Tan Mo was slightly mute, especially in the face of things that he couldn't predict, so he usually wouldn't speak.

Even though he was nervous and confused, he still wanted to ask why.

Qiao Lan smiled, "I just quit my job at the western restaurant today."

Tan Mo was stunned, expressionless. Then he opened his mouth, "… Why?"

"I didn't lie to you when I told you that I didn't need your help. You've helped me a lot, so much so that I can go to school and live a good life without having to work.

But in the end, I decided to quit because of other reasons. You should be able to guess that it's because of my family. I don't plan to go home. This morning, I submitted a boarding application to my homeroom teacher. It should be done in a day or two. "

Qiao Lan spoke slower than usual, but she was also very specific and detailed.

"This card contains the money I saved in the first half of the year. It's a little more than twenty thousand yuan. If nothing goes wrong, this will be my reserve fund for the next two and a half years of high school." She smiled, "Don't think that it's too little. It's five hundred yuan a month for living expenses. It's enough for a normal high school student, but it might not be enough for emergencies. If it's really not enough, I'll come to you."

Qiao Lan finally figured it out. Tan Mo was stubborn, so why was she so stubborn too?

Twenty thousand yuan was completely enough for her, so Qiao Lan didn't think that she would really borrow money from Tan Mo one day. However, she just needed to change her words slightly to make Tan Mo more willing to listen and accept it. Just like now, she said that she really needed Tan Mo's help. Then the previous deadlock would be solved.

She raised her head and looked at the young man seriously, "Tan Mo, you'll lend it to me, right?"

Tan Mo's fingers unconsciously tightened on the wheelchair. He answered without thinking, "Of course."

"I knew you're the best," Qiao Lan said with a smile. The young man didn't make a fuss, he was pure and sincere. Qiao Lan felt that the young man in front of her was like an ignorant child who relied on her wholeheartedly, so she became more patient and her voice couldn't help but become gentle.

"Then I'll give you this card now. You can check the balance regularly to see if it's really enough and know if I'm really short of money. The password is * * * * *. You're so good at remembering numbers, you should be able to remember it immediately."

In such a short time, Qiao Lan had said so much. There was so much information in his words that Tan Mo felt that he couldn't understand it all in such a short time.

After hearing Qiao Lan say that he had resigned, Tan Mo felt that he was no longer angry. Qiao Lan said that it was not that he did not need his help, but that he did not need anyone's help. This logical thinking made Tan Mo feel better.

But who would have thought that Qiao Lan would say those words after that?

She gave him a card. She said that this was all of her savings for the next two years.

Qiao Lan gave all of her savings to him for safekeeping.

Tan Mo lowered his head and looked at the small card that Qiao Lan put in his hand. There were too many thoughts and indescribable emotions in his mind at that moment. It was a mess and he didn't know what to say.

Among those complicated emotions, what finally came to his mind was an indescribable peace of mind.

Previously, he felt that Qiao Lan didn't care that he was lying to him. Now that he thought about it, there might really be something wrong with his logic.

There seemed to be a substantial bond between them. In an instant, it was as if he wasn't afraid of anything.

He truly felt that he was needed.

He was needed by Qiao Lan.

Qiao Lan raised her head and looked at the young man's face carefully. It was pale and still expressionless, but there was something different in those beautiful eyes. She smiled and said, "I've already given you the card. Why aren't you saying anything? Are you still angry or don't want to keep it for me? If you don't want to, then I'll take it …"

After saying that, she reached out her hand and pretended to take the card back.

The young man held the card in his hand. "It's mine." He stared at Qiao Lan and said, "Since you gave it to me, it's mine."

"It's yours." Qiao Lan stopped teasing him. "Then you must keep it for me. Don't lose it."

The young man stared at her and promised, "I won't."

Qiao Lan couldn't help but laugh again. She suddenly wanted to reach out and touch Tan Mo's hair, but Tan Mo definitely wouldn't like it, so she stopped.

After a while, Qiao Lan went out to help Aunt Chen clean up the kitchen. Uncle Chen carefully glanced at Tan Mo's room.

