Chapter 79 Spring Brings Everything to Life
Every year, the power company holds a tree-planting event, and this year was no exception. Xander led the power company's tree-planting team to Moonlight Town. They bought a hundred saplings, and fourteen groups with three men and one woman each were assigned seven trees per group. The remaining two trees were taken on by Xander as the leader.
Caroline worked in an organized way with three male colleagues from her department. Two male colleagues dug holes, one carried the saplings, and Caroline filled in the soil. It looked simple enough, but doing it was exhausting. They came in the morning, and by the time they finished planting these trees, the sun was almost setting. Everyone stood in front of the planted trees for a group photo. The activity banner read: Spring Brings Life, Protect Green First, signed by Seaside City Power Company.
Lunch was a quick meal by the roadside. For dinner, Xander organized a group meal and called to reserve a restaurant.
On the way back, the car was lively at first, but after less than ten minutes everyone quieted down. They were probably all worn out from shoveling and digging. Caroline leaned against the seat back and dozed off.
Just as they were about to reach the office, Caroline received a WhatsApp from Leopold.
North: [Are you busy?]
She was too tired and didn't hear the phone notification. The car stopped in front of the restaurant, and everyone got out one by one.
Her colleague Opal Hughes next to her pushed Caroline, "Caroline, Caroline, wake up, we're here."
Caroline opened her eyes and rubbed the corners, "I fell asleep too."
Opal laughed, "Who didn't? Everyone was so tired there wasn't a sound."
The two got out of the car one after the other and went straight to the largest private room in the restaurant.
"Opal, can you hold my bag? I need to use the restroom." Caroline handed her bag to Opal and headed down another corridor.
When she returned to the private room, Opal handed her the bag. The room was too noisy, so Opal didn't hear the phone ringing inside the bag.
At that moment, Leopold's car was parked at the office entrance. It was already dark, and the lights in Caroline's office were still on. He didn't know why she hadn't answered his call.
After waiting another ten minutes, Leopold sent her a message.
North: [Very busy?]
She still didn't reply.
Leopold called Caroline's phone again, but the private room was in the middle of a lively conversation, and the noisy voices drowned out the ringtone.
He got out of the car and went to the guard station, knocked on the door, and asked, "Excuse me, has Ms. Tudor left work yet?"
The security guard said, "Ms. Tudor hasn't come back yet."
"Where did she go?" Leopold asked.
The guard replied, "There's a tree-planting event today. The company organized tree planting."
"Where did they go to plant trees?"
"This year should still be at the same place, Moonlight Town."
"Okay, thank you."
Leopold wasn't sure how far Moonlight Town was from Seaside City, but seeing Caroline's car parked in the yard, she really hadn't come back.
He returned to his car, searched for Moonlight Town - less than an hour's drive. Calculating the time, it should be over by now.
Leopold called Caroline's phone again. At that moment, Caroline was being pulled by Xander to toast everyone.
Xander's face was flushed from drinking. He said, "Most of the people here today are veteran employees of Seaside City Power. In the future, you'll need everyone's help and support at work. Let's toast."
Caroline raised her glass without hesitation. She understood that Xander was paving the way for her.
She drank the glass decisively, which drew cheers from everyone present.
When she returned to her seat, she heard her phone ringing. Caroline took out her bag and sure enough, there were three missed calls on her phone - two from Leopold and one from Elysia.
She called back in order, "You called me? I didn't hear it just now."
Leopold sat in his car, with traffic flowing outside the window.
He lit a cigarette and rolled down the car window a crack. "I came back and wanted to pick you up, give you a surprise. But you didn't reply to my WhatsApp, didn't answer my calls. I asked the guard and found out you went tree planting today. How was it? Are you tired?"
"Not too bad."
Another burst of laughter came from the dinner table. Caroline couldn't hear what Leopold was saying, so she walked out of the private room.
As she came to the hallway, it became much quieter on the phone.
"Having dinner with colleagues?"
"Yeah, everyone was pretty tired today, so Mr. White organized a group dinner for us."
"Did you drink?"
"A little, not much."
Leopold said, "What time will it end? I'll pick you up."
"Hard to say, a few people are really getting into the drinking." Caroline worried about him driving at night, "If you're in a hurry, you can head back first."
Sending him away?
Leopold flicked his cigarette ash, "No rush, I'll wait for you."
Caroline said, "If it gets too late, the road back to Seaside City isn't easy to drive."
Still sending him away?
He wanted to see what was going on.
Leopold asked, "Where are you eating? I'll wait there."
She gave him the address and said to message her when he arrived.
Leopold put out his cigarette, "Okay."
The car stopped at the restaurant entrance. Leopold sent her a message.
North: [I'm at the entrance.]
Caroline replied: Okay.
The gathering went from after five in the afternoon until eight-thirty. As Caroline walked out of the restaurant, she saw Leopold's car. After saying goodbye to her colleagues, she headed straight for his car.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Caroline got into Leopold's car.
People are naturally curious. Someone asked, "Didn't she break up with her previous boyfriend? Did they get back together?"
"That can't be. It was such an ugly breakup, she wouldn't get back with her ex."
"That's what I think too. Then who came to pick her up?"
Someone spoke up, saying, "When I walked past just now, I looked and it didn't seem like her previous ex-boyfriend. She must be dating someone new."
There's always someone who can't stand seeing others do well, saying, "Just broke up and already dating someone new? No gap at all?"
An older colleague patted the person who said that on the back, "What are you talking about? She's been broken up for a while now, what do you mean no gap? Good thing Mr. White isn't here, or he'd scold you for talking nonsense."
The person laughed, covering their embarrassment.
Caroline said, "Did Lily's dad get discharged from the hospital?"
Leopold said, "Not yet, but soon. She told me she's processing the discharge next Monday."
"Who's managing the hotel while you're back?" Caroline asked.
Leopold looked ahead, "There hasn't been much going on these past few days. I came back tonight to get some change of clothes."
"Are you going back later?" she asked.
Leopold said, "No, staying the night."
The car stopped at Caroline's apartment complex entrance. Just as she was about to get out, Leopold pulled her back.
Caroline turned around. Her chin was caught by Leopold, who suddenly leaned in, staring into her eyes and said, "You don't seem happy that I came back?"
Caroline: "No, why wouldn't I be happy?"
Leopold smelled the essence of alcohol on her. Under the influence of alcohol, her answer should be from the heart.
"Are you happy I came back?"
Caroline: "Of course I'm happy. Do you even need to ask?"
"If you're happy, why were you sending me away?"
Although Caroline had been drinking, she wasn't so drunk she couldn't remember things.
"I wasn't sending you away. I was worried about the mountain roads with all those curves at night - it's not safe for you to drive in the dark." Caroline caught on and narrowed her eyes to look at him, "So that's why you insisted on picking me up - you wanted to see who I was having dinner with?"
Leopold smiled, "Don't wrongly accuse me."