Chapter 61

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The arms encircling her waist tightened slowly. That teasing voice, so close yet so elusive, brushed against her sensitive earlobe, conjuring memories of their encounter in the library. Ning Jiuwei’s breath caught, her mind utterly consumed by Su Jinglan.

Back when Su Jinglan was still underage, she had been like an inaccessible flower atop a lofty peak—one had to scale snow-swept heights and brave piercing winds to draw near. The woman she had become exuded an irresistible allure in her every gesture. The two images flickered in Ning Jiuwei’s thoughts, gradually merging into the figure now holding her from behind.

In the library, Ning Jiuwei had been the one to initiate the kiss, but only because Su Jinglan had lured her into it. Without turning around, her gaze drifted unfocused ahead as she asked the woman behind her, “Does President Su need something?”

She had deliberately lowered her voice, but Su Jinglan—ever perceptive—caught the heat and tension in her ragged breaths. Her chin dipped gently, coming to rest on Ning Jiuwei’s shoulder. “Yes.”

That single, softly spoken word carried a warm puff of breath against her neck. Ning Jiuwei’s heart jolted, and she swallowed reflexively.

A tender kiss alighted on her temple, light as a feather’s stroke, sending an itch that seeped through her skin straight to her core. Ning Jiuwei fought to steady her breathing, turning with a gasp to protest, “Don’t…”

Su Jinglan claimed her lips, swallowing the rest of her words in fervent passion.

It was the intimate exchange of lovers, and Ning Jiuwei had no defense against it. Her senses, sharpened to a razor’s edge, were enveloped by Su Jinglan’s essence—even her heartbeat fell captive to her command. The air she breathed was laced with the rich, crystalline notes of Su Jinglan’s perfume.

She felt Su Jinglan’s hand slipping beneath the hem of her shirt, fingertips tracing tantalizing patterns across her bare skin. Ning Jiuwei seized the wandering hand and twisted her head away. “I’m going to take a shower. I’m all sweaty.”

The words tumbled out like an unwitting invitation to pick up where they’d left off once she was clean. Ning Jiuwei pried the arms from her waist, reining in her disordered breaths, and said to Su Jinglan without so much as a backward glance, “President Su, please head back to your own place.”

That ought to clear up any misunderstanding.

Yet Su Jinglan pulled her close once more, nestling against Ning Jiuwei’s shoulder with lingering reluctance. The gentleness in her eyes now laid bare a smoldering desire, and she gazed at the woman in her arms with a vibrant smile. “Teacher Ning tastes so sweet.”

So this was what a kiss felt like—blazing hot, impossibly soft, utterly soul-seizing. Ning Jiuwei squeezed her eyes shut, quashing the surge of heat with effort, and replied with feigned indifference, “I thought it was just okay. Nothing like what I’d imagined.”

“Then let’s try again. This time, I’ll make sure Teacher Ning is satisfied.” Su Jinglan refused to be swayed. With a smile, she leaned in closer, her lips seeking the curve of Ning Jiuwei’s neck.

Before they could land, Ning Jiuwei pressed a hand to her head and pushed her back. “President Su, consider that repayment for my impropriety toward you in the library. Now we’re square—no debts on either side. Please go, President Su.”

Addressing her as President Su over and over framed their kiss as nothing more than a transaction between superior and subordinate.

“It seems I went a little too far.” If they were settling scores, Su Jinglan vowed perfect equity. She beamed playfully at Ning Jiuwei. “Teacher Ning should hold me a while longer.”

She licked her lips with pointed suggestion. “The time and intensity fell short.”

Ning Jiuwei couldn’t bear to hear another word. She abandoned Su Jinglan in the entryway and retreated to the bedroom.

She locked the door from the inside, barring any chance of intrusion. Clutching the knob, Ning Jiuwei drew in deep, shaky breaths to dispel the fire raging through her.

Summer was still weeks away, yet the bedroom felt oppressively stuffy, her skin prickling with a fresh sheen of sweat—more intense than any gym session. She glanced down at her white tracksuit, tugged the zipper, and shrugged off the jacket.

Beneath it lay a quick-dry short-sleeved tee emblazoned with the brand’s logo. Ning Jiuwei stepped into the bathroom and peeled it off, then cupped handfuls of cold water to splash across her face.

