Chapter 18: Second-hand Reading Comprehension

Chapter 18: Second-hand Reading Comprehension

In the meeting room downstairs, two foreigners with blond hair and blue eyes were sitting, speaking quickly in low voices.

Upon seeing Jing Yi and Secretary Fan, they stood up friendly and greeted them.

“Hello%#??%*~?/#……”

Jing Yi: “@.@？？？”

It sounded like gibberish, gone in a flash.

Jing Yi already had trouble with written English, but listening comprehension was even more challenging. And business English was a whole different ballgame compared to everyday English. To his ears, it all sounded like incomprehensible chatter. The only word he caught was 'hello.'

This was a disaster. How was he supposed to translate any of this?

At that moment, the meeting room door opened, and Li Wenzhao walked in, dressed in a sharp suit. Secretary Fan immediately pulled out a chair. “Mr. Li, the documents are already prepared.”

Li Wenzhao nodded. “Where’s the translator?”

Secretary Fan pushed his glasses up. “The Rongcheng branch company has a foreign inspection team visiting today. We borrowed two teams of translators from headquarters this morning, and currently, there are no available translators, so I specially requested Jing Butler to help.”

Li Wenzhao: “……”

Who did he ask for help, exactly?

Unbelievably, he turned to see the young butler already seated beside him.

Secretary Fan checked his watch, leaned in close to Jing Yi, and whispered, “I’m leaving this to you. I’ve got an important reception downstairs.”

Before Jing Yi could react, Secretary Fan dashed out.

“Nice one, Secretary Fan! Outsourcing the work, huh? I’ll remember this!”

The two foreigners, seeing Li Wenzhao seated, assumed the meeting had begun and started to voice their opinions.

“%#??%*~?/#……”

This time, the speech was even faster.

But maybe because of the pressure, Jing Yi’s focus sharpened, and he actually caught a few scattered familiar words. He quickly tried to make sense of it.

“Emmm… If I heard right, they’re really happy with our company’s long socks, but something about the project content… ending their lives? And next time, they’ll come with an accent to… secretly kill you?”

Jing Yi’s voice grew quieter, his brows furrowing.

“Why does this sound more and more like a mess? Is this really what the foreigners meant?”

Li Wenzhao: “……”

Not just confusing, but also painful to hear.

The foreigners continued their gibberish, and Jing Yi turned his head again, preparing to translate. Li Wenzhao, unable to bear it any longer, turned Jing Yi’s chin back and started conversing fluently in business English with the two across the table.

Jing Yi: ???

"Aren't you capable of doing it yourself?"

"Then why look for a translator? To boost employment?"

Jing Yi babbled for a while, and during a pause in the conversation, he cautiously asked Li Wenzhao, "Mr. Li, what did they say?"

"Are they really going to secretly kill you?"

Li Wenzhao's eyebrow twitched. "Jing Butler, are you the translator or am I?"

Jing Yi shrank back. "Oh, I am."

A translator asking the boss for a translation? That’s like the sky falling down.

"Jing Butler." Li Wenzhao paused for a few seconds but couldn't help but advise, "You did a great job translating, but don't do it next time."

Jing Yi: "..."

Li Wenzhao let out a cold laugh. "I don’t want to do another fill-in-the-blank test, nor do I want to hear a second-hand reading comprehension."

Jing Yi grumbled under his breath, "I can learn."

Li Wenzhao said, "Do you know what the first word in a college-level English exam prep dictionary is?"

Jing Yi thought for a moment. "Abandon."

Li Wenzhao let out a meaningful laugh.

Jing Yi took a few seconds to react. "..."

Okay, he got the sarcasm.

For the rest of the meeting, Li Wenzhao switched to smooth, uninterrupted communication, having a pleasant conversation with the foreign clients, while Jing Yi was more than happy to relax and was lulled to sleep by the constant flow of English around him.

These two were the latest business partners Li Wenzhao had reached out to. Fortunately, he was lucky and quickly found potential partners, though these two were still in a wait-and-see mode, not daring to make a move easily.

Li Wenzhao spent over an hour talking with them and successfully signed the cooperation agreement.

At 2 PM, the meeting ended, and Li Wenzhao sent the foreign clients out of the company.

"Mr. Li." Secretary Fan emerged from the employee elevator, drenched in sweat. "The sudden resignations of Chairman Zhang and Chairman Li have caused dissatisfaction among many in the board of directors. They’re demanding you explain the reasons for their resignation publicly."

Li Wenzhao: "How's the preparation on the lawyer's side going?"

Secretary Fan handed over the documents. "It's completed."

Li Wenzhao glanced through it and signed at the end decisively. "Go and sue them into the ground."

Secretary Fan remained expressionless. "Understood."

Jing Yi eyed Li Wenzhao's back suspiciously.

"Chairmen Zhang and Li... Weren't they those shady characters we met at the last meeting? They're out of a job so soon?"

"How did the eldest young master figure it out so fast? Does he have some kind of insider info?"

No wonder the company felt off today—two directors resigned suddenly, and no one knew why, leaving everyone on edge.

Li Wenzhao handed the documents back to Secretary Fan, lowering his eyes. From a certain point of view, he really had a cheat code.

A listening cheat.

Listening to the young butler's constant internal monologue every day.

Returning to the top-floor office, Secretary Fan asked Jing Yi for the meeting notes from the just-concluded meeting.

"?"

Jing Yi looked at the notebook in his hand, "No one asked me to take notes without being asked?"

He thought he was just there for show during the entire meeting.

