Crossing the Line – Chapter 86
by Little PandaEpilogue (1)
An Allure Steeped Through with the Weight of Dampness
So that was why he’d come — to apologize.
Jiang Siyi hadn’t merely hit the man — she’d hit him until the trash can rang out clang after clang.
Every gaze in the first-floor office area converged on Jiang Siyi.
No one had imagined that the BOSS’s wife, so refined and delicate-looking, could beat a man until the trash can itself came away deformed.
Flushed red from head to toe, Jiang Siyi didn’t dare spare a single extra glance; shielded by Lin Ji, she swiftly tucked herself away inside the office.
The door swung shut, and she discovered that the amusement in Lin Ji’s eyes had never once gone down.
“Stop laughing…”
Even Jiang Siyi’s fingertips had turned red.
“Mm. Not laughing.”
But when Lin Ji drank her water, she hid her face behind the cup — and the corner of her mouth left exposed was unmistakably curved upward.
“Lin Ji!”
So herbivores could be fierce too.
Not only could she beat people with a trash can — she could pounce.
Jiang Siyi had only meant to cover up that thoroughly wicked grin of Lin Ji’s, but the pounce carried her clean into the other woman’s arms.
The mouth was muffled, true — except she’d landed seated face-on in her lap, an unambiguous case of hurling herself into an embrace.
The door and the windows were all shut, and this posture, set down in Lin Ji’s immaculate office, framed by the orderly office furnishings and the cold, hard décor, looked thoroughly indecent.
Her face, already burning terribly, now felt outright aflame.
She tried to get down; a palm braced her lower back and pressed her right back in, snugger than before.
Not enough — both arms slid around from either side of her waist and wound tight.
Lin Ji: “Seatbelt fastened. No need to worry about falling.”
Jiang Siyi: “…I didn’t ask for a seatbelt. I want to get down!”
“You can sit whenever you say sit — but leaving isn’t so easy.”
Lin Ji didn’t let go. Chin resting against her chest, she gazed up at her and said tenderly, “Why so shy? When I charge into battle for you, I never count the costs, never mind the embarrassment. Do you know how magnificent you were just now, protecting me? From here on, that President Zhou will start detouring a hundred meters out the moment he sees me. With Little Jiang Jiejie protecting me, no one will ever dare bully me again.”
At the address “Little Jiang Jiejie,” Jiang Siyi frowned — and smiled.
“What even is that.”
Lin Ji kept coaxing. “The second half of my life, I’m entrusting to Little Jiang Jiejie.”
The emotion that had erupted in the grip of fear was still swelling against her heart. Hearing Lin Ji tease her on the surface while soothing her underneath it, she was happy — her eyes couldn’t help curving.
When Jiang Siyi wasn’t smiling, her beautiful eyes held a deep sediment of worry. Once she smiled, it was like the thin vapor rising off newly boiling tea — the delicate fragrance drifting free, then gathering again at the tip of the nose.
The tip of her heart, teased by that voice — cool and clean, yet threaded through with warmth — put forth one small, tender blossom, soft beyond bearing.
Lin Ji nuzzled her ear against Jiang Siyi’s — nuzzling her soft, and herself warm.
Her fingertips traced along the little wings at the back of her neck, then slowly sank into her hair, the pads of her fingers reading the heat that radiated off her skin, the aftershock of emotion.
She kneaded slowly through the long hair, helping her unwind.
Tension and shame, with every press of Lin Ji’s fingertips, were breathed out of Jiang Siyi’s body, one exhale at a time.
She kissed the tip of Jiang Siyi’s ear, and was answered by the faint tremor of her body waking back into sensitivity.
“Those flowers — they’re for me?”
Past Jiang Siyi’s shoulder, she had seen the Black Baccara roses on the desk.
Jiang Siyi nodded against her shoulder.
“…My wife has excellent taste.”
When Lin Ji praised how beautiful the flowers were, there was a very slight pause.
She had seen the medicine jar sitting not far from them.
She didn’t know whether Jiang Siyi had noticed.
