Chapter Fourteen: Likes and Dislikes

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor.

A woman in high heels rushed to the ward door, only to be stopped by two bodyguards. She took off her sunglasses and angrily said,   "

Why are you blocking my way? Don't you recognize me?"

"Miss Lina," the two bodyguards called out in low voices.

"If you recognize me, why do you dare block my way? What do you mean?" Lina glared at the two guards.

"The boss ordered that no one should disturb Madam's rest,"

Lina said through gritted teeth. "Are you kidding me? I can't even visit my mother?"

The two security guards looked at her helplessly, showing no sign of backing down.

Inflexible! Stupid! Lina cursed inwardly, then took out her phone and dialed.

"Nana," a magnetic voice came from the phone.

"Where are you?" Lina asked in a low voice, her voice filled with barely suppressed anger.

There was a moment of silence on the other end before a voice came through: "You're at the hospital?" "

What's the meaning of having two people blocking the ward door? Since when do I not even have the right to see my own mother?"

Lin Na took a deep breath, brushed the hair that was obscuring her eyes behind her ear, her brows furrowed, waiting for a response from the other end of the phone.

"Mom doesn't want to see anyone right now, including you, including me..."

"Where is she injured?" Lin Na paced anxiously.

"Nana, don't worry, Mom isn't injured. If you want to know what happened, come home, and I'll tell you."

Lin Na muttered a curse under her breath, hung up the phone, glanced at the ward, glared fiercely at the two innocent bodyguards, put on her sunglasses, and hurried away.

It was an hour later when she arrived at the house in the suburbs.

Entering the house, Lin Na heard the faint sound of a piano. Without even changing her shoes, she went straight to the music room, angrily pushing open the door. The figure calmly playing a tune inside instantly ignited the anger she had been suppressing.

"Lin Yan, do you even have a heart?" Lin Na roared.

Amidst Lin Na's outburst, the pair of slender, pale hands calmly played a few final notes before resting lightly on the keys.

The person sitting at the piano turned his head, his gaze calmly meeting Lin Na's.

Being stared at like that, Lin Na lost her composure even more. She almost lost her temper, shouting, "You're always like this! When Jiao Yang was in trouble, you were indifferent, OK, she has nothing to do with you, even if she likes you, that's her own business. But now Mom's in the hospital, and you still have the mood to play the piano here?!"

When Lin Na mentioned "Jiao Yang," the hands on the keys trembled slightly.

"Finished?" Lin Yan asked calmly, his expression unchanged.

Linna choked for a moment. Seeing that he remained unmoved, she suddenly deflated, leaning against the doorframe as if powerless, and said dejectedly, "Didn't you say you were going to tell me what happened? Go ahead!"

"Mom's hospitalization is related to Hughes' new favorite."

"New favorite? That porn star Jennifer?" Linna frowned, thinking for a moment. Hughes seemed to be getting quite close to that flamboyant woman lately; she'd even seen them being intimate in the elevator.

It's worth mentioning that Hughes was their father, their blood father. The only one nominally related was Lin Yan, the third-generation heir recognized by the Bruno family head. She was just Linna, an illegitimate daughter.

The men in the Bruno family were all womanizers, and Hughes was no exception. They were never faithful, yet they were all famously handsome, wealthy, and generous to their female companions, so many women were willing to have a fleeting affair. Hughes inherited the philandering ways of the Bruno family. He was a womanizer, showering women with affection when he was in love, but once the excitement wore off, he'd give them a breakup fee and say goodbye amicably. He was also a staunch bachelor, and even a bunch of illegitimate children couldn't sway his decision to remain single.

Relatively speaking, only Linna's mother treated Hughes differently. She was arguably the only woman he kept by his side for decades, unwilling to abandon her. And because of her, Hughes even brought Lin Yan home to be recognized as part of his family. This alone proves that his feelings for Linna's mother were different from his feelings for other women. But this was only relative; he was essentially a womanizer who enjoyed seeking novelty.

The problem lay precisely here: Hughes's targets were always beautiful women with no background. Bruno men were not only handsome and wealthy, but also narcissistic—extremely narcissistic. They believed that no woman with him could leave him. Breaking up with women without a background was easy enough with money; the real problem was dealing with women with a background who would use their status to harass him relentlessly, making things much more difficult. This time, however, Hughes' new favorite is someone with quite a background. Even Hughes couldn't have imagined that the youngest princess of the Esther family would infiltrate the entertainment industry, and even take the sexy route.

Although Bruno men are narcissistic, it's precisely because they have the capital to be. Hughes is already a middle-aged man nearing fifty, but his handsome and dashing appearance hasn't diminished in the slightest. The addition of a mature man's temperament makes him even more charming, which is why he can attract so many young and beautiful girls one after another.

Jennifer is one of those who fell into this gentle trap. Having grown up in a pampered environment, she has always been very possessive of what she likes. It's also very easy for her to investigate someone. After learning that Hughes has a foreign woman who has been by his side for over twenty years, she didn't hesitate to bring a group of people to his door.

"And then? She hit Mom?" Lina gritted her teeth, wishing she could tear Jennifer apart.

“No,” Lin Yan said calmly, “but she did something even worse than hitting someone. My mother can’t get over it and refuses to see anyone. When I go to see her, she throws things at me.”

Lin Na’s eyes widened in surprise. Her mother was usually the most elegant person, and from childhood to adulthood, her mother had always spoken softly to Lin Yan and never criticized him, let alone thrown things at him.

"What exactly did that bitch do to Mom?"

"It's better if you don't know." Lin Yan's expression became somewhat inscrutable.

"Why can't I know! Don't always act like you're doing this for my own good and make decisions for me, okay? What did Jennifer do to make Mom so upset? Could it be..."

Thinking of a certain possibility, Lin Na's face instantly turned pale.

"Hughes arrived in time, so nothing irreversible happened. But before that, Jennifer shaved Mom's head bald."

Shaved head bald...

Lin Na was shocked. She knew how much her mother cherished her beautiful hair.

"Bastard!" Lin Na cursed angrily.

"So how did Hughes handle this?"

Lin Yan's lips curled into a faint sneer: "For him, hair can grow back, after all, there's no other loss."

Thinking of not seeing Hughes at the hospital, and the bodyguards at the door being Lin Yan's men, Lin Na knew what kind of attitude that scumbag father had.

"All the men in your Bruno family are scum!"

"Please remove 'you'." Lin Yan raised his eyes.

“Why did you remove it? You too! If you don’t like Jiaoyang, don’t play games. If it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t have returned to China, and this wouldn’t have happened!” By the end, Lin Na’s eyes were red. She kicked the door in frustration and turned to leave.

Lin Yan lowered his eyes, his fingers, which had been resting on the piano keys, slowly curled into fists.

Dislike? If only she really didn’t like it…

Lin Na got back into her car, kicked off her high heels, and stared blankly ahead, hugging her knees.

“Lina, where to now?” Assistant Sudan turned from the passenger seat and asked.

Lin Na sighed heavily and said, “Back to the company.”

“The ‘Supermodel’ program team just contacted me, asking when you can spare some time again. They want to invite you to be a judge in the finals,” Sudan said.

“No!” Lin Na refused without thinking. She was in a terrible mood right now; she had no time to participate in that damn program.

“Okay, I’ll turn them down for you.”

Linna leaned back in the back seat and said, “I have things to do these next few days, don’t arrange my schedule.”

“Okay,” Sudan nodded in response.

Linna turned to look at the trees flashing by outside the window, feeling a void in her heart.

When the car was so quiet you could hear your own breathing, a cell phone rang, breaking the silence.

Linna picked up her phone, glanced at it, hesitated for a second, and answered.

“Lina, you’re back?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be back tomorrow, let’s meet then!”

“I’m afraid not, I have to go to London later and won’t be back for a few days.” Linna calmly refused.

“London? To see Sheng Jiaoyang at Godilla Hospital, right?” The man’s voice on the other end of the line carried a hint of disappointment.

Linna pursed her lips and said, “Yes.”

Hearing her answer, the person on the other end seemed to laugh self-deprecatingly.

“Okay, I get it. In your heart, I’ll never be as good as Sheng Jiaoyang. Before her accident, you could cut short our date to be with her just because of a phone call. When we were both sick, you rushed to take care of her but called me to find a caregiver. Now that she’s not awake, you’ll still reject me for her sake.”

“Lina, do you really love me?”

The call ended abruptly.

Lin Na stared blankly at her phone screen, her eyes gradually welling up with tears.

How could she not love him? She had even managed to win him over with Xiao Taiyang’s advice. But he was right about one thing: in her heart, Sheng Jiaoyang was indeed the most important.

Everyone said she had lesbian tendencies, that she treated her best friends better than her boyfriend. But they knew nothing. She had a gentle and kind mother, but all her mother’s attention had been focused on Lin Yan. She had been a boarding school since elementary school, and back then, when she had a fever of over 39 degrees Celsius, no one knew. If it weren’t for Sheng Jiaoyang, she wouldn’t be where she is today. If

she wasn’t good to Sheng Jiaoyang, who else could she be good to?

If she could, she would rather be the one who had the accident.