The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

Aside from being a hypnotist, Han Xichen was a psychologist as well. Hence, although he should have done whatever she wanted, he was not going to let her go through with something that could potentially ruin her without trying to convince her against it. Hence, he looked seriously at her. "How old are you?"

"What?" Xiaoshi looked up with tearful eyes. They were talking about something else just now. How did the topic suddenly shift to her age? She gathered herself together and croakily answered, "Twenty."

Han Xichen raised an eyebrow in surprise. She was actually younger than he thought. He had assumed that she was a bit older... no wonder she was so rash.

"You’re still so young... and you are very pretty. I’m sure there are countless men who would love to date you. Are you sure you really want to ruin your life for a man who may not even realize that you did it because of him?"

Xiaoshi looked at him hesitantly, her voice lowering into a mumble as she blinked her beautiful, big eyes. "You think I’m pretty?"

"Is that the main point?" Han Xichen was intrigued by this young lady’s point of focus.

She nodded to his question, looking at him hopefully.

"Yes you are." He said. "Very pretty."

He would have said the same thing no matter who the patient in front of him was. She knew this too, but her ears flashed when she heard it.

She then looked at him seriously. "Then... can you be my boyfriend?"

"What?" The man was taken aback. One second ago, she was still crying painfully about being ignored by the man she had supposedly loved for years, and the next second she was hitting on him and asking him to be her boyfriend?

Gripping the hem of her blue dress, she nodded nervously and added, "I promise, I am hardworking and understanding. I don’t cause unnecessary ruckuses and I don’t get jealous easily. Even if I do, I will not do anything to interfere with your life. I will be the best girlfriend and..."

Han Xichen finally realized what was going on. His eyebrows furrowed slightly. Let me guess. Are you trying to prove to yourself that you can move on, or do I happen to coincidentally look a lot like the man you love?"

Xiaoshi widened her eyes in surprise then started scanning him while thinking of Xingyu for comparison. In the end, she shook her head. "No. You look nothing like him. he..." She stopped whatever she was going to say and focused her gaze on him. "So, will you be my boyfriend?"

"I’m sorry." He calmly responded. This was not the first time he was being hit on by a patient. Thanks to his handsomeness, forget about all the doctors and nurses in the hospital who had a crush on him; there were countless patients who pretended to have amnesia just so they could get to see him and hit on him while at it.

However, this was the first time he found it hard to reject a girl.

The girl before him was not herself. He had cast a mild hypnotizing spell on her earlier, so although the effect was not strong, whatever she was blabbering right now was what she really felt. DIt seemed like deep in her heart, she wanted to grab a random stranger and date him to forget about that man. Poor girl...

When she heard his response, her tears fell like water from a broken dam. "Why?"

"Don’t cry..." He coaxed and gave her a handkerchief. "Because I daren’t take advantage of your broken state. Besides, I cannot be in any relationship with my patient. I’m sorry."

"Oh..." She sighed. At least it wasn’t because he found her deplorable.

"Do you still want your memory erased? You can make a booking and have it done on Monday. If you wish, I can record this conversation just in case you demand an explanation for your memory loss in future." He asked when the effect of hypnosis had completely faded.

She shook her head after giving it some thought. "Forget it."

Han Xichen was satisfied by her answer. Although he was yet to bring out his persuasion skills, this was the outcome he wanted so he was happy. "I’m glad you changed your mind. Do you need help getting over him?"

She shook her head. "I will be okay."

Perhaps she had been thinking too much and making rash decisions because she was trying to suppress her own feelings. But now that she had let it pout, she suddenly felt much better.

___

Meanwhile, at the beach.

After playing and snacking all day, the group raced back to the manor on four motorboats. Lin Jian and Ruby won this time. At the end of the day, Cheng Yu and Cedirc were the only ones who had not won at anything, earning teasing laughter from everyone else.

After eating dinner, everyone wanted to rest for a moment so Lanni used this chance to drag Xiehan aside.

"How is it going?" SHe asked curiously. He had asked a close friend to help with the investigation earlier.

Xiehan shook his head to indicate that there wasn’t much progress. "He couldn’t uncover anything aside from the fact that Ruby is not Neil Chan’s real daughter. It still proves nothing."

"Why don’t we have Ji Feifei take a DNA test? We can do the same for Ruby, I’m sure the results won’t lie."

Xiehan thought about it and shook his head. "After telling us what she did, she is surely aware that we might have her go through a DNA test. if her tale is fake, who is to say that she will not conspire with the hospital to lie to us?"

"She doesn’t have to know." She said meaningfully, her gaze trailing towards Ruby and Lin Jian who were playing at the terrace.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked even though he could pretty much guess it.

Lanni smiled at him mysteriously then rushed to the cellar and came back with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Shen then went to the terrace, beaming happily. "Is anyone up for drinks?"

Lin Jian shook his head when he understood that Lanni probably wanted to have a word with Ruby. "I would love to, but I just received a signal from Cedric. I’ll let you girls start first."

"You..." Ruby was not able to stop Lin Jian on time, so she had to resign to her fate. What was Lanni up to this time?

"You want to talk to me?" She asked, hoping this was not another fight.

Lanni nodded with a complicated smile. "I realized that all this while, I had been misunderstanding you so I came to apologize. I’m so embarrassed for accusing you all those times."

"It’s okay." Ruby shrugged even though it was not okay. SHe knew that there wasn’t anything else that anyone would have thought of in that situation, but that didn;t mean she was happy. All those accusations were indeed a little too much. She simply wanted Lanni to get to the point.

"Maybe we could drink and forget the past?" Lanni offered, looking genuine.

Ruby sighed. The last thing she wanted was to be at loggerheads with her future sister-in-law, so she nodded. "I guess I’ll have to rely on you to protect me later. There’s a big bad wolf on the loose."

Lanni giggled, knowing she was referring to Lin Jian. "Don’t worry. Your brother will break his legs if he tries to take advantage of you when you are drunk."

Ruby felt a rush of indescribable emotions when she heard what Lanni had just said. Your brother...

Because she was trying to get Ruby to let down her guard, Lanni let her select her own glass as if proving that there was nothing wrong with any of them.

She then poured wine into both glasses and picked hers up, then clinched them. Seeing that Ruby was hesitating, she gulped her own wine down in a swig.

Ruby let her guard down when she was certain that there was nothing wrong with the wine. It wasn’t saure when she stopped trusting Lanni, and she knew that she was being ridiculous. Lanni was not a heartless person. Even if she didn’t like her, she couldn’t possibly hurt her. So she gulped down her own drink and refilled her glass.

In the end, the wine was much stronger than Ruby thought. Lanni could hold her liquor much better than the other, so Ruby was the first to pass out. It was within her expectations.

When she signalled him over, Xiehan went over to help Ruby to her room.

"Stay away!" Ruby instinctively threw a punch in her drunken daze. Obviously, she was still wary that someone could take advantage of her.

Xiehan patted her head. "It’s okay. It’s me."

"Brother?" She tamed down almost instantly, smiling as he let Xiehan help her up.

Lanni raised an eyebrow at the side. Did they still need a test?