Love’s Cunning Ruse

Chapter 218

“Don’t you know this game? It’s super easy!” Daphne stood up and explained to Annalise, “We all form

a circle. You say ‘I love you’ to the person on your left and ‘shameless’ to the person on your right. You

cannot say more than three sentences consecutively between two people. If someone messes up, they

have to drink!”

“I’m still confused…” Annalise pointed at Daphne, “Can you show me how it’s done?”

Daphne gave Annalise a helpless look, and turned to the person on her left, “I love you!”

However, she had forgotten that Lionel was the one sitting on her left.

The room was dimly lit, and Lionel’s eyes were sparkling under the light. He smiled at Daphne, who

was standing on his right, “I love you too.”

The expressions in the room instantly became complicated.

Daphne’s face turned red. She angrily told Lionel, “Wrong! You should have said ‘shameless’!”

Lionel seemed to enjoy seeing Daphne angry. He nodded obediently, “You’re shameless.”

“Not ‘you’re shameless’, just ‘shameless’! Just say it like that!” Daphne wondered if Lionel was

genuinely clueless or if he was messing with her. She preferred to believe that Lionel was just being

silly.

Finally, Lionel cooperated and said to Daphne, “Shameless.”

Daphne turned to Julie sitting next to her, “Shameless.”

Julie nodded, “Sure, I was indeed shameless back in school.”

“Julie, can’t you just play along?” Daphne glared at Julie.

Julie looked at Daphne with a smile, “I love you.”

Daphne didn’t have the courage to turn to Lionel and say ‘I love you’ again, so she turned to Julie again

and said, “Shameless.”

Then she explained to Annalise, “Because Julie and I have already exchanged three sentences, Julie

now has to turn to Kieran and say ‘I love you’. Do you get it

now?”

“Oh!” Annalise suddenly understood. She slapped the table like Adeline usually does, “I got it! Let’s get

this party started!”

“Are we

going with the current seating arrangement?” Dylan asked.

“This seating is perfect. My wife loves me, Kieran immediately replied.

“Disgusting!” Dylan looked at Kieran coldly.

The current seating arrangement indeed seemed interesting. Dylan suggested, “How about we do a

trial run? Starting from Mr. Watson, okay?”

Marlon turned to Lionel on his right, ‘Shameless.”

Lionel raised an eyebrow at Marlon, ‘I love you”

Marlon glanced at Harding on his left, but decided to turn to Lionel again, “Shameless!”

Lionel turned to Daphne with a big laugh, “Shameless.”

Daphne turned to Julie on her right, “Shameless.”

Julie turned to Kieran, “Shameless.”

Kieran, “I love you.”

Julie, “Shameless!”

Kieran, “I love you.”

Dylan exclaimed, “Are you two messing around? You guys have already exchanged more than three

sentences! Bottoms up! Kieran, you keep telling her ‘I love you’ tonight! I don’t believe you two won’t

get wasted!”

Dylan handed two drinks to Julie and Kieran, “I propose they toast each other. Any objections?”

Everyone unanimously said, “No objections.”

Kieran looked at Julie helplessly, “Darling, are you going to toast with me?”

“Or should I give you my drink, and you can toast yourself?” Julie raised her eyebrows, a naughty smile

on her face.

Kieran’s lips curled up in a smile. He leaned in and whispered, “What was that surprise you promised

me last night?”

Julie smiled slightly, clinked her glass against Kieran’s, and downed her drink in one go.

Round two.

Dylan turned to Adeline on his left, “I love you.”

Adeline, who had Elliot on her left, looked into Elliot’s eyes and said with a smile, “I love you.”

This ‘I love you’ didn’t sound like it was part of the game, but rather like a confession that had been

suppressed for years. This left Elliot stunned. He knew that even if he called Adeline ‘shameless’ now,

it would just be part of the game, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He turned to Annalise

on his left and said, “I love you.”

Annalise, without a second thought, turned to the person on her left and quickly said ‘I love you’,

because she clearly remembered that Hayden was on her left. But at some point, the person on her left

had quietly become Payne. Annalise’s cheerful mood instantly dropped.

Payne, on the other hand, was thrilled since Julien was on his left.

He grinned and loudly said to Julien, “I love you!!”

Julien didn’t want to engage with Payne, so she tumed to the person on her left and said, “…am

shameless!”

Julien originally wanted to say “I love you,” but suddenly realized that the person on her left was

Hayden.

Everyone in the room burst into laughter.

