Chapter 118: Chapter 94: Your Xiaowen is Trying for a Martial Arts University? (2)
They subconsciously treated him as a background character in the glow of Li Changjie’s halo.
Li Wen paid this no mind and walked straight to his parents’ table.
When his parents saw him, their expressions instantly relaxed. With warm smiles, they discreetly made a spot for him.
"Brother Wen~" his cousin, Li Yue, called out softly from across the table.
Li Yue was also in high school, a sophomore at the county’s First Middle School.
Her eyes were sparkling now, and with a mischievous smile, she lowered her voice and asked mysteriously:
"Hey, I heard that in this year’s senior class at Third Middle School, there’s some incredible big shot who’s also named Li Wen? It couldn’t be... you, could it? That car you were in looked a little familiar!"
She had just caught a glimpse of the logo and the sheer class of the exclusive car outside, which reminded her of a rumor recently circulating at her school: "A prodigy from Third Middle School was signed to an A-rank contract by the Fire Hall."
Initially, she had never connected this "Li Wen" to her cousin standing before her, but what she had just seen sparked a bold guess.
Li Wen was taking a sip from the glass of water his mother had handed him. At her words, the corners of his mouth lifted into a faint curve.
He gave Li Yue a mysterious wink. Without confirming or denying anything, he simply raised a finger to his lips in a "shh" gesture and smiled. "What do you think?"
Seeing his reaction only made her eyes shine brighter. Now 80 or 90 percent certain, she excitedly covered her mouth, barely managing to hold back a scream.
’Oh my god! The legendary Li Wen from Third Middle School is really my own ordinary-looking Brother Wen?!’
And so began a lunch with a somewhat fractured atmosphere.
At the main table, glasses clinked as the conversation revolved entirely around Li Changjie, his bright future, and Li Fude’s business.
Relatives from other tables occasionally joined this enthusiastic "praise fest," their words anointing Li Changjie as the rising star and future hope of the Li family.
In contrast, the table where Li Wen and his family sat was remarkably quiet.
Li Wen ate his meal in silence, occasionally answering his parents’ trivial questions while completely ignoring the clamor from the other tables.
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they prepared to head to the ancestral grounds on the outskirts of the city.
The crowd swarmed out of the hotel entrance, and Li Changjie once again became the center of attention.
"Changjie, are you taking your exclusive car?"
"Yes, yes! Let us bask in the glory of our Li family’s genius!"
"A Fire Hall exclusive car! It’s guaranteed to be safe!"
Amidst the flurry of compliments, Li Changjie gave a deliberately modest nod. He opened the car door for his parents to get in first before climbing in himself, which earned another round of praise from the crowd. The vehicle slowly started to move.
"Everyone, hurry up! Follow Changjie’s car!"
"Fourth Brother, how are you guys getting there?" Just then, Li Yue’s father, Li Jianbin—one of the few relatives Li Wen’s family was close to—spoke up.
He saw Li Wen and his parents still standing by the entrance and assumed they didn’t have a car or were planning to hail a ride.
"It’s the Qingming Festival today, so there are a lot of people leaving the city. It’ll be hard to get a ride. Why don’t you squeeze in with us? There’s room for two more in the back."
Li Jianbin’s wife chimed in, "That’s right, Fourth Brother, Sister-in-law. Just squeeze in with your son. Hailing a ride will be too much trouble."
Hearing this, Li Wen showed a gentle but composed smile. "Uncle Jianbin, Auntie, thank you for your kind offer, but there’s really no need to trouble you."
As he spoke, he was already leading his parents toward the side of the hotel entrance where the car had picked him up earlier.
The magnificent silver-gray Fire Hall A-rank exclusive limousine, like a resting lion, slid silently and smoothly to a stop before them once more.
Under the bewildered gazes of Li Jianbin, his wife, and the other Li family members who hadn’t yet dispersed, the driver’s door opened without a sound.
A middle-aged driver with a resolute face, dressed in a smart uniform, stepped out briskly.
His demeanor was respectful yet meticulous. He smiled and nodded at Li Wen.
Then, as everyone watched with astonishment that bordered on paralysis, he pulled open the spacious rear door.
