Those several sharp sounds of “reset, reset, reset” were really harsh and instantly broke the atmosphere of the classroom.

Wang Siyi also noticed the source of the sound and fixed his gaze on Xie Ran.

Wang Siyi did not like Xie Ran very much. His family was extremely poor, and his worn-out, faded, and deformed old clothes clashed with the bright and shiny school. It was fine before, since Xie Ran was a special student admitted for his grades, which the school valued.

But after Xie Ran entered high school, his grades dropped sharply. His scores on the last semester’s final exam were average and completely unworthy of the treatment the school gave him.

Now the school was considering canceling Xie Ran’s scholarship, so Wang Siyi’s attitude towards him naturally worsened.

Wang Siyi frowned and said: “Xie Ran, this is English class. Why are you using a calculator?”

Wang Siyi was the teacher the original owner (the narrator) feared the most. The original owner was already somewhat insecure and sensitive and could feel that this teacher looked down on him. If it had happened to him in Wang Siyi’s class and he was questioned like this, he probably would have been so embarrassed and at a loss for words.

But Xie Ran calmly took out the batteries from the electronic dictionary and replied casually: “It’s broken.”

His attitude was not as cautious as before, but somewhat disrespectful. Wang Siyi immediately felt displeased and said in a deep voice: “That thing is for elementary school students. It can’t keep up with the teaching level of Qixing School. Why did you bring it?”

His words were deliberately meant to mock Xie Ran’s device as cheap and outdated.

However, Xie Ran did not blush as he had expected, instead, he raised his eyelids slightly and asked flatly: “Does the school forbid bringing it?”

Wang Siyi was immediately stumped: “…”

Of course, the school could not have such a rule. His intention was just to embarrass Xie Ran a bit, but he did not expect Xie Ran to respond like that. Qixing School valued face, and no matter how much he looked down on Xie Ran, he could not openly say he was poor.

Being questioned back by Xie Ran in front of so many students left Wang Siyi speechless and deeply embarrassed. His face darkened immediately, and he suddenly switched to English, saying: “Since that’s the case, you go first and talk about your summer homework.”

This was another part of English class the original owner feared. The original owner’s English was good, but due to his living environment, his spoken English was naturally weak. His written test scores could reach full marks, but his spoken English was stiff, formal, and carried an unavoidable Chinese accent.

Many students at Qixing had been taught by foreign teachers since childhood. Their English was not only good in tests but also much better in speaking compared to ordinary public school students. Qixing even had an international class where students spoke English daily.

This was another reason Wang Siyi looked down on the original owner—he thought his English accent sounded poor and low-class.

For the original owner, Wang Siyi’s request to describe summer vacation in English was an obvious form of harassment.

Wang Siyi assigned students to describe their holiday travel experiences in English. Most Qixing students were wealthy and usually traveled abroad during holidays. They had good spoken English and could talk fluently about foreign customs.

But the original owner had no such experiences. His holidays were spent studying, helping at home, or doing odd jobs to support the family.

Asking him to describe his travels in English was almost a double humiliation in Qixing’s environment.

The class roughly knew Xie Ran’s situation. When Wang Siyi mentioned it, the classmates exchanged glances. Some thought the teacher was unfair, while others nervously exchanged looks: Old Man Wang (Teacher Wang) didn’t know Xie Ran had been silently brooding, would he get taken down by Xie Ran here and now?

Xu Feiyan also looked at Wang Siyi with a displeased expression. In his memory, the homeroom teacher often bullied Xie Ran. Having been reborn, he naturally planned to teach Wang Siyi a lesson and vent Xie Ran’s anger.

This should have been the time to stand up for Xie Ran, but just as Xu Feiyan squinted, his face suddenly hurt because his swollen eye slit was being pulled painfully.

He instantly recalled how hard Xie Ran had hit earlier and grew furious, so he stopped his action.

He decided to let Xie Ran feel humiliated again first. Only when Xie Ran was trampled back into the dust would he realize how precious Xu Feiyan’s help was.

By then, Xie Ran would regret hitting him so hard and feel more guilt and gratitude toward him.

While thinking this, Xu Feiyan twitched the corner of his mouth but immediately hissed: “Shh—”

Damn it, the corner of his mouth had cracked!

