Chapter 30: Gift

At this moment, Boston time, 12:30pm, 12 hours difference from China, which means it's 12:30am in Qiao Lan.

Qiao Lan finally got Tan Mo's cell phone number tonight and waited for the job to finish before dialing Tan Mo's number from the boss's wife's cell phone.

There's some noise on the other end of that line, and Tan Mo, I don't know if it's a cold or something, is a little hoarse.

"Tan Mo, do you have a cold, why is your voice a bit muffled", Qiao Lan asked him, and after a long time the caller gave her two words back, "No."

Then there was no sound again.

If it wasn't for the fact that Qiao Lan already knew what kind of person Tan Mo was, and that he was usually so quiet, this phone call would have been impossible.

Usually when I talk to Tan Mo, except for when he is talking about a problem or a book he is particularly interested in, Tan Mo will talk a lot, but the rest of the time, especially in normal chats, Tan Mo will not talk at all, and he will not talk if he is not asked.

Qiao Lan looked it up, and it's a common problem with Asperger's, because they don't feel the need to talk to each other on a daily basis.

Qiao Lan thought to herself that when the school year started, she must find a way to try her best to change Tan Mo's habit of not talking, otherwise how could she deal with other people in the future, if she had the patience, they might not necessarily have it.

"Did you go to America for something important," Qiao Lan glanced at the snowflakes drifting outside, "before you left in too much of a hurry to ask."

The noise on the other end of the line faded, probably because Tan Mo had changed places, and continued, "Grandpa's sick."

"I see," Qiao Lan nodded, "no wonder you left in such a hurry, so are you feeling better now?"

"Died the day before yesterday."

Qiao Lan : "...... Condolences."

Tan Mo wanted to say that there was no mourning, no need for condolences, but the words didn't come out.

Uncle Chen pushed him out of the hospital, after getting into the car, the surroundings were quieter, Qiao Lan's voice on the phone was clearer, Uncle Chen could hear the voice on the other end of the phone.

He had just coughed at Tan Mo's cold "passed away". Tan Mo didn't understand the twist and turns here, so he was just being honest, but it was so choking that Qiao Lan froze for a few seconds before quickly changing the subject.

"You left in such a hurry last time that you didn't even finish the last language test, but it was you who ended up first in age."

Tan Mo let out an "Oh", he wasn't really interested in the conversation, he actually wanted to ask Qiao Lan why she called him now, but Qiao Lan was talking now, Tan Mo would just be good and talk to Qiao Lan for now.

"Is second place yours."

"Yeah", Qiao Lan was very happy, "I wanted to tell you when I got my results, but I didn't even have your contact information, so it's a shame."

Tan Mo froze and looked up suddenly, Qiao Lan on the other end waited for half a day and didn't hear a response, "What's wrong?"

"I left my contact information," Tan Mo spoke in a low voice, adding after that, "for the homeroom teacher to pass on to you."

It was Qiao Lan's turn to be stupid.

It has been more than twenty days since she took her exams, and Qiao Lan has never seen her homeroom teacher, nor has she received anything from her homeroom teacher.

So Tan Mo asked his homeroom teacher to tell him before he left, but the homeroom teacher forgot or was delayed for some reason?

Qiao Lan didn't know what to say for a while.

It was a long time before she opened her mouth.

"I didn't get it."

Uncle Chen, who was sitting in the front, sighed. He thought that there must be something strange here, and it turned out that it wasn't that Qiao Lan didn't contact him, but that he couldn't contact him at all.

Qiao Lan also spoke up later, saying that she made it a point to ask Mr. Tan for Tan Mo's contact information when Mr. Tan came over for dinner, and then made up for the two-day late Happy New Year.

When he finally hung up the phone, Uncle Chen looked at Tan Mo who was staring at his cell phone in the rearview mirror, and finally felt the stone hanging in his heart fall down.

On that New Year's Day, Tan Mo suddenly told him that she didn't want to go back to China, which startled Uncle Chen.

But now... Uncle Chen settled down, and when the old man's funeral over here was over, they would be able to return home.

