At 3 AM, Jingwei and his band of merry men were forced awake by the shrill sound of Jingwei's phone. Jingwei instinctively turned and switched it off, continuing to snore in his pillow while Wei Yan and Ming Guang leapt to alertness, their training kicking in.
"Wake him up," Ming Guang instructed as he began to go into the bathroom to wash up.
"Why must I? I don't want to," Wei Yan argued, but no one replied. He scowled at Sun Jingwei sleeping on the bed. They were his bodyguards, not his babysitters. They went wherever Sun Jingwei went.
If Sun Jingwei didn't get up, then they should be in the motel room waiting for him! They weren't supposed to be in-charge of making sure he kept to his schedule.
If this meeting with Miss Li's father was as important as he claimed it to be, he should have woken up immediately!
'Poor Miss Li', he mused to himself as he watched Sun Jingwei drool into his pillow in disgust. 'This man is too immature and irresponsible!'
After a while, Ming Guang was done and gestured to Wei Yan to take his turn. Wei Yan went in and washed up, while Jingwei continued to slumber on, oblivious.
Ming Guang was frowning at Wei Yan when he emerged.
"He still hasn't woken up?"
"Nope." Wei Yan said, shrugging.
"You didn't wake him up." Ming Guang said, narrowing his eyes as he realised the truth. "Why?"
"I didn't want to," Wei Yan said, crossing his arms. "Ming Guang, you take your bodyguarding job seriously - but don't you think that waking him up would be considered overstepping? We're not his nannies."
"If you were planning to let him sleep in, couldn't you have let me know the night before?" Ming Guang complained, before he stared at Wei Yan, suddenly serious.
"You and I both knew what we were getting into when we got assigned as his bodyguards. Don't let your personal emotions cloud your judgement or stop you from your duties."
"But this isn't in my duties - " He retorted, but Ming Guang stared at him stonily with a raised eyebrow, daring him to continue.
"Fine. Fine, I understand what you're saying." Wei Yan said, taking a deep breath, squashing the irritation deep down. He turned to Jingwei and smacked his exposed feet from under the blanket, channelling all his negative emotions into that hit.
Jingwei woke up with a jolt, his fists in front of him as though he was ready to fight an enemy.
"What… what… what's going on? Why did you hit me?" Jingwei demanded with bleary eyes, his voice thick with sleep.
"Wake up, you're supposed to arrive at the Sun family house at 4am, remember?" Wei Yan reminded him waspishly.
"Oh, right, right," Jingwei nodded to himself. Then he turned to his phone and saw that it was nearly 3.45 am, and jumped straight out of bed with an unmanly shriek.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" He screamed and he ran into the bathroom to wash up without even waiting for a response. "Oh my god, I'm going to be late!"
Wei Yan scowled, and Ming Guang cleared his throat in warning.
"I hope they break up," Wei Yan grumbled under his breath. "That'll teach him a lesson."
=====
After the quickest shower Jingwei had taken in his entire life, the three of them hastily left the motel after collecting their valuables. Jingwei tried to maintain high spirits at the thought of meeting his future wife, but then his eyelids were still crusted together due to the lack of sleep, and he kept yawning loudly every two steps.
Thankfully, the roads were obviously clear and they could race to Xue Ning's house only five minutes past 4 am. Hopefully his future father-in-law wouldn't hold it against him! He wanted to ring the doorbell, but then thought better of it and instead knocked on the door.
"Uncle, are you here? This is Jingwei!"
The door opened and Tai Cheng stared impassively down at the three of them.
"You're late," Tai Cheng pointed out. He had almost hoped that Jingwei wasn't arriving, just so he could disapprove of him harder.
"Sorry Uncle," Jingwei said, bowing quickly. "I overslept." He peered past the door, hoping to see Xue Ning but he was disappointed. "Are we going to meditate now?"
"Hmph," Tai Cheng breathed loudly, heaping volumes of judgement in that one exhaled breath and he gestured for them to follow him. "I'll bring you to the kitchen to meditate."
