Mu Lian’s head buzzed, and her mind went blank. Her dense, feather like eyelashes fluttered up and down twice. She stood frozen in place, rigid and motionless.
“You are… Qin Ni.”
Ye Yinfeng withdrew the smile at the corners of her lips and said in a faint voice, “It’s only been three years. Have you forgotten me so quickly?”
The doubt in Mu Lian’s eyes grew stronger. Looking into those eyes that were identical to Qin Ni’s, her heart suddenly throbbed with pain.
It was as if all the blood in her body gathered at her heart, her pulse racing wildly, this vibrant heart felt as though it would burst out of her chest the very next second.
“Are you really Qin Ni?” Mu Lian’s eyes felt sore and dry. The moment she spoke, she realized her voice had already turned into a choke. “But, you and she are clearly…”
Clearly, there are so many differences? Aside from sharing this same physical shell.
Before she could finish her sentence, Mu Lian’s lips were sealed by Ye Yinfeng’s mouth, and the rest of her words were swallowed back into her stomach.
Mu Lian suddenly widened her moist, beautiful almond eyes, her long lashes fluttered lightly once, then again.
In the next second, Mu Lian gently closed her eyelids and began to respond to the woman’s kiss. Fully invested, she gradually sank into it.
Her breathing slowly became frantic. As oxygen was drained bit by bit from her lungs, Mu Lian felt as though she might become the first person to die of oxygen deprivation from kissing.
Kissing like this wasn’t satisfying enough, Ye Yinfeng was far from content. The woman knitted her brows slightly, opened her arms to wrap around Mu Lian’s waist, and lifted her onto the marble countertop of the vanity to sit.
Mu Lian felt a sudden sensation of floating. She reflexively wrapped her arms around Ye Yinfeng’s neck to steady herself. In a moment of urgency, she blurted out a call: “Sister…”
“Sister… what are you doing!”
Ye Yinfeng froze slightly. Lowering her gaze, she panted softly, her attention entirely fixed on Mu Lian’s lips. She couldn’t resist pecking at the corner of her mouth. “What do you think?”
“What do you think I’m doing?” Without giving her a chance to answer, Ye Yinfeng kissed Mu Lian’s lips once more.
The kiss was fierce and overbearing. Ye Yinfeng wished she could eat up all of Mu Lian’s lipstick before she would stop.
“Mmm… you…” Mu Lian couldn’t help but let out a soft groan, her wet, long, dense eyelashes trembling.
Giving Mu Lian a few seconds to catch her breath was already quite merciful on Ye Yinfeng’s part. She kissed her deeply, her tongue probing inward and easily sliding into Mu Lian’s mouth, wantonly swirling against her, exchanging saliva with one another.
In truth, Ye Yinfeng wasn’t satisfied with merely kissing Mu Lian. Having been separated for three full years, how could a mere kiss offset the pain of longing over these thousand-plus days?
Ye Yinfeng wanted more, though she naturally knew this place was entirely inconvenient. Even so, Ye Yinfeng had had the foresight to station people outside the restroom door beforehand, forbidding anyone else from entering.
Lips and teeth pressed tightly against each other, the deep kiss lasted for several minutes.
Ye Yinfeng looked at Mu Lian affection-filled with narrow, deep-set phoenix eyes, her gaze scorching, hot boiling emotions churning in her chest.
“A-Lian, Sister missed you so much.”
The moment Mu Lian locked eyes with her, she felt almost burned by that look. Mu Lian calmed her ragged breathing and turned her head away, avoiding the woman’s gaze.
Without saying a word, Mu Lian wiped her mouth hard with the back of her hand. She hurriedly stepped down from the vanity counter, leaving Ye Yinfeng with a decisive side profile.
Mu Lian had barely taken a step away when her wrist was grabbed tightly by Ye Yinfeng.
“A-Lian!”
Mu Lian lowered her thick eyelashes and looked at her wrist, which was being held by the woman. “President Ye, please let go.”
Raising her eyes, Mu Lian’s gaze collided with a pair of moist, glistening, deep pupils. Stunned for a moment, the corner of Mu Lian’s mouth curled up slightly into a standard business smile.
“President Ye.”
Mu Lian deliberately emphasized the words “President Ye,” intending to highlight the vast gap in their social status and standing.
Sure enough, this call of “President Ye” successfully made Ye Yinfeng loosen her grip, watching helplessly as the woman she had longed for day and night for three years walked away.
Disappearing completely from her line of sight.
Mu Lian fled the private club as if escaping for her life. She had zero memory of how she finally made it back home.
Outside the window, the moonlight lay spilled like salt, a cold lunar glow streaming quietly across the floor.
In the bedroom, Mu Lian sat huddled on the floor, her thin back resting against the edge of the bed. She wrapped her arms around her pulled-up knees, burying her head between them. Her slender shoulders trembled intermittently, tears cascading like a burst dam.
In an instant, her face was covered in tear tracks.
Mu Lian couldn’t calm down to think, her mind was a chaotic haze, as if filled with an unclumped paste.
A wound that had barely managed to heal was brutally torn open today. Not only that, a massive gash was slashed over the original injury, fresh blood gushing out continuously.
