Wooing my Bodyguard Wife

Chapter 32 Multiple Realisations

"Who is your wife?" Xue Ning retorts. "Was the food laced with drugs? Are you in a food coma to be speaking such nonsense?"

Jingwei splutters. "That's not important! She just said that she burned you with hot soup on purpose!"

He pulls Xue Ning behind him as though shielding her from further harm, and turns to glare at Xiao Hui, who stumbles back at the venom in his gaze.

Xue Ning moves closer and stares at the muscle twitching in his jaw, the furious light in his eyes, so unlike the Sun Jingwei she had seen so far. His arm is stretched in front of her, just barely brushing against her waist, protective, while his other hand clenches into a fist.

Sun Jingwei is protecting her. It feels… nice. Her fingers lightly traces the muscles of his arm, before she clutches at his hand, willing him to calm down, the difference in their hand sizes sending a frisson of something down her spine.

Sun Jingwei turns to look at her, wonderingly.

Xue Ning doesn't know what she should actually do. She had never inspired this level of protective rage from anyone that wasn't an immediate family member. Often, she is the angrier one that is intent on pursuing justice, and she could fight her own battles.

But now, she's on the other end of the equation for once. The protected instead of the protector.

A gentle warmth spreads throughout her body at his actions, unlike the blistering heat of spilled soup.

Sun Jingwei, I will guard you with my life.

"Let's hear her out, some things don't make sense," Xue Ning says. She has a feeling if she lets go of Sun Jingwei's hand, he's going to end up doing something he'll regret.

"But -" Jingwei protests.

"Trust me on this," Xue Ning says, squeezing his hand. "I have a weird feeling about this."

Jingwei stares into her eyes for a moment, before finally relenting.

"Fine," he says, but he still doesn't move his body away. His hand is still firmly holding hers.

"Why did you do it?" Xue Ning asks, turning to face Xiao Hui who was now trembling like a leaf.

"Even if you hated me that much, which is strange because I have never seen you before, you wouldn't risk this job to dump hot soup all over me. This is a job at a prestigious restaurant, it'll pay more than any other roadside stall. There's no way anyone would risk a stable income to pour soup on a stranger!" Xue Ning analyses.

"Not just a stranger, a paying customer. A guest of your VIP customer," Jingwei helpfully adds, smiling with cold eyes. "Even if you do wish to attract my attention, this is the exact way to not do it. Now that you have, I suppose I could grant you a date… in court."

? "Please don't sue!" Xiao Hui begs frantically. "I was paid to do it! One of the other customers, a woman wearing a red dress, promised me 650,000 yuan if I poured hot soup on you!"

"And you believed her? Are you stupid?" Jingwei asks incredulously. "So if she asked you to stab someone with the crab leg you would do it too?"

Xue Ning snorts; Jingwei sounds so much like her mother at that moment.

"She paid me half of it in cash, look - I can prove it to you!" Xiao Hui pleads, reaching into her pockets. Both Jingwei and Xue Ning shift in case she has a weapon, but instead Xiao Hui reveals a thick stack of cash.

"I didn't dare put this money anywhere… she told me that she would wire me the rest of the money after I did this… please… I know I did something wrong, but I didn't think…"

"So you were effectively bribed to pour hot soup on a valued customer and cause her burn injuries" Jingwei summarises flatly, flint in his eyes. "Is this supposed to make me feel sorry for you? Because I sure as hell don't."

"Wait - now that's even weirder. Why would someone spend so much money on pouring hot soup on me?" Xue Ning wonders, confused. "This money is worth more than my life!"

"Nonsense! Nothing is worth your life," Jingwei retorts firmly, turning to glare at her.

"That's kind of you to say, but utterly false," Xue Ning pats his arm to console him. Sun Jingwei is getting too serious and angry, it almost makes him seem like a whole different person, and it is doing strange things to her heart.

"But back to the point, perhaps if someone offered this much money to kill me, it'll make some sense. Or to splash hot soup on you, because you're infamous. It doesn't make sense to offer this much money to give me minor burns," She elaborates.

"You'd be surprised at what hate makes people do," Jingwei states seriously, "and people with money to burn can do anything."

"Like you said, they'd have to hate me. And I don't think I've done anything to anyone that would make them…" she trails off, suddenly remembering someone she had recently offended.

"Xue Ning?" Jingwei asks, worried. "What are you thinking of now?"

Xue Ning turns to look at Xiao Hui, who was mercifully ignored until now. She still looks horribly guilty.

"Okay, you claim that someone bribed you, do you have a name? Can you describe her face? Any identifying features?" She grills, a suspicion in her mind.

"I didn't get any name, but she was roughly this tall… and she was wearing 3-inch heels." Xiao Hui held her hand above her head. "She wore really thick makeup with red lips and a red dress… even her fingernails were painted red."

Red fingernails? When had she seen that before… she frowns, trying to recall.

"That tells us nothing. Everyone here is dressed up to the nines," Jingwei says, displeased. "Do you remember which room she was from? Could you check the records for a name?"

"Yes! Yes I can do that!" Her head bobs so furiously in agreement that Xue Ning worries for her neck muscles.

There was a moment of silence as they stood and watched each other.

"Then go do it?" Jingwei prompts impatiently, raising an eyebrow. Huh, she didn't even know he could do that. Where did he learn it from?

Xiao Hui lets out a distressed meep and all but flees from the bathroom. They hear the sound of her heels clacking on the floor becoming softer the further away she was from the toilet.

And now they are alone. Xue Ning is suddenly becoming hyper-aware of the fact that they are standing a lot closer together than before due to his earlier protective gesture. She could still feel his body heat, a welcome relief from the cold of the bathroom.

From such a close distance she could almost count the eyelashes framing his eyes. His eyes, which are still locked on her face.

She hurriedly looks away from him, moving apart to ensure some space between their bodies, pretending she doesn't see the faint disappointment in his eyes.

"I think you scared her off," Xue Ning says quickly.

"Please, I'm not that scary," Jingwei scoffs, before leaning closer to gaze down at her, with a playful smirk. "Were you scared?"

"Like hell," she shakes her head and smacks his arm, catching his eye. "But I have to admit that you were kinda… cool. Less of a loser than usual."

He beams at her. His smile suits him a lot more than that harsh anger from before. "Ah, Xue Ning, you say the sweetest things."

"Don't get too used to it," she warns, but she's smiling too, buoyed by the cheerful atmosphere now that they're a step closer to catching the culprit.

"What do you say we get out of here?" Jingwei asks, suddenly expectant.

"We should wait for Xiao Hui to come back with the information first," Xue Ning replies, rejecting his suggestion. "In fact, you should go back into the cubicle and wait - what if some other woman sees you?"

=

True to her words, there was another woman who was indeed hell-bent on seeing him. The woman in red had stormed into the private dining room that Sun Jingwei had booked, only to find it disappointingly empty. She had waited for at least 15 minutes, standing around in her stilettos, but only the waitstaff showed up to clean up the mess left behind.

This wasn't going to plan at all! She began to tug at her hair, before realising that she still had to look presentable.

She breathes deeply to calm down. Sun Jingwei… where did this shameless man flee to? Outside? His precious woman didn't leave the premises, so he can't have gone far. Sun Jingwei wasn't ungentlemanly enough to ditch a date in distress.

(No, he only kicked them out after one night in bed.)

She taps her fingers on her chin, contemplating. A slow smirk spreads across her face as she remembers someone.

Perhaps that opportunistic server would know something useful. Xiumin was always a persuasive individual who had a myriad of ways to coax people to talk.

Now…where could she be?