However, compared to Tan Mo's simplicity, Uncle Chen's thoughts are more varied and deeper.

The class teacher of Tan Mo, who had previously called her, confirmed that the phone number had been sent to Qiao Lan's parents, so if Qiao Lan's parents were sure that they had received the text message, why had they not told Qiao Lan?

Did you intentionally not tell or did you forget?

The former is malice, the latter is disinterest.

Either way, it is definitely not the attitude of a normal parent. Before, when I saw Qiao Lan working, I just thought that Qiao Lan's family was poor, but now it seems that it is not that simple.

Uncle Chen frowned and thought for half a day, then turned his head to ask Tan Mo, who was still staring at the incoming call with his cell phone, "Young master, has Qiao Lan ever mentioned what his parents' jobs are?"

Tan Mo, his eyes fixed on the ten-minute-long incoming call on his cell phone, didn't look up as he said, "Mentioned it."

"What's it for?"

Tan Mo has a good memory, and he remembers clearly what Qiao Lan said, "There was a small restaurant in front of the annex."

A restaurant in front of a school?

School entrance to the restaurant, that is definitely not a difficult household, the school has a lot of students traffic, even if they do not earn much but also not too little.

So Qiao Lan is still working?

Previously, Uncle Chen only thought that Qiao Lan's family was in a special situation, but now he is vaguely sure that there is something wrong with Qiao Lan's parents.

On Qiao's family side, Qiao Lan never gave Qiao Yuan any tuition, she didn't have the time and didn't want to.

The good thing is that Qiao Lan almost all of a vacation in the Western restaurant, the restaurant tube to eat she does not have to go home for dinner, leaving home early every night after twelve o'clock in the evening to come back, and Qiao's family and all the people can not hit the front.

I heard that Qiao's father Qiao's mother gritted her teeth and invited Qiao Yuan to a school teacher's home for tuition, a lesson of one hundred dollars, more than one subject, a winter vacation spent several thousand dollars.

So sometimes when Qiao Lan comes back, she occasionally bumps into Qiao's mother, who stays up late watching TV dramas, and Qiao's mother looks at her as if Qiao Lan owes her money.

Qiao Lan closed the door to her room and began to think about applying to live on campus this semester, as facing Qiao's family every day would be too distracting.

But the resident student has to close at eleven o'clock at night, and she has to work part-time at night, and she can't go back at twelve o'clock after she has finished her work.

I couldn't think of a good way to do both, so I had to dismiss the idea of living in school early, thinking that I would apply for residency as soon as I got through the first year of high school and as soon as I got to the second year of high school.

Winter break is so much shorter than summer vacation, and school is already starting up again before the 15th day of the first month.

Qiao Lan went to the bank the day before school started, deposited all the money she had earned during winter break again, and then checked her balance.

Twenty thousand and one hundred and twenty-three.

It's a lot more than Qiao Lan expected when she first started preparing for her part-time job.

When she was looking for this job, it was only 1,600 yuan a month, and the restaurant would have commission and tips and occasional bonuses, so Qiao Lan calculated 2,000 yuan a month for herself at the time.

She doesn't have to support herself for a while yet, so she doesn't have a lot of expenses, and with all the money saved up, she should be able to have 20,000 dollars by the end of her first year of high school.

High school accommodation plus tuition fees, less than three thousand dollars a year, she will have two hundred dollars a month on the meal card subsidy, later Qiao's family does not provide for her, and then add three hundred dollars a month living expenses is absolutely enough, after all, school meals are very cheap.

That works out to be a comfortable sophomore and junior year if you can make 20,000 dollars.

But now, only half a year later, the money in the bank card has already reached the expected amount. Qiao Lan should have been happy to see the money on her card, but she couldn't be.

Thinking about where more than half of the money in the card came from, Qiao Lan felt like she couldn't sit still again.

A good half of this side is Tan Mo's commission and tips when she comes to eat at the restaurant.

She a small waitress who earns two thousand dollars a month, hard by Tan Mo raised to five thousand dollars a month middle-income people, holding this card Qiao Lan feel hot.

