Chapter 52: Vilification

Sitting together in the living room, Qiao Lan counted sixteen candles and lit them one by one.

Qiao Lan turned around and looked at Tan Mo, the candlelight reflected on the young man's delicate face, and his light brown eyes were even more brilliant like amber.

Pretty makes Qiao Lan slightly stunned.

Uncle Chen laughingly urged Tan Mo to blow out the candles, Qiao Lan then came back to his senses and hurriedly stopped, "Wait, make a wish first, you can't say it out loud."

Tan Mo watched Qiao Lan's silence for a moment, then closed his eyes, and after a long time opened them and faintly said, "It's done."

The birthday cake was made by Auntie Chan herself.

Tan Mo loves sweets, but she didn't eat much today, and Qiao Lan could tell that Tan Mo was not in a good mood. She thought for a long time, from this morning until now, about what could have made Tan Mo feel so bad, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't come up with anything.

Qiao Lan sighed, grabbing the pillow next to her and cradling it in her arms, resting her chin on the pillow with a shallow sigh.

Tan Mo came out from the bedroom, his eyes fell on Qiao Lan who didn't know what he was thinking.

The weather outside is getting cooler and cooler, but the house is warm, the young girl has just come out of the shower, wearing a cozy beige dress, her long hair is half-damp and draped over her thin shoulders. She sat curled up on the sofa, hugging a fluffy pillow in her arms, and under the beige skirt, she revealed her slim and white calves and feet.

Tan Mo moved his eyes away, his gaze mechanically falling on the armrest of the sofa next to Qiao Lan, "It's late, why don't you go to bed."

Qiao Lan came back to her senses, looked back at him and smiled, "Be right back to sleep."

"Uh-huh," Tan Mo nodded his head and turned around, about to leave, but Qiao Lan called out to him, saying, "Tan Mo, are you today... Have you met something recently."

Qiao Lan had just thought back a long time, Tan Mo wasn't having a bad day, this unusual mood had actually been going on for a long time.

Tan Mo asked her after a moment of silence, "Why do you ask."

"Because you haven't been in a very good mood lately."

She's really smart and sensitive, Tan Mo thought, even Uncle Chen didn't notice, but Qiao Lan did.

He shook his head and said it was fine, but when Qiao Lan went back to bed he sat in the dark for a long time, looking at the moon outside the window, at the place where Qiao Lan had just sat, and at the pillow Qiao Lan had just held in her arms.

He stared at the pillow for a long time, then carefully brought it over to him, hesitantly but silently cradling it in his arms.

On Sunday, Qiao Lan was going to take the bus back to school as usual, after all, she had to study late on Sunday night, but she didn't want to see the rain falling outside.

Uncle Chen looked outside and turned his head to Qiao Lan, "Lanlan, don't rush off today, I'll send you to school later, don't push it off, it's raining so hard outside, it's not troublesome to send you."

Qiao Lan couldn't refuse any more, and after thanking Uncle Chen, he stayed until nearly four o'clock, then he carried his school bag and followed Uncle Chen out of the door.

The attached middle school Sunday night to have evening self-study, a lot of students come early to copy homework, this time the school entrance is quite a lot of people, Qiao Lan got off the car into the school, the distance do not know which class of a few girls this hesitant to speak, "just that is Qiao Lan?"

"Right", a few girls looked at each other, there really weren't many people in the whole school who didn't recognize Qiao Lan now.

"She just got out of that car... Getting out?"

The girl opened her mouth uncertainly, "That car seems to be the one that specializes in transporting Tan Mo every day, right? It seems that it has been raked over the school's posting bar before, with a price tag of over eight figures..."

A few girls who hadn't been following this were first shocked by the eight figures before they got to the point.

"So the car that specializes in picking up Tan Mo every day brought Qiao Lan here today?"

The crowd was silent.

They are not students of the 18th class, but because Hao Ying chased Qiao Lan before the matter is too big, the students who don't like to gossip know a lot, love to gossip even more Qiao Lan relationship with the boys one by one, one of them have mentioned Tan Mo.

It is said that Qiao Lan's senior classmates said that Qiao Lan and Tan Mo were at the same table in the first year of high school, and Tan Mo didn't take care of anyone but Qiao Lan.

There is nothing wrong with having a good relationship, but today, coincidentally, I saw Uncle Chen send Qiao Lan over here, and this matter is somewhat indescribably ambiguous and intimate.

