"What did you just say?"
Ran Mouri and the others tiptoed across the road and took seats on the other side, only to immediately hear Ura Shiran's thoroughly startled voice.
"What's wrong, you didn't understand? Looks like my studies weren't good enough after all." Tangze put on a surprised expression. "I just said a little dialect from Sichuan-Chongqing. My Chinese teacher taught it to me. Was it really that inaccurate?"
"...I really didn't understand it very well. It was a dialect I'd never heard before." Ura Shiran's brows dipped slightly, revealing a trace of bitterness. "Perhaps it's because I've been busy with work these past few years, constantly traveling overseas, and haven't returned home in years."
"Is that so? I thought..." Tangze chuckled and swallowed the rest of his words, raising Ura Shiran's unease even further.
No one knew better than him, a genuine, born-and-raised Sichuan-Chongqing native, whether his dialect was standard or not.
It was like an Englishman or an American encountering someone with a heavy accent who loved using slang. Even if dialects and accents were difficult to identify and it was hard to accurately determine where the other person came from, they would still have a rough idea.
That was simply how one's native language worked. Speaking a foreign language flawlessly, especially one whose environment one had never been exposed to as a child, was no easy task.
"China is a very large place." Ura Shiran steadied herself, and her expression soon returned to normal. "It's unrealistic to expect to understand every dialect in China. Once you have the chance to go abroad and see for yourself, you'll understand what I mean."
"Oh, is that so..."
Sonoko Suzuki, who had caught that entire exchange the moment she arrived, turned her head and exchanged baffled looks with Ran