18. Second-Hand Reading Comprehension

In the conference room downstairs, two blonde, blue-eyed foreigners sat, whispering to each other in rapid-fire speech. When they saw Jing Yi and Fan Ming enter, they stood up and greeted them with friendly smiles.

"Hello%#??%*~?/#……"

Jing Yi: "@.@???"

What on earth was that? It was like a gust of wind had just blown past. Jing Yi already struggled with written English; listening was even harder. Besides, business English was vastly different from everyday English, and these words just turned into incoherent babble in his ears. He only caught the "Hello."

This was a disaster. How was he supposed to interpret this?

Just then, the conference room door was pushed open, and Li Wenzhao strode in, wearing a crisp, sharp suit. Fan Ming immediately pulled out a chair. "Mr. Li, the documents are ready."

Li Wenzhao nodded. "Where is the interpreter?"

Secretary Fan adjusted his glasses. "The Rongcheng branch has a foreign delegation visiting today, and they borrowed two teams of interpreters from headquarters this morning. There were no available staff, so I specifically asked Butler Jing to help out."

Li Wenzhao: "..."

He asked whom to help out?

With a look of disbelief, he turned his head and saw the little butler already seated beside him.

Secretary Fan glanced at his watch and leaned toward Jing Yi, whispering, "Butler Jing, I'll leave this to you. I have an important reception downstairs, so I must be going."

Before Jing Yi could even react, Secretary Fan vanished like a puff of smoke.

[Well played, Secretary Fan. Outsourcing your work now, are you? I’ll remember this!!!]

Seeing Li Wenzhao take his seat, the two foreign businessmen assumed the meeting had begun and jumped straight into their opinions.

"%#??%*~?/#……"

This time, the pace was even faster.

But perhaps due to nerves, Jing Yi’s concentration was at its peak. He actually managed to catch a few scattered, familiar words and quickly pieced together a "listening comprehension" result.

"Emmm... if I heard correctly, they mean they are very satisfied with our company's stockings, that the project content has ended their lives, and next time they’ll bring an accent to secretly shark you..."

Li Wenzhao: "..."

Jing Yi’s voice grew quieter as he slowly frowned.

[Why does this sound more and more wrong as I say it? Is that really what the foreigners meant?]

Li Wenzhao: "..."

It wasn't just wrong; it was painful to listen to.

The foreigners kept chattering away. As Jing Yi tilted his head, preparing to translate again, Li Wenzhao couldn't take it anymore. He reached out and turned Jing Yi’s chin back to the front, then opened his mouth to speak fluent business English, engaging the two men in conversation.

Jing Yi: ???

[Wait, you could speak it yourself?]

[Then why look for an interpreter? To increase employment opportunities?]

After Jing Yi spent a while muttering to himself, he waited for a lull in the conversation and cautiously asked Li Wenzhao, "Mr. Li, what did they say?"

[Are they really going to 'shark' you?]

Li Wenzhao’s brow twitched. "Butler Jing, are you the interpreter, or am I?"

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

There was no such thing as an interpreter asking the boss for a translation; it was completely backwards.

"Butler Jing," Li Wenzhao paused for several seconds before he couldn't help but advise, "You translated very well. Don't do it again next time."

Jing Yi: "..."

Li Wenzhao added with a cold sneer, "I don't want to do a fill-in-the-blanks exercise again, nor do I want to listen to a secondary processing of reading comprehension."

Jing Yi muttered unconvinced, "I can learn."

Li Wenzhao asked, "Do you know what the first word in a Level 4 exam vocabulary book is?"

Jing Yi thought for a moment. "Abandon."

Li Wenzhao let out a cryptic laugh.

Jing Yi reacted after a few seconds: "..."

Okay, he could tell that was sarcasm.

***

For the rest of the meeting, Li Wenzhao entered "barrier-free communication mode," chatting happily with the foreign businessmen. Jing Yi was happy to be idle, growing drowsy under the 3D surround sound of the foreign language.

