Chapter 15 - It's Either Me... or Her!
Lin Chen’s clenched his fists in his pants pockets. His long, bony fingers inadvertently let out a cracking sound. He immediately unclenched his fists, maintaining the calm composure in his enigmatic eyes. Smoothly concealing his emotions, he took the box of cigarettes out of his pocket.
“Your fiance? Gu Shaoting?” Lin Chen pulled out a cigarette and bit onto it as he searched for a lighter on his body.
Lin Nuan shook her head.
Thinking about the man in the car still waiting for her, Lin Nuan knew that she only had about twenty minutes. Seeing that Lin Chen hadn’t found his lighter yet, she said, “Brother, let’s talk about it after we go inside. Let’s not stand outside…”
Lin Chen stared at Lin Nuan in silence and removed the cigarette from his mouth. He just wanted to spend a little more time alone with Lin Nuan. But he lost his composure once he heard that Lin Nuan had brought home her… fiancé.
“Come in…”
Lin Chen honked the horn, and the gates of the Lins’ mansion slowly opened.
Lin Chen drove all the way inside along their driveway and made a call back home. The butler picked up.
Lin Chen broke the news that Lin Nuan had returned.
The news set off an uproar in the Lin Family. Especially to Lin Ran, who was picking out a formal dress for her grandmother’s birthday celebration next month.
There was no way that Lin Ran could treat her decently; not the woman who’d robbed her identity for so many years.
“What’s she here for?” Lin Ran said with furrowed brows, feeling her anger rising inside like steam.
Liang Mulan took a look at Lin Ran and held her small hand tightly. Her eyes began to water.
She wanted to thoroughly persuade Lin Ran to accept Lin Nuan. Deep down, Liang Mulan still wanted Lin Nuan to come back home—even if it meant becoming a part of the family using another identity.
Liang Mu Lan pleaded, “Ran Ran, please bear with it… for me. You need to know that both you and Nuan Nuan are children to me, I really—”
“Mother, you have only one daughter. It’s either me… or her! If you want Lin Nuan to come back to play as your daughter, then I’ll leave! Think it over!”
Lin Ran slammed the magazine on the table and stormed upstairs.
“Ran Ran…” Liang Mulan called out as she stood up. Lin Ran didn’t turn back.
Lin Ran fought back her tears. She was the illegitimate daughter of the Lins, not Lin Nuan! After wandering around from home for so many years, everyone should have cherished and loved her like a gem the moment she came back!
But the brothers always reserved a cold attitude towards her, as if her arrival had broken the harmony of their family.
Every single day, the only thing that elderly woman talked about was how she’d brought up Lin Nuan. When Lin Nuan was still in the Lin Family, all the socialites had tried to emulate her. Lin Ran should learn a bit more from her if she didn’t want to ruin the image of the Lins outside the family.
As if Lin Ran didn’t hear the servants gossiping about her behind her back, saying that she came from a humble background. Despite being a blood-related daughter of the Lin Family, she couldn’t compete with Lin Nuan in terms of etiquette and elegance—she was the girl who was raised in the Lin Family since she was a child.
For so many years the mere mention of Lin Nuan’s name was like a sharp knife that stabbed her in the heart. The moment anyone pressed on it, the blood just kept dripping—and it hurt like hell.
Lin Ran hated Lin Nuan and her real parents… so much so that she wished she could tear them into pieces.
…
Lin Chen parked his car in place. Lin Nuan unbuckled her seatbelt and prepared to get off the car.
“Nuan Nuan, have you considered that matter Mother mentioned when she visited you?” Lin Chen turned and looked at the beautiful curves of her side profile. He intentionally lowered his tone so she wouldn’t detect the tremor in his voice.
Lin Nuan grabbed the handle of the car door and turned back to look at him…