Chapter 4 Top Agent

Fortunately, the director was not a very smart man. He believed Cherry without hesitation; it actually made her feel a little sorry for him that he was so gullible.

No wonder Jonny had insisted on her coming to his rescue. If she hadn't, who else would he be able to find to make excuses for his laziness?

Cherry had just learned something new, Jonny had a brother she had never heard of!

Jonny pretended to be innocent, and said, "I need to rest for a while. I've lost a lot of blood you know."

"All right, I'll drive you straight home then," Cherry replied, starting the car.

"Didn't I say you should take me to the hospital my brother works at? I've already asked him to wait there for me, but don't worry, it's very close."

Cherry looked back at him in confusion, still not entirely convinced, "Do you really have a brother?" She had been his agent for many years now and somehow this had never come up. How could she not know this?

Jonny simply laughed.

He slumped down in the back seat, getting really comfortable and replied, "I really do. But he's nothing like me. He was a good student and studied hard. Later on in life, he went to the best medical university in the country. Recently, he was deceived by my mother and came back." There seemed to be a hint of mockery in his tone which made Cherry frown. It seemed she was missing something, but she said nothing of it, deciding to just let it be.

Jonny had started his career very early, and all the hard work he had put in to it was not something that most people understood.

Perhaps it was just that his efforts were overshadowed by his more academic brother's achievements.

Cherry headed for the hospital at the address she had been given.

But for some reason, this road felt so familiar.

It looked like they were heading for the hospital she had been at last time.

"My brother is a surgeon. Recently though, he seems to be working shifts in the emergency room. He was supposed to have dinner with my mother tonight, but I called him to deal with my wound first." Jonny then stretched himself and added, "You can leave after he's done treating me."

Cherry couldn't hold her tongue any longer.

She just had to ask, "Is you brother by any chance, Jacob Nalan?"

Jonny's eyes lit up. "What? Do you know him?"

Cherry sneered silently and did not reply.

'It's a small world I guess, we were bound to cross paths again,' she thought to herself.

She hadn't expected to see him again so soon though.

Jonny shuffled around in the back of the car and the wound was about to start bleeding more profusely again.

Cherry parked the car and followed him to the elevator.

When they stepped out, they found Jacob already waiting in the exam room.

He got to his feet quickly when he caught sight of Jonny, a trace of worry on his cold face. "How did this happen?"

He glanced at Cherry but concealed his surprise perfectly, turning back to lean over and examine Jonny's wound, ignoring her completely.

When Jonny saw his brother, he seemed to totally forget his injury. "Well, wounds like this are quite common. I had a little accident hanging from a wire and got myself injured. That's it..."

"We need to disinfect it first. With this sort of injury, it's safer to have an injection to get rid of the tetanus," said Jacob, quickly ushering him to the medical station.

Jacob touched a cotton pad to Jonny's wound and he immediately let out a cry of pain. Jacob raised his head and rolled his eyes. "You're crying out in pain now, why didn't you just take better care of your body in the first place?" he asked.

Jonny was upset, his stinging wound sending him into a foul mood. "Who said I didn't take care of it? The stunt wire broke, can I control that? I've been working like this every day and I often get injured. If you don't want to take care of this for me, I'll find someone else to do it!"

Jonny was famous for his bad temper, and in the years since he'd become famous, everyone had learned about it.

Jacob just stared back at him coldly. "Nobody else will take care of you like a brother!" He pressed the cotton down hard. Jonny was in so much pain he wanted to beat his brother.

"Anesthetic." He turned around to look for the injection and said, "You need to have stitches, and don't let it come into contact with water until they're removed."

Jonny glared back and said, "If you're taking care of me like a brother, why were you so rough with my wound, huh?"

Jacob didn't answer, he just skillfully gave him an injection and said lightly, "I'm not like you. I can tell the good from the bad. You know, you shouldn't hang out with people you don't know that well."

Cherry was stunned.

'What is he talking about?' she wondered, but Jonny spoke first.

"What do you mean?"

Jacob then lifted his head and looked directly at Cherry. She sneered back at him with hate in her eyes.

"What? Doctor Nalan, do you remember who I am now?"

"I apologize, I didn't recognize you before you lifted the dress."

Basically, he had not been able to forget her after she lifted her dress.

Jonny blinked blankly, turning his head back and forth between the two of them.

What were they hiding from him?

"I didn't know you until you tore my dress," Cherry snapped back. She then calmed herself a little and said, "Dr. Nalan, you've had a problem with me since the first time we met. You can ask Jonny what kind of person I am and I think you'll see that you're still far from being able to distinguish between good and bad."

Jonny couldn't help but laugh, but his smile soon turned to a grimace as his brother plunged a needle into his arm to sew his wound. He was still uncomfortable, despite the anesthetic.

"Brother," he chuckled, "calm down. This is my agent. And I don't care about whether you can tell the good from the bad, just remember that you're stabbing your brother's arm. Please, show s

ome mercy."

