"""
"Alright, got it, thanks, Ruan!"
The highway from Jing City to Li City was busy, and Zhou Wang hung up the phone after expressing his gratitude.
He had been in touch with Ruan, who worked in a travel agency.
Although he was going to meet Su Yajing, who was a local, Zhou Wang hadn’t planned on staying at her place. After all, it was the peak tourist season, and to avoid the awkwardness of not being able to book a hotel last minute, Zhou Wang decided to prepare in advance.
But after opening those hotel booking apps, the array of flashy hotel options made Zhou Wang dizzy. He couldn’t quite figure out the locations, so he opted for the simplest way... consulting an industry insider.
Li City to White City had always been a popular tourist route in Yunan Province. Zhou Wang figured Ruan would have some connections there and at the very least could offer some professional advice...
The outcome, however, was far beyond Zhou Wang’s expectations.
Ruan’s company didn’t do the Li City route itself; they focused more on international travel. However, Ruan’s uncle’s family ran the largest travel company in Li City...
The next steps were simple.
Ruan told Zhou Wang to send him his location once he arrived, and he would take care of the rest.
After hanging up, Zhou Wang turned up the volume of the Bluetooth music and glanced over at Miao Ying, who was in the driver’s seat.
She still wore a high ponytail, sunglasses perched on her well-shaped nose, half her face hidden in shadow, leaving only her thin lips and slender jawline in view.
Yet from Zhou Wang’s angle, he could vaguely see her fluttering eyelashes and the clear division of black and white in her pupils beneath those lashes.
She had little expression, but Zhou Wang, who had been observing her, could still notice from her occasional lip movements...
She realized he was watching her, which made her a bit nervous.
At the moment, the Bluetooth speakers were playing "New World" by the band Tell 5 People. This song wasn’t as mainstream as "The Only" and "Lover’s Missed," but Zhou Wang quite liked it.
The playlist belonged to Miao Ying, and the driver deserved a little privilege.
Through this playlist, Zhou Wang managed to find yet another common ground with Miao Ying... at least their musical tastes were quite similar.
Otherwise, Zhou Wang really wouldn’t know what to talk about with Miao Ying.
Since the drive from Jing City to Li City wasn’t short, a full 600 kilometers, when they passed a service area, Zhou Wang thought it through and switched seats to the passenger side.
After all, Miao Ying wore sunglasses and hardly spoke; Zhou Wang, who wasn’t that familiar with her yet, was unsure of her state, so for safety reasons, he decided to chat with her to help her relax...
Even though the "Divine Fortune Halo" was still in effect, which made accidents very unlikely.
Still, Miao Ying spoke so little—
"Are you tired?"
"Not tired."
"Would you like some water?"
"...I’m not thirsty."
"Have you been to Li City before?"
"No."
Things like that. In short, Miao Ying rarely used more than two words when she could answer Zhou Wang with just two.
And Zhou Wang, who was trying hard to find topics, felt a bit like a hopeless case...
Mainly because Miao Ying’s resume was so detailed, missing only the emotional and experience points compared to the system-generated resume, so in fact, Zhou Wang already knew a lot about her...
This made it awkward to force a chat.
Just as Zhou Wang leaned back, ready to give up, maybe sensing Zhou Wang’s speechlessness, Miao Ying hesitated and spoke up for the first time,
"I... my Mandarin isn’t very good."
Zhou Wang blinked, thinking, did you really need to say that?
Miao Ying always spoke with a bit of a muffled accent. Though it wasn’t obvious most of the time, it was indeed because she spoke so little.
"You speak with difficulty, probably because of the tongue injury, right?" Zhou Wang asked.
Miao Ying’s resume included an injury history, noting she had bitten her tongue during a training competition, almost severing it, according to the detailed record.
Speaking unclearly was one aspect; there might still be scars on her tongue, another reason she was hesitant to open her mouth too wide...
Otherwise, the headhunting company’s manager, Ms. Little Ai, wouldn’t have been so certain that "silence" was one of her good qualities.
Psychologically speaking, she probably felt a bit insecure about this.
"That’s why it’s even more important to take every chance to practice speaking, especially when it’s just the two of us. The tongue is a muscle too, more practice should be beneficial, right?" Zhou Wang advised.
His thought process was simple: if you’re weak, practice more. He was more than happy to help Miao Ying with her verbal exercise in such situations.
"Okay, I understand... thank you, Mr. Zhou."
Miao Ying nodded, accepting Zhou Wang’s goodwill, and uncharacteristically, spoke a few extra words.
Zhou Wang’s words indeed had some effect. At the very least, they brought them closer, and Miao Ying noticeably relaxed, starting to occasionally respond to Zhou Wang’s conversation.
Having a bit of a back-and-forth conversation relieved Zhou Wang a lot, and he took out his phone in the process.
He had an unread text message and a WeChat message waiting for him.
The text was from the Li City Hotel, confirming his check-out and refunding the remaining deposit back to his account.
Zhou Wang understood why Sun Xining Ning had only just checked out. After all, she had endured a lot last night.
But small towns are indeed more affordable. Although the four-star Li City Hotel was considered high-end in Jing City, an executive suite was still just 888, not even reaching a thousand bucks.
After Sun Xining Ning collected the transfer, she sent another message:
"""