Chapter 458 - I Thought You Were Smarter Than This

"Huh?" Xiaoshi probed, not understanding what he meant.

Instead of answering her, he pulled her to his side to close the distance between them, then pressed his lips against her soft cheek and it immediately flushed.

His thumb rubbed against the part he had just kissed as his other hand stroked her face before cupping it. He rubbed his finger against her lips which parted as her eyes slowly shut, her tongue itching to lick her lips.

With each passing second, she felt his face inch closer and closer to hers, then it stopped. The kiss she was anticipating did not arrive and when she opened her eyes, a grin surfaced on his face and he pulled away from her.

"You could have stopped me." He raised an eyebrow.

"What?" She was still disoriented from the mixture of incomprehensible feelings in her body, that had surfaced from his proximity. When she finally understood what he meant, her eyes narrowed in a frown. "That's so childish of you."

He chuckled. Was she angry because he had tried to prove a point or because she had not gotten the kiss he had made her want? He didn't need to think to know that it was the latter. "It's so childish of you to keep pining for an engaged man, one that you don't even like anymore."

"You…" She was shocked and annoyed at the same time. It was so unlike him to say anything mean to her, and what did he mean she was childish?

"Why don't you try kissing a random man? Do you want me to get a stranger here and ask him to get that close to you? See if you don't slap the hell out of him in repulsion." His tone was serious. He knew that he was being selfish by doing this to her, but it was unbearable to hear the girl he liked go on and on about another man when they had mutual feelings between them. Besides, the longer it took for Xiaoshi to snap out of it, the harder it would be for her to completely move on.

"Go on," He urged.

"I need to leave." She made to stand, before a whisper befell her ears.

"Sit." It was one word, but she sat back down as though she were under a spell.

He scanned her eyes and found that they were slightly unfocused, only then did he proceed to ask, "What's so bad about me?"

"Nothing." She was still unfocused and he knew that she should be uncontrollably speaking what was truly on her mind, so he prepared for the worst. "My dad thinks the only man who deserves me is Xingyu. He will never acknowledge any other man as my boyfriend or husband."

He was surprised, but not entirely surprised by the revelation. He had somehow expected it but he still asked, "What about the dinner? he said I was good enough."

"He wanted me to be close to you to make Xingyu jealous." Her eyebrows furrowed slightly at her words, before her small hands reached to hold the sides of his face. "Xichen, I don't want to use you that way. You're a great guy."

He winced slightly at the shock that had made his body feel like it was electrocuted.

She looked into his eyes as she continued, "You are everything a woman would ever want in a man. And honestly… I would be lying if I said that I never considered you. But I don't want to be with you as the second best option just because the first was impossible."

Her words were both shocking and touching, she had never expected to hear them from her. At the same time, she knew that he would never get to hear her say such words with her in her natural state. Otherwise, he wouldn't need to hypnotise her before she spoke them out.

He didn't want to mentally exhaust her since she was still injured, so he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gently kissed her forehead. "Go to sleep."

Her eyes gradually closed as she lowered herself into his arms, and he eased her into a comfortable position.

___

Thanks to Wen Lin's constant urging, Ruby had to spend a lot of time with Lin Jian. He accompanied her to pay a visit to Neil and when they returned, he took her out for dinner.

Lin Jian kept stabbing his fork into his steak without eating as his mind was disoriented. It was only the previous night that he complained to his friends about being ignored by Ruby even when they were together, and he learnt from Xingyu that there was a new rumor circulating about him.

He looked at Ruby across the table and spoke up, "Ruby, the article is fabricated. I don't have anything to do with that model."

"You don't think I will blindly trust you, do you?" She paused to look at him, wondering which part of her made her look like a fool in his eyes.

"I really don't." He insisted. "Perhaps her management company wanted to create a headline to boost her fame. It had happened before."

She had heard of such things happening before but that didn't mean she believed him. "Why would her company randomly pick a man to use for hype? Why does it have to be you?"

It was a rhetoric question, and she gave the answer herself. "It's because you have had so many girlfriends that you probably wouldn't realize that it's a lie if some random woman claimed herself as your ex girlfriend."

He knew this, and he was not proud of his past. All his predicaments were related to the jerk he had been. He took her hand from above the table. "Ruby, can we forget about the past, please? I only love you and in future, I will only ever love you."

She gave him a skeptical look and he looked into her eyes deeply.

"You won't know whether or not I'm telling the truth if you don't give me a chance."

That was true, and she knew that dwelling on his past would do nothing but keep wrecking whatever tiny trust might form in between them. "Okay. If any woman pops up and claims to be your girlfriend, don't appear before me anymore."

He was still basking in joy when he heard her "okay" when it instantly dimmed from the rest of his statement. "That's too general. What if the woman is lying?"

"Think about it, Lin Jian. If you had a girlfriend and men kept popping up every other day to claim her as their girlfriend or the ex that they still love, wouldn't you be bothered?" She frowned at him. Whether it was teh truth or a lie, she wouldn't be okay with it.

" You are right." Her words made sense and he sunk into thought. "I will make sure no one ever bothers you." He promised and she nodded.

Until they left the restaurant, he was still in disbelief. Did Ruby really give him a chance?

He had to call his friends and brag about it all night!

___

As agreed, Xia Hanchen picked Lanni up to take her to the location of the meeting she had lied about having with the president of a secret agency.

As she walked to his parked car, she wondered whether she should move houses. It was not safe for the man to know where she lived, it made things easier for him if he wanted to harm her. On second thought, however, she shrugged the thought off her mind. Why did it matter? He was soon going to be dead and he would no longer have the ability to do anything to her even if he wanted to.

She entered the car and the man was still on a conference call. She studied his face for any trace of malice in case he changed his plans. They were going according to his plans. Xiehan had investigated and found that he was not planning any mischief today, since he would kidnap Luna two days later.

He waved at her as a form of greeting and sh offered a smile, then he returned to the conference call he was holding.

She took out her phone to play with, making sure not to disclose anything from her body language. She was glad that he was busy since it saved her from the need to pretend to be a loving daughter.

By the time he shut his laptop, they had almost arrived at the address she gave the chauffeur.

"Are you nervous?" He observed that she had not spoken a single word since she entered the car.

She nodded and took a deep breath. "Do you think I will qualify?"

"Why not? My cupcake is the smartest." He praised, and she was repulsed. You will not pretend for much longer, she thought.

Flynn had arranged to meet in a building that would have them go through an office building so it did not arouse the man's suspicion. Sure enough, Lanni led him smoothly into the building, through the sky bridge that connected it to a different building and into a room in the second building.

As soon as they entered what looked like a conference room, the door shut heavily and a chair by the window swung, then Flynn stepped down from it.

"Oh father, I thought you were smarter than this."