Chapter 50: Learning English

"Sister Tang, Xialuo starts filming tomorrow in Dalian. Please make the trip there on my behalf."

Lu Liang assigned the task to Tang Caidie, then looked at Chen Jinchun, who wore a naive and innocent expression: "Little Chen, your task is to help me recruit someone."

Chen Jinchun's eyes widened in disbelief, momentarily thinking she had misheard. She was only a fresh graduate herself and hadn't even passed her internship period.

"Is there a problem?" Lu Liang asked.

"No... No, no problem at all. What kind of person does President Lu want to hire?" Chen Jinchun asked, biting the bullet.

"A private English tutor with at least a TEM-8 certificate. One class every weekday, with compensation set at the highest market rate."

He had suffered a setback last time due to his lack of English proficiency, and Lu Liang was determined to master the language—at least to the point where reading foreign texts would be effortless.

"Understood, President Lu." Chen Jinchun felt a sense of relief wash over her. Fortunately, it was just finding an English tutor.

After all, she had passed the TEM-4 herself, and with the backing of her official educational verification records, interviewing someone with a TEM-8 certificate shouldn't be too difficult.

However, thinking about it in her head was one thing, but actually executing it was entirely another.

Seeing Lu Liang enter his office, Chen Jinchun pulled Tang Caidie over with a pitiful expression: "Sister, you have to help me."

She had only ever been an interviewee, never an interviewer. Should she act aloof and cold, or approachable and down-to-earth?

If she tied her hair up into a bun and wore a black silk OL outfit, would she look slightly more mature?

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. I suspect President Lu simply wants to learn English."

Tang Caidie couldn't help smiling: "The teaching method is important, but the chemistry between teacher and student matters just as much. As long as you recruit a few candidates for President Lu to choose from, you'll eventually find someone who satisfies him."

Chen Jinchun asked again, "What if President Lu isn't satisfied? How should I handle those private tutors? Just send them away?"

Tang Caidie nodded: "Usually, there's a trial period of half a class. If he isn't satisfied, we just keep replacing them until he is."

Chen Jinchun showed a conflicted expression: "Shouldn't we give them some travel allowance? Wouldn't it feel a bit wrong otherwise?"

A half-class trial followed by a replacement if unsatisfied gave her a lingering sense of guilt, as if she were taking advantage of someone else's unpaid labor.

"When you failed your interviews, did anyone ever give you a travel allowance? That's just how society works."

Tang Caidie offered a gentle smile, patting Chen Jinchun's head like an elder: "This might actually be an opportunity for you."

"An opportunity?" Chen Jinchun blinked, looking utterly blank.

Tang Caidie glanced toward Lu Liang's office: "President Lu probably still lacks an assistant, though he hasn't realized it himself yet."

"A receptionist can be anyone, but an assistant is different. That person will become President Lu's confidant, and the compensation and benefits will be much higher."

She saw things very clearly, yet she chose not to remind Lu Liang directly.

Matters like this had to be discovered by Lu Liang on his own. If she brought it up, people would inevitably suspect she had ulterior motives.

"Sister, then why didn't you..."

Chen Jinchun was puzzled. She might be a bit naive, but she wasn't stupid. If this was such a good opportunity, why wasn't Tang Caidie going for it herself?

Tang Caidie gave a self-deprecating, tranquil smile: "We are different. I'm older, and I'm not the kind of person who can be easily molded into a loyal subordinate."

At thirty-seven years old, finding a job related to her profession with decent pay was already a rare piece of fortune.

Chen Jinchun was different, however. At twenty-two, freshly graduated from university, she was in the prime of her youth. Even though she graduated from a regular tier-two university, it was more than enough.

Tang Caidie had worked for over a decade and knew very well that a diploma was merely a stepping stone, and its usefulness diminished even further outside of technical roles.

Moreover, Chen Jinchun was a fresh graduate, a blank slate in the professional world. Bosses generally preferred molding people themselves.

"Sister Tang, thank you."

Chen Jinchun felt a wave of gratitude words failed to express.

Ever since they met, Tang Caidie had been exceptionally good to her, constantly teaching her the unwritten rules of the workplace.

"Later, you can first research online. English private tutors shouldn't be too hard to find. Then, have them come over for an interview. If you think they're suitable, send them in to see President Lu."

Tang Caidie smiled, returning to her workstation to organize some documents and prepare to go home to pack her bags for the trip to Dalian on Lu Liang's behalf.

Back at Sequoia Capital, her ambition had been overwhelming, and she harbored strong ulterior motives in everything she did.

Furthermore, she never engaged in losing propositions; the thought of mentoring a newcomer without personal gain was completely unimaginable to her.

The ultimate result was that her husband spent her money while cheating on her, leaving her life and career in total disarray.

After opening a guesthouse in Cainan and taking a few years to recuperate, Tang Caidie had long since shed her former ambition.

