Obsession’s Edge

Chapter 3

At night, Lin Jinse changed into pajamas and just went to bed when there was a slow knock on the door and Zhang Qianhua's voice: "Xiao Jin, are you asleep?"

"Not yet." Lin Jinse responded quickly, got off the bed and opened the door for Zhang Qianhua.

Zhang Qianhua was holding a tray in her hand. There was a glass of milk on the tray.

"Drink the milk before going to sleep." Zhang Qianhua smiled at her.

"Yes." Lin Jinse turned sideways to let Zhang Qianhua in and closed the door.

"You haven't brushed your teeth yet?" Zhang Qianhua asked, seeing Lin Jinse wearing pajamas with the quilt lifted.

Lin Jinse had actually brushed her teeth, but she replied: "Not yet."

"That's good. Let's drink the milk before brushing and have a good sleep." Zhang Qianhua put the tray on the bedside table, took the milk and handed it to her.

Lin Jinse took it and pointed to the bed, "Auntie, sit down."

The aunt and nephew sat down, and Lin Jinse drank the milk obediently. Zhang Qianhua asked her, "Are you still used to it? Are you missing anything?"

"It's okay, I don't need anything else."

"Well, well, if Ah Shi treats you badly, don't worry. He's doing it because of me, and it's definitely not against you." Zhang Qianhua looked at Lin Jinse and said bitterly.

Lin Jinse nodded and couldn't help but ask: "Auntie, you have been married to your uncle for five years, why is he still so hostile to you?"

When Zhang Qianhua was still studying, she often stayed at Lin Jinse's house. According to Lin Jinse's understanding of her, with her emotional intelligence and IQ, she should not be unable to win over her stepson after so many years.

"Actually, Ah Shi and I had a pretty good relationship before. I joined your uncle's company after I graduated with a master's degree. It took me 4 years from a low-level administrator to become your uncle's secretary, secretary to the president..." Zhang Qianhua has not been very comfortable in these years, but she is a very cautious person and has never confided in the people around her. If she has been holding something in her heart for a long time, she will inevitably want to find an outlet to vent.

Now that Lin Jinse asked about it, Zhang Qianhua told her about the past entanglements with Jian Lanyi and his son over the years.

After Zhang Qianhua became Jian Lanyi's secretary, it was inevitable that she would come into contact with his family. The first time she met Jian Yi, Jian Yi was only 8 years old. His mother is a fencer who often goes out to compete and is away from home all year round, while Jian Lanyi is a workaholic and rarely lives at home. If something happened in school during Jian Yi's time and parents were required to attend, Zhang Qianhua would almost always go there.

After going back and forth, Zhang Qianhua and Jian Yishi became familiar with each other, and they got along quite happily. They even talked to her about any troubles they had.

It turns out that Jian Yi's character when he was a child was not as paranoid and cold as he is now. On the contrary, he was very sensible.

When Jian Yi was 10 years old, the conflicts that Jian Lanyi and his wife had accumulated over the years broke out and they were about to divorce.

Jian Yishi naturally did not want her parents to separate, so she tried every means to save her, and also turned to Zhang Qianhua for help many times. Zhang Qianhua also tried her best to help him.

But the estrangement and resentment between Jian Lanyi and his wife lasted forever, and everything they did was in vain.

In fact, Zhang Qianhua had developed a deep love for Jian Lanyi during her day-to-day relationship with him. Although she knew that Jian Lanyi and his wife had incompatible personalities and their marriage was unhappy, she did not have any unbearable thoughts and secretly buried her love deep in her heart.

Later, the marriage of Jian Lanyi and his wife came to an end, and they agreed to divorce.

On the night when Jian Lanyi was single again, Zhang Qianhua came to his home to report to him. Jian Lanyi was depressed, so he opened a bottle of wine and asked Zhang Qianhua to have a drink with him.

They drank the bottle of wine together. Under the influence of alcohol, Zhang Qianhua mustered up the courage to confess to Jian Lanyi, and the two kissed passionately.

