Dragons begin with courage

Boom! Lightning flashed and thunder roared, and the rain intensified. Liu Miaomiao was right; this was no ordinary rain, but a typhoon. If you were to get caught in the rain, it wouldn't just be a matter of getting soaked.

Despite the noise of the rain and the distance, Lu Mingfei caught the words with exceptional clarity. Like a startled rabbit, he darted left and right, then back to confirm—the empty corridor was indeed empty except for him. He incredulously raised a finger and poked his nose, his usually somewhat wilted face a mixture of astonishment and a comical hope: "Me?"

The gesture was a bit silly, but strangely it dispelled the inexplicable tension in Chu Zihang's heart. He nodded, raising his voice slightly, loud enough to pierce through the wind and rain: "Yeah. My dad... will come to pick me up, he can give you a ride."

The moment the word "Dad" left his lips, Chu Zihang's throat tightened slightly. This title was too complicated for him—he had two "fathers," one wealthy, and the other… He thought of that always smiling man.

He said no more, took out his phone, paused for a moment on the screen, and then carefully typed a line: "It's raining heavily, can you come pick me up?" He read it over silently to make sure the tone was normal, neither overly intimate nor distant, before sending it.

*Ring*, a text message reply. That person's tone was always so cheerful: "Okay, okay, no problem! Wait for me at school, I'll be there in a bit!"

Chu Zihang quickly deleted the text message records, as if erasing a secret that shouldn't exist. "Wait a minute, I'll finish my cleaning duty." His tone returned to calm as he picked up the bucket and splashed the entire bucket of water onto the blackboard. The water cascaded down like a waterfall as he grabbed the eraser and began scrubbing vigorously.

Lu Mingfei's mind was still racing: That influential figure, Chu Zihang, actually offered me a ride?

He looked down at himself—old sneakers, a soaked school uniform, and the label of being a dependent.

Feelings of inferiority and flattery were churning inside me at the same time.

A short while later, a deep horn sound pierced through the sound of rain. Chu Zihang turned his head and saw that the rain curtain outside the window was split open by two bright beams of light, so bright that it was hard to open one's eyes.

It was a pure black sedan, with two "M"s stacked in a mountain shape inside the triangular logo on the front – Maybach 62.

"Maybach!" Chu Zihang was indifferent to cars, but Lu Mingfei almost exclaimed in surprise. How many boys this age don't yearn for top-of-the-line luxury cars?

The windshield wipers swung wildly left and right, barely clearing the view. The middle-aged man in the car waved vigorously at Chu Zihang, his smile so bright it seemed to dispel the gloom in the sky. Chu Zihang couldn't understand why this man could always smile so carefree.

He slung over his shoulder the Hermes bag that his so-called "father" had brought back from London, locked the door, and walked over to Lu Mingfei. Lu Mingfei was staring intently at the car, his eyes filled with curiosity, but also a kind of restrained apprehension.

The car door opened, and a huge black umbrella emerged, its obsequious manner identical to that of the driver from Liu Miaomiao's family. Chu Zihang didn't even glance at the person holding the umbrella, only saying two words to Lu Mingfei: "Let's go."

"Oh, oh." Lu Mingfei responded subconsciously and quickly followed, looking somewhat flustered.

Fortunately, Liu Miaomiao had already left. If she had seen the boy she had rejected turn around and invite him back... the scene would have been quite awkward.

"Who is he?" Chu Tianjiao looked at the boy who had appeared next to his son, unable to hide his surprise.

Chu Zihang paused for a moment, then said, "My junior brother."

Lu Mingfei nodded hurriedly toward the driver's seat, his manner somewhat timid and polite: "Hello, driver."

"Driver...?!" Chu Tianjiao's eyes widened for a moment, his expression froze, then turned into a helpless, awkward smile. What could he say? Lu Mingfei was right, he was just... a little unwilling to be treated as a "driver" on this day.

Chu Zihang didn't explain, but ducked and rushed into the rain, nimbly slipping into the back seat. Seeing this, Lu Mingfei followed suit, abandoning his symbolic umbrella and scrambling in after him. Chu Tianjiao shook his head and smiled, then put the umbrella away, got into the driver's seat, and handed it to the back: "Put it in the door handle; there's a special hole for umbrellas there."

