Chapter 39
Elise was equally surprised by their sudden appearance, but she didn’t explain and merely asked, “Who are you looking for?”
Upon hearing Elise’s question, the Andres immediately prevented Jasmine from showing her an attitude. Then, they responded with another question. “Is this Mr. Beter’s residence? We are here to see Mr. Beter.”
Once she heard that they were here to look for Beter, Elise uttered, “In that case, please hold on for a moment.”
However, as soon as she said that, his voice was heard from behind her. “Who’s at the door?” he asked as he walked down the stairs while holding the sealed documents in his hands. When he saw that he had guests, he kept the said documents away before he headed toward the door.
“You must be Mr. Beter. I’m Jasmine’s father; I was the one who called earlier,” Jasmine’s parents answered in a respectful manner the moment they saw the man.
Their response seemed to remind Beter of something. “Yes, please come in then.”
Soon after that, the family of three entered the house when Jasmine couldn’t help but ask, “Mr. Beter, are you going to accept Elise as your student?”
Instead of answering her, Beter turned to Elise. “Do you two know each other?”
Elise hummed in response. “We are classmates.”
Now that he understood the situation, he finally replied, “She is not qualified to be my student.” Not only was her fluency in foreign languages better than his, she was also fluent in French, German, and Italian. In fact, she was the only language genius whom he had ever known in all his years of teaching.
Nonetheless, Jasmine mistook Beter’s words as Elise being unqualified to be his student due to her poor fluency in languages, which made Jasmine elated. “Mr. Beter, would you accept me as your student then?”
Beter raised his eyebrow. “I recall that I’ve already told your parents beforehand that whether I accept you as my student depends on whether you have the talent. I’ll certainly agree if you possess a talent for languages, but if you don’t, I’m afraid that I
have to reject your request.”
“Jasmine has always been fluent in Chinese since she was a kid, Mr. Beter. All the other teachers have praised her language aptitude, so please accept Jasmine as your student.”
Elise, who didn’t pay much attention to their conversation, glanced at Beter and interjected, “Um… Mr. Better, have you prepared the documents that I need? Can you please give them to me now? I’d like to head home.”
Then, he retrieved the documents with ease from behind the television. “Here you
go.”
The two of them exchanged glances wherein she immediately understood his unspoken words. She accepted the documents and expressed, “I shall take my leave then.”
“Let me see you out.” With that, Beter headed out with Elise under the watchful gaze of the Anders Family.
When the Anders Family were the only ones remaining, John whispered his question to Jasmine, “What’s your classmate’s relationship with Beter?”
Jasmine bit her lips as she was puzzled by the incident as well. She had already noticed the unusual atmosphere between Beter and Elise, especially when he handed her a mysterious document. What’s that document about?
While she was lost in her thoughts, he had already returned and cast a glance at Jasmine before he directly voiced his thoughts. “Personally, I stress on a student’s talent a lot when it comes to selecting students. How about this? We will put your skills to the test.” As he was speaking, he casually picked up a piece of A4 paper, which was full of Chinese words, from his desk and handed it to her. “I’ll give you 15 minutes to translate this.”
Jasmine collected her thoughts and instantly replied, “Sure.”
Then, she took that piece of paper to one side and carefully translated the material. The first few sentences that she started on were as easy as pie and she managed to complete them with little effort. However, when she reached the third or fourth line, she found the words a little tough to translate. Yet, as she continued, she stumbled upon a number of professional terms, which caused her to break out in sweat as she
was unable to completely translate those terms.
Soon, the time was up and she handed her work to Beter. However, he had a general idea of her current level with a mere glance. “Your foundation is fine, but your professional vocabulary is very much lacking. Let’s test your speaking skills then.”
Then, he retrieved a book and asked Jasmine to read a passage. As a matter of fact, her Chinese pronunciation was quite alright but she had a strong accent, just like most children from their country. It was slightly different from what the native
speakers spoke in
After hearing that, he commented, “Your child has good basics, but she won’t be able to keep up with my teaching. I’m afraid that learning from me would only delay her progress, so I suggest that you find another teacher for her.”
Jasmine felt like a bucket of cold water was poured in her direction to extinguish all her hopes.
Her parents were shocked by Beter’s unhesitating rejection. “Mr. Beter, please reconsider your decision. My child is really an intelligent kid; you really should consider again.”
Although Beter himself was aware that being honest would hurt their feelings, he was used to speaking his mind and disliked beating around the bush. “Talent plays an important role in learning a foreign language and apparently, your child’s talent isn’t particularly outstanding. On the other hand, I’m extremely strict when it comes to accepting students. I’m sorry, but your child doesn’t meet my requirements.”
“How well do I have to be in order to meet your requirements?” a stubborn Jasmine asked in her persistence.
He pursed his lips and replied, “Elise is your classmate, right? If your speaking skill is at her level, I would probably consider accepting you.”
After hearing Beter’s reply, she was stupefied. The whole purpose of her coming to him to learn Chinese was to surpass Elise in the language. In fact, Jasmine had personally felt that she was on the same level as Elise, but he made it clear that she was nowhere as good.
“Would you please give her another chance?” Jasmine’s parents persisted, but as someone who stuck to his decision, he refused to give them even a glimmer of hope.
After that, she left Beter’s house with her head bowed as thoughts raced in her mind. Lastly, her gaze darkened as if she had already made up her mind on something.
As she held the documents that Beter gave her, Elise headed straight for home. It was only after she locked herself in her room that she opened the document.
It was a 30-page document fully written in French, which she started to translate without any further delay.
After some time, she heard a knock at the door.
“Who’s there?”
The maid answered, “Miss Sinclair, sir has asked me to bring you drinks.” Elise put down her pen and used something to hide the document before opening the door.
“Hand me the drink.” Without giving the maid any chance to enter the room, Elise took the beverage and immediately closed the door. Her action was indicative of her being on guard.
It was after she drank her beverage that she continued with her translation.
Although she had busied herself until dusk, she had only managed to finish translating one-third of the said document. Then, she tucked it away before washing up and going to bed.
It was a Monday morning when the air was fresh and the day was bright. As soon as Elise arrived at the school compound, Mikayla waved at her from not far away. “Elise!”
Elise smiled and approached her. “Good morning, Mikayla.”
Mikayla held Elise’s hand and asked in a soft voice, “Have you completed your Maths homework?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know how to answer the last two questions.” A pitiful look appeared on Mikayla’s face as she whimpered. “Please let me copy yours.”
Elise rubbed Mikayla’s head. “I’ll teach you later.”
Upon hearing that, Mikayla’s eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s great!”
