Hazel's Invitation

"What are you doing?"

Hearing her best friend's voice, Lily stood up and a nonchalant smile curved on her lips. "Inviting little Hazel to come over our place and play with Hazel again," she answered. Then she turned to the little girl again and smiled. "Hazel, the next time you come over, I will bake you a cake."

Hazel blinked, but once she saw Alex's mother winking at her, she immediately knew that Alex's mother did not want Teacher Qian to know about the words she said.

This… was supposed to be a secret between the two of them?

Edith narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her friend and turned to the little boy beside him. "I will have to ask Hazel's uncle first. If he let Hazel come along, then I will bring her next time, alright?"

Alex walked over to Hazel and said, "Hazel, next time, you definitely have to come over and play with me, alright?"

Edith looked at Alex with a helpless gaze. Noticing that the driver, Old Tang was waiting for them beside the car, Edith stretched her hand to Hazel and spoke, "Alright, Hazel let's go home." Then, she turned to Lily and Alex. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

The four of them separated at the entrance and Edith went to the vehicle with Hazel.

After helping the little girl to put on her safety belt, Edith turned to Old Tang and said, "Uncle Tang, can you stop by the market on the way home?"

The elderly man agreed and soon, the vehicle stopped at the supermarket nearby Neil's place. Edith walked with Hazel by her side and the two went shopping for ingredients for dinner.

Edith stopped as they reached the baking corner and stared at the item on the shelf in a daze. At this moment, she was suddenly reminded of her mother. Her mother was not a good cook, but she can bake delicious cookies.

When her mother was still alive, she would accompany her mother in the kitchen and help with stirring the chocolate chips into the cookie dough. The dough was heavy for someone her age to handle, but the young Edith would always volunteer to do this job. Then, when her mother was not looking, she would sneak to eat those chocolate chips.

Edith snapped out of her trance when Hazel tugged at her hand. Edith shifted her gaze and saw that Hazel was looking at her with an inquiring gaze.

"Teacher Qian, what are you looking at?"

The corner of her lips tugged into a smile. Edith squatted next to Hazel and asked, "Hazel, would you like to bake some cookies with me?"

Hazel's face brightened with joy. "Teacher Qian, you're going to bake some cookies?"

"Hmm." Edith nodded. A thought came to her mind and she spoke again. "Let's bake some cookies together and have them as dessert later, alright?"

The little girl nodded enthusiastically. She was someone with a sweet tooth and naturally, would not object upon hearing that her teacher was going to bake some cookies.

"Right. Next week, there will be parents and child activity day. Hazel, you know this, right?"

"I know," Hazel answered. These days, they were rehearsing to sing and dance to perform for that day to come. How can she not know this?

Although she tried not to show it, Hazel could not hide her unhappiness. The other students will have their parents coming over, but she was someone without parents. She will have no one to accompany her and no one to look at her performance.

"Later, why don't you invite your uncle to come over to the parents and child day to school? I'm sure he would be happy to receive your invitation," Edith said. She saw the hesitation on Hazel's face and continued, "Recently, you haven't talked that much to your uncle and he was worried that you were unhappy."

A panic look crossed Hazel's face. She had wanted to hide the incident that happened a few days ago from her uncle, but it seemed that her attitude was making him worried. Hazel had thought that she had hidden the things from him very well.

"If you invite him to come, your uncle will surely be happy," Edith said.

"I will invite him to come," Hazel spoke. She has to let her uncle know that she was doing fine at school.

Edith tilted her head as she thought of something. "How about making an invitation card for your uncle and you can give it to him along with the cookies we bake?" Edith suggested. "I will help you."

…

These past few days, Neil had declined from going to any business dinner and had instructed his assistant not to arrange anything for him after working hours.

Neil was worried about his niece ever since Edith had told him about what had happened to Hazel at school. However, he could do nothing about it and had to pretend that he knew nothing about it.

Following the teacher's suggestion, Neil tried to spend more time with Hazel and tried not to miss their dinner time together. It was during their dinner that Neil was able to talk to his niece and learned a little bit more about his niece.

Edith watched the way Neil clipped a dish for his niece and her lips curled into a smile.

The uncle and niece were very interesting and adorable. The two of them were not very close and their conversation during dinner was very stiff, however, Edith could see the way they cared for each other.

While Edith was observing the uncle and niece, Hazel sneaked her glances towards her uncle and her teacher. The words that Alex's mother had said to her came to her mind and Hazel could not stop thinking about it.

Her teacher had come to live with them to look after her, and Hazel was enjoying her presence in the house.

No. She liked Teacher Qian very, very much.

As she was reminded of Alex's mother's words again, Hazel thought that it would be very good if she could stay with her teacher for a long time. This way, the three of them will be able to have dinner together every day. If her uncle was too busy with work, Teacher Qian can always accompany her to play and stuff.

"Hazel, why are you looking at me like that?"

Her uncle's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and Hazel looked at him guiltily. "Nothing." She shook her head and an idea came to her mind. Hazel slipped off the chair and walked over to the living area. Then, she went back to the dining area and handed a card to him along with a big cookie wrapped in plastic.

"Uncle, this is for you."

Neil stared at the two items and felt an indescribable feeling in his heart. This was the first time that Hazel had given him something and he was very happy. However, his expression remained cool. "What is it?"

"It's an invitation card," Hazel said. "There will be parents and child activity day at school next week. Uncle, can you come to my kindergarten?"