Chapter 50: A Man Must Never Be Called Small

The technique of blood-escaping was indeed not that easy to employ.

Xu Wei had nearly collapsed from exhaustion yesterday.

Upon returning, he had fallen into a deep sleep for half a day before waking up, and only now had he come out to catch some sunlight.

If a true comparison were to be made, the injuries Xu Wei sustained yesterday were probably even more severe than those of Li Sanshui.

"I've considered it, I'll learn it!"

I nodded.

This skill could save one's life at a critical moment; what did spitting a mouthful of blood matter?

I had assumed he would insist on me joining the 749 Bureau before teaching me, but I hadn't expected him to agree so readily.

"It can't be taught here. Make some time and come over to the 749 Bureau," Xu Wei said. "Rest assured, your personal freedom won't be restricted. Once you're done learning, you can scram."

Let him scold me if he pleased; it wouldn't cost me a piece of flesh.

Obtaining tangible benefits was what truly mattered.

...

At seven o'clock in the evening, everyone had more or less gathered.

As for the dinner, it was pretty much as expected.

The people from the 749 Bureau formed a distinct clique of their own, while the rest of us formed another, with minimal interaction between the two groups.

By the end of the meal came the distribution of the money, and I had certainly contributed the most effort this time.

The 749 Bureau unexpectedly rewarded me with a labor fee of two hundred thousand yuan!

As for the others, they didn't receive much; the highest amount given to anyone else was a mere fifty thousand yuan.

If anyone wanted to file a complaint, forget about it!

According to Xu Wei, apart from me, everyone else had merely tagged along to watch the show. Getting paid at all was already a stroke of luck, and anyone who kept nagging and whining wouldn't get a single penny!

This matter had finally come to a close.

That very evening, the members of the 749 Bureau boarded a special flight and returned to the imperial capital.

They were far busier than we were. This was merely an ancient capital, whereas the problems they had to resolve spanned the entire Great Xia Nation.

...

Two hundred thousand yuan!

The labor fee obtained this time had broken a new record!

Initially, I had thought it was a thirty-thousand-yuan job, never expecting it to involve such a massive affair that had almost left me completely bewildered.

As soon as the money arrived in my account, the old man and I split it.

I took fourteen thousand yuan exclusively, while the old man, despite not contributing much effort, still pocketed sixty thousand yuan.

This time, the old man didn't make a fuss about splitting it fifty-fifty.

He probably felt too embarrassed to suggest it.

Such a large sum of money was equivalent to the combined income of his previous half-year or even a full year of work.

As for myself, my personal savings had now reached a staggering total of two hundred and fifty thousand yuan.

Previously, I had been contemplating getting a driver's license and buying a car, but now that seemed entirely within reach.

After resting for a few days, I prepared to head to a driving school near the campus, enroll in a class, and strive to get my driver's license by the end of the year.

Next year, I would buy a decent off-road vehicle; just thinking about it felt simply perfect.

Accompanying me to the driving school was Li Yifeng. She had after all been attending our university for two or three years and was relatively familiar with the surrounding area.

As for me, although the semester had already started for a while, I had spent the majority of it taking leaves of absence.

In all this time, I had wandered around the campus a few times, but I hadn't stepped outside the school gates even once.

One day in late October, early in the morning, I dragged a sleepy Li Yifeng toward the back gate of the university.

"I ran all the way out here with you at the crack of dawn, so you have to treat me to a meal after you register!"

Li Yifeng wore a thoroughly sleepy expression.

Hearing that I needed her company this morning, she had gotten up early to put on makeup, tidy herself up, and bustle about for quite a while before finally heading out.

By this point, drowsiness had overtaken her once again.

"You're the second young miss of a wealthy family; what haven't you eaten?" I retorted.

With her affluent background, she was certainly not someone a poor boy like me could compare to.

For all I knew, I might spend a small fortune treating her to a high-end restaurant, only to find out that she was already sick of that place and felt nauseated just looking at it!

People were simply different!

"So what? Your treating me is a gesture of your sincerity, regardless of whether I've eaten there before or not," Li Yifeng argued defiantly. "Just tell me, are you going to treat me or not?"

"I will, of course I will."

I readily agreed.

I couldn't afford anything overly expensive, but meals at average prices really meant nothing to me.

"That's more like it. A little brother should act like a little brother; treating your older sister to a meal is only right." A trace of a triumphant smile appeared on Li Yifeng's face.

"Alright, don't call me little. Let me tell you, nothing about me is small."

I immediately countered.

A man could never tolerate being told he was incompetent or small.

And Li Yifeng evidently failed to catch the implication at first; she paused and asked, "Not small? You don't look very big to me."

"Not big? Why don't you try and see for yourself whether I'm big or not!"

I cracked a risqué joke.

"You're dead, why would you say something like that in front of me?" Li Yifeng grew angry, pounding her delicate little fists against my chest. "Let me tell you, if you ever make any more lewd jokes with me again, see how I deal with you."

"Hahaha, alright, I'll stop. Hurry up and recommend a driving school to me."

I burst into laughter.

Li Yifeng, her sister, and even Liu Qingya—

their personalities were completely different.
Although Li Yifeng liked to chatter away at times, spending time with her brought me the least amount of pressure.

"Let's go with this one."

Li Yifeng stopped in front of a storefront.

"One of my roommates learned to drive right here. According to her, this place is pretty good, the prices are reasonable, and the instructors have decent character."

With that, Li Yifeng pulled me inside.

Inside the storefront was a small office. Li Yifeng looked at the person in charge and said, "I'd like to enroll in driving lessons and have instructor Li Yuanfeng coach my friend here."

"I'm sorry, Li Yuanfeng has already resigned from our establishment. But rest assured, all our instructors here are excellent and practically on par with Li Yuanfeng."

The person in charge of the driving school replied with a smile.

"He's gone?"

When Li Yifeng had come to scout the place earlier, she had already inquired and learned that instructor Li Yuanfeng at this driving school was quite good.

Now that this instructor had left, what was the point?

As for the other instructors, Li Yifeng knew nothing about them, so how could she recommend one to Jiang Chen?

What if he fell into a trap?

For a moment, Li Yifeng was at a loss for what to do.

"Let's just do it here. Switching to another instructor is fine by me."

I didn't think it was a big deal and made the decision on the spot.

After paying the fee, submitting the vision test form, and other documents, Li Yifeng and I entered the training grounds, led by the person in charge toward a specific instructor.

This instructor looked rather fair-complexioned and wore a genial smile, resembling a pampered scholar.

Reading people by their faces, I noticed a faint trace of black qi lingering between this instructor's eyebrows.

As I had mentioned before, black qi on the forehead portended death-like misfortune.

However, this instructor wasn't necessarily facing death; the slight dark qi on his brow simply indicated that he might be plagued by bad luck in the near future.

"Let me introduce you. This instructor's name is Yang Zhe, and he has been working with us for about three years now. His driving skills are top-notch," the person in charge introduced us to each other.

When the gaze of this fair-faced instructor named Yang Zhe fell upon Li Yifeng, I could clearly sense that his demeanor seemed to change slightly.

He first flashed what he thought was an affable smile and greeted Li Yifeng, "Why isn't this young lady learning? If you ever want to practice driving, you can come to me. I'll do my absolute best to give you special treatment."