A Rumor

Back in MH Group Headquarters…

Neil Mo cursed as soon as he slammed the phone to the receiver, making his assistant jump.

"President Mo," Assistant Shawn glanced towards the sofa area, where a little girl was seen sitting around the area. Colors of crayons and papers spread on the table. Hazel was holding a blue crayon in her hand and she seemed oblivious to her surroundings.

As if sensing that the adults were staring at her, Hazel Mo raised her head and met Assistant Shawn's gaze.

The assistant quickly looked away to his boss and reminded, "Little Miss Hazel is here."

Neil turned his head towards the little girl. Seeing that Hazel was watching him, Neil stood up straight and pressed his lips into a thin line. He then cursed inwardly as he reminded himself to be careful.

His mother would murder him if she knew that he had said certain words that he should not be said around the little girl.

It was weekend and he was supposed to stay at home with Hazel when he got an important call from his assistant about the new rumors surrounding his brother's death.

At first, Neil thought about leaving Hazel at his house with her nanny, but then he seemed to remember that Nanny Ann would have a day off every weekend. In the end, Neil had no other choice but to bring Hazel along to his office.

Since his parent had returned to the countryside two days ago, Hazel was now under his care.

Before they left, his mother, his mother had arranged everything so that living with Hazel wouldn't be a problem for him.

Because of that, Hazel wasn't as scared of him as she used to. Hazel can now speak a few words to him even if her words were usually short.

"Sorry," Neil cleared his throat as he turned to his niece. "Did I scare you?"

Hazel nodded, then shook her head. "No."

A thought crossed his mind and Neil asked, "Are you hungry? You want something to eat?"

The little girl shook her head again. Then, she turned her head away to ignore her uncle and continue on her drawing.

"Hazel, If you need anything, just tell Uncle Shawn, alright?"

The little girl replied without lifting up her head, "Okay."

Neil breathed in relief. Then he turned to his assistant before they continued to where they have left earlier. "Do we know this rumor start?" he lowered his voice as he was afraid that Hazel would listen to their conversation.

"This rumor started from this blogger who called himself the Rainmaker." Assistant Shawn tapped his finger on a tablet. He launched a website and passed his phone to his boss.

Neil took the tablet from his assistant, sat down on his chair, and started reading the original article on the blog.

Assistant Shawn took his silence as his cue to continue and explained, "The original blog post was published almost two weeks ago and no one took notice of this unknown blogger. But someone found his article and shared it on social media. The post went viral and things went badly from there. We've already contacted the blogger and warned him to take down his post and our legal representative will be meeting the blogger tomorrow morning."

Neil slid the tablet across the table and watched the assistant catch it before it slid down the floor. He tapped his fingers on the table as he was deep in his thought. Then, he reached for the phone on the table and dialed a number. Soon, his call was connected.

"How was the investigation?" Neil asked without any pleasantries.

There was a brief silence on the other line before a voice finally spoke out. "We are still investigating,"

"It has been so long. We still got nothing?"

On the other line, Henry Wu took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. We may have some leads, but I don't want to come to any conclusion without definite information."

Neil rubbed his forehead with his fingers. "Just tell me what you know. I just wanted to hear it."

Henry hesitated before he spoke in a low voice, "All I know is that Adam moved secretly. Even his assistant was kept in the dark about his activities a few months before the accident. But according to our investigation, your brother suddenly paid attention to the hospital project on the west side of the city not long before the accident."

Neil raised a brow.

Of course, he knew about the hospital project.

MH group had a joint collaboration with a few mega-companies to build a hospital in the city. It was scheduled to finish within late next year.

"Have you look into Assistant Will? What was he working on before he died?"

"We probe into everything we can, but we couldn't find anything helpful. Every lead we found led to a dead end. It seemed that your enemy has moved to destroy every evidence there is against them." Henry said.

"Since you can't find anything, stop looking into this matter for a while."

There was a brief silence before Henry spoke. "Neil, what are you trying to do?"

Neil continued. "Didn't you said the other side has destroyed any evidence that we can find against them? I want to observe the situation first. Let them lower their guard. Sooner or later, they will be careless and reveal their loophole."

"I will do as you say. But I would advise you to find someone to look into your finance and account department and CY Accounting Firm. Maybe you can find something from there."

Neil chatted with his friend for a minute and then put down the phone. When he looked up, his assistant stood straight before him.

"President Mo, what about the meeting with the board of directors tomorrow?" Assistant Shawn asked.

Neil raised a brow. "What about it? Of course, we have to hold the meeting as planned. This meeting with the board of directors is held once every quarter year. We can't call it off." he waved his hand. "You can leave now."

Assistant Shawn nodded and turned around, but stop when the president called him.

Neil thought about Henry's warning and said, "Call Jamie Xu. Tell her she has six months to wrap up her job and return to the city."