The Woman I Was Flirting With Turned Out To Be A Chaebol Heiress - Chapter 22

Time passed quickly, and before she knew it, it was already late July.

During this period, Li Nianyi and Jiang Ji, as if by tacit agreement, had stayed out of each other’s sight. This cooling-off lasted for nearly two weeks.

Li Nianyi still hadn’t found a new job. Strangely, the resumes she submitted online seemed to have sunk without a trace, with no responses at all.

Her primary source of income was still tutoring the young lady in Chinese. Over the past two weeks, although she had entered that luxurious mansion multiple times, she never once saw the person she wanted to see.

Sitting at her desk, Li Nianyi stared at a Polaroid photo.

Oh no, to be precise, the real “young lady” of the Saionji family should be Jiang Ji.

This world really is absurd.

Out of curiosity, a few days ago, Li Nianyi had searched online for keywords related to Saionji and Jiang Ji, but found very little.

The Saionji Group, being a huge conglomerate deeply tied to everyday life in Japan, had no shortage of information available. However, information about the family head Kiriko’s two adopted daughters was extremely scarce mostly hearsay and clearly fabricated rumors.

After digging for a long time, all she found was one blurry photo showing only Jiang Ji’s profile.

Even that photo was extracted from an article by a clickbait blog. The image and text didn’t match, and the content wasn’t worth much.

From the photo, it looked like they were attending someone’s funeral.

Jiang Ji wore a black suit, eyes lowered, standing at the center of the frame. Her face was surprisingly youthful, looking no older than her early twenties.

She saved the photo, as if keeping it allowed her to glimpse Jiang Ji’s past one that Li Nianyi had never been a part of.

Did she smile the same way back then?

Li Nianyi sighed lightly.

Life in a wealthy family might appear glamorous, but being adopted must not have been easy either.

She stared at the grainy photo, its pixelated composition forming that cold and distant face. Though surrounded by a dense crowd, Jiang Ji still gave off an inexplicable sense of loneliness.

But this time, Li Nianyi decided she wouldn’t be the one to reach out first anymore.

She didn’t want to push things into moral coercion. If Jiang Ji was willing to talk, she would listen. But if Jiang Ji couldn’t get past her inner hurdles, maybe letting things slowly fade away wouldn’t be the worst outcome either.

Putting the Polaroid back in its place, Li Nianyi tried to clear her mind.

But sometimes, fate really is mysterious it always finds strange ways to tie people together.

That afternoon, Li Nianyi discovered she got her period.

It wasn’t a big deal in itself, but as she was fastening her waistband, she suddenly realized it was her first period in nearly two months.

Probably due to high stress earlier, her cycle had been delayed. But she had never paid much attention to these things and didn’t keep track of her cycle, so she hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

A sense of unease crept in.

She pulled out her medicine box and took four painkillers with warm water, thinking prevention couldn’t hurt.

Unfortunately, disaster still struck.

The next morning, she was jolted awake by intense cramps. Pain radiated from below her navel—heavy, wrenching, and impossible to ignore.

Clutching her belly, Li Nianyi sat up, swearing under her breath.

Hadn’t she taken medicine already? Why did it still hurt so much?

With trembling fingers, she turned off the air conditioner and curled back into bed.

It hurt so bad…

She tried massaging her abdomen to ease the pain, but the cramps only intensified. It felt like someone inside her stomach was drilling holes so painful that her brain felt starved of oxygen, making it hard to even focus.

Why was it so painful this time?

Cold sweat poured from her forehead. The room was heating up quickly now that the AC was off, and though her skin was hot, she felt freezing on the inside.

She tried to get up and boil water, but her hands were shaking, her body couldn’t stand, and tears she hadn’t even noticed began to stream down her face.

She wanted to cry, scream at the top of her lungs but when she opened her mouth, all that came out were meaningless whimpers.

If only this was the worst of it.

Li Nianyi told herself she could get through it by lying still, just resting.

But soon after, nausea rose from her stomach.

Her mouth turned sour, and she could feel bile and acid climbing up her throat.

Driven by nausea, she dragged herself to the bathroom, holding onto the wall, dry heaving several times. All that came out was bitter, sour saliva.

She gasped desperately, but it felt like the air stopped at the edge of her lungs and refused to go deeper.

The nausea didn’t go away. It dulled her mind, leaving her dizzy.

