Chapter 6: Hard Work Is Rewarding.
While waiting for the delivery, the young man used the phone to look for the people from his past. He used the mobile phone to search for the news, and he typed a name, "Echo Cardinal."
The next second, Leo found what he was looking for. Echo Cardinal was his cousin, born to the second son of the Cardinal family, his Uncle, Vincent Cardinal. It was Echo who pushed him in his current situation. Leo hated this person the most because in the greed to control the Cardinal family, this scumbag was used by the others.
From the news, Leo could see that in the past three years, the Cardinal Family was reduced to just a shell of what it was in the past. Echo Cardinal loved vanity and in the past few months, he has been incurring losses, because his allies ditched him.
Leo looked up for the so-called allies of the Cardinal family, and he spent two hours only researching what they have been up to these days. As he was getting deep into the research, the doorbell rang. Leo took a deep breath as he stood up from the ground and with the support of his cane, he walked up to the door.
Outside, there was a community employee, who was responsible for collecting the deliveries from the main gate outside, and then bringing them to the owner, this was a security measure.
Leo thanked the person and asked him to put the big carton inside the garage and unpacked the things slowly, and began working. He kneaded the clay with his hands and made a few balls, before covering them up with plastic to keep them moist.
Leo wiped the sweat on his forehead and then he began to make slabs and cut them out. With the information that the system gave him, these things seemed easier to do, but Leo understood why the system gave him this skill. Pottery required patience, and the art of learning to let go.
Leo had a faint smile on his face as he began to work. He matched the dimensions of the chariot perfectly and then made wheels separately. The original toy could not move, but Leo wanted this one to move, and after he was done with the chariot.
He decided to use his skills to fix the old one as well. After all, the new one was a gift from him, but the original was a gift from Snow, and Lily loved her mother as well, that was why the child was crying so much in the morning.
Leo was tired, and his face had turned pale but he wanted Lily to be happy. He took his lunch in the garage as well, and went back to work. The clay did not need to be put in the kiln, it dried under the air on its own.
Leo then took time to paint it with acrylic paints and finally sprayed it with a coat of clear resin that dries up quickly. It was four in the evening when he finished the whole thing and brought the chariot inside to the living room. He sat in the rocking chair by the window, with the chariot placed on a small table before him.
However, because he was so tired, gradually, he fell asleep. Leo did not even realize when Snow and Lily came back home.
…
Snow opened the door and Lily walked inside slowly, apparently she was still upset. Snow came inside and called for Leo, "Leo…"
The man did not reply, so she changed her shoes and was about to go into the bedroom, when she found him sleeping in the rocking chair. She sighed in relief, because Leo was fine, she knew that he was still very frail and so she was worried about him.
Suddenly, she noticed the identical chariots placed on the small table, and a smile appeared on her face, she sighed and said, "Lily, my darling, look Baba made you the toy like he promised. Don't be upset anymore love."
Lily raised her head, and followed Snow's finger, before she dashed over to the table and slowly approached her sleeping father. Snow wanted to stop her but the girl gently held Leo's hand.
Leo woke up from the touch and groggily raised his head to look around and smiled at Lily as he said, "Are you back, my love? Baba, made you a chariot, it moves as well."
Snow felt her eyes stinging as she wiped the water that was about to drip. She could sense how tired Leo was, and yet he was so patient with Lily that it touched her heart. All these years while she was looking after him, Snow had been wondering if Leo would ever blame her for what he suffered, or would he resent her for this.
However, when he woke up, with each passing day, she found that Leo was unlike what she thought he would be. She calmed her mind before walking over to the pair and picking up the toy that Leo made, she was surprised, she did not expect him to have such a skill, and smiled.
She asked, "I did not expect you to be so talented."
Leo looked at her with a doting expression and asked, "So, did you fall in love with me because I used to look good?"
Snow acted shocked and asked, "How did you figure that out?"
The couple fell silent before laughing a little. Lily inspected the toy and carefully spun the wheels before exclaiming, "They moved."
Leo told her that he made moving wheels because this chariot belonged to his princess and that she should take it out to ride in battles.
Lily looked at him and crossed her little arms across her before replying, "Baba, you are so silly, why would Lily need to go to war? Even if I do, how will I fit on this small thing? Where will I find the horses?"
Leo and Snow were shocked before they laughed again, and the atmosphere became harmonious. After dinner, Lily went to sleep holding the Chariot, and Snow came to her own bedroom, to find Leo. The young man was half asleep when Snow came to his side and gently said, "Don't work so hard. What if something happened?"
Leo replied softly, "It is all worth seeing you two smile. That is all that I need."
Snow sighed and shook her head as she held his hand and fell asleep. Following next morning, Leo began to use pottery as a means of exercise, and craft many things.
It was the third day when Lily came back from the school with her mother, and sat down beside Leo as she said, "Baba, you know, Wayne's mother is a live streamer, she got a new car. He is such a show-off, I don't like him."
Leo looked at her scrunched expression and held her little face in his hands gently and said, "Good that you do not like Wayne, we will get a car soon as well. Come let us select one right now."
That said, he took out his mobile and the two people began to see cars. Snow turned her head from the kitchen and watched two heads bobbing together on the phone screen and shook her head thinking, 'These two really are blood relatives.'
After a few minutes, Lily selected three cars, and Leo nodded, complimenting that his daughter was just like him, and knew what cars were good. He pecked her on the cheeks and Lily hugged him as they both mingled with each other.
'Ping: Host, your daughter likes three cars. To fulfill your daughter's wishes, please work hard as a streamer, and reach the milestone of one thousand subscribers to get one of the cars that she liked.'
Leo smiled and understood that in order to become an Almighty Father, he had to work hard and the system would not give him just anything for free, and he liked it. People would be grateful for the things that they worked hard for.