These two foreigners were the newest potential partners Li Wenzhao was in contact with. Given that the domestic market had been overrun by scammers, making it impossible to advance many projects, Li Wenzhao had no choice but to look abroad to minimize losses. Fortunately, his luck was decent; he quickly found potential partners, though these two were currently in a "wait-and-see" phase and were hesitant to commit.

Li Wenzhao chatted with them for over an hour and successfully signed the cooperation agreement.

At 2:00 PM, the meeting ended, and Li Wenzhao sent people to escort the foreign businessmen out of the company.

"Mr. Li." Secretary Fan walked out of the staff elevator, covered in sweat. "The sudden resignation of Directors Zhang and Li has caused a lot of dissatisfaction on the board. They are demanding you publicly disclose the reasons for their departure."

Li Wenzhao: "How are the lawyers coming along?"

Secretary Fan handed over a document. "It's done."

Li Wenzhao glanced at it and signed the bottom decisively. "Go ahead. Sue them until they’re finished."

Secretary Fan replied expressionlessly, "Understood."

Jing Yi stared suspiciously at Li Wenzhao’s back.

[Director Zhang, Director Li... aren't those the outlaws I saw in the meeting last time? How are they out of a job so fast?]

[How did the young master discover the fishy business so quickly? Is he using a cheat code?]

No wonder the atmosphere in the company was so strange today; two directors had been fired in succession for unknown reasons, causing everyone in the company to fear for their own standing.

Li Wenzhao handed the document back to Secretary Fan and lowered his eyes. In a sense, he was indeed using a cheat.

An eavesdropping cheat.

Listening to the little butler’s various mutterings in his heart every day.

Back in the top-floor office, Secretary Fan asked Jing Yi for the meeting minutes.

"?"

Jing Yi looked at the notebook in his hand. "Nobody asked me to take minutes?"

He had thought he was just there to be a background character for the whole meeting.

Secretary Fan said, "Sigh, I forgot. Butler Jing, could you recount the meeting content? I need to record it."

As he spoke, he took the notebook from Jing Yi and opened it, only to see the first page covered in doodles of cartoon characters.

"..."

"..."

Secretary Fan was a man who had seen it all. After a ten-second pause, he flipped to the second page and picked up his pen, waiting.

Jing Yi was a bit dazed by his setup. He couldn't remember what was said in the meeting; the first half was mostly him relying on random reading comprehension, and the second half was just doodling. After over an hour, he could barely remember a rough gist.

Under Secretary Fan’s expectant gaze, Jing Yi spoke slowly: "They said... our company's stockings sell very well, and they hope Mr. Li won't end their lives, otherwise their accents will end Mr. Li's life."

*Snap.*

The pen in Secretary Fan’s hand shattered.

***

After dismissing Secretary Fan and his broken pen, Jing Yi sat at his own small desk, spinning his pen idly while stealing glances at Li Wenzhao nearby.

"Have you seen enough?" After who knows how long, Jing Yi was startled by the voice. When he snapped out of it, he met Li Wenzhao’s inquisitive gaze. "What are you looking at?"

Jing Yi subconsciously said, "Looking at the young master's protagonist halo."

The Li family had been too strange lately. None of the major pitfalls from the early parts of the novel had played out. What was going on? Did the original author rewrite the whole thing? Or had the novel's world created a butterfly effect because of his arrival?

But he hadn't done anything yet.

After thinking it over, Jing Yi concluded that the Li family might have awakened some extraordinary talent—like a rebirth system, future foresight, or a protagonist halo cheat.

Li Wenzhao listened quietly to the little butler’s analysis. It sounded logical on the surface, but it was getting further and further from the truth. He said calmly, "Is this the setting of a new novel you're reading?"

Jing Yi nodded, observing Li Wenzhao’s expression. "Yeah, doesn't the young master think it's magical?"

