The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

"I promise to get to the bottom of this. Whoever is trying to tarnish my reputation, whether they have a grudge against me or I just happened to be in the way while they targeted someone else, I will make them pay tenfold." He vowed, studying Ji Meiling’s expression. The woman didn’t flinch, but that didn’t prove that she was in the clear.

"I hope you are not the thief claiming to be the victim. If I find out that you are cheating on my daughter, don’t blame me for being unfriendly." Ji Huifen warned.

"I will do no such thing." He promised and stood to hold his hand out for Ruby. "Shall we?"

"I don’t think you should be able to take her anywhere before you fully prove your innocence." Ji Meiling cut in, to which Wen Lin rolled her eyes.

"This is about them. I have watched Lin Jian grow up and I know that he is being truthful right now. Besides, Ruby trusts him and that’s what matters."

"Don’t cry about it if he turns out to be a cheating scumbag." retorted the woman, making Wen Lin and Ji Huifen exchange glances. At the same time, Lin Jian was more convinced by his hypothesis. The woman was up to something and it was highly likely that she was involved in the matter.

Ruby placed her hand in Lin Juan’s and let him lead her out of the house, not saying a word to him the whole way.

Guessing that she probably didn’t trust him, his expression dulled. "I promise, I didn’t do anything wrong. I can prove it but I’ll need a few days to get sufficient evidence."

She shook her head. "It’s not about that. I know how much Lanni and my brother love each other and believe that you didn’t do anything this time. But why do you always end up as a target in this kind of matter? Why did it have to be you?"

"Because I’ve spent some time working in the same building with Lanni as her boss, and it was easier to twist our relationship?" He made a guess, holding the door that he was in the middle of opening when Ruby popped the question.

"No it’s not. It’s because you have been a womanizer for ages. No one would doubt it if you were accused of being someone’s lover. This is why they picked you, instead of any other man."

He remained silent knowing how frustrated she must be, and she continued in disappointment. "To tarnish Lanni’s reputation, they could pick anyone. Heck, they could even frame Jiang Xingyu for falling in love with twins. It’s highly possible considering how identical they are to each other. But no, they skipped that part and went for a man who isn’t even close to her. All because of the number of women you have been with in the past!"

She was not wrong, and the fact that it was true was killing him. He lowered his head apologetically. "If I knew that this would happen because of my dating history, I wouldn’t have played around with so many women."

She looked at him and entered the car, her eyes drooping. She hadn’t meant to yell at him but she couldn’t stop herself when she thought of the kind of messages she had been receiving. Some "very kind" netizens were filling her inbox with encouragement and reasons why she should leave him. She didn’t intend to do so, but it was frustrating to be looked at with pity as everyone thought that her boyfriend was cheating on her.

"Am I beautiful?" She asked out of the blue and he was flabbergasted.

"What?" Her question had caught him off-guard, and she laughed it off.

"Start driving."

He entered the car and didn’t touch the steering wheel, deeming it more important to get this out of the way.

"In the past, I wanted to be loyal to one woman. Xiehan, Xingyu and me had been spending a lot of time with Xingyu’s father and that was what he had always encouraged us to do."

"Mmh." She hummed to let him know that she was listening, and he continued.

"That was what we all believed. That a man should only fall in love with one woman and treasure her. The two didn’t fancy any girls growing up but it was different for me. I fell in love with a girl but she didn’t want to be in a serious relationship with me." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

" Why is that?" She asked.

"For some reason, she assumed I would be a playboy. That was the reason she gave me. Then I dated another girl. I liked her very much but she broke up with me because she supposedly dreaded that I would get tired of her, replace her with another girl and ditch her, because I looked like a playboy."

" That’s an awful assumption." She frowned.

" It is. " He started the car. "It was the wrong move to take but when I learnt that most girls saw me as a potential playboy, I gave them what they were asking for."

She frowned at his reasoning. "If a girl tells you that you look like a playboy, it probably means you are handsome. Either that, or you are too flirtatious."

"I didn’t think of that. Maybe I just hoped for more acknowledgement than that." He focused on the road as he continued pouring his heart out. "I was probably being childish but I compared the responses of girls towards me to how they reacted in the presence of Xiehan and Xingyu. Everyone called them golden young men and expressed their curiosity regarding the women who would be able to get into their hearts, which were said to be harder to break into than Fort Knox."

She burst into laughter. "I can’t believe that kind of comment got to you."

When she stopped laughing, she placed her hand on hers. "I understand how you feel. It’s probably underrated but comparison causes more harm than it’s given credit for. I would also constantly compare myself to other students my age. I worked hard but never got the grades I thought I would if I worked as hard as I did.

On the other hand, everyone thought of me as a spoilt daddy’s girl who gave zero thought to her grades. In the end, I just gave up."

He gave her a side glance. "We have more in common than we thought."

"Don’t grab every chance to flirt." She rolled her eyes, then frowned and shook her head at how insane people were. Why would they assume that just because a boy was friendly to girls, he was flirtatious? She had witnessed it herself, Lin Jian helping girls out when he knew they needed it but in the end, they would think he was hitting on them. They kept forgetting that it was not just girls he helped out but men, children and the elderly too. It was one of the things that drew her to him. He was so kind.

"I don’t think your aunt is up to any good." He brought up the subject of Ji Meiling when he was certain that she had moved on from the rumor.

"My goodness! I thought I was overthinking. When I pointed to dad just how many horrible comments she had made about Lanni in the past week, he thought I was letting trivial things get to my head."

"Since very many people think she is plotting something evil, then she certainly is. And we need to stop her." as if he thought he needed to clarify, he added, "I am not going to let anyone create a mess out of my friend’s marriage. Not even if it is the aunt who brought him up."

The thought of the culprit being the aunt who brought Xiehan up was even more terrifying. It was almost as if she was jealous of Lanni for being pregnant. He was probably overthinking it, so the next evening when he sent Xiehan a text message to explain what he had found out, he left out his conclusion.

___

When Xiehan received the text message, he was curled in bed with Lanni. She was bundled up in front of him while he spooned her, and together they read a web novel on his phone.

The text message was displayed on the top of the screen so they both saw it.

"I was starting to believe that she is guilty." Xiehan revealed his thoughts.

"I asked Luna to check out the source of the screenshot, hoping we could trace it back to whoever fabricated it." She responded, then frowned at the thought. "Do you think Aunt Meiling overlooked a very important detail while plotting her moves? She does know that you and Luna are programmers, right?"

"She probably forgot." His lips twitched. His aunt had probably hired top notch programmers herself, because he had only managed to find the source of the pictures that Lanni supposedly sent Lin Jian. It couldn’t prove much, and he was waiting for Luna too, knowing that the latter was working on it. He didn’t want to face Xingyu’s wrath for snatching something that his wife was interested in. The thought made him chuckle. After battling with Luna over who should prove Lanni’s innocence, she had forcefully won.

"I’ll give Luna a call and ask what she has managed to find." She dialled the number.

"Let me ask you this first. How did Xiehan take the news?" Luna asked as soon as the call connected.

"Uh, he trusts me?" Lanni didn’t understand what her sister was getting at.

"Good. Because I have the surveillance video of when Yu Guang kissed you."