Cutting In and Crashing – Is This Your Driving School Instructor? 62

Chapter 62: You Can’t Park, So Don’t Hog the Space!

“What’s up, asking me out?” Gu Yin was still feeling pretty good about himself.

After a day together, the strangeness of not seeing each other for a week had vanished without a trace. Now Gu Yin could casually joke with Xia Xiangsi.

“As if!” The girl rolled her eyes, almost to the heavens, but her gaze darted around as she explained, “We need to eat dinner anyway…”

Come to think of it, Xia Xiangsi felt a little puzzled herself as she said this. After all, she, Xia Xiangsi, was a big star. Usually, when a man is invited to dinner by her, he’d be overjoyed. But this Gu Yin guy… actually teased her?

Where did he get his confidence?!

“Fine, let’s eat then.” Gu Yin laughed heartily. He did consider that the female star had been through a lot this week, and it was normal for him, not as her driving instructor, but as a friend, to have dinner and chat with her.

Besides, he had other motives…

“I’ll treat you,” he said. “Let’s skip the city center. Let’s go to a barbecue place I frequent near here. The city center is crowded, traffic is terrible, and parking is expensive – too much of a hassle.”

Gu Yin displayed the typical down-to-earth, small-town demeanor. Xia Xiangsi was a little surprised: “The iron rooster is finally shedding a feather?” (This is a Chinese idiom referring to a very stingy person)

Gu Yin rolled his eyes and gave her a playful jab on the forehead, making Xia Xiangsi’s eyes water. Gu Yin said, “Don’t get me wrong, it’s compensated.”

“What?” Hearing the words “compensated,” Xia Xiangsi was startled. She crossed her arms over her chest: “What are you thinking?!”

Even if she wasn’t at the peak of her career, she was still a female star. Although they were quite familiar, it wasn’t to that extent. Compensated? Was he serious?!

“…”

Gu Yin was speechless for a moment, silently rubbing his forehead, making a speechless expression…

“My sister wants your autograph, or… a signed drawing.” Gu Yin said: “Would you mind signing one?”

Hearing this, Xia Xiangsi breathed a sigh of relief, saying frankly, “My autograph is very expensive. Do you think you can get away with just a meal?”

As a top-tier star with high current popularity, an autograph from Xia Xiangsi wouldn’t be cheap; several thousands or tens of thousands would be reasonable, right?

“Come on, we’re bros, why bother with so much?” Gu Yin shamelessly thumped his chest. “Brotherhood is in the heart.”

If you didn’t know better, you’d think Xia Xiangsi was a big shot!

“Then refund my 30,000 yuan in proxy photography fees?” Xia Xiangsi asked. (Proxy photography refers to hiring someone to take photos of celebrities)

“This… that’s a separate matter, don’t mention that…” Gu Yin’s eyes darted around.

Xia Xiangsi chuckled. To be honest, although Gu Yin was stingy and had a typical small-town attitude, talking to him was surprisingly pleasant.

“Just so you know…” Gu Yin pointed to the camera on his chest. “My livestream this morning ran late; I might need to film for a bit longer. Is that okay with you?”

Xia Xiangsi glanced at the camera on Gu Yin’s chest, hesitated for a moment, and nodded slightly: “It’s okay.”

After arranging dinner, Gu Yin clocked out on time and drove his “war machine,” a BYD Qin, carrying Xia Xiangsi and Mengmeng, towards the west of the county.

It was a little past six, the familiar evening rush hour. There was a lot of traffic, but thankfully, there wasn’t the Kartelai female driver who had stopped in the middle of the road near the school last time. The drive was smooth.

Gu Yin drove the two women through the county town and arrived at the nearby university town, turning at a vocational school entrance. A medium-sized shopping mall came into view.

“Where do we park…?”

Near the mall, instinctively, Gu Yin wanted to park on the nearby side street.

For locals, “parking” didn’t involve parking lots. They’d park on the side street if possible; otherwise, they’d pull over.

They’d just keep an eye on their phones, and if they received a traffic police message, they’d move their car; as long as they moved within 10 minutes, there’s no fine.

But he recalled the incident a few days ago when he took his mother to the county hospital to have her foot spurs checked with a CT scan. He parked on a road where he normally wouldn’t get a ticket, but still received a text from the traffic police. He moved the car in 7 minutes, but still got fined…

“Forget it, I can’t be bothered with these idiots.” Gu Yin shook his head.

Sometimes you think there are no cameras, so it’s fine to park, but the traffic police show up like they smell something…

The traffic police in this small town don’t really do their job; they roam around looking for cars to fine, but when it comes to real emergencies, they just muddle through.

The university town area is heavily patrolled by traffic police. During the New Year, when the students had just started school, Gu Yin came here to buy things and got fined twice for parking – 100 yuan each time. That’s 200 yuan! That’s enough to pay for 100 hours of parking in a parking lot!

Today he was treating someone to dinner. It wasn’t suitable to make them walk in the cold weather from an outdoor parking spot. So Gu Yin turned the steering wheel into the underground parking garage.

This mall was the only slightly larger shopping mall in Gu Yin’s small county town. It was close to the university town, so it was usually busy, and today being the weekend, it was even more crowded during dinner time. The small underground parking lot on the first floor couldn’t handle the volume. Gu Yin circled the lot twice and couldn’t find a parking spot…

“Damn it!” Gu Yin couldn’t help but curse.

You know, he usually doesn’t come here, and the underground parking lot is usually pretty empty…

He finally got the stingy Gu Yin to spend some money on parking, but there were no spaces?

What kind of crappy mall is this? It’s not small, but it only has one underground level?

Typical small town…

He finally found a parking spot against the wall, but a grey BMW was trying to squeeze into the spot…

Fine, it’s not my spot, so I shouldn’t fight over it. Gu Yin waited for the other car.

The problem was, the grey BMW driver seemed to have poor driving skills. He tried reversing several times, but couldn’t get into the tight space for ages.

It was a standard reversing into a parking space, but the car was too close, without enough space. This meant that when reversing, the front of the car hadn’t straightened up before the body scraped against the car next to it.

This is easy to solve: you move forward a little, create some space, then reverse back in.

But this car, as if afraid Gu Yin would grab the spot if it moved forward, stubbornly refused to move forward, just repeatedly grinding against the garage walls, as if by reversing multiple times, it would magically fit in.

What an idiot.

“Oh my god… can you even do this?” Gu Yin was getting a headache watching this, shouting: “If you can’t park, get out of the way! Stop hogging the space!”

When you can’t find a parking space, the worst thing is to meet someone like this; they occupy the space, but can’t even park!

…

PS: I hope those who are following the story will continue to follow. Early readership is very important for a new book! Also, please vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Have pity on this child…

I’ll definitely have a burst of updates once it’s on shelves!

(End of Chapter)

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter