The Poor School Heartthrob Was Secretly a Financial Titan - Chapter 13

After the first table of guests left, she took a rag to clear the table. Her movements were clumsy, clearly indicating that she had never done this kind of work at home. She didn’t know how to apply force with the rag in her hand, and almost splashed the leftover soup from the plate onto herself.

But she wiped it very carefully.

After wiping the table, I looked down again and noticed a small oil spot on the carpet next to the table leg—it had dried and was embedded in the red carpet fibers, so I couldn’t see it unless I looked closely.

Li Man stared at the oil spot for two seconds, then turned around, grabbed a bottle of cleaning solution from the bar, squatted down, and started scrubbing.

Han Xuetao watched from the side, his lips twitching.

That oil stain—any other waiter would have just wiped it with a damp cloth, and if that didn’t work, they’d have let it go. It’s a carpet, after all; who cares about that?

Li Man no.

She squatted there, holding a small rag, dipped it in cleaning agent, and rubbed it little by little. After rubbing a few times, she would blot it dry with a paper towel, check if the color had faded, and if not, she would rub it again.

She was so focused that you’d think she was cleaning her own carpet; many people don’t even clean their own homes with that level of dedication.

Looking at her, Han Xuetao suddenly understood why she could consistently rank first in the grade.

Learning attitude determines everything.

If this girl can do a good job at work, how serious must she be when she studies?

The other waiters didn’t look too happy.

A few people stood at the bar, looking at each other with strange expressions.

“Are these two high school students here to cause trouble?” a young man in his early twenties said in a low voice. “That boy is efficient enough, but this girl is even more frightening—she almost flips the table over to check it while wiping it.”

The waitress next to her sighed, “These people never lift a finger, they’re all set to go to college, they came here to do a couple of days of work to experience life. And they’re working even harder than us who do it every day. If the manager keeps watching for a few more days, won’t he think we’re too lazy?”

“There’s no harm in comparison,” another waiter added quietly.

Just then, the elevator doors opened.

Two foreigners came out; they were blond, blue-eyed, and very tall. They stood at the doorway and peered inside.

The waiters’ eyes lit up, and they all looked at Han Xuetao.

“Number Six, your foreigner has arrived!”

Han Xuetao looked up and smiled.

He knew these two men. Matt and Pekka, Finns. Donglin Paper Mill had imported a batch of Finnish equipment, which had recently malfunctioned, and they were the engineers the factory had hired. They had been eating at Chunmei Restaurant for the first few days after they arrived. Han Xuetao had just come for a job interview and happened to be there when they were ordering food. Since no one could communicate with them, he went up to help.

In the following days, he was the one who received them whenever they came.

Han Xuetao went up to him with a smile: “Matt! Pekka! Long time no see, what brings you here today?”

When the two foreigners saw him, they smiled and rattled off a string of English.

Han Xuetao led them to a booth by the window, chatting as they walked and gesturing occasionally. Once they were seated, he pulled out chairs for them, and after they sat down, he handed them menus, pointing to each dish and explaining its features.

English, entirely in English.

Li Man stood not far away, still clutching the rag soaked in cleaning agent, frozen in place.

She watched Han Xuetao chatting and laughing with the two foreigners, and even after they ordered, they continued talking. She couldn’t understand a word they were saying—the words came out of Han Xuetao’s mouth as smoothly as water, without the slightest stumble.

Her eyes widened further.

How come Han Xuetao’s English is so good?

She’s always first in English in her grade! She consistently scores over 140 on tests, and her listening comprehension is always excellent. But standing here now, she realizes she can’t even understand what those two foreigners are saying, let alone chime in.

She could vaguely make out one or two of the words Han Xuetao said, but she couldn’t keep up with them when they were strung together into sentences. His speaking speed and connected speech left her completely bewildered.

She stood there blankly, almost dropping the rag in her hand.

After Han Xuetao finished serving the two foreigners, Li Man finally came to her senses. She rushed over and pulled him aside.

“Han Xuetao!”

“Number six,” Han Xuetao corrected her.

“Okay, number six!” Li Man lowered her voice, but couldn’t hide her shock. “How come your English is so good? What were you saying to those two foreigners? Why couldn’t I understand a word?”

Han Xuetao looked at her, thinking: In my past life, I was a leader in a gang abroad, and an oil tycoon from Texas invited me to a show in Las Vegas. If it were a few years earlier, I might even have a place on Lolita Island. How could I not speak English?

But I can’t say that.

He coughed lightly: “Perhaps your posture while practicing your listening skills is incorrect.”

Li Man frowned: “You’re lying! My Walkman is an Aiwa ultra-thin model, and my mom even asked a friend to buy me a CD player! It’s a Sony, with zero sound loss, shockproof, and no tape noise!”