"Didn't you just say that I didn't treat you like a brother would?" Jacob said angrily. He then added with disdain in his voice, "I'm really concerned that this sort of person is your agent. I'm willing to bet she's been taking advantage of you for many years now hasn't she? She's been pimping you out for her own gain, right?"

That stunned Jonny silent for a moment. Cherry then responded slowly, "I'm sorry, but you don't know what you're talking about. Over the last five years, I've been helping Jonny cancel all those social engagements and tried to keep him from going out and around so much. Your opinion is useless anyway, no matter what kind of person you are, you just think others are the same."

She'd had enough of this bastard and his prejudice he'd held for several times; she had to fight back against him.

Jonny stared at his elder brother in a daze. As always, Jacob was not easy to handle.

He might have been out of line to say so, but it seemed he hit the nail on the head. "No wonder people say the entertainment business is a jungle; it's a real mess," Jacob said calmly. He then took his time stitching Jonny's wound, "Jonny, if I told Dad that this is your agent, there's no way he'd let you continue working in the entertainment business. We may be short on money, but don't have to resort to getting it like this. We're not like just anybody."

His words almost choked Cherry from the insult she felt.

But she did not want to show any weakness. "Oh my, I'm sorry. Did you live in the mountains before? You haven't been in the city for a long time, have you? You don't know anything. Didn't Jonny tell you? His father picked me to be his agent. That's right. Five years ago, Mr. Nalan interviewed me himself and asked me to work for Jonny."

They were both so quick to bark back at each other that Jonny felt his eyes weren't fast enough to keep up with them.

He was swiveling his head between them so much as they argued, it was actually a good distraction. He was so captivated his wound didn't even hurt anymore!

"I see." Jacob sutured the wound and deftly cut the end of the thread. "Well, Father doesn't understand that people change."

"You!" Cherry couldn't take any more of his nonsense. "You think I'm a liar? I'll sue you for slander. You don't believe I will?"

"I only believe my own eyes," Jacob responded, pointing at his bright eyes challengingly. "I don't care what you do, just please don't steer my younger brother down the wrong path," he continued.

Did Jonny need her to misguide him?

He was already bad enough on his own.

Jonny almost burst into laughter at the sight of Cherry, a strong woman who was usually the picture of cool and collected, about to collapse.

Jacob frowned at his brother and asked, "It seems you don't feel pain anymore. Is it funny now?"

"No... Just... Why do you two hate each other so much? What happened here?"

A calm, strong woman and an icy doctor. What on earth had happened between them?

"That's none of your business!" Cherry snapped. She then crossed her arms and asked, "Jonny, are you done here or not? Let me drive you home."

Before he could answer, Jacob butted in, "No, that's not necessary. I can drive him home." He then muttered under his breath, "I don't want him to be taken away to do bad things."

Cherry was so angered the color drained from her face.

"You can leave, Cherry," Jonny said, waving his hand to dismiss her.

"It's better for you to stay away from such a vile person. There are too many things in the entertainment business you can't control. If you can find something else to do, you'd better change careers," Jacob said in a low voice.

Jonny laughed, "Change careers? I don't know anything else. I can't be a doctor like you. Besides, I'm used to a lavish lifestyle. What else could I do to earn money faster than being a star?"

Jacob's thin lips moved to speak, but nothing came out.

It seemed his younger brother didn't want him to come back.

He lowered his eyes, trying to hide his disappointment.

Even back home, he was still lonely.

But he was used to it and so it didn't bother him as much anymore.

Jacob said nothing more and Jonny turned over and jumped off the operating table.

He moved his arm as if nothing had happened. "I'm starved. Let's go home and ask Mom to cook me some noodles."

Jacob packed up and stood in his way, "Don't take any painkillers tonight when your arm hurts, just ride it out."

"No problem, I can handle it." Jonny carelessly jumped into the car.

The two brothers drove steadily through the dark night until they reached their mother's house...

"How did you hurt yourself like this?" Donna's heart ached at the sight of her injured child. Her eyes reddened and welled up as she immediately ordered the servants to boil some red date tea. "You're not allowed to go back to your own house. You'll stay here where I can take care of you."

Jonny collapsed onto the sofa lazily and said, "It's not a big deal. It's just a little scratch, Mom. I'll take the day off tomorrow and get back to work the day after. The promos haven't been finished yet."

"Can't you just quit?" All she cared about was her son's health. "We don't need you to earn so much money, we have enough."

"Mom," Jonny said helplessly, "if I break the contract I have to pay more than ten million dollars in damages."

Donna's mouth gaped wide open. For a middle-class housewife like her, a number like that was the stuff of fairytales.

"I've saved a fair bit of money over the years, I just don't think it's a good idea to spend it like that. Plus the company won't be able to explain me quitting either and that'll just cause more trouble." He kissed his mother softly and said, "You're going to be 55 years old in a few days, and it's also your 28th wedding anniversary with my father. Why don't I take care of it, spoil you guys a bit?"