Bonus Extra: The Young Master Learns to Ride
“Hey, classmate, wanna learn to drive?” “Classmate, looking for a part-time job?” “Classmate, five haircuts for only 99!” “Classmate, water card discount—delivered to your dorm, no need to carry it downstairs!” “Classmate, with your student ID, circumcision—second one half off!”
As Xia Yiyang walked out of the cafeteria, he somehow ended up with a handful of flyers. The campus security rushed over in a huff and chased all the flyer-distributors away.
The young master was about to crumple up the flyers and toss them into the trash when his eyes landed on one particular ad, and he paused.
Wait—even though he didn’t need a water card, haircuts, a part-time job, or a circumcision… the young master did want to learn to drive!
After the college entrance exams, it seemed like parents across the country had reached some unnecessary consensus—forcing their kids to learn to drive.
During the sweltering summer break, countless young faces appeared on driving ranges. In the stuffy cars, wilted students crowded into the back seats, trembling as they listened to their instructors curse them out. Everyone got tanned and rough. After finally enduring all that hardship to get their licenses, they were packed off to college without ever getting a chance to touch a steering wheel.
He had no idea who those licenses were even for.
Xia Yiyang, however, had escaped that fate. While his classmates were being dragged to driving school by their parents, he’d been enjoying his summer in Rongcheng.
Now that summer was over, Xia Yiyang was starting to think about learning to drive again.
But what he wanted to learn wasn’t a four-wheeled car—it was a motorcycle!
That’s right—he’d had his eye on Sheng Lin’s motorcycle for ages!
Sheng Lin’s heavy-duty bike was insanely cool. When he zipped through traffic with Xia Yiyang on the back, the young man quickly became addicted to that double thrill of speed and adrenaline.
Plus, Xia Yiyang had a “turn-the-tables” wish—he not only wanted to ride a motorcycle, but he also wanted to be the one riding with Sheng Lin on the back!
—He’d sit in front, gripping the handlebars.
—Sheng Lin would sit behind him, arms wrapped around his waist.
As the speed picked up, Ling Ge would press close against his back and whisper in his ear: “Xia Yiyi, you look so cool riding a motorcycle—I’m truly impressed.”
…Hehehehe, just thinking about it made him want to wag his tail with glee.
No time like the present!
Learning to ride a motorcycle was cheap and didn’t take long—just two weekends of practical lessons and you could get your license.
Xia Yiyang told Sheng Lin he was going out with classmates on the weekend, but he was actually sneaking off to driving school behind his back.
The instructor asked him what class of license he wanted.
Xia Yiyang said proudly: “Rongda is a 985 school—first-tier!”
Instructor: “…I’m asking you, motorcycle licenses are divided into Class D, Class E, and Class F—which one do you want?”
Just like car licenses were divided into A, B, and C classes, motorcycle licenses had D, E, and F. The higher the class, the more types of vehicles you could drive. For example, a Class A driver could drive large buses and trucks, Class B was for medium vehicles, and Class C was for passenger cars. Class A drivers could “downward-compat” to Class B and C, but not vice versa.
The same principle applied to motorcycles.
Xia Yiyang thought—since that’s the case, of course he’d go for the most impressive Class D!
But he didn’t stop to think about why a two-wheeled motorcycle license would need “downward compatibility.”
So when the young master arrived at the driving school practice lot and saw what was sitting in front of him—a three-wheeled vehicle—he fell into a long, profound silence.
This three-wheeled vehicle, locally known as a “fire tricycle,” had a wide, spacious cargo bed that could carry both goods and people.
The supplier for their shop, “Liu Liangxia,” had the owner’s son deliver their goods every morning on one of these things, going putt-putt-putt-putt all the way.
Very few people learned to ride three-wheeled motorcycles, and he wanted to get his license as fast as possible, so the driving school directly squeezed him into the “Courier Class.”
As the name implied—of the twenty students in the class, nineteen were couriers from various delivery stations. They drove tricycles through the streets every day delivering packages and knew each other well.
When they saw Xia Yiyang, a new face, they chatted him up: “Which courier company are you with?”
“I’m not a courier.” The young master resigned himself to his fate. “I’m a delivery guy. You know the ice powder shop at Rongda’s north gate? I work there.”
Oh~
So he delivered food.
After the instructor explained how to operate the fire tricycle, the students took turns getting on to practice, with the instructor sitting in the cargo bed, smoking and barking orders.
It had rained in Rongcheng the day before, and the practice lot was muddy. The young master sat grimy and disheveled in the driver’s seat, hands gripping the handlebars, driving the fire tricycle putt-putt-putt-putt around the muddy field, bouncing the instructor so hard he could barely get his words out.
“Hey hey hey hey hey—slow slow slow down, kid!”
The young master slammed the gas, and the tricycle shot up onto the single-plank bridge. The instructor in the cargo bed wasn’t steady and nearly tumbled out. The young master slammed the brakes, splattering mud everywhere.
Oh dear!
This was nothing like the cool motorcycle knight he’d imagined. Who was he, where was he, and why was he driving a tricycle?!
…
Xia Yiyang’s plan to learn to ride, in the end, couldn’t be kept from Sheng Lin.
There was no way around it—Sheng Lin knew him too well. The moment the young master’s eyes darted, Sheng Lin could tell he was scheming something.
More importantly, Xia Yiyang had told him he was going to the movies with classmates on the weekend, but when he came home that night, he was covered in mud, his hair damp and matted from sweat, looking listless and wronged. That expression alone told him something had happened.
