F1: In Ferrari, Schumacher at the start.

Golden sunlight streamed through the gaps in the bedroom curtains, which weren't fully drawn, and fell on Lin Feng's face.

Outside the window, the cicadas in the trees have already begun their tireless chirping, and the music from the morning exercises of the elderly downstairs drifts faintly into the room.

Lin Feng rolled over on the single bed, pulled the thin summer blanket over his head, and tried to stay in bed a little longer.

"Bang bang bang!"

The bedroom door was pounded loudly, followed by Lin's mother's booming voice.

"Lin Feng! The sun's already high in the sky and you're still not up! Get up and eat breakfast! It'll get cold if you don't!"

Lin Feng sighed and sat up with his messy, bird's nest-like hair.

No matter if you're a multi-million dollar F1 driver or a rising star adored by global media, once you're home, in your parents' eyes you'll always be a lazy kid who needs to be forced to eat breakfast.

Lin Feng, shuffling in his slippers, sauntered into the living room.

The table was already laden with a sumptuous breakfast.

Two fried dough sticks bigger than your face, a bowl of steaming hot tofu pudding drizzled with rich braised sauce, a plate of sliced ​​braised beef, and a few meat buns on the side.

"Mom, eating braised beef so early in the morning? That's terrifyingly high in calories!" Lin Feng pulled out a chair and sat down, looking at the high-carbohydrate, high-fat combination on the table. He felt that the body fat percentage he had lost in the past six months would probably all come back after this meal.

"So what if it's high in calories? Look how thin you are now. Apart from your thick neck, you don't have a pound of fat left on your body." As she spoke, Lin's mother picked up two large pieces of braised beef with her chopsticks and stuffed them directly into Lin Feng's bowl. "Eat more! You've been eating those lettuce leaves every day abroad. Is that even fit for a human? My son has suffered a lot abroad. He needs to be properly nourished when he comes home."

Lin Feng looked at the meat in the bowl, feeling like crying but having no tears.

F1 drivers have an extremely strict control over their weight; a difference of just one kilogram can mean a difference of a fraction of a second on the track. But this theory simply doesn't apply to Chinese mothers-in-law... no, to Chinese mothers themselves.

There's a kind of hunger that only your mom can make you feel hungry.

"Okay, I'll eat it." Lin Feng resignedly took a bite of the fried dough, and the long-lost joy of carbohydrates instantly filled his mouth.

Forget calories, forget body fat percentage, rice is the priority.

At that moment, Lin Guoqiang, wearing a faded T-shirt, walked in from the balcony. He was holding a phone and pressing the voice button on WeChat, his voice booming.

"Old Li! Yes, yes, that's my son! Hey, what big star? He's just a driver! Oh, autographed photos are no problem, I'll have him sign a hundred for you after he finishes eating! Okay, see you at the alley entrance this afternoon for some chess!"

After sending the voice message, Lin Guoqiang walked to the dining table and sat down with a beaming smile.

"Dad, how many voice messages have you sent this morning? The whole city is going to know that your son is back to visit his family," Lin Feng teased, taking a sip of tofu pudding.

"What do you know? This is called returning home in glory!"

Lin Guoqiang picked up a steamed bun, his face beaming with delight.

"You don't know, the way the old neighbors in the neighborhood look at me these past few days has changed. Before, they always said that I was wasting my money by selling everything I own to support your go-karting, but now? They're glued to the TV watching your races every day! Old Liu even asked me yesterday how you manage to go so fast with that car, if there's any trick to it, because he wants to teach his granddaughter who just got her driver's license."

"Please don't teach me." Lin Feng quickly waved his hand, "If I drove like that on the Fourth Ring Road, my driver's license would be suspended for a long time."

The family of three sat around the small dining table, eating and chatting.

After breakfast, Lin Guoqiang took the birdcage downstairs for a walk, while his mother was busy washing dishes in the kitchen, planning which fish to buy at the market to make soup for her son at noon.

Lin Feng was sprawled on the living room sofa, scrolling through his phone listlessly.

Having grown accustomed to the adrenaline rush in the cockpit at 300 kilometers per hour every weekend, he suddenly felt uneasy when he was idle. The addiction in his body felt like a withdrawal reaction, lingering and bothering him.

