Wooing my Bodyguard Wife

At Jingwei's frantic exclamation, Zi Long immediately dropped Ding Er Tai's body on the floor without a second notice. It landed with a loud thump, and Er Tai let out a pained moan. But he was ignored as Zi Long quickly rushed over to dab at Shang Jing's upper lip, his face worried while Jingwei fretted, hovering in the background.

"Are you feeling okay?" Jingwei asked anxiously as he wrung his fingers.

"I'm fine, stop worrying."

"How can I not? You're practically my second brother!" Jingwei said, and Shang Jing paused, his heart stuttering in his chest at Jingwei's easy admission. Jingwei thought of him as a brother. "Let's go get ice cream for that lip, and then we can try to hack into the bank again."

"You just want ice cream," Shang Jing croaked out weakly, his heart still beating unsteadily. This was happening more often whenever Jingwei did something or said something, and Shang Jing didn't like it one bit!

But maybe… Jingwei would be the one other person that would never leave him. He would always be at his side, like Zi Long, no matter what he did. He already taught him how to hack, and Jingwei didn't think there was anything wrong with that. He liked causing trouble too. Surely he would support his other endeavours in future.

"That too," Jingwei shrugged and stretched, getting out of the chair. "Who wants to deal with Ding Er Tai when there's quality ice cream to eat right, Zi Long-ge?"

"Can't argue with that," Zi Long said wryly, dusting off his hands. The poor boy had already been beaten to a pulp. More importantly, he worried about the bleeding lips of his charge.

Young Master Wu's nerves were slowly failing, and he forgot himself again.

Zi Long had already noticed a change in his charge's attitude - he had mood swings wilder than a pregnant woman, and some of the things he said, the plans he made… chilled Zi Long to the core. There were thoughts that normal human beings simply did not have about fellow humans.

But that wasn't any of Zi Long's business, truly. He just had to stop his Young Master from getting hurt, and not from him hurting other people - even if it was his closest friend.

Just then, Jingwei's phone rang for the third time. He let out a groan of irritation, finally deciding to pick it up. Lady Yu was strangely persistent this time.

"Hi Lady Yu, what's up?" Jingwei asked, "Is this about dinner plans?"

"Young Master Sun… you have to come home now…" Lady Yu said, her voice wet with tears. "Mrs Sun is… Mrs Sun is…"

"My mother? What's wrong with my mother!" Jingwei exclaimed in surprise, a cold fear spreading through his body. Lady Yu was always calm and composed, if she was crying too hard to speak clearly…

Jingwei shook his head. There was no way! His mother was fine when he visited her yesterday in her sickroom! She was even well-enough to sit up!

"She's gone, Jingwei," Lady Yu choked out, and the phone fell out of Jingwei's limp hand.

"No… no… that cannot be, you're joking right?" Jingwei muttered mindlessly to himself. He was in too much shock to realise that he wasn't on the line any longer. Zi Long quickly picked up his phone for him, but the person on the other end of the line had already hung up. "Mom cannot be… this is a lie…"

"Come on, I'll get Zi Long to send you home," Shang Jing said, his tone giving no room for argument. Not that Jingwei was capable of giving any argument at the moment, his face had gone slack with shock and he was beginning to cry breathless sobs as he hunched over, slumping onto the chair.

If it were anyone else, Shang Jing would have punched them for making so much noise. But it was Jingwei, and he himself liked Mrs Sun. She was always kind to him, and always encouraged him and Jingwei to do their best. He preferred her over the ever-revolving door of stepmoms; they were only there for such a short time, he never would grow attached to them. He learnt that lesson the hard way.

Sometimes, when life got unbearable for him, he would wonder what it would be like to have her as his real mother.

To his surprise, he found his cold heart aching. How could she have left this world so quickly?

Truly, only the good die young! His father, the monster that he was, was still alive and kicking.

Meanwhile, Jingwei didn't know how he made it back home when his world had effectively turned into a blur, his sound and sight seemingly made useless. Shang Jing had taken one look at his pale face and shaking hands and immediately whisked him away into his car so that Zi Long could drive them both to the Sun family mansion.

"Things will be fine," Shang Jing said, not believing a single word, but someone had to say it anyway. Jingwei turned to look at him, tears running down his face.

"Really? She'll be fine?" Jingwei cried out, desperate for reassurance that Shang Jing could not give.

But Shang Jing was good at pretending - he had been pretending for years to be a normal human after all, and it was easy to extend that illusion to Jingwei, someone who actually believed that Shang Jing was a normal person, someone who desperately wanted to cling onto fragile hope.

If it were anyone else, he would have relished delivering the cold hard truth that their mother had passed away while he was out there, obliviously enjoying their life. He would have loved to watch as they broke down into tears of regret and shame, blaming themselves for something out of their control.

But this was Jingwei, his dear brother from another mother. So he would use his limited kindness on him, even if it was only a temporary mercy.

"Miracles have happened before," Shang Jing said, giving Zi Long a quick look in the mirror. "How much longer before we arrive?"

"20 minutes, Young Master Wu," Zi Long replied. "The traffic is bad."

"Make it 10," Shang Jing ordered anyway. They had an actual good reason to break traffic laws now, he might as well make the most of it.