The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

"Let’s give a toast to the new baby that’s on its way!" Lin Jian was the first to give a toast. Everyone downed their wine while Luna grudgingly downed her fruit juice.

"The Xingyu and Luna villa will henceforth be a madhouse. We have to toast to that." Xiehan proposed, making everyone laugh before downing their drinks. It was already half a madhouse with just Xiaomu and Linhou. With another baby in the picture, it would be a surprise if Luna didn’t go crazy trying to stop the constant battles that stemmed from pretty much everything.

Following Xiehan’s toast, everyone proposed a toast for some random reason regarding the baby, then the topic somehow spiralled into Lanni and Xiehan’s upcoming wedding, to which they toasted too. After a few rounds, no one knew what they were toasting to anymore.

Li Yuming and her boyfriend Neil didn’t stay for long. They felt out of place being surrounded by kids since Xinghe and her husband were out on vacation and couldn’t come.

Once the two left, another round of toasting began and they were practically slurring their reasons.

"Let’s toast to..." Cheng Yu stopped speaking midway, seeming to have forgotten what she wanted to say. She shrugged. "Can’t we just toast?"

Lanni shook her head, laughing, and continued to nurse her wine glass.

"I need to use the bathroom." She stood and almost stumbled.

"I’ll take you there." Xiehan stood and wrapped his arm around her waist, preparing to carry her.

She pushed against his chest and wiggled her finger in his face. "I can walk on my own. Can’t you see?"

"All I can see is Mrs. Ji trying to show everyone how good she is at kissing the floor." He didn’t look like he would give up.

She smoothed her skirt and placed her hands at her sides then looked at him. "Watch me."

Then, she did a drunken catwalk across the room, winked when she took a turn near the walk and cat walked back to him amid the cheers of her drunken audience who had noticed her at some point. Luna was even taking pictures and recording the show.

But in her head, that one phone being held up equalled hundreds of camera flashes all around her as she graced the runway. She might as well be a Victoria’s Secret model with how graceful she felt as she made another walk down her ’runway’. Meanwhile, the only sober person in the room was finally glad that she was sober. She laughed so hard that she almost couldn’t hold her phone upright as she collected the blackmail material that she would use for years.

Xiehan couldn’t take it anymore. When she returned to his side, he swept her off the floor and took her to the women’s bathroom.

"Come in with me." She winked when he let her down and asked her to go in.

"That’s the women’s restroom." He declined. "Go on. I’ll wait here for you."

She pouted and refused to budge. "Xiehan..."

Xiehan was speechless. When he wanted to accompany her, she had insisted that she was alright on her own and now that he had to wait for her outside, she was making a fuss and insisting that he go in with her?

He pulled her into his arms and whispered against her ear. "Be a good girl and go in there. Otherwise, you will be saying my name in a different rhythm."

Her jaw dropped at his threat and for a while, he could swear she looked like she couldn’t wait for him to make her say his name in the different rhythm he had just mentioned. She was driving him crazy. For a moment, he actually considered it.

...

When she washed her hands, she also splashed some water onto her face. It helped her feel slightly sober but she knew that she should probably get some sleep soon.

She left the bathroom and Xiehan was still standing outside, waiting for her.

"Did you wait for too long?" She leaned against him. Before he could answer her, she caught sight of something—someone—that made her eyes go wide in shock.

"That’s Axel." She muttered to him.

"Don’t." He tightened his arm around her to stop her from moving. He knew what she wanted to do and he would never think of it as a sane idea in a million years.

Realizing what he was thinking, she kissed his face as if that should convince him. "I’m not thinking of stalking him. Not right now at least."

Her words made him frown in disapproval and she had to laugh at his reaction.

"Honey, you have to expect this kind of thing in my line of work. Stalking is the least I can do when I really want information that I will not get under any other circumstances."

She was not planning to do that to Axel—she was not so crazy as to want to go to places that she was certain she would not come out alive from. She was only teasing him because she knew that it vexed him to think about. But his response made her shut up and stop trying to get under his skin.

"Maybe it’s a good idea if you just quit."

"I’m just joking!" She quickly defended herself. As if afraid that he might really make her quit—even though she knew that he wouldn’t force her into anything she didn’t want—she clarified the situation. "I’m the chief editor. I don’t need to scout for news. All I need to do is check through what everyone submits and approve the ones I think are good enough."

"Then why do you still like doing the dirty work?" He pinched her waist in punishment.

She winced slightly. "Because that’s what I enjoy. Can you not make me quit?"

With a tug, he pushed her against the wall and secured her with his hands. "Let’s make a deal."

"Okay." She listened.

The bathroom was no place to have such a secretive discussion, especially one that might reveal her future plans, so he pulled her out to an empty spot that he was certain had no cameras.

She was looking at him in anticipation so he stated his side of the deal. "You are free to do whatever you want. But if you ever encounter any danger while doing it, you have to quit going out to scout for news."

"That’s too wide of a scope. What if you think something is a threat but I don’t? If it’s just a threat, for example..." She had to stop talking when he kissed her.

After successfully making her shut up, he brushed a hand against the side of her face. "As a chief editor, you must have read innumerable articles about people who were harmed and their culprits just happened to have threatened them before."

"But..." She wanted to speak but was once again kissed to shut up.

"Let me finish." He continued. "If someone ever threatens your life, they will try to hurt you by all means. Even if it was a blank threat, it may no longer be blank if they meet you under different circumstances."

He saw her saddened expression and kissed her cheek. "Don’t get me wrong. I value your dreams. I just don’t want you getting hurt trying to follow them."

"I understand." She sighed.

"So, is it a deal?"

She blinked and looked up into his eyes, hers having cleared up from the drunken haze. "Deal."

"Can I get an autograph?" She asked out of the blue.

"Hm?"

"Axel is still nearby. I just saw him turn around the corner." She whispered. Luckily, there was no one nearby.

"Wait." He stopped her. "Why is Axel nearby when you are the one who should be following him?"

She almost burst into laughter at his skeptical remark. "Because we came in the direction he had disappeared to earlier. We are the ones stalking him. You didn’t think he was setting a trap for me to fall into, right?"

His expression remained stiff. That was what he thought. Maybe he was being paranoid but he decided to set up stricter security measures around her. Even after mapping out ways to keep her out of danger that were probably more than necessary, he insisted on following her to get the autograph from Axel.

"You are Axel!" Lanni exaggeratedly went into fan-girl mode and hugged Xiehan’s arm. "I told you he is Axel! I would never get him wrong."

____

AN

Before you bring your guns out to shoot Xiehan brains, hear me out. He just wants to keep his wife out of danger.