Her mind ceased replaying the fleeting library kiss and pivoted instead to the deeper one in the entryway, emotions rising and crashing in endless waves.

Bracing herself against the vanity, Ning Jiuwei let out a heavy sigh. She lifted her gaze to the mirror: damp strands clung to her forehead, droplets beaded along her brows and the bridge of her nose, and rivulets from her flushed cheeks traced her jawline to gather at her chin before falling in slow, deliberate drops into the pristine white basin.

Far from cooling her, the icy water only stoked her blood into a fiercer tumult.

The trill of her phone pierced the open bathroom door and reached her ears. Ning Jiuwei’s body quivered faintly; the fragile distraction she’d mustered shattered at the mere thought of Su Jinglan’s name.

She checked the caller ID and exhaled in quiet relief.

Just a sales pitch. Not Su Jinglan.

Had Su Jinglan finally returned to her own apartment?

Holding her breath, Ning Jiuwei strained to listen for any sounds beyond the door. The apartment’s excellent soundproofing, for all its virtues, was a curse now—she couldn’t tell if her guest had departed.

It didn’t matter. The bedroom door would stay locked all night.

Ning Jiuwei filled the tub with steaming water and queued up a movie to watch as she soaked.

The circulating hot water massaged her tense muscles, while the sea salt bath bomb foamed up to blanket the entire surface of the tub. Ning Jiuwei closed her eyes listlessly, utterly uninterested in the movie.

With her eyes shut, her hearing sharpened. The movie’s echoes bouncing around the bathroom disturbed her thoughts, so Ning Jiuwei turned it off, plunging the room into silence.

Time dragged on, minute by slow minute. After soaking for half an hour, the exhaustion weighing down her body faded away, and the restless heat surging through her gradually ebbed in the water. Ning Jiuwei activated the smart shower to rinse off the suds, then stood under the drying system’s warm air vents until every drop of water was gone.

The necklace around her neck hadn’t come off once since she’d first put it on. Ning Jiuwei had grown so used to its weight that she barely noticed it anymore. She wrapped herself in a bathrobe and padded back to the bedside. Eyeing the two quilts on the bed, she folded up the one from the guest room and set it on the stool at the foot of the bed.

The smart control panel on the bedroom headboard managed the lighting for the whole house. Bedtime had come earlier than usual tonight, well before the auto-off sensor kicked in. Ning Jiuwei tapped the screen to wake it, hesitated for a few seconds, then switched off everything except the master bedroom lights.

Darkness swallowed the living room. The balcony, curtains tightly drawn, admitted not a sliver of light. Su Jinglan, who had been waiting on the sofa for Ning Jiuwei to let her in, let out a soft laugh at the sudden blackout.

Ning Jiuwei really wasn’t going to let her share the bed.

The lingering taste and feel of their kiss refused to fade. Su Jinglan brushed her fingers over her lips and peered toward the master bedroom through the dark. She knew the house’s layout by heart—no lights needed to guide her straight to the bedroom door.

“Designer Ning?” Su Jinglan knocked lightly.

Ning Jiuwei glanced at the door but pretended not to hear, offering no response.

From beyond the bedroom door, Su Jinglan sent Ning Jiuwei a message: I’ve gone back to my place. Good night, Designer Ning.

They really shouldn’t sleep together tonight. Restraint had been easy before she’d had a taste, but now, after sampling that sweetness, Su Jinglan wasn’t sure she could keep her hands to herself.

Ning Jiuwei read the message but didn’t reply.

Su Jinglan flicked on the corridor light and made her way slowly toward the entryway, one deliberate step at a time. Ning Jiuwei’s gym bag sat prominently on the entryway cabinet. Su Jinglan’s eyes lingered on it as her hand rested on the door handle, delaying the inevitable.

The house was deathly quiet, silent enough to hear a pin drop. Su Jinglan glanced back at the master bedroom. From the moment she’d sent the message, Ning Jiuwei hadn’t responded—or even cracked the door to peek out.

Su Jinglan went back to her own apartment.

Assistant Lin had already left, leaving the place hushed and empty save for her. Her mind, buzzing with excitement, refused to wind down. Su Jinglan fetched blank drawing paper and pencils from the study, then spread them out in the living room.

