The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper

Lanni was taken aback. "Lin Jian, you can’t just..."

"Don’t worry. I would never lose Ruby." He grinned.

Xiehan glared at him in disapproval. "What if you shoot your mouth off and lose to me? Would you break my sister’s heart for a moment of pride or make a fool out of yourself by not going through with the consequences?"

Lin Jian leaned over the crib where Shuihan was making happy sounds. "Hello there, buddy."

He then turned back to Xiehan. "As I said, I would never lose Ruby. Do you accept the challenge or not? One game, and if I win, you bless us."

"Fine." Xiehan finally relented. If Lin Jian wanted to embarrass himself so badly, it was up to him.

Lin Jian cheerfully took out his phone. "Demons Vs gods. Treasure hunt mode. First one to get a treasure box wins."

Lanni burst into laughter while Xiehan’s expression darkened. Not only was Lin Jian faster in the game, but he was a demon and demons had higher chances of winning prizes in the treasure hunt mode.

"Are you throwing in the towel already?" Lin Jian taunted.

Xiehan dismissively huffed and picked Shuihan up. "My son is lonely and needs me to play with him so I’ll ignore you this time."

"That means I win either way, doesn’t it?" Lin Jian looked like he was about to bounce in joy. "You still have to bless me."

Xiehan was amused. He didn’t have anything against the man Ruby dated as long as he didn’t treat her as one of his conquests, and Lin Jian was clearly going out of his way to make her happy. He had to give him that. The man who knew nothing about making women happy except throwing expensive gifts their way was finally learning how to date properly, how to find out a girl’s interests, take her out for movies and surprise her with gifts that actually meant something to her.

So he gave in. "I know you are only asking this of me because of what happened between us and our parents." He admitted. "Actually, I didn’t want to take my father’s place in anything. I know you would have asked him if he and I were on good terms, or Neil if she wasn’t her sister-in-law’s stepfather."

"Can you not say that aloud? It almost sounds incestuous." Lanni cringed. There was no strand of DNA between Ruby and Neil but it still felt a little odd to think that he was Ruby’s adoptive father once.

Xiehan smiled at her and continued, "I thought you were asking me just because you are my friend and you wanted to show your loyalty to me and that Ruby would want you to ask her biological father. But now that I think about it clearly, she only ever wanted them because she thought they were good people.

She would be glad for me to do this. So I bless your union. You can go ahead and propose to her."

Lin Jian punched the air excitedly. "Yes!" He would finally put the ring on her finger with more meaning behind it than just wanting her to have it. But then he looked at Xiehan curiously. "Isn’t there supposed to be some ritual of sorts?"

"None that I know of."

The man ran back to Shuihan, kissed him and mumbled something about him being his lucky charm, then he hurried to the door. "I’ll go prepare. Wait. Actually, Ruby and I would like to go on vacation, taking advantage of this period before she gets a job. Would you like to join us? We have already asked Luna and Xingyu and they are coming."

"We will be there." Xiehan answered before Lanni’s eyes went wide.

"Our son!" She reminded him that aside from the two of them, only Luna could stay with him for longer than a couple of minutes.

Xiehan didn’t look in the slightest bit worried. "He hit it off with his grandma. He will be fine. Besides, it’s just a day."

"If mother can’t catch a breath all day because he wouldn’t stop crying, I’m blaming you." She warned, but she was too worried for nothing. Li Yuming only had to make sure he was clean and well fed. For the rest of the day, when he wasn’t sleeping, she was reading him a book or singing him songs—none of which he understood but he enjoyed it anyway.

Meanwhile, Lin Jian had managed to book a resort cottage with five bedrooms for a day and a night. When everyone arrived, they had to admit that it was worth taking some time off to relax.

The cottage overlooked the sea and was far enough from all the other cottages to provide privacy. The staff would only come if any of them pressed the staff bell and if they were not needed, the guests would get to enjoy themselves without any interruption.