While her thoughts were still circling, her face was caught between Jiang Siyi’s two palms, lifted, held to eye level.
Lin Ji: ?
Jiang Siyi: “No need to work out how to hide it. I’ve already seen it.”
Lin Ji: …
The medicine jar was behind Jiang Siyi, and she hadn’t even turned to look…
Jiang Siyi: “And I didn’t just see it now, either. I noticed it back at the hotel on the island.”
She hadn’t probed at the time, but she could guess what it was.
Something related to the claustrophobia and the severe insomnia — medication that treats anxiety disorder.
So Lin Ji let Jiang Siyi keep hold of her face, fingertips stroking slow circles at her waist, and confessed of her own accord:
“The doctor says once I finish this course, I can try coming off the medication. Then I’ll be a normal person — and I can give you the very best of everything.”
“You’ve always been the best. And everything you’re willing to give me is the best, always.”
She’d tried to keep her voice level, but urgency still bled through.
“Xiao You, I don’t only want to share life’s sweetness with you. I want to carry all of its bitterness with you, too. Everything of mine is yours. And in just the same way — your past and your future, your happiness and your pain — all of it is mine as well. Mine.”
Jiang Siyi’s possessiveness made Lin Ji’s eyes go hazy.
So the grass-grazing doe had this scorching side to her.
Those lips, darkened red by emotion, were inviting her kiss.
Kissed until she felt too much, Jiang Siyi’s whole back burned; terrified of losing control right here, the hands braced on Lin Ji’s shoulders pushed — half refusal, half welcome — her voice sticky and blurred:
“Not here…”
Of course not here. Lin Ji knew her natural shyness, and would never allow her the slightest possibility of exposure to another’s eyes.
Her wife was too enticing; there was only one problem with that.
It was very hard to endure.
The Black Baccaras stayed cradled in Lin Ji’s arms the whole way home, and the late-autumn wind on the road couldn’t quench the fire of love burning in her chest.
Click.
The door shut; the Black Baccaras landed on the bed, the red-black blooms clashing vividly against the soft misty pink of the sheets.
Cool, pale skin like snow under winter sun — a hand white as jade stroked over that winter snow, kneading, gripping, leaving marks that belonged to it alone.
Jiang Siyi’s eyes had completely lost focus.
A pillow cushioned her waist.
Her eyes, touched with a watery sheen, were soaked through with desire.
Long black hair spread across the sheets; her hand reached down for Lin Ji, cradling the head with its hair tied up.
At the root of her thigh, one water-red bite mark stood clear.
Lin Ji spread her five fingers and effortlessly lifted the pale, gleaming leg.
Her tongue, a soft blade and a flame, burrowed deep into Jiang Siyi’s body.
Sensations she had never once imagined seared her until she seemed to melt from thigh-root to waist.
Her body, soft past all strength, was arranged exactly as the other pleased.
She was gathered up from behind; lips alighted on the little wings, in an instant became a gentle bite, then a slow grinding.
The little wings flushed utterly red, quivering, as if about to fly away — but Lin Ji bit them back between her lips.
Every inch of it was Lin Ji’s marks.
The person in her arms panted in small sounds, while her body’s responses were blatant past all decency.
Water slid from her knuckles, dripped onto the sheets, fell onto the Black Baccara petals like night dew.
Carried to the window, narrow hands braced against the glass, drifting with the motion — now touching, now not.
Steam was spreading.
Even without seeing Jiang Siyi’s face, anyone could tell her ears were going from red to a deep, thick blood-red.
The late-autumn moon steeped in dew; cold white moonlight wrapped the flushed body, lighting the gleaming wetness along her collarbones.
Lin Ji noticed that Jiang Siyi — once so slender her very shoulders had chafed — had been nourished by her into a certain fullness.
Flesh filling out day by day beneath skin like congealed cream1, the greenness slowly fading, the curve of her shoulders gentled a good deal.
Two plump buds hung heavy on the branch, while her waist stayed drawn tight and slender.
In her first-ripe charm lay an allure she herself didn’t know was there — steeped through with the weight of dampness.
