F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 69 completely falls apart (5K5)

Gan Mengning went to class today, and as soon as she got out of the elevator, she saw the two of them staring at each other.

The story about my roommate recommending her childhood friend as her idol.

Simply enclose the above statement of fact in quotation marks, and the events unfolding before your eyes immediately seem to have the feel of a light novel. Shu Long's true identity is no longer important. He Xuanyi, a deep otaku culture enthusiast, now only feels satisfied with this book.

Torture is necessary, but not now. The lobby is only so big, and the level of awkwardness in the air right now seems a bit too high.

Meeting Shu Long without any prior warning, Gan Mengning seemed more terrified than delighted.

A full afternoon of classes left her physically and mentally exhausted.

Because she was nearsighted, she could only sit in the front row of the classroom. Even though she was already a college student, she still sat there nervously for nearly four hours, just like when she was in high school, not daring to take out her phone.

Before getting off the elevator, she had even prepared a tearful face to complain to He Xuanyi. Who would have thought that after half a year apart, when they met again, she would show her most pathetic side to the other person.

I hope I don't have any eye boogers on my face right now? I don't think I washed my hair before going out today.
"wait for me a while!"

Gan Mengning, with her face buried in her hands, rushed into the house along with He Xuanyi. The same door had kept Shu Long out for the second time today. After a few seconds, it cautiously opened a crack and a pitiful little head peeked out.

"Would you like to come in and sit for a while?"

"If it's convenient, that's fine too."

"Don't look around aimlessly, there's nothing inconvenient about it."

She had only spoken half a sentence when Gan Mengning seemed to suddenly remember something. She turned her head and glanced into the room, hurriedly adding, "Wait a moment!" before shutting Shu Long out again.

There was rustling inside for about five minutes, interspersed with the panicked exclamations of two girls. After a while, Shulong was finally put inside.

I'd heard online before that many girls who live alone have messier rooms than boys.

When Shu Long came in, at first glance it seemed okay, except that there was a sheet covering a sofa in the corner of the living room for some reason, and there was a very suspicious bulge underneath.

Just from the lines etched on the surface of the bed sheet, one can already imagine the appalling state of the contents underneath.

"Would you like something to drink?"

"Let's not drink anymore. It's getting late, shall we go out and get something to eat?"

"Um, why don't you have a drink? Go ahead and have one?"

What's going on here? Is something fishy going on?

Only then did Shu Long properly examine his childhood sweetheart. The [Core of Synergy] worked at the worst possible time, and its built-in ability to read people's expressions allowed him to notice the girl's slight embarrassment.

"Okay, okay, what do you have here? I'll get it myself. You go and pack it up."

Shu Long put the gift box, which weighed more than ten kilograms, aside, got up, and walked towards the refrigerator. Gan Mengning followed him closely like a little shadow.

"There are a few cans of Coke and Sprite in the fridge, and a carton of orange juice. This looks like it's been sitting around for a while, so you'd better not drink it. And... wait a minute, I remember you racers need to strictly control your weight, right? Maybe you should just drink water?"

"I'm on winter break now, sister. How can you be even more heartless than my physical trainer?"

"Then you should drink this; it looks more nutritious!"

After saying that, Shu Long was given an opened carton of milk and pushed back onto the sofa.

"Wait a minute, I'm going to take a shower. I've been cooped up in the classroom all day."

Shu Long stared blankly as the familiar little figure ran back to the bedroom with a "thump thump thump" sound. After a while, it rushed into the bathroom with a stack of clean clothes in its slippers that felt like walking on poop, and subconsciously lifted the milk carton and took a sip.

Hmm~ Why does it smell like the fridge? How long has it been sitting there?

I picked it up and glanced at the date. It was produced the day before yesterday, so it was probably opened this morning but not finished.

But this girl is even less particular about her life than him; she doesn't even bother to seal the milk with a clip before putting it in the refrigerator.
It was probably just a little bit of sweating. Gan Mengning's battle ended quite quickly, while Shu Long's three-wheeled vehicles hadn't even finished their stamina for the day before she was done.

After standing behind the dragon statue for a while, Gan Mengning, who was already ready, couldn't help but have a strange expression on her face.

"You still play this?"