"I know, you said that." Chu Zihang took it and casually put it in the box, then turned his gaze to the window.

Lu Mingfei, however, felt as if he had discovered a new continent. He carefully touched the exceptionally high-quality seat beneath him and leaned back gently. The perfect support and rebound conveyed a kind of "wonder" that he had never experienced before, a feeling that came from money and craftsmanship.

"Let's go." Chu Tianjiao said, glancing at his son's wet shoulders in the rearview mirror. "Your clothes are wet, aren't they? Turn on the back seat heaters? You'll know how comfortable they are once you try them!" He started showing off his "treasure" again, as was his habit.

Lu Mingfei's ears perked up, and a small sense of anticipation rose in his heart.

"No need, I'll change at home." Chu Zihang's words gently shattered that expectation. Lu Mingfei immediately composed himself, sitting quietly and maintaining a polite and sensible distance. His life as a dependent had long since taught him to read people's expressions and not overstep boundaries.

"Okay." Chu Tianjiao cleared his throat and announced loudly to the center console, "Start!"

The screen lit up instantly, a cool, bluish light swirling across the instrument panel. The deep, powerful roar of the engine was perfectly isolated from the outside of the car; inside, there was only a barely perceptible vibration, signaling the awakening of the 5.5-liter V12 heart.

"A car worth nine million, no key needed. Only three people in the world can start it—me, the boss, and guess who the other one is?" Chu Tianjiao's tone was brimming with undisguised smugness.

"I don't care." Chu Zihang's voice was completely calm.

But Lu Mingfei didn't care! Nine million! This number made his heart pound, almost suffocating him. He even involuntarily pulled his feet back, afraid that his muddy shoes would dirty this mobile "treasure trove." Nine million... how many houses like his uncle's could that buy?

Despite being met with indifference, Chu Tianjiao remained unperturbed, skillfully shifting gears and accelerating. The Maybach let out a low growl, tracing a graceful arc across the empty playground, cutting through the heavy rain like a sharp blade, and heading towards the school gate. The gatekeeper stood ramrod straight in his booth, his eyes following the car, his face filled with awe at the immense wealth.

Chu Zihang didn't understand this kind of reverence. On a rainy day like this, all he wanted was a car willing to pick him up, and someone who remembered to come. Whether it was a Maybach, a Mercedes, or even the most ordinary QQ, or even a domestic car, it didn't matter.

"It's raining so hard, and your mom didn't even come to pick you up."

"Luckily I didn't go to a car wash this morning. It's contactless, and it costs 80 yuan a time, so it would be a waste of money to get it washed."

Chu Tianjiao gripped the steering wheel with one hand, muttering to himself as if he wanted to pour out all the words he had been holding back for a long time during this short journey.

Chu Zihang hadn't said a word since he got on the train. He turned on the radio, letting the announcer's flat, emotionless voice fill the carriage, as if only in this way could he shut out the nagging and find a moment of peace.

Lu Mingfei, however, pricked up his ears, keenly catching fragments of information from the rambling: the "driver" who drove a nine-million-dollar luxury car, who didn't seem well-off, and whose car belonged to his boss... Combining this with the rumors at school about Chu Zihang having a "rich stepfather," he quickly pieced together a vague truth—this prominent figure beside him had a family as complex as his own.

After all, although Lu Mingfei is unlucky, he is not stupid; on the contrary, he is very perceptive.

This discovery gently tugged at something deep inside him. He slowly curled up, gazing blankly out the window at the world rushing past, distorted by the rain. He thought of himself, of his parents who only existed in remittance slips and occasional phone calls. "Abandonment" might be too cruel; they had their reasons. But at this moment, in this luxurious yet unfamiliar carriage, he felt like a forgotten puppy on a rainy night street corner, unable to find its way home, unable to see his own house.

Chu Zihang turned his gaze from the window to the boy curled up beside him. Perhaps it was this faint yet familiar aura, as if abandoned by the whole world, that had just pierced through the rain and drawn him in. He, too, had once been "let go" by a father, pushed into another glamorous yet distant family.

That deep-seated loneliness, like an invisible thread, quietly connected two originally parallel souls at this moment.