The Overnight Chosen Wife: Darling, Kiss Me Deeper

"Aren't you going to accompany your sister?" Lanni asked Xiehan when she found him waiting for her.

He gave her a once over. "And leave my girlfriend on her own so other men can drool at her? Not happening." He hooked her arm around his.

She let out a smile as she tilted her head to look at him. "I don't want my man to be drooled at either."

"No one has the audacity to do that. They run the risk of having their heads chopped." He laughed, making her wonder whether she was scary in the eyes of other young women.

"I mean, I will chop their heads off." He added, making her chuckle. "Don't stain your hands."

As they walked into the banquet hall , they ran into someone that Lanni would never expect to meet anywhere.

"Ah Chen? Why are you here?" Lanni asked in surprise as she eyed the young man who was once her senior when she was in B City University.

"I'm accompanying my mother. Long time no see." The young man had expected Lanni to attend the banquet as well—being Xiehan's girlfriend—but he didn't think he would really bump into her.

"I'll let you guys catch up." Xiehan offered and went to continue welcoming the guests, making Lanni's eyebrows raise in surprise. The jealous Xiehan was willingly leaving her in the same space as a man who was once crazily in pursuit of her? Was the sun rising from the west tomorrow?

"How have you been? You disappeared on us ever since you went to Star Art International." Ah Chen asked to strike a conversation.

"I went back to my origins." She answered mysteriously, not directly stating that she had decided to drop out of art school and had recently finished studying what she thought she was meant for. "What about you?"

He found her words bizarre but he did not probe too much. "I graduated and found a job." as he spoke, he noticed his mother waving him over, probably to introduce him to some of her friends. He sucked in a breath. "Aw, bummer. Do you want to catch up over coffee sometime? This is my cell phone number." He gave Lanni a card.

"Sure." Lanni took the card, though she was planning that she would only catch up with Ah Chen after confirming that Xiehan would not mind.

She held the card and felt it between her fingers as she wondered whether or not her mother would come. She had been invited, but there was still a great deal of friction between her mother and Wen Lin even if they all pretended that there was no rivalry between them. If it was possible, Lanni hoped that there would be peace between her mother and her boyfriend's mother.

"He will be your text task once you finish the current one." A voice spoke beside her ear, almost spooking the hell out of her. She frowned when Lin Jian's words sunk in.

"Who, Ah Chen?"

When the man nodded, Lanni was even more confused. "What do you suspect him of?"

Lin Jian looked around and when he saw that there were many people around, he led her to the garden so they were far from everyone's earshot. "Weapon smuggling."

Lanni was shocked and she still had a frown on her face. "I am not close to him but I know that he would never be involved in any shady business."

"No one is ever capable of being involved in shady business until you find evidence of their actions. It was the same with Xia Hanchen as well as Li Xiyan." Lin Jian countered. "And speaking of Li Xiyan, I have a very strong feeling that you know what happened to her even though you did not mention it."

"What are you talking about?" She feigned innocence.

Lin Jian scoffed at her perfect acting skills. "If you cannot tell the difference between work and personal business, what are you doing in this line of work? I'm talking about the fact that you are willing to uncover everything but you pretend to know nothing when it involves someone close to you."

She blinked innocently but inwardly, she was in turmoil. Did he know that Flynn was the one who had kidnapped and murdered Li Xiyan?

He must know, or he would not be saying such words. But whether or not she knew, what could she do about it? It wasn't like she could hand Flynn over to the police. Even if she did, she did not have the evidence and she would create herself a new enemy.

"You know what I'm talking about. Think about it, do you want to keep a snake by your side?" Lin Jian questioned with a raised eyebrow. "You must know better than to use work to execute your revenge, That aside, I hope you do not do anything of that sort with Ah Chen. The main target is his fiancée, but since you seem to have had a past acquaintance with him, it will be easier to investigate her through him."

"Ah Chen is engaged?" She was surprised, then it dawned on her. No wonder Xiehan was willing to leave them to catch up while he went about his business. It turned out, he no longer thought of Ah Chen as a threat since the latter would no longer pursue Lanni while he was engaged.

"Her name is Qiao Linyou. She is an actress." He explained.

Lanni nodded, that was a name she had heard many times. The said woman was an international level actress who rose to fame when she was a teenager. More than that, if Lanni's memory served her right, wasn't that actress Lin Jian's ex-girlfriend? She didn't ask but she wondered whether that was how he knew about her weapon-smuggling business.

Lin Jian explained the details of what she needed to do, then looked at her seriously. "About that guy who likes to style his hair in a curly ponytail, you know what's the right thing to do." He then walked away.

She let out a sigh. What should she do? Trap Flynn to reveal evidence of what he did to Li Xiyan?

But he did it for her and Luna, so Li Xiyan would no longer hurt them in future. Scratch that. He was doing it out of his own selfishness and need for revenge too. But even so, it would be hard to trick him even if she tried-not that she wanted to.

"What are you so lost thinking about?" Xiehan circled his arms around her waist and pulled her against him.

"Flynn." She answered with a frown.

Xiehan didn't know what exactly she was worried about but since he had brushed past Lin Jian who must have been on his way from speaking to Lanni, he could pretty much guess the kind of discussion that had transpired between them.

"Do what your heart feels is right, something that will not haunt you." He said to her, and she frowned.

"Do you also think that I should hand him over to the police?" She asked helplessly. If she didn't have to, she did not want to do it.

"I'm not saying that the law is specifically right or wrong. It's all up to you. If you think that by handing him over, you will help the nation get rid of a criminal and you will be proud of it, then do it. If you feel that everything will go wrong and many people will be in danger, and that by leaving Flynn free you will be saving innocent lives, then leave things as they are. Lin Jian will not force you to do anything."

She wasn't sure she could understand what he had said but he was not taking any specific sides so she felt she could talk to him freely. That, and the fact that he had always understood her. "It's just… I will be lying."

"If you don't want to lie, then don't say anything." He suggested. Withholding information wasn't right either, but he felt it was a lesser wrong than lying.

She nodded and leaned against his chest. "Thank you my love."

"You don't need to thank me. Let's go inside, the banquet is starting."

She nodded and hooked her arm around his as they walked back into the banquet hall.

The Ji family decided not to hold an announcement to state that Ruby was their daughter but instead, they walked around with her and introduced her as the Ji family's young miss, then let the rumor spread to prepare everyone for the shocking twist that they would announce later into the banquet.

Lanni did not completely relax and superficially held small talk with the guests, while trying to acquaint herself to those close to Ah Chen or whose brands had ever used Qiao Linyou as their ambassador. It would be easier to investigate her if she knew as much as possible about the actress, but she could not directly probe. Instead, she found ways to make the other parties bring her up on their own.