Beyond Redemption

Xu Zhitong immediately perked up.

She was too embarrassed to read the dare out loud, but the anticipation on her face was impossible to hide. Pressing her lips together and lifting her chin, she gave a smug little hum; her satisfaction was plain to see.

Hurry up and say it.

Lin Yang froze. Her ears warmed, and the words stuck in her throat.

Call Xu Zhitong...

Biting her lip lightly, Lin Yang struggled for a moment. “Can we change it?”

Xu Zhitong huffed. “You didn’t let me change mine just now. No way, Xiaoyang.”

She imitated Lin Yang’s motion from earlier, raising her index finger and wagging it in front of Lin Yang’s nose.

This was the price she had to pay.

Lin Yang coughed softly and lowered her eyes, avoiding Xu Zhitong’s gaze.

Xu Zhitong wouldn’t even allow that. She muttered, “You’re not allowed to look away,” insisting that Lin Yang meet her eyes.

“...” Lin Yang fidgeted for a while, then picked up her wineglass and took a long swallow before softly saying, “Wife.”

Her cheeks had turned a faint pink.

Oh—!

Xu Zhitong nearly laughed out loud; the corners of her mouth were practically lifting to the heavens.

So satisfying.

She smiled brightly and still wanted more. “Who’s your wife?”

Lin Yang said, “I don’t know her.”

Still so stubborn.

Xu Zhitong didn’t care at all. She giggled and said triumphantly, “It’s me.”

Lin Yang said nothing.

Xu Zhitong reached out and pinched Lin Yang’s face, deliberately putting on a fierce expression. “Did you remember?”

Lin Yang: “...I remembered.”

She took another embarrassed sip of wine, only to feel her heart grow restless after calling her that.

Probably because of that, she ended up winning the third round of the board game as well.

Maybe also because whenever Xu Zhitong realized she was falling behind in points, she’d start acting spoiled and call her “wife.”

By this round, “wife” had almost become Xu Zhitong’s catchphrase.

And Lin Yang still couldn’t do anything about her.

Lin Yang bent over the dice and rolled. Her token moved two spaces and stopped on “push-hands game.”

What was push-hands?

Xu Zhitong was about to look it up on her phone when Lin Yang stopped her. “How about we change it?”

Oh, then it had to be something good.

Xu Zhitong shook her head frantically. “No changing. I’d die before I changed it.”

Lin Yang: ...

Xu Zhitong searched for push-hands videos on Yinfu and watched a few. It seemed all right.

Not especially intimate.

Xu Zhitong decided to indulge her wife a little. “Then how about we switch to something else? Let me see what else is on the board... maybe a physical activity...”

“Would a princess carry into squats work?”

“Hey, this one’s good too—doing a push-up while sitting on someone.”

Xu Zhitong looked at Lin Yang with eager anticipation. “Which one, Yangbao?”

“...” Lin Yang said, “Push-hands.”

The two of them were already sitting on the tatami mats, their cushions facing each other as they knelt on the table mat and squared off.

Neither of them really knew how to play, so they first tentatively pushed at each other’s hands without much force.

Purely in terms of strength, Xu Zhitong knew she could definitely win.

But after remembering the videos she’d just seen...

Her emotional intelligence suddenly kicked in.

This was a couple’s game.

Not a competition where you had to decide win or lose.

She very shrewdly glanced at Lin Yang’s expression and found that Lin Yang was playing very seriously, seeming to really want to let her win.

After several rounds of testing each other, Xu Zhitong deliberately pulled her hand back when Lin Yang pushed.

Lin Yang nearly fell into her arms, but unfortunately, she steadied herself and shot Xu Zhitong a reproachful glare.

Hehe.

Xu Zhitong raised her brows and waited for Lin Yang to tumble into her embrace.

Unexpectedly, Lin Yang copied her move first. The moment Xu Zhitong pushed, Lin Yang suddenly withdrew her hand.

Xu Zhitong hadn’t been paying much attention to her balance to begin with, so her upper body wobbled. Following through with the force of her own push, she stumbled forward and accidentally fell into Lin Yang’s arms.

Their hands were still clasped, so she didn’t lose much strength.

But she landed perfectly against a patch of softness.

...

Oh.

Xu Zhitong drew in a slow breath.

So fragrant...

So soft.

It was almost like sinking into the middle of a cloud of cotton.

Her cheek couldn’t help pressing against that warm, tender curve; her face sank into the center of it. Even through the fabric, because the material was so soft and comfortable, she could clearly feel and smell the scent and warmth of skin.

She closed her eyes. She couldn’t tell whether it was Lin Yang’s heartbeat or her own that was deafening.

