章節 218: The Apology (16)
The occasional cameos by Mrs. Lin and Sylvia were welcomed by the audience as well. Those loyal fans of Joann even managed to recognize Xu Jing as that man who followed Joann's schedule faithfully at the start of her career. They were glad to be given an update on the couple's relationship.
Xu Jing and Joann treated each other similar to how they would before the affair was exposed, with Xu Jing being incredibly servile to Joann. The man did not know other mode of interaction around his wife.
With Xiu Ling's advice in mind, Joann tried her best not to take her husband's kindness as granted but it was hard not to slip into her old habits especially when Xu Jing being so accommodating towards her. It felt like he was enabling her. Furthermore, they hadn't had the talk to address the extra-marital affair. Joann couldn't just magically forgive her husband, therefore, it was incredibly hard not to take advantage of the man especially when he was so willing to be taken advantage of.
This was picked up by the viewers and they gushed at how loving and doting Xu Jing was to his wife. There were cries saying they hoped their husbands were as obedient as Xu Jing was. There were other voices as well, like how detached Joann was to her husband's attention, but they were basically drown out by the admiration and compliments.
Joann didn't follow the comments online because that was a habit she had practiced since the early years of her career. She knew she could find support online from her fans but she also knew the nastiness that lurked underneath the fans thanks to contribution by trolls and haters.
Instead, Joann trained her focus at cooperating with the production team to decide and adjust the direction of the series. Joann never did tell Xu Jing why she would sometimes leave with the director after the shooting wrapped up for the day. Out of his inner guilt, Xu Jing never once intrude to ask even though he was curious about it. During one of his worse days, he might even suspect there was something suspicious happening between them but then Xu Jing would remind himself the thing that he had done and realized with shame of all the individuals in the world, he was the one who had the least qualification and right to bear that suspicion.
When he was caught in a whirlpool of guilt, Xu Jing turned to the internet in search of validation. It was the complete opposite of what his wife did. The good comments online were like a salvo to his soul. It made him feel like he was doing the right thing. Shooting the series did reintroduce the sense of normalcy back into his life. Even though Joann was doing it for the camera, at least she was talking to him again, and for that, Xu Jing was thankful.
However, he too had been conscious of the fact that they had not discussed that issue right on. He did not think it was his place to bring it up because he swore to give Joann time to process it. Therefore, he left the ball in his wife's court but Joann did not show any intention of wanting to talk about it at all. At a time like this, Xu Jing wondered if he should just breach the topic. Honestly, he wanted to many times but he did not think it was a wise idea to bring it up before the camera. He could have tried to bring it up behind the camera but Xu Jing noticed once the camera stopped rolling, Joann would try to avoid him in the most inconspicuous ways like walking away when he entered a room, turning to talk to someone else in the crew when he tried to approach her. Out of deference to Joann, Xu Jing decided to wait until she was ready. In Xu Jing's mind, shooting this series was no different to a test and if he survived until the end, then he would have passed the test.
Back in the present, the director continued with a concerned tone, "Be that as it may but I fear this popularity might not be able to carry us to the end of this series."
"Why is that, Mr. Director?" Xu Jing asked urgently. This series had a special meaning to the man, after all, he had to see it to the end.
The director misconstrued his worry for a concern for the project and he nodded satisfactorily. He gladly shared his concern with them, "Because this kind of slice-of-life series project can only capture that many attention. I mean no offense but the mundane day to day life of even a celebrity couple can only hold the audience's attention for so long. We need a hook, some big event to introduce some changes into the pace of the series. It is like telling a story, we need some climax along the way to grab the viewers' attention."
Essentially, the director was telling them to stage an event, to fake some kind of drama. After that, those were the things that drew in the audience.
Xu Jing was inexperienced in things like this and it was his nature to refer to his wife. Therefore, he turned naturally to Joann to get her opinion.
"Actually I do have something in mind." Joann said, surprising both the director and Xu Jing. They, especially Xu Jing did not think she would go along with staging something fake for the sake of the series. However, they were only half-right. Joann had something in mind but it wasn't a fake event.
She was going to attend a movie premier in a few weeks and she told the director they could dramatize something like that.
The director thought about it and realized he liked Joann's idea. The viewers would be interested in watching something as glamorous as a movie premier and it was best that they did not rely on faked script, especially when a non-professional, like Xu Jing was involved.
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