How A Ride-Hailing Driver Comes To Dominate The World? [EN]: Chapter 99

Today, a Fight Is the Only Solution—What’s Wrong with a Ride-Hailing Driver Having Some Money? (1)

Originally, Yuan Xiaozao wanted to invite Yang Chen to see a movie, but he was tired after a day of work and hadn’t had a chance to rest. Yang Chen, feeling a bit sleepy himself, declined her offer.

Soon, Yang Chen dropped Yuan Xiaozao off at the entrance of her apartment complex.

Yuan Xiaozao even suggested he come up for a glass of water, but he declined again.

Watching Yang Chen drive away in his Bugatti, Yuan Xiaozao lingered, lost in thought.

*I wonder if such a handsome and wealthy guy has a girlfriend?*

*Even if he doesn’t, there must be tons of girls who are after him…*

With more people traveling on the weekends, Yang Chen got up early to start driving.

With his current wealth, he no longer *needs* to drive for a ride-hailing platform to make money.

However, he still wanted to drive more because only by earning more good reviews could he avoid being penalized by low overall ratings and restricted from accepting orders in the future. He needed to maintain his account standing.

*When he gets big enough, he’ll just buy out DiDi [China’s largest ride-hailing app] and demand bad reviews to exploit system bugs every day, hmph!*

Around 8:30 AM, Yang Chen received an order to go to the high-speed train station.

Yang Chen arrived at the entrance of the residential complex where the passenger was located and then called the passenger.

The first time, no answer.

The second time, still no answer.

Yang Chen had to wait three minutes before calling again, and finally, it went through.

Yang Chen asked, “Hello, this is DiDi Chuxing. I’ve been waiting at the entrance of the residential complex you specified for almost five minutes. Where are you?”

Passenger: “Coming, coming, right away, wait a bit longer.”

Yang Chen: “Okay, I’ll wait another five minutes then.”

After driving for a long time, Yang Chen has become numb to passengers who have no sense of time. He’d learned to manage his expectations.

If he really dwelled on these things, he would spend every day in anger.

Normally, when passengers say “right away,” it usually means at least five minutes, and some slowpokes might even take ten minutes.

This passenger was even more impressive, making Yang Chen wait a full 15 minutes before showing up.

Seriously, only a driver like Yang Chen, who doesn’t rely on driving for a living, could tolerate this. Any driver who depends on this for income would have canceled the order and left long ago.

There were two customers, a man and a woman, probably a couple.

The woman carried a small travel bag, and the man carried a suitcase that was neither too big nor too small.

Yang Chen opened the trunk, waiting for them to put their things in and get in the car.

But!

The man didn’t put the suitcase in the trunk; instead, he placed it on the side of the road and then got into the car with his wife.

As soon as the male passenger got into the car, he said in a commanding tone, “Driver, go put the suitcase in the trunk for me.”

Yang Chen was dumbfounded and quickly asked, “Why didn’t you just put it in yourself? The trunk was already open.”

The male passenger replied, “I can’t handle it; you go put it in.”

Yang Chen, feeling annoyed, replied, “If you can’t handle it, how do you know I can? If you can’t handle it, you could have said something, and I would have helped you lift it in. But you just put it down and ordered me to put it in—that’s not right.”

The female passenger chimed in, “What’s wrong with that? Aren’t you supposed to serve the passengers? What’s the big deal about putting in a suitcase?”

Yang Chen: “I am here to serve the passengers, but I only need to take the passengers from the starting point to the destination. In principle, I don’t need to provide other services. If your suitcase is too heavy to lift, you can say

Today, a Fight Is the Only Solution—What’s Wrong with a Ride-Hailing Driver Having Some Money? (2)

something, and we can lift it together. If *you* can’t handle it, you get in and tell *me* to get out and handle it—how do you know I can handle it alone?”

The male passenger: “I’m a vice president of a company; you want *me* to lift a suitcase?”

Yang Chen laughed, a helpless laugh.

“Dude, am I missing something? What does being a vice president have to do with putting in a suitcase? Shouldn’t you put in your own things? If you can’t lift it, you can ask me for help, but you get in and order me to put it in—that’s not right,” Yang Chen replied.

The female passenger: “We’re in a hurry! You’ve already wasted time talking!”

If it were when Yang Chen first started as a ride-hailing driver, he definitely wouldn’t have taken such idiotic customers.

But after doing this for a while, he’s seen all kinds of weirdos, and his tolerance has improved… somewhat.

