A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 162

Cassandra pored over social media posts and found that many of them were from major personalities who had overwhelming following in the internet. There was an endless string of comments after the posts.

Cassandra continued checking their tweets and posts. After a while, it was clear to her that these were all negative reports about Lyndsy.

"Lyndsy is hard to get along with. It is already a known fact in the entertainment industry. She will go through any length to maintain her popularity, even if the actions are questionable."

Comments of the same nature could be seen everywhere. It shocked Cassandra. She had no idea what to make of it.

"When a wall is about to collapse, everybody gives it a push," Lyndsy sighed. "I know who I am. I don't think about other people's feelings. I deserve it."

She leaned back on the chair as she spoke. Frustration was boiling inside her, but she held her lips tightly shut. Looking at her now, it would be impossible to think of her as a super star. Her hair was mussed, her skin pale, and her eyes had no trace of life in them. It seemed that she was now ruined, and there was nothing she could do to improve the situation. Cassandra felt sympathy for her even as she read the negative comments about Lyndsy.

She had started out as a child star. It was said that she came from poverty. Therefore, she worked a lot more and much harder than other actresses.

Her breakthrough came when she starred in an action movie. There were a lot of physical scenes, but she chose not to use a body double, saying that she wanted to make the fight scenes look more real and vivid. She went to action school and dedicated all her time in learning the stunts. During one of the scenes in the film, she once got a fracture and often came home bruised. Her passion translated into the big screen and everyone lauded her true-to-life performance.

Lyndsy reaped the fruits of her hard-earned position and her name was cemented in the industry when she was nominated in an international film festival for that film. Despite not bagging the award, she made a deep and lasting impression on domestic and international reporters alike. For days, her name poured out of the headlines, and the film that she starred in was a gigantic box office success.

After that, producers and directors flocked to her, offering her the lead parts. Everyone wanted her, and everything she appeared in was a guaranteed success. Soon enough, she became one of the top box office earners. Many well-known actors and directors mentioned her as someone they wanted to work with. All her hard work had paid off into such astonishing achievements.

Lyndsy had always be outspoken. People who truly knew her would praise her with the frank and direct way she had of handling things. However, success had a lot of pitfalls. Alongside praises, there were also plenty of criticisms about her, describing her as a mean gossipmonger.

Cassandra tried to comfort Lyndsy, "Don't worry. There are always news of this sort in the entertainment industry. I'm sure that the noise would die down soon enough. We can still fix this."

"Fix it? How?" she spat bitterly. "As things stand now, I have no other option but to leave the company. They wouldn't even let me stay until the end of my contract. Their value will plummet if they allow it; and even if they do, they would just use this chance to put me in a leash and control me. I won't have that,"

Lyndsy spoke, red-cheeked with rage. She had been in the industry long enough, and she knew those senior executives as well as she knew the back of her hand. They were the sort with tons of money who treated people ruthlessly, and all they cared about were filling their pockets. They would resort to the lowest, unspeakable means if it meant their bank accounts would fatten up.

It was more than likely that money was involved with the outpouring of the social media posts.

In normal circumstances, when such thing happened to celebrities, their companies and agents would waste no time and act quickly to try to quell the damage and rebuild their image with PR campaigns and strategies. Lyndsy was a top star. One would think that her company would be scrambling to pour water over the fire and stop further damage to her. After all, she was the cash cow, and her agency was one of the biggest. They had plenty of resources at their disposal.

However, instead of responding with damage control, they twisted the situation to their favor and threatened her. It would not be far-fetched to assume that they were the ones behind the very rumors themselves.

Cassandra furrowed her brows as she racked her brain, trying to come up with a solution. She was running out of ideas, and this was beyond her area of expertise and experience. She knew nothing about the entertainment industry, and it would take a while for her to figure these things out.

Suddenly, Cassandra's phone rang. It was Dylon, and for some reason, he sounded hesitant.

"Cassandra, I've been barraged with questions since this morning. They wanted to know if the man in the news was me. I don't know how to explain it but…"

Dylon was feeling both depressed and irritated. He just had an operation this morning. The moment he stepped out of the operating room, he was surrounded by a crowd of nurses.

"Dr. Tong, are you really dating Lyndsy? The actress Lyndsy?"

"Dr. Tong, how long have you two been together? You're such a secret keeper!"

"Does Lyndsy really have bad temper, like what the news said about her?"

"Dr. Tong…"

Dylon was annoyed at their ramblings. He was usually a nice and patient person, but he couldn't put up with this senseless questioning. He felt cornered by the inquiries that came from all around him, so he called Cassandra and asked for her help.

"Where are you? Can we talk? I'm just a normal person, and I have absolutely no interest in becoming a celebrity. There are always people in the hospital, and there would always be gossip. I can't put up with that. It would just get in the way of my work," he continued.

One more concern in Dylon's mind was of his father. If those rumors reached Jenks he would be worried. He wasn't in very good condition these days, and Dylon didn't want to aggravate it any further.

"How about this? I'm with Lyndsy right now. You can come and see us. We can discuss things together and think of how to solve this," Cassandra replied, trying to calm him.

His call came at a good time. She and Lydsy were running out of options, and Dylon might have better ideas. After all, two heads were better than one, and three heads would be better than two.

When Dylon arrived, Cassandra showed him the posts and the news, prompting his response.

"Dylon, what do you think? Do you have any ideas about what we can do?" she asked, leaning her head towards him hopefully.

Even Lyndsy was at a loss. Since she started acting, she had been able to overcome anything that came her way and she climbed her way to the top. This was the first time she came face-to-face with a problem she could not solve. To make matters worse, it had come at such a bad timing when she was at a turning point of her career.