Qiao Lan felt that she had to find a chance to talk to Tan Mo about this matter, and not let him come to the western restaurant again, what's the point of being a loose cannon every day.

Putting the card away, he didn't dare to leave it at home, but still put it in a small pocket inside his school bag, made a good handover with the western restaurant side, resumed his daily life of only working night shifts, and went to school early the next day after going to bed early in the evening.

Started school.

Reporting began at 9:00 a.m., but not too many students came on time, probably because they didn't sleep enough, or maybe it was an all-night rush to catch up on homework and now they haven't finished writing.

When Qiao Lan entered the classroom, there were only a few people in the classroom, and the homeroom teacher was not there. Qiao Lan wanted to ask the homeroom teacher about Tan Mo's phone number, and she was wondering how to ask her without being rude, but the homeroom teacher, who had finished a meeting, saw her and opened her mouth first.

"Last semester when the final exam Tan Mo asked me to take a message for you, too busy to forget, turn around I texted your mom, did your mom tell you?"

Qiao Lan: "......"

No, Qiao's mother didn't tell her anything.

There was no need to ask anything more, she already knew all.

Uncle Chen gave the class teacher a call, and the class teacher sent a message to Qiao's mother, but she didn't get Tan Mo's contact information, so there was no need to think about what the problem was.

The homeroom teacher also cheerfully said to herself, "Aiya I really didn't expect that Tan Mo progress can be so big, when the school just opened when not a word, ignore anyone, now actually will take the initiative to contact..."

Qiao Lan couldn't listen, and had a momentary impulse to run out of the school gate and into that small restaurant to ask Qiao's mother why she didn't tell the homeroom teacher about the text message she sent, but she stopped in the end.

You have to reason with normal people. People like Qiao's mother can't be reasoned with.

Besides, where's the need to ask why? Either she forgot, or because she didn't tutor Qiao Yuan, Qiao's mother deliberately didn't tell her.

After signing up, Qiao Lan went to the cell phone mall in the afternoon.

When she was in high school, Qiao Lan didn't use a cell phone, and since she didn't have many contacts anyway, it wasn't too important to her, so in her life, Qiao Lan didn't find it inconvenient to be without a cell phone.

But after this, Qiao Lan still thinks she should buy a cell phone.

The cell phone seller's uncle warmly entertained, "What brand and model do you want?"

No brand, no specific model. At this stage, Qiao Lan has very low requirements for cell phones, and thought for a moment, "It's just enough to be able to make phone calls and send text messages."

Uncle: "......"

All the people who buy this kind of cell phone are old ladies and old men, what's the point of you being a little girl.

I was about to say something when Qiao Lan hurriedly said, "Let's buy a slightly better one."

Before I wanted to check the information have to wait for the weekly information class, it is too inconvenient, buy a cell phone to use to check the information is also quite good, before reading a book on the Internet about Asperger's disease, and bought a cell phone is just right to read.

After buying the cell phone and running the card, Qiao Lan went to the restaurant.

In the evening, Qiao Lan was busy serving food when a girl with her stopped her and pointed to the door, Qiao Lan turned around and saw that the teenager she hadn't seen for a month had appeared in the western restaurant again.

Uncle Chen, who was pushing his wheelchair behind him, also looked at her happily and smiled.

The girl beside her grinned and took the dish from her hand with a meaningful smile, "Go go go."

Qiao Lan: ......

The people in the store have some misunderstandings about her relationship with Tan Mo, and no matter how much Qiao Lan explains that she and Tan Mo are just classmates, no one believes her.

Qiao Lan didn't have to explain to them what Asperger's meant, and let them talk afterward.

Walked over to Uncle Chen Tan Mo and said hello, Uncle Chen looked at her with a smile, "Haven't seen you for a month, you seem to have gotten whiter."

"It's winter, cover it up and everyone will be white", Qiao Lan smiled and looked down at Tan Mo, "Your favorite spot happens to be empty today, let's go over there."

Tan Mo, who had been staring at Qiao Lan since he entered the room, finally opened his mouth, "Good."

Haven't seen you in a month.