After all, he was the one who took care of Tan Mo since he was born. Others might not be able to tell, but how could he not? Although Tan Mo still didn't have any expression on his face, the gloominess from before was all gone. His eyes were bright.

Uncle Chen was shocked.

He put Qiao Lan in the house to let Qiao Lan think of a way to repair the relationship between them. He also thought that if it was too difficult, he would have to find a way to add fuel to the fire. After all, Qiao Lan was just a child.

In the blink of an eye, in less than ten minutes, Tan Mo's entire person seemed to have bloomed.

What exactly did Qiao Lan say to Tan Mo?

Uncle Chen was curious.

After Qiao Lan coaxed Tan Mo, she came out to help Aunt Chen. However, Aunt Chen was a person who couldn't stay still. She didn't let Qiao Lan do anything. Instead, she was busy asking around.

She asked how Qiao Lan and Tan Mo knew each other, how Tan Mo was at school, and so on.

Qiao Lan told her everything. Aunt Chen still didn't know that Tan Mo actually had another side to him at school. She also heard from Qiao Lan that Tan Mo was very smart and couldn't stump him at all. Aunt Chen laughed happily.

Uncle Chen was speechless. "Let the two kids talk. What's there to talk about with an old woman like you holding onto a little girl?"

Qiao Lan smiled and said it was nothing. However, she still went to talk to Tan Mo.

Tan Mo was reading a book in pure English. When he heard Qiao Lan come in, Tan Mo suddenly became nervous.

Qiao Lan didn't notice. She looked left and right at Tan Mo's room. It was the largest bedroom in the house. It was very spacious, including a balcony and a separate bathroom.

Other than the bed, there was a desk in the bedroom. Then, there was a custom-made bookcase against the wall. There were no doors, just small compartments. From the wall to the balcony, there were books everywhere.

No matter how many books Tan Mo had read, this collection of books was shocking enough.

Qiao Lan was busy talking to Tan Mo just now and didn't have time to look at it. She was only surprised now. After being surprised, she looked at the book Tan Mo was reading.

"What's this?" Qiao Lan asked.

"The Silk Roads." Tan Mo closed the book and passed it to Qiao Lan. After thinking for a while, he added, "It's a brand new history of the world by Oxford University's history professor, Peter Frankopan. From Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, Alexander's Eastern Expedition, the rise of the Roman Empire, the glory of the Persian Empire, the Crusades, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the war in the Middle East, and the war in Iraq. Because it's a brand new history of the Silk Road that extended from China, it's called the Silk Road. Do you want to read it?"

Qiao Lan was quite interested in history. However, even if she could pass CET-6 in English, it was still too difficult for her to read this kind of book unimpeded.

Especially since there were too many unfamiliar terms in the book, Qiao Lan knew her place and backed off after reading a few paragraphs.

"I don't understand," Qiao Lan answered honestly. "Wait until my English is better …"

Before she could finish her sentence, Tan Mo suddenly turned his wheelchair and walked to the bookshelf behind him. Qiao Lan was about to ask him what was wrong when Tan Mo took a book from the bookshelf and passed it to her.

It was the same cover drawing as the one in Tan Mo's hand. However, there were more Chinese characters that she was familiar with.

It was an English translation.

Qiao Lan was stunned. She thought to herself, 'Could it be that Tan Mo also has things that he doesn't understand, so he's reading it by comparison? But that's not right. Tan Mo has been in the United States for a longer time. His English is better than his Chinese. If he can understand English, why would he buy the Chinese version?'

Tan Mo passed the book to her. "This is for you."

'For … me.'

Qiao Lan held the heavy book. "Aren't you going to read it?"

'I bought it for you.'

Tan Mo said in his heart.

At first, he thought that this book was good, so he also wanted to let Qiao Lan read it. Therefore, he bought the English translation. However, he didn't expect that so many things would happen in the middle of it, so the book wasn't sent out.

Now, it was just the right time to let Qiao Lan read it.

