"LATE AT NIGHT?!" Three members of the family screamed in unison.
"Why were you together late at night?!"
"What were you doing late at night?"
"Where were the both of you?"
Her three family members began yelling at the same time. Xue Ning winced as the volume of their collective voices increased.
"Guys, please don't worry! Nothing untoward happened!" Jingwei said placatingly, holding up his hands to appease Xue Ning's family members, who were glaring at him with barely concealed hostility. He felt like he was going to be ripped apart by three ravenous wolves, and gulped in nervousness.
"Then explain yourself," Yue Niang said, smiling with too many teeth.
"Mom, you already knew I stayed over at his mansion!" Xue Ning replied, thinking quickly on her feet. "He cooked for me back then, and I slept over in one of the mansion's guest rooms! Nothing else happened!"
"Yeah! What Xue Ning said!" Jingwei said, nodding fervently despite her later statement being entirely false. "Xue Ning did save my life that evening! I would have been knocked down by a car if she didn't pull me back!"
He also accidentally saw Xue Ning in her underwear and they had cuddled together in bed, but honesty wasn't the best policy in this scenario! He'd die!
"Yeah Mom, this is just gratitude! Friendly gratitude!" Xue Ning added. "At least he bothered to thank me for stopping him from getting turned into a pancake - do you remember Ming Yan from my secondary school class? I pulled her out of the way of a motorbike and she got pissed at me for ruining her outfit. Now that I think about it, I'm still pissed!"
Her family members calmed down slightly at her words, but they still casted Jingwei suspicious looks from the corner of their eyes. Jingwei did his best to look as innocent and grateful as possible.
"Huh. Well. He does seem stupid enough to get knocked down by a car." Tai Xuan muttered.
Jingwei reminded himself that punching Xue Ning's older brother would not endear him to the rest of his family, even if he really wanted to. It would also be bad form to get Ming Guang and Wei Yan to punch him.
Meanwhile Xue Ning saw the pinched, slightly upset look on Jingwei's face and felt her heart twinge in sympathy. She wanted to hug him to reassure him, but that'll certainly reopen the line of questioning. But she couldn't do nothing!
"You're also stupid," she settled for kicking her brother in his shin repeatedly while he squealed and stomped around the living room to avoid her feet. "Stop insulting my friend, or I'll tell Sister-in-law about the time you ate boogers for fun."
"Okay enough now," their mother scolded them both. "Since Jingwei made the trip here to offer us help, we might as well let him see the damage done to the restaurant. He can help with the clean up. Xue Ning, you haven't seen it either right?"
"No Mom, I came straight home," Xue Ning replied, shaking her head, and her mom hid a smile at her words.
Ah! Her daughter still loved them so much that she came straight home to check up on them instead of going anywhere else!
The five of them were joined by Jingwei's two bodyguards as they went out. Ming Guang and Wei Yan were glad to see that Sun Jingwei was still in one piece, despite the slight slump of his shoulders. Clearly the talk didn't go well!
"Do we need to take a car? I can drive all of us there." Jingwei offered, only for all of them to shake their heads.
"No need, the restaurant is quite near. We can all go on foot. But thanks for offering," Tai Cheng replied kindly as he began leading the way.
As they started walking, Jingwei purposely walked slower so he could talk to Xue Ning discreetly. Xue Ning also took lazier steps, purposely hanging back so they could walk at the same pace. They traded secret smiles, and warmth bloomed in Jingwei's heart.
Wei Yan and Ming Guang then deliberately stopped walking behind Jingwei, just to give them the illusion of privacy.
"So what's the plan now?" Jingwei whispered, trying his best not to hold her hand. "Do you believe my father did all that?"
"I don't know, there's no proof. Guess we'll just focus on fixing the restaurant first." Xue Ning whispered back, shaking her head slightly as she leaned closer to him. She could smell his cologne, and she wanted to bury her face in his neck - but her family was just ahead!
"How are you feeling? You just got insulted so many times! Sorry that my brother is a dickhead," She continued, concerned.
"I'll live," Jingwei said, shrugging. "But man, your brother seems to really hate me. It's like I murdered his dog or something."
"What gave you that impression?" Tai Xuan's voice asked from right between their heads, and they both jumped at once, startled.
"There's something suspicious about the two of you! Look at how guilty your faces are!" Tai Xuan continued, now pointing at them both. "What were the two of you talking about that you couldn't let other people know?"
Tai Xuan had seen the both of them lingering at the back, their heads gently bowed together as they whispered. Warning bells started to sound in his head; this was the behaviour of co-conspirators, of partners-in-crime, or lovers! He remembered doing something similar to his dates before.
Sun Jingwei better not be harbouring any lewd intentions towards his sister!
"We were talking about how annoying you are," Xue Ning replied easily. "How rude, how nosy… Jingwei was nice enough to not tell everyone else."
Jingwei sighed, feeling incredibly wronged. "Excuse me, I think those were your words."
"Are you calling my sister a liar?" Tai Xuan retorted, and Jingwei had to roll his eyes.
"I'm not a liar." Xue Ning said, huffing. "Ge, you are being super annoying. Scram, stop eavesdropping on people's conversations. Shoo!"
Tai Xuan gave an affronted look, ready to argue, but the party suddenly stopped. They had arrived at the restaurant.
"Holy shit, what the fuck happened," Xue Ning muttered, her mouth falling in shock. Her mother's words didn't do justice to the damage done by the thugs.
Their storefront was trashed, their signboard 'A Health(Li) Noodle Bowl' laid there sadly on the floor, split into two.
The thugs had managed to even reach that high up to tear down the sign and break it in half! Were they part of a pugilist sect?
Around the entrance, she saw that the potted plants, flowers that her parents painstakingly raised, were no more. The ceramic pots laid shattered on the floor in pieces, plant debri and soil strewn all over the floor, making a mess. There was a faint smell of fertiliser in the air.
And the door! One of the doors had lost their hinges, and was just propped at the entrance. A simple knock would have caused it to topple. There were also many chairs and tables used to block the entrance, most likely to prevent looting since the door wasn't going to be any help in preventing intruders from entering.
Xue Ning's heart ached, even as a terrible rage grew within her. How dare random thugs decide to make a mess out of her family's restaurant! This was her parents' livelihood, their pride and joy, their life's work! They spent decades feeding people in town, only to be treated like this?
"If I find out the person responsible for this mess, I'll castrate him!" Xue Ning vowed, clenching her hands into fists.
Meanwhile Jingwei winced, both at the damage and her words. When he was driving in the car, he didn't even register that this place was a restaurant, because it seemed like such a wreck. He thought it was an abandoned shop, the kind children would dare their friends to sneak into at night, claiming it was haunted.
He was initially sure of his father's innocence, but he couldn't defend him anymore.
Now that he saw the damage, all he wanted to know was the truth! Was his father truly responsible for this act of casual cruelty?
If his father had done this, he would never forgive him!
Tai Xuan scoffed, not forgetting to give Jingwei a dirty look. "You think this is bad Meimei? Wait till you see the shitstorm that's inside. We haven't finished cleaning it yet."
"Let me help," Jingwei volunteered immediately. "I want to help. Please."
Before Tai Xuan can declare 'over my dead body, you scum,' his mother interrupted him.
"Of course you can. You should." Yue Niang said, with no room for disagreement. "Even if you're the son of a billionaire, I'm sure you can at least sweep the floor and wash whatever dishes we have left."
"Oh, he's really good at that," Xue Ning said, instinctively praising him. "You should see him scrub the pots."
Once again, Xue Ning and Jingwei found themselves surrounded in stunned silence, before all hell broke loose.
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