Reborn: I'll Never Fail My Childhood Sweetheart Again

The three of them didn’t stay in Shenghai, they drove back to Lin’an the same day.

The two cities are quite close, and after the highways were connected in later years, the distance is less than 180 kilometers.

The highway between Jiaxing and Lin’an was already open, although the two cities’ highway hadn’t been completed yet.

The Hangyong Expressway was the first highway constructed in Zhejiang Province, passing through Jiaxing, Lin’an, Shaoxing, and Ningbo, with a total length of 248 kilometers. It was fully operational by the end of ’98.

There were still very few highways in the country at the time, unlike the extensive highway network in later years where even small counties and towns had highways.

Zhejiang Province was one of the developed provinces in China with plenty of plain areas, making road construction easier and highway construction relatively fast.

Back in Jiaxing, Su Zelin called Brother Xiao Yang and Kang Baohong in the car ahead, then he turned onto the Hangyong Expressway, taking this opportunity to have some fun.

During the probation period, driving on the highway is prohibited mainly for safety reasons. However, Su Zelin was experienced, so this wasn’t an issue for him. Of course, if caught, he’d still be fined and ordered to exit the nearest highway entrance since the traffic police wouldn’t know he was a reborn and experienced driver; they have to follow the rules.

As for Kang Baohong, he was a true rookie, being led by Brother Xiao Yang to take the old road.

Once he hit the highway, Su Zelin let loose, stepping hard on the accelerator. The engine roared like a beast, yet without the legendary push-back feeling.

The Santana’s 0-100 acceleration was about thirteen seconds, considered very slow in later years, especially for someone like Su Zelin, who had driven cars accelerating 0-100 in three seconds, leaving him unimpressed.

Expecting it to have a significant push-back feeling was asking too much of the car.

It slowly climbed to a speed of 130, and the car was steady; however, at higher speeds, it started to feel a bit unstable.

Since the car body is only slightly over 1.1 tons, it was too light; maybe if it carried a few more people, it would feel better.

Anyhow, this was the first car owned in this life, making future travel or returning home much more convenient and even adding a bit of style.

After a casual experience, he found there really wasn’t much speed and passion; Zelin soon eased off the accelerator back to 100 km/h.

First, to comply with traffic regulations, and second, because the new car shouldn’t be driven too fast during the break-in period.

Maintaining this speed to Lin’an, by the time he exited the highway and checked the fuel consumption, it was acceptable—not low, but not very high either.

In this era, people buying cars didn’t pay much attention to fuel consumption. Car bodies were expensive, fuel was cheap, so in comparison, the cost of fuel wasn’t considered much.

In later years, as small cars became cheaper, consumers began to consider fuel consumption more and more, and by the time some cheap cars were scrapped, the fuel costs could exceed the car’s purchase price.

Especially buying a notorious gas guzzler, it would be outrageous. With a full tank, it might circle a gas station once, and driving it to the point of scrapping could mean fuel costs several times the vehicle price. It’s intimidating, isn’t it?

After leaving the toll station, he parked by the road to call Brother Xiao Yang and Kang Baohong, who were still dozens of kilometers away from Lin’an.

They were on the old road, and with Kang Baohong being a novice, Brother Xiao Yang didn’t dare to drive too fast, prioritizing safety.

Su Zelin didn’t wait for them and drove straight back to the Finance College.

Another geographical advantage of the non-campus popular business area was apparent; there were empty spaces around the store, making it easy for small cars to park anywhere.

As New Era became more famous, if city leaders came to inspect or something, accommodating ten or eight official vehicles around the digital store wouldn’t be an issue.

In contrast, if inside the campus business district, you could only park far away and walk there. Even small trucks unloading goods had to carry them several dozen meters.

New Era had none of these problems; large trucks could drive right to the warehouse doors, saving a lot of effort.

The appearance of this Santana caused a minor sensation among the staff. The store wasn’t very busy after the New Year holiday rush, and many people came out to watch the excitement.

"Boss, did you buy a car?"

Gray Wolf looked at the Santana with bright eyes and asked.

He was a technical department staff who dealt with electronic equipment all day and was very interested in machinery.

"No, the company bought an official car. Today, I went with President Yang and President Kang to Shenghai to pick it up,"

Su Zelin smiled lightly.

"Wow, you even have an official car!"

Gray Wolf was instantly filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment.

This guy in front of him, a store manager of the digital store, was only eighteen, yet already at the peak of his life upon coming of age.

"It’s just an official car, isn’t it? Many companies and businesses have them. We at New Era are at least a major chain digital store in the provincial capital. How could we manage without a business car?"

Su Zelin modestly boasted, then said to Gray Wolf, "What, want to try it out?"

"I do!"

The tech guy stroked the hood. It hadn’t been parked long, so he could still feel the engine’s warmth.

The temperature of a car engine could more easily stir a young man’s heart than the warmth of a woman’s body. Gray Wolf was already itching to go.

"Then let’s drive out for a try tonight. Haven’t you been trying to impress a girl lately? Driving this car to pick her up will definitely be twice the result with half the effort!"

Su Zelin handed the keys to Gray Wolf.

This fellow had a driver’s license and had driven a van while working at the computer city before.

The Santana at the Finance College store was nominally at his disposal, but Zelin wasn’t going to be stingy.

He regarded cars lightly, having lent friends supercars worth millions in his previous life, let alone an old Santana.