She wanted to vomit, but with nothing in her stomach since the day began, there wasn’t anything to throw up.

After ten painful minutes of gagging over the toilet, she finally managed to expel a bit of clear liquid.

Her stomach felt slightly better, but her limbs suddenly went numb like the static on an old TV, buzzing and heavy.

She stumbled back to bed, pried her eyes open to check the time. Almost 7:30 a.m.

She couldn’t take it anymore she had to call emergency services or she was going to pass out.

But her fingers were so numb they could barely curl, and the agonizing cramps kept disrupting her thoughts. She barely managed to dial 1-1-9 when another call came in.

Before she could see who it was, her thumb accidentally hit “accept.”

Of course, her fingers were uncooperative when she needed them most.

“Hello? Nian Nian… I think I’ve calmed down now.”

Li Nianyi hadn’t expected the call to be from Jiang Ji.

But she was in too much pain to answer properly. Her throat was too tight to speak. All she could get out was a faint moan:

“It hurts…”

Jiang Ji immediately sensed something was wrong. Her heart jumped.

“Nian Nian? Nian Nian?! What’s happening?”

No proper response. Only broken gasps and pain-filled sounds.

“Nian Nian, don’t hang up. I’m coming over right now!”

Li Nianyi could barely hear what she was saying. Her body trembled with pain, but strangely, Jiang Ji’s voice soothed her frayed nerves.

Time blurred. Li Nianyi felt trapped between sleep and consciousness, unable to process what was happening around her.

Until

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Nian Nian?!”

Her phone and the door both rang out at the same time.

Summoning the last of her strength, Li Nianyi opened the door.

Then collapsed into a familiar embrace, losing consciousness.

Vaguely, she heard Jiang Ji’s anxious, panicked voice.

Ah, Jiang Ji. Still as reassuring as ever.

Seeing Li Nianyi’s pale face, contorted features, and her hands pressed tightly against her belly, Jiang Ji guessed it was probably severe menstrual cramps.

She quickly laid her back down on the bed. Luckily, she was familiar with the layout of this small apartment and didn’t fumble.

She boiled a kettle of water. Without a hot water bottle, she filled a plastic cup with hot water and tucked it into Li Nianyi’s arms to warm her up.

Half-conscious, Li Nianyi felt the heat against her stomach, and someone gently wiping the sweat from her forehead with a warm towel every movement soft and careful, as though handling a rare treasure.

“Jiang Ji…”

“I’m here.”

After wiping her down, Jiang Ji began to massage her acupoints her mother used to press when she was a child to relieve menstrual cramps.

Her fingers circled slowly on Li Nianyi’s damp skin, firm but not uncomfortable.

While pressing the “Hegu” point, Jiang Ji noticed how icy cold Li Nianyi’s hands were. She cupped them in her own, rubbing them gently until their temperatures aligned.

Watching her brows slowly relax, breathing ease, Jiang Ji finally felt her own heart settle.

Thank God…

Thank God it wasn’t something worse.

Heaven knew how terrified she was when she heard Li Nianyi cry out in pain.

Jiang Ji sat beside her, staring at the face that haunted her dreams until her mind and heart were filled with nothing but her.

Closer. Just a little closer…

At some point, as if possessed, Jiang Ji found herself leaning in closer, uncontrollably so. But just before her lips touched Li Nianyi’s, she turned slightly and kissed her on the chin.

A light, butterfly kiss.

And it snapped her back to reality.

She quickly sat up.

She saw… Li Nianyi’s fluttering eyelashes.

She was awake!

Panicking, Jiang Ji rushed into the kitchen, pretending to fetch more hot water.

Leaning against the kitchen wall, her mind went blank like it had been hit by a bomb.

God, what had she just done?

Kissing someone while they were weak like that wasn’t that taking advantage?

She wanted to slap herself but didn’t dare make noise. Instead, she forced herself to stay composed and cook porridge for the “patient.”

With the ingredients on hand, she made a pot of shiitake and shrimp congee—tasty, nutritious, and easy to digest. Perfect for Li Nianyi right now.

When she brought the steaming bowl over, Li Nianyi finally stirred and pretended to wake up.

“Jiang Ji, I’m hungry.”

She stretched out her arms and sat up in bed, watching Jiang Ji sit beside her again, holding the bowl.

“Don’t get up. I’ll feed you.”