"Hmm~ Playing? We've been playing for ages."

"I thought you race car drivers were so busy every day, either exercising or studying racing data. This isn't what I imagined at all."

"What, your illusions have been shattered? There's something else. I'm not just playing around. I'm taking care of my family. I have so many wives waiting for me to support them."

"Pooh!"

"what?"

Shu Long looked up in bewilderment and found that Gan Mengning's face was flushed. Was this reaction a little too much?

"Nothing, nothing. Weren't we going to get something to eat?"

Gan Mengning tried hard to control her expression, pretending to look like she "really couldn't understand you bunch of shut-ins".

She plays this game herself, and she even visited this company just two months ago.

During the summer vacation, she submitted her voice sample to the other party, and soon after, she received the good news that she had passed the audition. In the middle of the semester, she even took leave to record a few lines, but the script given to her at the time was said to be a confidential project, and she didn't know if it was a character in this game.

She had originally planned to find an opportunity to reveal some good news to Shu Long in advance, but now she was just waiting for someone to start calling her "wife" indiscriminately before revealing the secret. The look on his face at that time was sure to be quite interesting!
What are we planning to eat tonight?

"How about we go eat hot pot?"

What should I take a girl out to eat on our first date?

If you don't know how, just copy what you've learned from all those melodramatic TV dramas and novels that start with "Urban XXX". If you have the means, of course, take your girlfriend out for a romantic candlelight dinner.

Unfortunately, the concept of Western food has been completely lost in Shulong. Every time I travel with the team as a backup driver, the food provided at the driver's home can be considered "Western food" in a general sense.

It's not that Shulong has any prejudice against the taste of these things, but eating them every meal is really hard to stand.

Gasly and Leclerc even took him to eat at some high-end French restaurants.

The taste was indeed very good for Shu Long, who has a wide acceptance of food, but eating this stuff takes a bit of patience. After struggling for a while, he didn't feel anything in his stomach. When he left the restaurant, he felt like he had wasted two hours of his life. Even though Gasley paid the bill, Shu Long felt a little sorry for him.

It seemed a bit old-fashioned for two young people to sit in a restaurant and order food. Shu Long, who hadn't been to this area much, didn't know what good places to eat were nearby, so it would be more convenient to just choose a hot pot restaurant that was unlikely to disappoint.

Actually, Shulong has been craving the taste of his hometown for a long time.

He couldn't possibly drag Grandpa Shu out to eat this stuff, and it wouldn't be fun to eat alone. He'd been busy buying a car the other day and hadn't thought about it. Now that he'd finally found someone to eat with, he was determined to fulfill this little wish.

The girl over there had changed into a new outfit, and it was the first time Shu Long had ever seen her dressed so exquisitely.

She wasn't wearing makeup, probably because she was short on time and too lazy to do it herself, but she still had a delicate, anime-like quality that seemed to have come to life.

She was wearing a sailor uniform that looked somewhat like a JK (high school girl) style.

The girl wore a short-sleeved white shirt with a blue collar, which occasionally revealed glimpses of her toned waistline as she moved.
Below, she wore a high-waisted, mid-length plaid skirt, and her two slender, white legs were encased in black over-the-knee stockings. They looked so delicate that they seemed almost weightless, yet there was a subtle, tantalizing glimpse of flesh around her pubic area.

Hiss~ Thank you for the treat!

"But aren't you a little cold like this? Why don't you go change?"

"No need! It's such a hassle to have to choose clothes again!"

彳庍口巴.

The weather in Fujian in December is actually quite warm. Shu Long is still wearing short sleeves and shorts. If necessary, he has a jacket in the car that he can put on for someone later.

Given the height difference between them, Gan Mengning could easily wear Shu Long's clothes as a robe to block the wind.
"Oh right, I prepared a gift for you, but I haven't been able to give it to you yet."

Shu Long once again presented his mysterious gift, feeling that he must have been out of his mind to actually get such a thing.

"What could it be? It's not a cake, is it? My birthday was months ago."

"Why don't you open it and take a look?" Gan Mengning went to get some scissors and started taking it apart with a snip-snip sound.

"Ha~"

When people are speechless to the extreme, they really do laugh out loud. Although she didn't make any actual comments, Gan Mengning's eyes clearly conveyed the message, "Are you sick?!"