When Uncle Chen came in, he saw Tan Mo sitting in front of the table. Qiao Lan was sitting on the edge of the bed, reading a book on the side of the table. The lighting was just right. It wasn't too bright or too dark. Although the two children didn't talk, the way they sat together and read quietly made Uncle Chen, who had lived for almost sixty years, tear up.

Only they knew that Tan Mo was always alone in the past. How sad it was.

Qiao Lan didn't have to work at a western restaurant anymore. Her pace of life suddenly slowed down, and she suddenly had more time. It made her feel a little extravagant.

The homeroom teacher said that they could officially move to the dormitory the day after tomorrow, so Qiao Lan stayed at Tan Mo's house to disturb him for the whole night.

In the evening, Aunt Chen cooked. The old lady was very good at cooking. Qiao Lan ate while listening to the old lady talk. Tan Mo didn't eat much. He used his chopsticks to draw circles in his bowl.

Aunt Chen suddenly looked at Tan Mo and laughed. She turned to Qiao Lan and said, "Lan Lan, let me tell you a little secret about Mo Mo."

"What is it?" Qiao Lan was curious.

"Our Mo Mo. When he's nervous, he uses his chopsticks to draw circles at the bottom of his bowl."

Tan Mo, who was drawing circles in his bowl, was stunned. He immediately put down his chopsticks. Qiao Lan, Aunt Chen, and the others, who happened to witness the whole scene, laughed when they saw this.

Qiao Lan spent half the night reading the history of the world. Her mind was filled with maps at night. When she went to school the next day, Tan Mo brought Aunt Chen to Qiao Lan for breakfast.

There was nutritious porridge, fried dumplings, milk, and a box of fruits.

Qiao Lan was speechless.

She ate her breakfast with mixed feelings. She asked Tan Mo softly, "Don't you feel heavy carrying so much?"

Tan Mo shook his head honestly. He had placed his bag on his lap. He couldn't feel his legs, so he didn't feel heavy.

Qiao Lan didn't relax at all after hearing Tan Mo's words. Her feelings became even more complicated.

She lowered her head and looked at Tan Mo's legs.

She didn't expose his shortcomings. This was basic courtesy. Tan Mo didn't like people saying that he had mental problems, and he definitely didn't like people talking about his legs. Therefore, Qiao Lan never took the initiative to mention these problems.

However, now that Tan Mo took the initiative to mention it, Qiao Lan hesitated for a moment and asked carefully, "Tan Mo, it's been almost a year since your leg was injured, right?"

Tan Mo didn't feel offended at all. He thought about it seriously and said, "One year, two months, and fourteen days."

"Did the doctor say anything?"

"I don't know," Tan Mo said. He didn't want to talk about this, so he changed the topic. "Is it delicious? If it's delicious, I'll ask Aunt Chen to make more tomorrow."

Qiao Lan said, "… No need."

Pei Ning followed the good advice and squeezed over. She had a bunch of choices and was about to ask Qiao Lan when she saw Qiao Lan and Tan Mo talking when she walked over.

Pei Ning Mingming was an introverted person. She was introverted only to people she didn't know. Towards her roommates and her old deskmate Qiao Lan, Pei Ning wasn't introverted at all. She even joked.

She smiled and teased Qiao Lan and Tan Mo, "The cold war between the two of you is over. Are you back to your honeymoon period?"

Qiao Lan, "…"

Tan Mo, who was unhappy because Pei Ning came again, "!!!???"

Pei Ning was joking, but Tan Mo, who didn't understand jokes, was a little dizzy from this overly intimate word. He even felt that his ears were starting to heat up.

He wanted to say that this word wasn't right, but he didn't say it.

He looked up at Pei Ning and suddenly felt that Pei Ning wasn't that annoying anymore.

Pei Ning didn't know that his words had made Tan Mo think so much. After he finished asking the questions, he saw that the chair behind Qiao Lan was empty, so he casually sat down and talked to Qiao Lan.

"I heard that you're going to live on campus."

"Yes."

"Why are you suddenly living on campus?"

Qiao Lan didn't need to explain to Pei Ning so clearly. She just used the same words to dismiss Pei Ning. "It's convenient for studying."