Xu Zhitong was dizzy. So big, and she could actually bury herself in it.

This was her wife.

How had she managed to find such a wife?

Xu Zhitong sniffed, and though embarrassed, her heartbeat only grew stronger.

She whispered, “So fragrant.”

Lin Yang’s breathing caught.

Her lashes trembled in disbelief, and Lin Yang’s mind nearly went blank too.

Then she heard Xu Zhitong, almost pleadingly and very obediently, say, “Wife, can I..."

The words after that were muffled, but their meaning was unmistakable.

Lin Yang stiffened, one elbow braced on the floor, her whole body going weak and limp on the tatami as though pinned in place by that warm breath. Her ears burned hot as fire.

What do you mean, can you... Of course you can’t.

And yet she was thinking, frantically, that she couldn’t reject Xu Zhitong too harshly.

Still, being good to Xu Zhitong and not refusing her shouldn’t include this kind of contact...

But they were lovers now.

But...

All sorts of tangled thoughts knotted together in her mind, until the world seemed to rise and become a mass of unreality. But the warmth at her chest was real; it brushed against that deepest place in fleeting, unmistakable touches, hot and tingling, stirring a hard-to-describe itch. That itch spread outward from her chest and all the way to the peak, making her tremble.

Lin Yang even felt moisture gathering. She pressed her lips together and brought her knees together, trying to retreat a little, lifting her knees as well to create some distance between them below.

But Xu Zhitong moved with her, lifting her face to look up at her with longing and expectation.

As if she had simply returned to her rightful nest and was asking her bird-mother whether she had brought back fresh food to feed the hungry baby bird. So innocent.

Lin Yang’s heart felt like it was about to burn up. She closed her eyes.

Xu Zhitong, however, didn’t know that the itch in her throat had become unbearable. But at the crucial moment, the little bit of sense she had left kept her from acting rashly. She felt she should ask first. Yet when she saw Lin Yang’s flushed face and closed eyes, not looking at her, she could only say in a small, dry voice, “Yangbao, you..."

But her mind was already full of sludge; she went by instinct and said recklessly, “You seem a lot bigger than before..."

That was even more unbearable for Lin Yang than asking if she could eat it. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel Xu Zhitong’s stare, Xu Zhitong was looking at her...

Lin Yang almost immediately sucked in a sharp breath. Her trembling rise and fall was obvious, and her lips, bitten nearly white, parted again, though she said nothing.

To Xu Zhitong, that seemed like encouragement.

She was also very shy, her heart racing. The intimacy had come faster than she’d expected, and her teeth itched as if she wanted to grind them against something.

Lin Yang didn’t seem to be refusing.

Xu Zhitong’s heart was practically about to leap out of her throat. She tentatively reached out and pulled down the slanted neckline of Lin Yang’s top. The off-shoulder shirt already had a wide collar; once she tugged it down, a beautiful light-green bra was revealed, and it was even strapless and front-closure, lifting the curves very prettily.

Oh, that’s normal. My wife looks great in something like this. I’ll buy her lots more like it later...

Xu Zhitong thought in a jumble, but her gaze was immediately stuck there. Rounded, pale, and glowing white against the light-green fabric, it was almost like a piece of pristine snow. The longer she looked, the hotter her eyes seemed to grow, and she felt that if she left even a mark on this field of snow, it would be a kind of desecration.

But she possessed this field of snow. Xu Zhitong’s throat itched; she swallowed, and the very obvious wet sound of desire slipped out. She looked up at Lin Yang. Even though Lin Yang had her eyes closed and wasn’t meeting her gaze, that silence was still a kind of permission. So Xu Zhitong lowered her head slowly and lightly licked the center with the tip of her tongue.

Lin Yang had probably not expected that sensation. She trembled violently, her shoulders jerking up at once, almost catching Xu Zhitong in her arms. Her eyes flew open too, as if they held a pool of shattered water, and she looked at Xu Zhitong in a quiver.

Xu Zhitong paused. She withdrew her tongue and looked at Lin Yang, then smiled with an unreadable expression.

So dogs were actually bad. Looking straight at Lin Yang, she was clearly in the lower position, had just been acting obedient, her eyes wet as if begging for a reward, yet one couldn’t ignore the heat in them, or the aggression she couldn’t hide.

Lin Yang couldn’t bear that look. Dazedly, she thought: how could Xu Zhitong have such an expression?

That gaze remained fixed on her while the body beneath it shifted lower. Soon, that sensation came again. Lin Yang let out a very clear, breathy sound from her throat, tipped her head back, and looked at the ceiling.

One hand could barely support her body; the other trembled as it lifted and covered her mouth with the back of her hand, biting down and trying to avoid making any sound that would further fuel the atmosphere.