Can you guess what's inside?
An F1 tire!

"See? I kept my word, didn't I? Getting these tires wasn't easy; I had to go to Uncle Tost, the team leader, to get them. They'll be discontinued next year!"

Because she had been watching F1 races intensively for some time, Gan Mengning became quite interested after hearing what Shu Long said.

"Oh yeah, why is this tire pink? It's kind of cute. I didn't see you using it before?"

Then, Shu Long took this opportunity to give Gan Mengning a good lesson on this topic.

From the differences in tire compounds to the selection of different tire strategies for each race, Gan Mengning, who had just returned from her class, was given another lesson. This time, she listened with great interest, nodding her head in agreement.

Starting next year, tire models will be standardized to red, yellow, and white, with the compound and hardness primarily differentiated by C1 to C5 numbers. The pink, softest tire that Shulong didn't even have a chance to use this year is basically a collector's item from now on.
To be precise, this isn't actually an F1 racing tire.

To protect the tire compound, the tire quotas distributed to all teams after each race are all collected and destroyed by Pirelli, regardless of whether they have been used or not.

The tire that Shulong got from the team is a commemorative tire for display purposes. It is also officially produced by Pirelli. However, apart from the identical appearance, the materials used are actually no different from those of ordinary car tires.

Of course, it's not just the appearance that's the same. This version, which is underweight, is also priced very similarly to the real tire. A single one on the market will not be less than $2000, which is equivalent to RMB 10,000 to 20,000.

"Ten or twenty thousand per tire?! That means that in the last race you ran in Brazil, from practice to the race, the tires alone cost nearly a million RMB?!"

Gan Mengning raised her voice immediately, and the sound of a water glass being knocked over came from He Xuanyi's room next door.

This movement can no longer be simply described as burning money; even throwing money into a fire might not burn as fast as this.

This is just the price of the commemorative tire. If it also had an F1 driver's autograph on it, like Shu Long just scratching it a couple of times with a marker, it could easily fetch 70,000 or 80,000 or even 100,000 yuan.

However, this changed the meaning of the gift, so the person never mentioned it.

The reason he considered this a gift was not only because he had some quirky ideas, but also because he genuinely loved these precious items that he used to generate friction.

The two chatted idly, starting at 6:20 and talking about getting something to eat, and now it was almost 7:30.

If it weren't for the unbearable protest that finally erupted from He Xuanyi's room, the two of them probably would have talked until 9 p.m., and then maybe even ended up at a hotel.

"Are you guys leaving or not? The delivery drivers are about to close for the day!"

"."X2
Since they had decided to have hot pot for dinner anyway, and the point of it was to have a lively atmosphere, and they figured they didn't need a little more time, Gan Mengning simply invited He Xuanyi along as well.

Hot pot is a magical way of dining. It allows you to enjoy ready-made delicious food while also giving diners a unique sense of fun in participating in the cooking process.

They helped each other take care of the ingredients they put into the pot, and before long, the initial awkwardness was gradually broken down and smoothed over.

The meal lasted until almost 10 p.m., and only after one person's curiosity was satisfied and two people's vanity was satisfied did they finally finish the meal, clutching their stomachs.

Several more rounds of dishes were added later, and the two girls spent almost half the time watching Shu Long eat and stuff himself, emptying his sesame oil dipping sauce three times.

It's a rare treat to indulge myself, so let's just consider it a chance to slightly boost my metabolism.

The back seat of the 86 is practically unusable; the girl I was with had to crouch down the whole way to keep up.

After helping to hail a taxi and sending He Xuanyi back, Shu Long turned to look at Gan Mengning, who seemed a little uneasy beside him.

"Walk?"

"Where?"

"I haven't been here much before, so I'll just wander around and find a place to stay first."

As expected!

The girl immediately felt herself drenched in sweat.

That sounds like it could mean that! This guy shouldn't be that frivolous, right?
Isn't this a bit too rushed? It seems like we weren't mentally prepared!
Is there any way to politely refuse without disappointing the other person? In this situation, is it okay to call my aunt for help?
By the time Shu Long parked the car at the Lujiang Hotel, Gan Mengning, whose hands were almost soaked with cold sweat from repeatedly rubbing the hem of her skirt, had imagined at least thirty different possible scenarios for the plot to unfold.

