Older Sister

I thought you loved me so much.

Xing Yue had not let herself go like that in years. She had barely slept last night, and she was still crying out when dawn broke, her voice hoarse.

When Xing Yue woke, she found Bu Yao lying on her side beside her, fingers still stroking her face. The look in Bu Yao's eyes was tender and lingering, but the moment their gazes met, she hurriedly looked away.

Seeing her so bashful, anyone would have thought Xing Yue had been the one on top all night.

Xing Yue took Bu Yao's hand, her voice carrying the lazy drawl of someone fresh from sleep. "Did you like what you saw?"

Bu Yao froze for a moment, then nodded.

She was wearing Xing Yue's shirt, a slightly long white silk one that just covered her bottom. It gave her an innocent, pretty look that was dangerously alluring.

Her own clothes lay on the floor beside the bed. Even though she had changed into this shirt afterward, it was already wrinkled. Someone had clearly done quite a number on her in it.

Xing Yue said, "I meant last night, when you couldn't find the right spot and I turned on all the lights."

One bedside lamp had not been bright enough. Bu Yao had been so nervous she could not even find the spot, so Xing Yue had turned on every ceiling light in the bedroom and propped her hips up with a pillow.

At that angle, under those lights, even the fine hairs on her skin were perfectly visible.

Heat rushed to Bu Yao's face. She buried it against Xing Yue's chest, too embarrassed to make a sound.

Xing Yue had asked her the same question then. Bu Yao had still been angry, her face burning red, and had stubbornly answered, "It was all right, I guess."

Xing Yue had simply agreed. "I think so too. The young miss's is prettier."

That one remark had sent Bu Yao's mating pheromones pouring out. The scent of snake filled the air, and she looked more ravishing than ever.

Xing Yue chuckled. Her voice had yet to recover and came out low and husky. "What time is it?"

Bu Yao handed her the phone. "Your agent called earlier. I asked for half a day off for you, and she approved it."

Xing Yue's expression did not change. Qiao Rui had not approved the leave for her sake. She had approved it for Bu Yao's.

After all their years working together, Xing Yue knew Qiao Rui had a fiery temper. She would argue with even the biggest stars, cursing them right to their faces. Yet now she fawned over everyone in the Bu Family and bowed and scraped before them.

Madam Bu must have given the studio plenty of benefits.

"Mm. I'll get ready and go to the training venue. I'll send you the location when I get there. If you're free tonight, will you come help me treat my wound?"

Xing Yue got out of bed and dressed. She had explained the plan for healing her snake tail to Bu Yao last night: she needed someone to use their snake tongue to soothe the wound and ease the pain.

The hospital had nurses for that, but Xing Yue did not much want a stranger licking her. Bu Yao certainly would not want it either. She might tear the roof off.

Xing Yue had just put on her shirt when arms suddenly wrapped around her waist from behind.

Bu Yao rubbed her forehead against the back of Xing Yue's shoulder and murmured, "If anyone asks whether you're single, tell them you have a girlfriend. Then light up your phone and show them my photo. Got it?"

Companies often had their artists cultivate a public image, and most wanted them to appear single. But Bu Yao had brought it up herself, and it clearly mattered to her. Xing Yue was not going to hide her.

"This one?" Xing Yue lit up her screen. Her lock-screen wallpaper showed Bu Yao kneeling beneath a camellia tree, her snake tail visible. Xing Yue frowned. "You look like you're begging to be done. I'm keeping this one for myself. I'll pick another."

Bu Yao made a few flustered sounds, biting her lower lip as she muttered, "If you could tell, then why did you... keep turning me down...?"

She was upset with Xing Yue. She had sought to mate with her again and again, only to be refused every time. She had wanted to bite Xing Yue's mouth raw so those lips could never reject her again.

Xing Yue sat on the sofa and pulled Bu Yao into her arms. She opened Bu Yao's WeChat Moments to look for another photo, teasing her deliberately. "You're not even in heat yet, and you're asking to mate every day. One of these days, I'll catch you and toss you into a nest of female snakes."

Bu Yao bit her cheek. "You wouldn't dare!"

"I wouldn't. I couldn't bear to." Xing Yue tightened her arms around her, drawing her so close she wished they could melt into one body. "Call me older sister, hmm? It's been so long since I heard it."

She suddenly remembered the night they had come back from hiking. Bu Yao had asked whether Xing Yue had seen her WeChat status. Xing Yue had gone out that night, and when she returned, Bu Yao did not mention it again. Xing Yue had forgotten to check.

Now, as she scrolled through Bu Yao's Moments, she made a point of looking at the status beneath her profile picture.

It was a lyric so familiar that Xing Yue could hear the melody in her head as she read it.

[Between the sky and me]

It was from Mayday's "Step by Step," one of Xing Yue's favorite songs. The first cover she had shared online ten years ago had been a snippet of it.

