Chapter 54: Blush

Life is sometimes terribly desperate.

There are only two ways to go between life and death, but just one day later, one way becomes a thought again.

The doctors told Tan Mo that he would probably spend his life in a wheelchair forever.

He has no way to stand up, no way to become normal in the eyes of others, no way to get Qiao Lan off the hook, and now he no longer has a choice.

Fate had left him with only one thing he could do.

That would be leaving Qiao Lan.

Stay away from her and don't let anyone ever see Qiao Lan with him again.

At this moment, Tan Mo's heart felt so sore that she could not feel it anymore.

Qiao Lan buzzed for a moment and Tan Mo looked down to see a tweet from Qiao Lan asking if he was better today and if he could come to school tomorrow.

Why even bother with him, when you've been vilified like that because of him, why insist so much.

Tan Mo sometimes wishes Qiao Lan could be a little more selfish and a little less kind.

He won't be able to go to school tomorrow, or the day after, or maybe every day after that, ever again.

After a long time, Tan Mo tweeted back to Qiao Lan, telling her that she wouldn't be coming this week.

"Why," Qiao Lan's call came as promised, "is it so serious this time?"

"Well," Tan Mo said, "it's serious."

There was silence for a long time, and said, " Tan Mo, go to the hospital for a check-up, I will accompany you on the weekend, OK."

Tan Mo's eyes were closed and his hand was a little unsteady with the phone. He suddenly called out to Qiao Lan, who asked him softly what was wrong.

"If ......"

Tan Mo suppressed the pain to the point of dumbness and said, "I said if, if I had been examined and the doctor had told me that for the rest of my life...I would never be able to stand..."

What would you do.

But then Tan Mo suddenly laughed at himself, wondering why he had to ask Qiao Lan what to do if he couldn't stand up, what did it matter to him, and what did he expect from Qiao Lan?

"...nothing, I'm rambling..."

Tan Mo was about to say this, but the next moment, Qiao Lan's voice was already on the other end of the line.

Qiao Lan didn't know why Tan Mo had suddenly said such a thing, and when Tan Mo finished asking, she had opened her mouth without even thinking about it.

"Then I'll take care of you for the rest of your life."

When she had finished, Qiao Lan's caller went silent.

Tan Mo held the phone in a daze, and Qiao Lan suddenly felt his ears faintly burning as he remembered, in hindsight, what he had said.

After hanging up the phone in a daze, Qiao Lan, holding her mobile phone in a daze, squatted on the open balcony outside the dormitory to dry her clothes.

The words that had just come out of her mouth after Tan Mo's question had been asked, she hadn't even thought about them.

Tan Mo asked her what she would do if she couldn't stand up afterwards, and her thought was that if she couldn't stand up, she couldn't stand up, and she would still look after him as she does now.

But when the words came out of her mouth, Qiao Lan realised that there was something different and special about them, that they were like a love story.

Tan Mo simply doesn't understand this, but how can Qiao Lan not understand what it means when you say, whether male or female, when you have thought about taking care of someone for the rest of your life?

Qiao Lan crouched in the darkness, not saying a word as he thought back on why he had said what he had said.

But when you think about it, it doesn't seem like you are without a trace to have such thoughts.

A long time ago, Qiao Lan thought about the traces of Tan Mo in the book, about how he would leave school in his sophomore year, reappear in his freshman year, and end his life in his junior year.

She didn't want Tan Mo to repeat this life, and she didn't want a living soul to leave this world, so she always tried to do what she could to make him feel that someone liked him and cared for him, so that he wouldn't lose faith in life and would be brave enough to live.

Having known each other for over a year, Qiao Lan sees Tan Mo as her responsibility, as the most important person to her. She wants him to get through high school well and then keep him safe and sound through college without further tragedy.

A little further into the future, Qiao Lan hadn't thought about it, she hadn't thought about it specifically, she just didn't know it had become so.

Now that she has taken a moment to think about it, when she has passed the point of death with Tan Mo, what happens after that, can she just let go and let Tan Mo live on his own, or give him to another person?

Qiao Lan thought long and hard about it and finally decided that she couldn't do it.

She was uneasy about whether anyone would appear after she left, like Song Yao in the original novel, and push him into territory once again, and she was even more uneasy about whether she would never see him again when she returned again after only being away for a while, just like in the book.

So she did want to look after Tan Mo and see that he lived peacefully forever.

Qiao Lan didn't think about these things, but she had already made plans for the future without realising it, which is why she said she could take care of Tan Mo for the rest of her life without even thinking about it when Tan Mo asked.

Thinking about it left and right, I don't see anything wrong with my idea, but looking back again, it still seems to be a problem everywhere in that statement.

Qiao Lan crouched on the balcony and texted Bai Yu after a long day.

[If someone says they want to take care of you for the rest of your life, what do you think that means?]

Bai Yu's reply was instantaneous, with a whole lot of "crap" that made Qiao Lan's eyes hurt.

