The Overnight Chosen Wife: Darling, Kiss Me Deeper

Li Lanni blinked her eyes rapidly. "Are you seriously blaming me? You should be ashamed of yourself. You were the one who kissed me!" 

"And you are the one who called me your fiancé. It was just a kiss. The media would have assumed I was only fooling around or that you are my girlfriend at most. Thanks to what you said, I have many people to answer to now." Ji Xiehan retorted.

Li Lanni couldn't make head or tail of what was going on. She was the one who had been taken advantage of. She was the victim, okay? Why was he making it sound like she was the one who had taken advantage of him?  "Is this why you hung up my call?" She gritted her teeth and asked.

Ji Xiehan massaged his temples then looked right at her. "I was upset, Lanni. Everyone is on my neck, questioning me. I didn't know how to hold a conversation with you."

As though to prove his words, the telephone on his desk rung. As soon as he received it, "Hello, this is Mars Media..." 

He hung up with a sigh and looked at her. "This is just one of them. This is a severe issue Lanni; my parents expect me to get married. I cannot afford to be in a scandal with a girl." 

'I didn't create the scandal, now did I?' Li Lanni thought. 

"Lanni, how did that video leak out?" Ji Xiehan asked in all seriousness. 

"Why are you asking me?" She retorted. Just because she grabbed his hand and claimed to be engaged to him didn't mean she recorded that and gave it to the media, okay! "But, I should ask you how those photos of us leaked out." 

Ji Xiehan thought for a bit and shrugged. "Is it not obvious? All those photos were taken after the banquet. Someone must have been following us after obtaining the video." 

Li Lanni blinked. Why did it seem like he was blaming her for being the root of all this? 

This conversation was not going anywhere. She sighed after thinking about it for a long time; she looked into his eyes and said, "It's already done. So, what now? The Ji family holds a lot of power. You can just have them delete the news and pass it off as a misunderstanding, right? It was, after all, indeed, a misunderstanding." 

"No can do Lanni. Very many people have already caught wind of it. And that includes my parents and... 

Look, whatever it is, I definitely cannot pass it off as a misunderstanding. As the next CEO of Feng Ji International, the most basic thing I am supposed to do is keep my record clean. Even if I deleted the news now, not many people would believe it is a misunderstanding. It would look like I often have scandals with women. 

Besides, that would be pushing all the blame to a girl I have been seen with before. 

There is no way this will be part of a clean record." 

"What's that even supposed to mean? Once you say you have been misunderstood and we were just acquaintances, wouldn't your name be cleared? We only went to a banquet together. Acquaintances do that often." 

"Yeah, but acquaintances do not kiss, Lanni." 

"You are the one who kissed me." Li Lanni insisted furiously, again. This can't be done, that can't be done; what was she supposed to do now?! "You should have known that it wouldn't sit well with your clean record if you grabbed a girl and kissed her."  

"It happened in the heat of the moment. How would I have known that I was being followed?" 

It was back to her yet again. 

Li Lanni groaned. Great! Just great! 

"Lanni, I don't mean to put you at a disadvantage, but I really have no choice." 

"What do you mean?" She had a bad premonition. 

Ji Xiehan contemplated for a while before saying, "As I just mentioned, my parents expect me to get married soon. They are putting me under real pressure even though I am not ready for it. 

My father gave me an ultimatum to bring a woman back home within a month, or I would have to marry whoever he chose for me. 

No one would want that, right?" 

He carefully studied her expression. It was blank, so he continued. "The time he gave me is almost over so I had found a woman... I was planning to have her pretend to be my fiancée for a while then feign a break up later. But with all this news going on, there is no way she would agree to it." 

The warning bells went off in Li Lanni's mind. "So, what am I supposed to do?" 

"Replace her." 

"What?" 

"Be my fiancée." He repeated word by word. 

Li Lanni blanked out for a whole minute before she finally reacted. "You're crazy!" 

She had heard enough! She just stood up and made a beeline for the door, but Ji Xiehan was faster. He sprung to his feet and pushed the door closed just as she touched it. 

"What are you doing?" She asked with a tremble.

"Listen to me once, okay?" He persuaded. 

Li Lanni heard the despair in his voice and couldn't bring herself to be too rude. "What do you want? I am certainly not getting engaged to anyone. Especially not to you." 

Ji Xiehan felt his heart break from the blatant way she was rejecting him, but she couldn't be blamed. It was his fault. But if he had a choice... 

Scratch that. He didn't have a choice. 

Scratch that too. He had made himself "have no choice". But it was all the same, right?

"It's a fake engagement. I only want to buy time and distract my parents for a while. When it's over, we can just feign a break-up and go separate ways. I will make sure your life remains private, and no one bothers you." 

"How long?" She almost killed herself for the asking. Perhaps it was the desperation in his voice or her guilt due to the fact that the statement she casually said had indeed ruined his plans. 

"Three..." Ji Xiehan swallowed. "Three months. Just three months." He had almost said three weeks, but that might not be enough time to make her truly fall in love with him. 

"Three months?" Three months, thirteen weeks, a hundred days, it was not too long, but it wasn't short either; many things can happen within three months.

"Do you have any idea of how many opportunities I might miss in three months? Is my life supposed to stop? 

What if I fall in love? Am I supposed to pause my love life for three months too, just because I will be 'engaged' to you? And, how would I explain this to my future husband? Should I say 'that year I accidentally messed up with someone's life by claiming to be his fiancée so I had to pretend to be truly engaged to him for a while'?"  

"Li Lanni!"  Ji Xiehan roared. This woman was really going to drive him insane. How dare she say such things to him? 'You will not have to explain anything to your future husband because that will be me! Do you hear me?' He almost said. 

Li Lanni was taken aback by his sudden outburst and stopped rambling. "Anyway, it's a ridiculously long time. I cannot do it." 

Ji Xiehan's expression was a mixture of sadness and anger. "What about me? I'm stuck to you, do you know that? How should I explain this to my parents to the company's higher ups?" 

When she saw that pitiful expression on his charming face, her heart wavered. She sighed, "I'll think about it. Give me some time, will you? You can't expect me to decide such a serious issue in a moment of a spur, right? After all, this is an engagement. It is not as huge a deal as marriage but it is still very important to a woman." She would have a headache if she kept this discussion going. She was desperate to finish it. 

Ji Xiehan regarded her for a while then withdrew his hand. He knew he had made her heart unsettled. There was a high chance that she would agree to his request. 

With a charming smile he said, "I will drop you off at home." 

"You don't need to." Li Lanni blankly rejected. 

"The reporters will make it hard for you to leave. Then I will walk you to the car." 

Until Li Lanni left, he maintained his pitiful and wronged, distressed expression. It was only after she left that he let out a smile. 

Damn! That wasn't so easy for him to act out. He had totally played the victim card when he orchestrated the whole thing with Lin Jian's help. He would respect actors and actresses much more from now on. Acting was not his cup of tea!