The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

Ji Xiehan sunk into thought. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, what Jiang Xingyu was saying was right.

But could he really ask Li Lanni to spy on someone? Wouldn’t that be too overboard?

Even if he asked her, would she comply with his request? She did owe him a favor, but there was no way he was going to use it for Jiang Xingyu! Thinking till here, Ji Xiehan shot a glare at his friend.

If he couldn’t bring himself to ask, he could just warn her about Ruby Chan. That would ensure her safety without having to do such tasks.

"Hey! Don’t you even think about backing out! I know you too well." How could Jiang Xingyu not know what his friend was thinking even after receiving a glare from him!

Ji Xiehan sighed. Well, that didn’t work.

___

That night, Li Lanni busied herself around in the kitchen.

She had initially thought of procrastinating for ages and making Ji Xiehan give up on the cookies, but after meeting his mother, she didn’t want to owe him anything. She would rather be done with it as soon as possible.

Baking even with the help of a recipe book wasn’t very easy for her. The last time she baked hadn’t been easy either. She had wanted to ask her mother for help but thought against it in the end, not wanting to bother her.

By the time she was done with mixing the batter, there was a thin layer of sweat on her forehead.

Her clothes and hair were covered with flour even though she had worn an apron and a hat. She quickly portioned the batter onto the baking pan and put them in the oven then set the timer.

She sighed while wiping the sweat and sat on the chair to take rest. She drank a mouthful of water and thought in frustration that she was never going to make cookies again! Luckily she made many of them this time. She would just tell the pervert that she had baked two portions. If he insisted on having her bake again, she would just order some from a pastry shop.

It would still take a while for the cookies to be ready, so she started playing with her phone to pass the time.

Within half-an-hour, the timer went off. Li Lanni quickly switched off the oven and wore a pair of thick mittens before taking out the cookies from the oven.

They looked pretty with the strawberry pieces sticking out a little. At least they looked edible and were pleasing to the eyes.

She waited for them to cool down and took one to taste it.

"Well, at least my hard work paid off." She praised herself as she tasted the sweet crunchiness. "I deserve a pat on my back!"

"Who are those for?" Li Yuming asked as she sniffed the sweet aroma in the kitchen.

Li Lanni was startled and turned to look at her mother. "Mom, when did you get here?"

"Just now. I went to your room and didn’t find you."

"Oh..." Li Lanni was too embarrassed to say that the cookies were for Ji Xiehan. Her mother would certainly overthink things, so she changed the topic. "Is something the matter?"

"I will go somewhere early tomorrow morning." Li Yuming smiled when she saw her daughter avoiding the topic. "I might be back quite late or the day after."

"Where are you going?" Li Lanni couldn’t help asking.

"Nowhere important. Take care of yourself, okay?"

"Okay." Li Lanni didn’t probe further. But she couldn’t help but wonder where her mother was going. Was it out of B City? Whatever, she was tired and had no energy to think about it now. She went to her room and freshened up.

Before sleeping, she sent a text message to Ji Xiehan.

...

The next day after class, Li Lanni went back home to get changed before going to meet Ji Xiehan. This was also because she had not carried the cookies with her to class or they would get eaten by her or Cheng Yu.

She had not had lunch yet, so she suggested meeting at a restaurant not far from Feng Ji International. This was only logical since he had to go back to work after lunch.

Because the restaurant was farther from her home, Ji Xiehan arrived before her.

Once she walked into the private booth he had booked and saw how dashing he looked in his black suit and blue shirt; she looked at her Jeans and simple top self-consciously. She should have worn a dress.

She bit her lips and proceeded like she didn’t care. "Hey."

Ji Xiehan let out a smile, looking even more attractive with those slight curves at the corners of his mouth. "You look lovely." He complemented honestly.

Although what she was wearing was meant for her comfort and she didn’t pay much attention to it, she still looked beautiful.

Obviously, this was because she looked beautiful in anything.

"I do?" Li Lanni’s heart raced, and she sounded silly. "You don’t look too bad yourself."

It was Ji Xiehan’s turn to bask in happiness. This was the first time she had complimented him. He was happy even if it was most likely out of courtesy.

"How are your classes going?" He asked after placing their orders.

"It’s all good. We are going to have a test soon. I guess they are planning to discontinue students who will not pass the test."

Ji Xiehan thought it made sense too. For the test to be prepared this early, this was the only logical reason. So they did care for quality after all. He recalled his conversation with Jiang Xingyu from the previous day and decided this was the best time to bring that up. "There are students who don’t do well?"

Li Lanni was at ease, so she talked about it. "There are such students in every class, right? It makes one wonder why they are wasting so much time."

"Maybe they have different agendas?" Ji Xiehan said. "Actually, there’s a mole in Star Art International."

Li Lanni raised an eyebrow in question.

Ji Xiehan continued. "Two weeks ago, Star Art International was planning to purchase the copyright of a comic. The comic wasn’t doing well in the market, and it was going to be redrawn by Star Art International into a better version. There was no way another comics company would have thought of buying the same unpopular comic. Still, on the day before the contract was signed, the author suddenly backed out on Star Art International and collaborated with another company instead."

"Huh?" Li Lanni was surprised.

"This is just one of the many things happening recently. Star Art International has been losing too many deals, including some of the already signed ones. It’s obvious that someone is playing tricks."

"There seems to be a mole, and the mole might be your classmate." Ji Xiehan continued.

"That’s terrible." Li Lanni frowned, seeming to think of something.

"Yeah. It could slow down a company’s progress and cause huge losses. Jiang Xingyu has been sitting on pins and needles. He thinks Ruby Chan is the mole."

Li Lanni’s frown deepened. "That’s absurd. Why would Ruby be a mole?"

To get her help, he couldn’t hide anything, so he expressed his hypothesis. "While Ruby Chan is from a rich family and doesn’t need money, she could still be a mole. She could do it for her father."

"She could... but it would not make sense. Her father’s company has nothing to do with art."

"Of course. That would have been too obvious. But think about it. Chan Enterprise has been trying to compete with Jiang Corporation for ages now. If a subsidiary of Jiang Corporation was attacked to bankruptcy, wouldn’t Chan Enterprise beat Jiang Corporation?"

Li Lanni was in deep thought again. "It would...

Indeed, Chen Enterprise would be the biggest benefactor if something went wrong in Jiang Corporation.

"But Ruby isn’t the mole." She still refuted his suspicions after thinking about it clearly.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Let’s be logical. She doesn’t like art, doesn’t do well either, attends classes every day when she didn’t even go to class in B City University. Wouldn’t that be too obvious? I don’t think anyone would plant such an obvious person.

If I wanted to plant a mole in a comic art class, I would plant someone talented. Someone like Cedric because no one would suspect him.

Of course, Cedric isn’t the mole either."

Ji Xiehan found her train of thought compelling and more logical than Jiang Xingyu’s. But, "How would you know that Cedric isn’t the mole either?"

"Because I know who the real mole is." Li Lanni shrugged. "To be exact, there are two of them. The other one is in a different department, but I know about both of them."

"What?!" Ji Xiehan widened his eyes in shock.