novelraw Chapter 654 - 656 Intent
Chapter 654 - 656 Intent
Gong Ruwen has always known that his younger sister is quite impressive, but he never imagined she would be this impressive.
For such a hardworking and eager-to-learn sister, Gong Ruwen is genuinely proud of her, but he also feels a lot of pressure.
Outsiders think Gong Ruini is smart because she has a smart and good brother who inspires her.
These thoughts make Gong Ruwen break out in a cold sweat. He really wants to say that he’s not that impressive, and if it weren’t for his sister constantly prodding him, he definitely wouldn’t be this good.
Gong Ruwen doesn’t hope to be as smart as his sister; he just hopes the gap between them isn’t too wide, so he tries his best to catch up.
Now the gap hasn’t closed, and he hears his sister’s new idea: "You really need to learn a foreign language."
"We don’t need to learn that, do we?"
"And sister, what if things change again in the future?" Gong Ruwen is really worried about what to do if things revert to how they were before.
If it’s about studying, there’s not much of an issue, but learning a foreign language—this could lead to big problems later on.
Change? What kind of change? Gong Ruini knows that the situation outside is still not very stable, and some people worry that we might go back to how things were before, but as someone who’s traveled through time, she knows that’s impossible; life will only get better.
"What could change, brother? If you keep worrying about this and that, you’ll end up achieving nothing. You might as well charge forward." Right now, many people definitely won’t touch foreign languages.
Especially those without overseas connections—they’d rather leave an escape route.
"And brother, don’t you think it’s strange that hardly anyone on the street understands English? If we ran into foreigners and greeted them warmly, what would they think?" Gong Ruini suddenly thought she could discuss traditional Chinese medicine with foreigners.
Although Zhuge Zhi and other old Chinese medicine practitioners are working hard for the future of traditional Chinese medicine, Gong Ruini also wants to contribute a little.
The future’s powerful Shiyu Hall’s Black Ointment should be brought out for foreigners to learn about, so they know the so-called Korean medicine is just an imitation of Chinese medicine. We can’t let our neighbors do nasty things unchecked.
Of course, Gong Ruini doesn’t have much of an ambition to make great efforts to promote Chinese medicine; she just thinks about whether more foreigners could know the Shiyu Hall brand. Later on, when the brand becomes fully established and sold overseas, perhaps there will be foreigners to help promote it.
This isn’t Gong Ruini overthinking. It’s the status of the foreigners who can come to the country in this era that decides this.
In these times, ordinary people rarely come to this distant ancient Oriental country. Regardless of their feelings about this country, at least previous situations have made them keep their distance.
Ordinary citizens won’t come; those who do are people of status and position. If they find it effective, even if someone would lie and refuse to help, Gong Ruini believes that in these times, there are still people of righteousness.
The more Gong Ruini thinks about it, the better she feels about this idea. Since that’s the case, she can’t be the only one learning a foreign language; she has to encourage Zhao Xuran to learn too. That way, he might meet some interesting people.
Most importantly, when Zhao Xuran takes over Shiyu Hall, will he remember the little girl who once helped them, and think about their childhood friendship, and maybe give her some agency rights?
"Communicating with foreigners, huh." Zhao Guangran got excited. Previously, he had only one thought in mind: to solve the "problem" of Gong Ruini.
He was really at a loss. Zhao Guangran was going crazy. How come the same student, Gong Ruini, is so good at her studies, and can learn this and that so easily?
The previous courses like drawing and writing, Zhao Guangran could still handle. To him, while difficult, he had some foundation, and he inherited some genes from his grandmother, so it wasn’t too tiring to keep up, though he didn’t learn very well.
But now he needs to learn English. What to do, what to do? Zhao Guangran was panicking. Apart from angrily denouncing Gong Ruini, what else could he do?
But just as he was about to question Gong Ruini whether she’s trying to drive him mad, upon hearing about communicating with foreigners, a thought suddenly popped into his head.
"Ni Zi, do you think if I learn English with them, I might be able to go abroad too?" Zhao Guangran, although he hasn’t been abroad, neither have his parents.
But he’s heard Hua Miaozhu talk about how some of their relatives went overseas before the liberation. Although grandma never mentioned it, Zhao Guangran felt grandma would probably like to see them if possible.
As a filial descendant, Zhao Guangran felt he should try to fulfill grandma’s wish. However, they hadn’t been in contact with them for a long time, and it’s unclear how they are doing now.
Going abroad? Why would Zhao Guangran have such an idea? Just now, Gong Ruwen noticed that when Zhao Guangran heard about learning a foreign language, his expression was rather unusual, his eyes fierce.
How did Ni Zi not explain anything to him, yet he figured it out on his own? This puzzled Gong Ruwen.
His own younger brother would ask such a thing? Rather than talk about what it means to learn a foreign language, does it mean he wants to go abroad? Although grandma doesn’t talk much about family matters, Zhao Xuran knows that many of their relatives went abroad before the liberation, and even those who didn’t leave took the opportunity to go ten years ago before the situation got worse.
They haven’t been able to contact those overseas relatives at all these years. Even though grandma doesn’t talk about it, it’s known she’s very fond of them. Now, the younger brother seems to want to find those relatives.
Zhao Xuran feels awkward. He didn’t really think that far, "Let’s wait until we connect with them. We don’t even know where they went."
Overseas is huge, and after so many years without contact, it’s unknown what their situation is now, plus the granduncles are quite old. Who knows if they’re still alive?
If they’re all gone, just visiting like this, would some people think they’re just here to mooch?
Not only Zhao Xuran, but Zhan Jing thought the same. Even though their family survived, a lot of valuable things are long gone.
Basically, except for the medical knowledge and some secret recipes grandpa taught mom, there’s nothing left. Meanwhile, those relatives took quite a bit with them, as long as they aren’t foolish and didn’t waste money, they must have done well.
"But grandma..." Zhao Guangran didn’t understand why his older brother would oppose, but seeing his brother’s disapproving look, he backed down.
Although he didn’t get why his brother was acting this way, listening to his brother more often is always right.
As for his brother’s opposition, let it be; he’ll focus on learning English well. Otherwise, even if his brother agrees to send him abroad, he won’t be able to communicate with foreigners.
Zhao Guangran quieted down instead of making a fuss, which made Zhao Xuran quite curious. Typically, if his idea was denied like that, shouldn’t there be some rebellion or dissatisfaction? Why is there no opinion now?
This puzzled Zhao Xuran, who is accustomed to restrain and comfort troublesome kids. However, a non-rowdy kid is a good thing. Zhao Xuran is also considering whether he should learn English.