She laid the paper across the coffee table, sharpened a pencil, and tried sketching ideas for the annual new product.

But her brain refused to cooperate on designs. Su Jinglan swept the pen and paper into the coffee table drawer, surrendering her thoughts entirely to Ning Jiuwei.

Without Ning Jiuwei beside her, Su Jinglan simply couldn’t sleep.

The orange glow of the wall lamp bathed the bed in warmth. Su Jinglan mulled over her relationship with Ning Jiuwei—and the fact that it still wasn’t official—chasing away what little drowsiness she’d mustered.

She sat up against the headboard and grabbed her phone from the bedside table, opening the chat with Ning Jiuwei.

It was late; Ning Jiuwei had probably drifted off by now.

But Ning Jiuwei was still awake.

She always switched her phone to sleep mode at night to fend off disturbances. Restless, Ning Jiuwei unlocked the screen and opened WeChat. Several unread messages waited; she scrolled through them, her eyes settling on Su Jinglan’s name.

The last one was still Su Jinglan’s good night to Designer Ning.

Ning Jiuwei locked the phone again and burrowed back under the covers.

Without that steady breathing at her pillow, she should have fallen asleep more easily. Ning Jiuwei shifted through several positions, but drowsiness only crept in after a long while.

She dozed fitfully that night, waking and drifting off repeatedly. Ning Jiuwei hadn’t slept well. When she finally stirred the next morning, she stared blankly at the empty half of the bed for a moment before remembering she’d spent the night alone—Su Jinglan wasn’t there.

Right on cue with Ning Jiuwei’s usual commute time, Su Jinglan stepped out of her apartment, hoping for a serendipitous encounter on the way to the company.

She never spotted Ning Jiuwei. Instead, word came that Ning Jiuwei had beaten her to the office.

“President Su, Designer Ning got to the company just after eight.” Assistant Lin checked the rearview mirror before addressing the president in the back seat. “She shut her office door the moment she arrived and turned on the humidifier.”

The drive from Xitang Mansion to the company took twenty or thirty minutes, which meant Ning Jiuwei must have risen before seven.

Apparently, without Su Jinglan there, Ning Jiuwei had slept like a rock—up early to dive into her design drawings, working with an intensity unbecoming of a chief designer.

Su Jinglan leaned back in the car seat, eyes closed in repose. Once at the company, she headed straight to the President’s Office of the Top Tier Group to tackle her daily tasks.

After spending the morning on the top floor, Su Jinglan leisurely made her way to the 6th Floor Design Division in the afternoon. As she neared Ning Jiuwei’s office, she deliberately slowed her pace.

The office door stood open, with Zhang Xiaoyue inside.

Su Jinglan paused to listen for a moment and overheard them discussing the annual new product’s design. She stepped inside.

“President Su.” Zhang Xiaoyue spotted the president and rose from her chair with a beaming smile. “We were just talking about the annual new product. Designer Ning has sketched out a design drawing—please take a look.”

Ning Jiuwei was her precious darling, and to keep Designer Ning from offending President Su again down the line, Zhang Xiaoyue seized the chance to build some goodwill. “So far, she’s the only one in the division who’s finished a draft.”

Su Jinglan glanced at Ning Jiuwei, her eyes conveying a depth of meaning that only the other woman could decipher. She accepted the design drawing and smiled as she asked, “How long did it take Designer Ning to come up with this bracelet design?”

Zhang Xiaoyue jumped in eagerly. “My darling Designer Ning whipped it up in just one night, didn’t you, darling?”

“Hm?” Su Jinglan’s smile vanished, her expression sharpening into something cold and piercing.

Ning Jiuwei remained calmly seated in her chair, looking at the Design Director. “I happened to have some inspiration, so I managed to sketch it out in a single evening.” Without missing a beat, she added, “You two keep chatting. I have something to take care of and need to step out.”

She didn’t bother gathering any of her things before rising from her seat.

“Designer Ning, hold on a moment.” Su Jinglan called out to her unhurriedly, then turned to the Design Director. “I need to speak with Designer Ning privately.”

Zhang Xiaoyue caught the hint and departed at once. “Sure, you two talk.”

The moment she was gone, Su Jinglan turned to Ning Jiuwei. “Why does she get to call you darling?”

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