That middle school deskmate was called Xiaoliu

"Get a driver's license?"

Mao Xiaoqin still didn't know how to drive herself, so her first instinct was that Chen Zhu's request was a little odd.

Chen Peisong added from beside her, "Don't you have to be an adult to get a license? You're not even eighteen yet."

"Dad, Mom, driving schools are smart these days. They've been doing this for ages to attract incoming college students like us."

Chen Zhu sat down beside his parents on the couch and explained, "You pay the driving school and start practicing first. If you're underage, they hold off on registering you. By the time you've learned to drive, you'll have reached the legal age, and the school signs you up for the test at the vehicle administration office. It saves time, and high school graduates can even get a discount with their student IDs."

Mao Xiaoqin thought businesspeople really were clever, and asked, "Which driving school?"

Chen Zhu pointed out the window. "Anshun Driving School, right next to my old middle school."

Chen Zhu had attended Guangzhou's 16th Middle School. His entrance exam results had been so good that he'd met the cutoff for Zhixin Middle School's Experimental Class and been admitted.

16th Middle School was very close to home. Thinking it over, Mao Xiaoqin recalled that there did seem to be a driving school there. She just hadn't paid much attention to it, despite passing it many times.

"Mom? Is that okay?"

Chen Zhu looked at Empress Dowager Mao with hope in his eyes.

The summer after his Gaokao back then had been completely wasted. Apart from sleeping, watching television, and occasionally visiting relatives, he'd spent every day going out with Huang Bohan to surf the internet and play arcade games.

At the time, both of them had been withdrawn, introverted nobodies. People rarely thought to invite them to class activities.

Of course, they hadn't wanted to join in either. They had actively shut out all social activities.

It had been fun at first, since they no longer had to do practice papers every day, but the rest of that time had been genuinely difficult to get through.

Those days of lying in bed with nothing to do, acutely aware of time slipping away, wanting to do something but only getting up to wander around the house before returning to bed-Chen Zhu absolutely refused to experience them again.

So Chen Zhu planned to sign up for driving lessons. Whenever he got bored, he could go to the driving school.

"Hmm..."

Mao Xiaoqin hesitated. Instead of agreeing immediately, she glanced at her husband.

She thought a phone and a computer were indeed necessities, but was a driver's license really that important?

Empress Dowager Mao's reaction was perfectly normal. In an ordinary family, when children asked their parents for something that cost money, the parents usually didn't agree all that readily.

They might ultimately say yes, but there would be some back-and-forth first.

Especially now that the Gaokao was over. Son, times had changed!

If Chen Zhu told Empress Dowager Mao now that he intended to invest the cash gifts from his college admission celebration in stocks, getting told off would be getting off lightly.

Still, Old Chen took a longer view. Cars were becoming increasingly common, and judging by the direction society was heading, a driver's license would probably become a necessity.

If it was a necessity, the sooner he got it, the better.

"I'll go take a look with you this afternoon."

Chen Peisong smiled. "If there's nothing wrong with the driving school, you can get some practice in. Then you can pick me up whenever I've had too much to drink at a work dinner."

Seeing that her husband had agreed, Mao Xiaoqin rolled her eyes. "You father and son are just teaming up to swindle money out of me. Come eat first!"

Once Empress Dowager Mao went into the kitchen to serve the rice, Chen Zhu whispered to Old Chen, "Thanks, Dad~"

"Oh, come on! No need for that between father and son!"

Chen Peisong spoke affectionately.

"But!"

Chen Zhu continued, "Driving lessons are one thing. We still need to buy the computer and phone."

The corner of Old Chen's mouth twitched, and he pretended not to hear.

That afternoon, Chen Peisong and Chen Zhu went to the driving school called Anshun. It really was right across from 16th Middle School.

Old Chen walked around and found it quite respectable, so he paid the tuition. Chen Zhu's senior-year student ID even got him a twelve-percent discount.

While registering his name, Chen Zhu glanced at the list. Wow! There really were plenty of high school graduates learning to drive-a whole page of names.

After he signed up and returned home, Huang Bohan called the landline, just as expected, inviting Chen Zhu to play games on Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street.

Chen Zhu didn't refuse. It was the first day of vacation; he might as well enjoy himself.

But when they met up at the "Same Old Place" convenience store, the manager said Yu Xian had taken time off to have lunch with her family.

Only then did Chen Zhu suddenly realize that QQ was his sole means of contacting Yu Xian. He hadn't noticed before because they'd seen each other every day at school.

Now that they had left school, the thread that had kept them closely connected seemed to have snapped.

Yu Xian doesn't have a phone either. Should I buy her one? But I've got plans for this money...

That was what Chen Zhu was thinking.

He intended to ask his parents for the hefty sum of fifteen thousand yuan to buy a phone and computer. In reality, he only planned to spend two thousand on the phone and buy a secondhand computer, putting all the remaining money into the stock market.

He even intended to apply to the district education department for a student loan, freeing up his tuition and living expenses to invest in stocks as well.

Influenced by the Olympics, China Shipbuilding's stock had risen from just over four yuan a share in 2006 to 299 yuan a share at the end of 2007-a sixty-sevenfold increase.

Even buying in at the current price of thirty-three yuan a share would yield roughly a tenfold return by the end of the year.

China Shipbuilding was the only stock Chen Zhu remembered particularly clearly, and he also knew about the blizzard that would hit the stock market at the end of 2007. His plan was therefore to raise around a hundred thousand yuan in capital, buy only China Shipbuilding, then sell at its peak.

Make a million and call it a day!

After that crash, China's stock market seemed to have suffered some kind of trauma, forever adjusting itself in strange contortions, up and down, back and forth.

