” eight hundred times a minute.
All the way home, right up to the front door, Jiang Siyi told Lin Ji everything — tonight’s conversation with Bo Ting, and every detail of their cooperation.
While warming her ten fingers one by one, Lin Ji said, in a slow drawl:
“Explaining in such detail — afraid I’ll get jealous?”
Jiang Siyi’s little finger curled softly against Lin Ji’s index finger.
As if coaxing her without a sound. As if begging for mercy.
Lin Ji caught that little finger and stroked it with her fingertip.
“You have your own judgment; of course I trust you unconditionally. I’m being so good — how could I get jealous over something like this?”
“Good — no jealousy, then.” Jiang Siyi breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll go take a shower first.”
Lin Ji: .
All that goodness, and all she got back was “going to shower”?
Shouldn’t there be a bit more pampering in return?
“How can you just walk off.”
She pulled Jiang Siyi back and circled her into her arms.
In her thin, fitted black sweater, Jiang Siyi’s waist looked even more slender, her figure all the more enticing.
“I’m being this good — no reward?”
How could anyone actually ask to be rewarded.
Smiling, Jiang Siyi rose slightly onto her toes, looped her arms around Lin Ji’s neck, and drew her down.
She placed soft little kisses on Lin Ji’s ear — from the rim to the lobe — pressed the tip of her tongue against it, then took it in her mouth, not quite skillfully.
Her ears, sensitive to begin with, were kissed twice; the tingling, tickling sensation sent numbness all the way down Lin Ji’s spine.
Cradling the back of Jiang Siyi’s head, Lin Ji kissed her from the living room to the walk-in closet.
She undid her clothes, leaving them half-shed, hanging from her wrists.
Two ragged breaths nearly melted into one, the steamy scent of bath gel warming against body heat.
Jiang Siyi was drawn into Lin Ji’s arms, clinging and adoring, and carried back to the bedroom.
So comfortable she was nearly falling asleep in Lin Ji’s embrace — when the image of Xueqiu eyeing her sideways suddenly surfaced in her mind.
Ah — she hadn’t fed Xueqiu yet!
She struggled upright.
She couldn’t let Xueqiu go on thinking its mother was neglecting it.
Jiang Siyi went off to feed Xueqiu. Lying on her side on the bed, Lin Ji savored her wife’s initiative just now.
Could it be she really was afraid I’d get jealous, and that’s why she coaxed me?
Impossible.
I’m just not the kind of person who gets jealous over nothing and doesn’t know better.
Lin Ji picked up her phone. As she drifted in thought, her hands, of their own uncanny accord, opened the Jiashibi official website.
On the homepage was the Autumn Auction’s promotional image.
In the most prominent spot, unmistakably, was a half-length image of Jiang Siyi standing side by side with that Bo Ting.
【Jiashibi Twin Stars Shine at the Autumn Auction】
Twin Stars?
That glaring line of text made Lin Ji’s eyelid twitch faintly.
She thought for a moment, then stole a glance outside the room. Jiang Siyi was still feeding Xueqiu.
Sneaking furtively, she opened the browser and typed the name “Bo Ting” into the search bar.
The author has something to say:
Lin Ji: Step 42 of pampering your wife — never get jealous over nothing. And if you really do accidentally eat some vinegar, eat it in secret 🥺
Footnotes
- 头七 | tou qi | The seventh day after death in Chinese funerary custom, when the soul of the deceased is traditionally believed to return home for a final visit before departing. The family holds rites and keeps vigil, and the mourning period is counted in these seven-day cycles.
- 狗粮 | gou liang | Literally 'dog food' — internet slang for public displays of affection, mocking how single onlookers are forcibly 'fed' while couples flaunt their love.
0 Comments