Wooing my Bodyguard Wife

“Yes that’ll be great  – I mean no, we already have money.” Ding Fei was planning to get as much money as he could from Sun Jingwei, since the man was already offering and he was loaded to begin with, but then his fiancee, wife, or really scary girlfriend peered from behind him.

She looked him straight in the eye, and made a slashing motion across her throat!

Ding Fei had to change his mind after that. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be looking for doctors. He’d be looking for tombstones!

“Eh? So is it a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?” Jingwei asked, confused and oblivious to Xue Ning’s actions.

“It’s a ‘no’. Thank you for your kind offer,” Ding Fei said meekly, his eyes darting to Li Xue Ning’s judgemental ones. Li Xue Ning gave him an imperious look of approval, and he heaved a sigh of relief.

“Alright then, I’ll call and make arrangements for all of us to go to Shanghai,” Jingwei said cheerfully. “I’ll need to tell Ming Guang too so he can contact the rest of the bodyguard team about our change in plans.”

“Go ahead,” Yue Niang said. “For now, the rest of you go and pack your things. Necessities only. If it helps, pretend we’re going on a family vacation!”

“Mom, that’s impossible,” Tai Xuan said flatly. He ran his hands through his hair, tugging them harshly. “How can we just drop everything and go like this? What about the restaurant? The house?!” Don’t tell me we’re giving everything up to start over?!”

“How long will we be in Shanghai? Are we coming back anytime soon?” Xin Yu asked hesitantly.

She had a bad feeling about this – the fact that they were leaving their home in the dead of the night, as though they were criminals on the run… it didn’t bode well for their chances.

“As long as it takes for things to blow over,” Yue Niang said, her gaze steely. Her tone brooked no argument. “And besides, both of you always wanted to see the city. What better chance than to do it with Jingwei’s help? Pack all your valuables and identification too.”

Husband and wife stared at each other helplessly. It seemed like there was no room for discussion! Tai Xuan was highly reluctant to leave the home he stayed in for 28 years, but he had no choice – if his parents and sister were going, of course he had to go with them. What if they faced more trouble in Shanghai?

They dragged themselves back into their bedroom, beginning to pack. They knew their chances of returning were slim.

“Old man, you should go pack our things too.” Yue Niang chided.

“I won’t take that long, nearly everything is replaceable in the end. It’s not like we haven’t done this before,” Tai Cheng shrugged sadly. He wasn’t unfamiliar with constant moving, but two decades of peace was hard to shake off.

If his son was feeling reluctant about moving, every cell in Tai Cheng was determined to stay, even though he knew his wife made sense. Now, their little home in the corner of the country was unsafe, and it would remain unsafe until they solved the issue.

Behind them, Xue Ning’s ears perked up at his words. Her parents moved a lot before? That was hard to believe. That was another matter she needed to clear up.

======

“Hi Captain Mu, sorry for disturbing you at such a late hour. Is this a bad time to talk?” Jingwei asked sheepishly.

“You already said it was such a late hour,” Captain Mu grumbled from the other end of the line. He was preparing to go to bed, but he had a feeling dreamland wasn’t accepting his visa.

There must have been something drastic happening for Sun Jingwei to call him in the middle of the night! This sort of behavior was more commonly seen in Sun Tianwei, who he suspected was part robot, with the way he hardly slept.

“So you do know it’s a bad time to talk. Is this about your replacement? They’ll be here first thing in the morning.”

“Not really,” Jingwei laughed awkwardly. Warning bells began to ring in Captain Mu’s head, what new trouble befell Sun Jingwei this time?

“Someone sent a team of seven to kidnap me and Xue Ning. Luckily they failed, but this place isn’t safe for me or my in-laws. I think my in-laws are assassins. Also, I need to get a plane ride out for all of us.”

Captain Mu gripped the phone tightly and muffled the scream trying to escape his throat. Goddamn. Even when his expectations were rock bottom, Sun Jingwei could still limbo under the bar! Why was he regrettably proven right?

