Chapter 296 - The Latest Scandal

Harold wondered why Lilia didn't lose her popularity from Milan Fashion Week. The woman was supposed to take more job offers after the success of the international fashion show, but she cut her job instead.

At that time, Harold wanted to scold her, but he was forced to hold back. The man had promised to never force Lilia to take a job she didn't want. Lilia's unenthusiastic attitude should have caused her job offer to decline, but the opposite happened.

The owners of famous clothing brands had flocked to give their best offers so that Lilia wanted to promote their products. Harold could not understand what the brand owners had in mind.

But Harold didn't realize that Lilia's value had increased greatly in the eyes of the clothes brand owners. The model only accepted job offers from products she trusted. This made her fans believe that Lilia would only wear the best products, so they would buy whatever the model was promoting. Therefore, many clothing brands were competing for Lilia to choose their products. This cycle kept repeating itself, making the model's popularity never die.

"Ahh, do what you want! I don't care if your hard work during Milan Fashion Week goes to waste!" Harold got up from the sofa and grabbed his trunk, then headed for the door. He planned to return to the room he ordered with his luggage.

"Anyway, how long are you planning to stay here, Harold?" Lilia asked from behind him.

Harold stopped in his tracks and turned his head towards the model. Lilia's figure looked prettier than usual with the sunset behind her.

He hurriedly erased the thought before answering in a flat tone, "Aah, I feel really lazy recently. I intend to stay here until your shoot is over."

Harold left the room and slammed the door behind him. But he could still hear Lilia's chime which was like a bell from inside the room. That clear voice kept ringing in Harold's mind and refused to leave.

*****

That night, Lilia went to the bamboo forest by the river to continue shooting. Dina and Rini accompanied the woman on the set.

At this shooting session, Clifford was standing not far from the crowd. He took a moment to look around the set. After confirming that there weren't any suspicious people nearby, he lowered his head to speak into his cell phone.

"Yes, I'm fine here."

"Well, you study hard."

"Okay, I promise that I'll visit you on holidays."

"Good-bye, Miss Merry."

The call was very brief, but to Clifford, it was like finding water in the middle of the wilderness. It felt like it had been a long time since he last heard that young woman's voice.

This was the first time Merry had called him after she was sent overseas to study. This phone was so unpredictable and made his ever-flat face turn soft. If Clifford wasn't in charge of escorting Lilia, he would probably have shown his grin at this point.

Clifford knew that Merry called him only because she was bored. He heard that Chris had returned to Surabaya. Without that man beside her, Merry would have felt lonely.

The head of Jean's security team sighed heavily. On a dense night under the moonlight, he stood by the bamboo forest and looked up at the night sky. The crescent moon hung high, its faint light illuminating the dozens of stars in the night sky. Yet in Clifford's eyes, the surface of the moon gradually turned into a delicate and beautiful face.

He came to his senses and hurriedly averted his gaze. Clifford sighed, then slapped his cheeks hard. He tried not to think about Merry, but the harder he tried, the more frequent that woman's face came to mind.

*****

After a few minutes, Clifford finally neutralized his mood. He turned and walked away from there. The man intended to return to Dina and Rini who were waiting on the set.

However, he had only taken two paces when his steps suddenly slowed down. Clifford's sharp ears heard some of the crew around there joking about the latest gossip. He guessed that Lilia would be interested in this news and decided to listen for a moment.

"I told you, our crew this time is a complete mess!"

"What else happened this time?"

"Huh, haven't you unlocked your phone all day? One of our supporting actresses was caught sleeping with a famous film producer! Netizens are excited about it!"

"Are you stupid? It's not that news that makes everyone excited! The hottest news today is about Shirley! Her hater posted the news that the actress actually had a child! And what's even better, they used her real name when posting news! Do you believe that someone would be that crazy?!"

"Hoo…" Clifford muttered as he continued to eavesdrop.

Tonight, cyberspace was shocked again by the latest scandal.

The arrest of the supporting actress was nothing new, although there were photos that support the truth. But the news that caught everyone's attention was the news about Shirley. The actress was under assault from one of her haters, who was extreme enough to use her real name when posting.

The problem of raising children was no longer a secret in the entertainment world. After all, this was nothing more than using small pebbles to break down a stone wall. More importantly, a hospital record of Shirley's abortion was widely circulated.

The Shirley haters wrote a cheap bullshit about how Shirley was haunted every night by the ghost of her own baby, so that the actress had to call for help from shamans and so on. Of course, no one believed such nonsense writing. Rather than such an insane story, netizens were more concerned about who the father of Shirley's aborted child was!

*****

Lilia's new filming ended around four in the morning. Luckily, she had a good night's sleep before filming, so she had enough energy to last until the end.

The temperature at the riverside in the morning was very low. Dina hurriedly put Lilia on a thick jacket and observed her face closely.

"Sis Lilia, are you tired?" she asked anxiously.

Lilia smiled at her. "I'm fine, really. You guys have been working hard all night! Actually you don't need to accompany me until morning. If you are tired, you can go back to the hotel first," she suggested.

Dina shook her head vigorously when she heard that. Jean would fire them if that guy found out they were sleeping while Lilia was working hard! But Dina didn't dare say this. After all, she still had to maintain her identity as an assistant to the Aphrodite Agency.

Their group walked towards the hotel and happened to run into Harold on the way. Lilia looked at him in surprise. It was still dawn, but her manager was not sleeping and instead left the hotel. What was Harold doing here?

"Why are you not sleeping yet?" Lilia asked while glancing at the man's clothes, which were still the same as before.

Harold blinked his rosy eyes as he answered curtly, "I'm busy."

Lilia gave him a cold stare. Was that guy trying to tease her because of what she said this afternoon?