133 The Traitor 17 (1/2)
Joann shared it with Xu Jing. Their expressions moved from shock to horror as they went through the pieces of evidence.
After taking some time to digest the sudden flow of information, Joann put the thing down, turned to look at Lee Mu and uttered in a slow tone, ”So, you're… gay?!”
As hard as he tried not to, Lee Mu could not help himself from flinching. The word stung. One of the reasons why he went along with the demands of the blackmail was because he did not want to let his friend know about his secret. He was not yet ready. What if Joann could not accept him for who he was? He did not want to lose a friend over this… so he chose to hurt his friend instead, the whole thing was rather dumb if you are taking the perspective of an outsider but things are a lot more complicated if you are seeing this from within.
Joann slammed the envelope on the table and it made most of the people in the room jump. ”In that case, you should have laid it on me thicker during that conference! Calling me an actor that is hard to work with is barely a slander to my name, Lee Mu, I expected better from you.”
Joann then shook her head with regret and sighed, ”This is such a missed opportunity.”
”Huh?!” People were confused by her words. It was Lee Mu who asked the question that was on everyone's mind, ”Joann, what do you mean by that? Aren't you angry at what we did?”
”Yes, I'm angry!” Joann whipped her head to narrow her eyes at Lee Mu, ”But not at what you did but at the fact that you're hiding your happy relationship from me, I thought we are better friends than this. Moreover, I'm angry at the fact that you didn't come to me when you received this in your mail.”
Joann waved the envelope to stress her point. Then her face softened with a smile. She was truly happy for her friend.
Lee Mu was still in shock. He stammered, ”But… what would be the point of me… me coming to you?”
Joann tutted like she was talking to a less than bright child. ”Have you been knocked on your head recently? Have you forgotten what we do for a living? We're professional actors for God sakes. We definitely could have played this up some more. You could have called me with worse names and I could have thrown stuff at you. We could have put on a show! Based on how good we are, I doubt the blackmailer would realize we were merely acting.”
Lee Mu and Zao Ming were stunned. Indeed, why hadn't they thought about that?
They could have approached Joann privately and acted out a whole show. They were too caught up in their own drama to realize this option was readily available to them.
Then again, unbeknownst to them, this was a blessing in disguise because while they could deal with the reporters afterward, they had no way of knowing how close the real blackmailer was to them. The culprit would have seen through their acting easily. Therefore, it was a good thing that Zao Ming and Lee Mu were too caught up in their own problem to seek Joann out.
In any case, it was Xu Jing who said, ”It's too late for that now. We better figure out a way to resolve this issue.”
Then, the man turned to flash a smile at Lee Mu and Zao Ming. When he found out Lee Mu bat for the other team, the animosity and prejudice he had towards the man disappeared almost instantly, as easily as the snake shedding its second skin.