Meng Yao didn’t need anything else—she just needed Gu Jingcheng to help improve her spoken English. She didn’t want to learn “dumb English.”
Seeing her interest, Gu Jingcheng spared no effort in promoting himself. “Back then, I was even appointed by the principal as the student council president responsible for hosting international exchange students. Don’t you trust me?”
He immediately introduced himself to her in English.
Meng Yao watched as the seemingly carefree man fluently spoke a string of English words. Her eyes lit up slightly.
Although Gu Jingcheng was dressed somewhat flamboyantly today, the moment he opened his mouth, Meng Yao felt that even his little leather jacket seemed to rise a notch in sophistication. Was this the legendary “inner refinement shining through”?
“Alright then, how do you plan to teach me?” Meng Yao asked.
Gu Jingcheng looked around. “How about I teach you in my office? There isn’t even a table on the street. Don’t worry—”
“Okay!”
Meng Yao agreed quite readily.
Gu Jingcheng narrowed his eyes, leaned in close, and lowered his voice to tease her. “You’re quite bold, aren’t you? Aren’t you afraid I might be a bad guy who’d kidnap and sell you?”
The two were standing quite close, the flowers in their hands pressed tightly together, the scent of blossoms lingering around them.
Meng Yao looked at the handsome face magnified before her, her own reflection visible in his narrow eyes. She replied slowly, “You’re so good-looking. I’m sure you can’t be a bad person.”
Gu Jingcheng: “…”
He was left speechless.
This girl… was she teasing him?
A hint of awkwardness flashed in Gu Jingcheng’s eyes. He straightened up, cleared his throat, and lectured her with a serious tone. “I didn’t expect you to be so shallow! How can you judge whether I’m a good person just by my handsome and dashing appearance?”
“You should discover my hidden excellence through my inner qualities!”
Meng Yao: “…”
“Are you going to teach me or not? If not, I’m going back.” Meng Yao lost her patience, feeling that this Gu Jingcheng was different from the one in her previous life.
Where was the aloof young master she remembered?
“I’ll teach, I’ll teach! Let’s go, my office is just across the street, only a few minutes’ walk.” Gu Jingcheng took the lead, afraid she might change her mind.
Meng Yao followed behind him, watching his agile figure, and couldn’t help but smile slightly.
The Gu family’s factory was quite large, primarily engaged in self-production and self-sales in the planting industry. For example, they would lease land to grow cotton, which would be processed by factory workers after maturity and then sold—something along those lines.
Meng Yao only knew a little about it, having heard her parents mention it occasionally in her previous life.
As she followed him to the office, many passersby greeted them, but their eyes kept darting to the woman behind Gu Jingcheng.
The boss actually brought a woman back!
Meng Yao pretended not to notice.
Watching the man ahead casually greeting his employees, Meng Yao realized that as soon as Gu Jingcheng returned to the factory, his attitude changed completely. Gone was the earlier frivolity, replaced by a serious demeanor that could indeed be quite convincing.
However, this seriousness vanished entirely once they entered the office.
Gu Jingcheng’s office was quite spacious, with bright lighting and clean floors.
Behind the desk stood a full row of redwood bookshelves, packed with books, and the potted plants by the window were vibrant and full of life.
The air here didn’t carry the dusty scent of her hometown village but instead emitted a faint, pleasant fragrance. Even Meng Yao, who had experienced Rebirth once, felt somewhat out of place standing here.
Gu Jingcheng pulled a chair over beside the desk. “What are you standing there for? Come sit. Didn’t you want me to teach you English?”
Meng Yao quietly took her seat, her gaze sweeping over the entire row of books behind him. She also spotted a guitar leaning against the wall and blinked. Whether in her past life or this one, she had only ever seen one on television.
Could Gu Jingcheng play?
“Where’s your English textbook? Let me see it.”
Meng Yao slowly fished out her textbook. Her bag was stuffed with all sorts of things, so she was careful, but loose odds and ends, roasted peanuts, and seeds she had bought last time all tumbled out in a heap.
Two of the peanuts rolled across the smooth desktop and landed right by Gu Jingcheng’s hand. He casually peeled and ate them.
Chew, chew, chew. He offered his opinion, “Not good. These aren’t crispy enough.”
Meng Yao very much wanted to say that those peanuts had probably been in her bag for who knows how long, but seeing that Gu Jingcheng had already swallowed them, she chose to keep quiet.
She handed him the English textbook and couldn’t help asking curiously, “Have you read all those books in that row?”
Gu Jingcheng flipped through her textbook without looking up. “Pretty much. When I was little, the old man was strict. He wouldn’t let me go out to play, so I was cooped up in the house every day with nothing to do but read. I finished almost all of them.”
Gu Jingcheng said it casually, but Meng Yao was full of admiration.
She suddenly felt that her understanding of Gu Jingcheng in her past life had been too one-sided. How could a man who had read an entire wall of books be some clueless young master?
“Let me teach you the phonetic alphabet first. It’s not like you can memorize all the vocabulary at once…”
“Okay.”
Meng Yao felt that the English phonetic alphabet was similar to learning pinyin in elementary school, except that a few of the syllables were a bit trickier to pronounce.
“No, your pronunciation is off. Curl your tongue and let the airflow from your throat come out over the tip of your tongue. Try again.” Gu Jingcheng pointed at the phonetic symbol in the book, asking her to repeat it.
Meng Yao tried several times but couldn’t get it right. Anxiously, she asked him, “Like this?”
As she spoke, she curled her tongue and stuck it out to show him.
Gu Jingcheng glanced up and caught sight of the girl’s pink tongue tip and glistening lips. His heart suddenly began to race uncontrollably, and the tips of his ears flushed red.
Suppressing the flutter in his chest, he forced himself to look away and softly replied, “Mm-hmm.”
After over an hour of continuous study, Meng Yao finally managed to pronounce all the phonetic symbols correctly. Afraid she might forget some, she even marked pinyin next to a few.
“Let’s take a break. The phonetic alphabet isn’t something you can rush. You have to practice every day until you can instinctively sound it out when you see it. Only then have you truly mastered it.” Gu Jingcheng let out a sigh of relief, leaning back in his chair and tilting his head to look at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Meng Yao thought it was because she was too slow and had tired him out.
“Thank you,” Meng Yao said sincerely.
Gu Jingcheng’s fingers, resting on the table, twitched slightly. He sat up straight. “Do you really want to thank me?”
Meng Yao stammered, “I do want to thank you, but… you seem so well-off. I don’t really have anything to give you…”
She was telling the truth. The Gu family certainly didn’t lack money. Although later, for some reason, they were labeled capitalists and faced confiscation of family property, at least for now, money wasn’t an issue.
Thinking of the future, Meng Yao glanced at Gu Jingcheng again, her feelings complicated. Could she tell him in advance about what would happen to his family?
After some thought, she decided to let it go. Whether he believed her or not was one issue, but what if he asked how she knew?
Meng Yao wouldn’t be able to answer.
Better to wait a while…
Gu Jingcheng pondered for a moment. “About those peanuts earlier—I’d like them crispy. Can you make them? Consider it your thank-you gift. How about it?”
“Huh?” Meng Yao was taken aback. “I can, but… are you sure?”
Gu Jingcheng nodded.
Meng Yao agreed. “Then I’ll make some next time I come to see you and bring them over.”
Finally, Gu Jingcheng asked the question that had been weighing on his mind, his eyes filled with anticipation. “So… when will you come next time?”