When Neil Mo raised his head, he found that the kindergarten teacher was staring at him with an amused smile. He slowly shifted his gaze away and let out a dry cough.
He wondered if she might think of him as silly with the way he had behaved just now.
Actually, Edith was just relieved to see how the man was caring for his niece. Previously, when Madam Mo had looked for her in kindergarten, she had mentioned Neil's relationship with Hazel. The two were not close at all.
Knowing that Hazel will need a lot of support and care to go through her loss of her parents, Edith was certainly worried. She had seen the uncle and niece's interaction whenever Neil came at the kindergarten and the last time they ran into each other at the mall. Edith was able to tell that what Madam Mo said was the truth. The two were not close. However, seeing that President Mo of MH Group would run towards his niece once he found that she might be in danger, Edith was a bit relieved.
She was among the person who had watched the two's interaction almost everyday and she could see that the two's relationship was getting better.
Her lips tilted up into a slight smile as she watched him turning away. A helpless sigh escaped her when he saw that his clothes were wet after trying to 'rescue' her niece.
Edith ran towards the duffle bag that she had thrown on the sand earlier, took out a towel, and walked over to Neil. "Here, you should dry yourself or wrap yourself with this before you get cold."
Because she over to play by the beach often, Edith knew that bringing along towels and changes of clothes were necessary. When she was a lot younger, she would often go swimming at the beach with a few of her friends.
Her grandfather caught her when she came home with her clothes wet and had scolded her. For the whole month, she was not allowed to go to the sea. Afterward, it has become a habit for her to bring along some change.
Neil stared at the towel and hesitated for a few seconds before he took the towel and started drying his clothes. "Thank you."
He had not planned to play in the water and therefore, did not bring along a change of clothes. The only thing he could do was to wrap himself with the towel to warm himself. He turned to look at his niece who was busy looking at the small fishes in the water and let out a sigh.
The girl was playing happily and he did not have the heart to tell her that they need to return because his clothes were wet.
A thought crossed his mind just as he draped the towel on his shoulder. "What about you?"
"It's fine. I have spares."
Hearing her answer, Neil tightened the towel around his shoulder, and the smell of fresh linen filled in his nose. He glanced at the person beside him and spoke, "Teacher Qian, you are right. This place is very beautiful."
Edith smiled at his words. "This spot was a bit farther from the town. Therefore not many would come to this place even the locals."
Neil glanced at her. "No one tried to buy this piece of land?"
"I hope not. It wouldn't be good if someone decided to develop this area into a resort or something," Edith said. "Once the development started, it will disturb the nature and this place it will never look the same. This place is beautiful as it is and I hope that this place would remain the way it was."
Neil shifted his gaze away as she continued to list out the bad side of developing the area.
Suddenly, he was ashamed of his thought of developing this area and build a few villas just a few moments ago.
MH Group was business was mainly in property and development. Whenever he saw a good spot, he would think of developing the site and make a profit from it.
Edith sensed the silence from the man beside him and had suddenly recalled the business that MH Group was involved in.
President Mo would not think that she was nagging him, right?
Her mouth opened to apologize, but Edith could not utter a word. Anyway, if she chose to act like she did not realize his discomfort, he would probably not care about it, right?
Just as she was not able to withstand the awkwardness, Edith heard the sound of a familiar vehicle. She turned around and saw that her friend, Aaron Li was waving his hand at her.
Once he saw her, Aaron shut the door and ran over to her. His move was suddenly halted when Aaron began to notice the tall man beside his friend.
"Why are you here?" Edith asked as he approached.
Aaron scrutinized the man at the side and shifted his gaze back to Edith. "I thought that you were coming over to the beach. But your grandfather said that you have gone out. Since you did not come over to our beach, I thought you would come over here."
At this time, Hazel Mo stopped playing by the water and walked over to the adults. She stared at the newcomer with her curious eyes as she hid behind her teacher. One of her hands stretched out to hold her uncle's.
They looked exactly like a family of three.
Seeing this scene, Aaron inched closer to Edith and whispered, "Hey, we haven't seen each other for a few years, and you suddenly came back with a husband and a kid?"
Edith glanced at the tall man beside her and wondered if he overheard Aaron's words. Suddenly, her face flushed red in embarrassment.
What husband? What kid?
Edith lifted her feet and stepped on Aaron's. She gritted her teeth and hissed, "If you don't stop spewing nonsense, I swear to god that I will beat you to death."
Aaron Li let out a nervous laugh as he bore with the pain on his foot.
It has been a long time since this rough woman had stomped on his feet like this. He had started to forget how painful it can be. Edith had a thin figure, how did her stomping would be hurting like this.
Edith turned to Neil and flashed the smile that she had used whenever she was facing the kindergartners' parents. "President Mo, this is my friend, Aaron Li. Aaron, this is President Neil Mo and my student from L City, Hazel Mo."
"President Neil Mo?" Aaron stared at the man as he heard that familiar name. A few seconds later, he immediately figured out the identity of the man. "MH Group?"
"Hello," Neil stretched his hand for a handshake. "You know me?"
The two men shook their hand and Aaron smiled. "I often met with your parents. Chairman Mo and his wife live in the west part of the town. I often ran into them whenever I patrolled that area."
"Patrolled?"
Aaron let out a chuckle. "I'm a police officer."