Kissing from shoulder to the hollow of her neck — the woman kissed into delirium turned her face aside to chase her lips.
Invading each other’s lips and teeth, the moon over the courtyard sank west; the entwined red lips took on the pale snow-color of winter.
After three seasons’ absence, the heavy snow once more blanketed the city.
The courtyard was heaped with snow.
When the wind blew, the treetops shook down flurries; the silver-white everywhere dazzled the eye.
It was morning, nearly time to leave for work.
The kiss ended, still reluctant.
Jiang Siyi belted her coat for her; she wound a warm scarf around Jiang Siyi.
“See you tonight.”
Jiang Siyi, face still flushed from her kisses, held Lin Ji’s shoulders and dropped one more kiss on her.
Lin Ji: “There’s a gift for you.”
“A gift? What day is it?”
There didn’t seem to be any holiday — New Year’s was still a few days off.
“Today is the day I want you to be happy.”
Lin Ji handed her a folder — inside, the handover checklist of an art restoration company.
Jiang Siyi’s eyes went round.
Her mother’s startup company!
Back when the company her mother had poured countless hopes into was sold off by Jiang Luo, she and her sister had only just been finding their feet in their own careers; even with the legacy their mother had left them, they’d had no power to stop it, and could only watch her life’s work pass into someone else’s hands.
Now, years on, she and her sister had both stepped into brand-new lives, their assets substantial.
Jiang Siyi had been meaning to ask Lin Ji for guidance — to learn how one acquires a company, and buy it back.
Before she could even open her mouth, Lin Ji had already seen it done.
Jiang Siyi stared at the stack of handover documents, stunned.
“How could you not tell me…”
Lin Ji carefully drew Jiang Siyi’s long hair out from under the scarf.
“Learned it from you. Do only. Say nothing.”
Jiang Siyi was so happy she didn’t know what to say; she flung her arms around Lin Ji and burrowed in, refusing to come out.
The impact knocked Lin Ji half a step back — “Aiyo.”
A certain grass-grazing doe, all slim arms and slim legs, could collide with real force.
She contentedly bore the weight and patted her head.
“Cen Lu handled this for us. We should remember her kindness.”
Jiang Siyi nodded hard inside her embrace.
Lin Ji tapped her pink ear-tip.
“If you don’t leave for work now, Little Manager Jiang is going to be late.”
The year’s first heavy snow, and with it news this good.
While waiting for her coffee in the office pantry, Jiang Siyi video-called her sister.
Jiang Siling and Glenda had gone back to the West 5th District; Christmas was near, and Glenda was taking her to visit family.
The call connected, and Jiang Siyi told her sister the news of Mother’s company being bought back.
Jiang Siling let out a shriek that startled Glenda, who was carrying the turkey to the table, into nearly taking a tumble — juggling it left and right like an acrobat, she finally got the turkey back onto the platter; mercifully, their dinner suffered only flesh wounds.
Jiang Siling: 【Xiao You and her sisters got it all settled? That’s wonderful — it feels like our other sister, long adrift out there, has finally come home.】
Jiang Siyi felt it too.
A lack, lost for so long, had strangely returned to her life.
As she stitched Lin Ji’s wounds closed one by one, Lin Ji was carefully restoring her life.
The company had come back; Lin Ji handed it over to Jiang Siyi, for her to learn to run.
Of course, if she didn’t want to learn, that was fine too — Lin Ji would manage it well for her.
There was nothing wrong with learning to run a company; it was a whole new field, and Jiang Siyi was genuinely interested.
Besides, there was a ready-made fine teacher at home.
Jiang Siyi wanted to discuss it with Manager Wu — whether the company could partner with the Gold, Stone, and Jade Department, providing support for the restoration of auctioned artworks. It was right in her own field of expertise, so the early going would be surer in her hands.
Coffee in hand, Jiang Siyi returned to the Gold, Stone, and Jade Department and knocked on Manager Wu’s office door.
The moment her knuckles left the wood, a flurry of panicked commotion erupted inside.
Jiang Siyi, who used to push the door open the instant she’d knocked, suddenly stopped in her tracks.