Xu Feiyan’s anger grew hotter.

Everyone’s eyes fixed on Xie Ran, waiting for him to show his usual embarrassment.

But everyone saw Xie Ran stand up calmly.

Unlike his usual cautiousness, this time he stood straight and tall, showing no sign of insecurity or awkwardness, only indifferent arrogance. He casually rested one hand on the desk and continued fiddling with his broken electronic dictionary, not even looking at Wang Siyi. He answered in English: “Which country’s customs do you want to know about?”

His accent was fluent and pure, with none of the previous stiffness or formality.

Everyone was a bit surprised, but a simple exchange was not enough to prove anything. What shocked them more was what he said—was he actually asking Wang Siyi to choose the country?

Wang Siyi was also stunned for a moment, squinting slightly, then smiled and said: “Then just talk about country A, which is easy to find reference materials on.”

At this, the classmates understood. It was just a travel sharing. Although Xie Ran couldn’t afford trips, information was readily available online, even in English, which would save translation effort.

This was what Wang Siyi thought. He wouldn’t say travel diaries couldn’t be referenced online, but since Xie Ran had no firsthand experience, he could still find ways to question him.

Xie Ran didn’t consider Wang Siyi’s intentions. He naturally continued: “Country A is a federal country, made up of dozens of states and many overseas territories like Nuli Island. Its economy, industry, and culture are world-class, but each state has different advantages. Foreign investors entering Country A need to understand and research these industries in detail. For example, take the economically large state, State Y…”

This world was similar to Xie Ran’s original world, roughly a parallel universe about twenty years behind. Country A corresponded to a country in his original world, and the original owner had relevant information about Country A from news reports, mostly economic. With Xie Ran’s professional instinct and info-processing ability, he easily described Country A’s industrial model as if giving a company product presentation—clear, slow-paced, and easy to understand.

As he spoke, the classroom gradually fell silent. Everyone showed surprised expressions.

Xie Ran’s fluency was impressive. Before, his two exchanges with Wang Siyi did not reveal much, but this long description clearly showed his spoken English improvement.

He spoke smoothly with clear logic, detailed and well-organized, using everyday expressions instead of formal written language, as if casually discussing a common topic.

More surprising was his pronunciation—standard and fluent, without the usual second-language stiffness or accent. It was not the more common and simpler Country A accent but a more old-fashioned, classic E country accent.

English’s main purpose is communication, and accents don’t have higher or lower status, but E country, as the birthplace of English, still maintained traditional royal and aristocratic features, giving a more authentic and elegant feel. Due to cultural influence from Country A, the E country accent was less common now. Most Chinese students preferred the simpler Country A accent.

Xie Ran’s accent was very standard E country, which was impressive.

Just this segment showed that Xie Ran’s spoken English level easily surpassed the whole class. Even in Qixing’s all-English international class, few could match this fluency.

Wang Siyi was very surprised and couldn’t hide his shock. He didn’t expect that in just one summer vacation, Xie Ran’s spoken English improved so much. How much effort did it take?

But this also made Wang Siyi more certain that Xie Ran had prepared by researching Country A online. His introduction mainly focused on State Y’s economy. Students traveling abroad would hardly focus on national economic data. This showed Xie Ran’s limited worldly experience and that he only picked easy-to-find info.

If it were another student, no matter the content, just this spoken level would earn praise. But Wang Siyi had wanted to embarrass Xie Ran. The better Xie Ran spoke, the more ridiculous Wang Siyi’s harassment looked.

Other students listened and threw teasing glances at Xie Ran, which made Wang Siyi even more furious and ashamed.

“Well, good sharing,” Wang Siyi pretended to be magnanimous and cleared his throat to hide his embarrassment, then calmly asked: “You seem to know State Y’s economy well. Can you tell me what places impressed you most in State Y?”

He asked naturally as if dealing with ordinary Qixing students, but everyone knew this was different. Qixing students really traveled and could speak in depth.

Xie Ran just shared copied information from the internet, so sharing was fine, but how could he describe his personal feelings in detail?

