Chapter 287: Teacher... Auntie, Learn from the Barbarians' Strengths to Subdue the Barbarians

"Go to hell!" Qian Bao gritted her teeth in hatred.

Jiang Nian glanced over, honked the horn, and it went Beep! The people ahead were startled by the sound and hurriedly cleared a path.

"Teacher, they look like they're doing a pantomime performance."

"What pantomime? They're familiarizing themselves with the driving steps." Qian Bao held the steering wheel, a bit speechless — the well-fed man never knows the hunger of the starving.

People with a natural talent for driving will never understand the suffering of those who have no feel for the car. Turning the steering wheel several full circles and feeling nothing, driving feels like being in prison.

The person is dazed, every sensation lagging behind.

"Then why are they blocking the lane?" Jiang Nian was puzzled.

"You think everyone gets one-on-one? Four or five people share one car." Qian Bao said, "The coach won't let them sit idle, so he has them run through a simulation."

"Alright, actually this driving practice also—" Jiang Nian began.

"Shut it!" Qian Bao cut in forcefully, threatening, "If you dare finish that sentence, I'll call on you every single class from now on!"

Jiang Nian backed down. "I'm out, I'm out."

"Good that you know to be afraid, we'll keep our mouths shut." Qian Bao said, then paused. "Otherwise, I'll tell your parents that you've been secretly learning to drive."

Jiang Nian frowned, confused.

"Teacher, how dare you assume my parents don't already know?"

Qian Bao shot him a glance, chuckling.

"You think I've been a teacher all these years for nothing? I used to be a head teacher in my early years. That guilty look on your face gave you away long ago."

"For real? Teacher, you really were a head teacher?" Jiang Nian chatted with Qian Bao half-heartedly. "How come I've never heard you mention it?"

"Heh-heh, am I supposed to tell you everything?" Qian Bao said smugly.

She came back to her senses and suddenly realized she had already driven through the S-curve.

"Huh?"

Qian Bao stomped the brake, looking a bit dazed, and turned to glance at Jiang Nian.

"I was so busy chatting with you just now — did I cross the line?"

"Nope, I was watching the whole time." Jiang Nian smiled. "Teacher, you'd already practiced it down. You just get too nervous normally and can't perform."

Hearing that, Qian Bao hesitated.

"Is that so?"

A clear winter day, white clouds sat perched on the blue sky, the canopy of heaven almost transparently blue.

Inside the car, Jiang Nian glanced at the time.

11:40 AM.

"Yeah, let's do one more lap." Jiang Nian nodded, looking at Qian Bao in the driver's seat. "Teacher, there's no coach here, just relax a little."

"Oh, oh, okay." Qian Bao steered the car toward the reverse-parking area while asking, "Right, where were we just now?"

Jiang Nian could sense the nervousness in her words and, without showing it, picked the topic back up.

"You were saying you used to be a head teacher — then what?"

Qian Bao drove the car to the starting line of the parking area, gradually getting into the mood.

"Back then I'd just started working, still a lively young girl, not a venomous woman. A few years on, the job has warped me beyond recognition."

Jiang Nian went along with Qian Bao's thread of talk, and chatting as they went, they finished the reverse parking, the parallel parking — everything, smooth as silk.

The latter two items, Qian Bao also coasted through them.

Driving out of the S-curve, it was already exactly noon.

Qian Bao hit the brake and the car stopped outside the lot. Her hands didn't leave the steering wheel; she just turned to look at Jiang Nian, swallowed, and asked.

"I passed just now, right?"

Jiang Nian gave a brief, firm answer. "You passed, didn't cross the line, very clean."

Hearing that, Qian Bao went limp all over, let out a long breath, and released the steering wheel.

"Good that I passed — my palms are drenched in sweat."

"Teacher, you just get too nervous. Subject Two isn't hard." Jiang Nian comforted her. "Practice it a few more times and you might be able to go straight to the test."

"No, no, let me practice some more." Qian Bao shook her head vigorously. "Otherwise, once I'm on the test course I'll still be nervous and just flunk the reverse parking — how embarrassing would that be?"

Jiang Nian neither agreed nor disagreed — everyone gets nervous.

Some people, the more you emphasize how important something is, or that a document must not be altered, the more they'll mess it up midway.

The antonym of a big heart is a small heart.

Clearly, Qian Bao was a textbook "small heart."

The car was silent for several minutes before Qian Bao murmured.

"Pull the handbrake."

"Huh?"

"Pull the handbrake, switch seats." Qian Bao's voice got a little louder, a bit embarrassed. "First time completing the whole course smoothly — I'm so nervous my legs went weak."

Jiang Nian: "Teacher, when you drive in the future—"

"What about it?" Qian Bao was undoing her seatbelt, freeing herself from the cleavage-trap, feeling the joy of scoring a hundred on a test. "Drive you around, right?"

"No, I mean you should just install a toy steering wheel in the passenger seat and feel it out. Better not actually drive."

"Drop dead!"

Jiang Nian hopped down from the passenger seat, didn't close the door, and prepared to walk around the car to switch seats.