But this scene was caught by Jian Yishi, and he hated Zhang Qianhua from then on, thinking that she was the bad woman who caused his parents' marriage to break up, and the most hypocritical bad woman in the world.

Lin Jinse thought to herself that if she were Jian Yi, she couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't hate him.

"So no matter how much Ah Shi hates me or doesn't want to see me, I have no complaints. But if he wants to bully you, that's not okay. You must tell my aunt." Zhang Qianhua said.

Lin Jinse felt that Zhang Qianhua was worrying too much and said, "Don't worry, auntie, he can bully me no matter how hard he can, it won't happen."

"Besides, considering that he and Jinnian were born in the same year, the same month and the same day, I won't argue too much with him." Lin Jinse smiled.

Zhang Qianhua looked deeply at Lin Jinse, a little dazed. Although she seemed to be fine and even had a smile on her face, was that really the case? When did her niece change from an arrogant and willful young lady to become so sensible and silent? It seems to have started with Jinnian's departure.

After Zhang Qianhua left, Lin Jinse brushed her teeth again and went to bed.

Sitting on the head of the bed, she sat blankly for a while, and gradually felt some warm liquid flowing down from the corner of her eyes. She raised her hand to wipe it, and unsurprisingly felt a piece of water in her palm.

These days, whenever she was alone, she would do this from time to time, tears streaming down her face inexplicably.

When she was in Nanxi, once she found herself crying, she would immediately wipe it away, grit her teeth, and try her best to hold back the tears.

She couldn't cry, couldn't let grandpa know that she had cried, and couldn't make grandpa hate her even more.

Buzzing, the phone next to the pillow suddenly vibrated.

Lin Jinse turned around and saw that it was Song Qiaoyan calling. She quickly raised her hand to wipe away her tears with the back of her hand, took out a piece of paper, and blew her nose hard before picking up the phone.

Song Qiaoyan is her neighbor's brother, two years older than her. The two grew up as childhood sweethearts and have always had a brother-sister relationship.

Until the age of 14, Jinnian left to save her from drowning. When she was at her most sad and grief-stricken, it was Song Qiaoyan who silently accompanied her, guarded her, comforted her, and lent her his thin shoulders.

Probably from that time on, Lin Jinse had more indescribable feelings for Song Qiaoyan.

Lin Jinse felt that Song Qiaoyan liked her, but he had never expressed his love to her clearly. It has been 6 years now, and the window between them has never been broken.

On the first night after she suddenly heard the bad news about her parents, her grandfather fainted and was admitted to the hospital. When she went home to help her grandfather pack some toiletries, she couldn't help it anymore and called Song Qiaoyan.

After Song Qiaoyan found out, he immediately said that he would immediately take leave to come back to be with her. Lin Jinse didn't refuse. At that moment, she really longed for him to be by her side.

But in the end he did not come back, and his agent Zhou Qing disagreed.

Song Qiaoyan studied acting at Nan Opera. Starting from his freshman year, under the arrangement of Zhou Qing, he took on various supporting roles one after another. This year, when he was a senior, Zhou Qing helped him take on a play as the second male lead.

"Xiao Jin, I'm really sorry, I..." Song Qiaoyan felt very guilty and kept apologizing on the phone.

Although Lin Jinse was disappointed, she comforted him: "It's okay, my aunt will come over, and Lisa, she will come back too. I know this drama is very important to you, just film well and don't worry about me."

The phone rang for almost half a minute. Lin Jinse finally picked up the phone and called softly: "Brother Qiao Yan."

"Xiao Jin, are you feeling better?" Song Qiaoyan asked.

Lin Jinse said softly, "Yeah", "I'm coming to Beiling and will stay at my aunt's house for a while."

"Okay, take a good rest first. Don't be sad and don't think too much. I'll ask the director for leave in a few days and come over to see you." Song Qiaoyan said.

