The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

"What did you say?" Lanni was taken aback. "Dad was... poisoned?"

A murderous glint flickered in Luna’s eyes as she balled her fair hands into fists at her sides to control her urge to murder someone. "Yeah."

"When did this happen?"

"On the night before the hearing."

"How?" Lanni was confused. On that night, they had saved Cheng Yu and brought her back to their home. After that, they went to sleep normally. When did Luna have the chance to interact with Li Xiyan?

"Actually on that night..." Luna started, the expression on her face turning more fierce by the second.

_

On the night that they rescued Cheng Yu.

After returning to Lanni’s home, Lanni and Luna took care of Cheng Yu’s wounds. They were not too serious but to avoid any surprises, they decided to send her to hospital early in the morning.

When that was settled, they all went to sleep. However, Luna couldn’t sleep no matter how hard she tried. It must be because she was excited about the next day. She was finally going to stop living in hiding and walking around in disguises and aliases. Honestly, she was getting tired of them. How could she not be excited?

Hence to calm her nerves, she took her phone and quietly went to the balcony for a breather. The night was not too cold and the moon was bright, the perfect night to spend out with friends or a lover. Not to mention, the morning would bring even better news.

Luna looked out and saw the chef down below, flirting with a maid. Her lips curled into a smile. It was also a romantic night. Love was in the air.

At the thought of love, a tiny flush crept onto her face. "Perhaps... after tomorrow, I should really give Xingyu a chance." She mumbled.

Previously, she had used the current circumstances as an excuse to make him stop clinging onto her. But when she thought about it clearly, Xingyu was such a nice man.

She couldn’t open up his mind and check what he was thinking but it was sure that he truly loved her. She had seen how hard he had worked in the past few days to help her prove her innocence.

Not to mention, his family liked her too. They were honest people and would not hide their true feelings only to reveal them later. This point was enough to assure her that she would never be entangled in those marriage scandals where the in-laws were all against the wife and the husband was caught in between the two parties.

"Why am I even thinking of him as a husband?" Luna scoffed at her own train of thought. She should go slow with such matters. Of course they would date first and only proceed to the next step if they were truly compatible with each other and ready to stay together in marriage—one of the things she hated most was broken marriages.

Just when she was about to turn back and go to sleep, her phone chimed. She frowned when she saw the unknown number. Who would call her so late at night? It was either Jiang Xingyu or a nemesis out to look for trouble. She swiped her thumb across the screen to answer it.

"I wasn’t sure you would answer." The female voice made Luna’s lips twitch. She didn’t expect that it was the latter. How did that woman get her phone number? Did she force it out of Cheng Yu’s mouth before? That wasn’t important at the moment.

"What do you want?" She asked impatiently.

"Do you need to sound so irritated? Luna, I’m still your mother, you know. Maybe you could be a little friendly or at least respectful to me."

Luna gritted her teeth. "Cut the crap." What mother? She would never acknowledge that woman even as her stepmother. "You wouldn’t call to have a casual chat."

"You’re slightly smarter than a three-year-old." Li Xiyan taunted.

"Since you have nothing to say..." Luna was ready to hang up.

"I found an old video while going through my old gallery, and I want to share it with you. Do you want to see?"

Luna’s hand paused before she could tap the end call button. Just as she was about to ask what Li Xiyan meant, the call ended.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Luna muttered. In the next moment, she received a video from the same number.

As soon as she played it, Luna felt her body freeze as all her strength left her bones.

In the video, a nurse entered Xia Hanchen’s old ward and took a syringe from an elastic band tied around her thigh, then pulled a bottle of medicine from the same place. She loaded the syringe and injected the content into Xia Hanchen’s drip. It would still be not too big of a deal if it was a normal nurse, but the ’nurse’ was Li Xiyan!

Her phone rang again and she picked it up without thinking. "Li Xiyan how dare you!"

"Oh, save it." Came the taunting chuckle. "Your dear daddy isn’t dead yet. Actually, you still have time to save him."

Luna’s hand trembled. Of course Li Xiyan needed something from her and she was going to use the poison as a threat. Otherwise, she would not have called her in the first place. She would have finished Xia Hanchen secretly and forgotten about it. And although she didn’t want to think of that, she could somewhat guess what Li Xiyan wanted.

"I want you to plead guilty in court."

"You’re crazy." Luna sighed.

"Or, you could just go ahead and prove your innocence, then your dearest daddy will be no more."

Luna remained silent for a while, so Li Xiyan kept taunting. "The poison takes effect after two months. It’s been fifty nine days already so... the poison will start to take effect within twenty four hours. Make sure you are convicted within this period. If you perform well, I will give him the antidote."

_

The present.

Luna’s fists were clenched so hard that small red crescents formed on her palms, thanks to how hard her nails dug into flesh. "I wasn’t sure whether she had actually poisoned dad, but I could not take chances. I thought that perhaps she had actually done so two months ago to kill him in a slow manner and now that things unfolded this way, she changed her mind and decided to use it to get rid of me instead. So I agreed to do it. Even so, that woman didn’t let me off. She also had me promise to delete the evidence as well."

"That woman is the devil." Lanni hissed. "And how sure were you that she would actually give the antidote? He hates dad, after all."

"I was not sure." Luna sighed. Heaven knew what a difficult decision that had been. "I took the risk nonetheless. If I did what she wanted, there was a slim chance that she would let dad live. But if I didn’t, I was sure that she would have let him die."

Lanni could not blame her for the choice she made. If she were in her place, she would have done the same thing. "We will make her pay."

"Obviously." Luna scoffed.

"You mentioned she said that the poison would start to take effect on the sixtieth day? Does such a poison even exist?" Lanni had never heard of one whose effect was so slow.

"This is Li Xiyan we are talking about. She creates them." Luna scoffed. "Speaking of which, I have a feeling that this is not the first time. Dad might have been drugged before."

"What are you saying?" Lanni was infe again shocked.

"The doctors kept estimating the time it would take for him to wake up but each time, he wouldn’t even get better. This time too, they said that he would wake up within a month after his condition got better. However, he only woke up two months later, which—according to what mother and Xingyu said—is also coincidentally soon after I pleaded guilty. I’m starting to think that the antidote might have expelled all the previous drugs and poisons."

"We should make Dad’s security stricter." Lanni couldn’t hide her shock. That woman was something else. They needed to be more careful if they wanted to get rid of her.

Lanni’s phone rang. She picked it up and trying not to sound fazed, she said, "Why are you so impatient? Are you scared I will go back on my own word?"

"Of course not. I believe you are not so dumb as to go back on your word." Li Xiyan said meaningfully.

Lanni smiled when she heard the threat and hung up. She stood up and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Luna quickly asked.

"Sending the items back to her."

"Are you crazy?" Luna scolded.

"Of course not. Didn’t I promise to give them back to her? Of course I have to keep my promise." Lanni said matter-of-factly.