Pei Ning nodded in agreement. "It's much more convenient if I live on campus. I can sleep in more every day. I sleep until 6: 20 every day."

Tan Mo, who was sitting on the side without saying a word, heard everything. Only then did he remember that Pei Ning was also living on campus.

Pei Ning was quite happy. "You'll probably be assigned to the girls' first apartment. Our boys' first apartment is just next door. It's quite close …"

Tan Mo's body that had just relaxed suddenly stiffened again.

Just now, he felt that Pei Ning was finally more pleasing to the eye. Now, when he looked at Pei Ning again, he felt that Pei Ning was even more annoying than before.

After waiting for Pei Ning to finally leave, Tan Mo sat in his seat for a long time. Suddenly, he turned his head and said to Qiao Lan, "You don't have to live on campus."

"Ah," Qiao Lan didn't understand why he suddenly said this. "What?"

"You can always live in my house."

Qiao Lan chuckled. "I'm not your family. What's the point of living in your house? Besides, where will Aunt Chen live if I live in your house? These two days, Aunt Chen hasn't been sleeping well. You know it."

Tan Mo subconsciously wanted to say that they could move to a bigger house. However, Qiao Lan said, "The accommodation is not bad. I heard that the accommodation in our school is very good. There are also convenient places to live on campus. Like Pei Ning said, you can sleep in more every day."

Tan Mo shut his mouth and didn't say anything.

He remembered that he and Qiao Lan ate at the same table yesterday and read at the same table.

He still wanted to continue eating and reading with Qiao Lan.

However, he couldn't think of a way to persuade Qiao Lan in such a short time.

Before Tan Mo could think of a way to persuade Qiao Lan, Qiao Lan had already moved into the dormitory.

Because more than half of the first year of high school had passed, Qiao Lan definitely couldn't live with her classmates at this time. Therefore, Qiao Lan's roommates were all from different classes. They had to make do for two or three months. When the second year of high school came, they would have to move again.

A dormitory had eight people. When Qiao Lan moved into the dormitory, there were only three people and it was still very empty. When Qiao Lan moved in, there would be four people.

Qiao Lan didn't go back to the house to get her things. She wouldn't leave anything that was slightly valuable at home. There were only some clothes and a few books at home.

High school students didn't need to wear clothes. Now that it was getting warmer, they didn't need to wear thick clothes. They just needed to buy a few shirts and short sleeves online.

The day she moved in was a weekend. The girls in the dormitory were all there.

They were all first year students. Even if some of them hadn't seen Qiao Lan in person, they had heard of Qiao Lan's name. After all, she was always at the top of the ranking in every exam. When the three girls in the dormitory heard that their new roommate was Qiao Lan, they looked forward to it.

Everyone's first impression of students with good grades was that they might be bookworms and difficult to communicate with. However, they didn't expect that the girl with the best grades in the whole grade was actually very easy to get along with.

Qiao Lan didn't like many of her classmates, but she didn't care about her new roommates. They were all 15 or 16 years old girls. After getting to know them for a few days, she felt that they were quite nice. Qiao Lan also became more and more satisfied with her new dormitory.

The only troublesome thing was that the three girls would ask her about Chen Yaoyang whenever they had time.

Was Chen Yaoyang very handsome? Was he really able to do so well in exams just by casually studying? Was Chen Yaoyang in a relationship with Song Yao?

"He is very handsome."

"No, he's quite serious."

"I don't know."

She really didn't know. Qiao Lan didn't know much about Chen Yaoyang. Especially recently, Chen Yaoyang and Song Yao's seats were very far away from her. Qiao Lan didn't know anything about it.

The girls almost asked everything they could. When they saw that Qiao Lan really didn't know anything, they were a little disappointed, but they didn't think much of it.

It was said that girls were the most talked about in the boys' dormitory. Girls also liked to talk about boys. They were all at the age where they liked to gossip about handsome guys. They couldn't gossip about Chen Yaoyang, so they turned their heads and talked about Tan Mo.

Everyone was very interested in geniuses, especially geniuses who were unexpectedly good-looking.

