A Late-Night Date

The streets were deserted at nine that evening.

It might have been a small county town, but its asphalt roads were wide and well maintained.

A car occasionally passed beneath the dim yellow streetlights.

Driving his bargain dad's Audi A6, Zhou Yuwen reached the county post office in less than five minutes.

Zhou Yuwen hadn't wanted to stay in touch with his father, but his father had already transferred 200,000 yuan into Zhou Yuwen's account. How could he accept growing distant from his son just like that? Naturally, he spared no effort to reach out.

Zhou Yuwen was no fool either. He told his father straight out that he'd just gotten his driver's license and wanted a car to get some practice.

"That old A6 of yours looks good. Let me drive it for a couple of days."

His old father hesitated.

Zhou Yuwen immediately said, "You can't even bear to let me drive your car?"

"So that's all our relationship amounts to."

"It's not that I can't bear to. You just got your license. What if you scratch it or bump into something..."

"So you can't bear to part with it after all."

In the end, his old father reluctantly parted with his treasure, saying Zhou Yuwen could drive it for a couple of days to practice. But after agreeing, he had second thoughts and insisted on riding in the passenger seat while Zhou Yuwen took it for a spin, under the fine-sounding pretext of concern for Zhou Yuwen's safety.

Zhou Yuwen naturally knew his father didn't trust his driving, so he took his bargain dad for a ride.

"Didn't you just start learning to drive? How did you get your license so quickly?" his father asked from the passenger seat, making conversation. He also cautioned, "Learning to drive is like conducting yourself in life. You have to take it one step at a time. Rushing for results will only hurt you."

"Mm."

Zhou Yuwen agreed, but his foot didn't ease up on the accelerator one bit. There were plenty of cars on the small town's main road, and without slowing down, he weaved past them one by one, deliberately waiting until he was right up against each car before steering aside and overtaking it in one smooth motion.

Zhou Yuwen had been driving for over a decade, and after his rebirth, his perception was clearly far sharper than before. Never mind driving on the road-he felt he could even give a professional racer a run for his money. But his old father didn't know that.

In his bargain dad's eyes, the boy was just a reckless greenhorn who'd gotten his license.

How could his old father not be afraid as he charged through the busy streets without slowing down? He hurriedly grabbed the handle above the passenger seat, his face changing color. "Slow down, slow down!"

Only when Zhou Yuwen smoothly overtook a car did his old father breathe a sigh of relief. He'd barely begun to feel as though he'd survived a brush with death when he saw Zhou Yuwen rapidly closing in on another car.

His nearly fifty-year-old heart leaped into his throat again.

Not until Zhou Yuwen overtook that car too.

He repeated those smooth overtakes, then came to a steady stop back where they'd started.

His old father's heart had risen and fallen as though he'd been on a roller coaster, and sweat had even broken out on his forehead.

Zhou Yuwen, however, acted as though nothing had happened. "Satisfied now?"

His father managed a faint smile. "I didn't expect you to be such a good driver. I remember you just got your license."

"Talent, I guess," Zhou Yuwen said calmly.

And just like that, Zhou Yuwen got his first car for getting around.

If you'd never owned a car, you wouldn't think about getting one. All you considered were the fuel, insurance, and maintenance costs, and how taking taxis was cheaper than buying a car. But once you had a car of your own, it was hard to go back to life without one.

Zhou Yuwen hadn't bought a car until after he graduated from university. After driving it for half a year, he'd started regretting it-regretting that he hadn't bought one sooner.

With Zhou Yuwen's abilities, he could easily have bought himself a little A4 in his sophomore year. But the naive Zhou Yuwen had insisted on making his fortune trading stocks, and after four years of university, he'd gained nothing and lost the price of an A4 instead.

Now that he'd been reborn, Zhou Yuwen wouldn't hesitate. He'd buy a car first, even if he had to take out a loan.

So after getting his father's A6, he drove into the city the next day. Not only did he put down a 10,000-yuan deposit on a white Audi A4L, but he also took the opportunity to browse the mall and buy some classy clothes.

Now Zhou Yuwen had driven the old-model A6 to the post office by himself.

From a long way off, he spotted Chen Rongrong sitting in front of the steps.

The car had already pulled up close to Chen Rongrong, but she seemed to be thinking about something else, looking absent-minded. She wore that loose blue sweatshirt, which covered her huge boobs, along with yoga pants and white socks. Hugging her knees, she looked utterly miserable.

Zhou Yuwen got out of the car and asked, "Why are you sitting here alone?"

"Huh?" Chen Rongrong stared at Zhou Yuwen in disbelief.

She had noticed the A6 pulling up, but she'd never imagined its owner would be Zhou Yuwen.

"You..." Chen Rongrong pointed at Zhou Yuwen, then glanced at the black Audi with its low beams on.

"Oh, it's my dad's car. Huh?"

After exchanging a couple of words with Chen Rongrong, Zhou Yuwen suddenly noticed something was wrong. He immediately frowned and stepped forward. Without thinking, he reached out and pinched Chen Rongrong's fair, soft cheek.

The two weren't close enough for that, but Zhou Yuwen looked concerned. "What happened?"

"Oh."

Chen Rongrong's eldest uncle had slapped her cheek, and the red mark had yet to fade.

Chen Rongrong looked a little uncomfortable. She shook her head and said it was nothing.

"Could you lend me two hundred yuan?"

"I can lend you the money, but you have to tell me what happened," Zhou Yuwen said.

Chen Rongrong lowered her head and said nothing.

A young girl's pride would never let her tell Zhou Yuwen right off the bat that she was an orphan who had been living with her eldest uncle's family.

The two remained at an impasse for a minute or two, Chen Rongrong looking like a pitiful young girl.

"Are you hungry?" Zhou Yuwen asked.

"I'm okay. I had dinner with Dong Xue and the others tonight," Chen Rongrong said.

"This isn't the place to talk," Zhou Yuwen said. "Let me take you to get something to eat. You're a girl; I can't just leave you here alone."

For some reason, Chen Rongrong felt a warmth in her heart.

"Get in."

Zhou Yuwen opened the passenger door, and Chen Rongrong grew docile and climbed into the passenger seat.

His dad's A6 might have been a little old, but it was fully loaded, right down to the ambient lighting. Besides, it had the badge.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Chen Rongrong stole glances at Zhou Yuwen. The more she looked, the more handsome he seemed.

Seeing how skillfully Zhou Yuwen drove, she asked when he'd gotten his license.

Zhou Yuwen said he'd just gotten it.

"Then you're pretty impressive! It only took you a month to get your license."

"Mm."

It was already ten at night, and there weren't many places to eat in town. The only one still open that was also reasonably classy was probably KFC, which at the time claimed to be open twenty-four hours.

The Western restaurant had only opened in the little county town the year before last, causing quite a stir among high school students at the time. Plenty of boys had gotten up at six in the morning to queue, all to buy the girl they loved a six-yuan cup of "Western soy milk."