Han Xuetao clicked his tongue in amazement.

The Aiwa ultra-thin portable music player was on par with the iPhone in later years; having one among students made you feel cool. CD players were even more extravagant, costing between 1,500 and 2,000 yuan, while the average worker’s monthly salary was only a few hundred yuan.

He touched his nose: “That’s because your equipment is too good.”

“What’s the meaning?”

Han Xuetao pointed around: “The English you hear on the CD player is all recorded in a recording studio, with perfect pronunciation and no background noise. But what about in real life?”

He gestured for Li Man to listen—there were voices, music, clinking cups and plates in the background, and the sound of billiard balls hitting the ground in the distance.

“This is the real world. Your equipment is too good, which will actually prevent you from developing your hearing.”

Li Man was stunned.

Han Xuetao continued, “If you want to improve your listening skills, I have a suggestion for you—find a scratched cassette tape or a low-quality disc and listen to it at double speed.”

“Double speed?”

“Yes. Once you get used to it, when you hear normal speaking speed, it will seem very slow and very clear. Don’t listen to any slow-speed English; you can never learn that kind of thing even if you practice your whole life.”

In his previous life, when Han Xuetao first arrived abroad, he worked in an underground casino. That place was incredibly noisy, with all sorts of accents mixed together, speaking at a rapid pace, and using slang and jargon. If he couldn’t understand it, he wouldn’t be able to work as a dealer, let alone sell cigarettes to customers—gamblers were incredibly impatient, and if you said one wrong word, you’d be slapped.

That’s how he painstakingly worked it out over a month.

Upon hearing his words, Li Man’s eyes widened: “You can do that?”

Is it because his equipment is too good that my hearing is worse than his?

She herself found the idea absurd when it first came to mind.

Aiwa Ultra-Thin, Sony CD Player—who in the class wouldn’t be envious? Every time Luo Diandian came to her house, she would take that CD player and watch it over and over again.

But now someone is telling her—this is the thing that’s holding her back?

She stared at Han Xuetao, the bubble of doubt that had just begun to form in her mind was burst by the facts before her eyes.

Their English is just better than mine. Much better.

Li Man bit her lip.

Just then, something suddenly flashed through my mind.

It was in the second semester of her junior year of high school. After an English reading test, her English teacher chatted with her casually and mentioned something in passing:

“Han Xuetao’s family isn’t well-off. I don’t know who discarded his Walkman; it’s so old that the play button won’t work, you can only fast forward. I asked him how he practices his listening skills, and he said he just uses the fast forward button to rewind bit by bit. Sigh, I’ll give him mine another day.”

Later, the English teacher did give Han Xuetao a used Walkman, and Li Man, as the class monitor, helped hand over the bag. At the time, she didn’t think much of it—it was just a used Walkman, nothing more than a few dozen yuan.

But now this scene suddenly resurfaced from the depths of her memory, startling her.

Han Xuetao’s old Walkman didn’t even have a play button; you could only fast forward.

He practiced using that?

Li Man was stunned.

no.

I must try the method he mentioned when I get back.

“waiter!”

A shout came from the elevator entrance.

Li Man turned her head to look.

The elevator doors opened, and three or four people stepped out. The one in the lead was wearing a red shirt over a white vest, followed by two others, one fat and one thin, and a third who was dressed smartly and had his hair slicked back—clearly not a respectable person.

“Get a private room!” The man in the floral shirt walked to the bar, tapping his fingers on the counter. “A big one, the kind where we can smoke!”

“Get us two packs of cigarettes—Yunyan!” the fat man added from behind.

“Another pot of tea, Longjing!”

“Give me another pitcher of watermelon juice,” Zhou Cheng shouted back inside, “Red! I’m going to have a lucky day!”

Han Xuetao, who was standing not far away, heard the voice and his eyes lit up slightly.

He calmly put on his mask, picked up the tray, and walked over—after his initial caution, he was now certain that Zhou Cheng, who wanted to steal his university spot, didn’t even know what he looked like.

This is not surprising, since the two of them were not in the same school, and he did not know what Zhou Cheng looked like before.

As long as your name isn’t revealed, it’s fine.

“This way, please.” He bowed slightly and gestured for you to enter. “Room 612, I’ll take you there.”

Zhou Cheng glanced at him sideways, but didn’t take it seriously, and followed him away.

Li Man stood to the side, watching the group of people walk past her, her brows furrowed.

These people don’t look like they’re here for a proper meal.

In the middle of the afternoon, they open a private room, order cigarettes, tea, watermelon juice, and even “red” liquor—what kind of nonsense is this?

Her gaze swept over those people, a hint of disdain flashing in her eyes.