Chapter 34: I’ve Got Something Going On with My Wife’s Mom.

The kiss came to a stop, and their breathing slowly evened out. Xue Erbai’s gaze slid away, and she suddenly didn’t quite dare look at Ji Wushan.

Because she didn’t know whether Ji Wushan had understood, and if she had, whether she would accept it gladly or simply pretend not to know.

By the time the heat flooding her body had cooled, Xue Erbai felt her face being cupped. Ji Wushan’s clear, shimmering eyes were right in front of her.

Her lips were slightly cool as she asked in a hoarse voice, “Not continuing?”

“Or do you have someone else you’re secretly in love with?”

“W-what are you talking about?”

Xue Erbai grew a little frantic at the question. She wrapped her arms around Ji Wushan’s waist, and before she could even get an answer, she was already kissing the side of her neck.

She bit at her in a messy frenzy; when she heard the faintest soft sound from her, she finally stopped and said, muddled but certain, “No one else..."

“Only you. Only you!”

Ji Wushan gently pushed at Xue Erbai, who was tugging at her nightdress, and a hint of grievance appeared in her eyes. “You bit me too hard.”

Xue Erbai loosened up a little, but her movements didn’t stop.

As things were just getting into rhythm, she casually opened the bedside cabinet. The moment she did, she paused again and coaxed Ji Wushan softly, “I’ve got something good. Want to try it, wife?”

Ji Wushan lowered her eyes, her thoughts a little scattered. She couldn’t quite catch what Xue Erbai was saying and gave a muffled mm. Then the cool sensation made her shiver, and tears she’d been holding back slipped down.

She hooked her arms around Xue Erbai’s neck, wanting to bite hard at her ear.

Xue Erbai hissed in pain and finally slowed down, hugging Ji Wushan and rubbing her back.

She kissed away the tears that fell.

--

Her whole body was sore and limp.

That was Ji Wushan’s first reaction when she opened her eyes.

Xue Erbai was still sleeping beside her, one shoulder bare, covered in tiny red marks.

What happened last night was new to her, thrilling.

More than that, those words about secret love made her heart race.

Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t even remember how Xue Erbai had carried her back to the room while still touching and holding her; her mind had been scattered, leaving her with only one feeling.

Last night, that feeling had been pleasure. Now there was only...

Aching soreness. When she lifted the blanket and got out of bed, she could barely stand.

Even worse, just as she steadied herself, someone came up behind her, hugged her, and sat her right back down on the bed.

“Mm, where’s my wife going?” Xue Erbai mumbled, naturally reaching back to help her and squeezing the nape of her neck. When she saw Ji Wushan’s ears turn red, she finally let go and leaned in to whisper, “Ji Wushan, you’ve been marked by me!”

That one sentence made Ji Wushan go cold all over. She turned to look at Xue Erbai and couldn’t help laughing.

It was partly because Xue Erbai was so strange, and partly because she was a little cute.

She couldn’t resist teasing her. “You really have read too many novels.”

“You think you’re an Alpha?”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to learn about it, Sister Shengsheng?”

Xue Erbai’s eyes lit up, clearly excited. “Because you said that before, so..."

“I’m going to take a shower!”

Ji Wushan didn’t let her finish. She gently pushed her away and hurried out.

Xue Erbai looked at her graceful figure, laughed out loud on the bed, rolled around, found her phone, and sent Ji Wushan the precious AO smut she had been saving.

Ji Wushan’s phone was on the bedside table. It chimed several times in a row, which only made Xue Erbai laugh harder.

But Ji Wushan didn’t know what was going on. She came back out from the bathroom wrapped in a towel, water still dripping all over her, and picked up her phone...

Xue Erbai hurriedly sat up on her knees to explain. “Wife! I sent you a file..."

But she saw Ji Wushan’s expression turn very grave, and her heart sank.

No, surely not?

It was just a few spicy yuri ABO novels. If she didn’t like them, then...

Before she could explain, Ji Wushan only glanced once before turning back into the bathroom, giving her no chance to say another word.

The flirtatious atmosphere turned sour.

Xue Erbai felt a little guilty. She washed up and made breakfast in a daze; after Ji Wushan got dressed, she went behind her and hugged her waist, asking, “You don’t like what I sent?”

Ji Wushan froze, then turned to ask, “What did you send?”

Xue Erbai froze too. “You didn’t see it?” Then she said, “I thought you were because..."

“My mom sent me a WeChat message.”

“She said I need to go for a biopsy today.”

When Ji Wushan said this, her tone was especially calm, so calm it sounded like she wasn’t talking about her own mother, or about such a serious examination at all.

But the glimmer of moisture in her eyes still betrayed her. Xue Erbai loosened her arms around her waist, her voice tight with shock. “Today?”

“Yes.”

“Then now..."

“I need to go to the TV station. You go to work.”

She arranged it all very casually, but her voice was trembling.

Mother-daughter grievances weren’t something Xue Erbai could solve with a few words, so she didn’t say much and simply went along with Ji Wushan’s arrangement.

After breakfast, Ji Wushan still wanted to see her off, but Xue Erbai refused and instead took her to the TV station.

