Upon hearing that the man in front of him was an officer who patrolled around his parents' residence, Neil Mo began to thank him and the two were involved in small talk.
Meanwhile, Hazel Mo looked at the new adult as she hid behind her teacher. Once her gaze met with the adult's, Hazel stepped out from hiding and greeted him politely with her timid voice. "Hello."
Aaron crouched beside the little girl and smiled. "Hello. You are Edith Qian's student?"
Hazel glanced at her teacher before she nodded. "Teacher Qian is my classroom teacher."
"How is she as a teacher?" He glanced at Edith before he inched closer to the little girl and whispered, "Did she make a lot of problems at school?"
Hazel looked at the man in front of her and then to her teacher with a confused look on her face. This was the first time for her to hear such questions. Usually, wouldn't the adult be more concerned about whether children would create problems at school?
"Aaron." Edith gave him a warning.
Fearing that his foot would swell from her stomping, Aaron swiftly stood up and took a step back, away from his friend. His lips curled into a teasing smile as he turned to Edith again. "Anyway, since you were with a company, I don't have to worry about you."
Edith sent this man a death glare and a warning for him to stop talking. She had known Aaron for a long time, and this man was good at saying words that would make others misunderstand her.
Aaron Li chuckled, knowing that Edith would not dare to harm him in public.
"When will you head back to the city?" Aaron asked, in the hope to change the subject.
Edith tilted her head down for a few seconds. "Probably after lunch."
Aaron nodded. He knew that Edith and her grandfather was planning to head over to the cemetery in the morning but had expected that she was going to stay and return to the city on the last bus ride.
"I still have to work on the day after," Edith said. "I need to make a few preparations."
"Alright then," Aaron said with a sigh. "Come over to the B&B with your grandfather after you came back from the cemetery. My mom is going to prepare some extra breakfast for the guests. You should come and have your breakfast there."
Edith thought over his invitation and agreed. Anyway, she haven't seen Aaron's mother for a long time and was planning to visit her before she went back to the city.
Once Aaron's vehicle had disappeared from their eyesight, Edith turned around to Neil Mo and saw the strange look in his eyes. Before she was able to figure out what was it, the man had already shifted his gaze away.
Edith turned her head when Hazel tugged at her hand to ask her to accompany her to play.
Neil Mo walked over to the dry area and sat down on the white sand as he continued to watch the two girls playing by the water.
Earlier, he overheard the kindergarten teacher's conversation with her friend and knew that she was planning to visit the cemetery with her grandfather in the morning.
As the conversation with his mother appeared in his mind, Neil Mo furrowed his brow. His gaze was glued to Edith as he wondered if the person she was going to visit was her deceased mother.
…
Neil Mo let his niece play around the beach and the two of them returned to his parents' residence before the sunset.
When the vehicle drove into the porch, Sophie Huang walked out of the residence to look at her granddaughter. The elder woman pulled Hazel into her embrace and kissed her a few times on her cheeks.
"Hazel, did you have fun at the beach?"
"Un," Hazel nodded enthusiastically. "Grandma, the place where Teacher Qian took us was very pretty. Next time, let's go and have a picnic there together. Grandma, you can make a lot of sandwiches and we can play in the water and look at the tiny fishes."
Sophie had a wide smile on her face as she continued to listen to her granddaughter's chatter voice. It has been a while for her to see the little girl being so talkative and naturally, Sophie was more than happy to listen to her every word.
After a while, Sophie asked the auntie to help Hazel change her clothes and the girl obediently listened to her grandmother to go to take a shower. When she turned to her son, Sophie could not help but thought that there was something wrong with his appearance.
"Where did you get that towel?"
Sophie seemed to remember that she had prepared for a few clothes and a few necessities for her granddaughter. But the towel was not something that she had prepared.
Neil Mo looked up from his phone and glanced at the towel wrapped on his shoulder. His eyes widened upon recalling that the towel belonged to Hazel's kindergarten teacher.
...
The next morning, Edith Qian drove her grandfather's car and the two of them head over to the cemetery. The drive took them for almost fifteen minutes. When they arrived, the grandfather and granddaughter stayed in the car for a few minutes in silence.
Both of them seemed as if they had something preoccupying their mind, and no one of them would want to share their thoughts.
"Let's go." Mike Qian spoke to break the silence. He stepped out of the vehicle and her granddaughter followed him.
Edith grabbed the bags in the backseat and the two of them walked up the slight slope until they reached the tomb. The two of them stood side by side as they watched the name and the faded photograph on the tomb. Then, as if she had snapped out of her thought, Edith put down the thing she had brought along with her beside her and started to clean up the area.
However, because the tomb was clean, there were not many things for her to do. Edith had known that her grandfather would come over to visit her mother's tomb almost every two weeks and he would clean the area.
The frequency of his visit to her mother was more than his visit to Edith's deceased grandmother.
Edith always knew that her grandfather loved his daughter very much and was devastated when she was involved in an accident and passed away.
Even though her grandfather was grieving, he had no choice but to toughen up and raise Edith until she was had graduated high school and university.
Edith knew that her grandfather was saddened that he had to bury his only child just after a few years after he had lost his wife.
Her mother's death back then was too sudden that it took them a long time to recover.
Growing up, Edith often heard the story about her mother through her grandfather. Her mother was a good and filial child to her parents.
Though Mike Qian always had a nonchalant look on his face, Edith had a feeling that his grandfather was still grieving over her death. Perhaps even to this day, her grandfather was still unable to accept the sudden news of her mother's passing.
"Hello mom," Edith crouched before the tomb. Her gaze softened as she looked at the familiar face of her mother. She pulled out the stuff from her bags and arranged them on the tomb. "It has been seventeen years since you left us." A small smile curved on her lips. "I hope you won't be angry at me for not coming over to visit you as often. Grandfather was insistent to let me work in the big city and therefore, I could not come to visit you as often as I would like to."