"It's my mom, so make sure you shush." Xue Ning gave Jingwei a warning glare to make sure he understood this time. Jingwei nodded, and mimed zipping his mouth shut.
"Hi Mom!" Xue Ning said, pretending that everything was fine.
"Hello my dear daughter," Her mother's voice came from the other end of the line. It was gentle and sweet and welcoming, and that set off alarm bells in Xue Ning's head.
The only time she heard her mother sounded like this was when she found out her brother nearly got his then girlfriend (now wife) pregnant, and she used this voice to trap him into telling the truth.
It did not bode well for her secrets to hear this voice used on her.
"Yeah Mom, what are you calling for?" Xue Ning asked, one of her hands already twisting the hem of her T-shirt in nervousness. Jingwei saw it and gave her a curious look. She waved him away.
"Well, your brother told me a very interesting story this morning," Her mother said, voice still saccharinely sweet. It was giving her the creeps - and her bringing up her older brother meant that of course he betrayed her and told mom.
Urgh. Gone were the days she could threaten him to keep silent by dumping frogs on his bed. She was too far away from home to do that now.
"Apparently, despite you claiming that it wasn't you in the picture hugging a certain Sun Jingwei, your brother told me that it was you! All along!" Her mother continued, now working herself to a grand lecture. "My own daughter, you deliberately lied to me after I flat out asked you if that was you in the picture! Do you take your mother for a fool?"
Xue Ning winced; her mom's voice lost the sweetness, and it was now bloody furious. And clearly she had to be angry enough to call Xue Ning in the middle of the lunch rush where she would normally be cooking for customers.
"No I just -"
"No buts young lady! Do you know how shocked I was when your brother confessed that it was actually you in the picture? I thought he was joking! But then he said you told him that it was you, and then threatened him not to tell me or your dad!"
Xue Ning smacked her forehead with her other hand. Why was her brother so stupid? Even if his conscience bothered him to the point that he had to confess that she was lying, why did he have to add the news that she threatened him not to tell their parents?
Jingwei had now moved closer to her, looking at her in concern. She just shook her head in his direction.
Her mother wasn't done with her tirade.
"And do you know how shocked your father and I were when we realised it? We read the article and saw the pictures! Xue Ning, what were you wearing? Were you involved with him? Look, I know I pressure you often to find someone, but that doesn't mean you must pick a notorious playboy!" Her mother lamented.
Xue Ning moved her phone away from her ear. It was starting to hurt. Meanwhile, Jingwei looked vaguely hurt at the words coming from her mother's mouth. Somehow, it made her want to defend him, even when they were technically correct.
"MOM! It's not like that!" Xue Ning started, before realising that she would have to explain her bodyguarding job to her mother, who would probably disapprove of that even more than her 'relationship' with Sun Jingwei.
"Then tell me what it is like! Xue Ning-ah, how am I supposed to know when you don't tell me anything! I can't read your mind!" Her mother argued, pain in her voice.
"We met at the club! I saved him, he brought me out to dinner as thanks!" Xue Ning replied frantically to reassure her. "Our relationship is not what you think it is!"
Thankfully her mother couldn't read minds, her bodyguard ambitions and newly bubbling feelings (pure or otherwise) for Sun Jingwei would have booked her a one-way ticket back home the moment her mother found out.
"Are you lying to me?" Her mother demanded. "I remember there was a man's voice when I called you in the morning, was it Sun Jingwei's?"
"Well - "
"It was, wasn't he? Why would he be spending the morning with you… unless the both of you spent the night together?" Her mother asked, her voice horrified at the realisation.
Jingwei choked. Xue Ning glared at him, and he hastily stifled his coughing noises, his face red from the strain of keeping silent. Even if he had to die, he had to die quietly!
He could have moved to another room, but he wanted to listen to the conversation too! He had to know what his future mother-in-law thought of him.
Meanwhile, Xue Ning had her head in her hands. Technically, her mother was right, but it definitely wasn't what her mother was thinking.
"MOM! Nothing happened that night! We just slept at his mansion!" Xue Ning protested.
"So the both of you did spend the night together!" Her mother retorted, somehow sounding even more dismayed that her suspicions have been confirmed.
Xue Ning realised she had been successfully trapped. She could only explain herself now.
"Yes, but nothing happened! Mom, his mansion had like a bajillion rooms, there were more than enough beds! I was a guest!" Xue Ning argued hotly, refusing to be slandered by her own mom's overactive imagination.
(There was some form of nudity before they slept on the same bed, but it was an accident and nothing of that sort happened, they just cuddled in a huge soft bed!
Somehow, she had a feeling that would not reassure her mother one bit.)
"And why were you even invited to the mansion?" Her mother asked, voice sharp. "It isn't a place where people like us can stroll into just like that! Who do you think owns that mansion? He's not a man you can afford to offend!"
Xue Ning frowned. That warning was a little too late. She's sure Sun Haowei hated her guts by now, but at least the feeling was mutual.
"I was a guest Mom!" Xue Ning repeated. "Jingwei offered me a room to stay because it was already very late after the dinner."
"One of his exes tried to hurt him in the restaurant, so we had to arrest her. My pants got damaged." She continued, quickly summarising the events of the night. "I'm not wearing that to seduce him Mom, what kind of person do you think I am? Don't you trust me?"
"Of course I trust you! Even when you apparently lie to me about your whereabouts," her mother replied snarkily. Xue Ning winced. She walked right into that one.
"More importantly, it's him I don't trust." His mother continued darkly. "Don't you know about all the rumours about him and his family?"
It was Jingwei's turn to wince at her statements.
He realised that there was now another new huge roadblock preventing him from making Xue Ning his real wife: Xue Ning's own mother!
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