Temporary fix with ellipsis

I've worked so much on this ellipsis problem, but I can't figure it out using just css. Everything online tells me to either use a super long .after, .before, and .first.child type schematic, which I tried, but for some reason would not translate to the box, even though the code was literally identical. And the other version is to use line-clamp, which has a bug that no one can find. I've worked a long time on this and really don't want to come back to it until I learn some more about css or maybe how to add javascript, so I just coded up another quick version that has a fadeaway if it's longer than usual.