Yang Chen unbuckled his seatbelt, got out of the car, picked up the suitcase, and put it in the trunk.

Yang Chen got back in the car, buckled his seatbelt, and said, “Dude, that suitcase weighs at most 20 pounds, and you’re telling me you can’t handle it?”

The male passenger: “I told you, I’m a vice president of a company; there’s no reason for me to do dirty work.”

Awesome!

Yang Chen didn’t want to waste any more words with this idiot and quickly started the car to go to the high-speed train station.

But because going to the high-speed train station from here requires crossing districts, it takes quite a bit of time.

Less than five minutes after driving, the two started chattering.

The female passenger: “Driver, how much longer until we get there?”

Yang Chen: “According to the navigation, it’ll be about 45 minutes.”

The male passenger: “That’s so long! That won’t work; our train leaves in 40 minutes. You have to get us there within 30 minutes, leaving us about 10 minutes to check in and board.”

Yang Chen: “I’ll try to be fast, but I can’t guarantee we’ll get there in about 30 minutes.”

At this moment, the light ahead turned yellow, so Yang Chen slowed down to wait.

The male passenger: “Hey, why are you stopping? Go through it!”

Yang Chen: “Dude, it’s a red light!”

The male passenger: “It was a yellow light just now! You could have stepped on the gas and gone through!”

Yang Chen: “There are cars in the waiting area; I can’t even get halfway through if I step on the gas. What if I get stuck in the middle?”

The male passenger: “Then run the red light! I’m in a hurry!”

Yang Chen: “Are you kidding me? How could I deliberately run a red light?”

The male passenger: “If you’re afraid to run red lights, then what are you driving for?”

Yang Chen looked back at him, wondering how this guy grew up to be so big and still be so clueless.

The light turned green.

Yang Chen intentionally sped up, but soon encountered another red light.

The male passenger: “Why are you stopping again? Go through it! I’m in a hurry! My high-speed train ticket cost over a thousand yuan [~140 USD]. If I miss the train, will you pay for it?”

Yang Chen: “I waited for you for 19 minutes at the entrance of your residential complex. If you had any sense of time, you would have had plenty of time to get to the high-speed train station. You dawdled at home for so long, and now you want me to run red lights all the way. You don’t want to live, but I don’t want to die.”

The female passenger: “How are you talking? Is this your customer service attitude?”

Yang Chen: “Isn’t my customer service attitude good enough? If it were any other driver today, they would have canceled your order long ago. If they hadn’t canceled

Today, a Fight Is the Only Solution—What’s Wrong with a Ride-Hailing Driver Having Some Money? (3)

the order, they would have kicked you out of the car when you were acting like big shots with your luggage. Don’t you know how annoying your behavior is?”

The light turned green.

The male passenger: “Don’t bother arguing with him; getting to the train is what’s important. We’ll give him a bad review when we get there and complain about his terrible customer service.”

Not long after, they approached a cross-district toll station.

Because the cars in front were slowing down, Yang Chen also slowed down.

The female passenger: “What are you doing? Are you doing this on purpose? Why are you slowing down? If you don’t know how to drive, let *him* drive, okay?”

The male passenger: “Yeah! If you don’t know how to drive, get out; I’ll drive!”

Yang Chen: “Are you kidding me? How could I let you drive? Who’s responsible if something happens? Can’t you see the toll station ahead?”

The male passenger: “Isn’t there space? Just cut in! Don’t you even know that?”

Yang Chen: “This is the ETC lane [Electronic Toll Collection], I’ll be cutting in front of someone else if I cut in!”

The male passenger: “What’s wrong with cutting in? I’ve seen a lot of people on Douyin [TikTok in China] using ETC without paying! You’re just deliberately delaying us! If we miss our train, you’ll pay for our tickets! I’ve never seen such a timid and cowardly driver!”

“Damn it!” Yang Chen cursed angrily and pulled over to the side of the road.

“Damn it! Today, my anger has been ignited; we have to fight! Get out of the car! Now!” Yang Chen said angrily, unbuckling his seatbelt and getting out of the car.

Yang Chen went to the back, opened the car door, grabbed the male passenger’s arm, and pulled him out.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the male passenger held onto the front seat with his other arm, refusing to get out.

The female passenger quickly got out of the other side of the car and shouted towards the toll station, “Help! Murder! Help! The DiDi driver is killing someone!”

As luck would have it, there were traffic police on duty at the toll station.

Hearing the female passenger’s shouts, the traffic police and toll station staff quickly ran over at full speed.