"This is literally the best vacation I have had in forever." Luna sucked on the straw slotted into the humongous coconut in her hand. It had only been an hour and she was yet to explore any of the locations but she was certain it was going to be a blast.

She peeked over at Lin Jian who was setting up the foldable table for brunch. "Hey, do you think we could prolong this to last a little longer?"

He grinned. "We could, but do you think Yanyan would love that?"

She groaned. Being the mother of three, the longest vacation she could have was probably this. Not that she was complaining. Linhou, Xiaomu and Yanyan were her world.

Beside her, Xingyu smiled to himself as he looked past his beautiful wife slotted on a lounge chair, and thought back to the feisty young woman he met years ago, who looked innocent but whose demeanor was anything but.

"What are you looking at?" She scowled at him.

His smile deepened. "I’m looking at the young woman who wanted a small family with just me and her, but who now has three kids with me and doesn’t mind having more."

She sat up straight and looked around, hoping no one had heard his shameless remark. Everyone’s roar of laughter was all it took for her to know that they had heard. She feigned oblivion. " I have no idea who you are talking about."

"Of course you don’t know a thing about her." He smiled.

"If you continue poking fun at Luna, you might just end up spending the night in the fifth room." Commented Ruby. There were five bedrooms in the cottage and only four couples.

Xingyu glanced over at Lin Jian. "What the hell were you thinking, booking a cottage with an extra room? We cannot tease our wives now without dreading that we will get kicked out of our rooms."

"Speak for yourself. Shishi will never kick me out." Han Xichen wrapped an arm around his wife to prove his point. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Maybe I should." Xiaoshi joked.

Han Xichen popped his arms up in surrender. "How about we just talk about what we are thankful for? I’ll go first." He looked into her eyes and cupped her face. "Thank you for coming into my life, Shishi. I didn’t know what I was missing until I met you, and I would give anything for it to remain this way."

"Oh Xichen." She hugged him. "Thank you for making me the happiest woman on earth. And on that note, I would like to thank my cousin and cousin-in-law too." She looked over at Lanni and Xiehan who had taken their seats around the foldable table.

"Lanni, thank you for knocking sense into me when I was about to make life difficult for myself and an innocent couple. And cousin, thank you too."

Lanni pulled her over for a hug, and they were soon joined by Luna.

"The two of you saved my babies. I would never be able to repay you for either and I just need you to know that I will forever be grateful."

The three shared a hug, which was interrupted by Lin Jian.

"Hey, let’s not get teary-eyed, okay? I’m not saying I’m not grateful to you, Lanni, for all the effort you put in to make Lin Media Group what it is today. And whatever anyone is going to thank me for, you’re welcome."

They all laughed at his narcissistic response. They went on, thanking each other for everything they could remember, and ended up realizing just how much their lives had changed because of each other.

Then they played a game of truth and dare, had brunch, played beach ball games where the women lost against the men, and the men ended up being banished into the fifth room.

It turned out, the extra room was for Cheng Yu and Cedric, who couldn’t make it in the end. However, it had been put to good use now.

The guys thought their wives were joking but when night fell and they were still being given the cold shoulder, they lumped themselves up in the fifth room and sat on the carpet. It was big enough for all of them but they were dejected.

"I refuse to believe that Shishi will let me sleep here." Han Xichen groaned.

"Accept it." Xingyu laughed, even though he hoped Luna would call him back to their room.

"Let’s make a bet." Xiehan shuffled closer to them.

"I will never make a bet with this guy." Lin Jian recoiled, but Xiehan spoke anyway.

"Let’s all place a thousand dollars. The first one to get called out of here wins and gets the price. Silence means yes."

They were yet to react when his phone rang. He smiled smugly.

"I knew my Lanni wouldn’t let me sleep without her." He then put the phone on speaker. "Hey, honey."

"You forgot to take a blanket." She spoke, making the guys roar in laughter.

THE END.

____

AN

Not literally. There’s going to be the hugest time skip in the book.