The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

"Enough about me. Why aren’t you at that banquet?" Xia Luna quickly changed the topic.

Cheng Yu’s stopped thinking about those serious things. She didn’t like the solemn mood, either. "I went to an exhibition with your mom." Her eyes sparkled with joy when she reminisced about her visit to the exhibition with Li Yuming. This was one of the advantages of being a famous artist’s disciple. She had been treated with much more respect than she had recieved all her life.

She proceeded to talk about many things at the exhibition, none of which Xia Luna was interested in but listened anyway.

"How come I didn’t know about that exhibition? You didn’t tell me about it."

"I didn’t know about it either. She only remembered to ask me today, and I didn’t have anything to do after my class, so I tagged along."

"You didn’t go with Lanni?"

"Someone had to go to the banquet." That, and the fact that Li Lanni would have preferred to go to the banquet if Li Yuming asked her.

"I see..." Xia Luna was clearly lost in her own world.

Cheng Yu suddenly asked, "Luna, do you miss your mom?"

Xia Luna stopped what she was doing and smiled. "She left when I was just a baby. There isn’t an ounce of familiarity between us. What’s there for me to miss?"

Cheng Yu nodded slowly.

Although that was what Xia Luna said, Cheng Yu could see it in the depth of her grey eyes. She did miss her mother. How could she not miss her?

Every child would if they had been separated from their mother for that long. Not to mention, Xia Luna had one of those stepmother that are usually labelled as scheming stepmothers in novels. All the more reason for her to want to be with her biological mother.

She just didn’t want to admit it. And from her look right now, she didn’t want to talk about it. In fact, she had never wanted to talk about her mother.

Seriously, what exactly had happened between Li Yuming and the Xia family?

...

Back in the banquet hall,

Ji Feifei couldn’t cry her way out of this predicament.

"Feifei, why did you do it?" Madam Ji asked. She was so embarrassed that she didn’t know where to show her face. How could her daughter do such a thing in a public setting? She was even involved with a fake employee with a questionable identity.

"Mother, I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t mean to." She bowled her eyes out, clinging onto her mother like she had been bullied.

’Someone give her an Oscar’s already.’ Li Lanni harrumphed her way out of the banquet hall.

Ji Xiehan followed her out too. He was not interested in the spoiled daughter-loving parent’s drama either.

When he came out of the hall, he saw that Li Lanni was languidly waiting beside his car.

She didn’t know it, but she looked like a little girlfriend waiting for her boyfriend to finish his business and drop her home.

"Did you wait for too long, my little fiancée?" He teased.

Li Lanni shot him a look,’ Who are you calling your little fiancee?’ but she was too embarrassed to admonish him, so she swallowed her words. She was the one who had thrown his name around carelessly, so she shouldn’t be mad at him for teasing her.

She didn’t dare to look up at him. "Sorry I had to do that... your friend sounded like... he would be a pain in the butt if I didn’t knock him off... you will not mind, will you?" Even she didn’t know what she was saying.

"No." Ji Xiehan said to her relief. If there was any gains from her little fiancé act earlier, it was he who had gained. Despite this, he wouldn’t be Ji Xiehan if he didn’t grab the chance. "But I played along with your little act. How are you going to thank me?"

Li Lanni’s eyes widened. Wasn’t he going to let her off? Sure enough, he was business profiteer through and through!!

"Eer... I thought you were defending your sister as the good brother you are? Why did you turn against her and side with her nemesis instead?" This was what kept her puzzled all the while; she didn’t expect him to support her. She was even prepared for his rebuttal.

Ji Xiehan leaned against the car close to her and shrugged. "Of course, I would side with my little beauty. You got the evidence pretty fast." He complimented before adding, "And you have something else to thank me for."

"What?" Li Lanni blinked.

"Just then, you were going to give up, and I helped you. Are you really not going to thank me?"

Li Lanni shook her head with a frown. "I was not giving up. I had a plan!"

Ji Xiehan closed in on her, then pressed a hand against the car, almost trapping her between his body and the car. "But I did help you. And you didn’t reject my help. Are you really going to be ungrateful?"

Li Lanni widened her eyes. Why did it feel like he did it on purpose?

But she didn’t want to bicker with him. He did make it easier to get rid of the trouble. "Fine. You helped me a great deal. Thank you very much."

Ji Xiehan looked pained like he had been bullied. "Lanni, how can you be so insincere?"

Li Lanni almost rolled her eyes. How thick was his skin?!. But what could she do about it? "Fine. I’ll bake you cupcakes. How about that?"

Ji Xiehan was going to ask to meet her again, but when he heard the offer, he almost drooled. What was better than his little beauty’s handmade cupcakes?

But, he still couldn’t accept that. She had baked cupcakes for another man before. Qiao Luna was his assistant. Of course, she would report that.

Full of jealousy, he acted like a spoilt little boy throwing a tantrum. "I don’t like cupcakes."

Li Lanni wanted to kick him in the guts, but she couldn’t because she would owe him again. "What do you want, then?". 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"I love..." he thought for a while. He didn’t know much about pastries because he didn’t like them, but he was not going to let go of this heaven-sent chance. "I prefer strawberry cookies."

Li Lanni gulped. She didn’t know how to bake cookies.

But she knew someone who did. "Deal."

Ji Xiehan smiled evilly. He had killed two birds with one stone. Not only would he get to eat cookies made by his little beauty, but she would also have to deliver them in person, and in the process, he would make her spend time with him.

Of course, this could still get better. "That is to thank me for helping you with Ji Feifei’s matter. But I still got Lin Jian off your hair."

Li Lanni really wanted to faint. What had she gotten herself into? ’If given an inch, you want a mile.’ This pervert was not going to let her off easily. Her chest heaved in exhaustion. "Just say it."

Ji Xiehan pretended to rack his brains for a while, enjoying her nervous expression. The favor he wanted from her couldn’t be granted so easily. He would save that for later.

"How about.... you let me kiss you?"

"No way!" Li Lanni refuted with a blank face.

He was disappointed at how quickly Li Lanni refused him, but then he asked again, "Then how about you kiss me?"

Li Lanni rolled her eyes. What was the difference?

Ji Xiehan had had enough fun teasing her; he knew that she would not accept his request, so he carefully said, "I can’t think about anything for now. How about you owe me this time?"

"Okay." Li Lanni replied casually.

Wait! Why did it suddenly feel as if she has fallen into the trap he had woven for her? Li Lanni blinked her eyes in a daze.

Happy that he had had his way, Ji Xiehan opened the driver’s car door. "I’ll send you home first."

Li Lanni quickly got in too. It was embarrassing to be out here. Luckily no one was looking at them.

But unknown to her, at the entrance of the hall, Madam Ji was standing at the corner, where they couldn’t see her. She had come to have a word with Ji Xiehan but was greeted with her son openly flirting with a girl in the parking lot.

...

In the car, much to his dismay, Li Lanni asked Ji Xiehan to drive faster. So his little plot to spend more time with her didn’t work.

But he didn’t mind it. She still owed him cupcakes and a favor.

And who said he couldn’t make her owe him more?

As soon as they arrived, Li Lanni got off the car and smiled at him, "Thank you for the ride."

He smiled back charmingly, his blue eyes gazing at her gently before he dropped the bomb. "How are you going to thank me?"

"What?"