Duke rarely entered a kitchen, or he had never actually stepped foot in one.But lately, he had gone into the kitchen practically every day. He would wash vegetables or peel potatoes, and he was starting to get the hang of things. The kitchen was located right next to the living room in Adina’s modest mansion. They could hear the noise coming from the living room despite the two of them being busy in the kitchen.Basically, Harold was making all the noise as he chased Melody around the living room while laughing and playing.“You’re so naughty, Mel. How dare you tickle me!”Harold rolled his sleeves up and started chasing after Mel. Dimples appeared on the little girl’s face as she ran away while smiling, but Harold caught her and pushed her onto the couch. “Let’s see if you’re still going to tickle me again!”“I’m sorry, Hal,” Melody pleaded while laughing since she was unable to escape.Alden hurried over to them and said, “Let go of Mel, Harold. She’ll get out of breath fr
When he looked at himself in the mirror, Alden saw that his shirt collar was practically torn, his hair looked like a bird’s nest, and his mouth twitched. George’s mouth twitched too. He did not even know who had made the red scratch mark on his face. The collar of his shirt was stained black, and he looked very disheveled.Only Harold remained absorbed in the fun of playing. “Alden, you lost today, haha! Hurry, call me big brother!”Alden rolled his eyes at him and said, “Take a look at Mel, then we’ll talk.”Melody stood forlornly in front of the mirror and looked helplessly in the mirror at herself. Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes.The little girl’s hair was long, but it was all over the place and looked like a bird’s nest now. Her chiffon dress had been torn in some places, and there were even a few dirty shoe prints on her pink dress. “Uh, I’m sorry, Mel.” Harold was very guilty. “I won’t do that again.”Alden came over and helped tidy up his sister’s clothe
As darkness took over the sky, Adina was finally finished cleaning up the messy living room. She took a glance at Duke who was reading a book on the couch, and rubbed her nose in confusion. ‘It’s almost ten in the evening. Why is this man still here?’‘Does he want me to order him to leave?’The four kids seemed to be gaining even more energy, and Adina had no idea when they would all be going to bed.After giving it some thought, Adina made the decision to put the kids to bed first and deal with Duke after.“Alright, Georgie, Hal, Al, and Mel, time to put the toys away. We’re going to go upstairs and take a bath,” she said with a smile while standing at the side of the play mat. Harold said, “Five more minutes, Mommy,” without raising his head and while still holding the Transformer toy in his arms.Adina was getting a little tired. That was already the third time they had asked for five more minutes.Even Mel had copied her brother and said, “Five more minutes.”The li
Adina thought he was sleep talking. She crouched down and said, “Hal, come here. Let’s get you to bed.”“No, I want milk. I’m hungry. I want milk…” the kid cried while hugging Adina’s neck. “I brought the milk powder, and it’s in the suitcase. Mommy, I want to drink some milk.”Well, it did not seem like he was sleep talking. Adina walked over to the suitcase, and sure enough, there was a tub of milk powder inside. Harold was already four and a half years old. It was not quite right for a child that big to drink milk at night.“Mommy, Hal has to drink milk at night,” George said drowsily, having woken up from the crying. “The bottle is in the suitcase too.”“Okay, I got it. You can go to sleep now.”Adina patted George on the head and carried the crying Harold to prepare his milk. She prepared a big bottle of milk, but Harold finished the whole thing in less than five minutes. She finally understood the meaning of Duke’s words. She could not, in fact, sleep soundly while
Adina pulled out her phone, and after taking a look at the caller ID, she answered the call. “Good day, Ms. Daugherty. I’m an account representative from Elitos Corporation. I’d like to let you know that your bid document has cleared our company’s initial evaluation. Please make plans to attend the meeting at Elitos Corporation at ten o’clock this morning.”Adina glanced at the time and agreed. The fact that Elitos Corporation had called her at this exact time meant that there must be good news regarding the bid.She had to win this project. She had to go. But what about these four kids?Just as she was thinking of a plan to arrange the four kids, a knock came from downstairs. Mel, who was sitting quietly on the bed, suddenly jumped out and ran downstairs to open the door. Adina immediately guessed who the visitor was. She walked into her room to wash up and dressed in official attire before heading downstairs. Duke had already taken a seat on the couch. He looked up t
“First, prepare the flour, then knead the dough.”He followed the tutorial, poured flour into the container, and added water.“If the dough is slightly moist, add some flour. If it seems too dry after that, add a little water.”However, try as he might, he just could not make the dough take shape. “Wow, Daddy, making handmade noodles seems to be fun. Can I do it with you?” Harold entered the kitchen at some point in time. He simply grabbed a handful of flour and flung it into the air. The flour landed on Duke’s body, and his black suit instantly became powdered up.Just as he was about to erupt in anger, Melody ran into the kitchen.The girl must have never played with flour before. She reached into the flour bag with both hands, and, with a wave of her hand, the kitchen immediately became foggy. With a blossoming headache, Duke asked, “Can you two go out of the kitchen first?”He was stuck on the first step of making the handmade noodles. He did not have the patience to deal
The intranet completely crashed after Elitos Corporation was hacked, and all employees had to put in extra labor over the weekend.The tender conference facing the entire Sea City scheduled for the day was also moved to the afternoon.Adina entered the lobby and saw that the staff were busy setting up the venue, and the site was even more grand and solemn than before.“Mr. Daugherty, this way, please.”Adina was guided into the conference room by the manager in charge of liaisons.The door of the meeting room was pushed open. There were already a dozen staff members seated at the round table. The person who wore a silver mask was sitting on the main seat. An assertive aura surrounded him.“Mr. Earley Wynters, Ms. Daugherty has arrived.”After respectfully reporting, the manager in charge of liaisons gestured for Adina to enter the meeting room.Adina’s lips pulled up into a light smile, “Mr. Earley Wynters, how are you?”Earley pointed to the closest seat at him and said, “Ple
Earley stood up and extended his right hand. “Ms. Daugherty, I hope we will have happy cooperation in the future.”Adina also got up and moved her chair aside. She shook hands with Earley. “Mr. Earley Wynters, may we have a happy cooperation as well.”When her hand touched Earley’s hand, she experienced a shiver that rose up her spine from her fingertips. The air was frigid. It was far more frigid than the cold air from a refrigerator.She only lightly touched Earley’s hand in a symbolic gesture and quickly withdrew.Earley pulled his hand back and inserted it into the suit pant pocket. He said coldly, “There will be a celebration banquet tomorrow night after today’s tender conference. Don’t forget to attend, Ms. Daugherty.”After saying that, without waiting for Adina to answer, he ordered his secretary to send Adina and Serene out.When they got outside and the sunlight shone down their shoulders, Serene let out a sigh of relief, “Ms. Daugherty, don’t you think Mr. Earley Wynte