The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

When Lanni arrived at the restaurant they had arranged, Ah Chen and his fiancée had already arrived. The girl was sitting beside him and appeared to be an obedient and sweet young woman—the exact image that everyone had of her after watching her movies. No one would guess that the very girl who looked innocent was also involved with suspicious activity.

Lanni made her way to the table and apologized as she took a seat opposite them. "I’m sorry I’m late."

"Were you late on purpose? I wouldn’t be surprised." Qiao Linyou asked with a hint of sarcasm in her tone, but Lanni had seen it coming. There was no way she would have expected a woman suspected of such activity to actually be kind. It was going to be a hectic task befriending her, Lanni thought. Even so, she had earned the trust of more impossible people before so this was nothing in comparison.

She let out a chuckle. "How could that be? I’m always the first to purchase the ticket to watch your movie, it would be ironic if I were late to see you in real life."

When the woman looked like her ego had been slightly stroked, Lanni added, "It’s just, I was too excited at the thought of meeting my idol. I couldn’t sleep last night no matter how many sheep I tried to count."

Ah Chen was puzzled to see that Lanni was such an idolizer too. He smiled as he introduced her. "Meet Lanni. My former classmate and your biggest fan."

Qiao Linyou was not interested to know the name of this crazy fan who wouldn’t shut her mouth, but she was puzzled when she heard the name clearly. "Does it happen to be Li Lanni, Ji Xiehan’s girlfriend and Xia Luna’s sister?"

"Yes. That’s me. You know me?" Lanni was not surprised about being recognized by many people but it was indeed shocking that even a famous actress had paid attention to her.

Qiao Linyou shrugged, almost indifferently. "You sure are popular. You clung to the right people."

She was indirectly implying that Lanni had no popularity of her own, and that it was the people around her who were famous. It was not a lie, since she had always been known as Li Yuming’s daughter, then Xiehan’s girlfriend, and now it was Xia Luna’s sister—Not that she minded. It would be troublesome for her to comfortably work if she had too much fame, so she liked it better this way.

"You are so famous! I love all your movies. I drag my sister to watch them every time." She brown nosed the actress. After doing her research of her for the better part of the night, she knew that what the lady liked most was being complimented. It made her feel accomplished, and the easiest way to make her let her guard down was to make her happy.

However, Qiao Linyou had heard so many of such antics that she already knew what people would say in order to pretend to be her die-hard fans while in reality, they probably didn’t even know what genre of movies she acted in. She put on a lovely smile. "Really? Which of my movies was your favorite?"

She expected Lanni to start fuming for words or make excuses about not remembering the titles and start wildly guessing random roles but Lanni surprised her by actually mentioning a movie. "The Villainous consort."

Not only was Qiao Linyou not pleased, but she furrowed her brows. There was no way Lanni had paid an ounce of attention to her. She had probably done a search and stated the first movie that popped up. She hid her sneer. "You watched that? I was merely an extra."

"The third female lead. And you acted the role so perfectly. That’s when I became your fan." Lanni corrected. In truth, she had not watched any of Qiao Linyou’s movies. Not that she had the time to do so under such short notice. She merely looked her up and made sure to gather as much information as she could.

"Oh." Qiao Linyou was definitely surprised. She was pleasantly shocked. The movie that Lanni had mentioned was like a thorn in her flesh, it was her first movie and she had even been dismissed from the female lead role for not being good enough for it. It was unbelievable that she had earned a fan from that.

Lanni observed her slight change in expression. Of course, as an actress, she was able to handle her expressions flawlessly and Lanni only noticed the change because she was scrutinising her carefully.

"So, am I supposed to give you an autograph or something?" Her arrogance came acting up again.

"That will not be necessary." Lanni smiled sweetly.

"Let’s order something to drink. Lanni must have skipped breakfast if she rushed over so fast." Ah Chen spoke up to break whatever awkwardness was about to erupt between the ladies.

Ah Chen ordered first. "I’ll have a strawberry cupcake."

Lanni wondered why Ah Chen’s order sounded like there was something wrong with it, but she wasn’t able to figure it out before she ordered herself a glass of juice.

"I’ll have a cup of warm water." Qiao Linyou sounded like she was looking down on the duo who were filling their stomachs with what she thought of as worthless junk.

As they waited for their orders to arrive and sought topics to talk about, Ah Chen’s phone rang. He answered it and a sweet female voice greeted gently with a "Hello."

Qiao Lintou’s ears perked up, since the call volume was high and she and Lanni had overheard it.

Ah Chen frantically lowered the volume and mouthed to the ladies that he would be back lately, then he stepped out of the restaurant to answer the call.

Lanni observed the young actress whose gaze had followed Ah Chen and she looked disappointed. She knew that it was wrong to use Ah Chen, but she chuckled softly.

"What’s so funny?" Qiao Linyou was already irritated and almost erupted when she heard Lanni’s laugh.

"He is so obsessed with you." Lanni tilted her head as though she was saying something secretive, holding her face in her hands. "It’s almost as though he will stop breathing if he is away from you for a moment."

"Why would you say that?" Qiao Linyou frowned. Although the words were out of the blue, she couldn’t deny that she had always wished she could hear such a thing about Ah Chen. Just now when he answered the call that was evidently from a woman, she had been so unsettled that she was surprised when she heard Lanni start to say such words.

"We attended the same banquet and caught up on the latest news about each other. He couldn’t stop going on about you and how much he loves you." Before the actress could process the words, Lanni added, "Besides, when we were in B City University, he once mentioned that he would never be with any woman unless he was willing to spend the rest of his life with her—Seeing as you are engaged, he was not bluffing to appear as a loyal guy."

Qiao Linyou was baffled by Lanni’s words. She almost didn’t know what to say and after thinking for a while, she decided to speak her mind since there was nothing to lose. Besides, Lanni might know Ah Chen better than she did. "But he makes me think that he has someone else in mind."

It had always been that way. If Lanni was not in a relationship with Xiehan, she would have started to think that Lanni was the other woman that Ah Chen was always thinking about.

Lanni assessed her words and knowing that Ah Chen would probably be back soon, she raised an eyebrow. "Maybe he just doesn’t know how to express his feelings? Some men are just bad at romance but it doesn’t mean they’re not loyal or in love."

"Well, you make a lot of sense. Thank you for telling me that." Although Qiao Linyou’s arrogance was still intact, it didn’t change the fact that she was truly relieved.

"It’s nothing. It is just the truth." Lanni did not take too much credit and sweetly smiled. She knew that she had just helped clear the actress’ insecurity. Even though she knew that Ah Chen probably felt nothing for Qiao Linyou, it was best to make her think otherwise.

Ah Chen returned and was expecting to hear a terrifying round of scolding for having stepped aside to answer a woman’s call. To his surprise, the scolding did not come and instead, the woman was looking at him with a bashful smile plastered on her face. He almost couldn’t recognize her. Was it because Lanni was here, so the latter was saving him face by not erupting in the presence of someone else?

But that didn’t make sense. She had always exploded when she wanted to, and that had nothing to do with where they were or who they were with.