The Overnight Chosen Wife: Darling, Kiss Me Deeper

Lanni widened her eyes in disbelief. "How could that be?" 

"The evidence is right here." Xiehan showed her the text message he had recovered on Xiaoshi's phone. The cell phone number indeed belonged to Li Yuming. 

Lanni shook her head. "How could she do this? Wait. What would she even gain from having Xiaoshi get to Xingyu?" 

"You don't get it yet?" Luna laughed bitterly. "Mildest outcome, I would be so angry that I would wreck the banquet, and then I would turn into the joke of the entire city. 

Or, I will think Xingyu is playing around and break up with him. Or who knows, what if Xiaoshi really seduced Xingyu and he fell in love with her? What would happen to me then?" 

Lanni didn't know what to say. Just the fact that a mother could even want to do such a thing to her own daughter was shocking. 

"How dare she? I will kill her!" Roared a voice from the door, making everyone have a bad feeling. 

Lanni felt the world was ending when she turned and saw the enraged Xia Hanchen. "Dad…" 

The man did not collapse as they dreaded. Instead, he went back to the banquet hall where most of the guests had already left, and only a handful were left. 

He sucked in a breath furiously and grabbed the hand of Li Yuming who was about to leave. In the next instant, he landed a slap right across her face. 

"How dare you!" Li Yuming exploded. 

"No. How dare you!" Xia Hanchen roared. "I know you hate my daughter. I get it. But how dare you try to ruin her engagement? She is pregnant with your grandchild, yet that doesn't even stop you from plotting against her?!" 

Li Yuming's jaw dropped with every word that the man said. "What nonsense are you saying? When did I plot against Luna?" 

She looked up to see Luna walk towards her with Lanni, Xingyu and Xiehan. She laughed as she pointed a finger at Luna. "Of course. It must be her. What lie did this girl say this time?" 

Luna clenched her fists tightly, and Xingyu held her protectively. 

"The evidence is already here, yet you are still trying to deny it?" Xia Hanchen was in disbelief. "We all know that you are the one who tampered with the chandelier. We also know that you deliberately set Xiaoshi up to cause misunderstandings. Do you even have a heart?" 

Li Yuming furrowed her brows. "Ridiculous! I attended this banquet out of respect for the fact that I am still Xia Luna's biological mother, but that doesn't mean you can accuse me of anything and pin whatever blame you want onto me!" 

Luna rolled her eyes. "Quit pretending." She then took Xiaoshi's phone from Xiehan and tapped on the screen to reveal the message, and then showed it to Li Yuming. "Since you are innocent, can you explain why you sent this message to Xiaoshi?" 

Li Yuming shook her head without checking out the message. "Yun Xiaoshi and I have only met twice in our lives and I don't have her cell phone number. How would I send her a message, and why would I even do it?"

Seeing that Luna was still holding the phone to her, she casually read the message, and then she was stumped. 

"I understand that you hate me, but I am your daughter after all. Doesn't it break your heart?" Luna asked. 

"Luna…" Xia Hanchen felt his heart shatter into pieces. Before he could say anything else, Madam Jiang, who had been watching to see whether Li Yuming would tell the trut, came over. 

"Yuming, I don't know what comes over you every time you see Luna and tempts you to bully her, but I will not let you bully anyone from the Jiang family. Please leave before I call the police and have you arrested for attempted physical assault." She pointed towards the entrance as she wrapped a hand around Luna's shoulder. 

Li Yuming had never felt so humiliated. She took in a deep breath but scoffed in the end. "Lanni, let's go." 

"I will stay with Xiehan tonight." Lanni responded expressionlessly. 

Li Yuming looked at her. Did she also think she was responsible? 

Lanni avoided her gaze. She couldn't start to describe how disappointed she was. Li Yuming shrugged and left. 

…

"I'm sorry I misunderstood you." Luna said to Xiaoshi later when they were alone. 

Xiaoshi forced a smile and said nothing. It was not okay. Nonetheless, "I understand. I wouldn't be comfortable if I were in your place either. But Luna, you should know that I have no intention to wreck your engagement." 

Luna remained silent, wondering how she could make it up to Xiaoshi for having misunderstood her. 

"I guess we could never be completely comfortable around each other." Xiaoshi said through a smile. 

Luna couldn't deny it so she nodded. The only way she could be comfortable around Xiaoshi was if the girl stopped loving Xingyu and moved on, but that was definitely going to take a while. 

___

After seeing the remaining guests off, Jiang Xingren led his wife out of the hotel, and so did Ji Huifen. 

Lin Jian saw Ruby try to slip away and dashed to her. "Where are you going?" 

"Away from you!" Ruby looked bummed that she had been found out. 

"But we are supposed to go together." He slotted himself next to her, and hooked her arm with his own. 

"You only asked me to attend the banquet with you and the banquet is over. What else do you want?" 

"I will drop you off. Otheriwise, your dad will give me a good beating the next time he sees me." He used the only available excuse though he was not lying. Ruby was insanely pampered by her father. If he felt that a man was taking advantage of his daughter and not guaranteeing her safety by making sure she was home, he couldn't guarantee that he would not get his legs broken. 

Ruby rolled her eyes. At this moment, she didn't have a choice but to let this playboy drop her off. Even if she said no, she wouldn't be able to hail a cab in this part of the city. If she called her dad to have a chauffeur pick her up, he would tell her to let Lin Jian drop her off. What a headache. "Fine." 

Lin Jian was overjoyed. "Give me a second. I will say goodbye to Xiehan and grab my car keys from the dressing room." He dashed off as soon as his words were out. 

She crossed her arms and leaned against his car to wait for him. 

A minute passed. She was just wondering whether she should still wait when she saw a girl head out. She frowned in surprise. 

Xiaoshi was surprised when she bumped into Ruby. She couldn't explain it but she found Ruby quite familiar. More than that, why did they look almost like a copy of each other? 

"You are…?" Xiaoshi asked as she tried to recall what Lin Jian had called her earlier. 

"Ruby." Ruby introduced herself with a smile. "Yun Xiaoshi, right?" 

Xiaoshi nodded. "You know me?" 

"Yes. Aren't you Xiehan's cousin?" Ruby smiled, making the other surprised. 

They ended up chatting a little, before Xiaoshi pointed out the shocking coincidence. "You know, I used to think that the only way people could look alike is by being twins. You know, like Lanni and Luna. But looking at you…" Xiaoshi was surprised by what she was about to say. "Forget the similarities between us. I can swear, your eyes look just like my mothers!" 

"You are kidding!" Ruby laughed. 

"I swear, I'm not kidding." Xiaoshi reached to take out her phone so she could show Ruby a picture of her mother, but remembered that she had given it to Xiehan so he would check it out for her and ensure she had not lost any data from when it was hacked. 

"Uh… can I use your phone for a minute?" She asked shyly. 

"Sure." Ruby didn't think too much of it and handed over her phone. 

Xiaoshi quickly logged into her social media account and found a picture of her mother, then showed it to Ruby. 

The latter was stunned. "We really do have the same eyes." 

"I told you. What a coincidence, right? Hey, do you think my mum had twins and didn't know about it?" She guessed jokingly. 

Ruby burst into laughter. "You're so funny. But I am at least a year older than you." 

"Oh well…" Xiaoshi shrugged. Perhaps it really was a coincidence. 

"Don't get worked up. Perhaps we might be related but in a different way?" Ruby giggled. 

"What do you mean?" Xiaoshi was stumped. 

Ruby heard footsteps and when she looked up, she saw Xiehan leaving with Lanni and Lin Jian. She looked back at Xiaoshi with a laugh. "I was just kidding!" 

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