Chapter 30: Gift

At this moment, Boston time is 12.30 pm, twelve hours away from home, which means that it is 12.30 am in Qiao Lan.

Qiao Lan finally got Tan Mo's mobile number tonight and used the boss's wife's mobile to dial Tan Mo's number when work was over.

There was a bit of noise on the other end of that line, and Tan Mo didn't know if it was a cold or something, his voice was a bit hoarse.

"Tan Mo, do you have a cold, your voice is a bit hoarse", Qiao Lan asked him.

Then there was no sound again.

If Qiao Lan hadn't known what kind of person Tan Mo was and how quiet he usually was, the conversation would have been impossible.

When I talk to Tan Mo, Tan Mo is very talkative except when he is talking about a topic or a book he is particularly interested in, but he will not say anything unless he is asked.

Qiao Lan has looked it up and found that it is a common problem in Asperger syndrome because they don't feel the need to chat on a daily basis.

Qiao Lan thought to herself that when school started, she would have to find a way to change Tan Mo's habit of not talking, otherwise she would not be able to deal with others who might not have the same patience.

"Did you go to America on something important," Qiao Lan said, glancing at the snow drifting outside, "before you left in such a hurry that you didn't have time to ask."

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

"So that's it", Qiao Lan nodded, "no wonder you left in such a hurry, so are you better now?"

"Died the day before yesterday."

Qiao Lan: "...... condolences."

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

Uncle Chan was already pushing him out of the hospital, and when he got into the car it was quieter and Qiao Lan's voice was clearer on the phone, and Uncle Chan could hear the voice on the other end.

Tan Mo doesn't understand the twists and turns, so he's just being honest, but it's so choking that Qiao Lan froze for a few seconds before he quickly changed the subject.

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

Tan Mo let out an "oh", not really interested in the current conversation, he actually wanted to ask Qiao Lan why he was calling him now, but Qiao Lan was talking now, so Tan Mo was just being a good boy and talking to Qiao Lan for the time being.

"Is that you in second place."

"Yes," Qiao Lan was happy, "I wanted to tell you when the results came out, but I didn't even have your contact details, what a shame."

Tan Mo froze and raised his head suddenly, Qiao Lan on the other end waited for a while and heard no response, "What's wrong?"

"I left my contact details," Tan Mo spoke in a low voice and added, "for the class teacher to pass on to you."

This time it was Qiao Lan's turn to be dumbfounded.

It has been more than twenty days since she finished her exams, and Qiao Lan has not seen her class teacher at all, nor has she been given anything by her class teacher.

So Tan Mo had asked his class teacher to pass on the message before he left, but the class teacher forgot or delayed it for something?

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

It was a long time before she opened her mouth.

"I didn't receive it."

Uncle Chan, sitting at the front of the room, sighed, thinking that there was something strange going on here.

Qiao Lan followed up by saying that she made it a point to ask Mr. Tan for Tan Mo's contact information when he came for dinner, and then made up for being two days late with a Happy New Year.

When he finally hung up the phone, Uncle Chan looked in the rear-view mirror at Tan Mo who was staring at his phone, and finally felt the stone hanging over his heart drop.

During the Chinese New Year, Tan Mo suddenly told him that he didn't want to go back to his home country, which scared Uncle Chan.

But now... Uncle Chan settled down and when the old man's funeral was over here, they would be able to go back to their country.

But Uncle Chan thinks more and deeper than Tan Mo's simplicity.

When I called Tan Mo's class teacher, she confirmed that the phone number had been sent to Qiao Lan's parents. If Qiao Lan's parents were sure they had received the text message, why had they not told Qiao Lan?

Did you deliberately not tell or did you forget?

The former is malice, the latter is lack of concern.

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

Uncle Chan frowned for a while and turned to Tan Mo who was still staring at the call on his mobile phone, "Young master, did Qiao Lan mention what his parents' job was?"

Tan Mo, his eyes fixed on the ten-minute long call on his phone, didn't look up and said, "Mentioned."

"What's it for?"

Tan Mo has a good memory and Qiao Lan said he remembered it well, "There was a small restaurant in front of the Annexe."