[Crikey crikey crikey, what do you mean by asking that?]

[Who said that to you? That's a tawdry way to say love!]

[That's even more touching than I love you. If someone said that to me, I'd definitely go with them!]

Qiao Lan: ......

Qiao Lan repeatedly explained that no one had said that to her, she just wanted to ask, but after half a day she asked Bai Yu again.

[What does it say if one day you have this idea of wanting to take care of someone for the rest of your life?]

[That means I love it so much!]

Qiao Lan: ......

What a mess.

She is actually three or four years older than Tan Mo, and Tan Mo is still so innocent, so according to Bai Yu, isn't this her taking advantage of Tan Mo?

Bai Yu, what a tiger and wolf thing to say!

Hear no more hear no more.

I thought about it and thought about it, but I didn't think about it, thinking that Tan Mo must not have understood the ambiguity of what he was saying anyway.

Tan Mo's leg pain seems to be quite severe this time, so let's go to Tan Mo's house after school on Friday afternoon and have a look.

It was Friday and after the last class Qiao Lan messaged Tan Mo to ask if he was home and if so she would come over.

Tan Mo replied that he was outside, waited a while and then said that Qiao Lan should wait, that he and Uncle Chan had some business and would pick her up when they were done.

Qiao Lan thought for two seconds and then said yes.

In a moment of hesitation, she remembered all the gossip that had been circulating around the school after she had gotten off Uncle Chan's bus.

Qiao Lan actually didn't feel too affected, the class was very nice, except for Xiang Xiaohan who was a bit of a nuisance, but no one said anything naughty, some of them even called those outside the class who didn't know anything but had nasty ideas.

When she first found out about the incident, Qiao Lan spent the night studying, but after a good night's sleep, she stopped being angry.

They have been slandering and souring her, but she has done well in her exams and is now growing up, so let's say they are jealous.

Do you really want to avoid Tan Mo on purpose for those people? To stay away from Tan Mo on purpose? In her mind, they are not even a hair on Tan Mo's head.

So when Uncle Chan said he would pick her up this time, Qiao Lan only thought for a moment before agreeing, and she was not afraid of being seen.

Sometimes everyone doesn't believe you, which doesn't mean you're wrong, but they're blind.

Qiao Lan went back to the dormitory to get some clothes and waited until almost six o'clock before leaving the school and waiting for Uncle Chan to come over to the neighbourhood opposite the school.

But before she could wait for Uncle Chan, she heard someone call out to her, and Qiao Lan turned around and looked for a long time before she recognised that the person sitting in the car and greeting her was Qiao's second aunt.

When Qiao's second aunt saw Qiao Lan, she glanced at the two other people sitting next to her and finally sighed with relief.

She has been driving outside the Annexe every day for several days.

A few days ago, Qiao's second aunt found out that Qiao Lan was not living at school to facilitate her studies, but that Qiao's father, Qiao's mother, had accused Qiao Lan of stealing money from the family and kicked her out.

Thanks to her mother's assurances that she would be able to bring Qiao Lan back.

As a result, we waited and waited, but we did not see Qiao Lan.

However, Qiao Lan's photo was so stunning that her son-in-law, who was already impatient, was willing to wait a few more days after seeing Qiao Lan's photo.

After hearing about Qiao Lan's achievements in the House, the other party became even more satisfied and approached her every day, saying that they wanted to meet Qiao Lan.

Qiao's second aunt was so happy that she called Qiao's mother several times in a row, but no one was there.

I was so angry that I just drove over here to try my luck, and I've been here several times, so I finally ran into them today.

Qiao Lan has just come out of school, still in her school uniform, but surrounded by boys and girls in school uniforms, Qiao Lan still stands out and is instantly noticeable, and when she turns her head, she is even more stunning.

The young man sitting at the back of the car's eyes lit up.

Although he had seen pictures before, he had never seen her in person, and he was only more excited because he had heard that Qiao Lan was a top achiever and really different from the rest of the Qiao Family.

Unlike Qiao's second aunt, whose makeup is so thick on her young face that she can't see her original features, the girl in the distance has a clean face, yet she is still stunningly beautiful.

Luo Nian finally felt that his several trips had not been in vain.

Qiao's second aunt greeted Qiao Lan with excessive enthusiasm, Qiao Lan frowned but walked over and stood a metre away from the car and greeted Qiao's second aunt.

The more Qiao's second aunt looked at Qiao Lan, the happier she was, "Where are you going, home?"

Qiao Lan glanced into the car and saw that there were two other people in the back of the car, in addition to Qiao's second aunt.

"No, to my friend's house", Qiao Lan said, taking two unobtrusive steps back.

"How can you go to a friend's house if you don't go home on holiday, come get in the car, my sister will take you to dinner, we haven't seen each other for a long time, it's so hard to see each other and talk."

Qiao Lan finally got a good look. There was a man and a woman sitting at the back of the car. She didn't know the man, but the other man was looking straight at her with extraordinarily uncomfortable eyes.