F1: In Ferrari, Schumacher at the start.

Chapter 91 Class Reunion

The evening breeze finally dispelled the heat of the whole day.

Neon signs flashed outside a barbecue restaurant near Wudaokou.

This place is not far from several famous universities and has always been a popular gathering spot for students.

Lin Feng, wearing a black T-shirt, loose cargo shorts, and canvas shoes, steadily parked a shared bicycle in front of the barbecue restaurant.

In order to fully embody his persona as a "working-class person returning home to visit relatives," he deliberately dressed simply today, striving to keep a low profile.

"Beep, car locked successfully."

Lin Feng had just pushed his bicycle onto the curb when someone slapped him hard on the butt from behind.

"Holy crap! Lin Shen! You actually came on a shared bike!"

Lin Feng turned around and saw his two closest friends from junior high school—Li Hao, nicknamed "Fatty," and Wang Wei, who was as thin as a bamboo pole.

These two are both currently attending university in northern Beijing and are avid sports fans.

Others may not pay attention to racing, but these two have watched Lin Feng go from a clueless kid who skipped class to drive go-karts in junior high school to a top driver worth tens of millions.

"Shh! Shut up!" Lin Feng quickly made a shushing gesture. "My name is Lin Feng, and I work as a ride-hailing driver and long-distance truck driver. If either of you dares to reveal anything, you're dead!"

Li Hao covered his mouth, his whole body trembling with suppressed laughter: "Got it! Got it! Going on a secret visit! Boss Lin is experiencing life. But your outfit is too shabby. At least wear that expensive watch of yours, otherwise when you go in, those guys will look down on you."

"Fine, look down your nose then. I'm not here for a beauty pageant, I'm here to eat barbecue." Lin Feng rolled his eyes, put his arms around both of them, and said, "Come on, let's go inside and have some rice!"

The three of them pushed open the door of the barbecue restaurant and, guided by the waiter, went up to the largest private room on the second floor.

Pushing open the door to the private room, I found more than twenty people already seated inside.

Above the steaming oven, the exhaust pipes hummed loudly.

The private room was bustling with noise; the boys were offering cigarettes and pouring tea, while the girls were touching up their makeup and taking selfies—it was a noisy scene.

"Hey! Lin Feng! It's been years!"

Zhang Qiang, the class monitor and organizer of the gathering, was the first to greet Lin Feng and patted him on the shoulder warmly.

"Hello, class monitor, it has been several years indeed." Lin Feng greeted him with a smile.

Zhang Qiang sized Lin Feng up and down, glancing at his faded T-shirt with a hint of disdain in his eyes, but it was quickly masked by a polite smile.

"Sit down, sit down! You've come at the perfect time, we'll start grilling right away." Zhang Qiang led Lin Feng and the other two to a corner at the end of the table.

This seating arrangement is quite interesting.

Sitting in the very center of the main table, speaking eloquently, was Zhao Peng, who had the best grades in the class back then and is now studying economics and management at a top 985 university.

The boys and girls surrounding him were mostly top students from prestigious universities or had some family connections.

As for marginal figures like Lin Feng, who revealed in the group that he "didn't go to university and started working early," they were naturally relegated to the corner closest to the food serving area and the exhaust fan.

However, this suited Lin Feng perfectly; the corner was quiet, and he could intercept the meat the moment it was served.

Plates of marbled beef, pork belly, and beef tongue were served.

As the sizzling sound of grilled meat filled the air, the atmosphere in the private room gradually reached its climax.

"Zhao Peng, I heard you got an internship at that top internet company during the summer? How's it going? Do you have a chance of getting a full-time position?" A boy with a middle parting asked with envy.

Zhao Peng sighed dramatically and waved his hand, "Hey, don't even mention it. Big companies are incredibly competitive these days. Although the ROI of the project I led was the highest in the group, the HR side said that the number of openings next year has been reduced. But it doesn't really matter, since my advisor is taking me to an academic conference in Hong Kong next month. If it doesn't work out, I'll just apply for a master's program through the recommendation system."

