157 The Rules 1 (1/2)

Due to the many events, Joann stood at the centre of the attention and even more rarely, it was due to a positive reinforcement to her reputation. It was little wonder that big brand names could not wait to cooperate with her.

In other words, the blackmailer's plan completely backfired. Due to the intervention by Xiu Ling and her friends, the blackmailer's intention of ruining Joann's name had led to an opposite effect. Instead, it was truly a blessing in disguise.

The point was, Joann was not in need of money, whereas the same could not be said for Xu Jing. The man was by no means poor but compared to his wife, he was definitely the poorer party.

In any case, Joann was never one to abide by the social rules where the man had to pay for the woman every time, so instead of passing the bill to Xu Jing, she took out her own credit card and gave it to the maitre 'd. If she could afford to pay for herself and then some, why would she took the extra step to observe the social cues, to purposely brush up on the man's ego?

After all, we have been championing for gender equality so everything should be equal, right?

At least Xu Jing did not think so because he did not agree fully with his wife's decision. Even though she did not mean to, Joann had inadvertently committed a face-threatening act.

She had made Xu Jing lose face especially in front of the maitre 'd who eyed Xu Jing a certain way before he left to deal with the payment. The man already had a low opinion of Xu Jing and now it had sunk even lower.

Like usual, Xu Jing just shrugged it off as another one of his wife's quirks. Instead of mentioning anything to Joann, he took the blame as his own, telling himself he needed to be less sensitive to these things.

All in all, the night was enjoyable. Admittedly things could have gone better but Xu Jing was satisfied to have been given the chance to spend a romantic night with his wife. On the other hand, by the end of the night, Joann had met so many fans that she could barely remember any details of her interaction with Xu Jing. She had a rough idea that she had fun but she couldn't really tell that was because of Xu Jing or because of the words of support and love showered upon her by her fans. She told herself probably it was a combination of both.

On the way home, Joann told Xu Jing, ”Thank you for a fun night.”

Xu Jing decided it would have to be good enough. At least his wife had fun, yes, that was good enough.

...

It soon came time for Joann and Xiu Ling's tri-monthly meeting. The last time they gathered for that purpose was during the meeting to resolve the issue related to Lee Mu and his blackmailer. That was 3 months ago.