“Captain Mu, are you still there?” Jingwei asked, after a moment of silence. Did he fall asleep? Jingwei felt bad for interrupting his bedtime!

“I am,” Captain Mu said. He wasn’t replying because he was trying to calm himself down. Counting to ten didn’t work, so he counted to twenty.

It still didn’t work, but he couldn’t keep silent forever.

“Is there any more news you wish to tell me?” Captain Mu prompted, hoping for a ‘no’. But it was not his day.

“Yeah, now that you say it, my in-laws are planning to lure out the person responsible for planning my kidnapping. They want to capture him by pretending that the team was successful!”

Captain Mu nearly spat out a mouthful of blood!

“Nonsense! Are they insane? Don’t do something so dangerous!” Captain Mu yelled from the other end, the last lingering bit of calm dissipating like smoke in the wind.

“Are you sure your in-laws actually like you? It looks like they’re trying to get you killed!”

“Oh they definitely like me,” Jingwei said. “If not, Uncle wouldn’t have saved me from those thugs. He really just sliced through their wrists like some pugilist expert! It was sick! He also threw the knives and they ended up stabbing the guys in the back. Now I wish I took a video, words really can’t explain it…”

Slicing through wrists? Throwing knives? Captain Mu’s eyes widened. These were skills common in the earlier generation of hitmen, simply because the younger generation of assassins tended to prefer using more subtle methods to get rid of their targets.

As turf wars between different clans dwindled with the passing of years, it was less necessary for hitmen to have a signature, to make a bloody statement. There was no need to inform the  victim’s family about who made the hit.

With the advent of DNA processing, computer databases and better CCTVs, the last thing any hitmen wanted was to draw attention to themselves, because now they could be found!

Hence, like predators in the wild, they adapted to the changing landscape.

Why should they slit someone’s throat or wrist and create unnecessary mess,  when they could poison them with a needle under their pinky finger, triggering a heart attack that looked completely natural?

“Even if what you’re saying is true, I do not recommend kicking the wasp nest.” Captain Mu said. “Come back home safely and bring a few kidnappers with you for interrogation.”

“We can’t do that,” Jingwei said regrettably. “They all got injured so badly by my in-laws. Two of them only have one eye each! We’re sending them to the hospital because they’ll bleed to death otherwise.”

Captain Mu despaired. Hospital? Were they running a charity or a rehabilitation home for criminals?

“Now I must ask if you’re the one that wants to get rid of your in-laws,” Captain Mu grumbled. “You do realise the police will begin to question them right? The moment someone’s lips loosen, it’s over for Li Xue Ning’s parents!”

“Things will be fine, they already promised to use the excuse that they were in a gang fight with each other.” Jingwei argued, radiating positively from the other end of the line. Captain Mu felt like throttling him. Just a bit.

“Such a flimsy cover story would never hold up in court.” Or anywhere, for that matter. “Once the police begin questioning them, they’ll realise there are too many loose ends. And if your in-laws left DNA evidence on those kidnappers, they’ll be in trouble too!”

“Oh,” Jingwei said, contemplating Captain Mu’s words, his mind whirling. “But then they’ll be fine, simply because it’s too unbelievable. Even if they told the police the truth, no one will take them seriously. If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I wouldn’t believe it either!”

Captain Mu looked at the clean, white ceiling of his bedroom, and sighed. “Fine, if I can’t convince you to make a wise decision, then grab the least injured one for interrogation back here. Take their phones. DO NOT GO AFTER THE MASTERMIND NOW.”

“Er… ” Jingwei chanced a quick look back into the bedroom, where Xue Ning’s Mom and Dad were poking at the kidnapper’s phone. “It might be a bit too late for that? But I’ll let you talk to Xue Ning’s Mom and Dad if you want!”

“I do not want – “

But the universe, along with Jingwei, didn’t really care about Captain Mu’s desires. Jingwei eagerly passed the phone to Xue Ning’s dad. Let people who have experience with this issue handle it! He just wanted to cuddle his wife, damn it!