Wooing my Bodyguard Wife

"He was mine to begin with!" Sun Haowei continued, glaring at Nangong Yue Niang hotly. "And so were you! I never treated the both of you poorly; how did I deserve to be stabbed in the back? Nangong Yue Niang, you still dare to come back here and lecture me about morality, when you seduced my best friend and eloped with him?"

"Why did you choose to humiliate me like this?" These words escaped his lips in a mere whisper, but Yue Niang flinched as though she heard the words screamed into her ear. "How could both of you do this to me?"

In over 20 years, Sun Haowei had a lot of time to stew in his feelings.

When he first got the news that Nangong Yue Niang broke off the engagement and left him, he was in shock and disbelief. The invites were sent, the wedding dress bought, the venue booked. The only silver lining was that Yue Niang did not leave him stranded at the altar.

If she hated the idea of the engagement so badly, why didn't she tell him? He could have said something, done something. He thought they were on good enough terms, they were friends, so he was actually looking forward to the marriage.

He expected Yue Niang to speak her mind if she was unhappy. Hell, half the time, the main problem was getting her to shut up. She never shut up, complaining about everything from the mansion decor to her missions to the dresses she needed to wear.

Sun Haowei didn't expect her to jump straight to eloping with his best friend and bodyguard.

He had years to go over their every interaction with a fine-tooth comb, and now with the power of hindsight, he spotted how Yue Niang's eyes would always follow Tai Cheng when he was guarding him, and how Tai Cheng was always a little more indulgent of her than he was of other women by Sun Haowei's side.

But if not for them running away, he would still remain blissfully oblivious to the feelings brewing below the surface. He trusted them, damn it!

He had to deal with everyone 's mocking smiles, his own loneliness, the stinging shock of betrayal and the humiliation of being cucked.

How could Yue Niang do this to him? How could Tai Cheng do this to him?

"BECAUSE WE HATED OUR LIVES WITH YOU!" Yue Niang bursted out, grabbing Sun Haowei's hospital gown by the collar.

"Nonsense!" Sun Haowei screamed as though he had been struck. "I've always treated you well!"

Yue Niang laughed derisively.

"We were done with this life. I tried to tell you to stop, and Tai Cheng also made it clear that he wanted to leave this life, but you just wouldn't listen! You kept on going on about the kingdom you would build while bodies kept on piling up around us! Bodies of people we killed for you!"

"We were sick of it! Sick of everything! And stop fucking lying to yourself - It wasn't going to stop when I married you! You were never satisfied! It would just mean someone else would be doing my dirty work when I eventually got knocked up and forced to play hostess to all your scummy business partners!"

Yue Niang screamed out years of pent-up frustration, tears of rage forming in the corners of her eyes. Next to her, Sun Haowei froze.

One could hear a pin drop in the silence that befell the ward. Outside the bathroom, Li Tai Cheng could only sigh as he saw the horrified looks on everyone's faces. Well. Here it was.

"Hmm? Let's hear it."

"Was all that true, Uncle?" Jingwei asked hesitantly. "I know you were my dad's bodyguard but…"

"The best way to guard someone like your father would be to remove all threats posed to his person, past, present, and future." Tai Cheng said with closed eyes. If he tried hard enough, he could remember how Sun Haowei and his father advocated for the assassination of entire families, claiming they were plotting to kill him.

"That's insane," Jingwei said quietly, understanding the severity of his words. Uncle was basically a hitman for his father - how could his father do this to someone he claimed to be his best friend?

No one makes their best friend a murderer. God knows how hard Jingwei tried to stop Wu Shang Jing from being one. He thought about Xiumin unexpectedly dying alone in a jail cell and shuddered.

"Then Mom also killed people for him?" Xue Ning asked, agitated. "He made her kill - "

"Yes. Not as much as I did, but yes." Tai Cheng said regrettably. "There was only so much I could do, and he didn't trust many people to not betray him."

"So Mom was one of the people he trusted and loved," Xue Ning said, trying to make sense of this new information. Her parents betrayed an old friend, who admittedly was a gigantic asshole, but that asshole did seem to love them.

"He trusted and loved it when they killed on his behalf." Jingwei corrected gently, upset at his father's past actions. "If you loved someone, how could you let them dirty their hands like this?"

"Aish, why is my Dad such a piece of shit?" Jingwei lamented, turning to Li Tai Cheng. "Uncle, was he born a dick?"

Tai Cheng opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"Okay. I got it," Jingwei said morosely. "I understand."

"He had his good moments." Tai Cheng said weakly, not liking the crushed look on his face. "He was good to us. Just… not good for us."

"And not a good person." Jingwei finished, defeated. He looked at Xue Ning, devastation in his eyes. His father was a terrible person, and if he married Xue Ning, he'd be putting her in harm's way. Knowing his father's temper, he would never let her off. "I'm so sorry darling. You're going to have a terrible father-in-law if you agree to marry me."

"Thinking of marriage already? Still presumptuous of you," Xue Ning asked with a raised eyebrow. Jingwei's face fell further, and she immediately felt guilty, as though she kicked a puppy into a river.

"I mean… I understand if you refuse."