The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

The image before Lanni’s eyes shifted into one she had not expected to see.

A little girl hid behind the wall as two adults argued on the other side, probably not aware of her presence.

"I already told you. I want nothing to do with you and your family." Li Yuming snarled at the man before her.

"Yes you did. You said that a minute ago too but Yuming, Lanni misses me. Luna needs you too. How can we let our children suffer just because we are divorced?" The man retorted. From Lanni’s previous memory fragments and from what he was saying, he must be Xia Hanchen.

"My daughter doesn’t need you. Quit it already, will you?" Li Yuming sounded bitter. "I know what you want and I am not going to let that happen as long as I am alive."

"You’re not going to let me take care of our daughter?" Xia Hanchen frowned as though in disbelief.

Seeing that Li Yuming was silent, he resorted to coercion. "Lanni is my daughter and I have every right to be part of her life. I will sue for her custody if I have to."

"Are you even listening to yourself?" Li Yuming scoffed.

The argument continued for a while, but Lanni didn’t hear more of it.

She was surprised that as a little girl, she had witnessed a fight between her parents. However, that was none of her business. At least not for now.

The scene changed and this time, she was no longer a little girl but a young woman in her late teens instead. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Li Yuming grabbed her hand and pulled her to her room, sat her on her bed and shook her shoulders, squeezing them furiously.

"You’re hurting me." Lanni complained.

Li Yuming looked into her eyes angrily. "Hurt? You know how to feel pain? Then why do you insist on ruining your life, Lanni?" She let go of Lanni’s shoulders with more force than necessary, making the latter feel pain.

Lanni rubbed her shoulders and looked right at her mother. "I am not ruining my life, mother. I am just doing my duty as a..."

"What kind of sick duty?" Li Yuming looked like she would pull her hair off. "What kind of duty involves you putting your own life at risk? Is it because of that woman?"

Lanni didn’t ask who Li Yuming was referring to, she seemed to understand who "that woman" was. "I’m not doing this for anyone. This is what I want to do and it has nothing to with anyone."

"Lying." Li Yuming retreated a short distance away. "You are lying. I know you better than anyone and I know that she’s one of the main reasons. But let me remind you, Lanni. That woman hated you from the moment you opened your eyes. She has always wished you were not born into her family."

"Mother..."

"What makes you think she will like you now? You’re just a teenager, I understand—but how can you be so naive?"

The scene faded off as well.

Lanni was perplexed. Why was every piece of memory that she was remembering a fight? Did she fight a lot before losing her memory? She seemed quite stubborn too.

The next piece proved that she was even more stubborn than she thought.

This time, she was with a man.

She remembered this man, it was the same man from the memory fragment she had remembered a few days ago when she was in her studio. This time, his face was clearer as he sat behind a desk.

Lanni angrily grabbed his pen, tossed it aside and grabbed his notebook too. When he took his laptop, Lanni slammed it closed too, then glared at him, huffing.

"What is it, princess? Was it too hard?" The man reclined in his chair and Lanni could swear that he was mocking her. "Then you better give up. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for tiring out a fragile flower. How would I answer to your parents then?"

Lanni crossed her arms. "You’re right. I failed."

"I told you..."

Before he could complete his statement, Lanni’s hand swung and landed a slap across his face. "You know why I failed, Flynn. You know what you did."

Her eyes were brimming with anger and the man called Flynn was shocked too. She grabbed his collar, looking like she could beat him up. "You deliberately messed with my computer. Just like you have always messed everything up."

The man looked surprised and a little guilty.

"Why did you do it?" Lanni asked angrily. "Why do you mess everything up?"

She looked aside with ridicule written all over her face. "Every time I failed, it was always because you messed up with something to slow me down or make me fail altogether.

I’m your trainee Flynn. Why do you hate me so much?"

"Because you do not belong here." The man suddenly spoke up.

"What?" Lanni looked a little lost by his sudden declaration.

The man stood up, towering over her as he mocked her. "What, did you really think that this agency is for spoilt princesses like you?" He did not mind Lanni’s expression that was a mixture of shock and hate, and continued. "What did you think this was, a banquet where you only need to dress up and smile at people? This is a cruel world, princess."

Lanni’s eyebrows raised as she frowned. "Where’s all this nonsense coming from? I have always worked hard but you..." she sighed helplessly. She seemed irritated that the man was attributing her failure to her background when he was the one who had deliberately made her fail. "You are unpredictable. Sometimes you’re expressionless, then you suddenly turn cold and evil. It’s as though you decided that you wanted me to fail my training from the first moment you saw me here."

"Right. You do have great observation skills. I don’t want you here, just because you are you. What can you do about it?" The man mocked and ignored her.

Lanni pursed her lips. Of course, there would be aich a person everywhere one went. So that man was called Flynn. What was he training her for anyway?