Crashing into an Old Flame
Chapter 213: Breaking her rule

Chapter 213: Breaking her rule

Diana was looking at the passing clouds when two hands suddenly covered her eyes. She could feel the warmth of those long and rough fingers on her closed eyes and that familiar scent lingering around her that calmed her restless heart.

Her lips quirked up, ’’I am afraid of the dark,’’ she teased the person who was covering her eyes.

’’There is nothing you should be afraid of with me around,’’ Maxim lowered his head and kissed her forehead as his palms slid down her eyes.

Diana arched her neck back and opened her eyes slowly. She glanced at the man who was standing behind the bench. Who knows when he came? Yet, she could not stop grinning at him, ’’I heard there was a meeting.’’

Maxim’s face scrunched slightly when heard that, ’’I slipped out.’’

Diana burst out laughing. She felt that Old Master Qin was rather pitiful. For a person who liked his things to be done in an orderly manner, he had people like Alex and Maxim around him who broke rules without holding back. Not only they fought in the hospital, they even acted wilfully like kindergarteners.

Shaking her head, she pushed herself to her feet and walked around the bench to approach him, ’’Maxim.’’

His eyes sparkled when he heard her call him by his name. If he said it was music to his ears, it would be an understatement. He could never have enough of it, ’’Hmm?"

"Maxim,’’ she called his name again, softly this time.

’’Yes?"

’’You look pretty today,’’ she grinned when his face darkened.

’’That’s not how you describe a man, Ana. Pretty is not the word.’’

’’Why not? I even find you beautiful,’’ she held his hand.

His brows scrunched slightly, ’’Your vocabulary is lacking.’’

’’I think it is the right word,’’ she pushed herself to her tiptoes and kissed his cheek softly.

The group of kids behind them squealed in delight and giggled having witnessed that moment.

’’That big sister kissed the big brother.’’

’’They look so cute.’’

’’I also want to kiss you,’’ a boy turned to look at the girl in a hospital gown who pushed him away and scoffed.

’’You are not as pretty as that big brother.’’

Having heard that, Diana felt her smile turning wider till her cheeks hurt. She looked at Maxim with an ’I told you’ expression, to which he looked at her helplessly.

She kissed his other cheek and pulled back before he could react, ’’You are so pretty that my heart hurts,’’ With a wistful sigh, she waved her hand at him and walked away.

Maxim stood there frozen as he glanced at her retreating back. It was fine that he broke her rules. But she told them to be professional at work yet she broke her own rule. The corner of his lips tugged up at what her actions insinuated.

Suddenly, Maxim did not mind being called pretty or beautiful a thousand times over. Whatever made her happy, even if it was at his own expense.

...

Hazel did not know how long she hid inside the washroom but when there was no noise in the surroundings, she pushed open the door and slipped out of there before making her way towards the elevator.

The elevator door opened and Logan stepped out.

’’What took you so long?" Hazel kept checking behind her to make sure no one was after her.

But amidst the distraction, she did not notice the strange look on Logan’s face.

’’Let’s go quickly..’’ Hazel dragged the stunned Logan with her, her other hand tugging at her huge hat to cover her whole face.

It took Logan a moment to regain his composure and he looked at the chessboard in his hand before looking at the woman incredulously, ’’What about this?"

’’Some other day,’’ Hazel said without blinking. The old man could get the chessboard some other day. There was no way she would linger around in this place any longer.

Logan finally noticed that there was something amiss with her. She did not seem to have met Old Master Qin yet and her shoes and the huge amount of shopping bags were missing as well. She seemed to be running from something, ’’What’s wrong?"

Hazel broke out in goosebumps. She hugged herself tighter and refused to speak anymore.

...

By the time Diana reached her place, she had yet to hear from Daisy and it made her feel jittery.

If it were the old times and they were in Beijing, she might not have felt this way. After all, her sister could break into the highly guarded Chen Mansion and escape unscathed. What could possibly trouble her?

But the past few months had made Diana rather hypersensitive. She could not help but try to be cautious.

Just when she decided to visit the headquarters of Harper’s, a lone text came from Daisy.

’Approximately 12 hours more’

Those were the plain words that Daisy sent but Diana sighed in relief because she understood what Daisy was trying to say.

She would be back in 12 hours.

Relieved, Diana fed Angel and freshened the little girl up before putting her to sleep. Then she heated a glass of milk and handed it to Ivy, who under her stern glare downed it begrudgingly.

’’Close your eyes and try to sleep today,’’ Diana grabbed her laptop as she watched Ivy pouting and sighing.

After drawling around for another few minutes and knowing that she would not have a way out of it today, Ivy grievously dragged herself to Angel’s bed and plopped like a dead fish as she flipped constantly.

Looking at her forcefully shut eyes as she scratched her face and stretched her limbs, Diana’s lips twitched.

She felt like a bully but there was nothing else she could do. Ivy has not been sleeping properly for days and at this rate, she was worried that her body would give up.

Diana plopped on the couch and checked her textbox. Seeing that there were no texts from Maxim, she pouted and moved to a shopping app.

She scrolled through her wishlist on the shopping app mindlessly but her fingers paused when she saw a laptop she had saved months ago.

Back then, she had wanted to pursue her previous passion for writing but she could not even afford a laptop. Thinking back, she had come a long way from there.

She ordered the laptop without a second thought.

...

After texting Diana and reassuring her, Daisy leaned back on the swivel chair and let out a soft sigh. There were rings under her eyes, her short ash blond hair had parts for having her fingers raked inside them numerous times and her usually ’handsome’ face looked rather delicate and battered. She looked slightly pale for not having slept for two days but the coldness in her eyes did not diminish one bit.

Her gaze wandered off to the desk and shelves full of files that were stacked in an orderly manner. She then looked at the small number of remaining files on her desk.

She emptied the glass of water before sitting straight and flipping through the files again, her focused eyes scanning through every word.

It was already time to get off work for most of the staff members except for the guards and the core members of the organization who had to remain on standby in case they needed to be dispatched for some mission.

The staff members avoided Daisy like she was a plague. After all, after she disappeared from her post without giving prior notice, it was them who suffered endlessly under their Boss’s wrath. What’s worse, they could not get a single clue about this brat no matter where and how they investigated. It was like he disappeared into thin air.

But for the core members and guards, although they paid attention to their boss’s mood and did not approach Daisy but they had always low-key admired her capabilities. In the end, they felt like their boss was being too harsh on them.

But dealing with their capricious boss, there was nothing they could do.

After giving orders to Daisy to memorize every single piece of data regarding the company, their boss had left that day and he was yet to be seen in the company.

Out of their admiration for Daisy, some of them sneakily dropped snacks and food and drinks at her table and one of the guards even mustered his courage to approach her and tell her to take a rest but her cold gaze intimidated him. And he could only retreat gingerly. This frail-looking youth was even more stubborn than their boss.

But much to their surprise, they were greeted by the sight of their Boss whom they hadn’t seen for almost two days.

Ryle was on a phone call and a parrot was sitting on one of his hands.