The Innocent Victim (2)

A normal guy would question Qing Qing's motive, after all, her hand was free enough to hook the strap of her dress up on her own. There was no need for her to purposely ask for help from people around her.

'What is the meaning of this? Is she trying to seduce me? Why doesn't she just do it herself?' None of these questions even appeared in Lee Mu's mind.

"Oh, okay." Then he just reached over naturally to adjust her strap. His finger did not linger longer than necessary nor did he seem awkward doing it. It felt like a girlfriend helping her gal-pal out with a wardrobe malfunction.

If the point had not been made yet, there was no sexual tension.

"Thank you," Qing Qing said sweetly but the plan she was brewing was anything but that. She had received all the confirmations she needed during this morning jog. She was about 90 percent sure of her speculation.

However, for her plan to work, she needed something more concrete and she knew just the way to get that.

After about 10 minutes of rest, they both stood up from the bench and went for another lap around the park. The day was getting bright and the elderlies were leaving. More and more families could be seen arriving at the park.

Lee Mu and Qing Qing had started getting the attention of the crowd. In fact, Lee Mu had been asked to sign several signatures already. That was the cue for them to leave.

"Thank you for coming along with me, Qing Qing. That was fun. I'll see you next time." Lee Mu waved at her at the park entrance, thinking to himself, 'Boy, am I glad this is over. Never again….'

Qing Qing waved back at him, outlining in her mind the next phase of her plan. As Qing Qing headed home, she flashed a wicked smile that no one saw.

…

Things had settled down more or less at the Xu family the week after the crisis at Xu Corps. Mrs. Xu had gone back to work and she knew she had to work extra hard to regain the confidence of the shareholders. Xu Jing reverted to his carefree self but Joann did notice that was an extra alertness about her husband that was not there before. Sylvia also went back to her work. She had been missing plenty of hours at her job because she had to stay back to provide support for her family. She was glad that everything worked out in the end.

None of them knew of the transaction between Joann and Lin Kang, they all assumed Joann reached out to Xiu Ling and that was how the whole debacle was solved. Joann did not reveal any information with regards to her humiliating episode with Lin Kang to any one of her family member because she did not see the information being of any use to them. It would only lead to more misunderstanding. However, sometimes, not telling would only make the incident seemed even more secretive and malicious than it actually was.

After all, if you did not share it, it meant that you were afraid of letting other people find out and that could lead to even more misunderstandings than just sharing it with everyone at the get-go.

That night, Joann was sitting in the living room, flipping through the channels when Sylvia stepped through the front door.

"Hi, mom!" Sylvia called out cheerfully from the door.

Joann turned around and saw the camera that hung from her daughter's neck. She knew Sylvia probably just came back from one of her assignments and Joann tried her best to not let the frown that threatened to surface on her face appear as she greeted her daughter back, "Good evening, Sylvia."

"Have you had your dinner?" Joann asked.

"I had some when I was working but thanks."

Sylvia unloaded her equipment at the table. It included her camera and her laptop. Instead of going straight to her room like she usually would, Sylvia lingered in the living room, standing next to her laptop.

Then an awkward silence stretched between them. Joann had explicitly stated that if possible, she did not want to hear a thing about her job because it went against her moral code. However, Sylvia just had a scoop that she desperately wished to share with her mother.

She did not know how to bring it up without seeing like she was trying to get information from her mother. It was truly a thin line to thread.

Noticing the awkwardness on her daughter's face, Joann decided to be the bigger party this time. Perhaps she was in a good mood from the good energy that recently pervaded the Xu household or perhaps she too wanted to find out what was on her daughter's mind, in any case, Joann sighed and asked, "Is that so? What was your work about?"

After all, celebrities were normal human beings and there wasn't many normal female humans out there who were immune to the allure of a good gossip.

Sylvia's eyes brightened. This was the first time her mother had shown active interest in her job, and just right when she needed it as well.

Sylvia opened her laptop and plopped down on the sofa next to her mother. "I actually just came from Lee Mu's place."

Sylvia noticed the frown that appeared on her mother's face when the name of her co-star was mentioned so she moved over that as quickly as she could. "In any case, that is not so important. Mom, what I want you to see is this. I want to ask for your opinion."

Sylvia clicked a few buttons on her computer and she turned the screen around to face Joann. It was a picture of someone Joann could recognize.

"We took this at the Starbucks near Lee Mu's apartments," Sylvia offered as explanation.

Then Sylvia asked the same question that was on her mother's mind...