Edge of A Burning Kiss - Chapter 1

Xia Jin clutched the medical report in her hand as she navigated through the noisy hospital corridor in her black high heels, finally stopping in front of the neurology department.

Knock, knock!

She rapped lightly on the door before pushing it open just a crack and peeking inside. “Xiao Ling?” she called tentatively.

Inside the consultation room, Xia Ziling looked up and gave her a faint smile. “Sis, come on in.”

There was a slight resemblance between Xia Ziling’s features and Xia Jin’s, though Xia Jin’s eyes always carried a hint of laughter, while Xia Ziling’s held a touch of cool detachment.

Xia Jin gently closed the door behind her and took a seat on a nearby stool, watching her brother work with curiosity.

“Patients under 40 with Parkinson’s symptoms should have their liver function checked to rule out Wilson’s disease…”

Leaning against the wall, Xia Jin listened to Xia Ziling’s voice, feeling her head grow heavier and heavier, her body sinking uncontrollably into drowsiness.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she felt something being draped over her. Blinking groggily, she murmured, “Done already?”

Xia Ziling stood before her and nodded, taking the report from her hands. “There aren’t many patients at noon. Sis, why don’t you take a nap in my chair?”

Xia Jin stretched as she stood up, clicking her tongue in admiration. “Our Xiao Ling has really made something of himself, now he even has his own department.”

Curling up in the chair with Xia Ziling’s coat over her, she rubbed her temples with a slight headache before closing her eyes to catch up on sleep.

Noticing her exhaustion, Xia Ziling softened the rustling of the report in his hands, careful not to disturb her.

But within minutes, Xia Jin stirred awake again. “So?” she asked.

Xia Ziling nodded. “You’re recovering well. The blood clot in your head has mostly dissolved. Have you been feeling any discomfort lately?”

Xia Jin grinned and patted her chest. “Don’t worry, I’m eating well and feeling great.”

Xia Ziling sighed, fixing her with a piercing stare. “Sis, how many hours of sleep are you getting a day?”

Xia Jin scratched her head guiltily. With how busy work had been lately, when did she even have time to sleep?

“About three or four hours…”

Xia Ziling pressed his lips together. “Sis, when you got into that car accident six months ago, I told you, you can’t keep pushing yourself like before. Your body won’t hold up if you keep treating it this way. If you don’t change, I’ll have no choice but to contact Shen Du and ask him to come back and keep an eye on you. You know you only listen to him.”

“No!” Just hearing Shen Du’s name made Xia Jin’s hair stand on end. “You absolutely cannot tell him anything about me! You know how crazy he is. Things were so tense between us before he left, if he comes back now, I swear he’ll drag me straight to the civil registry and force me to marry him!”

“That might not be such a bad thing,” Xia Ziling mused, stroking his chin. “Shen Du really does love you. And honestly, he’s the only one who can keep a workaholic like you in check.”

“Bro! My dear brother!” Xia Jin clasped her hands together pleadingly. “I promise, once things settle down, I’ll let Song Qianrou take over the company for a while so I can rest properly. So please, for the love of all things holy, don’t contact Shen Du. I really, really don’t like him!”

Just as Xia Ziling frowned, about to say something, Xia Jin’s phone rang. She answered it quickly. “Yeah, got it. I’ll handle the rest when I get back to the office.”

Xia Jin stood up and placed the clothes on the table. “Xiao Ling, since there’s no issue, I’ll head back to the company first.”

“Sis, wait!” Xia Ziling quickly called out to stop Xia Jin, who was about to leave. “I’ve written the prescription for you. Get your medicine before you go.”

“I know, I know. If I feel unwell, I’ll definitely tell you,” Xia Jin reassured him with a smile, grabbing the prescription and hurriedly pushing the door open.

“Remember!” Before leaving, Xia Jin turned back and pointed at Xia Ziling. “You absolutely must not tell Shen Du! And you must not let him come back early! Otherwise, I’ll hang myself right in front of you!”

With that, Xia Jin clacked away in her high heels.

Xia Ziling watched her hurried figure, opening his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, he remained silent.

When Xia Jin stepped out, her secretary, Song Qianrou, was already waiting for her at the door of the department.

Xia Jin casually stuffed the prescription into her pocket and took the documents from Song Qianrou’s arms, flipping through them.

