Cross the Boundary GL - Chapter 4

The setting sun gradually dipped below the horizon, and as dusk fell, the starry river descended. The kiss me sign lit up, but its ink-colored surface was missing a piece.

A customer with an appointment looked up for a long time and called out, “Shop owner! The sign needs to be replaced; it’s not even fully lit!”

A girl ran out in a hurry and looked up with him. Standing side-by-side, they discussed it. “You’re right, it needs to be replaced. It was only meant to be temporary.”

“I was wondering why it didn’t look like a tattoo shop’s style.”

“I couldn’t find a good design company, so it got delayed.”

The person tilted their head. “You should have said something sooner. Want me to introduce someone?”

Li Chu also tilted her head. “You know people who make signs?”

“What are you talking about!” The person pulled out his phone. “My connections are no joke…”

The next second, his face looked awkward. “I really don’t have a sign company. I have landscaping designers, though. I can ask for you…”

“Why don’t you come inside and have a seat?” Li Chu didn’t take the matter to heart.

…

The doorbell of an apartment suddenly rang. After vibrating for tens of seconds, a tattooed arm reached out from under the covers, grabbed the phone, and answered.

“Hello!” The voice on the other end was deafening.

Qin Song closed her eyes. “Speak.”

“Qin Gong, are you free lately? I have a side job…”

In the noise, the woman opened her eyes and looked at the screen; it was a little past seven in the evening.

“…a shop needs a new sign. Do you know anyone you can recommend? Or you could come personally…”

Qin Song’s tone was flat. “I’m on vacation.”

“Then I’ll send you the address. Remember to accept it…”

Before she could respond, four or five messages popped up on the screen. Qin Song immediately felt that communicating with people was very difficult, which was the main reason she never socialized.

Not establishing relationships with people was the best relationship.

But she still opened the chat window. The address sent by the other party was a long string, but the location showed it was less than five hundred meters away.

Qin Song zoomed in and out on the map. The approximate location was near the flower shop, and there was only one shop near the flower shop that needed a new sign.

So, when she and the introducer appeared at the shop’s entrance, Li Chu mistakenly thought she was there for a tattoo.

“You’ll have to wait a bit.” Li Chu sat on a ladder, using a wrench to unscrew the sign one screw at a time. “I have to take this sign down first.”

Qin Song was very tall, so Li Chu usually looked up at her, but today it was Qin Song who was craning her neck to look at her. “Come down.”

Li Chu was still twisting. “I’ll be quick.”

“Come down.” Qin Song didn’t want to repeat herself a third time.

The introducer knew her temper and quickly interjected, “Hurry and come down. I found someone who can make signs for you!”

He held a bunch of keys that rattled as he pointed at the tall woman with pink hair next to him. “This is Qin Song. Her major is landscape design, but she also takes on sign and environmental art projects. You two can sit down and discuss it.”

Li Chu’s expression as she processed the information was slow and clumsy. “Huh?”

The man clearly misunderstood her meaning. “Don’t judge a book by its cover! Teacher Qin is absolutely reliable, a senior engineer who graduated with a master’s degree! She works at Yangxin, with a certification and everything.”

Yangxin was Qin Song’s company, a well-known name in the industry.

Qin Song held an unlit cigarette, and with a meaningful expression and tone, she said to the introducer, “You can go now.”

The man left quickly, and Li Chu could read a sense of fear in his retreating back.

With the sign no longer providing light, only the faint glow of the lanterns remained. Li Chu slowly climbed down the ladder and awkwardly asked, “So you’re a designer?”

Qin Song’s needs were complex and widespread, and her fees were not low if calculated by the hour. Li Chu had been curious about her profession.

“No.” Qin Song lit the cigarette she was holding. “My team members are.”

At the end of the day, design was design. Yangxin’s subsidiary handled sign design, and Qin Song would even get some similar projects.

But she was already in a position where she had a team of over a hundred people. Many things didn’t require her to do them herself. The main job of a senior executive was to approve and manage, as well as to choose what to take on.

Yangxin definitely wouldn’t accept a project like kiss.me. It was too small-scale. The friend who introduced them knew it was a misuse of talent and ran away with a guilty conscience, which showed a lot about Qin Song’s persona at work.

Li Chu also understood. “How much do you charge for this?”

Qin Song gave a slight smirk. “Free.”

“Impossible!” Li Chu’s eyes widened.

“Following company procedure is 32,000, but a private procedure is free,” Qin Song added. “This is a private procedure.”

The smell of the cigarette was faint, not as strong as the flowers nearby. Li Chu thought about it carefully and felt that the other party wasn’t someone who would be so easy to talk to. “Then… I won’t charge you for your tattoos.”

Qin Song flicked the ash off her cigarette, clearly not satisfied with the decision. “No need.”

Li Chu’s eyes were moist, like some kind of animal’s. “What do you want? I can’t let you help me for nothing.”

She had a guess in her heart but wasn’t sure.

Qin Song’s long pink hair was draped on her right side, and as she walked in, a strand fell back. “Let’s go inside and talk.”

But the scene inside changed back to that of a tattoo artist and the person being tattooed. The new ink was left open on a low stool, and a third of it had already been used.

Qin Song rested her hand on the edge of the table, her knuckles clenched tightly.

The pleasure of seeking pain was clearly spilling out, and she even let out a barely suppressed gasp.

