Chapter 19
After the bodyguards had dragged Irvin out of the house, they decided to dump him in a very crowded place, as if to Compensate for their inaction earlier.
Irvin didn’t mind getting thrown out at first because he thought the bodyguards would just leave him outside the bungalow.
Whitney and Julius lived in a wealthy neighborhood and there were very few people walking about, so nobody would see him in this sorry state and he could make his getaway without anyone noticing him.
After all, what happened the day before was still trending on Twater and Betty had also told him not to step out of the house.
If he was caught on camera for leaving the house in such a pathetic state, his future as a celebrity was probably doomed.
But things did not go the way he had hoped.
The bodyguards had left him in an open plaza that could gather up to 5,000 people every hour. It wasn’t the most crowded, but he definitely stuck out like a sore thumb.
Everyone was connected to the internet these days, so even if a post was made available for just one hour, it could still spread like wildfire.
Furthermore, Irvin had trended at the number one spot for the entire day, which was definitely thanks to Whitney’s hacking skiffs. The people walking past him certainly recognized him quickly.
“Hey, isn’t that Irvin Steed?”
“Irvin who?”
“The one who was trending along with Rainie Jackson yesterday! That Irvin Steed!”
“Are you sure that’s him?”
“I’m sure it’s him! Here’s a photo of him.”
“Hey, you’re right!”
As more and more of such voices grew in volume around him, Irvin reached for his phone to contact Betty, only to realize that the bodyguards had thrown his phone and wallet away.
He was now like a monkey in a zoo enclosure as everyone surrounded him and pointed fingers at him. He wished he could hide in a hole right now. This scenario was just like what happened to him the day before when he was surrounded by all those reporters.
He finally decided to give up trying to hide from the crowd and looked at the people taking photos of him with their phones. He approached the nearest young lady to him and squeezed a smile out as he used his gentlest voice to ask, “Hello
need to make a call” there, could I borrow your phone for a while? I just
The young lady looked at how forced his expression looked and concluded that he was trying to take her phone and smash
That’s what he did to that reporter’s camera the day before.
She looked at her brand–new phone and thought, this was a phone she bought with the money she had saved for over two months. She wasn’t going to let him smash this phone.
12:16 Tue, Jan 14 B
Chapter 19
Irvin was looking very desperately at her and she wasn’t sure how to get out of this sticky situation. So, she nudged her friend and said, “Um, I think we’d better go? I mean, what if he smashes our phones? You know what happened yesterday…”
She didn’t want to spell it out since Irvin was standing right in front of her.
Her friend immediately got the hint, grabbed her arm, and they both ran off as quickly as they could.
Irvin felt like cursing out loud, but he didn’t want to ruin his public image. (Unbeknownst to him, his image had already deteriorated after what happened the day before.)
In the end, Irvin finally managed to get away from the crowd that was taking photos and videos of him while he tried his best to block his face. He had no phone and no money, so after walking two hours in the bitter cold, he finally arrived at his apartment block.
After he confirmed his identity as a resident, the security guard allowed him upstairs.
When the elevator arrived at his floor, he saw his manager was already standing in the lobby, as if she had been waiting for him all this while.
He took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself for the worst as he walked up to her and said politely, “Hello Betty, what brings you here?”
Betty had managed artistes for years, so she was very aware of where and when to speak. She cast Irvin a nasty look, then said emotionlessly, “Let’s talk inside.”
Irvin knew it wasn’t a good idea to speak at the lift lobby either, so he scanned his fingerprint to unlock the door and went into the apartment with Betty,
He changed into his house slippers, removed his down jacket, took a quick bath, got changed, and then, ran to the kitchen to get two glasses of water.
When she heard the sound of the glasses hitting the coffee table in front of the couch she was on, Betty looked up from her, phone and glared at Irvin.
“Have some water,” he said softly, afraid to interrupt her work.
“Have you seen what’s been happening on Twitter?” asked Betty with a frown as she quickly typed a few words into her phone.
“I’ve lost my phone, so I haven’t checked my feed yet.”
He didn’t dare to tell her where he’d been and he didn’t have his phone with him, so he didn’t know what was happening online and didn’t want to say anything that might get him into trouble.
ht at him.
“You lost your phone?” Betty looked straight at
He felt very uncomfortable from the way she stared at him and gulped. “Yeah. I wanted to contact you on my way back only to find that I’d lost it.”
She nodded and didn’t say anymore. Her brows were furrowed as she looked at her phone with a grim expression on her face as if she was facing a really tough situation.
He didn’t dare to disturb her, so he went to his bedroom to charge an old phone he had kept
Just then, Betty received a call Irvin couldn’t hear what the other party was saying, but Betty replied in a low voice, “Sure, yes, that’s right. Don’t worry.”
After she hung up, she looked at Irvin but didn’t seem to know what to say to him.
12:16 Tue, Jan 14
Chapter 19
Irvin suddenly felt very frantic but didn’t show any of it on his face. “Hetty, what’s wrong?
Since he didn’t have access to Twitter without his phone, Betty held her phone up to sho
[One murderous looking Irvin Steed spotted at Montagne Gardens)
KS75%蘭
him what was trending right now
The post was followed by the hashtags “what a mess“, “scary face” and “camera smasher”
“Betty. I… Irvin stammered as he tried to explain things to her but she cut him off immediately.
“Irvin, you don’t have to explain anything to me. Didn’t I tell you not to go out until this whole thing has blown over?”
Betty was just as upset as Irvin was. If this happened to any of the celebrities she was in charge of, she would have been equally disappointed.
She glanced at her phone as if she had received a message, then hesitated for two seconds before she continued. “So, it was bad enough that negative posts about you trended hard yesterday, and you’re back in the number one spot again today”
Irvin kept quiet. He knew that he was in no position to argue and had to listen to anything Betty said now.
“If you remain silent like this, the comments will only get worse. So, the company has come up with a plan to change your image to suit a villain instead of your current boy next door look. It’s the best plan we’ve got at the moment.
To Irvin, as long as the company wasn’t giving up on him, he still stood a chance of reversing his image later on. His eyes lit up at Betty’s words and he asked anxiously, “What’s the plan?”