She really didn’t have time to pick up the medicine today. She could just ask Ziling to get it for her after work, though she might have to endure a long-winded lecture from him.

Song Qianrou, curious about her actions, asked, “What’s in your pocket?”

Xia Jin deadpanned without missing a beat, “Prenatal checkup results. Two months along. Remember to give me a red envelope.”

Song Qianrou: “???”

Song Qianrou blinked in confusion. She distinctly remembered Xia Jin had visited the neurology department, hadn’t she?

Skeptical, she turned to glance at the sign by the door and let out a cold laugh.

She should’ve known Xia Jin was messing with her again!

Through gritted teeth, Song Qianrou muttered darkly, “Since when do neurologists handle obstetrics?”

Without looking up, Xia Jin continued spinning her tale effortlessly. “Oh, absolutely. Nowadays, doctors can do it all. In a few months, they’ll even shake your hand and say, ‘Congratulations! Six pounds, eight ounces, mother and baby are doing well.’”

Song Qianrou scoffed repeatedly. She knew better than to trust anything that came out of Xia Jin’s mouth even if she claimed monkeys could do advanced calculus.

Xia Jin quickly finished reviewing the documents, folding the corners of the problematic pages before handing them back to Song Qianrou.

“I refuse to believe the data for a hit drama like Zhang Yang could be this low. Tell the promotions team that no matter what personal conflicts they have, they’d better not bring them into work.”

“And another thing, why did two A-list artists jump ship to Yihe this month?”

At the hospital entrance, a man in a white coat hurriedly chased after Xia Jin’s retreating figure. “Xiao Jin…”

But he was too late, Xia Jin had already gotten into her car.

Gazing out the window, Xia Jin frowned thoughtfully. Had she just heard someone call her “Xiao Jin”? The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.

Who could it have been? Maybe she was just hearing things?

Just then, Song Qianrou interrupted her thoughts, pulling out a tablet to explain. “This is the resource distribution within the company this month. Twenty-eight percent of the resources were funneled into Chen Zeyu. The allocation is uneven, so it’s understandable why those two artists left.”

Xia Jin nodded, swiping rapidly through the tablet’s data before pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. “Does Chen Zeyu only know how to play domineering CEO roles? All these great resources are going to waste.”

Song Qianrou quipped, “He’s practically the tycoon specialist now.”

Xia Jin let out a cold laugh. “More like the tycoon squatter.”

Although Xia Jin usually didn’t seem very serious, Song Qianrou knew all too well that Stellar Cube Media was built from the ground up by Xia Jin herself, painstakingly growing it into an industry leader.

With artists under her management being poached one after another, Xia Jin must be feeling terrible inside right now.

“Both of these artists were personally poached by Xia Zhixue. That in itself is whatever, the Xia family’s young mistress has the money and influence to pay the breach penalties, and we don’t really care about those two artists anyway.” Song Qianrou hesitated before continuing, “But no matter what, she shouldn’t have publicly slandered you like that, saying… saying you were…”

“Saying what?” Xia Jin looked up with a smile, finishing Song Qianrou’s sentence for her: “Saying I’m a bitch, that I’m the bastard child of some mistress, right? She’s not wrong. That’s exactly what happened.”

“But that’s your mother’s issue, it has nothing to do with you!” Song Qianrou clenched her fists indignantly. “What’s her problem? You’re not even her family’s illegitimate child. What’s she trying to achieve with all this nonsense day in and day out?”

“Is that so?” Xia Jin grinned at her. “Then think again, what’s my surname?”

“Huh?”

Xia Jin.

Xia Zhixue.

Both shared the surname Xia.

Song Qianrou froze. “No way… Are you two acting out some ‘real vs. fake heiress’ drama?”

“Real heiress, fake heiress… whatever. I don’t want anything to do with the Xia family. Besides, Xia Zhixue only entered the entertainment industry to make my life harder, to keep me from living comfortably. If I just ignore her, she’ll get bored soon enough and go back to playing the pampered young mistress at home.”

Song Qianrou fell silent, pressing her lips together in frustration on Xia Jin’s behalf.

Xia Jin rolled down the car window, closing her eyes as the wind rushed in. She could feel her mind growing increasingly hazy, her consciousness slipping into darkness.

Earlier, Xia Jin hadn’t told Xia Ziling the whole truth, ever since that car accident, she would sometimes suddenly fall into a deep sleep.

