Wooing my Bodyguard Wife

Chapter 45 Third-Wheeling Expert

"Jingwei? Jingwei? Hello? Earth to Jingwei?" Xue Ning asks, waving her hand in front of Jingwei to get his attention.

Jingwei startled, as though he only just realised that Xue Ning was there next to him.

"What's the matter with you?" Xue Ning asks, looking over him suspiciously. Jingwei refused to meet her eyes, which was highly strange. He had never missed a chance to stare at her face before.

"Nothing is wrong with me!" Jingwei protests, darting a glance at her face before looking away. If he just stared at Xue Ning for a while longer, he might just tell her every single fucked up thing he did in the past, and then she would never want to see him again.

"I'm fine! Really!" Jingwei continues, trying to sound confident. Xue Ning is strongly reminded of their first meeting in that darkened alley, where Jingwei was also acting tough.

What a liar. And he hasn't even gotten better at lying either. She doesn't have a water bottle to chuck at him now, even though he looks like he really needs a drink.

"...Right, and I'm Mother Theresa," Xue Ning retorts easily. "Mr Sun Jingwei, you are such a shitty liar." She shakes her head in disappointment.

Before Jingwei can splutter and defend his lying abilities, Xue Ning gets up. The paramedic makes a displeased noise, for his work was interrupted. Xue Ning gives him an apologetic look, but then shoves Jingwei to her seat.

Sun Jingwei met eyes with the paramedic. They had identical looks of confusion on their faces, and they turned to Xue Ning for an explanation.

"Just sit down for goodness sake, you look so pale all of a sudden…" She grumbles, embarrassed at the fact that she had to explain herself. "Can you take a look at him? I'm fine now, I think he needs more help."

"Xue Ning! There's really no need!" Jingwei hastily assures her, trying to get up again, only for Xue Ning to place her hands on his shoulders and push him back down.

"Please take a look at him," she says to the paramedic, with more urgency this time around. The fact that Sun Jingwei hadn't even made a smartass quip about how irresistible he was that she wasn't able to keep her hands off him was proof that something was seriously wrong.

"But you're still injured… you should be sitting," Jingwei continues, his voice trailing off when Xue Ning continued to watch him impassively. He then gives the paramedic a hopeful look, hoping for back up.

"Miss Xue Ning, if you can let me finish bandaging your legs, I'll work on Young Master Sun." He says. Jingwei gives him a grateful look.

"Fine." Xue Ning sighs. "Move over then," she says, nonchalantly squeezing next to Jingwei, their thighs close enough to touch.

Jingwei shoots her a surprised look, but Xue Ning ignores him, even as her face reddens slightly under his pleased smile. He then slouches slightly, just so he can lean against Xue Ning's shoulder, close enough to nuzzle her neck.

Meanwhile the paramedic sighed. Couples in love were really hard to handle. He returned to bandaging Miss Li.

Sun Tianwei also sighed. He had the strangest feeling that he was watching a romantic comedy, only his younger brother was actually the lovesick female lead with Miss Li as the taciturn yet secretly caring male lead. How was this possible?

"It's fine, if you don't want to tell me - if you cannot tell me about this name," Xue Ning says quietly to Jingwei, while staring at the way their hands were close enough to touch. Would it be okay for her to hold his hand to comfort him?

She was so out of her depth. Xue Ning had spent most of her living years being the opposite of comforting. She deliberately made herself tough and sarcastic, keeping a careful distance between herself and others so that they couldn't hurt her with their words. Sometimes, she would hurt them first, just to avoid trouble down the road.

That also meant that she was downright terrible at comforting people. People looked for her when they needed a bully's face kicked in, and not when they got dumped!

What's more, if she did succeed in comforting people, she did so by making them so angry at something else she said that they promptly forgot about their sadness.

Xue Ning doesn't think this method will work on Jingwei.

"You know, you can just tell the police about it, or your brother. You can even text it? Draw something?" Xue Ning suggests, "They need to know, if you want them to catch the culprit."

Jingwei breathes out loudly and gives her a wan smile.

"Are you going to suggest smoke signals next? Morse code?" He nudges her playfully. "Carrier pigeons? It sounds ridiculous coming from you."

