Jian Dan returned to her room, pondered for a moment, and still decided to take out her mobile phone to call Bo Qin.
No one answered at first; after several calls went unanswered, she gave up. She took out homework and had not been doing it long when a call came in.
It was Bo Qin’s number.
As soon as Bo Qin spoke, Jianjian found it hard to hold back. Without speaking, Bo Qin asked again, "Jianjian, what’s up?"
Jian Dan snapped back to reality, swallowed her tears, and smiled, "Uncle Qin, the coursework is intense next semester. I’m thinking of staying at school. I won’t come back to live; I will stay until the college entrance exam is over. I’ll be at school. Could you please check if Lin Mother and Li Mother need to stay at the villa?"
Bo Qin hadn’t expected Jian Dan to call about this. He was stunned, not quite catching on, "What do you mean ’not living at the villa’? What about vacations?"
Jian Dan hurriedly explained, "During vacations, the school has a cafeteria too. Mi Lu and I have made a pact to do our best to get into Imperial University. We want to spend more time studying and reviewing to get good results, and then we can all be together again."
"Does living with your family cause conflicts?"
Bo Qin asked, his tone stern.
Jian Dan felt as if all the words she had prepared were useless in this moment. She found speaking to Bo Qin somewhat overwhelming.
"Uncle Qin, I want to stay at school."
"You have two choices: return to the villa, and I’ll send the driver to pick you up, or I’ll buy you another apartment right in front of the school gate. Choose one, there are no other options.
Of course, wherever you are, Lin Mother and Li Mother will still take turns to look after you. Think it over carefully and call me once you’ve made up your mind."
Jian Dan: "...Uncle Qin, I want to stay at the school until I graduate from high school."
"Jianjian, don’t make me angry."
Bo Qin, working in his office building, looked terribly grim.
His hand gripping the phone was also clenched tightly.
He had thought the girl would eventually compromise, but after a long time, he heard a soft voice on the other end say, "Uncle Qin, don’t be angry, I understand."
For a moment, Bo Qin didn’t know what to say.
Before he was ready to speak, Jian Dan had already hung up the call.
Staring at the disconnected call for a while, Bo Qin’s expression was complex.
After being rejected by Bo Qin, Jian Dan lost the mood to persuade any further. On Saturday, she gathered at home with Lai Wei and the others, then talked with Lai Wei, Mi Lu, and Zhao Linlin all afternoon. They all noticed the change in Jianjian.
Both Mi Lu and Lai Wei felt a bit sorry for her. When they had first met her, the little girl may have been a bit timid, but she was so bright and sunny.
Always smiling when meeting others.
But now, it seemed that everything had become a bit different.
Her smile became less frequent, and the time she spent studying and doing practice problems every day was longer than any other activity. She seemed like a sponge frantically absorbing water, desperately soaking up knowledge, learning everything, keeping herself from having any downtime.
Her grades had surpassed Lai Wei, steadily rising.
The four of them were in the study when Lin Mother brought them a plate of fruit slices and desserts.
In the quiet study room, with only the four of them, Zhao Linlin looked at Jian Dan’s increasingly thin face and worried, "Jian Dan, can we like someone else instead?
In school, Lin Chengyu and Hai En both seem to like you; why don’t you switch to someone else?
Hai En might have been a bit of a scoundrel before, but I feel like he’s changed into a different person after he started liking you. I can’t say he’s become much better;
but at least, he’s completely different from before. Why not, try liking someone else?"
Previously, Hai En was engaged to Zhao Linlin, but after their engagement was called off, the two surprisingly got along better than when they were fiancé and fiancée—in fact, their relationship even became really comfortable.
Hai En liking Jian Dan, the person he confided in, was Zhao Linlin. With a complex expression on her face, she asked Hai En whether he ever considered her feelings when talking about his crush, given that she was once his fiancée and had liked him.
Unexpectedly, that heartless guy just laughed and told her that she must have moved on and didn’t blame him if she could say something like that.
Then occasionally, she would tell Jian Dan that Hai En wanted to invite her for a meal, always to be rejected, yet Hai En kept persevering, and his liking for Jian Dan grew.
Completely incomprehensible.
Jian Dan, after hearing Zhao Linlin’s words, was stunned; she had never considered this. Mi Lu and Lai Wei were watching her, waiting for her final answer, but Jian Dan did not respond for a long time.