Watching Ji Wushan enter the XTC building, Xue Erbai finally took out her phone, hesitating over whether to contact Ji Yun.

Her contact with Ji Yun over the years hadn’t been much, but she remembered running into Ji Yun and Song Quwen at the hospital last time; Ji Yun would surely know more about this.

Before she could contact Ji Yun, Ji Yun sent her a WeChat message first.

【Xiaobai, can you help Teacher persuade Xiaosheng to come to the hospital?】

Xue Erbai pressed her lips together and hesitated.

She didn’t know whether she should persuade her.

After thinking it over again and again, she still took a screenshot of that message and sent it to Ji Wushan.

Ji Wushan replied almost instantly.

【Got it.】

The words showed no emotional fluctuation at all, but Xue Erbai still let her mind run wild for a while because of them.

Work filled up all her scattered thoughts. She confirmed some opening details and the store’s upcoming layout with Tian Qiyue over the screen, held a morning meeting, and didn’t touch her phone. When lunch break came, she immediately wanted to go find Ji Wushan.

But two consecutive WeChat messages stopped her in her tracks.

The first was from Ji Wushan.

【Can you get off work a little early today?】

The other was from Xue Yanhe.

【I’m at the hospital. Come over when you’re done.】

Ji Wushan probably had made a decision after much thought; as for Xue Yanhe, she had always gotten along well with Ji Yun, and because of Xue Erbai and Ji Wushan’s marriage, being at the hospital was normal. Xue Erbai didn’t think much of it.

After replying that she’d come later with Ji Wushan, she called Ji Wushan directly.

“Hello? Shengsheng, I’m basically free now...”

“Then good. I’m at the coffee shop downstairs from your company.”

Ji Wushan answered very quickly, her voice still a little hoarse.

But this hoarseness seemed different from the morning. It sounded more like she had cried.

Xue Erbai felt a little anxious and jogged to the coffee shop. Ji Wushan was sitting in a corner, quietly looking out the window.

Xue Erbai walked over and gently tapped her. Ji Wushan’s shoulders trembled, and she looked at Xue Erbai with red eyes.

Xue Erbai’s heart clenched. She sat beside her and was about to ask when Ji Wushan spoke first.

“My dad called me.”

“He questioned why I still hadn’t arrived.”

In truth, Ji Wushan did not want to tell Xue Erbai those weak, unbearable things at all.

She had once longed for Song Quwen’s maternal love, but only as an adult did she finally see it clearly.

As for losing her memory, that had been, for her, a painless kind of release.

She thought that when she agreed to the marriage alliance, she had already decided to draw a line between herself and Song Quwen and Ji You.

But blood ties ran deep.

When the day came that Song Quwen might really be seriously ill, her heart softened again.

She didn’t have the courage to go alone, so she came looking for Xue Erbai.

Thankfully, Xue Erbai didn’t ask any questions; she just looked at her, then held her and said softly, “I’ll go with you.”

----

By the time Xue Erbai and Ji Wushan reached the hospital, it was already two in the afternoon.

Ji Yun had told Ji Wushan the room number over WeChat, and the two of them went straight there.

But before they even reached the door, they saw Ji You standing by the wall. When he saw Ji Wushan, he looked a little excited, as if he wanted to come over, but after only a few steps he retreated again.

Xue Erbai glanced at Ji Wushan and was just about to ask whether she wanted to speak to him first when Ji Wushan pulled her straight over to Ji You.

“Xiaosheng, you... your aunt is inside, so I came out to wait.” When Ji You said this, he wore a smile, but his eyes were clearly pleading as they looked at Ji Wushan.

Ji Wushan felt irritated and didn’t really want to look at Ji You. She took Xue Erbai with her and turned back toward the ward.

But before the two of them even reached the door, Song Quwen’s sharp voice came from inside.

“Do you still think about her?”

“Didn’t you say I was the one you loved most! I did all this for you..."

“Stop acting crazy. Pay attention to your health.”

Ji Yun’s voice was calm in reply, but it only made Song Quwen even more unstable. “Yes, I am crazy.”

“If I weren’t crazy, why would I have married Ji You for you, married your brother!”

“Then I wouldn’t have given birth to Ji Wushan either.”

“Why should I have to watch my daughter, the one I gave birth to, be with the daughter of the person you liked?”

“Why, why!”

“I can’t stand it. If I’m not doing well, then none of you get to be well either! Ji Wushan even thinks now that I’m having an affair with her wife’s mother!”

“Song Quwen!!!”

The noise from inside grew louder and louder, but Ji Wushan seemed unable to hear anything anymore. All she could hear, over and over, was Song Quwen’s final sentence. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something to Xue Erbai, but no sound came out.

Xue Erbai was startled by the words coming from inside the ward, but when she saw the fear on Ji Wushan’s face, she immediately reached out to steady her.

Ji Wushan, whose eyes were already red, finally burst into tears. She pressed a hand to her head and buried herself in Xue Erbai’s arms, babbling incoherently, “I... she, she called and sent pictures... traffic light...”

---

Author’s note: The countdown has started.

Screams loudly: I really want to start the next ABO book!!! The one with the sister-in-law! But I’m also really afraid I won’t be able to keep up with my state!!!