Chapter 44

The corners of the omega’s eyes still held a vivid flush.

Ye Chengxing froze upon hearing Li Jia’s words.

Had she meant it that way? It didn’t seem like it.

“Wait, maybe I didn’t express myself clearly. That’s not what I meant,” Ye Chengxing said instinctively, hurrying to explain.

“So, I can still act spoiled with you, right, Big Sis?” Li Jia turned her gaze back to her. Her features were already strikingly beautiful, and with the expression she wore now—eyes misty like morning dew—it could melt anyone’s heart into softness.

“Of course…” Ye Chengxing nodded. But before she could finish the sentence, Li Jia suddenly rose and moved to her side.

Li Jia lowered her lashes. “But there are so many more things. I only know about this one now. There are tons I don’t know if I can do. Can you tell me while I try them out on you, Big Sis?”

…Try what, exactly?

Li Jia took her hand.

Ye Chengxing met Li Jia’s eyes.

The omega’s gaze was crystal clear and luminous, the faint red at the corners of her eyes now softened to a pale tint.

“For example, holding hands like this?”

Sunlight streamed in from the floor-to-ceiling window. Li Jia’s tone was utterly earnest—in fact, everything about her, from her movements to her behavior, felt completely neutral, like the most ordinary of friends. There was no sense of crossing any lines.

Yet the warmth of their palms touching spread straight through her. For some reason, Ye Chengxing felt her face heat up. She averted her gaze and cleared her throat lightly before speaking. “That’s… fine.”

The omega nodded at her response. In the next instant, she subtly tightened her grip, her fingers slipping through Ye Chengxing’s to interlace them.

Li Jia’s eyes never left her face, as if capturing every tiny shift in the alpha’s expression. “What about this?”

Their fingers now fully entwined, the heat in her palm felt even more intense. Ye Chengxing pursed her lips. “That… feels a bit too intimate.”

“Okay.” Hearing this, Li Jia released her hand at once, her face showing no other emotion. She looked like she was simply asking and making a note of it.

Ye Chengxing had thought that would be the end of it, but she hadn’t expected Li Jia to confirm it so meticulously.

It was strange. The window was open, letting in a gentle breeze, and the room wasn’t particularly warm. Yet she felt her cheeks burning and her ears turning red.

Li Jia didn’t keep her hand free for long. Almost immediately, she switched to linking arms with her. “Got it—that one’s off-limits. How about linking arms like this?”

“If we go shopping together, or out somewhere fun, could I do this?”

Her question was so sincere, her tone straightforward and open.

Ye Chengxing pictured the scene Li Jia described and saw no issue with it. She nodded. “Of course.”

Li Jia murmured her acknowledgment. But instead of letting go, she drew even closer, using the linked arm to pull Ye Chengxing right into her embrace.

The omega’s arms were incredibly soft, accompanied by the sweet scent of white peach.

The hug caught her completely off guard. Ye Chengxing’s eyes widened slightly.

Li Jia’s voice rang clear in her ear. “What about a hug? If I hug you like this, Big Sis, would you hate it?”

All the sounds around them seemed to fade away in that embrace.

It took Ye Chengxing a couple of seconds to process Li Jia’s words.

…Hate a hug from Li Jia? She didn’t hate it at all.

Besides, a quick hug like this was something friends could do.

Ye Chengxing shook her head. “I wouldn’t hate it.”

After a moment’s thought, she added earnestly, “A hug like this is perfectly fine.”

Li Jia seemed unable to hold back a soft laugh at her answer. “Big Sis, you really are…”

The final words lingered tantalizingly on her tongue, bitten off in a way that left them deliciously ambiguous.

The alpha before her was like a blank sheet of paper. And the purer she was, the more Li Jia wanted to stain her with desire—to see her flushed with want because of her.

Ye Chengxing hadn’t caught the last part. The alpha let out a soft questioning hum.

“Nothing,” Li Jia said, her laughter bubbling up even more uncontrollably. “I mean, I get it.”

Ye Chengxing had a gut feeling that wasn’t what Li Jia had said, but since she insisted, Ye Chengxing let it drop without asking further.

She pursed her lips, her face still burning. After exhaling softly and waiting for the heat to subside a little, she lifted her eyes—only to meet Li Jia’s smiling gaze head-on.

She had no idea how long Li Jia had been watching her like that.

The warmth that had just started to fade from Ye Chengxing’s cheeks surged back in an instant.

Especially since she realized Li Jia still hadn’t let go.

Ye Chengxing shifted in her arms. “Now that you’ve asked about this one, you can let go…”

Before she could finish, Li Jia reached up and brushed a hand through Ye Chengxing’s hair. “You’re right. Time to ask about something else.”

As she spoke, her fingertips trailed from the strands down to Ye Chengxing’s ear, then lightly skimmed over the elegant line of her collarbone.

Ye Chengxing had no choice but to cut herself off with a hasty “Wait—”

But Li Jia moved too quickly. In the blink of an eye, her hand slid down to Ye Chengxing’s waist.

“…What’s this?” There was a hint of puzzlement in the omega’s voice.

