"Nianhua, who did you just go see?" Ding Guo looked at her with a curious and gossipy expression.
Xu Nianhua paused and said, "My second brother, didn’t I tell Chang Hui?"
Chang Hui looked innocent, indicating she knew nothing.
"Besides your second brother, who else?" Ding Guo asked again.
Xu Nianhua was a bit puzzled about what Ding Guo was trying to say.
"The person who just drove you back here," Ding Guo said, her face full of gossip.
"Pistachio, just stop beating around the bush," Xu Nianhua retorted.
Fei Jiayi, munching on cookies, answered, "I know who that guy is—the talented architecture student from junior year. In his freshman year, his grades were already very notable. Unfortunately, during a winter trip, he broke his leg while saving a classmate and then disappeared."
"Even the doctors said his leg was beyond repair, but surprisingly, now it’s healed."
Fei Jiayi swallowed all the cookies in one gulp, her eyes filled with admiration, and said, "I didn’t expect that after disappearing for a year and a half, he has now become a junior. That means, during his time off, he self-studied all the required knowledge and even passed the university’s assessments successfully. He was already famous in the architecture department."
"Nianhua, aren’t you from South City? I heard Pei Yicheng is from Ningbei," Fei Jiayi said, slightly puzzled as she looked at Xu Nianhua, having been quite shocked when she saw her coming with Pei Yicheng earlier.
She had also seen him once because of her older cousin.
"His grandfather is from South City," Xu Nianhua explained briefly, "I, and his sister, are friends—the one who came looking for me in the dorm today, whom Chang Hui has seen."
"She’s very beautiful," Chang Hui nodded in agreement. She felt embarrassed to sit in the dorm when Pei Yining came to visit that day.
When Fei Jiayi and Ding Guo wanted to ask more, Xu Nianhua swiftly changed the topic, and everyone stopped gossiping about Xu Nianhua and Pei Yicheng.
"Nianhua, I always feel like I speak foreign languages weirdly," Chang Hui said, garnering the courage to talk to Xu Nianhua while the dorm was quiet.
Chang Hui’s issues were minor with writing and listening. Although they were challenging, with her diligence, she could keep up. However, when it came to speaking, Chang Hui struggled. Occasionally called on by the teacher, she would turn bright red and dare not speak, and even if she did, her voice was tiny like that of a mosquito.
But she really loved foreign languages.
"Why is that?" Xu Nianhua asked back in the foreign language directly.
Chang Hui hesitated for a long time, her lips moved, but she dared not speak.
"It’s just the two of us here; you can speak out boldly," Xu Nianhua encouraged her in fluent foreign language, her gaze supportive as if she were a teacher.
Inspired by this encouraging gaze, Chang Hui stammered out a sentence. Once the first sentence came out, the second and third sentences naturally followed.
"Right, just like that."
Xu Nianhua continuously affirmed Chang Hui, her gaze encouraging and appreciative, saying, "No matter how you say it, at least you dare to speak. Once you dare to speak, you can slowly standardize your pronunciation. It’s a process. So, Chang Hui, you see, you’re also speaking quite well, right?"
Chang Hui answered in Mandarin, the simple conversation with Xu Nianhua appearing to greatly inspire her.
"Very good, your accent does have some issues, but these can be changed through persistent effort and correction," Xu Nianhua, who had once been a training teacher, had a special talent for coaching.