At this moment it was 12:30pm in Boston, twelve hours ahead of domestic time. This meant that it was 12:30 in the morning on Jennie’s side of the word.

Jennie finally got Lisa’s phone number a few hours ago, and after work was over, she dialed Lisa’s phone number on her boss’s phone.

It was a bit noisy at the other end of the phone, she didn;t know if Lisa had a cold or something, but his voice was a bit hoarse.

“Lisa, do you have a cold? Why is your voice a little bit hoarse?” Jennie asked him. After a while, through the phone came an answer to her question, “No.”

Then there was nothing else.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Jennie understood Lisa’s personality and knew that he was naturally this taciturn, this phone call would have a hard time continuing.

When she talked to Lisa, he would usually talk a lot about topics or books that he was particularly interested in. The rest of the time, especially during normal chatting, Lisa hardly said nothing. Unless it was asked of him he would never take the initiative to speak.

Jennie checked and saw that this was a common problem in people with Asperger’s Syndrome, because they felt that daily chit-chatting was unnecessary.

Remembering this, Jennie made a mental note to remind herself that after school started, she needed to find a way to change Lisa’s habit of not speaking, or how would he deal with others in the future when she couldn’t be there to help him.

“Did something important happen for you to go to the US?” Jennie glanced at the snowflakes floating outside. “Before, you had left so quickly that I didn’t have time to ask.”

The noise on the other side of the phone gradually disappeared, maybe it was because Lisa moved to another location, “Grandpa was sick.”

“Oh, I see,” Jennie nodded, “No wonder you left so quickly. Is his illness better now?”

“He died the day before yesterday.”

Jennie : “…I’m sorry”

Lisa wanted to say that he wasn’t sad, and that there was no need to be sorry, but he didn’t say it.

Uncle Chen pushed him out of the hospital. After getting in the car, the surrounding area became quieter. Jennie’s voice was clearer on the phone. Even Uncle Chen could hear her voice on the other end of the phone.

He just heard Lisa’s cold “died” and couldn’t help but cough. Lisa didn’t understand the complicated social twists and turns here. He was telling the truth, but it was really hard for someone to hear. Jennie was stunned for several seconds. Only then did she quickly change the subject.

“You were in a hurry last time. You didn’t even finish the last exam, but despite that you were still number one.”

“Oh.” Lisa said.

He is not very interested in the current conversation. He actually wanted to ask why Jennie only called him now, instead of earlier. But Jennie was talking, so Lisa obediently waited for her to finish.

“Are you in second place?”

“Yes,” Jennie was very happy. “I wanted to tell you when I got the results, but I didn’t have your contact information. What a pity.”

Lisa was stunned and his eyebrows raised abruptly. Jennie on the other end waited for a long time but didn’t hear any response, “What’s wrong?”

“I left my contact information,” Lisa said in a low voice, and added, “and told the head teacher to tell you.”

This time It was Jennie’s turn to be dumbfounded.

It had been more than twenty days since she finished the exam. Jennie had never even seen the head teacher, so of course he hadn’t given her anything.

But it turns out that Lisa had asked the head teacher to tell her his phone number before he left. Did the head teacher forget? Or was he delayed in some way?

Jennie didn’t know what to say for a while.

After a long time, she spoke.

“I didn’t receive it.”

Uncle Chen, who was sitting in front, sighed. He felt that there must have been something strange going on. As expected, it wasn’t that Jennie didn’t contact Lisa but it was that she couldn’t contact Lisa at all.

Jennie explained that when Mr. Manoban came to eat, she specifically asked him about Lisa’s contact information, so she could wish him a Happy New Years even though it was two days late.

When he finally hung up, Uncle Chen looked at Lisa, who was staring at his phone in a daze from the rearview mirror, and finally felt that the stone hanging in his heart had fallen.

Two days ago on New Year’s Day, Lisa suddenly told him that he didn’t want to go back to China, which shocked Uncle Chen.

But now…Uncle Chen was relieved, now that Lisa’s grandfather’s funeral was over, they could return to China.

