“I’ll go.”
Lin Miaomiao said to Jiang Wan, “Ruanruan, I can’t talk to you right now. Some clueless creature just crashed into my car. I’ll hang up first.”
Lin Miaomiao hung up the phone and angrily got out of the car.
The door of the opposite car also opened, and a man stepped out.
The man was dressed in a suit, handsome in appearance, seemingly carrying an air of scholarly refinement, but upon closer inspection, he exuded an untamed arrogance.
Lin Miaomiao walked over and said, “Sir, how are you driving? Aren’t you watching the road?”
The man was none other than Gu Shilan’s childhood friend, He Boyan.
He glanced at the front of Lin Miaomiao’s car and said with amusement, “Miss, are you mistaken? I was driving normally. It’s your lack of driving skills that caused you to scrape my car.”
“That’s not true,” Lin Miaomiao, always confident in her driving skills, felt he was shirking responsibility. “I saw you swerve toward me with my own eyes.”
He Boyan said, “With your own eyes? That’s not much better than when you’re asleep. Seeing is as good as not seeing. Maybe you should go to Aier Eye Hospital and get your eyes checked.”
“You…” Lin Miaomiao’s face flushed instantly. “Are you allergic to girls? How can you talk like that?”
He Boyan curled the corner of his mouth. “I’m not interested in women.”
Lin Miaomiao thought this man was really something and decided to shut him up. “Not interested in women? Are you interested in men then?”
Unexpectedly, after hearing this, He Boyan immediately leaned in close, raising an eyebrow as he whispered near Lin Miaomiao’s ear, “If I had to choose between you and a man, then yes, that’s exactly the case.”
The breath from his words made Lin Miaomiao shrink her neck uncomfortably, her confidence shrinking along with it. “You jerk…”
She completely forgot to refute He Boyan’s mocking words.
He Boyan didn’t mind being called a jerk. He took a business card from his pocket, placed it on the hood of Lin Miaomiao’s car, and turned to walk back. “Call me after the insurance company sorts it out.”
Seeing him about to leave, Lin Miaomiao immediately called out, “Hey, how can you just leave? You also have…”
But before she could finish, He Boyan had already gotten into his car and driven off, his movements fluid and seamless, leaving her only with a cloud of exhaust fumes.
Lin Miaomiao stood pitifully in the smoky haze, watching the black car’s taillights disappear. She kicked a small stone at her feet. “That dog of a man, I hope you never find a wife.”
Not long after, Jiang Wan called again.
Lin Miaomiao squatted by the roadside curb, waiting for the insurance company’s staff to arrive.
“Miaomiao, are you okay?” Jiang Wan asked worriedly.
“I’m fine. But Ruanruan, I was bullied by a dog of a man. He said that compared to me, he’d rather choose a man. Even though I’m a 34AAA, he can’t look down on people like that, can he?”
Jiang Wan: “…”
Jiang Wan didn’t have Lin Miaomiao’s kind of troubles, so for a moment, she didn’t know how to comfort her 34AAA best friend.
After understanding the whole story, Jiang Wan still offered comfort.
“Miaomiao, people who like you won’t care about your appearance. An interesting soul is what matters most.”
Lin Miaomiao felt this made a lot of sense and quickly regained her confidence from the earlier blow.
The two chatted for a while longer and hung up only after the staff arrived.
With nothing else to do, Jiang Wan scrolled through her phone for a bit.
News of popular actress Lu Tong winning dual Best Actress awards abroad and arriving at Huacheng Airport today flooded the headlines across major platforms.
Lu Tong was a hot topic of late, so even Jiang Wan, who didn’t pay much attention to the entertainment industry, knew of her.
Moreover, the Lu family would be hosting a banquet in two days to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of their company’s founding. As the prominent Gu family, they naturally received an invitation.
For avid fans, this might be something to look forward to, but Jiang Wan wasn’t particularly interested. She merely skimmed through the news before moving on.
In the evening, Jiang Wan glanced at the time on her phone—it was almost ten o’clock. After hesitating for a while, she finally knocked on the study door.
A low voice came from inside: “Come in.”
Jiang Wan pushed the door open slightly but didn’t enter. Instead, she stood at the doorway, poking her head inside.
“Uncle Gu, are you busy right now?”
Gu Shilan had just finished signing a few documents and was feeling somewhat fatigued. Jiang Wan was like a calming agent—the moment he saw her, all his weariness vanished.
A smile touched his eyes. “Wanwan, is something the matter?”
Jiang Wan waved the book in her hand. “I’m not quite sure about the pronunciation of a few English words.”
Gu Shilan had studied abroad in the UK, excelling in finance and speaking with a fluent London accent.
Jiang Wan, on the other hand, was a product of exam-oriented education. While she could handle written tests, she struggled with listening and speaking. Moreover, her English teacher in school was from Northeast China, so her pronunciation carried a slight accent.
Gu Shilan said, “Come in.”
With his permission, Jiang Wan entered the room and walked over to the desk. She placed the book on the table and flipped to the marked page.
Gu Shilan looked at the New Concept English on the desk and asked, “Wanwan, are you teaching yourself English?”
“Yes,” Jiang Wan replied. “I have plenty of free time, so I thought I’d enrich myself. After all, English is my weak point.”
Gu Shilan nodded in approval, then slightly lifted his chin, gesturing for Jiang Wan to sit on the nearby chair. “Take a seat.”
Once seated, Jiang Wan waited attentively for Teacher Gu’s instruction.
Gu Shilan suppressed the urge to have Jiang Wan sit on his lap. Instead, he focused his gaze on the underlined letters, maintaining a gentle, composed, and restrained demeanor. No one could have guessed what he was thinking at that moment.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Jiang Wan looking down at the book.
He turned slightly toward her, adopting a patient and instructive tone. “Wanwan, learning English isn’t just about listening and reading—you also need to watch.”
“Watch?” Jiang Wan, unsuspecting, looked up at his words and asked earnestly, “What do you mean by ‘watch’?”
Gu Shilan was wearing a black shirt with the top button slightly undone. The dark fabric made him appear even more composed today, the very image of a social elite.
Yet, with a serious expression, he spoke nonsense: “Wanwan, the reason you struggle with pronunciation is that you haven’t mastered the learning method. Just like with phonetic alphabets, each letter has its unique way of being pronounced. If you only rely on listening without watching the movements of the mouth, you’ll never understand how syllables are produced.”
Jiang Wan nodded. “Uncle Gu, what you said makes a lot of sense.”
Gu Shilan had navigated the business world, facing all kinds of challenges, and had long mastered the art of concealing his emotions.
Jiang Wan, a fresh university graduate, was no match for him.
And so, Jiang Wan ended up taking a vivid English lesson by watching Gu Shilan’s face.