Offense - Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The phone rang insistently, as if demanding a life. Lian Wan, holding Zhou Yanqian who was sulking with her head buried in her chest, stretched out an arm to grab the phone from the coffee table.

"Hello?" As soon as the word left her mouth, she realized her voice was terribly hoarse. She cleared her throat slightly and tried again, "Brother Wang?"

A man's booming voice came through the phone: "Hey- Xiao Lian, have you eaten yet?"

Lian Wan replied politely, "I have."

As she spoke, a faint pain pricked her neck. It was Zhou Yanqian, who had opened her mouth to gently graze a small patch of skin with her canines. She wasn't biting hard, merely pressing her lips and breath against Lian Wan's pulse. The friction was intimate; the woman's mouth was moist and warm, her breath sweet and carrying her body heat. A shiver shot through Lian Wan, a tingling sensation that seemed to travel from the nape of her neck, down her spine, all the way to her heels.

"Hello? Xiao Lian? Why'd you go quiet? Can you hear me?"

The call continued. Unable to hold herself up, Lian Wan leaned back, reaching to cup the face of the woman in her arms.

"Don't you go…" Zhou Yanqian turned her face away in resistance, burying her head to avoid Lian Wan's gaze. She whispered a threat, but her tone was incredibly soft, the sound drifting quietly into Lian Wan's collar like an intimate kiss being branded onto her skin.

On the other end of the line, the background noise around Wang Zhiqiang was loud; it sounded like they were at a dinner party. Lian Wan didn't dwell on why the Vehicle Team was having a private gathering without her. The clatter of mahjong tiles was incessant, and she couldn't quite make out the time and cargo quantity he was mentioning. The two of them went back and forth, the call dragging on.

This was endless. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Zhou Yanqian bit down harder.

Caught off guard, Lian Wan hissed but couldn't move. The woman was using her strength, holding her tightly, with both arms and legs wrapped around her. Her posture was like that of a female beast that had crashed into her embrace, displaying a stubborn, unreasonable refusal to leave now that she had staked her claim.

Lian Wan reached out, soothingly stroking the ends of her hair. But with a toss of her head, the hair nearly slapped her in the face.

Contrary to her posture, Zhou Yanqian's hair was slightly disheveled, which made her slender shoulders look exceptionally delicate. Strands of hair cascaded beside her cheeks, catching the afternoon light with a superb sheen. It was like dense seaweed growing on the ocean floor—deep, lush, and faintly fragrant, exuding a secret and unceasing allure.

In this situation, even though Lian Wan had been bitten many times, she couldn't feel a trace of anger. While listening to the phone, she pressed the bridge of her nose against Zhou Yanqian's soft cheek, nuzzling her tenderly.

Zhou Yanqian let her nuzzle her coaxingly. Leaning in her embrace, she sulkily pinched her waist and whispered her threat once more: "Don't you go!"

After saying this, she raised her eyes to stare at Lian Wan's lips and heard Lian Wan reply, "Alright, I won't go over this afternoon then."

Zhou Yanqian: !

A job that should have been hers had just been casually canceled for no reason, yet when Lian Wan hung up and saw Zhou Yanqian's eyes sparkling with delighted surprise, she felt not a shred of frustration.

"Someone else is doing the job," she said.

"Your reward." Zhou Yanqian hadn't heard a word she said. Her mind was set on one thing as she sat up, happily wrapping her arms around Lian Wan's neck and leaning in. "A kiss from your sister."

She planted two firm kisses on Lian Wan's lips. Watching the Little Puppy turn her face away shyly, eyelashes trembling, made her heart melt into a puddle.

From the very first day they met, that impulse to get closer to her was now surging unbearably in Zhou Yanqian's heart again.

In these few short months, she had come to a new place, completely abandoning her former struggles. All the values she had pursued for the first half of her life had been reset to zero. When she first made the decision and handed everything over, many people had asked if she would regret it.

Now, Zhou Yanqian felt she still didn't regret it.

"Hold me." She leaned back into Lian Wan's embrace, murmuring in satisfaction.