As soon as he said this, a chorus of exclamations of "Holy crap!", "Awesome!", and "Brother Peng, take me with you!" immediately rang out.

Several girls with exquisite makeup looked at Zhao Peng with a hint of admiration in their eyes.

"Liu Meng is not bad either."

Zhao Peng changed the subject and began exchanging pleasantries, glancing at a girl in a floral dress next to him.

"I heard you became the vice president of the student union at the School of Foreign Languages? If you get a government job, your future will be bright."

The girl named Liu Meng covered her mouth and chuckled: "It's not that easy. I'm so tired of writing materials every day that I'm going bald. I also have to run errands for the school's Youth League Committee and put on a smiling face every day. I'm just free labor."

Listening to these college students constantly spouting KPIs, ROI, empowerment, leverage, and the system—

Sitting in the corner, Lin Feng couldn't help but laugh. These people were only sophomores or juniors, yet they all spoke as if they were CEOs of listed companies preparing to ring the bell on Wall Street.

He ignored it, picked up the tongs, skillfully flipped a thick slice of beef tongue on the grill, and sprinkled it with a pinch of cumin.

"Fatty, pass me two lettuce leaves from over there. Monkey, don't snatch that piece of pork belly, it's not cooked yet!" Lin Feng directed his two best friends while smoothly piling the grilled meat into his own bowl and enjoying it immensely.

Although this barbecue may not be as good as Michelin-starred barbecue, it has a strong smoky flavor. Dipped in the dry dipping sauce, it is so delicious that it makes you want to bite your tongue.

Li Hao and Wang Wei were like reincarnated starving ghosts. The three of them formed a tight-knit trio in the corner, oblivious to everything else and only focused on eating roasted pork belly.

Just as Lin Feng was dealing with a piece of grilled pork rib, the topic suddenly and somehow shifted to him.

"Hey, Lin Feng!"

Zhao Peng, sitting at the main table, held a glass of beer and looked across most of the table at Lin Feng, who was eating with his mouth full of oil in the corner, and raised his voice.

"I heard from the class monitor in the group chat that you started driving long-distance ride-hailing services right after graduating high school? Is that industry doing well now?"

The private room gradually quieted down. Everyone's eyes turned to the corner.

Those present are either graduates of 985 or 211 universities, or at the very least, graduates of ordinary undergraduate programs.

Lin Feng, this "working guy who never even went to college," became a living negative example in their eyes, or rather, a control group that could be used to highlight their sense of superiority.

Lin Feng swallowed the rib in his mouth, tore off a tissue to wipe his hands, and looked up with a very sincere expression.

"It's alright, just enough to make a living."

"So what kind of car do you drive now? An electric car or a gasoline car? Is it one of those BAIC or BYD cars that are everywhere?" a girl asked curiously.

"Uh—it's a gasoline car." Lin Feng thought for a moment about the internal combustion engine of a race car and answered truthfully, "The model is relatively rare, it's a single-seat car, and it's a manual transmission. The space is quite cramped."

"Single seat? And a manual transmission?" Zhao Peng couldn't help but laugh. "Lin Feng, you're not driving one of those small vans for hauling goods, or some kind of mobility scooter for the elderly, are you? Even Didi (a ride-hailing service) checks wheelbase now, how can you get any fares with that kind of car?"

"I'm not getting any orders mainly because I have a contract with the company to run fixed routes. I'm constantly traveling around, and occasionally I even have to go abroad," Lin Feng lied without batting an eye.

It's not entirely nonsense. The F1 calendar does indeed involve teams flying all over the world, with twenty people circling a fixed track – it's a fixed route, isn't it?

"Going abroad? Running long-haul freight to Southeast Asia?" Liu Meng shook her head beside her, her tone somewhat lecturing. "Lin Feng, actually your grades in junior high were pretty good, why didn't you go to a junior college? Driving this kind of car is too hard now, and there's no future in it. When self-driving technology becomes widespread in a few years, you drivers will be the first to lose your jobs."

