Once her class ended, Edith made her decision to head over to her friend's place. Lily was excited upon hearing that Edith will be coming over and had gone to the kitchen to prepare something.
Last night, Lily had heard that her friend has been staying at the hospital to accompany President Mo's niece, and could not stop the urge to gossip and tease Edith at the same time.
When Edith arrived at the door, the smell of something spicy wafted through her nose and Lily's son, Alex stood at the door. "Auntie Edith!" The little boy's voice contained his excitement.
Edith sniffed into the air and the smell turned her throat itch. She looked inside and shifted her gaze back to Alex. "What is your mom cooking?"
Alex replied with a shrug. "Mommy has been busy in the kitchen ever since she heard that you will be coming over. Auntie Edith, please, come inside." He grabbed a pair of slippers and placed it near her.
As soon as Edith took a step inside, Lily's head popped out from the kitchen. Her lips curled into a smile when she saw her friend. "You're here! I made something. You cannot leave until you finished everything."
Edith walked over to her friend and thought that the spicy smell was getting stronger. She let out a cough and frowned at her friend. "Why is it that every time I came over, you would always make spicy food? Lily, tell me the truth, are you trying to kill me?"
"This is the only time that I can eat something spicy," Lily said. She turned around and walked into the kitchen. "Other than you who else would accompany me to eat these?"
Edith tailed after her friend and saw that an auntie stood in front of the stove to help her friend with the cooking.
"That's right. How was Hazel? Is she better?" Lily asked
"Hmm," Edith nodded. "Fortunately, she was taken to the hospital on time. Seeing that her fever had gone down, the doctor allowed her to go home."
Lily heaved a breath of relief. "Are you staying over tonight?".
"No. I'll head home after this. I still have some matters to settle." Edith said. She watched as her friend pulled out a bowl and scooped a serving of spicy chicken into the plate.
"What are you doing here? Go outside and wait." Lily put both hands on Edith's shoulder, turned her around, and pushed her out the kitchen. "Go and play with Alex or something."
Edith laughed as her friend pushed her out of the kitchen. Just at the door, Alex was waiting for her with a box of their unfinished Gundam model. His eyes were staring at her with an expectant look. In the end, Edith resigned to her fate and followed Alex to his room to help him with assembling the model.
The meal was served almost ten minutes later.
Edith peeked at the dishes and the corner of her lips twitched upon seeing the Sichuan dishes. A smaller plate of non-spicy dishes for Alex was at the side.
As soon as Edith picked up her chopstick, Lily had clipped a red looking chicken wing into her bowl. Edith lifted her head and met Lily's excited gaze.
"Come on. Tell me everything that happened between you and President Mo last night," Lily said. "There's no one else here. You don't need to be shy."
Edith stared at the chicken wing helplessly. "What could happen? I only stayed a night to accompany Hazel at the hospital. Later, I asked President Mo to return home and rest and come back with fresh clothes for his niece."
Lily stared at her friend with a disappointed look on her face.
She let out a chuckle and continued, "Anyway, who am I? Who is President Mo? That guy always had a serious look on his face. It would be difficult for someone like me to be in a relationship with him."
Lily nodded her head as she thought further of what will happen if the two were dating. "That's true. President Mo is an iceblock and you are a ray of warm sunshine. If you got frozen by him, then I would lose a lively friend."
At the thought that her best friend might get infected by President Mo's cold, Lily started to rethink again about pairing the two together. If Edith was together with President Mo, wouldn't she had heartache and suffer being around someone who would treat her with his aloof attitude?
Of course, none of them expected that someday, the iceblock President Mo would melt under this warm sunshine.
"Auntie Edith, was Hazel unwell?" Alex He, who has been listening to the adult's conversation, suddenly asked. "How is she now? Is she alright?
"She had a fever last night," Edith said. "Don't worry. Her fever was gone after the doctor gave her some medicine. After resting a bit at home, she should be able to return to kindergarten later."
Alex heaved a breath of relief. Hazel Mo and he had recently become close after he had made Hazel interested in Gundam models. Although there were a lot of things that the girl did not understand, Alex had patiently taught her a lot of things.
Previously, the other students would ignore him because he was too engrossed in playing with the robots. However, only his best friend, Tyler Lu and Hazel did not mind his hobby and would still talk to him.
Now that he had heard that Hazel was unwell, of course, as a friend, Alex was worried. But now that her Auntie Edith had told him that Hazel was better, Alex then continued to eat his meal quietly.
"That's right," Edith paused and looked at her friend. "Lily, I have something to consult you."
Lily tilted her head and gave her friend a questioning gaze. Her expression started to change the moment Edith told her about President Neil Mo's job offer as Hazel's caretaker.
The job was not that difficult, and Edith will only need to look after the girl after school ended until Neil returned home. Then, she will be paid handsomely.
"What do you think?" Edith asked cautiously.
"I think you should take it."
"Why?"
"First of all, he is offering a lot of money," Lily pointed out. "But most important of all, Hazel is a good kid. That girl is pitiful and the uncle and niece needed help." A long sigh escaped her. "I could not imagine what Hazel had gone through at her age. But, at this time, she needed someone she could trust, and you happen to be that person. I just thought that since you had a somewhat similar experience with Hazel, you should be the person who understood her the most."