Secretary Fan said, "Ah, I forgot. Can you recount the meeting content? I'll jot it down."

Saying that, he took the notebook from Jing Yi's hand and flipped it open, only to find the first page covered in random doodles.

"..."

"..."

Having seen many storms, Secretary Fan paused for only ten seconds before flipping to the second page, pen in hand, waiting.

Jing Yi was a bit dumbfounded by his demeanor.

He couldn't remember what was said in the meeting. The first half was mostly figured out through guesswork, and the second half was just more doodles. After over an hour, he could only vaguely recall the gist of it.

Under Secretary Fan's expectant gaze, Jing Yi slowly began, "They said... the long socks from our company sell well, and they hope Mr. Li won't end their lives, otherwise his accent would drive Mr. Li crazy."

The pen in Secretary Fan's hand snapped.

·

·

After dealing with Secretary Fan and the broken pen, Jing Yi returned to his small desk and sat down, idly twirling a pen in his fingers while sneaking glances at Li Wenzhao beside him.

"Are you done staring?" Startled by the voice, Jing Yi snapped out of his reverie and met Li Wenzhao's inquisitive gaze, "What are you looking at?"

Jing Yi instinctively replied, "At the eldest young master's protagonist's aura."

Recently, the Li family had been acting strange. The major plot holes that appeared early in the novel hadn't come into play yet. What was going on? Had the original author rewritten the entire story?

Or had the novel world undergone a butterfly effect because of his arrival?

But he hadn't done anything yet.

After much thought, Jing Yi concluded that the Li family might have awakened some extraordinary talent, like a rebirth system, future premonition, or protagonist's aura cheat.

Li Wenzhao listened quietly to the young butler's analysis, which seemed logical but was straying further from the truth. Without revealing anything, he said, "Did you come up with that from a new novel?"

Jing Yi nodded, observing Li Wenzhao's expression, "Yes, isn't it fascinating, eldest young master?"

Li Wenzhao turned his head back to the documents, "You're just too idle. Here are the employee files from the third young master's company. Take a look."

Jing Yi: —A—

Here comes more endless work.

"Jing Butler, what expression is that?" Li Wenzhao looked at him. "As soon as work is mentioned, why do you look so wilted?"

Jing Yi sighed, "This is what working feels like."

We're all just cogs in the machine. Who's more dedicated than anyone else?

"Knock knock knock." The office door was knocked on.

Jing Yi perked up immediately, his eyes burning as he looked outside.

"Hurry up, someone! Save this poor salaryman!"

"CEO..." Secretary Fan gently pushed the door open and was startled by Jing Yi's eager gaze, instinctively taking two steps back.

For some reason, Secretary Fan felt a bit uneasy whenever he saw Jing Butler.

Li Wenzhao looked up. "What is it?"

Secretary Fan walked in from behind the door, holding a tablet with a bright screen displaying a large face in the center.

Jing Yi curiously stretched his neck. "Secretary Fan, has someone from the company passed away?"

"..."

"..."

The person on the screen, shown in black and white, twitched at the corner of their mouth. "Have you ever seen a dead person with their eyes open?!"

Jing Yi was startled.

On closer inspection, he realized it was a video call.

Secretary Fan placed the tablet in front of Li Wenzhao. "CEO, Mr. Shen has hacked into my device and insists on seeing you."

"Shen? That's the surname of a major protagonist."

"Quick, let me see. After over 3,000 chapters of setup, the entire Li family as stepping stones, just to send one person to the top of the clouds??? The main character, what do they look like??"

Before Li Wenzhao could react, a fluffy head appeared in front of him. From his angle, he could see the young butler's soft profile and his elegant, slender neck.

Up close, the young butler's skin was exceptionally good, almost blindingly white, with fine fuzz that looked fragile, as if a touch would leave a mark.

Jing Yi leaned closer to the tablet, carefully examining the person on the screen.

He had a neat short haircut, a lean build, and deep-set, narrow, sharp eyes. While he was undeniably handsome, there was something calculating about his gaze, making him seem anything but trustworthy.

"Is this it? He's not even as handsome as Li Wenzhao. How can this guy be the lucky, author-favored, law-skirting protagonist of a wish-fulfillment novel?"

That's not how the original text described him.

In the novel, the male lead's appearance was extremely outstanding, with fangirls everywhere. Every woman would try their best just to compete for the position of the one true wife.

Jing Yi looked at the tablet, then at Li Wenzhao, then back at the tablet, and again at Li Wenzhao.

Unable to hold back, he let out an exasperated sigh—

"Seriously, are these people crazy or something?"

"Hey, Mr. Li, who's that standing next to you? You didn’t introduce him." The guy on the video call said.

Jing Yi glanced over, realized he was in the way, and quickly stepped aside.

Mr. Shen, sneaking into my company’s systems without a heads-up? That’s not exactly being quiet, is it?" Li Wenzhao didn’t wait for a response and continued, "What’s up?"

"Next Tuesday, we’re celebrating Shen Group’s third anniversary, and we’d be honored if you could join us for the event." The man smiled. "Mr. Li, you up for it?"

Li Wenzhao smiled. "I wouldn’t dream of missing an invitation from Mr. Shen."

"I’ve heard you’ve been cleaning house pretty aggressively lately. Impressive stuff." The man laughed. "We’ve had some issues at my end too, and I’d love to see how you handle things firsthand."

"Count me in."

Li Wenzhao hung up and drummed his fingers thoughtfully on the desk.

"Jing Butler, mind coming with me on another trip?"

Jing Yi blinked, clearly puzzled.