"Yeah, yeah," squad leader Zhang Qiang chimed in, adopting a serious tone, "In today's society, you can't get anywhere without a degree. You drive long distances, sitting in the car for over ten hours a day, right? Can your back and neck handle it?"

Lin Feng nodded in deep agreement: "The squad leader is right, this job really strains your back. Especially when turning, the centrifugal force makes your neck hurt. And there's no air conditioning in the car. Driving for two hours in the middle of summer, your clothes are completely soaked, like you've been pulled out of the water."

"puff--!"

Li Hao, who was sitting to Lin Feng's left, was drinking Sprite when he suddenly spat it out and coughed violently.

Wang Wei on the right was clenching his back teeth so hard that the flesh on his thighs was almost purple from pinching them. His face was flushed red, and his shoulders were twitching.

Seeing that these two best friends looked like they were about to have an epileptic seizure, the classmates opposite them were puzzled.

"Li Hao, are you alright? You choked on a drink?" Zhao Peng frowned.

"Cough cough cough! It's okay, it's okay! The barbecue is too spicy!" Li Hao quickly waved his hand, tears streaming down his face as he coughed. He kicked Lin Feng's shin under the table, signaling him to tone it down.

Zhao Peng ignored Li Hao and continued to look down at Lin Feng with a condescending gaze, like a successful person giving alms.

"Lin Feng, we're all classmates, so I'll lend a hand if I can. My relative happens to own a logistics company in Tongzhou. If you find long-distance driving too tiring, I can put in a good word for you sometime. You could drive a forklift or do local delivery for him. You could earn at least eight thousand a month, with room and board included. It's much better than working out there in the sun and wind. What do you say?"

Eight thousand yuan a month.

Lin Feng silently did the math in his head. With his base salary contract with Williams, plus bonuses and sponsorship revenue sharing, his current account balance was probably in the tens of millions.

Eight thousand yuan isn't even enough to fill a tooth gap for him.

But he remained remarkably calm and showed a very grateful smile.

"Thanks for your kind offer, Peng. But my current boss is a bit stingy, but he's alright with me. And my current colleague, although he has a bad temper and likes to cut me off on the road, it's kind of exciting once you get used to it. I'm not going to change jobs for now."

"Sigh, you're just too stubborn." Zhao Peng shook his head, looking like he was hopeless, picked up his wine glass, stopped looking at Lin Feng, and turned to chat with the other boys about the stock market and funds.

Calmness returned to the corner.

Li Hao finally couldn't hold back any longer. He leaned close to Lin Feng's ear and whispered through gritted teeth, "Boss Lin, you're really something! A ride-hailing driver with a ten million euro annual salary, I've really seen something new today!"

Wang Wei, standing to the side, laughed like a Parkinson's patient: "I can't take it anymore, I'm about to burst! Zhao Peng actually made you drive a forklift! Hahahaha! Lin Feng, I bet you've never even seen what a forklift steering wheel looks like in your entire life!"

"Shut up, eat your meat." Lin Feng said irritably, stuffing a piece of burnt pork belly into each of their bowls. "I'm a low-key working person now, don't ruin my image."

After several rounds of drinks, the atmosphere in the private room became increasingly lively.

Zhang Qiang raised a glass of beer, stood up, his face flushed.

"Come on, everyone! Quiet down! It's not easy for us to get together today. In two years, you'll all be officially entering society. By then, Zhao Peng will probably be an internet tycoon, and Liu Meng will be a government official."

Let's support each other, cheers!

Cheers! May our future be bright!

The group at the main table stood up, the clinking of glasses producing a clear, pleasant sound. Those who had attended top universities radiated boundless anticipation for the future and an indescribable sense of superiority.

In the corner, Lin Feng didn't stand up; he just lazily raised his Coke cup and waved it perfunctorily in the air.

Wishing you a bright future.

Lin Feng said softly, then gulped down the ice-cold cola and grabbed the last few pieces of marbled beef from the grill and put them on his plate.