That evening, the two of them soaked in the bath together. Xia Yiyang leaned back against Sheng Lin’s chest, his back pressed against the man’s broad torso, completely limp and boneless. If Sheng Lin hadn’t been holding his waist, he would have slipped right into the water. Steam rose around them as Sheng Lin took hold of him… The young man’s mind went blank, a milky white stream slowly dispersing in the warm water. Below, he confessed; above, he confessed too.
Sheng Lin was surprised that Xia Yiyang wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle: “Why do you want to learn?”
The young master mumbled: “Because I want to ride you around too! You’re always the one driving with me on the back, but I want you to press against my back for a change.”
In the bathtub, Sheng Lin pulled him closer into his arms, parted his knees with his large hands, and said: “Isn’t my back pressed against yours right now?”
“That’s not what I meant!” Xia Yiyang was furious—they were talking about serious things, why was Ling Ge deliberately twisting his words?! “The point is—I want to ride! I want to drive!”
Hearing that, Sheng Lin shifted his hands to grip the young man’s waist, used the buoyancy to lift him, and turned him around to face him, straddling his lap.
“Alright, now you can ride me. As long as you want.”
Xia Yiyang was even more annoyed and bit him on the shoulder: “I don’t want to ride you!”
The young master threw a proper tantrum in the bathtub, splashing water everywhere. Unfortunately, his resistance failed, and in the end, he was coaxed into “riding” for quite a while.
After they’d played enough and he was tired out, Sheng Lin washed the young master inside and out, wrapped him in a towel, and tucked him into bed.
Xia Yiyang had driven the tricycle during the day and “ridden” Sheng Lin at night—he was so exhausted he felt like he was falling apart. Even so, he still mumbled: “Wake me up at eight tomorrow—I need to go practice…”
Before he could finish, he passed out from exhaustion.
Sheng Lin covered him with a thin blanket, pulled him into his arms, and with the matter of learning to ride still on his mind, gradually drifted off to sleep as well.
Early the next morning, Sheng Lin dragged the sluggish, bed-ridden Xia Yiyang out of bed, helped him wash up and get dressed, then drove him to the driving school for practice.
Sheng Lin’s heavy-duty motorcycle was an eye-catcher. When he parked it by the driving school, it drew quite a crowd.
A courier from Xia Yiyang’s class asked him: “Xiao Xia, who’s the guy who brought you here? That bike of his is really impressive.”
“He’s my boss,” Xia Yiyang said proudly. “He didn’t feel comfortable with me coming to practice alone, so he drove me here personally. I’ve already told him—once I learn to ride, I’m going to use his bike to deliver ice powder!”
“Are you, like, the emperor he hired or something?” The courier was both shocked and envious. “Is your shop hiring any new employees?”
“Nope~” The young master put his hands on his hips. “My boss and I signed a lifetime employment contract. He’s got all the ‘little emperor’ he needs in me.”
…
Two weeks, four weekends—Xia Yiyang completed all twenty class hours and was finally ready to take his license test!
On the day of the exam, Sheng Lin specially handed over the shop to the staff and drove him to the test site himself.
When Sheng Lin had taken his own motorcycle license test, he’d gone alone and come back alone—no special feelings, just a straightforward, uneventful process. But this time, driving Xia Yiyang to his test, he felt a nervousness he’d never experienced before.
Of course, the most nervous person of all was Xia Yiyang.
Would the test lot be flat? Would the exam vehicle be easy to handle? Would the computer for the written test be responsive enough?
His mind raced with all sorts of random worries, his face scrunched up with anxiety.
Sheng Lin said: “Let me tell you a secret.”
Xia Yiyang: “What?”
Sheng Lin: “I have a Class D license too.”
Xia Yiyang: “!!!”
He was shocked: “You learned on a fire tricycle too?!”
That silly, stupid, totally uncool three-wheeled thing?
“Yeah.” Sheng Lin wasn’t afraid to lose face and told him: “I took my test at this very same site, in the same exam vehicle. Xia Yiyi, if you’re nervous, just imagine me sitting next to you in the driver’s seat.”
Xia Yiyang propped his chin up and pictured it—and burst out laughing.
“Two people sitting in the driver’s seat together—that’s so silly,” the young master said. “You’d better sit in the cargo bed instead. I’m a steady driver now—I won’t throw you out.”
“Okay.” Sheng Lin held him in a restrained embrace, then ruffled his hair. “I’ll be waiting for your good news.”
Family members weren’t allowed to accompany candidates into the test center, so Sheng Lin could only wait outside the traffic management bureau, watching Xia Yiyang walk in.
Just before he pushed open the door, the young man suddenly stopped, turned around, and waved at Sheng Lin.
Sheng Lin asked: “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t go anywhere!” Xia Yiyang cupped his hands around his mouth like a little megaphone and shouted: “I’ll be right back after the commercial break!”
The man laughed: “Alright—I won’t move. I’ll be here waiting for you to come out with your license.”
With his lover’s blessing and promise, Xia Yiyang felt a surge of renewed energy.
The young master had already planned it all out: he’d ride with Sheng Lin on the open road, heading west along the Jin River, chasing the sun until it set, then camp by the riverbank for the night.
The motorcycle parked by the shore wouldn’t just shield them from the wind—it would also block the stars from watching over them…
…Ahem, he couldn’t keep thinking about that—any more and it’d be unfit for younger audiences!
Xia Yiyang adjusted the sports satchel across his body, took a deep breath, and pushed open the doors of the traffic management bureau.
He was going to get his license fast and set off on a motorcycle trip that belonged only to him and Ling Ge!
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