First came the heavy, soundproof, bulletproof door, followed by a view of the wide, independent airline-style seats equipped with ventilation, heating, and massage functions.
He bowed slightly and made a perfectly standard "please get in" gesture.
"Mr. Li, please."
Li Wen smiled at Uncle Jianbin and his wife again, gave a slight nod, and then, with complete ease, helped his mother into the car. After his father was also carefully seated, he gracefully bent down and got in himself.
The luxurious interior, illuminated by the light from the entrance, shimmered with an understated, cool luster.
THUD—
The rear door was closed respectfully by the driver, cutting off all sight of the interior from the outside world.
HUMMM...
A low, powerful surge of energy emanated from the car’s chassis. The vehicle rose silently from the ground and began to float steadily.
In that instant, the very air in front of the hotel seemed to freeze.
Li Jianbin’s mouth hung open, his finger pointing at the departing silver-gray luxury limousine. He was speechless for a long moment.
His wife was equally dumbfounded, nearly dropping the purse she was about to pick up.
The expressions on the faces of the Li family members who had yet to leave were even more spectacular.
They shifted from bewildered disbelief to utter shock, then to a sense of comical absurdity, and finally to a collective, horrified gasp.
"Just now... that... that car...?!"
"It’s a Fire Hall car, and it’s much higher-class than Li Changjie’s."
"It even comes with a personal driver?!"
"Li Wen... What on earth is he?!"
"My heavens! The Li Wen family... are they masters in disguise?!"
A cacophony of gasps, chatter, and even voices cracking with shock erupted. Everyone stared in the direction the silver-gray limousine had disappeared, their eyes nearly popping out of their heads.
Under the impact of this huge contrast, Li Changjie’s family and their exclusive car, which had been basking in endless glory just moments ago, were completely forgotten.
All the previous praise, all the fawning and condescension, now seemed utterly absurd and ridiculous.
Inside the car, Li Wen calmly said to the driver in the front, "Follow the cars ahead to the meeting point at the entrance of the southern ancestral grounds."
"Yes, Mr. Li," the driver replied steadily. The vehicle accelerated smoothly and merged into the flow of traffic.
His father and mother sat on the incredibly comfortable leather seats, feeling the supremely smooth ride, devoid of the slightest vibration.
They looked at the driver’s respectful posture, then at their son beside them, who looked as calm as ever, as if he had just hailed a regular taxi.
Any lingering awkwardness on their faces had vanished completely, replaced by a sense of security, pride, and a dreamy, blissful glow.
As for Li Wen, he leaned back against the soft seat with his eyes half-closed.
The spectacular, rapidly changing expressions of his relatives at the hotel entrance flashed through his mind like a montage.
He didn’t feel the slightest bit of displeasure. Instead, he found it rather... amusing.
A faint sense of pleasure flowed through him—the kind that comes not from deliberate showing off, but from the effortless success of a flex that crushes all competition.
’Compared to the trouble that comes with showing off, this feeling of getting rich quietly, only to reveal my hand at a critical moment and stun everyone... it isn’t so bad, is it?’
The vehicle sped along silently, the scenery on both sides of the road flying by.
「Some time later.」
The Li family’s modest convoy of cars slowly came to a stop on the outskirts of the ancestral grounds, a place that was somewhat desolate yet solemn and dignified.
As the sedans and hover cars parked, people began to get out one by one.
However, a strange silence permeated the air.
Everyone’s gaze, whether intentionally or not, was fixed on the silver-gray hover limousine at the back of the procession. Even among the many modern vehicles, it stood out from the flock with its sleek lines and air of understated luxury.
In the time since they’d left the hotel, rumors about Li Wen had already stirred up a massive storm among the Li family members.
A-rank contract, an exclusive Fire Hall car, the rumored teenage prodigy... these words shattered the fixed impression many had of Li Wen as a "quiet bookworm from an ordinary family."
Speculation, doubt, and disbelief had been brewing, but now, this exclusive vehicle—a rare sight even on the streets of Bluestone City and a symbol of the treatment reserved for the Fire Hall’s top-tier members—
had appeared before their very eyes once more, like a silent, powerful official seal stamping its approval on all those rumors.
