Wooing my Bodyguard Wife

Jingwei winced as he listened to Xue Ning's mom complain about his behaviour from every rumour that she read online.

'Please God, I know I've not been the most pious of men, but I will be if you make sure Xue Ning's mother never meets my father. '

He had a feeling they'd either kill each other or be the greatest of friends, bonding over how distasteful they found Sun Jingwei's playboy lifestyle to be, sipping tea as they dissected all his flaws as a human being and stepped all over the shreds of his self-esteem.

His heart sank further the more he thought about it. How could he hope to win her mother over? If Xue Ning's mother was anything like Xue Ning, she'd hate his money too. Bribery was out of the question.

"MOM!" Jingwei jolted in surprise. It was Xue Ning, hotly yelling into the phone, her knuckles gripping her phone tight enough they've turned white.

"You haven't even met Sun Jingwei before, how can you say such things about him? Didn't you always say that gossiping is a terrible hobby? Then why are you doing this now? You know I don't care about what rumours say!"

Oh. Xue Ning was defending him. Again. She was arguing with her mom for his sake. He ducked his head, suddenly self-conscious of his own flaws. And she was telling the truth - she didn't care about rumours! When she first saw him in that darkened alley, she didn't even know who he was, but offered him her water because she thought that he needed it.

Because she was a decent person, who treated him like a normal person.

And then, she had saved him from the drugging attempt. She thwarted Xiumin's revenge plot, and defended him in front of a deranged Xiumin and his father.

Now she was defending him to her mother too.

There were tiny tears beginning to form near the corner of his eyes, and he hurriedly wiped them away before Xue Ning could see.

He was a man, and his father taught him not to cry.

More importantly, Xue Ning might think he was a loser! More of a loser than she already thought, anyway. He didn't want to ruin his chances so badly.

Xue Ning meanwhile, wasn't paying attention to Jingwei's actions at all. She was still hotly arguing with her mom.

"Don't talk back to me!" Her mother yelled warningly. "I'm warning you about him for your own good!"

"Mom, do you think I can't read men?! Do you think I'm an idiot?" Xue Ning yelled back, furious. "He's an idiot, but he's not a bad person!"

Jingwei paused, the tears that were threatening to form immediately dissipating. Well, she wasn't wrong. And Xue Ning thought he was a good person! He decided to focus on that instead of the comment on his intelligence.

"He's my friend! Don't insult him!" Xue Ning growled back, clearly not finished.

He didn't know whether he should laugh or cry. The good news: she thought of him as a friend. The bad news: she thought of him as a friend, not a potential lover.

Xue Ning's mother clearly didn't think much of her daughter's declaration, if the unladylike snort she gave at the other end of the line was any indication. If a snort could sound dismissive and disbelieving at the same time, it would be hers.

"My daughter, you've not met enough people yet! Men like him are dangerous!" Her mother insisted.

Xue Ning let out an impatient huff, glancing at Sun Jingwei from the corner of her eyes. If anything, Sun Jingwei was a danger to himself, not to her!

"Mom, trust me, if you meet him, you won't think he's dangerous." She explained. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing! He's like a puppy!"

Now he wasn't even human in her eyes? Sun Jingwei despaired, but just a little. If he was a puppy, perhaps he could be accepted as her house pet.

He held that thought for a moment, before realising that it made him sound even more pathetic.

Oblivious to Sun Jingwei's despondent thoughts, Xue Ning's focus was on deciphering the background noises from her mother's end of the call.

Her mother made a series of noises that sounded like aborted swearing and in the background, there was the sound of someone snatching the phone away.

"Ah-Yue, help me with this, I'll talk to Xue Ning -"  Her father clearly interrupted the call, trying to defuse the tense situation. She could just imagine him trying to calm her mother down by distracting her with some nonsense or another.

"Hi dad," Xue Ning said, calming down slightly. "How are things?"

"Oh we are fine, just upset over your new relationship." Her dad said smoothly. Jingwei and Xue Ning winced in unison for different reasons.

"Dad, I'm telling you, it's a misunderstanding! Why don't you and Mom believe it? Do I look like an idiot to you?" She complained, whining just a bit. She knew she was her father's soft spot, and he had the tendency to give into her whims if she just whined enough or threatened him with temper tantrums.

That was how she even got to learn martial arts as a kid. According to her mother, her father was a man weak to tears!

Suddenly, she wondered if Sun Jingwei was a man that would be easily cowed by crying women.

Due to his playboy experience, he could be supremely confident in dealing with hysterical women. But most women would also be happy with him, so when would he have the chance to comfort crying women?

He seemed more like someone that would panic if someone bawled their eyes out in front of him.

Well, it's not as though she'll find out. She's not planning on ever crying in front of him.

"My dear daughter, it's not as though your father doesn't trust you." Her father patiently explained, without raising his voice.

"It's the man that your father doesn't trust!!"