But compared to Lisa’s simplicity, Uncle Chen thought about it at a much deeper level.

He had called Lisa’s head teacher before, and he had confirmed that he had sent Lisa’s phone number to Jennie’s parents. If Jennie’s parents had recieved the text message, why didn’t they tell Jennie?

Did they fail to tell her or did they purposely forget?

The former is malicious, the latter was something to be concerned about.

No matter what kind of attitude they had, it was definitely not the attitude that normal parents should have. He had send Jennie coming out of work many times before, and had felt that Jennie’s family was poor, but now it seems that the situation was not that simple.

Uncle Chen frowned and thought about it for a long time, before turning around and asking Lisa, who was still staring at his mobile phone in a daze, “Master, did Jennie mention what her parents did?”

Lisa stared at his phone, and looking at the ten minute call duration, he did not look up but said, “She mentioned it.”

“What was it?”

Lisa had a good memory. Whatever Jennie said he would remember clearly, “There is a small restaurant at the gate of the attached middle school.”

So they ran a restaurant near a middle school?

Having a small restaurant in front of a school meant that they definitely should not have major financial problems. There were many students in the school and the traffic was definitely large. Even if the profit was not much, it wouldn’t be too small.

Yet Jennie still worked?

Before, Uncle Chen just thought that Jennie’s family situation was special, but now he was pretty sure that Jennie’s parents definitely have some problems.

On the Kim family’s side, Jennie did not give Seungmin supplementary lessons from beginning to end, she did not have time and did not want to help him.

Fortunately, Jennie spent most of her vacation at the western restaurant. She didn’t have to go home as she ate in the restaurant. She left home early every morning and came back after twelve o’clock in the evening. However, she couldn’t fight the Kim family.

She heard that Father Kim and Mother Kim gritted their teeth and had Seungmin take make-up lessons at the home of a school teacher. One class was 100 yuan, and since he needed more than one the cost of a whole winter vacation’s worth of classes came to be thousands of yuan.

So sometimes when Jennie came back and occasionally bumped into Mother Kim who stayed up all night to watch TV, Mother Kim would look at her with eyes that made it seem like Jennie owed her money.

Jennie closed the door of her room and began to wonder whether or not to apply to live on campus this semester. Coming face to face with the people of the Kim family every day was too tiring.

But the students who live on campus had a curfew at eleven o’clock in the evening, she had to work at night, and wouldn’t be back before 12 o’clock. This was a problem.

She couldn’t think of a good way to achieve both ends, so she could only dispel the idea of ​​living on campus. She decided to wait until she finished her first year, and then immediately apply to live on campus as soon as second year started.

The winter vacation was much shorter than the summer vacation, and so school would start again on the fifteenth of the first month.

Jennie went to the bank the day before school started, and deposited all of the money she earned during the winter vacation, and then checked the balance.

Twenty thousand one hundred and twenty-three.

It was much more than what Jennie expected when she was preparing to work.

She was looking for this job at the time, and it was only 1,600 yuan a month. The restaurant would have commission tips and occasional bonuses. Jennie had calculated that she would be able to earn 2,000 yuan a month.

She didn’t have to support herself for the time being, so there was no expenditure. If all the money was saved, she should be able to earn 20,000 yuan by the end of the first year of high school.

The high school accommodation and tuition fees are less than 3,000 yuan a year, and her monthly meal card will have a 200 yuan subsidy. When the Kim Family stops supporting her another 300 yuan will be added to her living expenses every month. This was enough, after all, school meals are cheap.

Calculating it this way, if she was able to earn 20,000 yuan, she could live peacefully through her second and third year.

But now, just half a year later, the money in her bank card has reached the expected amount. It stands to reason that Jennie should be a little happy seeing all the money, but she really couldn’t be happy.

After thinking about where more than half of her money came from, Jennie felt that she could not sit still.

Most of the commission and tips given to her by Lisa added to this total amount.

She was just a little waiter who earned two thousand yuan a month, but she was forced into becoming part of the middle-class income group with a monthly income of five thousand by Lisa.

