Substitute Driver's Notes

Chapter 12 The Journey Begins Again

If there were gods chatting in heaven, when they got to this person, they would definitely ask, "God of Wealth, has Li Wei's money arrived yet?"

The God of Wealth would surely sigh, "He gave them a lot, enough for them to live a life of luxury for a hundred years, but this kid burned it all down in one fire."

If a deity could speak a foreign language, they would probably exclaim "Wow, wow!" for a long time, and then sigh and say something like: "Maybe this is what they call fate!"

Seeing his wife's expression, Li Wei knew he had misjudged the situation; the value of that tattered piece of paper was definitely greater than those two silver dollars.

As the saying goes, one cannot turn back time after death. Li Wei, who personally burned that tattered piece of paper, had no way to restore the ashes of the paper that had already been mixed with the ashes of grass and wood.

Helpless, Li Wei had no choice but to resort to his best tactic after marriage: he pulled his wife up and hugged her, gently comforting her while kneading her hands in an attempt to distract her.

Lu Lili pushed him away, ran to the sofa, sat cross-legged, and muttered, "I want to become a nun, I'm not going to live with you anymore. I'm just a poor person, money won't help me." After muttering for a while, she put her hands together and said, "Amitabha."

Li Wei laughed angrily: "Lili, are you crazy?! As the old saying goes, what's yours is yours, and what's not yours you can't force. Don't you think about how I'm going to explain this to the old man? Such valuable things, and I just burned them all."

Lu Lili said indifferently, "If you had taken that calligraphy home, we could have taken care of the old man in his old age and seen him off in his final days. What does it have to do with me now? It's not like I burned it."

Li Wei was speechless: "How did I end up with such a wife?"

Lili replied nonchalantly, "I'm not your wife anymore, don't call me that. Go find someone else who's better! I'm not lucky enough to be your wife."

Well, this woman has really gone mad. No matter how much we talk to her or force her, she won't listen; she just keeps nagging.

Utterly exasperated, Li Wei exclaimed, "If you keep doing this, I'm going to get angry!"

Lu Lili waved her hand with a look of utter despair: "Go ahead and have them! I don't care how many you have."

Alright, if we can't afford to mess with her, we might as well avoid her. This woman isn't in a good mood, let's retreat.

Li Wei, looking dejected, left with a few words: "People should learn to be content and not have excessive desires. As long as you have enough to eat and drink, what's the point of having so much money? Being unworthy of your position will only bring you bad luck and shorten your lifespan. I'm going out for a stroll; you can think about it yourself."

Then they ran away in a flash.

As Li Wei walked out to the roadside, he looked at the traffic with a sense of bewilderment, lit a cigarette, and silently squatted down.

Wouldn't it be better to live a peaceful and uneventful life? Why do people have to struggle so hard, always striving to climb higher and stepping on the weak?

Is all that hard work, with the increase in savings, just to prove that you are better than others?

What is strength?

Is true happiness the result of earning more money than most people can achieve in a lifetime?

Just to get others to see them, they say a flattering word that they don't know if it's true or not.

Does this demonstrate the difference in intelligence? And does it bring psychological pleasure?

Or they scheme and plot to climb the social ladder, using the enslavement of others to demonstrate their authority and the power to take lives at will to show their own superiority.

Is this what they call the meaning of life?

Li Wei took a deep drag of his cigarette, idly exhaling smoke rings as he watched them drift away in the wind.

We are just ordinary people, and this is not an era where heroes emerge. Can't we just live an ordinary life?

I tossed away the cigarette butt and lit another, listening to music drifting from nearby: "All the glory of yesterday has become a distant memory, half a lifetime has been spent toiling away..."

Suddenly, a sentence popped into my mind: Men conquer women by conquering the world, and women conquer the world by conquering men.

Li Wei smiled bitterly. I am so insignificant, I have nothing, yet I am complacent. So it turns out I can't let her experience the joy of conquering the world!

She muttered to herself, "Heh heh heh, is that so, Lili?"

Suddenly, he started yelling along with the music: "Look at success and failure, life is heroic, it's just starting over again..."

Passersby stared in astonishment at the man who suddenly burst into laughter and tears, singing and crying, and quickened their pace to keep their distance, fearing that he might suddenly go berserk and attack them.

Li Wei had excellent self-control. Noticing the surprised looks from passersby, he quickly lowered his head and wiped away his tears.

He stood up quietly, threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out, as if he had let go of something, and turned to leave.

When I got home, I saw Lu Lili lying on the sofa, her eyes glazed over.

"Lili, I know I was wrong. Please give me another chance. If it really doesn't work out, we can just live a simple life together. I'm not good with words and I can't make promises. What's lost can't be regained, but believe me, I can definitely give you a different life."

"Oh!" Lu Lili replied absentmindedly.

Seeing this, Li Wei didn't say anything more and tidied up on his own.

Finally, Lu Lili snapped out of her daze and looked at Li Wei busily working inside and outside in surprise.

Perhaps they had figured something out, because the two of them tacitly agreed not to bring it up again.

The next morning, Li Wei consulted a friend and went directly to a logistics company with his belongings.

A friend recommended an agency that specializes in arranging driver replacements.

The boss is a woman named Jinping, and it's said that the drivers she arranges are rarely docked pay.

Li Wei entered and looked around. The room was about 20 square meters. There were two desks at the far end, and two long wooden benches from an old movie theater were placed along the wall outside.

There were more than twenty small stools piled up in the empty space, and seven or eight people were bragging inside.

Upon seeing the stranger enter, everyone stopped their idle chatter and stared blankly at Li Wei.

Behind the innermost desk, a woman in her early thirties with short hair stood up. She had fair skin and bright, clean eyes. "Hello, are you looking for work or a driver?"

"Find some temporary work for a few days."

"These are all temporary jobs. We get paid per trip, from loading the truck to returning. We're paid for one day's work each time you get on and off. Where did you used to work? How many years have you been doing this?"

Li Wei shook his head: "I've never done it. My driver's license is A2."

Everyone in the room laughed and chimed in, "We all have large vehicle permits here, even Boss Jin, a woman, has one."

"Veteran substitute drivers are all seasoned veterans; it's hard to imagine someone who hasn't done it before."

"If we don't do a good job later, we'll embarrass Boss Jin. She's known for being reliable in this industry."

Jin Ping frowned: "No experience, and unfamiliar with the route, this is going to be difficult. How about reversing?"

"I drive to work all the time, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Jin Ping readily agreed: "Is that so? Talking is just empty talk. Let's see if there's any work to do. First, bring your driver's license and work permit to register and file a record."

Li Wei retrieved the work permit and driver's license that Lu Feng had obtained through a third party.

Jin Ping took it, carefully compared it, and then registered and archived it.

Li Wei watched as Jin Ping not only copied the text into her notebook, but also turned on her computer and muttered about using one-finger typing.

After the process was completed, the documents were returned to Li Wei.

Li Wei asked, "Where can I go?"

To everyone's surprise, Jin Ping said, "We can't arrange it directly. Let's try the parking lot first. Sun, take the keys and go check it out with Old Li."

Li Wei asked angrily, "Why are you even registering if you're not going to do any work?"

"I'm sorry! We also have a responsibility to the car owner. What if we just assign a car to anyone who comes along and they don't know what's going on? Who's responsible if someone steals something after getting on the car without registering?"

"You're trying to trick me. I've given you my information, what if you sell it? What if it gets stolen from my computer? Who can I contact then?"