Chen Zhu wasn't confident he could make sense of it, nor did he currently have the means to compete in the capital markets. He therefore planned to use that million for something else and stay away from this bubble-ridden market.

That was already a considerable sum, actually. At current prices, it could buy an apartment in a prime downtown location.

Of course, this would create another problem. If he invested all his tuition and living expenses in stocks, how the hell would he eat and drink at SYSU before selling them at the end of the year?

Was he supposed to mooch meals off his roommates every day?

But all that could wait. If worse came to worst, he could fish a few mouthfuls out of the cafeteria's food-waste bucket. Surely he wouldn't starve to death.

And so, that afternoon, Chen Zhu and Huang Bohan thoroughly abused the game machines, letting loose to their hearts' content.

You naughty little controller, today you'll get a taste of these two uncles' big hands. We'll pin you down, pick different characters, and work you hard.

They played until after nine that evening. Still unsatisfied, Huang Bohan said, "Let's come earlier tomorrow. I'm planning to bring protection."

"What?"

Chen Zhu frowned.

"Gloves."

Huang Bohan spread his hands. "It's been ages since I played, and I gripped the controller too hard just now. Even the webbing between my thumbs and fingers hurts."

"I'm busy tomorrow. I've got driving practice."

Chen Zhu declined to return to this filthy place.

"Driving practice?"

Huang Bohan asked curiously, "You're still so young, and you're already planning to drive?"

"I'm seventeen. I'm not that young anymore."

Chen Zhu told his friend that he was worried about getting bored and intended to get a driver's license.

The idea had never occurred to Big Huang, and he didn't agree with Chen Zhu's talk of boredom either. That three-way they'd just had with the computer had been so much fun.

Chen Zhu didn't explain further. Once Big Huang got bored, he'd naturally come looking for him.

After they parted ways, Chen Zhu went home for dinner. Before bed, he deliberately turned off his alarm, but his eyes still opened at seven sharp the next morning.

"Ah~"

Chen Zhu sighed. He hadn't expected that even getting used to laziness would take time.

Empress Dowager Mao got up not long afterward. With no time to make Chen Zhu breakfast, she told him to sort it out himself, then left for work at the hospital.

Chen Zhu slowly dressed, brushed his teeth, washed his face, and went downstairs for breakfast. He even played with the breakfast shop owner's puppy along the way, briefly experiencing the extravagant feeling of having so much time to spare.

He finally managed to dawdle until nine before heading to Anshun Driving School.

The person in charge assigned Chen Zhu a male instructor in his forties. Probably from spending so much time teaching outdoors, the instructor had deeply tanned skin. He spoke loudly and swore viciously.

The dark-skinned instructor had eight students. Two were high school graduates like Chen Zhu, while the others all had jobs. The oldest, a middle-aged woman, was almost a grandmother.

Since there was so little room in a car, whenever someone was practicing, the remaining students could only wait beneath an outdoor shade canopy.

The canopy was open on all four sides. Even without speaking, they could feel waves of heat rolling into their faces, and opening their mouths made their chests feel almost suffocated.

So nobody wanted to talk. They simply waited for the instructor to call them into the car.

Just then, a boy and a girl approached the driving school's entrance.

The boy was just a boy.

The girl stood around 165 centimeters tall, wearing a lake-blue short-sleeved shirt and cropped trousers. Her pale calves gleamed beneath the glaring white sunlight, almost dazzling the eye.

Chen Zhu glanced at the girl too, then suddenly froze.

It wasn't because she was especially beautiful.

Objectively speaking, she was about as attractive as Wu Yu, nowhere near Yu Xian or Song Shiwei's level. At most, she could be called pretty.

Still, in the current sweltering conditions, even the appearance of a merely pretty girl could make everyone feel a little less miserable.

What puzzled Chen Zhu was that she looked familiar.

Where exactly have I seen her?

Chen Zhu felt that her name was somewhere in his head, but he couldn't recall it no matter how hard he tried.

Unexpectedly, the girl recognized Chen Zhu first.

"Chen Zhu?"

She slowly walked over and asked uncertainly, "Are you Chen Zhu? Class Six at 16th Middle School, with Guo Shaobo as your homeroom teacher, right?"

"Yes. You're..."

Chen Zhu stared at her face, feeling that the slightest reminder would bring it all back.

"It really is you!"

The girl covered her mouth and laughed. "I'm Xiaoliu! Bian Xiaoliu!"

"Oh~~~"

Chen Zhu felt as though he'd suddenly woken from a dream. Memories came flooding back. She had been his deskmate in middle school.

But although the memories had returned, they weren't pleasant.

Back in middle school, he hadn't hit his growth spurt and had been rather short. Bian Xiaoliu had been very cute then, and boys were always fucking coming over to bully him just to get her attention.

But how had he run into her here?

Chen Zhu slapped his forehead. Anshun Driving School was very close to 16th Middle School. Running into a former middle school classmate wasn't really surprising.

"Xiaoliu, who's this?"

The boy came over too, looking at Chen Zhu warily.

"A classmate from middle school."

Bian Xiaoliu turned her head and smiled as she said a few words to the boy, apparently introducing Chen Zhu. But he could also faintly hear, "Remember I told you about that deskmate I had in middle school who was always getting bullied..."

Chen Zhu curled his lip, his face otherwise expressionless. Tch~ What respectable family names their kid 'Xiaoliu'?

So tacky.

(Some readers said the previous few chapters were rather uneventful, but they were transition chapters that couldn't be skipped. After all, they effectively wrapped up high school. Starting with this chapter, though, buckle up. It'll be one high after another all the way to college.)

(End of chapter)