Lin Jinse didn't say anything. She didn't dare to have expectations, but she couldn't help but look forward to it. She listened to Song Qiaoyan's gentle voice in silence, and her tears couldn't stop flowing down.

Lin Jinse bit her lip hard to stop herself from sobbing.

"Qiao Yan, work has started!" A man's shouting voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Hey, here we come!" Song Qiaoyan turned back to him and said hurriedly: "Xiao Jin, let's not talk about it for now. I have to start work. I'll call you when I'm done."

Before Lin Jinse could speak, Song Qiaoyan had already hung up the phone.

Lin Jinse slowly put down the phone, and tears fell down like broken beads.

After a while, the quilt on my legs was already wet.

How could it not be sad? How could you not have random thoughts? Doesn't he know that since Jinnian passed away, she has become sentimental and loves to think wildly?

Lin Jinse was really disappointed with Song Qiaoyan, but she missed Song Qiaoyan so much, wanted him to be by her side, wanted to lean into his warm embrace, and cry wantonly, but she couldn't ask him to do anything, after all, there was nothing between them.

The grief and grievances of the past few days broke out completely. Lin Jinse bent her knees, hugged her, buried her head between her legs, and burst into tears.

Early in the morning, the birds outside the window were chirping happily, and Lin Jinse woke up.

She rubbed her dry eyes, sat up, and suddenly thought of something, quickly opened the quilt, got out of bed, and ran to the dressing table with bare feet.

"Why are they so swollen?" Lin Jinse looked at his own eyes in the mirror and murmured to himself. He couldn't help but rub them again. He felt irritated and annoyed. He shouldn't have cried so wantonly last night. How could he look like this?

Lin Jinse hung her head, put on her slippers, and went to the bathroom to wash up.

After washing up, Lin Jinse sat in front of the mirror, planning to use an air mattress to press it down to see if it could cover up the traces of her crying.

It was almost completely useless. Her skin was too white and thin. As long as she cried casually, the marks would be very obvious, let alone crying as hard as she did last night.

Forget it, just stay in the bedroom and don't go out.

Lin Jinse sighed and picked up her phone to edit WeChat when Zhang Qianhua called.

"Auntie." Lin Jinse picked up.

"Jinse, are you up? You can come down for breakfast in ten minutes." Zhang Qianhua said, and then there was a "squeaking" sound on the phone, "I squeezed pear juice for you."

"Auntie, I feel a little uncomfortable and don't want to come down for breakfast." Lin Jinse said.

"Where do you feel uncomfortable? Do you want to go to the hospital?" Zhang Qianhua stopped and asked nervously.

Lin Jinse said hurriedly: "No, I just didn't sleep well and I want to sleep some more."

"Oh." Zhang Qianhua breathed a sigh of relief, "Then let me bring you breakfast. You ate less yesterday, so you have to eat breakfast."

Lin Jinse obediently agreed, "Okay."

Lin Jinse yawned. She really didn't sleep well last night. Not only were her eyes dry, but her head was aching. She simply got back under the quilt, which was a lie.

When I was about to fall asleep, there was an unhurried knock on the door.

***.

Lin Jinse got out of bed and was too lazy to put on shoes. She walked to the door with bare feet, twisted the door handle, and opened the door.

A refreshing and clean smell hit my face, like the smell of green bamboo after rain.

The object was the boy's raised Adam's apple, as sharp as a mountain peak, and then the mountain peak rolled.

Lin Jinse raised his head blankly and looked up bit by bit.

The smooth and cold jaw, the tall and straight bridge of the nose, the soft and thin lips, the dark, deep and cold eyes were looking at her indifferently.

Why is it him? !

After Lin Jinse reacted, his face burned and he slammed the door shut.

Lin Jinse hurriedly ran back to the bed, put on her slippers, quickly pulled out a coat from the closet and put it on, zipping it up to her neck.

Then he hurried back and opened the door again.

There was no one outside the door, and the brown double-layered food box lay quietly on the wooden floor in the center of the door.

It's the same one I used when delivering food to Jian Yi last night.