The Oakhaven dialect has a strong regional flavor, vastly different from standard Mandarin. Anyone unfamiliar with it would be completely bewildered.
Since waking up on the cargo ship, Summer Sutton hadn't heard this dialect in years, yet now she understood it effortlessly.
She froze. Just hearing the shrewish old woman's voice sent a wave of instinctual fear through her. Shuffling to the side, she stood hidden beneath the melon vines by the courtyard wall, adjusted her sunglasses and mask, and continued to listen in silence.
No sooner had the old woman finished speaking than the timid, tearful voice of another, middle-aged woman rose. "Whether he's really going to buy a car or pay off his gambling debts, you know the truth, Mom. We've been covering for him for years and we're drowning in debt. All I have left is my wedding gold, and with Junjun about to get married, I have to save it for him..."