As it turned out, Shu Long simply told her to wait in the car for a little while, and that he would be back soon.

Ugh?
Is this how the plot should go?
Gan Mengning doesn't stay in hotels often. The last time was when she went to Shanghai for a dubbing business trip with her mother. I remember that when you check into a high-star hotel like this, you need to register your identity information, right?

Right, what's there to worry about if I didn't even bring my ID card?
Besides, if someone really had ulterior motives, they wouldn't choose such a reputable hotel.

Hmm! Hmm! How clever I am!
For a moment, she couldn't tell whether she felt relieved or disappointed. Although she was very resistant, Gan Mengning had given herself a good mental pep talk on the way here.

Having just relaxed from the tension, Gan Mengning felt lightheaded all over, and vaguely felt a slight urge to urinate.
Oh no, did I drink too much tea just now?

After struggling internally for a long time, Gan Mengning was just about to take out the car keys and go find a restroom when, unfortunately, Shu Long returned at that moment.

"Come on, I'll take you for a walk?"

".oh."

I'm too embarrassed to speak up, damn it!
But at a time like this, she couldn't show any weakness, so Gan Mengning could only purse her lips and endure it.

He said he was just going out for a stroll, but Shu Long didn't really know what the point was. It was just a routine task his father had assigned him.

These days, it's not like the old days when there were tons of crazy people on the streets, and girls don't necessarily like those rebellious and unruly bad boys anymore.

Gan Mengning also didn't quite understand the point of this drive, because it wasn't exciting at all.

She thought Shu Long wanted to take this opportunity to show off his driving skills, but little did she know that he was just "driving around".

Just a few weeks ago at the Brazilian Grand Prix, this boy next to her was like he didn't care about his life on the track, risking losing control at any moment and bumping into two Martian rovers. Now, Gan Mengning couldn't feel even a trace of driver's fighting spirit in him.

Forget about guts, Gan Mengning now even doubts whether this person's head was made of dough.

The Shulong was driven very smoothly, with each step perfectly timed, and the gear shifts were seamless, with no noticeable jerkiness. It also didn't feel like it was swaying when entering corners.

However, being a sports car, the noise from applying heel and toe oil was particularly loud, and it seemed to be taken as a provocative signal by many cars around.

A Toyota Prado behind them didn't give them any leeway. It floored the gas pedal and sped up to 130 km/h, overtaking the 86 on the right without even using its turn signal, and merged right in front of Shu Long and his group.

Street thugs may never have decreased; they've just put on a disguise.

Gan Mengning's heart jumped, and her little hand instinctively gripped the door handle, fearing that Shu Long's temper might flare up and he would give her a hard time.

Instead, he simply let out a heavy breath and chose to slow down and give way.

"Aren't you angry?"

"I'm so angry! I just wished him a speedy new car and a speedy reincarnation."

Both hands hold steering wheels; on the racetrack, what you hold is speed; on the highway, what you hold is responsibility.

Taking a girl for a drive, this old-fashioned practice, seems to have its reasons for existing.

As you leisurely drive along the ring road, the sound of crashing waves and gentle sea breeze blends with the pleasant engine noise, creating a tranquil symphony that soothes the soul.

They chatted about embarrassing moments from their childhood and funny stories from school life. The shared experiences led them to open up to each other without realizing it, and the ambiguity slowly fermented along the air conditioning duct.

I found a parking spot near the sea, intending to use the moonlight tonight to give him the courage to forge ahead, a courage that might only come once in his life, and to say some lines that might only come once in his life.

As soon as I pulled the handbrake, a small, warm yet slightly cool hand placed itself on the back of my hand.

The warm yellow light made the girl's face flush red, and breaths filled with shyness and unspoken emotions flowed from her slightly parted pink lips.

The atmosphere had gotten so good; everyone thought everything would fall into place naturally, right? But then she suddenly said something like:
"Don't stop here, I need to pee."

　Thank you to Lao Cai Da Wang, Mao Zhai Meng Meng Da, Ma Ming Feng Xiao Xiao, and book friend 20210301106603009146 for the monthly tickets!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)