After Divorce, I Can Hear the Future

Chapter 52: A Refined Gentleman

 Seated gracefully, Su Wanyu wore a flowing emerald green dress. The hem cascaded naturally, revealing only part of her white shoes.  

She was tall, likely over 1.7 meters, yet slender to the point of appearing delicate, as though a light breeze might topple her.  

For the first time, Lu Liang saw her without her thick black-framed glasses and was momentarily taken aback. She exuded the charm of cherry blossoms in early spring—fresh, delicate, and endearingly fragile.  

Noticing his gaze, Su Wanyu quickly put on her glasses. Instantly, her appearance seemed less radiant, her nine-point beauty dropping to a modest six. The thick lenses, likely of high prescription, shrank her eyes and added a bookish, slightly awkward air.  

"Mr. Lu, shall we begin?" Su asked, her voice soft and soothing, like a gentle stream flowing through the heart.  

She had brought an array of teaching tools, including an electronic writing board and in-ear monitors to assist with pronunciation practice.  

“Let’s start,” Lu Liang said, leading her to the adjacent office. He opened the blinds and windows, allowing the room to ventilate after being shut all day.  

Lu Liang preferred dim lighting while monitoring the stock market, finding it helped him focus. This thoughtful gesture of airing out the space earned a quiet note of approval from Su Wanyu.  

She wasn’t used to being alone with unfamiliar men, though the transparent glass walls of the office reassured her.  

“Today, we’ll focus on refreshing your phonetics. Proper pronunciation is the foundation of everything,” Su explained with a gentle smile. She began writing out the 20 vowel sounds and 28 consonants on her electronic board.  

The last time Lu Liang studied phonetics was over a decade ago. With years of disuse, his accent was more than off—it was practically abstract.  

Su, however, was patient and meticulous. She equipped Lu Liang with in-ear monitors and even prepared cotton pads to make the experience more comfortable.  

For each sound, she guided him step by step—from mouth shape to tongue position and articulation—correcting his pronunciation repeatedly.  

Partway through, there was a knock at the door.  

Chen Jinchun entered to deliver an invitation from Liu Jun, the assistant to Meng Changkun.  

Meng was currently in Yanjing for work, but he hadn’t forgotten Lu Liang’s interest in venturing into the venture capital circle.  

Every June, the Shanghai Finance University hosted a prestigious entrepreneurship expo, connecting aspiring entrepreneurs with notable investors. Meng, an investor in two listed companies and a well-known figure in Magic City’s venture capital scene, received an invitation annually.  

This year, however, he was unavailable and had passed the invitation to Lu Liang instead.  

“Thank you, Assistant Liu,” Lu Liang said, calling Meng to confirm his gratitude and proposing a fishing trip once Meng returned.  

Meng’s wide array of hobbies, from tennis and golf to fishing and mountain climbing, made him the embodiment of every man’s dream—a role model Lu Liang admired and sought to emulate.  

As Lu Liang conversed, Su Wanyu observed quietly, her curiosity piqued.  

The entrepreneurship expo at Shanghai Finance was renowned, a product of the university’s top-tier reputation. The event extended invitations to students from first-tier universities across the nation, including Su’s own, Shanghai International Studies University.  

She had a classmate who had been preparing for this event since the start of the year, so she was familiar with its prestige.  

What puzzled her was how a small company, seemingly with only a couple of employees, received such an invitation.  

“Shall we continue, Teacher Su?” Lu Liang ended his call and returned to his phonetics lesson.  

As it was Friday and time allowed, they completed two sessions, totaling 120 minutes. By the end, Lu Liang’s tongue felt tied, but he could finally read all 48 phonetic sounds fluidly, much to Su’s satisfaction.  

By 5 PM, with Lu Liang still in the office, Chen Jinchun hesitated to leave early. She lingered under the pretense of cleaning until Lu Liang finished his lesson at 6 PM.  

“See you next week,” Lu Liang waved as he headed to the parking lot, not offering a ride to either woman. One was just a colleague; the other, though intriguing, was still someone he barely knew.  

On Saturday morning, Lu Liang entered the Shanghai Finance University campus using his invitation and was guided to the grand hall.  

He quickly understood why Meng had dismissed the event as lacking in quality despite the university’s elite reputation.  

Flipping through several business proposals, he found projects with some success, even boasting tens of thousands of followers online. Yet, they were plagued by overly idealistic visions and a lack of clear profit models—a common flaw among student entrepreneurs.  

Moreover, the biggest difference between campus and external entrepreneurs was excessive caution.  

Caution wasn’t inherently bad, but when pitching to investors, it was often better to oversell.  

“A project doesn’t need to make money right now, but it can’t lack a path to profitability,” Lu Liang thought as he moved among the investors and entrepreneurs.  

While such gatherings might be too elementary for someone like Meng, they were just right for Lu Liang, who was still finding his footing in the venture capital world.  

These investors, though often unscrupulous, were rarely foolish. Even if a project seemed like a money pit, a convincing entrepreneur could still secure funding. If they could persuade the investors, they could likely persuade others, allowing the investors to cash out at the right moment.  

Holding a coffee cup, Lu Liang wandered through the expo but found no projects worth investing in. Instead, he retreated to a quiet spot to rest, observing the stream of university beauties from across the nation.  

His idle gaze was interrupted when he spotted Su Wanyu.  

Amused by the coincidence, he was about to greet her when his attention was drawn to her ride—a shared yellow bike.  

A row of similar bikes was parked nearby.  

It struck him that he had seen many of these bikes since entering the campus, though he hadn’t paid them much mind. Branded with a company logo, they were clearly not private vehicles. This brought to mind the shared economy models he had been researching.  

Meanwhile, Su noticed Lu Liang and was momentarily surprised before offering him a shy smile.  

Lu Liang returned the gesture with a nod before hastily heading toward the expo management office.  

“What’s going on?” asked Su’s friend, who stood beside her.  

“I think I just saw my employer.”  

“The one who booked 20 sessions at once?”  

Su nodded. After the platform’s commission, she would net 7,600 yuan, enough to sustain her while preparing for her postgraduate exams.  

Her friend teased, “Spill it! Did you take off your glasses in front of him and stun him so much that he’s been chasing after you?”  

Su glared. “Don’t talk nonsense. Mr. Lu is very proper, serious about learning, and genuinely wants to improve his English.”  

She recounted how Lu Liang received the invitation yesterday and wasn’t even aware she would be here helping out.  

Her friend grinned mischievously. “Oh, calling him ‘Mr. Lu’ now, are we? Where is he? Let me see how good-looking he is.”  

Feigning anger, Su turned her nose up. “Go hand out flyers with your boyfriend. I’m heading to the library.”  

“Don’t go! I’m sorry! I won’t tease anymore!”  

Entrepreneurship among college students was incredibly diverse. Just the teams attending this expo at Shanghai Finance University numbered over 200.  

Investors were few, and those genuinely willing to invest were even fewer, leaving many teams resorting to handing out flyers to boost exposure.  

Su’s friend’s boyfriend was part of a Shanghai International Studies University team, so Su had been roped in to help.  

Despite her friend’s antics, Su glanced toward the management office, her curiosity piqued by Lu Liang’s urgency.  

Her impression of him remained positive—mature, composed, and respectful. During lessons, he maintained a professional distance, embodying the demeanor of a refined gentleman.  

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