Bu Yao had posted only the first half of the lyric, leaving the rest unwritten. Her feelings for Xing Yue were just like that line.

How deep did that love run? Deep enough that Xing Yue felt dazed, as though it could not be real.

On the first night they met again after their divorce, Bu Yao had said, "I missed you so much." The confession had been lonely and agonized, but Xing Yue had overlooked it. She had not heard Bu Yao's longing at all.

In the ten years Xing Yue had been away, she had spent seven with another woman. They had been inseparable, sharing love and affection. She had barely thought of Bu Yao and often forgot she had ever been married.

If Bu Yao loved her this much, why had she not appeared in ten years? With her position, finding Xing Yue would have been easy.

The woman in her arms had no idea what she was thinking. Bu Yao just kissed Xing Yue's soft lips and called out, her cheeks red, "Older sister..."

That was not enough for her. She kissed Xing Yue's face, then her chin, unable to get enough. Still caught up in the joy of Xing Yue agreeing to be her girlfriend, she sat on Xing Yue's lap, swinging her dangling legs.

Xing Yue suddenly asked, "When we went hiking, you said you hadn't taken your medicine lately and your moods had been unstable. Did something happen?"

She had assumed Bu Yao had fallen ill sometime during those ten years. She had no idea Bu Yao's illness dated back to ten years ago.

"That lovesick condition. Erotomania." Bu Yao looked down and played with her fingers, her voice faint. "I thought you loved me so much. One meeting, and I wanted us to marry. One time holding hands, and I thought we'd grow old together..."

Her voice was so fragile it nearly broke, yet her tone was remarkably calm. It had taken a great deal of pain for her to understand that Xing Yue did not love her: that she did not like being with her, putting her shoes on for her, cooking for her, or coming home by eight every night.

Bu Yao had told herself that cruel truth over and over. She had flown into rages, smashed the things Xing Yue had left in their marital home, cursed her like a madwoman, and worn herself down until she was covered in wounds. Only when she saw that Xing Yue truly did not want her anymore had she finally found the strength to accept it.

Now she could say calmly that Xing Yue did not love her.

Over the past ten years, she had revisited their brief marriage countless times. It was not that she had enjoyed bullying Xing Yue. Their married days were simply among the few memories she had of them together.

Pain seized Xing Yue's chest, choking her words. "Don't you want to marry me now? Don't you want to grow old with me?"

Xing Yue had been terribly wrong too. She had reached marriageable age just as the Bu Family came with a proposal. Bu Yao was beautiful, so Xing Yue had agreed because she wanted her.

After they married, she could not stand Bu Yao or the way the Bu Family treated her. She had not even been willing to say goodbye properly. She had left nothing but divorce papers and walked away.

She had known Bu Yao's temper. She had known the papers would leave her furious for a long time, but she had done it anyway, without giving her a chance to talk.

At the time, Bu Yao had believed Xing Yue was a wife who loved her deeply. Then the woman she loved suddenly signed divorce papers and left. How much must losing her have hurt?

Before she could recover from the pain of divorce, Bu Yao had discovered she had been ill for a long time. She had been forced to face the fact that her wife had never loved her at all. It was another devastating blow.

For a while, she had cried every day, stubbornly waiting for Xing Yue to come back for her. When she could not bear the wait any longer and went looking for Xing Yue herself, she found Xing Yue had changed every way of contacting her and was avoiding her completely.

"I do," Bu Yao replied, curling into Xing Yue's arms. "When you want to remarry, we can get married again. I know you have a lot to consider. Just tell me when you've made up your mind. I'm ready whenever you are."

She had no intention of considering anyone else. She would stay with Xing Yue for the rest of her life.

Xing Yue lingered with Bu Yao for a while. Before she could leave, Bu Yao pulled her close and asked for another kiss. Like a couple newly in love, they kissed by the front door until neither wanted to let go, lost in desire.

On the way to the company, Xing Yue changed her WeChat status to the second half of that lyric:

[Nothing remains but longing pouring down]

Not long after, a message from Bo Wuxue popped up. It was a forty-second voice message, and Xing Yue's pupils contracted. For a moment, she thought something had happened to her.

Bo Wuxue rarely sent voice messages that long. Hers were usually only a few seconds each, and if she had that much to say, she would call.

Xing Yue tapped the message. Through her Bluetooth earphones came Bo Wuxue's clumsy, off-key singing, her voice deliberately coy: [Between the sky and me, nothing remains but longing pouring down... In the scenery without you, you still occupy every street...]

Xing Yue: "..."

Two reaction stickers appeared in the chat window: one of a cat holding a microphone and singing its heart out.

The other showed a cat waving a glow stick, swaying from side to side.

Bo Wuxue had sent her congratulations.

Xing Yue must have really shown the Bu Family's young miss who was boss last night. She had probably used up an entire box of Finger Sleeves. That was A Yue for you—her best friend was the fiercest top in the world!