Chapter 81: Unsettled

There is a method of teasing that is called natural teasing.

In Tan Mo's words, he was really just telling the truth, he really thought it, so that's what he said.

Tan Mo used to cry and suppress everything because he didn't dare to let Qiao Lan know what was on his mind, but now that they are finally together, Tan Mo is smart enough to realize that Qiao Lan not only doesn't hate such frank thoughts but also loves them, so naturally he has to say something.

Getting up early and coming to school early is what makes me so eager.

Tan Mo speaks naturally, but Qiao Lan is unpredictably turned on by Tan Mo.

Bai Yu, who was following Qiao Lan and was about to talk, happened to catch Tan Mo's words.

The sour side can't stop wondering, wasn't the god of learning quite introverted before? How come he suddenly started to show off so openly after one winter break?

There's a saying that people in love are blind, and Qiao Lan and Tan Mo don't think anything of it, especially since these two are so good at their grades that even the teachers turn a blind eye to them, so they are incredibly wild.

Tan Mo arrived early today and brought along Aunt Chan's freshly made shrimp dumplings.

The skin is light and translucent, the meat filling full and bright, neatly arranged, crystal clear, not too big and not too small, just right for one bite.

Qiao Lan wasn't hungry, but the crystal dumplings were so tempting that Qiao Lan felt her stomach protest instantly.

Qiao Lan is a rare person who is aware of the feelings of the students around him, and is not a little bit hateful to eat directly like this when everyone is hungry in the morning.

"Why," Tan Mo forks one up and hands the small fork to Qiao Lan, "try it, it won't be as fresh if it's cold."

Qiao Lan was torn between her boyfriend's prawn dumplings and her classmates' feelings for less than a second before decisively opting for the former.

Classmates and all that, it doesn't matter.

Aunt Chan's work is still excellent, the prawn dumplings are soft and tasty, the prawns are only fresh and not fishy, it is simply delicious.

Tan Mo slowly opened another small box, containing a variety of cut fruits, each in small portions but with a great variety, and took out a red and large carrion and handed it to Qiao Lan's lips, "Have some fruit."

Qiao Lan was subconsciously ready to bite into it, but suddenly she felt a searing glance and turned back after a slight hesitation, and Bai Yu, who was sitting behind Qiao Lan, was munching on the canteen's white cake and salted vegetables, with a grim look of a man who was worse than a dog.

Qiao Lan: "......"

Qiao Lan eventually took it herself, asking Tan Mo if she wanted shrimp dumplings against the glare from behind her.

"I'm full."

"Really?"

Tan Mo looked at Qiao Lan with his head in his hands, but at home it was not enough, but in school it was so blatant, Qiao Lan was still thin-skinned and picked up a book and put it in front of Tan Mo, "Don't look at me, read the book.

"Not as good looking as you," Tan Mo refuses, "No look."

Qiao Lan: "...... cough."

Tan Mo watched as Qiao Lan's pale cheeks were again slightly powdered, accentuating her already bright and beautiful features.

And Qiao Lan doesn't seem to be his usual self today.

Tan Mo looked at Qiao Lan from top to bottom several times before finally settling on Qiao Lan's high ponytail, which looked a little more cute and playful. Qiao Lan's long hair had some natural curls at the end, which slipped unruly next to Qiao Lan's cheek as she looked down, tossing the high ponytail back and then sliding it back to the front a moment later.

This is the girl he has loved for two years.

This is his current girlfriend.

A girl who is so beautiful and so lovely even down to the strands of her hair, a girl who can flirt with him just by sitting in front of him and doing nothing.

Qiao Lan finally finished eating before the class teacher and the large group of students in the class arrived, and after putting the little fork and lunchbox away, rubbed her full stomach with Tan Mo and whispered, "I dare not eat like this again."

Tan Mo was bewildered, "Why?"

"I'm afraid of being fat," Qiao Lan said, "don't you think I've put on weight recently?"

"No," Tan Mo replied quickly.

"There is," Qiao Lan pinched his cheek, "a round face."

"No," he kept her face in his mind every day, so his observations were definitely more accurate than Qiao Lan's. Tan Mo looked at Qiao Lan's hand and felt his own hands twitching, "It's good to be fat."

"Huh?"

This time Qiao Lan is at a loss.

Maybe being fat won't be so popular, Tan Mo thought childishly.

He looked at Qiao Lan's exquisite and unmistakable features, so good looking and so beautiful that it was only natural that so many people liked them.

This relationship was Tan Mo's dream, and now that they are finally together, Tan Mo is still in love with a humble and unrequited love. He cannot figure out why Qiao Lan likes him, he is a poor and unhealthy psychopath, and even in the end he can only conclude that Qiao Lan pities him.

But even if that was all there was, it made him feel invaluable.

Tan Mo was never confident that she could hold on to this relationship.

So if Qiao Lan could have been less beautiful, less brilliant, less popular, wouldn't so many people have coveted her, and would he have been able to keep her around longer?