And indescribably odd.

A boy who only talked to one girl, and who gave this girl lectures and even delivered breakfast every day, and now even a special car to pick her up, if it were anyone else, they would almost have been sure that there was something fishy going on between these two.

But once we switch to Tan Mo, people will think it shouldn't be like that.

It shouldn't be, but it's overly ambiguous, so it feels even more indescribably weird and awkward.

"I've heard my friend say that she and Qiao Lan's roommate are very close. Qiao Lan's roommate said that Qiao Lan's family's condition is particularly bad, so Qiao Lan deliberately went to hook up with Tan Mo, after all, Tan Mo's family is very rich."

"No, I don't think Qiao Lan is that kind of person, or why didn't she say yes when Hao Ying was chasing her? Doesn't Hao Ying's family have any money?"

"Then why has she been so nice to Tan Mo, and now she comes to school in Tan Mo's family car?"

Qiao Lan doesn't know what's going on, and when she's halfway through the night study, Bai Yu pokes her, with a somewhat less-than-flattering look on his face, and asks Qiao Lan in a low voice, "Lanlan, how did you get to school today?"

Qiao Lan hadn't said anything to any of them about the fact that she usually went to Tan Mo's house on weekends, and she subconsciously tried to casually brush it off, but she suddenly realized something was wrong when she reached the end of her sentence, "What's wrong?"

"Someone on the posting board photographed you getting out of Tan Mo's car, and now so many people in my circle of friends are talking about it."

Qiao Lan froze and took Bai Yu's cell phone to see that someone had put up a picture of her getting out of Uncle Chen's car today, saying that there was absolutely no mistaking the car.

Nowadays, as soon as the names Qiao Lan, Hao Ying, Chen Yaoyang and so on are mentioned, all the gossips seem to explode in an instant, and there are people who intentionally lead to this side, jokingly saying that the school beauty rejected Hao Ying's roses but not Tan Mo's limousine.

A seemingly joking remark, but could not hide the sarcasm towards Qiao Lan at all, and some people below followed suit, saying that they had heard that Qiao Lan had initiated contact with Tan Mo in the beginning because Tan Mo's family was rich.

Qiao Lan is getting more and more popular, and there are more and more people who don't like her and don't like her, especially the girls, although many of them Qiao Lan doesn't even know.

Now these people are saying that they feel aggrieved on behalf of Hao Ying and that they have insulted Hao Ying by comparing her to a person with a disability.

Qiao Lan's face has never looked worse.

She wasn't sure if it was just herself and Tan Mo, or the fact that this novel set up this school to be so infuriating all the time, and she couldn't figure out why so many people liked to judge a stranger with such a gloating, yet condescendingly disgusting attitude.

What good will that do them?

Psychological comfort?

Qiao Lan couldn't figure it out and didn't want to think about it. Her first thought was that she didn't want Tan Mo to see these messy things, Qiao Lan returned the cell phone to Bai Yu, and then said to him, "Don't let Tan Mo see these things, and don't mention them when Tan Mo is around."

However, Qiao Lan had forgotten that Tan Mo's perception of the surroundings was many times more sensitive than hers.

He didn't know what was going on, but he could feel the measuring looks cast upon him by people who clearly didn't know him.

But there was no one around to tell him what was happening.

Another week of gym class, everyone has left the classroom, Tan Mo is sitting in the classroom looking at her book, outside the girls who don't want to be in the sun run to the shadows next to the school building to hide from the sun and chat, Tan Mo is not in the mood to listen to what those people are saying, but then she suddenly hears Qiao Lan's name.

Tan Mo never dared to let Qiao Lan, or anyone else, know what was on his mind, he was afraid that his broken body would bring gossip to Qiao Lan, but Tan Mo never expected that the gossip would leap into his ears in a way that was even more unacceptable to him.

"Is that Qiao Lan in the distance? Do you think she's really approaching Tan Mo on purpose because Tan Mo's family is rich, like everyone says?"

"I don't think so", someone else said, "I think Qiao Lan is really good for Tan Mo."

"I really don't get it. Tan Mo is no match for Hao Ying. Qiao Lan is blind, right?"

Tan Mo hadn't been able to understand the meaning of that sentence before the next one suddenly brought his sanity full circle.

"That's what you don't understand," the girl laughed for a long time, "there's a word you've heard before."

"What?"

"Mu maimed ah."