The Overnight Chosen Wife: Darling, Kiss Me Deeper

"What's wrong with him? Why is he acting like a little child throwing a tantrum when he is a fully grown man? Is he asking for a beating?" A harrumph resounded from the door. What was he doing, getting his mother all worried? It was already enough that his mother was worried about Xia Luna. Why did he want her to be worried about him as well?

Jiang Xingren glared at his son fiercely. "You punk! Get off the floor now!" He pinched his nose tightly between his thumb and forefinger. "Go and take a shower, gah! You stink like a sewer, you will suffocate my wife!" 

"You only care about your wife." Jiang Xingyu grumbled, and Jiang Xingren scoffed at him. Left with no choice, Jiang Xingyu could only drag his weak body to the bathroom. 

After taking a bath and changing into clean clothes, he looked more decent. Lunch was ready, so Madam Jiang called him down to eat. 

"That's more like it." Jiang Xingren nodded when he saw his son looking better than the lifeless log of wood he had become in just three days. "Men should be strong. Otherwise, how sad will your woman be when she comes back and finds you in such an unbearable state?" 

"That's enough. Don't berate him too much." Madam Jiang stood up for him. 

"For the first time, you are not scolding him together with him." Jiang Xingyu made a joke out of it, earning a glare from both of them. He had made them so worried that they were on the verge of pulling their hair off their scalps and he had the guts to make a joke? 

"Fine. Let's think of a way to get the evidence to prove her innocence. You said she deliberately deleted it?" Jiang Xingren asked. 

"Yes. And that's the strange part in all of this. Why would she do such a thing? It's as though she wanted to go to prison no matter what." Madam Jiang still couldn't understand. 

"Do you think the evidence you had found to prove her innocence had all been fabricated? Perhaps she deleted it earlier because she knew that the court would prove it fake anyway?" He speculated.

"No way." Madam Jiang shook her head confidently. "Xingyu and I worked hard to retrieve it. We couldn't have got anything fake and besides, we checked the authenticity." 

"Then she must be under a threat." He concluded. 

"Actually we thought so too. But who could have threatened her? And what would be the leverage? Xia Hanchen was transferred to Hillside hospital and we have people monitoring the whole hospital. 

"Wait. What about Cheng Yu?" Jiang Xingyu suddenly recalled. Xia Luna cared about Cheng Yu like her own sister. If anyone used Cheng Yu to threaten her, she would do what they wanted right away. 

"Right… Cheng Yu! Why didn't she attend the hearing when she and Luna are best friends? Shouldn't her best friend's hearing be of utmost importance?

_ 

Cheng Yu had not attended Luna's hearing. Besides Lanni and Luna, no one else knew why she had not attended. 

The sisters knew that on the night they rescued Cheng Yu, they had brought her to their room and tried to treat her wounds. However, they couldn't be sure that there were no other complications so they sent Cheng Yu to hospital in the wee hours of the morning. 

Aside from being dehydrated and a few of the wounds being infected, there were no major complications. 

Cheng Yu was currently at her home. Goldenwing Apartments was no longer safe enough since Li Xiyan could infiltrate it like she did the last time. She did not want to depend on Lanni and Luna and let them get her a place to stay, so she had swallowed the pill and gone back home. 

It wasn't too bad. She could keep an eye on her brother while at it. 

Sitting on her bed, Cheng Yu checked her new phone impatiently. There was no call from Lanni or Luna. Not even a text message. Lanni's phone wouldn't go through either. 

"Are they alright? Why aren't they saying anything?" Cheng Yu wondered aloud. 

It was still not safe for her to walk around at such a time, but she was worried that something could have happened to her friends. 

'Maybe I should go to Lanni's home and check on them?' She wondered. 

_ 

Li Yuming's home. 

"Miss, Miss Cheng is here to see you." The housekeeper announced to Lanni, who was sitting on her legs on the white sofa, blankly staring at a book.

