Contract Marriage: Emperor CEO's Secretary Wife

"Xiu Mei, you'll be fine. Trust me."

Then she was pulled into a hug by Lu Chen. She let herself be buried in his arms as he tried comforting her. He gently patted her back while whispering encouraging words in her ears which made her put down her worry.

"Hmm. Thank you, Lu Chen." She muttered as she relaxed in his embrace.

"Wife."

"Mm?"

"Can I request something?"

She shifted in his embrace, slightly raising her head meeting his gaze that was a few inches away from her. She gestured for him to continue speaking.

"Um," Lu Chen cleared his throat. He looked a bit nervous as if he was going to say something that she wouldn't like at all.

"Can you call me husband?"

The instant those words escaped his mouth, the sound of coughing resounded in that enclosed space. Xiu Mei almost pushed Lu Chen, as she covered her mouth trying to stop herself from coughing after choking in her saliva. Damn it, to choke on your own saliva...that was really embarrassing.

Lu Chen automatically patted her back as if trying to ease her of her pain. She turned her back at him and continued coughing while almost hitting the are between her lungs. Seeing that she wouldn't stop coughing at all, Lu Chen finally stood up and walked over the counter where the water bottles are.

Unscrewing the cap, he poured water in a glass and immediately brought it to Xiu Mei to drink.

She desperately reached out for the glass and chugged down the water. She breathed a sigh of relief after being finally relieved from that misery.

Ah! Thank God, she thought she was going to die from choking.

"Are you okay?" Lu Chen probed.

She nodded as a response while wiping her lips with her hand trying to clean off the water that spilled while she was drinking so desperately a while ago.

"Sorry, was that too sudden?" Lu Chen rested one of his hands on her shoulder. His forehead creased as his face was filled with guilt.

Maybe his request was too much after all?

After he said that, Xiu Mei was reminded again why she choked on her saliva. Her hand unconsciously stroked her chest and neck as she tried to calm herself.

When she first heard his request to call him husband, she couldn't believe her ears at all.

Never in her entire life, did she expect that kind of words to escape from his mouth. She was already quite used with him being out of character sometimes but to think it would reach this level….uh...should she prepare herself from this kind of sudden attacks in the future?

In the first place, how did the topic even shift to that?

"Wife?"

Cutting off her train her thoughts, she finally faced him seeing the guilt in his face.

Xiu Mei:...maybe she reacted too much?

Fl.u.s.tered, she cleared her throat trying to regain her composure.

"So you want me to call you husband?"

"Yes, but not exactly like that if you're uncomfortable with it." He cupped her hand in his as he continued, "Just probably something that's a bit more intimate. I saw on the internet that couples usually have something like nicknames that they call each other with so…"

"...oh."

Lu Chen felt a bit shy when he confessed that he had been reading articles like that on the internet.

On the other hand, Xiu Mei was amazed to hear that Lu Chen would search that kind of stuff on the internet. She imagined that just like in the dramas she watched before, the CEOs would always ask love advice to his friends or force his secretary to figure out this and that. So she assumed that Lu Shao must've been having a rough time these days since Lu Chen clearly looked like a person with no knowledge about romance.

But it seems that she got it wrong?

Wait, that's not even the point. Nicknames huh?

Xiu Mei remembered her parents. She would always hear them call each other cringey stuff that she and her siblings would always be the one to get embarrassed in their place. Heck, back when they were younger, her parents were the kind of people to cling into each other. Thank goodness they've gotten it more under control before she entered the university.

Then she thought of the nicknames her brothers would call her and even Brother Lee. It's a really intimate nickname since it's not like everyone would call her 'Princess' right?

For Lu Qiang, she would sometimes call him little Qiang, darling, or her baby. It sounded right to call him like that so she was doing it so naturally.

Hmm, thinking about it, even if after her relationship with Lu Chen changed, at first she called him 'Mr.Lu' then it changed to 'Lu Chen'. If we compare it to how she calls other people, it's really nothing special. She wondered if she should really her in a more intimate name ah?

But… is their relationship already at the stage of calling each other intimately?

She bit her lip as she thought it over, glancing at Lu Chen.

Lu Chen tried making himself look as if he didn't care about her answer at all but the unsteadiness in his eyes was immediately noticed by her.

...well, it's not like it's a hard request.

She sighed, finally giving in to his rare wish. "Fine,"

She looked at him in his eyes and mumbled, "Chen."

Immediately after calling him that, she felt her cheeks burning and immediately looked away.

Why is she getting weird, ah? It feels like something's tingling in her heart.

While Xiu Mei was still feeling fl.u.s.tered, Lu Chen who was on the receiving end was in a cloud nine. He couldn't suppress his lips from curling from delight.

So it was this kind of feeling ah… somehow, just her calling him that, it was enough to make him happy for a while. Though the kind of happiness from the thumb kiss back then was still a lot better though. Also her confession-like declaration.

"I-I'll return to my room for now." She was getting too embarrassed to keep looking at Lu Chen so she decided to run away. Anyway, she'll slowly get herself used to it for now so she won't be this fl.u.s.tered in the future.

Lu Chen who wasn't able to speak anything at all watched his wife escape from him by running back to her room. The smile on his face didn't disappear and he chuckled as soon as he heard the door closing.

So cute ah, his wife is too cute.

And just like that, the family of three went to their own separate rooms for the time being.

Later that night, just like what Lu Chen said, Lu Qiang did come out of his room hours after locking himself in there.

She was just about to knock in Lu Chen's door to ask him what they're going to have for dinner but she stopped when she heard Lu Qiang's door opening. She smiled tenderly as she approached him.

"Hi little Qiang, feeling hungry now?" She patted his head while asking him.

Lu Qiang nodded in response.

"So what food do you want for dinner?"

"To The Paradise."

"The Paradise?"

...Isn't the name of a bar?

Before she could ask even further, Lu Chen finally came out of his room. She turned her head to look at him immediately noticing that he changed out of his clothes from this afternoon. It would have been normal for him to change his clothes but…. Why is he wearing a mask and a cap?

Is he going somewhere shady or something?

"Are you going somewhere?"

Lu Chen was fixing the cap he was wearing. "Dinner."

Xiu Mei was baffled by his answer. He's going dinner… like that?

"If we're going out for dinner, why are you dressed like that?"

"Ah, because Dad is afraid of the old woman running the place." Lu Qiang answered on behalf of Lu Chen.

Xiu Mei still couldn't understand what the two men are trying to say.

"Dad almost got harassed by the old woman three years ago by trying to sell of her daughter to him. Then that happens every time we visit the place annually."

"..."

"..."

Oh so that's what it was.

She pitifully looked at Lu Chen who had to cover himself up so much. It's really hard to be so popular ah.

"So are you ready to go out?" She asked Lu Qiang, who already changed his clothes as well to something a bit more casual.

Lu Qiang nodded.

"Then let me just get my purse then we can go." She returned to her room and grabbed her purse from the room. She also changed her clothes to something more casual seeing that the two men with her were dressed like that.

"Let's go."

The three finally left the hotel and half an hour later, Lu Chen and Lu Qiang guided Xiu Mei to what seemed like a downtown. No matter where she look at, all she could see was the busy streets full of people.