He could have come back even earlier if there hadn't been something over there that prevented him from leaving.

Seeing Qiao Lan again was even better than he had imagined before he arrived.

Tan Mo couldn't help but keep staring at her again, and he wanted to and did.

Uncle Chen just said that Qiao Lan has become a bit whiter, but Tan Mo didn't see it when he looked closely.

But when I think about it, I think it should be so. Qiao Lan has been busy for the whole winter vacation, and there is no one to send her all kinds of things to eat every day as he does, so she is going to be malnourished again.

But the eyes were as good as ever, like the obsidian beads he'd bought on purpose.

The obsidian beads are black, translucent beads that he saw occasionally, and when he saw them Tan Mo was reminded of Qiao Lan's eyes and bought them.

Qiao Lan skillfully ordered for the two of them, looked down and saw Tan Mo sitting obediently, the word "cute" popped up in his head for a moment, and suddenly remembered something, looked back and didn't see the foreman, so he whispered to Tan Mo, "I went to buy a cell phone today, so you don't have to look for anyone else if you want to find me". I'm going to buy a cell phone today, so you don't have to look for me anymore."

Tan Mo looked up, mostly because he wanted to frown but really couldn't, and grimaced, "You're short of money."

"It's not very expensive," Qiao Lan said busily, looking back again to hold the cell phone out to Tan Mo, "Just help me enter your number on it."

Tan Mo took the brand new white cell phone and gently rubbed the metal edges of the phone between them, scratching the screen saver to tap on the contacts.

Fingertips pinched the phone unexpectedly.

It was clean and dry, not a single number on it.

He was the first.

It was like a small spark had suddenly popped into his head, scalding his thoughts.

He loved the word one, first, only, together, always, all those words.

Fingertips fall on the screen.

tan.... .mo.

After carefully entering her name and phone number, Tan Mo returned the phone to Qiao Lan, who dialed Tan Mo's number, "This is my number, remember to save it."

Of course it will survive.

But a glance over just now has been memorized in the mind.

Qiao Lan wanted to say something else when the foreman turned up, Qiao Lan couldn't chat with Tan Mo any longer and quickly put her cell phone away before finishing her order saying, "Wait for me."

Tan Mo and Uncle Chen didn't realize what was going on.

After a while, when the foreman left, Qiao Lan leaped back and took out a small box from his pocket and handed it to Tan Mo.

"New Year's gift, a little late, but not yet fifteen, still can count, I do it myself, do not be too ugly ah", said not dare to delay any longer and quickly slipped away.

Uncle Chen laughed, "This kid, windy", turning his head with a few laughs in his voice, "Open it and see, what is it, tsk... Peaceful knot ah."

Qiao Lan did not know what to give Tan Mo, buy expensive unrealistic, buy cheap and meaningless, passing by a boutique when I saw the colorful rope of peace knots, a heart to buy a lot of back.

After making up a bunch of them, I finally came up with one that I was happy with.

For Tan Mo, what he lacks most is health and peace.

When Tan Mo was leaving, Qiao Lan was busy again, Uncle Chen saw it in his eyes and laughed, "I'll see you in class tomorrow, now go home first."

Tan Mo looked at Uncle Chen for a moment before withdrawing his gaze and getting into the car.

When she returned home, Tan Mo retrieved the obsidian beads she had bought from outside from the cupboard, rounded black beads with excellent color under the light, picking one out from the inside, Tan Mo took both the bead and the Peace Festival to Auntie Chen.

He wanted to string this bead onto this peace knot.

"Don't take the front apart," it's not Qiao Lan's doing if you take it apart, "then thread the beads on to make a bracelet."

Aunt Chen stared at the beads and the peace knot for a long time and sighed, "I'll give it a try."

Wearing presbyopia glasses, Auntie Chen and Tan Mo sat under the light and worked for nearly two hours, finally completing this difficult handmade transformation, placing the bracelet on Tan Mo's wrist, her pale complexion reflecting the black beads and colorful cords.

It fits well and is beautiful.

Tan Mo looked left and right, and finally satisfied, pushed his wheelchair back to his room.