Lian Wan's arms tightened around her waist. Zhou Yanqian let herself be held. Perhaps because it had been so hot outside that morning, the faint scent of sweat clung to Lian Wan's collar. Her skin, exposed to the air, bore the ambiguous teeth marks and red blotches she had left behind.

Leaning back, Zhou Yanqian took Lian Wan's hand and examined it closely. Only then did she realize Lian Wan was even paler than she was. Faint blue veins meandered clearly across the back of her hand. She held it, spreading the fingers wide as if opening the frame of a kite. From wrist to fingertip, Lian Wan's entire hand looked beautiful in the afternoon sun. Her skin was so fair it seemed untouched by dust, like a mint leaf in a cocktail, sending Zhou Yanqian into a cool, unreal daze she hadn't felt in a long time.

They were all just ordinary people, and Lian Wan certainly wasn't the most beautiful person she had ever seen.

Because of her work, Zhou Yanqian had long understood that the world never lacked for perfect facades, and that beauty was never pure or flawless. More often than not, it would reach out to strangle her. During her most stressful times, she would repeatedly dream the same scene in the middle of the night: an exquisite, pale model raising a bony, well-defined hand to pose, their face expressionless. The suit was tailored so sharply it could cut your eyes. The camera flashes were relentless. In the monochrome photo studio, only the people themselves provided any distinct color.

But as if the pause button had been pressed, everyone held their breath, carefully not daring to make a sound.

The hand strangling her neck gradually tightened. In the end, everything sank into darkness.

Zhou Yanqian would wake up suffocating, gasping for breath. The laptop on her nightstand would still be on, displaying a half-written proposal. The sleep indicator light would be flashing a faint blue, alerting her to several new unread emails.

And as she struggled to catch her breath, she would look out the window to see the distant office buildings lit up all night, like a long dream from which one would never wake.

Why was she thinking about all that now? Zhou Yanqian returned to the present with a small smile. The unique coolness of the old building meant the air conditioner only needed to be set at twenty-seven degrees. She sighed in relief, hugging Lian Wan's arm and relaxing against her.

Lian Wan let her do as she pleased, the oddness of the call from the Vehicle Team flashing through her mind for only an instant. She focused all her attention back on Zhou Yanqian. The woman in her arms had her eyes lazily narrowed, a picture of complete surrender. Lian Wan carefully leaned down to brush against her soft eyelashes and whispered, "Are you sleepy?"

"Mhm," Zhou Yanqian replied lazily, her eyes closed.

"Then let me carry you to rest," Lian Wan said after a moment's hesitation.

She heard Zhou Yanqian let out a soft chuckle, her eyes still closed.

The woman's arms wrapped around her, and she whispered intimately in her ear, "The bedroom is through that door inside."

"…Okay," Lian Wan said.

She lifted Zhou Yanqian into her arms with almost no effort. She even had the breath to talk to her as she walked. On the other hand, it was the first time Zhou Yanqian had been carried like this. Clinging to her neck, she showed a rare nervousness: "Am I heavy?"

Lian Wan said, "Very light."

"How light?" Seeing that Lian Wan didn't seem to be forcing it, Zhou Yanqian relaxed and deliberately teased her, "Am I the lightest person you've ever carried?"

She was only half-joking, but Lian Wan actually tilted her head and thought about it seriously.

Has she really carried other girls?

Zhou Yanqian, feeling sullen, bit her neck again.

"I've never carried anyone else." Lian Wan had her answer. She pushed open the door, laid her down on the bed, and looked seriously into her eyes. "You're the first."

Zhou Yanqian was stunned by her gaze, then, in a great mood, she hooked her arm around her neck. "So good. Let your sister give you a kiss, okay?"

Fervent kisses landed one after another on Lian Wan's cheeks.

As light as a feather, Lian Wan thought.

She had to hold on to her very carefully, so she wouldn't fly away.

There was more she wanted to say, but Lian Wan didn't speak the words aloud. She only thought them in her heart.

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