"If it works, it works." Xue Ning says seriously, not letting him wriggle out of this. "You can even choreograph an interpretive dance, for fucks sake. As long as they get it."

"That won't be necessary," Jingwei smiles at her, but it's melancholic and his eyes are dim. "The only way the police can find and question that person is through using a Oujia board."

"Oh my god." Xue Ning gasped. The person was dead already? That certainly derailed all of her planned rebuttals.

"I see," Tianwei chimes in from the side, his tone knowing. Xue Ning had almost forgotten he was there. "While that might be so, we will still need more information. Don't forget, his body was never found."

"Who is he?" Xue Ning can't help but ask.

"A ghost," Jingwei replies. She wants to roll her eyes at his response, but Xue Ning senses that his flippant answer was just his way of dealing with the issue.

Fine. Let him stew alone then. She'll let him keep his secrets for now. The paramedic had finished his work, so there was no need for her to sit any longer. Xue Ning begins to stand up to give more space, but Jingwei's hand immediately reaches out for her, grabbing at her wrist.

Xue Ning stills, because Jingwei's hands were clammy and cold, so unlike the warm hands that cradled her on just a while ago.

If that man was a ghost, he was certainly doing a fantastic job of haunting Sun Jingwei.

Pity she wasn't an exorcist. And seeing that this topic was such a heavy one for him, she didn't want to say anything else, in case she inadvertently made things worse.

All she could do was hold his cold, clammy hands in hers, squeezing them to give him some small comfort.

"Ah… I'm fine, really," Jingwei says, shooting her a small smile, but Xue Ning can see the faint tremble of his fingers. "See, you do care about me!"

"Is that the key point here?" She asks dryly, but it is good that he's slowly turning back to his usual flirty self.

"It is to me!" Jingwei insists. Xue Ning just nods half-heartedly, too tired to argue with him any further. How was she supposed to fight a ghost? If he was indeed a ghost. Sun Tianwei said that 'his' body was never found, and she watched enough dramas to know what that implied.

Well. That was the job of the police, not her. She wasn't going to investigate this issue. She's here as his bodyguard, not his private investigator.

"Now that Miss Li is fine, we must be on our way," Tianwei states, preparing to leave.

"What about him?" Xue Ning points to Jingwei. "I think he needs some medication for his nerves."

"Nonsense! All I need is your love," Jingwei winks at her, bad mood seemingly much improved.

Xue Ning stares flatly at him before turning back to the paramedic. "Exactly my point. See, he definitely needs serious medical attention. I suspect brain damage."

"But I'm serious -"

"So am I -"

"Quiet, both of you," Tianwei barks out, before calming himself with a deep breath. Why was he forced to babysit at the age of 30?! Was this karma for not marrying and starting a family?!

"We're going back after we send Miss Li home. Father wants to see you, and you know he can't stay up too late." He says sternly.

"Ah, alright then." Jingwei says, face falling as addresses Xue Ning. "I'll still buy you supper first though, since you didn't eat enough for dinner."

"Takeaway is fine. Come on, let's go."

The three of them exit the ambulance and make their way to Tianwei's car.

"What about your car?" Xue Ning whispers to Jingwei. "Aren't you driving it home?"

"Only if you're sitting in the car with me," Jingwei replies smugly and promptly gets smacked in the arm.

Walking slightly ahead of them, Tianwei's eyebrow twitches as he listens to his brother flirt shamelessly. He walks even faster, widening the distance between them, and easily reaches his car first, sliding into the driver's seat.

Behind him, Xue Ning and Jingwei were still taking their own sweet time, playfully bickering with each other.

"We should walk faster, your brother seems pissed." Xue Ning says.

"But the faster we reach the car, the less time I will have to spend with you!" Jingwei points out.

"We're not - argh, you are so…" Xue Ning flexes her fingers like she wants to pinch him.

"Handsome. Amazing. Incredible. Delightful." Jingwei begins listing adjectives, and Xue Ning wants to smack him again, but then she spots the headlights of a car getting rapidly closer.

"Look out!" She screams.