Late Arrival

After listening to Teacher Qian's suggestion, Assistant Shawn picked up his phone and dialed the President's number. But after a few attempts to contact Neil Mo, Assistant Shawn started to look at both the guard and teacher anxiously. This is because the President did not pick up his phone.

Assistant Shawn cursed under his breath as he paced back and forth in front of the kindergarten. Right now, he felt like he was about to cry.

If he didn't pick up the young miss, the president will definitely scold him. But when the president didn't pick up his phone, how was he to explain his situation and difficulties?

…

Meanwhile, in a fancy restaurant, Neil Mo was having dinner with the members of the board of directors. His phone was in his pocket. Because of the noisy surrounding, he had missed the calls from his assistant.

It wasn't until he went to a toilet break and check his phone did he noticed almost 50 missed calls from his assistant. Neil pressed a button on the phone screen and pressed the phone to his ear. "Neil Mo speaking."

"President Mo!" Assistant Shawn said. His voice sounded happy now that the President finally returned the call. He had been trying to call the man for almost an hour, that his phone was about to die. He was lucky that the guard allowed him to use the charger to charge his phone.

"Where are you?" Neil asked. Now that he heard the assistant's voice, he realized that he had not seen the guy after he sent him to pick up his niece. "Did you pick up Hazel and send her back home?"

"This is why I'm trying to reach you, President,"

Neil listened to his assistant's tone and noticed that something doesn't feel right. "Is there a problem?"

"The kindergarten would not allow me to pick up the young miss."

Neil frowned. His grip on his phone tightened. "Why not?"

"My name was not registered as the authorized person to pick up the young miss," Assistant Shawn explained. "The person in charged said, if you give a call to the kindergarten and verified that you send me, I can pick up the young miss."

Neil glanced at his watch, then said. "No need. You stay there. I will come over soon."

In the end, Neil returned to the dining area and bid goodbye to the others before he left the restaurant. Because he had sent his driver with his assistant to pick up his niece, Neil had to hail a cab and headed to the kindergarten.

When he arrived, he saw his assistant and driver was leaning over the car. He paid for his ride and headed towards the two men.

"President Mo," both men said in unison.

Neil Mo nodded and turned to his assistant. "Why are you waiting here?" he looked at the kindergarten and said, "Come on."

Soon, Assistant Shawn was speaking to Guard Dan again. He handed the guard the president's identity card and the guard went in to find the young miss's teacher.

Not long after, Edith came out of the building again.

Neil gave her a look over and frowned. The woman before him was dressed casually in black cotton pants, a pastel pink t-shirt, and a beige cardigan. Her hair was braided into a messy bun.

Assistant Shawn quickly took the role to introduce the teacher to him, even though the two of them had met a few times.

Neil give the teacher a nod as his standard greeting and looked around when he saw no sign of his niece.

"Uh," Edith bit her lips. "Your niece fell asleep while waiting for you."

Neil glanced at his watch. His expression darkened when he realized that it was almost nine. No wonder Hazel would be asleep. It was late and he remembered that the little girl didn't get too much sleep last night. She must be exhausted.

"Come with me."

Neil followed the kindergarten teacher into the classroom and noticed that his niece was sleeping soundly on a mattress. A thick blanket was covering her small body. A helpless sigh escaped him as he inched towards the little girl and tucked her hair behind her ear.

Looking at her sleeping visage, suddenly Neil felt something tugging on his heart.

He made a promise to his brother and her parents that he will look after Hazel. It has been only a few days, but it seemed like he has been neglecting her.

"Is Hazel doing alright in school?" he asked.

Edith was surprised when she suddenly heard his voice. "She is."

Neil's gaze fell on Edith for a couple of seconds before he looked away again. He placed a hand behind the girl's head, another hand behind her knee joint, and lifted the little girl. Once he adjusted Hazel's position in his arms, Neil Mo turned to the kindergarten teacher again. "Thank you for looking after my niece, Teacher Qian."

Edith shook her head and sent them to the door. Only when the last student has gone back, did she tidy up her stuff and prepared to go home.

Her gaze paused at the origami paper cranes that Hazel had made. Earlier, the little girl had told her to keep those paper cranes in a safer place. Hazel was planning to fold a thousand of them to get her wishes to come true.

Edith looked at the time. Because it would be too late for her to return to her apartment, she decided to give a call to her friend, Lily to crash at her place.

…

Neil was holding his phone with one hand as he read his email while the other hands caressed Hazel's soft hair as she slept on his thigh. His eyes narrowed a bit to adjust looking at the bright light from his phone, making him look a bit colder.

He paused when he felt Hazel stirred in her sleep.

Soon, the little girl rubbed her eyes with her hands. She looked around in panic as she tried to figure out where she was. Her expression only softened when she saw her uncle.

Neil brushed his fingers on her eyes. "Sleep, I'll wake you up when we home."

Hazel caught his hand and adjusted her sleeping position. It was as if she was afraid that her uncle would disappear if she did not hold on to him.

Just when Neil thought that she had gone back to dreamland, he heard her muttered in a small voice, "You came. You promised and you came."