Hayden calmly handed a glass of red wine to Julien and looked down at her arrogantly. Under the dim

light, his eyes seemed to have a special penetrating power.

Julien knew very well, this man was getting back at her!

She picked up the glass, downed the wine in one go, then shot Hayden a glare.

“I don’t mind that you love me.” He whispered in her ear.

Hayden’s voice was very soft. He thought only he and Julien could hear what he said, but Payne, who

had excellent hearing, heard it loud and clear. So, he also said to Julien shyly, “Julien, I don’t mind you

calling me shameless either, but why would you call yourself shameless?”

“Next round, next round!” Dylan turned to Harding on his right, “Shameless.”

Harding turned to Marlon, “Shameless.”

Marlon said to Lionel, “Shameless.”

Lionel turned around and said to Marlon, “I love you.”

The game was picking up pace. Marlon, following the rules, turned to Harding on his left and said, “I

love you!”

Harding was taken aback. After about a second, Marlon poked his waist lightly, and Harding snapped

back to reality. He looked at Marlon and said in a daze, “I love… shameless…”

“Ha!” Daphne couldn’t help but burst out laughing, “You love shameless? What does that mean?”

Everyone else tried to stifle their laughter.

Harding glared at Daphne and said to Marlon, “I support you taking her to a hotel room. Otherwise,

she’ll never learn her lesson!”

With that, he gazed on Daphne, picked up his glass, and downed it in one go. Daphne was left

speechless, remembering how close she came to being dragged into a hotel by Mr. Watson last time.

She didn’t dare say anything this time…

I

Lionel pointed at Marlon and Harding and asked, “Are you two actually having an affair?”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I’m so handsome and witty, how could I ever like a tailor like him?”

“That’s a surgeon!” Dylan, as a forensic expert, couldn’t help but defend Dr. Ladd. How dare Mr.

Watson call a surgeon a tailor?

Marlon waved his hand and said, “I think this rule is too simple, it’s not interesting. How about we

change it to this: everyone must say one good thing about the person on their left, or one bad thing

about the person on their right. If you can’t come up with anything, you have to drink. And you can’t

repeat what’s been said.

“Interesting! But the first three people in each round can’t quit voluntarily. If you want to quit, either you

have to kiss the person on your left, or let the person on your right kiss you. That’s challenging enough,

right?” Dylan seemed to have a lot of bad ideas. He looked at Adeline and said, “Also, madam, please

change all the wine here to liquor! Wine is not enough!”

Adeline ordered the waiter to replace the wine with liquor.

Payne looked excited. He raised his hand and said, “I’ll go first!”

He wanted to compliment Julien, so he immediately turned to Julien on his left and said, “You’re

beautiful.”

“You’re ugly,” Julien retorted.

“You’re very honest,” Payne admitted, looking hurt.

Since they had already exchanged three sentences, Julien had to turn to Hayden to compliment him.

Hayden seemed to enjoy it, as if he was waiting for Julien to compliment him. The first three people in

each round can’t quit voluntarily, or she’d have to either kiss Hayden or let Payne kiss her. Clearly,

neither option appealed

to her.

Payne said excitedly, “Julien, quit! Let me kiss you!”

In the end, Julien turned to Hayden and said, “You’re handsome.”

Hayden agreed. He said to Julien, “You don’t love me. That’s a flaw that needs to be corrected.”

Although Hayden said this, she had to continue complimenting him, “You’re tall!”

Hayden couldn’t tease her anymore. He turned to Kieran and said, “You’re trustworthy.”

Kieran turned his head and looked at Julie, saying, “You’re delicious.”

If Kieran wasn’t so strong, Julie would have kicked him into outer space. In the end, she responded,

“You’re full of yourself!”

“You’re beautiful, and you’re always right.”

Julie was speechless.

Everyone thought that probably only Julie would dare to talk to Mr. Hernandez like this.

Julie turned her head to Daphne and said, “Daphne, you’re a good friend.”

Daphne responded to Julie, “You’re always a brown-noser.”

Julie laughed, “Daphne, you’ve always taken good care of me.”

Julie’s sincerity touched Daphne. Now it was her turn to compliment Lord Lion. The usually sharp-

tongued Daphne turned her head and found Lionel’s face almost a lash’s length away from her own.

So, she forgot everything she had prepared to say. The only thing left in Daphne’s brain was, “Great in

bed!”

Luckily, Daphne had enough sense not to say that out loud.

She boldly reached for the drink in front of Lionel, ready to down it. At this moment, Julien, sitting

across from her, suddenly frowned and said, “Can pregnant women drink?”