"First, I''m not doing this for you. I am doing it in exchange for your cooperation." She didn''t intend to hide this fact.

    "Why do you need my cooperation?" He probed, wondering why the discussion had taken a sudden unexpected turn.

    "I know that you are investigating your sister." She said blankly, taking him by surprise.

    "And I know that you are investigating my sister too."

    Ji Xiehan was even more shocked. Ji Xiehan soon recovered from his shock and thought that her sister might have told her about it. But... really, no way. With that girl''s personality, it was unlikely for her to tell Li Lanni about it. How did she know, then?

    "My first condition is that you will stop investigating my sister. Her life is none of your business." Li Lanni spat out. Even she didn''t know when she started sounding like a mother when protecting her little chick.

    "What''s your second condition?" He asked, ignoring the fact that he was shocked.

    "Help me investigate Ji Feifei."

    "Okay."

    Li Lanni raised an eyebrow. Were brothers usually this ready to sell their sisters out? His reaction should have been to give her a piece of his mind and storm off, right?

    But if she had a sister like Ji Feifei, she would sell her out in a flash as well.

    "My third condition..."

    "There are more?" Ji Xiehan was starting to get tensed up. The next one might crush his fantasy.

    "Yes. And you better listen because this is very important." She emphasized, looking right into his blue eyes.

    "I have drawn up our love story. You are to follow the script strictly. Don''t you ever say something else to the media, okay? I will let you arrange when to appear together in different places for the show.

    Everything we do is just a show. Do not interfere with my life; do not appear before me if it''s not arranged for the media, and most importantly, do not fall in love with me."

    "Those are at least five conditions. You said there were two." Ji Xiehan complained when he saw her demand those conditions cold-heartedly.

    "That shouldn''t be your main point." She tossed the script at him.

    Ji Xiehan was stunned when he read it. He read it out aloud. "We first met at the movies a few months ago and fell in love at first sight, one thing led to another and then we got engaged...

    Then later, you will realize that you prioritize your career over your love life, but and that is not alright with me so you will break up with me? What the heck?" Just looking at that annoying script made him cringe.

    "You should be lucky that I didn''t make it so you would cheat on me. I should have made it, so your family confronted me with a hefty sum of money and asked me to stay away from you." She mocked.

    "Such a tragic love story, huh? Why don''t you become a scriptwriter for a melodramatic soap opera? I am sure it would gain ten views." He chided, crumbling the so-called script into a ball.

    "Less sarcasm." She took a look at the crumbled script and glared at him. "Of course, if you don''t like these terms, we can part ways. It''s not my reputation that''s on the line anyway."

    Ji Xiehan gritted his teeth. Just when he had started thinking that he had gained the upper hand, this girl made one amazing feat and knocked him down into a puddle. How did she manage to do it?

    Could she have realized that he needed this engagement more than she did?

    Li Lanni was currently playing with another copy of the script, a smug look on her face.

    Her eyes seemed to be saying, ''I know you orchestrated the whole scandal because you need this engagement desperately. I am taking advantage of that. What can you do about it?''

    He couldn''t blame her. Who was it that taught her how to be a business-minded profiteer?

    He scratched his chin and agreed. He didn''t have much choice.

    Hence, their fake engagement began.

    Ji Xiehan defeatedly pulled the script in her hand. But the gloom on his face turned into joy when he thought about how he could meet up with Li Lanni frequently. Li Lanni, who was carefully watching his expressions, was caught off guard by his sudden change of mood.

    Was he a kid? His mood changed faster than the speed of light!

    They both left the restaurant after discussing the conditions. Even though he was unhappy about the conditions, Ji Xiehan grinned happily. She had unknowingly left a lee way for him. He would utilize it fully.

    Having spotted a paparazzo slip behind the hedge around the restaurant, she slid her arm around his and snuggled intimately into his arms as they left the restaurant and muttered under her breath, "Biggups to all actresses. How do they manage to act intimate with men they are not even close to?"

    The difference was that with her, she wasn''t repulsed by Ji Xiehan. There was even a tiny hint of attraction at a corner of her heart that could no longer be denied. Well, for that, she had to thank Ji Xiehan. It was al because of his habit of clinging to her persistently in the past. But for actresses, it was purely professional, and they even had to act so love-stricken as if they were indeed in love. From this moment, she would genuinely respect them.

    Ji Xiehan was too occupied with his own thoughts to realize that she had thought about the same thing he had the previous day.

    Once they reached his car, Ji Xiehan couldn''t keep his mouth shut anymore. "Lanni, who exactly are you?"

    "What do you mean?" Li Lanni looked up after fastening her seat belt and inquired.

    "Every time I meet you, I find out something new about you, and it always makes me feel you are not just a simple student. You are an artist, but it feels like you are far from that."

    Li Lanni almost chuckled at his way of putting it. "What are you getting at?"

    Ji Xiehan didn''t care to hide his awe. "Your observation is way off the charts. The speed at which you discover many things is frightening as well.. Aside from Ji Feifei -- but I know that it is because Ji Feifei might be under someone''s protection -- every other thing you have found out so casually has been shocking."