The Overnight Chosen Wife: Darling, Kiss Me Deeper

"Li Lanni is really alive?" The assistant asked in shock. 

"In the flesh. Cormorant saw her." 

"Do you really believe that lad's nonsense?" A young man who had just walked in interrupted before the assistant could say anything. The young man walked over to the elderly man and threw files on his table. "Li Lanni is dead. No one can survive such a crash. Is she a ghost then?" 

"Then, the person that Cormorant saw…" The elderly man started. 

"Must be her sister." The young man interrupted. "Didn't Li Xiyan already say that they are twins?" 

"Then I really hope she is. Because if she is Lanni, then…" 

"She is not and that's that." The young man walked out. 

"Sir, please don't mind Flynn. He can be quite…" 

"Don't I know my own son best?" The elderly man interrupted his assistant with a huff. "Go and find out whether that girl is Li Lanni. If she is, report it to me immediately." 

___

B City. 

Ji Xiehan and Li Lanni left his parents' home after the meal. The ride back to Li Yuming's villa was mostly silent. 

When they arrived, it was a little late so Ji Xiehan did not want to bother Li Yuming, promising to pay her a visit the next day instead. He pulled Lanni into a hug and kissed her cheek. "You should sleep before it's very late. Goodnight." 

"Goodnight. " Lanni returned his kiss. 

However, he looked a little hesitant to part so she asked, "You have something to say?" 

Ji Xiehan took her small, fair hand to play with her fingers. "yeah. Honey, I already settled the matter at the company." 

"Pfft." Lanni found him too cute. Was he waiting for a reward or something? 

She pulled on his collar and kissed his lips slightly, soothing him like a kid. "You did well." 

"Mmh." Ji Xiehan was more overjoyed from her reward than he would be if he received a million other rewards. Even so, he acted like a spoiled kid asking for more candy. "Honey, that's not enough." 

Lanni wanted to laugh at his childishness. Even so, she pulled his collar again and kissed him, this time deepening the kiss slightly. It was only when she was done that he was satisfied. "Honey, since the problem at the company has been solved and our vacation was interrupted last time, do you think we should go on another vacation?" 

Lanni couldn't help but sigh. She wanted to, but, "I already took a whole week off the last time. It's too soon for me to take more time off." 

Ji Xiehan hugged her in understanding. Although he wanted to spend time with her alone, he didn't want to inconvenience her studies. 

"Besides, you cannot be so sure of anything. Who is to say that the Feng family will not retaliate soon? You might need to be there for the company for longer than you think." She continued. 

"You're right." Ji Xiehan rubbed her back, still unwilling to break the hug. 

"What about Feng Ci?" She wondered. People had stopped talking about his affair with Feng Ci already, but she didn't like it that most people thought her boyfriend was a cheating jerk. 

"Don't worry about her. She will be forced to tell the truth soon." 

"You have a plan?" 

"I don't need one. Honey, I don't want to talk about that woman right now." In fact, he didn't want to talk about her ever. She was a jinx. After hugging for a while longer, they finally let go and Lanni went back to the house. 

Although it was already late, she was not sleepy. So she went to make a cup of coffee for herself, drank it and decided to go to her art studio. She still had work to do. 

While she passed by her mother's studio, she saw that the light was on. Her mother was still awake? She was about to go and say hello but just before she knocked, she changed her mind. Her mother was probably painting. She decided not to distract her. 

Thirty minutes later. 

Lanni crumbled the sheet of paper into a ball and massaged her temples. In the last thirty minutes, she just couldn't draw anything. She couldn't put her mind into it. 

It was not just in the last thirty minutes. In the past few weeks, she had been having trouble focusing. Everyone else in her class was drawing the sixth volume of the comic they had been working on. On the other hand, she was stuck on the fifth volume. At first, she would just do worse with each chapter. 

After having a chat with the tutor, she did slightly better, but after exhausting her mental strength. Now she couldn't do anything no matter how hard she tried. She shoved her stationery aside and stood up, rubbing her forehead. Her eyes darted through her paintings. They were beautiful and all, then they started getting worse. Some of them even looked like she was being forced to paint them. 

"If ou are being forced to do something, you cannot do it well no matter how hard you work." Her tutor's words rang in her ears. "Your performance is deteriorating each day. If I didn't know, I wouldn't believe you came to Star Art international by winning an art contest." 

"No way…" she muttered in horror. Could it be… no… 

She couldn't have reached a bottleneck, right? 

"But how's that possible?" her breathing hitched as her hands covered her paled face. "If I reached a bottleneck now, how would I become a comic artist?" 

Just then, her vision started getting blurry. 

"What's happening?" She asked as her heart raced. Everything was suddenly spinning around her. She was just about to scream when an image started forming in her mind. 

…

A bar. 

A young woman stood from the barstool and took her glass of wine, going out from the backdoor. It was less noisy outside and the bustling music could only be heard from a distance. The woman looked nothing more than eighteen, but her long curly hair and the dress she was wearing made her seem a little older at first glance. 

The dazed Lanni knew that the woman was her. 

She took a small sip of her wine and soon, a man also came out through the backdoor. 

"It's much better being outside." He said. 

"Are you speaking to me?" Lanni turned to ask him. 

"Yes." He answered, his eyes lingering on her as though he was checking her out. "What's a beautiful girl doing in the bar all alone anyway?" 

Lanni seemed a little confused, probably after taking wine. She observed the man before her for a while before answering. "The usual. You know, getting away from normal life and seeking a thrill?" 

The man burst into laughter. "Right. Young girls are always seeking thrills. Do you want to go with me? You really should." 

"Okay." Lanni said and followed him. He dragged her outside and gave her a round of scolding and instructions.

However, they didn't actually go anywhere together. At some point, he made some hand signs and disappeared into an alley. A few seconds later, Lanni circled the bar, found another entrance and snuck back into the bar. This time, she went straight for a VIP room. 

She nervously pushed the door open and a group of five men came into view. Sneakily, she slipped into the room and hid behind the closest chair. They were discussing something that she couldn't fully understand. She could only make out a few words and at some point, she took out her phone to record whatever they were saying. 

Unfortunately, her phone rang, startling the men. 

"There's an intruder!" one of them shouted when he looked behind his chair and found a girl hiding. 

Lanni sprinted out of the room. 

"Don't let her get away!" She heard one of the men shout after her. 

She kicked off her shoes, running out of the bar and blazing through the streets. It wasn't sure how long she ran but just when she was about to give up and let them catch her, a force pulled her and hid her behind a huge trash bin. 

Lanni looked beside her and saw that it was the man she was speaking to earlier. "What are you doing? They will see us!" 

"They are drunk." The man said firmly. 

Lanni peeked at them. "They surely can run fast even when drunk." 

"What nonsense, P. What are you, a pig? You cannot even run fast when sober. I'll train you harder from now on. Did you get anything?"

…

Lanni's thoughts came back to the present. Her head hurt so much she thought it would explode. What was all that about? Who was that man, and who were the drunk men? Why would that man act like he didn't know her at the bar and then later act so familiar with her? Why was she at the bar to start with? Lanni's mind was filled with confusion.