The Man Behind the Star (6)

"Miss Joann Fong, I hope you don't mind the intrusion." The younger sister hid behind her elder sister, she seemed awfully starstruck. It was the elder sister who had kept the conversation going.

"Of course not, how can I help you?" Joann said with a pleasant smile on her face.

"We, we're very big fans of your work! We're just wondering would you sign this for us?!" The girl stammered while holding out a paper napkin towards Joann. The napkin was of fine quality and Xu Jing believed they were compliments of the restaurant.

"Of course. It would be my pleasure to do so." Joann took the napkins from them and signed them carefully. She asked the girls for their names and wrote them down on the napkins so they would be personalized.

The girls were so impressed that Joann was so thoughtful even though this was something common among celebrities who had been given PR classes by their agency. The most effective way to retain one's fan was to make each of them feel special. However, the honest truth was most of the celebrities wouldn't even remember your name once they had it signed. After all, they were mere humans, it would be preposterous for the public to expect them to remember the names of their every fan. It was simply a mirage that no one wished to burst for the sake of keeping the illusion alive.

While Joann signed the napkins, the younger sister poked her head out to stutter nervously, "We, we... we are so in awe by Miss Joann's love for her friend... Even though your friend... has said such horrible things... about you, Miss Joann has stayed by his side through thick and thin."

The girl was referring to the incident with Lee Mu. After the release of the article and the commercial, Joann had appeared alongside Lee Mu on some variety show to talk about their friendship and the support they had for each others. While Lee Mu and Joann were indeed real-life friends, some of the stories shared were fabricated or enhanced because this was ultimately a PR move to undo the damage Lee Mu had done. It worked to build the image of a caring and understanding friend for Joann in the audience's hearts.

"It was what I was supposed to do. After all, a friend in need is a friend indeed, right?" Joann said as if rehearsed.

However the two girls slurped her PR statement right up, in fact, Xu Jing could see their eyes lighting up with admiration.

After a few more friendly exchanges, the girls left. Xu Jing knew the dinner would not be between them anymore and he was proven right. After the girls had taken the lead, others started to follow suit.

Since they were at an upscale restaurant, the fans didn't act too out of place. They did not crowd Joann and came to see her one group after another. As expected of the upper society, they were respectful and polite.

However, this also meant that the proceeding took much longer than necessary. If the people just queue up in one long line and was ushered through the meeting in an orderly manner, things would have wrapped up in probably less than an hour. That way, Xu Jing would have some time left to have a little romantic moment with his wife.

Instead, each group that approached them wished for some private moment with the star. Perhaps this was born from the upper society's natural sense of superiority, they felt like they deserved more than what the normal people had. If a normal fan meet and greet with Joann for each individual would last for 5 minutes, then these people felt like they should get at least 10 minutes each.

In any case, the restaurant workers would only intervene if the customers acted too out of line and they were not security that Joann would normally have at her meet and greet to monitor the crowd. If anything, it would work against their interest if they tried to supervise the crowd like timing each fan's time with Joann, or asking people to return to their seat if they lingered too long because these were their customers and customers are always right.

Therefore, Xu Jing and Joann's supposedly romantic night-out turned into an unofficial fan meeting. This was a good source of contention but Xu Jing did not get angry over it. In fact, he was proud that his wife was so popular and beloved.

While he felt sorry that a good opportunity for them to get together had gone to waste, as long as his wife was happy, he had no issue with it. Joann did seem to enjoy the attention her fans lavished on her and for Xu Jing, that was all that mattered.

When the fan meeting ended, it was about closing time for the restaurant. Xu Jing finished his portion of the food while Joann's was practically untouched. The man had nothing else to do but eat while he waited for Joann to finish dealing with her fans and Joann was too busy meeting fans to have anything to eat. After all, it would have been ridiculously rude for her to be chewing on food while she interacted with her fans.

The maitre 'd was kind enough to pack all the food up for her to bring home. He arrived with the take-away case and the bill.

Instead of handing them over to Xu Jing, he gave them to Joann. From how he saw it, Joann was the one who would be paying the bill. After all, people often associated celebrities with deep pockets.

While that might not be entirely true in all cases, it was definitely accurate for Xu Jing and Joann.

Following the hostile take-over from Lin Corps, Xu Jing's company was still in recovery, while thanks to the recent boost to Joann's popularity due to the publicity from Lee Mu's expose and its aftermath, her endorsement deals kept coming.