F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 3: Do drivers only need a car and hands?

As was my habit, I first pressed the clutch twice, and the EVO let out a beast-like roar, but then obediently drove away from the parking lot.

But don't get me wrong, the punk-style dad isn't someone who can stay still.

Even without cheers from the audience, his irrepressible desire to perform kept surging with every press of the accelerator. Finally, when he saw the red light ahead, he couldn't help but downshift and rev the engine, doing a few cool heel-and-toe maneuvers, until the young EVO couldn't help but groan.

His father's silly and disturbing behavior seemed to have attracted a lot of disapproving glances from the neighbors, but Shu Long didn't think it was anything particularly shameful; in fact, he found it rather cool.

Initial D and Wangan comics were practically his prenatal education materials. Two years ago, the movie version starring Jay Chou was watched repeatedly by the father and son in the home theater. If he weren't too short, he himself would also like to try it.

Influenced by these racing works, Shu Xiong is almost a fanatical JDM enthusiast. In addition to the two cars he usually drives in his garage, he also has a few classic models stored at a friend's car shop in Guangdong that are not roadworthy and can only be modified by himself, and then occasionally taken to the track for a thrill.

The RX-7, GT-R34, and even the classic Panda Trueno are all available.

However, due to his fascination with Jackie Chan's movies, Shu Xiong also has a strong preference for Mitsubishi products.

It's worth noting that many of these models were never officially sold in China. Shu Xiong went to great lengths to acquire some secondhand items from across the sea through private channels, as well as some semi-scrapped junk, which he then tinkered with and collected as beautiful figurines.

This brings us to the business run by the Shu family.

Shu Hongzhu, the father of Shu Long, is commonly known as Grandpa Shu Long.

After retiring from the military, he joined a state-owned enterprise and finally made it to the management level, but then the state-owned enterprise underwent restructuring. Together with his former boss, he and a few old comrades invested a sum of money and became shareholders themselves.

Originally ambitious, he wanted to start his own car brand, but a few old guys with almost no other cultural background besides repairing cars made the company half dead. Other shareholders, including the original boss, all packed up and ran away. Only Mr. Shu, who, apart from being henpecked, inherited the stubbornness of a Sichuan man, managed to keep the mess going.

Shu Long's paternal grandmother passed away early, and even Shu Xiong himself didn't have much of an impression of his mother.

Fortunately, her second wife was quite business-minded. After some deliberation, she decided to make good use of the well-preserved production equipment in the factory, change her approach, cooperate with other car companies to focus on vehicle assembly and parts processing, then gradually added customized car interior design, and later expanded her business to housekeeping, decoration and renovation. Step by step, she gradually built up her business.

Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long. The new grandmother's health also deteriorated, and it seems that Shu Long never properly called her "Grandma" more than a few times since he could remember. This kind-faced old woman quietly disappeared from his life.

It is precisely because of this business advantage that Shu Xiong was able to obtain parts resources that many people would covet at a relatively low cost, including the EVO 9th generation that the father and son are currently sitting in, which was originally scheduled to be launched in China next year.
Ahem! Got it?
Seeing that he was not far from home, Shu Xiong subconsciously eased off the accelerator, and the engine made a tractor-like "putt-putt" sound at low speed as he carefully slid into his garage.

Shu Long's mother's BMW MINI wasn't parked there. She was supposed to pick up her child today, but it seems she's still busy with work at the factory.

Without his wife's support, Shu Xiong seemed somewhat insecure when facing his father alone.

The fact that he wouldn't even allow his son, Shulong, to touch the steering wheel before he was even old enough shows that this rebellious young man, who is transitioning into middle age, is still, at heart, the obedient kid that his fellow villagers talk about, afraid of both his father and his wife.

You'll soon find out why.

By the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room on the first floor, two furtive figures, one large and one small, crept in. The old man cleared his throat and coughed deliberately.

Hey~ Still pretending you can't hear me?
"You little rascal!"

"Hey, what's up?"

"What's with that tone? Come here!"

The old man suddenly stood up from his sandalwood tea table, which was worth as much as several cars. His figure was already a little hunched, but he was still nearly 1.9 meters tall.