Jingwei blinked in surprise.
They entered the kitchen and were greeted with three sacks of bean sprouts. Did Xue Ning's father put an express delivery of bean sprouts with the money he sent him, or were they just lying around the kitchen and Jingwei didn't notice them because he was too busy focusing on Xue Ning?
"Uncle? What do bean sprouts have to do with meditating?" Jingwei asked hesitantly.
"I've found that cleaning and peeling them is a meditative activity." Her father said, crossing his arms. "Peel those and put the peeled bean sprouts in this bowl of water over here."
Now that he had funds to renovate his restaurant and the extra manpower, he might as well use this chance to stock up on food preparation and work deliveries!
Sun Jingwei was going to be put through the wringer. If he wanted to become his son-in-law, he had to put in the work!
"Alright," Jingwei said, gingerly as he got closer to a bag, staring at it cautiously. "So how do I peel a bean sprout?"
Everyone stared at him, incredulous.
Her father closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath to calm himself down. Sun Jingwei didn't know how to prepare bean sprouts. Of course he wouldn't.
"Uncle, I know how to do it," Wei Yan volunteered, sensing a chance to impress and taking it.
"Please demonstrate then," Tai Cheng gestured to the sprouts, watching with a careful eye.
Wei Yan first grabbed a handful and put them in a bowl of water, gently mixing them so that the green shells fell off from the bean sprouts. He then took the bean sprouts and strained them with a strainer, and put them in another bowl. He repeated this step over and over until he was satisfied, and then snapped off the roots of the bean sprouts.
He even collected the roots and green shells in another bowl for Uncle to take a look. "Here Uncle, you can use this as fertiliser," Wei Yan said humbly.
Tai Cheng beamed, delighted that at least one person had sense and he didn't have to demonstrate from scratch. Look at how frugal he was!
"Good good, very good. See, Jingwei? Just follow his example and things will be fine," Tai Cheng said, watching Wei Yan with approval. This boy clearly had more experience with the more nitty-gritty cooking chores! Why couldn't he be Xue Ning's boyfriend instead?
"Yes, I know better than you, in more ways than one," Wei Yan murmured, hiding his smugness at the way Sun Jingwei clenched his fist. The sleepiness that Jingwei felt was quickly chased away by anger at how Wei Yan easily upstaged him and made himself look good!
"You'd better." Tai Cheng said warningly. "In fact, do it now so that I can see if you're doing it properly."
Jingwei followed everything Wei Yan did, but somehow, Xue Ning's father found fault in nearly every step he did!
"Don't use so much water!"
"Stop, stop, look at how hard you're swirling the bean sprouts! Are you trying to break them into pieces!"
"Look at how much water you spilled!"
"Be gentle when removing the shells."
"You're supposed to snap off the root, not half the sprout!"
It was as though Jingwei was dealing with a chef version of his father that nitpicked at everything he did!
With how tired he was from only getting so little sleep, he wanted to snap, but then he caught himself in time. If he had burst into anger in front of Xue Ning's father, he could kiss his chances of marrying Xue Ning goodbye!
What's more, he didn't want to give Wei Yan the satisfaction of watching him fail. As such, he gritted his teeth and bowed his head, nodding and every criticism levied towards him. The words "yes Uncle, got it Uncle" were all he said.
"I want all this done in 2 hours," her father said. They thought he would leave him to it, but Tai Cheng continued to remain in the kitchen, wiping down the countertops and sweeping the floor, before washing rice for everyone's breakfast. All the ire that Jingwei felt drained away, replaced by heartache. Xue Ning's father worked so hard for the sake of his family!
"Uncle, I can clean the kitchen too," Jingwei volunteered. "You shouldn't be working so hard."
Beside him, Wei Yan had to hand it to Sun Jingwei. He certainly didn't know when to give up!
Tai Cheng paused in surprise, before he shook his head.
"Focus on your bean sprouts instead. If you do a terrible job, you can forget about dating my daughter!"
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