He actually didn't want to drive anymore — after all, he'd basically passed Subject Two in one go, a perfect-score template.

As for signing up and clocking in the practice hours, he'd just leave it to Coach Lao Tian to handle.

After that, he wouldn't need to come back to the driving school — he'd just wait at school for exam day. Take half a day off, then take the test — no interference with classes either way.

Who says there's no way to have it all? If they worked as hard as I do, maybe—though that has nothing to do with the system.

But I can't refuse Qianqian's kindness, so I'll open it again.

Boom—the door slammed shut as Jiang Nian closed it.

As he fastened his seatbelt, he turned to look at Qianqian.

"Teacher, let me show you the perfect template."

"Pfft." Qianqian shot him a sidelong glance, then grinned slyly, "What if I just stomp the passenger brake right now—how will you handle it?"

Jiang Nian thought for a moment, then blurted out one sentence.

"Report it."

"Report dog!"

Jiang Nian: "Do all teachers act like this?"

"This is off-campus—during work, use your title." Qianqian shrugged, casually fastening her passenger seatbelt, "Here, I'm just your senior sister."

"Auntie?"

"What did you say?" Qianqian gave him a death glare.

"Learn the enemy's strengths to defeat the enemy—I meant—" Jiang Nian's excuse died mid-sentence as he turned and saw two men walking up to the car.

Jiang Nian considered stomping the gas and driving off.

Qianqian remained calm, reminding him.

"Don't hit anyone."

The two men chuckled and gathered by Qianqian's passenger window, striking up a conversation.

"You're a one-on-one student, right?"

"Yep." Qianqian smiled warmly, her demeanor effortlessly polished, "It's noon—still practicing? Don't you and the car need a break?"

Jiang Nian thought: Qianqian really is an adult. If it were me, I'd answer too—but they don't seem interested in me.

Then they're just idiots—can't tell the king from the joker. I'm the King of Subject Two!

You wanna play tough?

I'll floor it—twenty klicks, no problem!

The two men asked all sorts of questions, glancing again at Jiang Nian behind the wheel.

"You two are together, right?"

Qianqian smiled. "Siblings. Doesn't look like it?"

Damn. One setback, one advantage gained.

"Yeah."

Jiang Nian coughed, losing patience.

"Sis, I'm about to pass out from hunger."

Qianqian cut short her adult chatter and turned apologetically.

"This kid's never driven before—remembers nothing but eating."

"Oh, first time? Reversing into a parking spot's tough." The two men clearly cared more about Qianqian—and judging by their expressions, they had no intention of leaving.

Jiang Nian said nothing, shifted into reverse, and slammed the car into the spot. He spun the wheel wildly, the maneuver completed in fast-forward.

The two men stood beside the car, jaws dropped, stunned into silence.

No way.

This guy's first time?

Dude, are you racing?

"What's the rush?" Qianqian was startled too.

In an instant, Jiang Nian had finished parallel parking. No pause to check the mirrors—he glanced once and reversed straight in.

"Didn't I say I was starving?"

Between sentences, Jiang Nian smoothly slotted the car into the parallel spot.

Qianqian opened her mouth, but no words came out.

"You—"

"What?" Jiang Nian yanked the wheel hard, pulled the car out, and stomped the gas toward the slope.

"Are you really driving for the first time?" Qianqian watched him pull the handbrake at the slope, then smoothly start again. "I don't believe it."

"Believe it or not—it's just hands, right?" Jiang Nian sped over the crest of the slope, then plunged into the S-turn.

As the car entered the S-turn, he even gave it a touch of throttle.

Far away.

Supervisor Tian Yongsheng stood on slightly higher ground, cigarette between fingers, speaking to several instructors beside him.

"A first-time student's driving faster than I do."

The instructors were dumbfounded. The issue wasn't whether he was really a beginner anymore—it was how smoothly he drove. Was this an AE86?

"Who believes that? Lying this big?"

"Some instructor's kid? Grew up with cars, came here to show off?"

"He's wrecking the place—this is wrecking the place! What's the point of training anymore?"

"Drive this fast? Make him an examiner."

Hearing the instructors' chatter, Tian Yongsheng grew confused, took a drag of his cigarette.

"Soon, we'll run a special training class to improve instructor skills."

At this, the instructors nearly cracked.

"No, Brother Tian, are you even going to make money if you keep doing this?"

"Exactly! Anyone can drive fast—what's so hard about it? I'll show you right now, even with a drift."

"Boss, it's not necessary."

Tian Yongsheng said nothing; driving slowly was just a joke.

The New Year was coming soon, and many students had returned from Guangdong to practice driving.

With a bang, Jiang Nian slammed the car door shut, didn't even look at the two men at the parking spot, and turned to Qian Bao.

"Where's the instructor? Tell him we're leaving."

Qian Bao's expression was complicated, but she still asked.

"How are you getting back? Maybe—"

"Of course the instructor will drive me back," Jiang Nian cut in, since it wasn't on his way. "Then again, if the instructor invites me to dinner—"

Qian Bao was speechless. "Do you have any shame?"

Jiang Nian turned back in shock. "Teacher, trading human organs is illegal."