A restaurant in front of a school?

The school's entrance to the restaurant, that is definitely not difficult, the school students have a lot of traffic, even if the income is not much but not too little.

So Qiao Lan is still working?

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

On the Qiao Family side, Qiao Lan has never given Qiao Yuan any extra lessons, nor does she have the time or desire to do so.

The good thing is that Qiao Lan spent almost all of her holiday in the Western restaurant, where she was fed and didn't have to go home for dinner, leaving home early every evening and returning after 12pm, so she didn't have to fight with Qiao Family.

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

So sometimes when Qiao Lan came back, she would occasionally bump into Qiao's mother who had stayed up late watching TV dramas, and Qiao's mother would look at her as if Qiao Lan owed her money.

Qiao Lan closed the door to her room and began to wonder if she should apply to live on campus this term, as it was too distracting to face the Qiao Family every day.

But the resident students close at 11pm and she has to work part-time in the evening, and she can't get back when she finishes at 12pm, which is another problem.

I couldn't think of a good solution for both, so I dismissed the idea of living at school early, thinking that I would apply to live at school as soon as I got through my first year of high school and into my second year.

The winter break is so much shorter than the summer break that it's not even the 15th of the first month and already school is starting again.

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

Twenty thousand and one hundred and twenty-three.

There is so much more than Qiao Lan had expected when she first started preparing for her part-time job.

At that time, she was looking for this job, which cost her 1,600 yuan a month, and the restaurant had a commission and occasional bonuses.

She doesn't have to support herself for a while yet, so she doesn't have any expenses and all the money she has saved up, she should have 20,000 by the end of her senior year.

The cost of her high school accommodation plus tuition is less than three thousand dollars a year, and she gets a monthly allowance of two hundred dollars on her meal card, so when Qiao Family stops paying for her, another three hundred dollars a month will definitely be enough to cover her living expenses.

This way, if you can earn $20,000, you will be able to go down for your sophomore and senior year in peace.

But now, just six months later, the amount of money on the card has reached the expected amount. Qiao Lan should be happy to see the money on her card, but she can't be happy.

Qiao Lan found herself unable to sit still when she thought about where more than half of the money on her card had come from.

A good chunk of this side is made up of Tan Mo's commission and tips for her meals at the restaurant.

She was a small waitress earning 2,000 yuan a month, but Tan Mo raised her to a middle-income group earning 5,000 yuan a month, and Qiao Lan felt hot with this card.

Qiao Lan felt that she had to find a chance to talk to Tan Mo about this and not let him come back to the Western restaurant, what was the point of being a scatterbrain every day.

I put the card away, not daring to leave it at home, but still in a small pocket inside my school bag, made a proper handover to the Western restaurant, resumed my life of only going to midnight every day, went to bed early at night and then went to school early the next day.

Start of school.

The report started at 9am, but not too many students came on time, probably because they hadn't slept enough, or because they hadn't finished their homework overnight.

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

"Tan Mo asked me to take a message for you during last term's final exams, I was too busy and forgot, I texted your mum later, did your mum tell you?"

Qiao Lan: "......"

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

There was no need to ask anything further, she already knew all about it.

The class teacher was still talking happily to herself, "I really didn't expect Tan Mo to make so much progress, when she first started school she didn't say a word and ignored everyone, but now she's actually reaching out..."

Qiao Lan couldn't listen, and had a momentary urge to run out of the school and into the diner to ask Qiao's mother why she hadn't told the class teacher about the text message, but then stopped.

You have to reason with normal people, but with people like Qiao's mother, there is no way to reason.

Besides, there's no need to ask why, either she forgot or Qiao's mother deliberately didn't tell her because she hadn't given Qiao Yuan any extra lessons.

When the registration was finished, Qiao Lan went to the mobile phone shop in the afternoon.

When Qiao Lan was in high school, she never used a mobile phone, and as she had no one to contact, it was not too important to her, so Qiao Lan has never felt inconvenienced without it in her life.

But after all this, Qiao Lan still felt the need to buy a phone.

The mobile phone salesman was warm and welcoming, "What brand and model do you want?"