"What if we make a public announcement that we're just friends?"

Dylon suggested, thinking that it would be the best option.

At this, Lyndsy was quick to chime in. Shaking her head, she answered, "It won't work. My company won't back me up and help me explain to the public; and coming from just us, it wouldn't be believable. To be honest, it might just add insult to injury."

Lyndsy's explanation made a lot of sense. If things were that easy, she wouldn't be sitting here and sighing.

"Oh my god," Cassandra remarked out loud, wide-eyed and with one hand over her mouth. Immediately, Lyndsy and Dylon's attention were on her. "People have started looking you up and posting information online," she said to Dylon.

Cassandra was surfing the net and checking the latest news about Lyndsy. Suddenly, she came across a post that had Dylon's background information.

Dylon was taken aback. He grabbed Cassandra's cell phone and scanned the posts.

"Dr. Dylon Tong. He is a photographer on wild animals. He graduated from medical school and is the recipient of many awards…"

It was shockingly detailed. Cassandra saw horror and revulsion rise in Dylon's face.

Dylon was inwardly panicking. He had been living a simple and happy life in the past years, very far away from the limelight. All of a sudden, his private life was now exposed for all the public to see. Within a matter of minutes, his name was one of the most searched things in search engines. It was alarming.

While they sat in shock, a man of medium height came to their table and snapped a photo of them. They had been so fixated on trying to think of the solution that they did not notice him until a flash grabbed their attention.

They all turned to look at the man, shock and confusion in their faces. The man, however, just smiled. He didn't seem to be apologetic at all.

"Ms. Su, are you on a date dating with Mr. Tong? Sorry for interrupting. I'm leaving now!"

The man hurriedly turned around to take his leave, but he had not taken three steps when Dylon caught up to him and put a firm hand on his shoulders.

"Excuse me. Can you delete the picture you just took?" he asked as he coldly stared him down.

Dylon was serious. He had never been treated with such rudeness in all his life.

"It's my camera, and it's my photo. Why should I listen to you?"

The man answered and met his gaze in challenge, as if he didn't do anything wrong. Such jerks did exist in real life after all.

Dylon's fuse almost blew up. Fighting to keep his voice down, he threatened the man, "Did you get our consent? As far as I know, you didn't. This is an invasion of privacy. Would you like to end this, peacefully, or would you prefer to see me again in court?"

This whole day had been getting on his nerves, and this man just stirred up his frustrations further. He was no longer in the mood to be nice or polite.

"I didn't take a picture of you. I just took the picture of the vase on the table, and I'm not deleting it!"

The man knew that he was in the wrong. It was unbelievable how he tried to wriggle out the situation with such a poor excuse.

That was the final straw. Dylon had completely lost his patience. He grabbed the man's camera, determined to delete the photo.

The man struggled, trying to get his camera from him, but Dylon was much taller and he raised the camera out of his reach.

In just a few seconds, the picture was deleted. Then, turning back to the man, Dylon gave him his camera back.

"You can leave now," he said sternly.

Dylon went back to his seat as if nothing had happened, but his face betrayed his anger.

The man checked his camera. The picture was gone.

"How can you do that?! You can't just take my camera and delete my picture. You… You are so unreasonable!" he shouted, causing a scene.

The man was a paparazzi. He had been tailing them for quite some time now; but the moment he finally got a good picture, Dylon deleted it. Now, he had no material and might even get sacked.

"You know that you're the one being unreasonable. I don't want to talk with scum reporters like you. Leave now, or I'm pressing charges," Dylon snapped back.

It was just one shock after another. Cassandra had never seen Dylon so angry. His jaw was clenched tight and his knuckles were digging into his palms. She could almost feel the heat of his fury.

It was probably true that gentle and decent men were the worst when angered. She looked at him and felt anxious at the sight of his hard expression.

The man muttered to himself and left reluctantly. Dylon, Cassandra and Lyndsy sat around the table, still not knowing what to do.

After what happened, they were more aware of the eyes around them. One waitress in particular seemed to recognize Lyndsy, and she kept throwing looks to their direction. The trio realized that it might not be a good idea for them to stay any longer, especially after the scene with the man earlier.

Lyndsy spoke up first, "Let's call it a day. Cassandra has to go to work any way. I'll see you guys another day."

She sounded frustrated. They had spent a lot of time and energy but came up with nothing helpful.

"Lyndsy, please don't worry. I promise I'll keep thinking of a solution,"

Cassandra reassured, trying her best to comfort Lyndsy. The three of them stood up and walked to the door.

Nothing could have prepared them for the sudden crowd that gathered around them at the door. The man from earlier was in front. He wore a fake smile as he spoke to them.

"Ms. Su, are you on a date with your boyfriend?"

There were multiple flashes from around them, phones and microphones were thrust in their faces from all directions. They could barely make out the sentences as all the reporters spoke simultaneously, asking for statements and answers.

"Ms. Su, there's a rumor going around that you will leave the entertainment industry and marry your boyfriend. Is it true that you're pregnant with his baby?"

"Ms. Su, your boyfriend is a photographer who earns a lot of money. Is that the reason you quit the show business?"

Cassandra struggled to stay on her feet as they got pushed around. 'What kind of questions are these? They are ridiculous!' Cassandra thought to herself.

Then Cassandra looked at Lyndsy. She was grinding her teeth and fuming. Cassandra had to think of something quickly before things got worse.

Suddenly, Dylon pulled the woman into his arms and smiled at the reporters.

"This is my girlfriend. Please stop asking me such nonsense. She will be angry with me."