Chapter 84: The Review (2)

Joann's fingers that held the tabloid were shaking from both humiliation and fury. She skipped the rest of the so-called review and turned her focus to the byline. The article was written by someone whom she could not recognize. She was sure she had no beef with this journalist so Joann failed to understand why she was specifically targeted.

The article proclaimed itself as a review but it was quite obvious a thinly-veiled personal attack piece aimed at damaging Joann's name and reputation.

For a confident individual like Joann, shame was a rare emotion to experience. However, standing there at the stall, with the naked picture of herself before her, Joann felt embarrassed and exposed like the world was judging her and watching her.

It was a feeling that she did not like.

Joann slammed the tabloid close. The papers crackled noisily as she crammed the book under her arm but it did nothing to wake the old man up. Joann pulled out a 10 note from her pocket and dropped it into the box before leaving hastily.

The longer she was in the open, the more unsettled she felt. She headed for home.

…

Ever since Xu Jing punched Lee Mu in the face out of pure jealousy, things had been rather frosty at home. This was exacerbated by the ongoing cold war between Joann and Sylvia. Practically, at the Xu household, no one was talking to anyone else.

Well, that might not be entirely true. Xu Jing tried communicating with Joann but the latter rebuffed him and as mentioned earlier, Joann was still not on speaking terms with her daughter.

In other words, her home was not really a welcoming haven of comfort but compared to being judged by others in the open, it was still the better choice.

When Joann stepped through the front door of her house, she was shocked by the scene that unfolded before her eyes.

Instead of a spacious living room, the room was filled with stacks after stacks of thin booklets. There was barely a standing space left.

Joann walked cautiously into the room and realized all the books were the same tabloid she had bought that morning. She felt wrought with discomfiture, 'What is the meaning of this? Who is behind this? Are they trying to rub it in my face?'

Then she saw the back of Xu Jing's head poke out from the sea of tabloids.

"Xu Jing!" Joann called with not a small hint of displeasure in her voice. Xu Jing turned around and when he saw Joann, his face lit up like a child on Christmas morning, "Honey, you're home!"

Joann found it hard to share his enthusiasm. She levelled her husband a stern gaze and asked, "Xu Jing, what is the meaning of this?" Joann waved her arm around the room to signify she was talking about the state it was in.

Xu Jing made a show of looking about before answering, "Oh, you mean this? I'm trying to redecorate our living room. I find our previous design to be a bit dull…"

Before Xu Jing could continue blabbering, Joann cut him off with a warning gaze. Xu Jing caught the threat in her eyes and held his hands up in surrender, "Fine, fine. You're no fun sometimes. I went to the printing press and intercepted as many copies of the tabloids with your news on it as I can before they hit the market. I was still a bit late because some of the copies have been taken away already."

When the naked picture of your wife was published on a magazine, it was hard to not hear wind about it. The first thing Xu Jing did after finding out was to stop the copies from leaking into the market so he went directly to the source.

One would think the printing press wouldn't allow Xu Jing to do something so ludicrous but the printing press wasn't the publisher. They did not care about the circulation of the tabloid, they only wanted the sales, so when the proprietor at the printing press heard that Xu Jing want to buy all the copies of the tabloid he had available in stock, he could not have been happier to oblige.

"But why would you…" Joann began but stopped herself mid-sentence because the answer was already formulating in her mind. She lowered her head and sighed tiredly, "This is mother's order, isn't it?"

'That has to be it. Mother was so angered when the previous scandal surfaced, so I can only imagine how mad she was when she found out about this. She must have felt shamed and ordered Xu Jing to stop the tabloids from circulating the market.'

Joann raised her head to look at Xu Jing and her husband was giving her a look that she did not like. 'I must have hit the nail on its head.'

While Joann was coming up with an explanation to provide her traditional mother-in-law, Xu Jing said to interrupt her thought, "Honey, have you forgotten? Mother is overseas for a business meeting, how could she have given me this order? She probably wouldn't know about this considering how local and unknown the tabloid is."

This was the only good news Joann had heard that morning. She was thankful for being spared to deal with her mother-in-law because she really did not think she have the strength to deal with that right now.

However, the corners of her lips quickly turned upside down again because she did not feel comforted by the alternative either. This meant that Xu Jing went out to buy all the tabloids on his own volition. Joann did not like what that implied.

She voiced the concern that was on her mind, "Xu Jing, does this mean that you are… ashamed of me?"

Xu Jing was confused by this question that seemed to appear out of nowhere but he treaded through the sea of books and walked over to his wife to pull her into a hug.