Now, her willingness to help Chen Jinchun stemmed simply from finding her agreeable—nothing more, nothing less.

...

At one o'clock, the stock market opened.

Lu Liang repeated the routine from the morning.

Although the trading steps were identical, subtle variations occurred every time, preventing him from feeling bored or monotonous.

Because the market was fluid, regardless of how meticulously the market makers controlled the stock, unpredictable factors always emerged.

Just like a quote from *Reminiscences of a Stock Operator*, one must always maintain a sense of awe toward the market, because the market is driven by millions of investors; even if Jesus were alive, he could not fathom the minds of millions.

This was an autobiographical novel featuring a protagonist named Livermore, the former "Boy Plunger" who single-handedly challenged Wall Street.

By three o'clock in the afternoon when the market closed, Lu Liang's capital position reached 4.11 million, holding 4,272 board lots.

Compared to the morning, the capital deployed for purchases was significantly lower.

Trading volume plummeted in the afternoon, lacking the bustling activity of the morning session. It was harder for him to find entry points, extending his observation periods considerably.

Lu Liang closed his eyes to rest, feeling a slight dryness in his mouth. He wanted to call someone, only to remember he was at the office, not at home.

He picked up his water mug and walked out of the office, just in time to see Chen Jinchun conversing with someone in the meeting room.

The other person was a young woman in her early twenties, wearing thick black-rimmed glasses and carrying a slightly reserved demeanor.

She looked like an interviewee who had just arrived.

However, Chen Jinchun didn't look much better; her eyes drifted, her limbs were stiff, and she kept repeating the same questions, giving off a thoroughly unreliable impression.

Lu Liang chuckled out loud. For a moment, he couldn't even tell who the interviewee was and who the interviewer was.

Hearing the commotion at the doorway, Chen Jinchun turned her head, her face lighting up with excitement as if she had grabbed onto a lifeline.

She hurriedly picked up a resume: "President Lu, this is Miss Su Wanyu. She's here to interview for the English private tutor position."

"Hello, President Lu."

Su Wanyu was startled and hastily stood up.

"Graduated from Shanghai International Studies University, TEM-8 in English, Japanese N2, French C1..."

Lu Liang nodded slightly, realizing the candidate was a linguistic genius proficient in four foreign languages, with her weakest language, German, still at the B1 level.

He walked over to the pantry, poured himself a glass of ice water, and then headed toward his office, gesturing with a wave: "Let's do a trial run first."

Lu Liang pulled down the blinds of his office window so people outside could still clearly see everything happening inside.

He genuinely wanted to learn English, and to learn it well.

Seeing this action, Su Wanyu breathed a sigh of relief, exchanged a brief greeting with Chen Jinchun, and followed closely behind.

"President Lu, do you have any prior foundation? That way I can help you formulate a customized study plan."

Once on professional territory, Su Wanyu's demeanor radiated confidence, transforming her as if she were a different person.

"I signed up for the English TEM-4 ten years ago, but I didn't pass. I have a tiny foundation, but not much."

"Then let me play an English dialogue for you. Try to see how much you can understand."

Su Wanyu relaxed inwardly. Having a foundation was fine; what she feared most was an older student with zero background.

The 90-second dialogue covered everyday, down-to-earth topics: asking if someone had eaten, where they were going to eat, and going together.

Through educated guesses and context, Lu Liang managed to grasp roughly seventy to eighty percent of it.

Su Wanyu looked surprised: "President Lu, since you can understand this segment, your daily conversational comprehension should be sufficient."

Lu Liang smiled and turned his computer screen toward Su Wanyu: "However, trying to read professional articles remains quite difficult to comprehend."

Su Wanyu instantly felt a mountain of pressure. Wanting to read the *Wall Street Journal* fluently required not just basic competency, but mastery.

If one applied domestic definitions of illiteracy, over ninety percent of the American population would likely be considered illiterate.

Chinese could be said to be the most concise language in the world, with only about seven thousand commonly used characters. As long as one understood those characters, almost any meaning could be grasped.

Even with recent neologisms such as "diving," "slacking off," or "releasing liquidity"—words carrying multiple meanings—people could understand the new contexts without needing to invent brand-new words.

English was different. Since the advent of the internet era, new vocabulary grew at a rate of approximately ten thousand words per year.

For certain emerging concepts, multiple words often needed to be strung together just to convey the intended meaning.

Even professors from SISU frequently encountered unfamiliar terms that required checking the latest Oxford dictionary.

"President Lu, wanting to read English financial newspapers fluently requires a massive vocabulary reserve."

Su Wanyu offered a polite warning. The process would be exceedingly long, and her fee of four hundred yuan per class was not cheap.

"It's fine, I'm already prepared."

Lu Liang didn't consider money to be an issue; he assumed Su Wanyu was simply worried he wouldn't have the perseverance to stick with it.

"Very well then, President Lu. I'll read a sentence, and you repeat it after me. Then I'll explain its meaning to you..."