Wooing my Bodyguard Wife

"What? Who's responsible for this?" Bi Yu immediately whirled around, upset, but she didn't wait for a reply before running down the stairs, taking multiple steps at a time. Her staff made horrified gasps as they watched her clear the optical illusion like it was nothing.

Bi Yu sprinted for her gardens, while Ming Yan and the rest of her servants tried to keep up.

She wasn't the fittest woman (that honour went to her best friend Yue Niang), and her blood circulation was so poor that she needed to wear sweaters for three seasons, but her body did its best to obey her mind. Her heart raced to keep up, but it nearly stuttered to a stop as she gazed upon her beloved garden.

Or more accurately, the wreckage of her beloved garden.

"Oh my god!" Bi Yu let out an unholy scream, before choking in shock at the sight of torn cabbages and half-bitten carrots. Everyone in earshot flinched.

"Madame! Please calm down!" Her staff panicked, frantically handing her handkerchiefs for her to cough in. Ming Yan even rubbed her back, but it did nothing.

"How can I calm down?" Bi Yu wailed, nearly crying at the sight of her hard work going down the metaphorical drain. "Who is responsible for this mess?!"

A tiny woof answered her. Everyone glanced down and saw the sight of a tiny puppy peeping through the stalks of the roses. Sensing eyes on it, it blinked and proceeded to scamper off, stomping over even more of Bi Yu's plant children.

"Get that puppy!" Bi Yu demanded, realisation dawning on her.

This was clearly caused by her husband, as a form of revenge! She cursed him in her heart, vowing to sew dog poo into his bedsheets. Meanwhile, the servants spread out, trying to catch the little critter. The puppy barked and darted between them, thinking it was a fun game.

The more they chased, the more they destroyed!

"Stop it, stop it!" Bi Yu waved at them. "At this rate, I might as well raze my garden to the ground." She said sadly. The puppy, finally recognizing her from the morning, cheerfully wagged its tail and deposited a chewed up rose in front of her.

"Woof!" It whirled around, tail wagging excitedly as it nudged the flower towards her. "Woof!"

"Thank you," Bi Yu said, sighing in resignation as she picked up the puppy. It nestled in her arms and yawned, tired after its rampage of her gardens. This was her own fault. She hadn't calculated for her husband's callous cruelty.

"Young Madame, we can salvage this, please go and rest," the maids cajoled, feeling very sorry for their mistress. She had so little she loved in this place, and now another thing was gone! Even if her husband was upset, it was still too much.

"No, it's fine. They are my plants, I'll clean up. Take the puppy away," Bi Yu said, steel in her spine. She rolled up her pants, stepping into the mud and dirt, clearing the stalks by hand. She winced as thorns pricked her, but she still continued. Her heart ached more than her fingers.

"Your fingers! You forgot to wear gloves," Ming Yan commented, aghast. She grabbed Bi Yu's hands before she could continue. "Someone get gloves for Madame! The rest of you, spread out and clean!"

"Yes!" The maids proceeded to do as she ordered. Bi Yu sighed tiredly, half-amused.

"You're really in charge of them all now."

"Nonsense," Ming Yan said, scolding her. "You are the one in charge. You should be ordering us around, not getting your hands dirty!"

Bi Yu only shook her head. "No, this is my fault. I'm cleaning it up." She pulled her hands away from Ming Yan's hold and shrugged out of her sweater, still panting slightly. The earlier run had warmed her up, causing her pale skin to flush.

"What are you doing?" Ming Yan asked, confused.

Bi Yu wrapped it around her hands with the sweater, walking straight into the dirt pile, and bending over, cradling the fallen stalks protectively in her hands. "I'm picking up stalks."

The servants looked on sadly, but in a hidden alcove slightly further away, there was one pair of eyes that eyed her contemplatively.

Sun Haowei had been lying in wait, wanting to see his wife's reaction to his revenge. She didn't disappoint, but what was disappointing were his own emotions!

He was supposed to be cackling, delighted that his scheme was pulled off so flawlessly. Instead he was tucked in a hidden alcove as though he was a criminal and his heart continued to beat in double-time for multiple reasons.

He hadn't seen his wife expose so much skin, and she almost radiated light from the sun as she worked. Her flushed skin and sweat. More than one servant was stunned agog at her beauty and it made him feel... weird.

"Sir, are you not going to help her?" The butler asked.

"Why should I?" Sun Haowei replied, even as his heart strangely twinged with guilt at the sight of his wife's bowed despondent figure. "It was the dog's fault. And she brought the dog into the house and it peed on my shoes."

The butler shot him an incredulous look. "I... How..."

"You have something to ask, don't you? Speak," Sun Haowei commented, sensing his butler's aborted question.

"Sir, forgive me for asking, but do you want to stay married to Madame?" The butler asked confusedly. "I could have sworn you rejected Madame's divorce offer."

"I do want to stay married. What's your point?"

"Then why are you treating her like this? You should be trying to get her to stay, but instead you destroyed the one thing that she would stay for." The butler asked, shaking his head. "Poor Madame, she worked hard on those gardens. It's a real pity her hard work didn't come to fruition."

Sun Haowei froze. He hadn't thought about that. The butler brought up such a good point that he wasn't going to punish him for lecturing him.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it now, the produce and flowers are all dead," Sun Haowei said curtly.

The butler looked at him in disappointment, but he didn't know that Sun Haowei's guilt was now growing stronger, and it was joined by an increasing fear that he would wake up with his wife standing over him with a knife in her hand.

"Are you sure Sir?"

"Yes. I'm going back to the mansion."

And if he took the long winding path to avoid attracting the attention of his wife, the butler certainly didn't call him out on it.