Xie Ran still didn’t look at Wang Siyi. After hesitating, he cautiously put the batteries back into the electronic dictionary and replied to Wang’s question while doing so: “The financial market. Currently, State Y’s financial system is the most mature worldwide, attracting capital from many countries…”

He answered casually, but this time the whole class was genuinely shocked.

Xie Ran really answered! And fluently and professionally too. As his description went deeper, he included many technical terms—words that students had never studied or even heard before.

They usually only saw such terminology in international economic lectures.

Not only that, Xie Ran continued playing with his electronic dictionary while answering, completely ignoring Wang Siyi. After finishing, he calmly asked: “Teacher, did you understand? Do you want me to explain more?”

Wang Siyi: “…”

He suspected Xie Ran was mocking him but had no proof. He wanted to continue to pick on him, but Xie Ran’s answer was too fluent and perfect to find faults.

Most importantly, the content was too professional, beyond Wang Siyi’s knowledge. Even if he wanted to find trouble, he couldn’t.

Wang Siyi had never encountered many of those financial terms before, so how could he question them?

His face grew hot. After a pause, he laughed awkwardly twice and said: “Xie Ran prepared very well this time. The material is great. Where did you find this paper? I’ll download it and share it with the class.”

Xie Ran raised his eyelids, glanced at Wang Siyi with no emotion, and said: “You can search online yourself. Do you know how to use keywords? If you find it, I can pay the author’s copyright fee.”

“…” Wang Siyi was stumped again.

Xie Ran performed too well. Wang Siyi couldn’t criticize him and could only imply Xie Ran had memorized the script. He wanted to give himself an excuse, but Xie Ran was completely different from before—no more timidity or fear. Xie Ran didn’t directly deny the implication, but the “pay the copyright fee” line was an unmistakable hint.

Wang Siyi had nothing else to say and awkwardly twitched his mouth, sulking: “Alright, sit down first.”

Xie Ran sat down calmly, maintaining an almost arrogant composure.

The classmates’ impression of him changed drastically again. After the earlier fear of him beating Xu Feiyan and others, now there was a mix of deep respect.

Was this the genius student the school spent a lot to recruit?

In just one summer, his spoken English level soared, and he could deeply understand a country using only online materials, including finance—a domain most people couldn’t understand—giving the English teacher a heavy blow.

Many Qixing students were not bad students, but now they slowly shed tears typical of underachievers.

After sitting, Xie Ran thought for a moment. Normally fearless, he finally mustered the courage to turn on his electronic dictionary. The moment it powered on, his fingers quickly typed: [Don’t make a sound.]

The electronic dictionary didn’t have a microphone, and he had no Bluetooth headset, so he could only communicate with Meng Feixuan by typing.

It felt a little like the SMS era.

The dictionary had already started making the “reset” sound but swallowed the last “zero” sound after reading Xie Ran’s message.

The screen displayed new text: [Sir, what just happened? Why did the signal suddenly cut off?]

Xie Ran typed: [The battery died.]

Dictionary: [Ah, sir, hurry and replace this lousy machine’s Nanfu rechargeable battery. One is better than six.]

Xie Ran showed no change in expression: [Okay.]

Then the dictionary started typing furiously: [Sir, you are so poor in this world. You don’t even have a cell phone.]

Dictionary: [I struggled to find your home but there’s only a landline. I even called it, but it was this world’s Mr. Xie’s dad who answered.]

Dictionary: [I had to pretend to be a scammer qaq]

Dictionary: [Don’t worry, I perfectly imitated the Bay Island scammers’ accent and wasn’t found out.]

Xie Ran: “…”

Dictionary: [Luckily you have this electronic dictionary, but I think it’s not as good as the Little Tyrant. The Little Tyrant lets me play games with you, but this dictionary is useless since your vocabulary doesn’t need it.]

Dictionary: [But don’t worry, sir, I can reprogram this dictionary to add more functions.]

Dictionary: [How about a reader function? I’ll load our CP novels in so you can read and relax.]

Xie Ran: “…”

Xie Ran: [Looks like it’s out of power again.]

He pulled out the battery.

Author’s note: Electronic dictionary: Hello, we are the Northeast underworld, you are in our hands.

Xie’s dad: Scammer, you are clearly from the south!

Electronic dictionary: How did you figure that out?

 

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