He opened the photo album, looked at the picture of the all-electric supercar, and suddenly remembered that the car was still sitting in the underground garage of Monaco, gathering dust.

"No, I need to find something to do."

Lin Feng suddenly sat up from the sofa.

He suddenly remembered something extremely important and urgent.

As a top racing driver holding a FIA Super License, he is actually a complete illegal immigrant in real life!

The original owner had been running youth races and spending every day at the racetrack, so he didn't have time to get a civilian driver's license when he reached the required age.

After Lin Feng transmigrated, he seamlessly transitioned into the 24th F1 season, leaving him no time to return to China to deal with the matter.

"As the star driver of Williams, I can't even drive a civilian car back in the country. If this gets out, I'll lose all face."

Lin Feng slapped his thigh and immediately decided that the most important thing during this summer break was to get his driver's license.

He glanced at the calendar on his phone.

It's already early August, and there are only about twenty days left until the Dutch Grand Prix starts.

"Time is a bit tight."

Lin Feng stroked his chin.

He knew the process of getting a driver's license in China, from the first subject to the fourth subject, involving various attendance records and appointment queues. The normal process would take at least two or three months.

But he couldn't wait that long.

Lin Feng returned to his bedroom, changed into a low-key black short-sleeved shirt, put on a baseball cap, and finally took out a black mask and put it on his face tightly.

Although racing is still a niche culture in China, after his breakthrough in the first half of the year, his face is now a regular feature on domestic sports channels. He doesn't want to be surrounded and gloated like a monkey when he signs up for driving school.

After being fully armed, Lin Feng greeted his mother and went downstairs.

After leaving the residential area, he intended to hail a taxi, but suddenly became interested when he saw a row of shared bicycles parked on the roadside.

"Beep, QR code scan successful."

Lin Feng hopped on a shared bike and pedaled furiously through the sweltering streets of northern Beijing, heading straight for the largest driving school in the HD district.

Half an hour later, Lin Feng, covered in a light sweat, parked his bicycle under a sign that read "Dongfanghong Driving School".

The driving school has a large yard, with rows of white Santana training cars neatly parked on the training ground.

Under the scorching sun, many trainees sat in the training vehicles, their faces flushed red from the sun, practicing reversing into parking spaces with great difficulty.

Lin Feng examined it for a moment, then pushed open the glass door of the registration hall.

The air conditioning in the lobby was on full blast, and a few people were scattered around the windows.

Lin Feng walked to the window that read "Registration".

Inside the window sat a middle-aged woman with a perm and eyeshadow.

The older woman was holding an enamel mug with the words "Serve the People" printed on it, watching a short video on her phone with great interest, occasionally letting out a burst of laughter.

"Ahem, big sister, I'd like to sign up." Lin Feng knocked on the glass window.

The older sister reluctantly put down her phone and glanced at Lin Feng. Seeing that he was wearing a hat and mask, completely covered up in the hot weather, she couldn't help but frown.

"Young man, what kind of class are you signing up for? C1 or C2?" The woman slowly took a sip of water. "C1 is for manual transmission, C2 is for automatic transmission. These days, young people all learn automatic transmission; it's simpler and you get your license faster."

Without hesitation, Lin Feng answered, "C1, manual transmission."

Are you kidding me? A car without a clutch pedal can hardly be called a car.

"Okay, manual transmission." The older woman took a registration form from the drawer and handed it to her. "Fill out the form, then go over there to pay the medical examination fee and registration fee. It's 5,800 for the regular class and 6,500 for the weekend class. Register now, and if everything goes smoothly, you'll get your certificate in three months."

"Wait, three months?"

Lin Feng immediately interrupted his older sister, gripping the window frame with both hands, his tone urgent.

"Sister, three months is too long. I only have twenty days at most. Do you have a fast-track course? Money is not a problem, but I must get the license within twenty days."

Upon hearing this, the woman with the big waves slammed the registration form on the table and rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Twenty days? Young man, are you dreaming? Do you think this is like buying cabbage at the supermarket, where you just pay and take it?"