Li Wenzhao turned back to his files. "You're just too idle. These are the employee files from the third brother's company. Take them and have a look."

Jing Yi: —A—

The endless work had returned.

***

"Butler Jing, what is that expression?" Li Wenzhao looked at him. "Why do you start wilting the moment work is mentioned?"

Jing Yi replied listlessly, "That's just how being an employee is."

We’re all just wage slaves to capital; who is more dedicated than anyone else?

*Knock, knock, knock.* The office door was tapped.

Jing Yi straightened up in a second, his eyes burning as he looked toward the door.

[Quick, quick, quick, someone come save this pathetic corporate slave.]

"President..." Secretary Fan pushed the door open gently. When he met Jing Yi’s fervent gaze, he subconsciously took two steps back.

He didn't know why, but he felt nervous whenever he saw Butler Jing.

Li Wenzhao looked up. "What is it?"

Secretary Fan walked in from behind the door, holding a tablet. The screen was lit, and a large face was displayed in the center.

Jing Yi curiously craned his neck. "Secretary Fan, did someone in the company pass away?"

"..."

"..."

The person in the black-and-white photo twitched their lips. "Have you ever seen a dead person with their eyes open?!"

Jing Yi was startled. He looked closer—oh, it was a video call.

Secretary Fan placed the tablet in front of Li Wenzhao. "President, Mr. Shen hacked into my device; he insists on meeting with you."

[Shen? That’s the surname of the big protagonist!]

[Quick, let me see what the protagonist looks like—the one who had over 3,000 chapters of foreshadowing, the one for whom the entire Li family served as stepping stones, all just to send him to the top of the world???]

Before Li Wenzhao could react, a fluffy head appeared right next to him. From his perspective, he could see the little butler’s soft side profile and his slender, elegant neck.

Up close, the little butler’s skin was surprisingly good—so white it was almost blinding, with fine, delicate fuzz that looked so fragile it seemed like a touch would leave a mark.

Jing Yi leaned toward the tablet, scrutinizing the person on the screen.

He had clean, short hair, was thin, cold, with deep double eyelids and long, sharp, narrow eyes. He was handsome enough, but his eyes and brows betrayed a sense of calculation. He didn't look like a good person at all.

[Is that it? He’s not even as handsome as Li Wenzhao. How can this be the big male lead of a "cool" novel, the one favored by fate, doted on by his mother, and living on the edge of the law?]

That wasn't how it was written in the original text. In the novel, the male lead’s appearance was peerless, with admirers everywhere. Every woman would align herself to him, pulling out all the stops just to compete for the position of the sole queen.

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

He couldn't help but let out a shocking sigh—

[No, are they sick or something?]

"There's someone quietly by Mr. Li's side; won't you introduce them?" the person on the tablet asked.

Jing Yi turned his head and realized he was blocking the view, so he immediately moved away.

Li Wenzhao pressed his lips together slightly and didn't answer. "Mr. Shen, hacking into my company's equipment without a word—isn't that also 'quietly'?"

"Don't mind that. I had urgent business with Mr. Li today, but the calls wouldn't go through, so I had no choice but to resort to this tactic."

Li Wenzhao recalled the new software installed on his phone and smiled. "What is it?"

"Next Tuesday, the Shen Group is holding its third anniversary celebration. I'd like to invite Mr. Li to attend." The man smiled. "Mr. Li, do you dare to come?"

Li Wenzhao smiled. "Since Mr. Shen has invited me, how could I refuse?"

"Straightforward." The man laughed twice. "I heard that Mr. Li has been cutting out many 'parasites' from your company recently with swift and ruthless means. You clearly have your ways. My company has also had quite a few issues lately; I hope Mr. Li can show me a trick or two on the spot."

"Fine."

Li Wenzhao hung up the video and tapped his fingertips gently on the desk.

"Butler Jing, accompany me on another field trip."

Jing Yi: ?