Thinking of this, the hand that held her bank card suddenly felt hot.

Jennie felt that she had to find an opportunity to talk to Lisa about this matter, and make sure that he would no longer come to the Western restaurant anymore. It was hard being friends with a wealthy person.

She put the card away and didn’t dare leave it at home, instead, she put it in a small pocket in her school bag, and during work she would store it in the staff room, only taking it home well after midnight.

After going to bed early that night, she went to school early the next day.

School reports started at nine o’clock in the morning, but there were not many students who came on time. Maybe it was because they didn’t sleep enough, or maybe they hadn’t finished their homework and spent all night doing it.

After Jennie entered the classroom, there were only a few people in present, and the head teacher was not there. Jennie had wanted to ask the head teacher about Lisa’s phone number. She carefully thought through her words to make sure they didn’t sound too rude, but when she came up to the headteacher after attendance the head teacher spoke first.

“Lisa had asked me to give you his number during the final exams last semester but I was so busy that I forgot about it. I sent a text message to your mother when I remembered. Did your mother tell you?”

Jennie: “…”

No, Mother Kim didn’t tell her anything.

There was no need to ask any more questions, she already understood what had happened.

The head teacher continued to talk to her cheerfully, “I really didn’t expect Lisa to make such a great progress. When the school year started, he didn’t say a single word and ignored everyone. But now he would even take the initiative to talk to others…”

Jennie didn’t hear any of it.

For a moment, she wanted to rush out of the school gate and go to the small restaurant to ask Mother Kim why she didn’t tell her about the head teacher’s text message, but she stopped herself.

Whatever reason Mother Kim had would definitely be beyond the scope of normal human understanding. It would be a complete waste of time to even argue to ask her.

Besides, she didn’t even need to think much and she could already imagine what Mother Kim’s response would be. It was most likely that she did this as retaliation for her (Jennie) not giving make-up lessons to Seungmin.

After school, Jennie went to the mobile phone store in the afternoon.

When she was in high school, Jennie never used a mobile phone. She found that buying one would be a waste of money since she had no one to contact. A mobile phone wasn’t too important to her, so in this life, Jennie didn’t feel any inconvenience living without one.

But after this incident, Jennie felt that she had to buy a mobile phone.

When she entered the store, the uncle who sold the phones warmly greeted her, “What brand and model do you want?”

She didn’t care for the brand or specific models. At this level, Jennie has very low requirements for a mobile phone. After thinking about it, she said, “Just enough to call and send text messages.”

The Uncle: “…”

The kind of people that usually bought this type of mobile phone were usually old ladies or old men, so her words confused him greatly.

Just as he was about to say something, Jennie hurriedly said, “Actually, I’ll buy a slightly better one.”

Before, she had to wait for the weekly computer class to check for information on the internet, which was too inconvenient. It would be nice to buy a mobile phone to check information. She had read a book about Asperger’s Syndrome on the Internet before, and if she bought a phone she would be able to read it on there too.

After buying the mobile phone and applying for a card, Jennie went to the western restaurant.

In the evening, as Jennie was busy serving dishes, a girl who worked with her tapped her shoulder and pointed to the doorway. Jennie looked back and found that the teenager who she had not seen for a month had appeared at the western restaurant again.

Uncle Chen, who was pushing his wheelchair behind, also looked at her and smiled cheerfully.

The girl next to her smiled and took the dish in her hand, with a meaningful smile on her face, “Hurry up and go.”

Jennie: …

Everyone in the restaurant had a misunderstanding about the relationship between her and Lisa. No matter how hard Jennie tried to explain that she and Lisa were just classmates, no one believed her.

Jennie didn’t need to explain to them what Asperger’s Syndrome was, so she let it be.

Walking over to Uncle Chen and Lisa she greeted them, Uncle Chen looked at her with a smile, “I haven’t seen you for nearly a month, and it seems you’ve gotten paler.”

“Well in winter, everyone is pale.” Jennie smiled and looked down at Lisa and said, “There is no one in your favorite spot today. Let’s go.”

Lisa, who had been staring at Jennie since the moment he entered, finally opened his mouth, “Okay.”

He hadn’t seen her for a month.

If it weren’t for some things happening that forced him to stay, he would have gone back much sooner.

The feeling of seeing Jennie again was better than what he had imagined before coming here.

Lisa couldn’t help but want to keep staring at her, and he did just that.

Just now, Uncle Chen had said that Jennie was a little paler than before, but when Lisa looked at her closely, he couldn’t see it.

But when he thought about what Uncle Chen said, it did make sense. Jennie was busy all winter vacation, and there was no one to give her good food every day like him, so she was suffering from malnutrition.

But her eyes were as good as ever, just like the obsidian beads he had specially bought.

The obsidian bead was black and transparent bead, and when Lisa saw it he was immediately reminded of Jennie’s eyes, so he bought it.

Jennie expertly helped the two of them to order food. She looked down and saw Lisa sitting obediently. For a moment, the word “cute” popped into her mind.

Then, she remembered something. She looked back and didn’t see the foreman, so she whispered to Lisa, “I bought a mobile phone today, so now you won’t have to look for other people if you want to contact me.”

Lisa raised his head, and because he couldn’t form a frown he said with a straight face, “You are short of money.”

“It’s not very expensive,” Jennie said hurriedly, then looked back and took out her phone to show Lisa, “Enter your phone number.”

Lisa took the brand new white phone, and lightly rubbed the metal edge, before opening the contacts list.

Suddenly the hand around the phone tightened.

The entire list was blank and there was no number saved.

He was the first.

Suddenly there was a small spark in his head, filling his mind with a hot rush, causing his thoughts to stumble.

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

His fingertips fell onto the screen.

Lisa.

Seriously entering his name and then his phone number, Lisa then returned the phone to Jennie. Taking the phone back Jennie quickly dialed Lisa’s number, “This is my number, remember to save it.”

Of course he would.

After just taking a glance the lust of digits was already ingrained in his heart.

Jennie wanted to say something more, but the foreman moved closer. Seeing that she could no longer chat with Lisa, she quickly put the phone away and wrote down the orders, “Wait for me.”

After saying that, she left quickly

After the foreman left, Jennie walked back and took out a small box from her pocket and handed it to Lisa.

“Here’s your New Year’s gift, it’s a bit late, but it still counts since it’s before fifteen. I made it myself. Don’t think that it’s too ugly.” After saying that, she didn’t dare to delay her work any longer and quickly slipped away.

Uncle Chen laughed, “This kid must be very upset she couldn’t give it to you sooner,” and turned his head with a little smile in his voice, “Open and see, what it— ah… it’s a peace knot.”

Jennie didn’t know what to buy for Lisa. Expensive things were unrealistic, while the cheap ones were boring. But when she passed by a boutique, she saw the colorful ropes woven into a peace knot. She had liked it so much that she had bought a bunch of rope.

After remaking it many times, she finally made a satisfactory one.

For Lisa, what he lacked the most was health and peace.

When Lisa was leaving, Jennie was busy again. Uncle Chen smiled and said, “You will see her again tomorrow in class, now you need to go home first.”

Lisa took a look at Uncle Chen, and then he withdrew his gaze and got in the car.

When he returned home, Lisa took out the obsidian beads that he had bought from the cabinet. The round black beads had a very good color under the light. They were all hand picked, and handed over to Aunt Chen.

He wanted to attach the beads to Jennie’s peace knot.

“Don’t disassemble the front part”, Jennie did not disassemble it. “Then put the beads on to make a bracelet.”

Aunt Chen stared at the beads and then the peace knot for a long time, before letting out a sigh, “I’ll give it a try.”

Aunt Chen wore her reading glasses and sat with Lisa under the light for nearly two hours, before finally completing this difficult manual transformation. She put the bracelet on Lisa’s wrist and stared at the black beads and colored rope that hung on his pale complexion.

It looked beautiful.

Lisa looked left and right, and finally pushed his wheelchair back to his room with satisfaction.

*******

ik i said 25th chapter will be the last update but here it is ig🐢