The next moment, Ye Chengxing felt Li Jia’s fingers press—not too hard, not too soft—into the dimple at the small of her back.

“…”

“Xiao Li!”

Their eyes met. Ye Chengxing watched as the girl before her obediently withdrew her hand, blinking innocently before praising her with utmost sincerity. “Big Sis, you have dimples in your waist. They’re so pretty.”

Ye Chengxing had already been feeling a subtle unease, and this compliment only made it worse.

But Li Jia’s expression was utterly guileless—nothing off about it at all.

Maybe… it was just that their past intimacy, combined with the omega’s dependence on her, made it hard for her to sense boundaries.

Straightening her face, Ye Chengxing emphasized, “That’s not allowed.”

Li Jia nodded obediently. After a couple more glances at Ye Chengxing’s waist, she suddenly turned around and lifted the hem of her own shirt a little. “Are you mad at me, Big Sis? I have waist dimples too. You can touch them back—I won’t mind.”

Touch them… back?

What was she even doing?

Ye Chengxing reached to tug the shirt down, but her eyes landed on a glimpse of flawless pale skin. In her fluster, she squeezed her eyes shut. But it was too late; she’d seen it. Her ears burned red. “P-put your shirt down… That’s not allowed either.”

Li Jia’s voice sounded panicked too. “Ah? That’s not okay either? I didn’t know, Big Sis. I’m sorry.”

Not daring to open her eyes—not sure if Li Jia had dropped the shirt—Ye Chengxing hurried to soothe her upon hearing that near-tearful apology. “It’s fine, it’s fine. You didn’t mean to.”

Little did she know, the omega she thought was innocently apologetic wore an expression—and tone—that was the polar opposite.

With Ye Chengxing’s eyes closed, Li Jia took the opportunity to openly study her face.

Ye Chengxing couldn’t see, so she had no clue just how close they were.

The alpha’s cheeks held a thin blush, her full lips glossy and a pretty pale pink. Her long lashes trembled faintly. She looked… utterly kissable.

Li Jia licked her own lips ever so lightly.

Whether it was her imagination or not, Ye Chengxing felt the air around them growing warmer, her heartbeat turning restless in a way she couldn’t quite name.

Li Jia fell silent for a moment.

After a pause, eyes still shut, Ye Chengxing ventured, “Xiao Li… have you put your shirt down?”

Li Jia watched her lips part and close with each word, her own eyes darkening. Then she straightened up, putting some distance between them, and smiled as if nothing had happened. “Yeah, it’s down. You can open your eyes now, Big Sis.”

“Mm-hmm.” Ye Chengxing opened her eyes as she responded.

Relief washed over her silently when she saw Li Jia’s shirt properly in place.

But that fleeting image lingered stubbornly in her mind.

Gazing at the sweetly smiling Li Jia, Ye Chengxing felt her face flush even deeper.

Fine. As Li Jia had said…

Waist dimples really were pretty.

In the end, Ye Chengxing did eat that slice of cake.

Once Li Jia learned why she’d refused, she declared it the simplest thing in the world. “Big Sis, just bite the cake without touching the fork, right?”

Ye Chengxing lowered her gaze slightly. “That’s true, but…”

But that wasn’t the point at all.

Seeing her hesitate, Li Jia apparently thought she didn’t know how. She demonstrated again with the fork. “See, Big Sis? You really won’t touch the fork like this.”

With that, the omega let out a sigh full of earnest sympathy. “Big Sis, you’re such a dummy.”

Ye Chengxing, abruptly dubbed a dummy: “…”

But they’d reached this point. Refusing further would seem unreasonable. With a helpless sigh, Ye Chengxing leaned in and took a bite from the position Li Jia offered.

She’d planned on just one bite.

But once you started, a second followed naturally.

Especially when Li Jia controlled the pace entirely.

And so, a not-so-large slice of cake vanished bite by bite between them.

Ye Chengxing felt like her brain was about to short-circuit. But Li Jia looked so delighted the whole time, sweetly feeding her with shining eyes. “Here, Big Sis—open up.”

It was hard to refuse when she looked that happy.

Thank goodness the cake was finally gone. Ye Chengxing let out a breath, shot to her feet, and summoned Xiao Bai. Inwardly, she sighed with relief that she wasn’t an AI herself—otherwise, with Li Jia’s antics day after day, her CPU would burn out sooner or later.

Once she’d finished inputting instructions to Xiao Bai, Ye Chengxing turned to Li Jia. “Rest up for a bit, Xiao Li. I’m heading to the kitchen… Call me if you need anything.”

Her tone was perfectly casual, but her footsteps were swift—betraying more than a hint of fleeing in panic.

Li Jia watched her retreating back, her fingertips drifting to the nape of her own neck.

The mark there was only a temporary one. It couldn’t last long, and now it had faded to almost nothing.

To onlookers, the duration a temporary mark could maintain itself wasn’t short by any means. But to her, it was nothing more than a fleeting bloom, ephemeral and gone in an instant.

After a long moment, Li Jia withdrew her fingertip, lowering her eyes with an inscrutable expression.

Sister wants to put some distance between us now…

But that’s no problem. If she wants to pull away, then Li Jia would simply draw her close again by some other means.