As she spoke, the older woman tapped on the driving test flowchart on the wall, as if she were educating an ignorant young man.

"For the first driving test, you have to accumulate a lot of training hours. For the second test, reversing into a parking space and parallel parking, countless grown men have practiced until they cried in those spaces. Not to mention the third test, driving on the road, where even a large vehicle honking its horn can make you stall in fear. You're telling me you can get your license in twenty days? Do you think you're the legendary racer of Mount Akina, or the reincarnation of Michael Schumacher?"

Lin Feng was speechless after being bombarded with questions by his older sister. He touched his nose through his mask and thought to himself: I have never raced against Schumacher, but I just overtook Russell and Hamilton a couple of days ago. Does that prove my strength?

But of course he couldn't say that.

"Ma'am, I really have something urgent to attend to," Lin Feng explained patiently, lowering his tone. "I'm quite familiar with cars, so I pick them up quickly. I don't need to worry about the second and third stages of the driving test; it's just a matter of going through the motions. Do you know if there's a VIP class that can be expedited?"

Seeing his sincere attitude and his repeated insistence that money was not a problem, the older sister softened her stance slightly.

"You think you know cars well? Young man, I've been working here for over ten years and I've seen countless drivers like you who claim to have been behind the wheel for years, but when they get into a training car, the instructor scolds them so badly that they can't even tell left from right."

The eldest sister pulled a small, gold-embossed booklet from a file basket under the table and handed it to Lin Feng.

"If you're really in a rush, our driving school does have a 'Supreme VIP One-on-One Express Pass Class.' The tuition is 15,000 yuan, and you don't have to wait in line. You'll be taught one-on-one by a dedicated top-notch instructor. As long as you complete the required training hours, the driving school will give you priority in scheduling your exam."

The eldest sister stared intently at Lin Feng's exposed eyes.

"But! Let me make this clear from the start. Even if we give you a fast track, you still have to pass the driving test yourself! If you fail in twenty days, it's not the driving school's fault."

"Fifteen thousand, right? No problem, that's the price."

Upon hearing that there was a chance, Lin Feng immediately took out his phone to scan the QR code and pay without saying a word.

When the older woman saw how readily he paid, her face immediately lit up with a professional smile.

"Okay, big customer! Give me your ID card, and I'll enter it into the system for you right away."

Lin Feng took out his ID card from his bag and handed it in.

The older woman took the ID card and glanced at the name on it: "Lin Feng... Oh, this name is exactly the same as that super popular race car driver on TV right now. You two have a name that's strangely similar."

"Yeah, what a coincidence, what a coincidence." Lin Feng chuckled twice and pulled his hat brim down even lower.

The keyboard clattered loudly.

In less than ten minutes, the registration process was completed. The woman handed over her ID card, a stamped receipt, and a thick "Guide to Motor Vehicle Driver's Examination" through the small window.

"Everything's ready. Go back and download the traffic management app to practice questions. I'll schedule your theory test for next Monday."

The older woman took a sip of water, looked at the young man in front of her who was willing to spend money to get his money back, and decided to do something kind, so she gave him some well-intentioned advice.

"Young man, seeing how readily you spend money, let me give you a heads-up. The instructor we've assigned to you is surnamed Wang, nicknamed 'Black-faced Wang.' He's the most skilled driver in our school, but he also has the worst temper. Even if you're a seasoned, albeit self-taught, driver, you'll have to act like a grandson to me when you get in his car. Don't talk back to him."

Lin Feng took the textbook and receipt, and upon hearing this, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

Short-tempered? Swears?

He wasn't afraid at all; on the contrary, he felt a sense of anticipation.

"Don't worry, big sister, I have a very good temper and I always listen to the coach."

After completing all the registration procedures, Lin Feng, carrying a backpack, pushed open the glass door of the registration hall with relaxed steps.

The sun outside was still blazing.

On the training ground, several white training vehicles moved slowly like snails in the driving test area.

Looking at the students sweating profusely under the scorching sun, Lin Feng seemed to already see his own wonderful life in this venue over the next twenty days.

"Get a C1 driver's license in twenty days."

Lin Feng hopped on the little yellow bike and whistled in the summer breeze.