Chapter 90: Chapter 90

The ointment for treating burns felt cool against the injury.

But Conrad Sterling’s palm was warm, with some rough calluses.

The feeling of this on Anna Thornton’s fair skin was as contradictory as Conrad’s words and actions.

Due to the ’inaction’ of the sole person present, Anna Thornton finally couldn’t resist Conrad Sterling, and she could only weakly and helplessly let him apply the burn ointment.

"Conrad Sterling, you’ve applied the ointment, let go of me, don’t try to take advantage!" Anna squirmed restlessly.

Upon hearing this, Conrad shot her a sidelong glance, "What exactly is there for me to take advantage of?"

Though he spoke these words, his hand curled slightly as if still savoring the touch, feeling somewhat unreal and desolate.

This little woman’s legs, are too thin.

Yet she’s surprisingly strong despite being so thin.

Could it really be from carrying the child?

Ethan didn’t look back, yet he was able to gauge the timing, putting on his glasses once the atmosphere in the back seats returned to normal.

This time he was genuinely focused on driving.

The route from the TV station to the hospital was quite long, compounded by traffic, and for the entire hour, Anna and Conrad remained silent.

Until the striking Bentley stopped at the hospital entrance, Anna was just about to open the door and get out.

At that moment, Conrad suddenly spoke, "I don’t have a romantic relationship with Marilyn."

Hearing this, Anna paused in her movement to open the car door and turned to look at him, "Why emphasize this to me?"

"I don’t want you to constantly bring up nonexistent things in front of me."

"But weren’t you the one who said you were going to propose to Marilyn Ford? Does the label of boyfriend and girlfriend make much difference? Anyway, you’ll eventually be her man unless the proposal fails..."

Saying this, Anna glanced at Conrad with a certain slyness in her eyes, "Could it be you hope for me to sabotage it? President Sterling, your real intentions are quite intriguing, especially when you tell the truth to ease my guilt. It seems... you’re not very eager for a successful proposal to Goddess Ford."

"Don’t use your imagination to speculate on me!" Conrad emphasized with a slight frown.

"Oh? It seems you’re well-prepared for this proposal? Then what’s the point of telling me all this, anyway you’re determined, and whether you and Marilyn Ford are a couple doesn’t change the outcome. I must think it over, even if I do something under these circumstances, does it hold any meaning."

Anna Thornton’s idea of thinking it over was really only pondering for a second before deciding to give up: "Forget it, I’m not chasing after you, waste of time."

After Anna got out of the car, Ethan adjusted the rearview mirror inside.

Conrad looked up just in time to catch his assistant’s smirking face.

"What’s so funny?" Conrad asked him.

"Nothing, President Sterling."

"Alright, President Sterling, but you must agree not to get mad first." Ethan reined in his grin slightly and cleared his throat, "I just felt that compared to when Miss Thornton mentioned sabotaging your proposal to Miss Ford, when she said she was giving up pursuing you, you looked even more displeased."

"Have eyes on the back of your head?"

"Then how do you know I’m not pleased?"

Ethan wanted to say that he doesn’t even need to look; he deeply understands the boss’s tendency to lash out at subordinates when he’s unhappy and even secretly built a mental test indicator for it.

Judging by the current test indicator with President Sterling, Ethan felt his best advice for himself was that, while he had the right to speak, it was better to say nothing.

Who President Sterling truly cares about is something he must figure out himself.

The fragility between the boss and Miss Thornton isn’t for him to expose.

In the days following Anna Thornton’s recording of that variety show, Mary was constantly on edge.

Anna told me about the frequent issues during the recording session, and she’s worried that this episode might not air in the end.

Even though the show isn’t that famous, it’s the first program Anna Thornton has participated in since returning home.

No one knows how hard it is for Mary to squeeze out a few resources from Jane Jennings, and every time she visits Dynasty Entertainment’s agency, she comes back fuming.

Back then, we happily signed the contract and thought hooking up with a major company like Dynasty would bring many benefits. Now, no matter how difficult it is, we can only hold on with Anna.

Mary can already imagine, if this episode doesn’t air or the outcome is poor, Jane Jennings will definitely give us just a copper coin like the oppressive landlords, considering it a great blessing. The opportunity was given, and if you didn’t seize it, it’ll be even harder to get resources for Anna in the future.

