The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

That night, in Jiang Xingyu’s villa.

"That little..!" Jiang Xingyu really wanted to curse. How dare she?

He wouldn’t have known who was behind that article if Ji Xiehan had not told him how good she was at programming and hacking. She had used an anonymous user account with a fake IP address, and the real address couldn’t be traced even by the most proficient hacker he could hire. It was quite obvious now.

He knew that the article meant nothing and that Jiang Corporation didn’t have any dirty secrets, at least none that he knew about. However, that was not what the higher-ups thought. They thought it was risky to pull down the post because whether it was true or not, such an article would ruin Jiang Corporation’s image, whether it was there or not.

The only thing they could do was get the thread starter to admit that they were only messing around - which was impossible because they couldn’t even trace them.

Jiang Xingyu was on the verge of exploding. Didn’t that girl leave him? What was this for? Was it fun to mess with him? Fine. It was still fine to mess around with him, but why the heck was she attacking his family’s company?

He had enough of it!

He took his car keys and sped to Ji Xiehan’s personal mansion.

...

Ji Xiehan was feeling quite happy lately. The little beauty he had been courting for months finally warmed up to him, and she even kissed his cheek! How could he not be happy?

He thought he was at the peak of his happiness when his phone chimed with a new message. He opened it to reveal the content, and his heart almost jumped right out of his mouth.

[ML: Xiehan, are you free tomorrow in the evening? Let’s have dinner together. I have something to tell you.]

He had to read the message over and over, as though afraid he had read it wrong or that he had an illusion or that it would disappear.

Maybe the way he had opened the chatbox was wrong.

He closed the chatbox and opened it again.

The message was still there.

His Lanni actually sent that?

As though to ensure that her phone was not hacked, he called her.

Then came the nervous voice at the other end, confirming that she was indeed asking him out.

"I am happy!!" He jumped and punched the air as soon as the call was hung up.

Wait. What could she want to tell him? It was something nice, right? It had to be something about their relationship. After all, they were in good terms right now, and her tone sounded like she was looking forward to seeing him the next evening.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" His excitement skyrocketed.

When he had calmed down a bit, he opened a bottle of rare wine to celebrate and started pouring some in a stem glass when the door opened.

"Look who finally decided to seek human company." Ji Xiehan mocked when he saw his friend walk in and flop onto a sofa as though he owned the place. He had ruined his happy moment.

"I’m not here to drink with you. You have to help me." Jiang Xingyu went straight to the point.

"I know what you want." Ji Xiehan took another stem glass and filled it with wine, intending to offer it to his friend, but when he remembered how much Jiang Xingyu had been drinking lately, he retracted the glass and started drinking on his own. He gave Jiang Xingyu water instead.

The latter didn’t mind it. "So, are you going to help me?"

"No." Ji Xiehan rejected firmly.

"Why not?"

Ji Xiehan sat on another sofa and regarded his friend. He had become haggard in just a few days. Even then, he couldn’t help. "I know you want me to find your Xia’s location because of the thread she started about your family’s company.

Actually, I know where she lives, but I cannot tell you because she is my future sister-in-law. I’m planning to confess to Lanni. How can I offend my in-laws even before we start dating officially?"

Jiang Xingyu stared daggers at his friend. He regretted coming here. How could he forget his childhood friend for a woman he met not long ago? Did he come to ask for help or to he dealt with dog food? This horrible friend! "Whatever. You have to help me. I am your friend." Jiang Xingyu demanded.

"I will not help you do something you will regret." He looked at his friend sincerely. "You are angry. Only when you are calm enough can I offer to help you. Even then, I need to get permission from my sister-in-law. I cannot guarantee that she will agree, and if she doesn’t, I will respect her privacy."

"Whatever." Jiang Xingyu was done with this girlfriend-slave, or was it, sister-in-law slave?

He stood up and left. If he wanted to drag Xia Luna out, he had other ways to do so. He just didn’t want to ever resort to this.

’Xia Luna, blame it on yourself. You have forced me to do this.’

...

The next day, Li Lanni stayed back after class to try and improve her sketches. Cheng Yu stayed back too because she had been unable to complete her work on time.

Just when they were almost done and started talking about what to do later in the afternoon, Cheng Yu’s phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number, making her frown.

"Hello..." she answered hesitantly.

"Sis... save me!" A muffled cry came from the other side.

"Xiao Ying!" She exclaimed in shock when she heard a familiar voice from the other side.

Li Lanni frowned when she head her shrill cry. Cheng Yu’s brother?

"Xiao Ying, where are you? What happened? Did that woman bully you?" She asked, referring to their mother.

"Do you want your brother back?" A deep male voice boomed into the speaker, instead of her brother’s making Cheng Yu tremble.

"Who are you?"Cheng Yu asked after controlling her shivering voice.

"That doesn’t matter. Do you want your brother or not? If not, I will give him to one of the bosses..."

"No, no, no! Please don’t do anything to him." No matter how strong she tried to be, tears stained Cheng Yu’s face.

"Good. Then follow my instructions. Don’t you dare think of calling the police."

"Yes... yes, I will not tell the police! Where is my brother?"

Li Lanni kept her mouth shut, to minimize her presence and to not to alert the opposite party.

When the call was hung up, she finally held Cheng Yu, who had slumped onto a chair. "Who was that? They have your brother?"

"What should I do? He hung up... is he going to kill Xiao Ying? It’s all my fault! I knew that woman wouldn’t take good care of him, but I still left him with her. He’s been kidnapped now, and I don’t know what they did to him. It’s all my fault..."

"Calm down, okay? Tell me what they told you." Li Lanni tried to calm her friend.

"He told me to go and find him... but didn’t reveal the location. I..."

"I’ll call the police. Do you trust me?" Li Lanni looked into her friend’s eyes and asked sincerely.

Cheng Yu hesitated but then nodded after calming down.

"If they call again, you go wherever they ask you to go. They may ask you to break your phone or throw it away to avoid being tracked, so I’ll give you mine... hide it safely. I’ll let the police track it." This was more or less a trial and error, but Li Lanni was confident.

Cheng Yu nodded. It was the only choice she had now.

Just as Li Lanni was about to dash out and run to the nearest police station that wasn’t far away, Cheng Yu’s phone rang again. She received it and put it on the speaker.

This time, the man sounded harsher.

"Acting smart with me, huh? Do you think you can outsmart me?"

"I didn’t..." Cheng Yu denied in tears.

"Your friend is rather cunning. Ask her to smash her phone immediately if you want your brother back safely."

Li Lanni was just as surprised as Cheng Yu. How did he know what they were doing? Were they being monitored? A chill ran down their spine.

"Her phone or your brother. Make a choice. I’m watching."

Li Lanni didn’t want to risk it. She reluctantly smashed her phone, much to the man’s satisfaction.

"Good. Now go to the underground parking lot."

Li Lanni had a strange feeling about this.

However, they might really kill Cheng Yu’s brother if she tried anything funny, so they both went along.

"Enter the black car and give your phone to the driver."

Did they really have a choice? They could only mechanically follow the instructions.

"I think this is strange." Li Lanni said and earned a glare from the buff driver.