Chapter 32: Multiple Realisations

"Who is your wife?" Xue Ning retorts. "Was the food laced with drugs? Are you in a food coma to be speaking such nonsense?" 

Jingwei splutters. "That's not important! She just said that she burned you with hot soup on purpose!" 

He pulls Xue Ning behind him as though shielding her from further harm, and turns to glare at Xiao Hui, who stumbles back at the venom in his gaze. 

Xue Ning moves closer and stares at the muscle twitching in his jaw, the furious light in his eyes, so unlike the Sun Jingwei she had seen so far. His arm is stretched in front of her, just barely brushing against her waist, protective, while his other hand clenches into a fist. 

Sun Jingwei is protecting her. It feels… nice. Her fingers lightly traces the muscles of his arm, before she clutches at his hand, willing him to calm down, the difference in their hand sizes sending a frisson of something down her spine.