...

After a long while, Lin Yang couldn’t help but whimper. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, her mouth parted, and she exhaled a shaky breath.

How was Xu Zhitong so skilled...

In the blank emptiness of her mind, Lin Yang could only think this one defeated thought.

All the nerves and senses in her body seemed to have gathered in one place, as if even her soul were being sucked away.

In truth, Xu Zhitong was very careful when she kissed. She tucked her canine teeth away cautiously, only occasionally letting out a slightly lustful sound between her teeth. Even her hand simply rested on Lin Yang’s shoulder while, in her arms, she earnestly and single-mindedly “ate” the thing in front of her; Lin Yang’s mouth.

[This means kissing the mouth, above the neck.]

And yet Lin Yang still couldn’t take it. Her toes curled in discomfort; she brought her knees together and lifted them, and under Xu Zhitong’s pressure, she ended up lying completely on the floor.

Top and bottom overlapped, leaving nowhere to hide. Xu Zhitong was still pressing down on her.

With one hand finally free, Lin Yang lifted it and tightened her fingers in the air before touching Xu Zhitong’s head, pushing upward without much force.

The back of the hand covering her lips loosened a little too. Swallowing down the lewd sounds she was making, Lin Yang said in broken, weak fragments, “Xiaotong... enough.”

Xu Zhitong lifted her head. Her lips were wet and red, and there was still something raw and beastlike in her eyes; her tongue hadn’t even been fully withdrawn, and just looking at her, one could almost still feel its lingering touch.

That was the sexy look unique to her. Lin Yang pressed her lips together, the tip of her heart itching, and she almost had the urge to press Xu Zhitong’s head back down again. To continue that scalp-tingling, intoxicating sensation. The darkest part of her mind was thinking that since Xu Zhitong was so talented at eating, maybe eating other things would feel just as good.

Anyway, anyway, they were lovers now.

But that wasn’t right; it felt amazing, but it still wasn’t right.

How had she and Xu Zhitong gotten this far?

Lin Yang swallowed the whimper in her throat, pressing her legs together and feeling as if she were concealing her own sins.

“Let’s stop here for now, okay?”

Her voice trembled as if she were begging for mercy.

Was it uncomfortable?

Xu Zhitong thought blankly.

She still remembered the trembling, and with her movements it should have been very comfortable; every shiver, and the redness at the corners of Lin Yang’s eyes, all proved it.

It had to be very comfortable. The sound of Lin Yang speaking to her was almost wet with it, and the occasional trembling notes leaking from behind the back of her hand were the same. Xu Zhitong was eating just as sweetly; she liked it so much she almost wanted to give her whole heart to Lin Yang. What she was tasting was on the left side, and through the snow-white, delicate skin, it felt almost as though she were kissing Lin Yang’s beating heart.

Was it... moving too fast?

Probably. After all, before the amnesia, the two of them hadn’t done this for a long time.

Xu Zhitong cleared the dryness from her throat, met Lin Yang’s gaze, and swept the tip of her tongue across her lower lip like a hook.

Her voice was rare and hoarse. She asked, “...Then can I still do it next time?”

Next time.

Lin Yang nervously bit her lip. She hadn’t wanted to look too timid in front of Xu Zhitong, but the advancing Xu Zhitong was simply impossible to handle.

After a long moment, only when Xu Zhitong lowered her head again in obvious displeasure, with a hint of threat, and her breath fell once more upon the wet thing trembling in the air...

Only then did Lin Yang answer in a low voice, “Yes.”

What kind of tone was that, as if she were coercing her.

Xu Zhitong was a little dissatisfied. She still hovered over it, hard and red, dangling above the round snow, with a few wet pink traces scattered nearby.

Lin Yang let out a muffled whimper. She reached up to stroke Xu Zhitong’s face and soothe her, saying, “I said yes, Xiaotong.”

“Okay.”

Only then did Xu Zhitong say, satisfied, her eyes curving with delight. She lowered her head and kissed it, then pulled a few tissues from the small table beside them to wipe the moisture away.

She even tried to help Lin Yang put her clothes back on. That style was actually a little difficult to fasten; it was a gathered design, and probably needed to be lifted a bit. Earlier she’d been so bold and so pleased with herself, but now Xu Zhitong was unexpectedly shy, awkwardly gathering it up, smoothing away some ripples, brushing over the still-damp red marks, and only then fastening it.

Lin Yang bit down on her lower lip, almost hard enough to leave a deep tooth mark.

After the satisfaction faded and her mind cleared, Lin Yang couldn’t help but think in despair: this really was beyond redemption.