Li Chu was helping her modify the accidental blood-red “mole” on her collarbone. The surrounding pattern was mainly deep blue, so this time, she used deep blue to complete it.

But because it was on the collarbone, she had to lean in very close.

And so the ear hidden by her hair became a little itchy because of that faint breath, and it started to get warm.

The atmosphere suddenly became a little (ambiguous/flirtatious).

Qin Song spoke at this moment. “I want to smoke.”

Li Chu took the opportunity to back away a little. “Okay, go ahead.”

The cigarette smoke blurred the inexplicable intimacy from a moment ago, and Li Chu relaxed a lot. The topic went back to before they entered the shop. “Have you thought about it?”

Qin Song was silent, holding a mouthful of smoke. Just as Li Chu looked up to change her posture, she exhaled the smoke, and for a brief moment, neither of them could see the other clearly.

She spoke through the smoke. “I need more pain.”

She paused, and her tone became hard to figure out. “Help me with this, and I won’t charge you a single cent.”

She had a new tongue piercing, crystal clear like a piece of rock candy, and her eyes were still like a stagnant pool, endlessly (dry and withered).

Li Chu was a little thirsty and moistened her lips with saliva. “But I’m already helping you.”

From her back to her ankle, even if no customers came in the following days, she would still be sitting in the shop.

Qin Song’s unnaturally pale neck turned to the side, with crisscrossing dark blue veins on it, giving a fragile illusion.

“Have you ever bitten anyone?” Without any extra expression, she spoke of a crazy desire in a slow and calm way.

“Bite me.”

Her tone was indifferent and without emotional change, so much so that it made one think this was as ordinary as eating or drinking.

The sky was very dark, and the shop hadn’t had time to turn on the lights yet. But even so, Qin Song saw a trace of fear and confusion in the other person’s eyes.

The buzzing machine in the girl’s hand stopped as Qin Song glanced at it, reached out, turned off the power, and suggested, “Try it.”

She was wearing a shirt today, and two buttons were already undone, revealing the shoulder straps of her dark bra.

Qin Song pushed her hair back and unhooked a shoulder strap. “Open your mouth.”

Li Chu’s lips couldn’t avoid touching the other person’s skin, which was warm and… erotic.

She didn’t know why that word came to mind first. Maybe it was because Qin Song’s collarbone was straight and distinct, like a continuous snow mountain, rising and falling slightly with her breathing.

Li Chu’s heart was pounding, and the sound of blood flowing in her ears and the unfamiliar flutter were intensely scorching her.

Qin Song was someone whose thoughts were hard to read. From any angle, she had no association with lust. Apart from her obsession with pain, her labels should be abstinence or coldness.

Definitely not like this, with endless desire.

And temptation.

So Li Chu slowly opened her mouth, her teeth sinking in to bite and grind a small piece of flesh for a long time until Qin Song placed her hand on the back of her head and pressed down, succinctly and obscurely urging, “Harder.”

Her eyes closed involuntarily, and her mind was blank. All she felt was the hand on her head stroking, and her scalp felt prickly and numb.

Pain, it was clearly so uncomfortable. Why would anyone crave it?

Qin Song’s breathing was blocked. The taking and the rapidly rising pleasure made her part her lips slightly. Her fingers pressed down hard on the head in front of her.

Li Chu was almost suffocated. In a state of extreme oxygen deprivation, she had to embed her teeth in harder, trying to make the other person let go.

But this woman’s entire enjoyment came from this. Even her previously lifeless eyes were tinged with red, like she was wearing dark eyeshadow.

It wasn’t until a faint smell of blood permeated the air that Qin Song lowered her eyelashes to look at the cigarette that had burned all the way down in her hand. She flicked it with her index finger, and the cigarette butt flew in an arc into a bucket filled with air conditioner water.

It went out with a sizzle.

The next second, Li Chu was pushed away. Her dark hair covered her cheeks. She gasped for air, and her lips had uneven splotches of crimson blood, which made her moon-like pure face look bewitching.

She was probably suffocated for so long that she hadn’t recovered even with fresh air. Her body weakly tilted backward.

As she did, a drop of blood from the corner of her mouth flowed down her jaw, hanging on the edge, about to fall.

Qin Song looked at her indifferently, realizing that today’s pain was mixed with something else. It was ill-timed, but it also seemed reasonable.

So she gently cupped the other’s face and pressed her lips against hers. The translucent silver stud touched the blood like a ruby, but it quickly faded as their sticky, intertwined lips and teeth melted together.

Li Chu was given a breath and gradually calmed down. In a daze, her teeth seemed to have hit a hard object.

This plunged her into another predicament.

Qin Song wiped away all the crimson and quickly retreated.

Li Chu only had time to see the shiny stud on her tongue.

Qin Song calmly pushed the metal that had almost come loose back into place, then curled her lips slightly. “Not bad.”

Li Chu’s jaw was sore. She didn’t dare to look at the eyes of the person in front of her, which were completely devoid of any detachment due to her addiction. She looked away, as if trying to escape.

The wound on her collarbone was torn and bleeding, staining a small part of her shirt. She felt that if she hadn’t stopped just now, that piece of flesh would have definitely fallen off.

Her fingers were faintly aching. Qin Song’s eyes softened a little, no longer filled with the harsh deadness. “Someone will come to install the sign tomorrow.”

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