Chapter 8: Troubled Lily.

Chapter 8: Troubled Lily.Ting was in class, she quickly took out her wireless earpods, put one of them inside her ear, and opened the stream. She was not alone, a few other girls also joined in and began to listen in to what Leo was talking about.

On the other side of the campus, Mel also received the notification and opened her streaming app as she was sitting leisurely in the class. They did not have much going on today as the teacher was absent.

Her deskmate looked at her and asked, "Mel, what are you watching?"

Mel showed the screen and the others also became interested, they wanted her to share the phone when the girl said, "You guys, subscribe to his channel if you want to watch, why bother me. Shoo."

The boys and girls chuckled and all took out their phones and subscribed to the channel.

...

Leo saw more people joining in on the stream and said with a smile, "Welcome to all the newcomers, well, I have just finished wedging the clay, so if you wish to see that, kindly wait till the next session. This brings us to the next question, what would you like me to make for you today?"

Mel quickly typed, 'You made a butterfly yesterday, how about you make some flowers today?'

Leo looked at the prompt and said, "Okay, I will make a few flowers then."

He began with his work and the audience were captivated. He began to explain things as well, and he showed them various methods and styles of making flowers from clay. His speed was steady and his voice was calm, everyone who watched the video learned a lot.

...

Mel did not know that her teacher came up and was standing behind her, with her eyes fixed to the screen. After half an hour, when Leo finished making all the flowers he picked up a circular cardboard and used scissors to refine its shape as he said, "Sometimes we do not have space to put big sculptures, so at a time like that we can use a wooden or a ceramic tile to make three dimensional objects on them. The process of making flowers on a tile is very interesting."

Then he used a spatula to mix his clay with water and made a slurry kind of mix of it, before he began to use it and make flowers and ferns.

Mel's teacher commented, "What a wonderful use of spatula. As if a painter had been given a brush and is drawing a beautiful woman."

Mel and the rest of the students nodded before they turned around and were shocked to see their teacher, they instinctively turned off the screens, when the middle-aged lady frowned and said to Mel, "I am still watching, turn it on."

Mel was surprised but she did as she was told. The teacher nodded and sat down beside him. She said, "You all are getting extra classes, I will not mind that, but don't take advantage of this person. He is streaming to make a living, so you should pay him in some way to help him. Understood?"

Mel and the rest replied, "Yes, Madam Florence."

...

Leo sighed as he finished with the clean up and said, "Well, cleaning up the workstation is also very important, and this brings us to the end of this stream. I am grateful for you all to sit along and watch me do my thing. I hope you liked the stream, if you did, please share the channel and ask your friends to join. When we reach a thousand subscribers, we will hold a give away, and the objects made during the first ten streams will be given away for free."

As soon as he said this, his screen flooded with gifts. Leo did not show his face but thanked the people with sincerity and turned off the stream.

He did not know that on the other side, Madam Florence had also joined the subscriber list and sent the two videos to her peers, and said, "What do you old lot think? This person seems very young but today I learned something from him."

...

Leo rested till the evening, as he did not color his flowers today, because he wanted to wait for Lily to come and help him with it. The little one had expressed that she wanted to color the things with him so he obliged.

In the evening, the kiln that he ordered also arrived and the technician helped him arrange it in a corner. The young man thanked the technician and gave him a small tip as well.

Then he waited for the two ladies to come back, and when they did his heart bloomed. However, he found that his daughter was not her cheery self and asked, "Lily, what happened? Did anyone say anything to you?"

Snow smiled and Leo asked her with a gesture and she shook her head to leave the living room to change her clothes, leaving the two of them to handle it on their own.

Lily raised her head and said, "Baba, am I fat?"

Leo raised his brows and then shook his head as he asked, "Why do you ask so?"


Lily looked down at the floor and asked in a quivering tone, "Today I asked Wayne to be my friend, and he said that he does not want to be my friend because Lily is fat. The whole class made fun of me."

Leo saw her tears falling on the ground and his heart palpitated. He reached out and pulled her in an embrace as he said, "No, Lily is not fat. Wayne is mean, tomorrow, Baba will go to school with you, and then I will talk to your teacher about this. How dare they tease my baby like this."

For some unknown reason, he felt very annoyed and angry when he thought about this. Snow came back and said, "I already talked to the teacher, but they said that children need to be molded slowly, they will make sure nothing like this happens again."

Lily was sobbing and said, "Liam has always been saying that I don't have a father, and if I complain to the teacher they all call me a tattletale. I don't want to go to school anymore, they are bad people."

Snow opened her eyes wide, and asked, "When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?"

Lily said, "When Baba was sick. EEE...."

She was bawling louder with every minute passing by, Leo raised his hand to stop Snow and began to coax Lily but his eyes were burning with rage. The students might be children and unaware of the gravity of their words but how can teachers ignore such a thing?

At this moment, Leo realized that he didn't even know the name of his daughter's school. He looked up at his wife and asked, "What school does Lily go to?"

He was embarrassed that he neglected such a thing but then again his condition never allowed him to care about such things. Snow replied, "Daffodils. It's located near the old neighborhood."

Leo nodded and said, "Tomorrow, I will take Lily to school."

Snow hesitated but then she nodded, and the young man coaxed Lily by telling her to calm down as he had a surprise for her. The little girl asked what it was, and Leo led her to the garage, where the two of them painted the flowers together, and Lily cheered up a little.

Leo carefully taught her and when she made a mistake, he patiently fixed it while explaining things to her calmly and also praised her when she did good.

Leo sighed when he looked at his daughter and said, "Lily, tomorrow, let us go to meet your grandparents on the way back."

Lily nodded with a smile and said, "Mom said that last time we could not go because you could not travel much. This time we will take cookies for them."

Leo nodded and sent her back inside the house as he applied a coat of resin on the objects, before following Lily.

...

In the morning, Leo put on a black shirt, grey pants and a pair of leather shoes with a watch on his hand. The watch looked minimalist but it was a luxury item. It was a keepsake of his father, and the shoes on his feet were also from the time when he was rich so they were of decent quality too.

If someone was to see him, they would find that Leo was a dashing young man and the aura he radiated was also very noble.

Snow saw him coming out of the dressing room and she was surprised, for a moment, she was dazed thinking about the first time she saw Leo. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks. The young man was walking slowly, but he had given up on the cane.

His daily workout in the therapy had increased his endurance slightly below a normal person.

Lily came out dressed in a black shirt and grey shorts. She also had black shoes on her feet and a white watch on her wrist. The father daughter duo looked so much like each other in their mannerism that Snow could not help but feel emotional and her eyes turned watery.

Leo and Lily approached her and the young man asked, "Snow, what happened?"

The lady shook her head and hugged him as she whispered, "Thank god for having mercy on us. Thank god for you recovering."

Leo smiled gently and said, "Thank you, for never giving up on me, Love."

Lily looked at the two of them and said, "Can you adults do this later? I will be scolded if we are late Baba."

Snow and Leo broke the hug and chuckled at the little one's words, and Leo bowed his head and said, "Lead the way, Young Miss Cardinal."

Lily raised her head and said, "Please hold my bag and follow me."

The two set out leaving Snow chuckling behind as she also prepared to head to her job.