Although his muscles are not as full as they were in his youth, his long-standing habit of exercising, coupled with his broad frame, gives Mr. Shu an aura of imposing authority, like a majestic lion in his twilight years.

"Your Uncle Gan is flying here tonight. It's been a while since we old brothers have gotten together. Go to the supermarket and buy some barbecue and cold rice noodles, and bring back a pair of [something], understand?"

Shu Xiong, with his hands behind his back, looked like a child who had made a mistake, bowing his head and obediently enduring the scolding from his father, but he was not willing to soften his tone at all: "Why make such a big fuss? Old man, a little tea is enough."

Grandpa Shu grabbed the cloth shoes from his feet and pretended to give his son, who was covering his head, a good whack. But instead of a proper fight, he kicked his son in the backside.

"Stop nagging me. Just go when I tell you to. Their whole family is coming."

"Which one?"

Shu Long, who had been hiding to the side without any sense of loyalty, finally couldn't help but peek out, his eyes filled with disbelief.

Upon seeing his eldest grandson, Shu Hongzhu's eyebrows and eyes visibly softened.

"Mengmeng is here too! You two kids have a great time tomorrow."

Mengmeng
Shu Long, with his short bob haircut tied in two small braids, glared at the little girl in front of him with a sour face. She was wearing a denim overall jumpsuit.

From an adult's perspective, Gan Mengning is definitely pretty, cute, and obedient, but Shu Long can only see two words clearly written on her delicate, pink face—"disgusting!"
What is the most crucial thing?
That brat has gone from being half a head taller than him to almost a head taller now!
What exactly do they eat to grow like this?! Feed?

"How come you've gotten even shorter in the past six months?"

"I want you to take care of it!"

"Little one."

"Get out of here! My mom?"

No one came to Shu Long's aid. The desperate boy turned around and saw that his mother was already chatting with Gan Mengning's parents, while Shu Xiong was stiffly dealing with their inexplicable enthusiasm.

[Perhaps some of you have already guessed what kind of strange role this annoying girl will play in my life later on, but—]

I really, really hate her right now!

[She takes advantage of her ability to charm and get all the adults to side with her; she always snatches half of the snacks my mom buys for me; every time it's not my fault, I'm the one who has to apologize whenever she cries.]

Most importantly, she's taller than me!

Grandpa Gan was one of Grandpa Shu's old comrades-in-arms who went into business together back then. At the time, no matter what he did, he couldn't persuade this stubborn old man to give up. Helpless, he returned to his hometown of Fujian through a friend's introduction to start his own business.

After he became successful, he wanted to come back and help his old buddies out, but who would have thought that they had already gone from nobody to stardom. The fact that the Shu family's business is thriving today is largely thanks to Old Master Gan's help and introductions, which helped maintain many relationships in Guangdong and Guangxi. Looking back now, perhaps it was a good thing.

Although the two old men were true brothers who had fought side by side on the battlefield, doing business together inevitably involved the distribution of profits, and over time they might even turn against each other.

However, the close relationship between the older generation does not mean that the younger generation will have the same relationship.

Because he lacked maternal love from a young age and Shu Hongzhu was always busy with business, Shu Xiong's childhood could hardly be called happy.

In the early years, the composition of the local population in Yunnan was very complex. It is difficult to say whether there were any established criminal gangs, but there were definitely no shortage of violent thugs.

If you want to make a business here, you either need some kind of real talent or some connections.

Shu Long had heard his father mention that back then, people had to hide a baton in their sleeves when they went out. Even the scar on his brow was from when someone ambushed him and hit him with a beer bottle. To this day, you can still see a centipede-like scar on the web of his left hand from holding a knife.

Fortunately, most of the brothers who fought alongside Grandpa Shu were tough guys, and they also had some connections with the military, which allowed them to gradually gain a foothold here.

However, unlike his business associates, Shu Xiong had no interest in the decadent lifestyle of extravagance and was instead captivated by the parts and tools in the factory workshop.

From standing by and observing the master craftsmen's skills, to the boss's son secretly dismantling a customer's engine, and finally even piecing together a bunch of parts from who-knows-where to assemble a beat-up car and drive it on the road, he almost made Old Master Shu sick with anger.