"Let her in." Lanni looked up, suddenly remembering that she had almost forgotten all about Cheng Yu. She put the book beside her on the sofa and stood up, stretching as she felt around for her slippers using her feet. When she found them and wore them, she gathered the long waves of her hair and tied it up into a messy ponytail then went out to meet Cheng Yu. 

"Lanni!" Cheng Yu rushed over and hugged Lanni as soon as she saw her. "You and Luna are so mean! You didn't tell me anything about the hearing. Do you know how worried I've been? At last I couldn't handle it anymore so I rushed here to check the situation myself." 

Cheng Yu finally realized something was wrong. Lanni didn't look alright. "What's wrong? What happened?" When Lanni didn't answer her, she contemplated then remembered that the last time they talked, they had said that Luna was currently living together with them. "Where is Luna?" 

Lanni didn't know where to start. She pulled Cheng Yu to the sofa she was sitting on earlier and took a deep breath. "Xia Luna is the craziest person on earth. She pleaded guilty." 

"She did what?" Cheng Yu would have fallen onto the floor in shock if she wasn't sitting. 

"She pleaded guilty." Lanni enunciated the syllables. "Not only that, but she also deleted all the evidence that we had spent so much time gathering to prove her innocence. I don't know her anymore." 

"That's strange." Cheng Yu frowned, then suddenly thought of someone. "Where is your dad?" 

Lanni bit the inside of her lip. "You know what? I thought she was being threatened too. However, our dad is safe and we rescued you too. The two of you are the only people my sister cares about. Oh, and me too, but I'm right here and so is mother. Basically everyone she would worry about is safe. What would anyone use as leverage to blackmail her?" 

Cheng Yu couldn't think of any possibility no matter how hard she thought. This was a case of murder, so she couldn't possibly be doing this because she had a mission to complete in prison. Luna wouldn't be that unreasonable. 

"Perhaps…" Lanni didn't want to think that way of her sister but, "perhaps she really did it." 

"What nonsense are you saying? We both know Luna would never do such a thing." Cheng Yu berated. 

"Then tell me another possibility." Lanni shrugged, and Cheng Yu was speechless. She didn't know what to think either. 

"What about the young man you guys said had been caught as the true murderer?" 

Lanni sat down in despair. "Since the evidence has been deleted, of course there was nothing to prove him guilty." 

Cheng Yu sighed. Why would Luna do that? 

They were still racking their brains when Li Yuming passed by. She only spared them one glance before heading into the kitchen. 

"Uh…" Lanni peeked at Cheng Yu then looked at Li Yuming's retreating back and frowned in confusion. She had already explained to Li Yuming that Cheng Yu did what she did because she had been forced. Why was Li Yuming still ignoring Cheng Yu? 

"I guess she is mad at me." Cheng Yu bit her lip. 

Li Yuming came back a few minutes later, bringing a tray of fruits with her. She sat on the sofa next to the one the girls were sitting on as she placed the tray onto the emerald coffee table. 

She looked surprised to see Lanni and Cheng Yu. "Ah… you girls are here. When did you get here?" 

Lanni and Cheng Yu exchanged looks. 

"Uh… what do you mean 'when did we get here', mom? We have been here for a long time." Lanni expressed her confusion. 

"You even looked in our direction and ignored us, and I thought you were mad at me." Cheng Yu seconded. 

Li Yuming glanced at the two of them and laughed. "I know you girls are trying to make me laugh. How lovely." 

Lanni and Cheng Yu exchanged looks again. She was serious…

Li Yuming looked at Cheng Yu and asked, "Why would I be mad at you? You are my excellent disciple. Did you do something wrong that I don't know about?" 

"Uh… because of what I said about Luna." Cheng Yu stuttered, as though scared that she would remind Li Yuming to be mad at her. 

"What are you saying? What did you say about Luna?" Li Yuming asked, baffling them both.