But Tan Mo felt that Qiao Lan would never like the idea that he would let himself become mediocre for his sake, too selfish and egotistical, wasn't it?

If Qiao Lan doesn't like it, then it goes without saying.

It was hard enough getting her to like him, he couldn't let Qiao Lan think badly of him and become annoyed with him for his selfish thoughts.

Tan Mo hides his true thoughts, using what he learned in the book in the movie, laughing with Qiao Lan with his usual mimicry skills, "I mean you look good even if you're fat, I like you any way you are."

Qiao Lan's brow frowned unnoticeably, she couldn't tell what was wrong, but she could still feel that this one sentence was clearly less moving than the previous one.

At lunchtime, Bai Yu was watching Qiao Lan and Tan Mo chatting on WeChat when he couldn't help but ask, "What happened to you two over the winter holidays? Of course you two have been abusing dogs before, but before that it was just abusing a pug, today you can practically cry a wolf dog."

Qiao Lan put the phone away and said seriously, "If you feel that way, then you're right."

"What do you mean?"

"Tan Mo and I are officially together," Qiao Lan said graciously, "the day before yesterday."

Only been together the day before?

"So what did you two count before?"

Qiao Lan hesitates after thinking about it, "Ambiguous period?"

"So you two have had a long affair," Bai Yu says, not knowing what to say, even though she thought Qiao Lan and Tan Mo had been together for a long time.

Tan Mo arrived at school earlier in the morning, but couldn't make it to the evening study session because he had to study free sparring.

Tan Mo compared boxing to studying with Qiao Lan in the evening and chose to study in the evening without hesitation, but when he thought of how incompetent he had been when Qiao Lan was being bullied, Tan Mo went on to study combat.

The more she learns, the more cranky she becomes, and the more she regrets not being tougher on opening day and letting Qiao Lan stay at school.

After a few days of classes, Tan Mo felt the full pain of early love.

There is so little time together, and the time spent together and alone, is almost non-existent.

This was too painful and overwhelming for Tan Mo, who had just established a relationship.

The class teacher can turn a blind eye to this, but if another teacher catches you in the act, the consequences will not be good.

Tan Mo craves and needs these intimate touches more than the average person.

Since the hug and kiss, Tan Mo has felt like a very sick person with skin hunger, craving contact with Qiao Lan all the time.

But at school, there was never such an opportunity.

Qiao Lan didn't know what was wrong with Tan Mo, but sensed a slightly uneasy mood in Tan Mo.

In the early spring of March, a countdown sign for the entrance exams has been put up at the front of the classroom, next to the blackboard, and tensions are beginning to spread through the class. The weather has gradually warmed up and the willows outside the window have started to bud again, with thin yellow willow sticks dropping down and one or two branches running naughtily into the window.

The classroom of Class XVIII is located on the ground floor, and every summer the trees outside the window are lush and shade the classroom from the sun.

Qiao Lan looks at the tender willow branch sticking out of the window, and reaches out to break off a small piece about the length of her index finger. Since learning to braid from Aunt Chan, Qiao Lan's hands have become much more dexterous, and after a short time of fiddling with her fingers from side to side, she has created a small ring.

The classroom was quiet, occasionally interspersed with the sound of muted conversation.

Tan Mo was reading a book when his left hand was suddenly pulled by Qiao Lan, who turned his head to see Qiao Lan carefully placing a thin, tender willow ring on his finger.

She put it on very carefully, and when she finally got it on she said with a slight sigh of relief, "It's just as I reckoned it would be."

Tan Mo looks at the pinky ring on her finger and is stunned for a moment, her mind going blank.

Qiao Lan may have been just having fun with a little thing like this, but to Tan Mo it's like an ocean.

Even if it is just a willow, it is on Tan Mo's finger.

After being with Qiao Lan, Tan Mo didn't dare to think about words like 'future' or 'forever', even though he had wished for it in his head a million times before, but that was when they weren't together.

After being together, Tan Mo never dared to think of it that way.

The most he could do was to think of them graduating together, going to the same university together, and that was it. There were things he didn't dare to touch, like the ring, or the wedding, or even, more to the point, children, which were easy for an ordinary couple to think of.

This is something Tan Mo would never have thought of.

But Qiao Lan now wears a small ring on his finger, although it is only a small thing made of willow.

Tan Mo carefully unfolded his fingers and looked at the little ring on his finger, Qiao Lan came over and held out his own finger and said, "Look I have one too."

Two identical pinky rings, worn in identical positions, their fingers clasped together and the corners of Tan Mo's lips lifted gently.

The bell rang and the teacher came in from outside the classroom to signal the start of the lesson. Tan Mo continued to stare at the pinky ring on his finger, stretching it for a long time, turning it over to look at his palm for a long time, and finally clenching his fist gently.

A squeeze of the fingers had force in the hand, and in an instant the thin, soft wicker joints loosened, complete with finger rings that

Broken.