What was that sound?
Several seconds later, Wu Yilu said, “Come in.”
Her voice was unnaturally tight.
Somehow, the scene surfaced of its own accord in Jiang Siyi’s mind — that day in Lin Ji’s office, sitting in her lap, kissing her.
No way…
She was just thinking she’d better come back another day when the door was pushed open — by Duan Ning, not Wu Yilu.
Duan Ning’s face wore a suspicious flush that had no business existing at nine in the morning.
Already on her way out, she was addressing the Manager seated in the chair with the utmost propriety:
“Well — that’s all on the New Year theme auction for now. Next time I have a better proposal, I’ll touch base with you again, Manager Wu.”
Wu Yilu sat with her legs crossed, an electronic pen waggling ceaselessly in her hand.
“Mm, fine. Off you go then, Xiao Duan, back to work.”
Jiang Siyi: …
She very much wanted to say: Duan Ning, this is not your character.
And also: Manager Wu, you’re trying to look relaxed, but you’re wound tight enough to snap.
Duan Ning, on her way out, was pulled back by Jiang Siyi, who shut the door.
Duan Ning and Wu Yilu: ?
In silence, Jiang Siyi re-fastened for Duan Ning the third shirt button that had — for reasons unknown — come undone.
Duan Ning: !
Jiang Siyi couldn’t quite bring herself to look at Wu Yilu; out of the corner of her eye she said, “Manager Wu, you might want to wipe your neck too.”
Wu Yilu: !!
She checked the mirror at once and found, on her neck, a lip print in exactly the same shade as Duan Ning’s lipstick.
She shot Duan Ning a speechless glare.
Who told you to go fooling around!
Duan Ning: .
Having tidied up after them like a fussy old mother, Jiang Siyi found the office of the three of them more than a little awkward, and could only say:
“You two — carry on. Manager Wu, let’s chat on WeChat.”
Then, smiling and tactful, she withdrew — and closed the door behind her on her way out.
The office held just the two of them again.
“I told you Siyi was one of us…”
Duan Ning blinked, then scratched her cheek, sneaking a guilty yet wistful look at Wu Yilu.
“So… shall we continue?”
Wu Yilu: .
The art restoration company smoothly reached a long-term partnership with the Gold, Stone, and Jade Department.
Manager Wu assigned Duan Ning to liaise with Jiang Siyi on the work — and the two of them spent the entire afternoon liaising on how she and Ms. Wu Yilu had gotten tangled up together in the first place.
Jiang Siyi figured theirs was love grown over time; she’d sensed the sprouts of it earlier on.
Duan Ning: “Really? I hadn’t thought it through at all. Right after the Autumn Auction, she kept saying I was philandering2 outside. I couldn’t even work out which way was ‘outside’ and which was ‘in.’ But to prove I wasn’t philandering, I — well, I kissed her.”
Jiang Siyi propped her cheek on one hand. “And the causal logic between those two events is…?”
Duan Ning: “Anyway — Wu Yilu angry looked so kissable, and after being kissed her face went so red that…”
She ran out of nerve to finish, and giggled madly, as though she’d gotten into the rat poison.
Jiang Siyi understood it all, and happily clinked her afternoon-tea cup against hers.
“Happy romance.”
Duan Ning: “Happy romance!”
The author has something to say:
Lin Ji: Wife-pampering, Step 43 — those who know know 8.0.
The next chapter should be the final chapter~
Footnotes
- 凝脂 | ning zhi | Literally 'congealed cream' — a classical epithet from the Book of Songs (China's oldest poetry anthology, c. 11th–6th century BCE) describing a beauty's skin as smooth, pale, and lustrous as set cream; it became the standing byword for flawless skin in Chinese literature.
- 沾花惹草 | zhan hua re cao | Literally 'to touch flowers and trifle with grass' — a classical idiom for serial flirtation and philandering that paints the flirt as wandering through a garden, plucking at whatever blooms along the way; Duan Ning's confusion over which direction counts as 'outside' plays directly on this literal garden imagery.
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