Wooing my Bodyguard Wife

"Hey do I need to change clothes to eat breakfast with your father?" She asks Jingwei, after she finishes washing her face. She is still technically wearing his extra large T-shirt and boxer shorts.

Jingwei raises an eyebrow and thinks for a moment.

"Nah," he spits in the sink, rinsing his mouth. "As long as you're wearing clothes, it's fine. I only got scolded the one time I went half-naked, and that's because Lady Yu said it was a health and safety hazard for the maids."

Xue Ning laughs disbelievingly at this response. "What - are you telling me they were so distracted by your abs that it was dangerous?"

"Hey, you said it, not me," Jingwei winks and waggles his eyebrows playfully. He looks ridiculous, and Xue Ning couldn't help but laugh at his face. "Besides, how do you know I have abs? Were you sneaking a peak?"

"Like I want to!" She exclaims, turning around to leave the bathroom, but not quickly enough for Jingwei to see the shell of her ears turning red. He cackles, the sound reverberating through the bathroom.

"Stop laughing and wash your face!" Xue Ning says as she storms out of the bathroom. "Good morning Lady Yu, please wait a while, this idiot - I mean this man hasn't washed his face yet."

"That's no issue," Lady Yu replies, still smiling. She seemed to be in a very good mood.

Jingwei was suspiciously quiet. She looked at the mirror only to see him quickly look away from her butt.

"Pervert," she shook her head. "Hopeless!"

She, of course, chose to ignore the fact that she was also eyeing his butt when it was his turn to wash his face. This was just payback. Not lust.

After she and Jingwei washed their faces and looked somewhat presentable, Lady Yu led them to the dining hall where they were meant to have breakfast.

"Good morning," Xue Ning said cautiously, wondering which chair she was supposed to sit on. The dining hall had a ridiculously long table that could at least sit 20, and Sun Haowei sat at the very head of the table.

"Morning father!" Jingwei, being an actual family member, had no hesitation about his seating. He plonked himself two seats away from his dad and gestured for Xue Ning to sit next to him, so she was three seats away from the Sun family patriarch.

That extra seat distance made it slightly easier to ignore the strange look he gave her when she entered the dining hall. Even if he didn't like her, she isn't going to not eat breakfast just to avoid seeing him.

Instead, she focused on the mouth-watering spread of food available on the table. This looked like breakfast that belonged in a 5-star hotel buffet!

(Not that she had been to many. She had only gone to one such buffet back in her hometown before the whole outing turned sour - and nope, she wasn't going to think about that now.)

Other than a variety of steamed buns, there were also different types of dim sum available for her to choose from.

Normally that would be enough for her, but there were also fried dough sticks, congee and French toast! There were servants busying themselves with refilling glasses and reheating food, hovering around the hall waiting on standby.

"Xue Ning, try this one, this is good," Jingwei said through a mouthful of bun, easily picking up a little bit of everything to leave on her plate.

"Thanks," she said, feeling at least 10 pairs of eyes staring at her due to his actions. Awkward. She stuffed a dim sum into her mouth so she'd hopefully not need to speak.

It was ridiculous. There were only three people eating in the dining room so far! Why would there be so many servants milling around? Sun Jingwei and his father still had their limbs attached, surely they could pour their own drinks and pick up their own dim sum.

"Excuse me Miss? Would you like coffee or tea? We also have a selection of fruit juice." A maid offers politely, her hand holding onto a flask of warm water.

Xue Ning nearly choked in surprise and Jingwei had to thump her back.

"No thanks," she croaked out in reply. "I'll pour my own water. Really, there's no need."

"Oh no, we insist," the maid replied. "You're an honoured guest."

Meanwhile Jingwei had already ordered his drink, a coffee and milk with 2 spoons of sugar.

"Just do as she says," Jingwei told the maid. "Xue Ning likes to do things for herself."

Before Xue Ning could respond, Sun Haowei cut in with a biting comment.

"Unlike you? This useless man who hasn't lifted a finger all these years and is only a waste of my resources?"

Both of them turned to look at him, Jingwei with a faint hurt, the same way one would feel when someone pressed on an old bruise that hadn't healed completely.

Meanwhile, Xue Ning was bewildered, and not too pleased at his words. Jingwei hadn't even done anything to get scolded yet!

"Father!"

"For your own sake, you should leave my son," Sun Haowei continued, in a casual tone as though he was commenting on the weather.

"What?!" Xue Ning exclaimed. "Excuse me?"

"You will of course be appropriately compensated for your time -"

"With all due respect sir, we aren't dating," Jingwei's face fell further, but Xue Ning wasn't done. She was so pissed, she grabbed his hand in full view of everyone, because the alternative would be grabbing the cutlery knife like a weapon.

"Even if we were dating, whether I leave him or not would not be your concern!" Xue Ning declared hotly, furious. She just wanted to eat breakfast, but Sun Haowei had to be a bastard so early in the morning.

If her parents found out about this, they'd rip him a new asshole - nevermind that he was one of the richest men alive. Her parents hated this sort of domineering, condescending behaviour.

She stuffed another bun into her mouth in anger, chewing furiously in Sun Haowei's direction, her hand still holding Jingwei's own.

Meanwhile, Jingwei did a very good job of pretending he wasn't affected by Xue Ning defending him. Sure, she had denied their relationship (which was depressing, seeing that he thought they were making huge progress, but Rome wasn't built in a day), but she also did say that if they were dating, it'll be none of his father's business whether they broke up or not!

No one he'd been with had ever said that. Whether as friends or otherwise. Sun Haowei was always an influence they couldn't ignore, because they knew deep down, Sun Jingwei's own fortunes were inexplicably tied to his father. Even Shengli and Yi Ting worked for him because of his father's will.

He flipped his hand over to lace her fingers with his, squeezing gently, hoping that Xue Ning would understand what he's trying to say. He takes a shaky sip of coffee, unsure his throat can form words yet.

If this was any other time, Xue Ning would have smacked his hand and pulled away. Now, she squeezed back, because Sun Jingwei clearly needed some support in front of his father, who couldn't even wait until he had eaten breakfast to insult him.

Also, the petty part of her wanted to piss Sun Haowei off. So she squeezed back, her other hand helping herself to more dimsum. The anger was making her ravenous.

Sun Haowei gnashed his teeth. He was hoping to make them panic, then throw them a lifeline by making them live together after threatening to keep them apart.

But this audacious girl just threw the offer back in his face! That's it, he wasn't going to let them live together any longer, he wants this girl far, far, away from his youngest son!

"Good morning," Tianwei said as he entered the dining room, and got three different grunts in reply. The atmosphere was tense, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. Miss Li and his younger brother were holding hands right in front of his father! And she was even dressed in her brother's clothes.

Even someone as old as his father would know what it meant!

As he ate, he observed the couple sitting across from him. Xue Ning was angrily ripping into a fried dough stick, while his brother stared at her with a lovestruck expression on his face over his coffee cup.

Urgh. Lovers. Tianwei ignored them in favour of scrolling through the news on his phone, sipping on his own black coffee. Before he could read the news report on the resurgence of cybercrimes, his phone rang.

Everyone was startled, and Sun Haowei shot him an irritated look. "Using your phone at the table again?"

Tianwei gave him an apologetic look, but didn't hang up, because the call was from Officer Tang. Clearly, it was urgent if he called him before breakfast.

"Morning, Officer Tang," Tianwei greeted him politely. "Are there new developments in the case?"

"You can say that," was Officer Tang's hesitant reply. His voice sounded weary, as though he hardly slept the night before.

"Our prime suspect was found dead in her holding cell this morning."