A girl said, "Tan Mo is really good-looking. I met him once and couldn't help staring at him for a long time. However, he seemed to be unhappy. I was so scared that I didn't dare to look at him again."

"Right, right? I'm also a little scared of him."

"Qiao Lan, is Tan Mo really hard to get along with?

I heard a lot of people say that he's too smart, so he doesn't like to talk to other people at all … "

Qiao Lan came back to her senses. She changed the way she gossiped about Chen Yaoyang and quickly retorted, "He's smart, but he's actually very easy to get along with. He's just a little shy and doesn't like to talk.

He's just not used to people being too close to him. He doesn't mean to dislike people. As long as you have some patience to talk to him, he just doesn't like to smile. That's why he looks a little fierce. "

"Qiao Lan, when you talk about Tan Mo, you're like a different person," a girl said with a smile. "How do you know him so well?"

"We're deskmates," Qiao Lan said. "Of course I know."

No one would say that Tan Mo was crazy or Tan Mo was stupid. However, there were still very few people who dared to talk to Tan Mo and take the initiative to interact with Tan Mo. Just like what the girl said, they were still afraid of Tan Mo.

The word 'genius' made people look up to him, but also made people stop in their tracks.

Not to mention, Tan Mo was born expressionless, so he always looked like someone who didn't want to get close to him.

Qiao Lan didn't want people to misunderstand Tan Mo. He was a kind and simple boy. She wanted people to know how good Tan Mo was, get close to him, and like him.

She wanted Tan Mo to slowly become like a normal person. He could talk, laugh, and make friends.

Although it was very difficult, it was still something that could be done. Seeing that these girls' impression of Tan Mo had greatly changed, Qiao Lan's mood improved a lot.

In the blink of an eye, Qiao Lan had been living in school for a week. Qiao Lan's parents still couldn't wait for her to come back. However, before they could find out where Qiao Lan went, something suddenly happened.

One afternoon, a student came to the small restaurant. Qiao Lan's mother was quite happy when she saw him. She knew these children. They were all in the same class as Qiao Yuan. They came here often, and Qiao Lan's mother even gave them less money.

These children came here often and didn't have any scruples when talking to Qiao Lan's mother. As they talked, Qiao Lan's mother felt that something was wrong.

One of the children said that he was very envious of Qiao Yuan because Qiao Lan's parents often gave Qiao Yuan a lot of pocket money.

When Qiao Lan's parents heard this, they didn't think much of it. In fact, they were quite proud.

In the end, they heard from that child that they went to eat skewers some time ago. Qiao Yuan paid the bill generously, and in the end, they spent nearly 600 yuan.

The children's faces were full of envy. They were all junior high school students. It was already good enough to have a few dozen yuan in their hands. Qiao Yuan directly treated them to 600 yuan worth of skewers. How great was that?

However, they felt that they were friends with Qiao Yuan, so there were some things that they didn't dare to say. For example, Qiao Yuan treated them to skewers mainly because he wanted to treat a girl in his class. That girl was quite pretty.

All the children consciously kept this kind of thing a secret. They definitely wouldn't tell their parents. However, when they praised Qiao Lan's parents for doting on Qiao Yuan and giving him pocket money, there was no need to keep it a secret.

The children's faces were full of envy, but Qiao Lan's mother was dumbfounded.

She doted on Qiao Yuan and often gave Qiao Yuan pocket money. However, it was usually divided. Sometimes, it was 20 to 30 yuan. Sometimes, it was 50 yuan. At most, it was 100 yuan. Where did Qiao Yuan get so much money to treat his classmates to a meal?

Saved?

How was that possible? Qiao Yuan wasn't someone who could save money. A few days ago, he even asked her for money. How could he have saved it?

Qiao Lan's mother finally sensed that something was wrong. She exchanged glances with Qiao Lan's father and frowned as she asked the children. How could the children be as scheming as Qiao Lan's mother? Furthermore, Qiao Yuan boasted that the money was given by his second sister and that his second sister's family was very rich.

Now that Qiao Lan's mother asked, he told her everything.

Qiao Lan's mother only felt a buzzing sound in her head. The spatula fell to the ground.