In that drowsy state, she recalled the night of the crash, the sensation of being held in someone’s arms. Struggling to open her eyes, she had met a pair of dark, icy-cold ones.

Halfway through the ride, Song Qianrou shook Xia Jin awake and sighed. “With your health like this, pushing yourself isn’t sustainable. What did the doctor say?”

Xia Jin lowered her gaze. “They told me to rest, but I can’t afford to step back right now. If I take a break, what happens to Stellar Cube? There are too many people waiting to carve it up.”

The car fell silent, save for the occasional honk from outside.

After a long pause, Xia Jin finally spoke again. “Look into my accident again. I don’t think it was Chen Zeyu who saved me.”

Chen Zeyu had once been just a D-list nobody at Stellar Cube. Only by sheer luck, supposedly rescuing Xia Jin had he landed the resources he had now.

Song Qianrou reminded her, “There were no cameras on that stretch of road, and it happened in the middle of the night. We still don’t know what really went down that night. Investigating again probably won’t change anything.”

“Besides, the doctors confirmed it was Chen Zeyu waiting at the intersection for the ambulance.”

Xia Jin didn’t explain further. “Just look into it. And compensate the other artists whose resources Chen Zeyu took by finding them suitable replacements.”

“Got it.”

The moment Xia Jin returned to Stellar Cube, she dove straight into back-to-back meetings with every department, no rest in sight.

“How did the talk with Brady go? Even if his tech team doesn’t choose to collaborate with Stellar Cube, we absolutely cannot let him fall into the hands of Lelai Entertainment.”

Currently, there are three major media giants in the entertainment industry: Xia Jin’s Stellar Cube, Xia Zhixue’s Yihe, and Qin Yu’s Lelai Entertainment.

The only difference is that Lelai is just a subsidiary under the Qin Corporation.

Even if Brady chose to work with Xia Zhixue’s Yihe, Xia Jin could still try to sweet-talk him and poach the deal. But if he collaborated with Qin Yu, that opportunity would be permanently nailed to Lelai.

After all, the Qin Corporation’s influence nationwide was unshakable, far beyond what a mere Stellar Cube could compete with.

At Xia Jin’s words, everyone in the marketing department exchanged nervous glances, not daring to breathe too loudly.

Finally, the team leader stepped forward, stammering, “Brady definitely didn’t partner with Lelai.”

Xia Jin felt a wave of relief wash over her. She exhaled deeply, as long as it wasn’t Lelai, there was still room to maneuver.

But before she could finish exhaling, the leader awkwardly added, “He partnered with the Qin Corporation.”

“Cough-” Xia Jin nearly choked on air. “What did you say? The Qin Corporation?!”

If Brady was already working with the Qin Corporation, what was the point of even trying? She might as well pack up and go home to recuperate.

“But, boss, don’t panic yet,” the leader hesitantly continued. “There’s still a chance.”

Xia Jin’s forehead creased with frustration. Seriously, dude, can’t you just say everything at once?

“Qin’s secretary told us that if Stellar Cube wants in on the deal, you’ll have to personally go talk to President Qin.”

Qin Yu?

Xia Jin’s expression turned complicated as she recalled some… less-than-friendly friction between them back in high school.

She had a strong suspicion that Qin Yu was using this as an opportunity to retaliate against her. After all, their relationship was far from cordial.

Unwarranted kindness is either a scam or a trap. There was no way Xia Jin would ever swallow her pride and go groveling to Qin Yu for a deal.

Then again, maybe Qin Yu had already forgotten she even existed.

Just as Xia Jin was about to refuse outright, the leader added, “President Qin also said that if you agree to collaborate, the Qin Corporation would strongly consider Stellar Cube’s artists for this year’s brand endorsements.”

Xia Jin: “…”

Now she was truly defeated. With an offer like that on the table, how could she possibly refuse?

The whiplash left her speechless.

Xia Jin gritted her teeth. “Could you please just say everything in one go?! Is there anything else?!”

The leader shrank back. “N-no, that’s really it.”

Xia Jin pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine. Song Qianrou, I remember Qin Yu is bringing Lelai’s artists to the Li Pan Hotel. Gather a few of our own and come with me.”

Song Qianrou nodded, then laid out the problematic proposals Xia Jin had flagged earlier, placing them one by one in front of her.

“Marketing, care to explain the data discrepancies in Zhang Yang…?”