At this stage, Qiao Lan's requirements for a mobile phone are very low, and after some thought, he says, "I just need to be able to make calls and send text messages."

Uncle: "......"

The people who buy these phones are old ladies and old men, so what's a little girl like you doing?

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

I had to wait for the weekly information session before I could look up information, which was too inconvenient. It was good to buy a mobile phone to look up information.

After buying a mobile phone and getting a card, Qiao Lan went to the Western restaurant.

In the evening, Qiao Lan was busy serving food when one of the girls with her stopped her and pointed to the door.

Uncle Chan, who was pushing his wheelchair behind him, also looked at her with a smile.

The girl beside her smiled and took the plate of food from her hand with a meaningful smile, "Go on, go on."

Qiao Lan: ......

No matter how much Qiao Lan explains that she and Tan Mo are just classmates, no one believes her.

Qiao Lan did not have to explain to them what Asperger syndrome was and let them talk about it later.

Uncle Chan Tan Mo walked over to her and said hello. Uncle Chan looked at her with a smile, "I haven't seen you for a month, you seem to have turned white."

"It's winter, everyone's white," Qiao Lan smiled, looking down at Tan Mo, "Your favourite spot is empty today, let's go there."

Tan Mo, who had been staring at Qiao Lan since he entered, finally said, "Yes."

Haven't seen it for 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 resist the urge to keep staring at her again, and he did so.

Just now Uncle Chan said that Qiao Lan had become lighter, but Tan Mo didn't see it when he looked closely.

Qiao Lan has been busy all winter break and no one has been sending her all sorts of things to eat every day like he does, so she's going to be malnourished again.

But the eyes are as good as ever, just like the obsidian beads he bought on purpose.

The black obsidian beads were occasional beads that he saw, black and translucent, and when he saw them Tan Mo thought of Qiao Lan's eyes and bought them back.

Qiao Lan, who had been helping the two of them with their orders, looked down and saw Tan Mo sitting there, and the word "cute" popped into his head. You don't have to look for me anymore."

Tan Mo looked up, mostly because trying to frown really wouldn't, and slackened a face, "You're short of money."

"It's not very expensive," Qiao Lan said, looking back and holding out the phone to Tan Mo, "You can put your number on it for me."

Tan Mo took the brand new white phone and gently rubbed the metal edge of the phone between them, swiping open the screen saver to tap on the address book.

The fingertips squeezed the phone unexpectedly.

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

He was the first.

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

He likes the word one, first, only, together, always, all these words.

Fingertips fall on the screen.

tan...mo.

After carefully entering his name and phone number, Tan Mo gave the phone back 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 just past has been memorised in the mind.

Qiao Lan was about to say something else when the foreman turned up and Qiao Lan couldn't chat with Tan Mo anymore, quickly putting her phone away and finishing her order, "Wait for me."

Tan Mo and Uncle Chan didn't even know what was going on.

After a while the foreman left, Qiao Lan leapt back in, took a small box from his shirt pocket and handed it to Tan Mo.

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

Uncle Chan laughed, "That boy, the wind is in your face", turning his head with a bit of laughter in his voice, "Open it and see what it is, tsk...a peace knot."

Qiao Lan didn't know what to give Tan Mo, it was not practical to buy something expensive and it was not interesting to buy something cheap.

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 and Uncle Chan looked at him and said with a smile, "I'll see you in class tomorrow, so go home now."

Tan Mo looked at Uncle Chan 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 the house from the cupboard. The round black beads were of excellent colour in the light, and after picking one out, Tan Mo took both the bead and the peace jubilee to Aunt Chan.

He wanted to string the bead onto this peace knot.

"Don't take the front apart", it's not made by Qiao Lan, "then put the beads on and make a bracelet."

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

Wearing presbyopic glasses, Aunt Chan and Tan Mo sat under the light for nearly two hours to complete this difficult handcrafted transformation, placing the bracelet on Tan Mo's wrist, her pale complexion reflecting the black beads and coloured strings.

It fits well and is beautiful.

Tan Mo looked left and right and was finally satisfied to push his wheelchair to his room.