At this moment, how Mu Lian wished they were two separate people.
Back then, Qin Ni had left without a word, and every single trace of her inside the house disappeared into thin air. Calls wouldn’t go through, messages went unanswered, leaving behind only a piece of paper with ice-cold words:
【Thank you for taking care of me over the past three years. Do not miss me.】
It didn’t even have a signature, but fortunately, Mu Lian recognized Qin Ni’s handwriting. Otherwise, she would never have believed the note came from Qin Ni’s hand.
The words “Do not miss me” pierced Mu Lian’s heart deeply.
Just the day before, the two of them were still discussing whether to go to the newly opened Western restaurant for steak or go out for Japanese cuisine on the weekend. Because Mu Lian had finally made it through her hardships and was about to be promoted to Creative Director of the creative department, her superiors had already congratulated her in advance.
A promotion meant a salary raise, but equally, it meant Mu Lian’s work would become busier, with more time spent on business dinners and entertainment.
Qin Ni had always been considerate and never uttered a single word of complaint. She would only prepare hot bathwater in advance every night after Mu Lian returned home from networking, and would even hand-wash the underwear Mu Lian took off.
Such a thoughtful and attentive girlfriend was a blessing built over several lifetimes. Crucially, this girlfriend was someone Mu Lian had “picked up” by the roadside.
In reality, the two had never officially confirmed a romantic relationship, so there wasn’t really a “girlfriend” to speak of, a more accurate term would be “lover.”
And an “underground lover” who couldn’t see the light of day, at that.
Although over the years, netizens had mostly become desensitized to homosexuality, with some young people even taking “homosexuality” as a trend and jumping on the bandwagon to label themselves as such, in real life, the vast majority of people still couldn’t accept the LGBTQ+ community.
Director Zhao was just such a traditional, conservative old lady. Therefore, Mu Lian had always kept her preference for the same sex hidden from her, not daring to let the elderly woman know.
Qin Ni had accompanied Mu Lian back to the orphanage before, naturally under the guise of being a friend. The only person who knew about their relationship was Mu Lian’s good friend, Qin Wanyan.
The night was quiet and deep in the suburbs of Capital City.
The rain suddenly grew heavy, moisture drifting everywhere, creating a blurry, misty expanse as far as the eye could see.
The old residence was enveloped in a soft, white rain mist, with continuous lines of raindrops constantly beating against the plantain leaves. The elegant, natural aesthetics of the Song Dynasty paired with night rain hitting the plantains created a uniquely graceful, poetic atmosphere.
Inside the rainy courtyard, Ye Yinfeng stood tall and slender inside a gazebo, gazing out at the swirling rain mist before her.
Listening to the sound of rain beating on the plantains and dwelling on the melancholy, agonizing matters of her heart, an image of a face that haunted her dreams flitted through her mind.
The woman had a pair of clear almond eyes filled with smiles, the outer corners curving up slightly, revealing a hint of charm as her gaze shifted. Every frown and smile radiated a distinct elegance.
She loved to laugh and loved to cry, she was emotionally rich, highly empathetic, full of energy, and intensely alive. Someone like that was worlds apart from Ye Yinfeng, which, upon reflection, was a major factor in what drew Ye Yinfeng to her.
They say there is no reason for loving someone. Ye Yinfeng didn’t think so, she had her reasons for falling in love with Mu Lian, leading to one necessary conclusion: the person she loved could only be Mu Lian, never anyone else.
Not far away, a crisp sound of footsteps suddenly rang out, approaching through the dense rain. The next moment, the footsteps stopped. Immediately after, a delicate, soft woman’s voice sounded behind Ye Yinfeng:
“Sister, the night is deep and the dew is heavy. You should return to your room to rest.”
Following the sound, Ye Yinfeng slowly turned around, looking at the visitor with an indifferent expression, her beautifully shaped lips moving slightly: “Are you teaching me how to do things?”
Liu Yi raised an eyebrow and smiled, speaking in a soft, gentle voice: “How would I dare?”
Ye Yinfeng said coldly: “Good that you know.”
Liu Yi pulled back the smile from her lips, her tone suddenly turning somewhat cold: “Sister, you saw her.”
Ye Yinfeng knitted her brows and asked in return: “Did you send people to follow me?”
Liu Yi immediately defended herself: “Sister, I’m doing this out of concern for you.”
Ye Yinfeng narrowed her eyes with a cold face, warning her word for word: “Don’t think that just because you’re pregnant with Yinlin’s child now, I have to yield to you in everything.”
Liu Yi reached out to stroke her bulging lower abdomen, a triumphant smile curling at the corner of her lips.
“Sister, you wrong me. I wouldn’t dare.”
While speaking, Liu Yi noticed that the lipstick on Ye Yinfeng’s lips was gone, and her thin lips were slightly swollen and red. It was obvious that Ye Yinfeng had kissed someone tonight.
And it was a very intense kiss!
Large droplets of rain continuously hit the bright green plantain leaves, composing a lively natural symphony.
Liu Yi half-lowered her eyelids, her left hand hidden inside her sleeve quietly clenching into a fist. Her five fingers tightened forcefully, faint light-blue veins popping up slightly.
Jealousy grew wildly like weeds.