Until he met Zhang Xin, a college student who was recommended by an acquaintance to work and intern at the factory, who was also Shu Long's mother, Shu Xiong's world seemed to have some other colors besides gray.

Except for racing!

Haigeng Park has pavilions that provide facilities for visitors to barbecue. Charcoal can be provided, but visitors need to bring their own food.

Under the watchful gaze of Grandpa Shu, Shu Xiong busied himself feeding everyone present, while Zhang Xin only fed him a few bites.

Shu Long wasn't full either. Unlike his father, he simply couldn't compete with the tall and strong Gan Mengning.
That wretched, disgusting woman!

After a hearty meal, Grandpa Shu started a card game, Zhang Xin approached Gan Mengning's mother to continue their seemingly endless conversation, and the idle Grandpa Xiong listlessly poked at the corn that had been sitting on the charcoal fire for half a day without any movement. After thinking for a moment, he simply stood up and prepared to take the two children to the park to find some fun activities.

"What?! Can't we just leave her out?"

"No way! Your old man is already so miserable, how can I make you feel comfortable?"

Shu's father wore a malicious smile, and Gan Mengning next to him smiled in exactly the same way.

"What are you laughing at? Didn't you realize my dad was insulting you too?"

Gan Mengning turned her head suspiciously, but was immediately won over by the milk popsicle that Shu Xiong handed her, and raised her eyebrows triumphantly at Shu Long.

There aren't many recreational facilities in Haigeng. Most of them are childish things that Shu Long thinks are only suitable for entertaining three- or four-year-old children. Gan Mengning is quite rare to find that she and Shu Long agree on this point.
Are these things really that childish?

Gan Mengning began to doubt herself. It was a rare opportunity to get out and relax after her endless extracurricular classes. In fact, there were quite a few things she wanted to try.

In my memory, I actually found quite a few things interesting when I was a child. Didn't I have a lot of fun in Shulong back then?
"Hey, there's a maze here, would you like to go in and try it out?"

Shu Xiong's words instantly piqued Shu Long's interest, and he provocatively raised the eyebrow that Bingbang had been teasing earlier back at Gan Mengning.

[Photographic memory]: 63%.

He had never played in a maze before, but he was quite confident in his memory. There was a map of the maze hanging at the entrance, and he couldn't wait to see Gan Mengning's embarrassed expression!
"So, how about it, are you in or not?"

"What are you gambling?"

The loser treats the winner to an ice pop!

Gan Mengning rolled her eyes speechlessly. Just how obsessed was this guy with that popsicle?
Immature man!
"Just bet!"

To easily navigate a maze, simply memorizing a map is not enough.

With similar scenes everywhere, most people's mental images would clash with reality after a few turns.

Shu Long, who completed the maze in less than two minutes, probably didn't realize that his keen spatial and directional perception, as well as his clear mental model of the terrain and real-time calculations, were the key factors.

Shu Long waited outside for a full ten minutes, striking poses until his expression became stiff, before finally seeing Gan Mengning walk out unhurriedly.

"So slow! Are you a snail? Did you find it by some stupid 'left-hand rule' method?"

"Tch, what do you know? This is called a skill, a method only smart people use."

Shu Long was somewhat disappointed that he didn't see the other party get the short end of the stick, but it didn't matter. As the victor, all of Gan Mengning's words would be automatically regarded as stubbornness and sophistry.

This is the method of achieving mental victory.

"Remember my popsicle!"

"I'll buy it for you when I pass by the store, okay? It's no big deal. Where's your uncle?"

"My dad? I haven't seen him. Could he still be here?"

Shu Long suddenly felt a little uneasy about his father's intelligence and was about to go back into the maze for another spin when he saw Shu Xiong standing excitedly at a crossroads not far away, waving at them.

"When did you come out?"

"I didn't go in. Come with me for a bit. I found something fun over there." Shu Xiong looked very excited and half-chased, half-pushed the two little ones forward.

How could her own father be so shameful? Couldn't he be a little more composed like Gan Mengning's father?
Shu Long exchanged a glance with the "annoying" person next to him, and mouthed the word "popsicle" in front of him, only to be met with a disgusted eye roll in return.

(End of this chapter)