Wang Cheng glanced at Chu Yifeng’s laptop screen. He could not understand the red and green lines at all, though he could roughly tell they had something to do with stocks.
“If you want to ask something, ask.” Chu Yifeng did not even need to look up to know Wang Cheng had come over because he wanted something. He did not mind Wang Cheng seeing what he was working on.
“There is something I want to ask you.” Wang Cheng immediately took the opening and sat across from him, staring directly at him.
Chu Yifeng simply closed the laptop, took out a cigarette, and lit it. “Say it.”
“I want to learn how to drive.”
Chu Yifeng raised an eyebrow and exhaled a thick plume of smoke. “Why the sudden interest?”
“I can’t keep bothering you forever, and Eldest Brother left his car for me. Having a car sitting there unused while I squeeze onto buses is just too painful.” Wang Cheng shook his head. The idea had been in his head ever since Eldest Brother handed him the car keys.
“Even if you start now, learning will still take two or three months. By then your contract with the company will already be over. You’re sure you want to do it?” Chu Yifeng asked casually.
Wang Cheng got up, went around the coffee table, and sat beside him. “I don’t really know anyone here. The only person I was close to already left, so Boss is all I have left. I wanted to ask you a favor. Where should I sign up for driving lessons?”
“I can arrange the registration for you, but there’s something we need to settle first. Learning to drive takes time. If you keep taking leave over the next two months, that won’t match the three months we originally agreed on. So your time here has to be extended by half a month.”
“Deal.” Wang Cheng rubbed his chin. The request was reasonable enough, and he could not find a reason to refuse.
Chu Yifeng kept his word. This time he moved much faster than when he arranged the two permits. By the next afternoon, he told Wang Cheng that everything had been registered and he could start whenever he wanted. He texted the address to Wang Cheng’s phone.
Wang Cheng asked him for the exact tuition, withdrew the money from the bank the next day, and followed the address on his phone straight there.
A driving school chosen by Chu Yifeng naturally was not going to be bad.
When Wang Cheng arrived, he saw several imposing buildings and, inside, an enormous open training ground where many people were practicing driving. He had called the instructor in advance, and before long a young man came out to meet him.
Wang Cheng could not tell whether the young man was a student or an instructor. The man led him across the practice grounds to a two-story office building. After Wang Cheng paid the tuition inside, they went to meet the instructor.
The instructor was a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties named He Guang. Like Wang Cheng, he had a shaved head. The difference was that Wang Cheng’s hair had only just begun growing back, while He Guang had deliberately cut his that way. After asking a few questions and learning Wang Cheng had never formally learned to drive, Instructor He handed him over to the young man.
The young man’s surname was Liu. He was an assistant instructor who already had six or seven students at Wang Cheng’s level. There were two other assistant instructors like him, each responsible for five to eight students, while Instructor He personally trained only two.
Wang Cheng later learned that even students here were divided into levels. The people Instructor He taught personally were either well-connected or very wealthy. Wang Cheng was not worried about He Guang, though. If Chu Yifeng had recommended this school, he was hardly going to find Wang Cheng an incompetent instructor.
“Get in the car with me.”
Assistant Instructor Liu had Wang Cheng sit in the driver’s seat while he took the passenger seat, then told him to drive five or six laps around the training course.
It was not exactly Wang Cheng’s first time touching a car. Wang Ning’an had once taught him a little while driving, but actually controlling the vehicle himself felt completely different. His heart pounded the whole time even though he stayed in first gear. After he got out, Assistant Instructor Liu called another man up. By the time that man finished several laps and returned, his face was pale, his forehead covered in cold sweat, and even his steps looked unsteady.
“Have some water.” Wang Cheng could hardly bear to watch and handed him a bottle of mineral water.
The man froze for a moment, accepted it, and thanked him.
His voice was gentle and pleasant. It was not loud, but Wang Cheng could hear it clearly.
Wang Cheng studied him more carefully. The man looked a few years older than him, with fair, fine skin and refined, handsome features. Even with his poor complexion, there was something mild and scholarly about him. His fingers were long and slender, his nails neatly trimmed. On closer inspection, they were very beautiful hands. Unlike Chu Yifeng’s strikingly long and elegant hands, these looked as if they had been born to hold a pen.
“Are you a teacher?”
The man looked up in surprise. “How did you know?”
“Just guessed. You have nice hands.” Wang Cheng smiled and held out his hand. “I’m Wang Cheng. I work at a real-estate company.”
“Thank you. I’m Yuan Xia. You guessed right. I’m a university lecturer. Nice to meet you.” Yuan Xia shook the sunny young man’s hand. Wang Cheng was the first fellow student he had met on his first day of driving lessons, and Yuan Xia also came away with a very good impression of him.