So Mary is particularly anxious about this opportunity, camping out on "Food and Love"’s official Weibo after the recording ended. Luckily, nothing else went wrong before the program aired, though they also didn’t release a preview as they usually do.

On the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival, Mary was on time in front of the ward’s LCD TV, waiting for the "Food and Love" variety show to air past ten.

"It’s started, it’s started! Anna, come look quickly!"

Mary held the remote control, staring at the advertisement countdown on the TV. In the last ten seconds, she didn’t dare to blink.

In contrast, Anna Thornton seemed quite casual.

After all, Anna Thornton was the one who attended the recording in person, so she had a good sense of the show’s content.

To be honest, Anna Thornton didn’t have high expectations for the show’s effect. Knowing the nature of the host and production team, she didn’t hold out much hope for their post-production editing. Plus, seeing the two taste testers’ reactions firsthand during the program further proved how bad her cooking really was...

Anyway, Anna Thornton could only say she hoped Mary had more resilience than before.

"Anna, hurry up! The show has started, I can see your new purple dress, it looks stunning on the show!" Google seaʀᴄh novel[f]ire.net

Mary, clearly unaware of Anna Thornton’s inner thoughts, was still immersed in the excitement of seeing her artist on TV for the first time.

But gradually, her excited smile began to fade as the show progressed.

"I’ve tallied their show, generally when they invite a male guest to chat, it’s no more than five minutes before the female guest is brought out. What is this host doing, is he too happy chatting and forgot the routine?"

Mary quickly pulled out her phone to time how long it took before Anna made her appearance.

As a manager, being meticulous in fighting for her artist’s rights is an essential skill.

These pieces of evidence could be used later to argue with Jane Jennings. Look at the resources she provided, is this how you bully people? Not enough screen time, poor effects, you can’t blame everything on the artist.

On the show, after Ethan Hawthorne and Jay Cross chatted for over ten minutes, the host finally remembered to invite the female guest out.

Watching the TV broadcast, Mary timed it on her phone while simultaneously checking real-time comments on the show’s web page with her tablet.

Seeing Anna appear, she quickly switched to her alt account to support her artist, posting ’Anna is so beautiful!’ three times in a row.

She was, after all, on her own, and these kinds of compliments were quite shallow, quickly drowned out by other comments.

But... what on earth were the other comments about?

[Ethan Hawthorne already back on the show? Has his drugging and attempted assault case blown over?]

[This is what power and privilege can do, he’s not banned?]

[What kind of trash show is this, inviting disgraced artists is like feeding shit to the audience, let’s all boycott this shit!]

[Anna Thornton and Ethan Hawthorne should both get out of the entertainment industry!]

Mary knew netizens could be quite irritable, but while cursing Ethan was understandable, why involve Anna?

She couldn’t help but comment under the emotional posts on behalf of Anna: [Anna Thornton is just a minor artist, she has no say in who the production team invites for recording.]

The person responded: [Even if she didn’t decide, she could have refused, right? Knowing what kind of person Ethan Hawthorne is, she still cooked for him? Doesn’t she know there’s a female artist around her age who nearly got assaulted by Ethan and yet still fought for justice despite all the obstacles? Compared to that, Anna Thornton is a disgrace to us women, getting along with a criminal, not acting is also acting badly.]

[Exactly, Anna Thornton always ties herself to men for publicity, having no bottom line to get famous. Let’s curse her along with Ethan Hawthorne.]

After reading these comments, Mary looked serious. She put down her phone and turned to Anna Thornton: "I feel like things aren’t going well today!"

Anna Thornton hadn’t really watched the show but saw the increasing online criticism against her during the broadcast.

Unlike the slanderous comments from her previous scandals, Anna Thornton didn’t have any big news lately.

These comments, seemingly directed at Ethan Hawthorne but subtly trying to drag Anna Thornton down with him, carried a strong guiding purpose, clearly orchestrated by hired trolls.

"I forgot to tell you, the reason I bought a new dress was because I found out someone tampered with the clothes prepared by the production team," Anna Thornton suddenly informed Mary.

"Tampered with?" Mary reacted, finally realizing the gravity, "What’s going on? Is someone targeting you?"

"It was uncertain before, but now I’m sure!"