F1: In Ferrari, Schumacher at the start.

After dinner, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening.

"Oh dear, I'm so full from this meal." Alben patted his round belly, winked at He Muni, and said, "Lily, come with me to the mall across the street to check out that new golf club?"

He Muni understood immediately, took her boyfriend's arm, and winked at Lin Feng and Gu Ailing: "Right, we've eaten too much and need to digest. Let's not be third wheels, we're leaving now!"

As soon as they finished speaking, the perfectly in sync couple disappeared into the surging crowds on the Bund as if they had oil on their feet.

Lin Feng watched the two figures slip away like thieves, and his lips twitched involuntarily: "If Alex had this kind of movement on the track, he wouldn't have been overtaken by Kakuta in the last race."

Gu Ailing chuckled, casually taking off her eye-catching brown sunglasses and hanging them on her collar. She took a deep breath of the damp night air and said, "Let's go. To celebrate your successful resistance to the temptation of braised pork tonight, this princess will condescend to accompany you for a walk."

In early spring in Shanghai, the evening breeze perfectly dissipated the daytime heat.

The two walked side by side on the street dappled with the shadows of the plane trees, slowly strolling towards Xintiandi.

Lin Feng turned his baseball cap upside down, put his hands in his pockets, and walked with a casual and relaxed gait.

Gu Ailing casually kicked at the occasional fallen sycamore leaves by the roadside, her skirt swaying gently in the night breeze.

"How does it feel to play at home?" Gu Ailing turned her head and suddenly asked.

"To be honest?" Lin Feng sighed. "The pressure was so intense that I wanted to rip the steering wheel off and shove it in the team leader's mouth. You didn't see it, but at the sponsor event this afternoon, that brand executive held my hand, his eyes were red, and he said, 'The whole village's hopes are on you.' I was thinking then, if I accidentally crash into the wall at Turn One, should I swim across the Pacific Ocean to escape overnight?"

Gu Ailing didn't laugh at him as usual. She was silent for a few seconds, then simply nodded.

"I understand."

She stopped and turned around, her amber eyes reflecting the neon lights of the street as she looked intently at Lin Feng.

"At the 2022 Winter Olympics, I stood on the big air platform and looked down at the sea of ​​Chinese flags and a massive crowd. It was at that moment that you truly understood that you were not representing yourself, but the expectations of hundreds of millions of people."

The evening breeze ruffled a few strands of her slightly curled long hair, brushing against her fair cheeks. Her tone became very soft, even carrying a rare tenderness: "But when you cross the finish line amidst the cheers of tens of thousands of people, you'll find—all the pressure, at that moment, is nothing."

Lin Feng was slightly taken aback.

He looked at the girl before him. Gone was the aura of a prodigy from the media spotlight; at this moment, she was simply a fellow traveler who understood him, comprehended him, and climbed to the peak under the same extreme pressure.

My heart skipped a beat without warning.

It was a thrill I had never felt before, like a drop of water falling into a calm lake, creating ripples that spread outwards.

He looked into her eyes, and the bustling traffic around them seemed to be muted in that instant.

"You..." Lin Feng began to speak, but his voice was hoarse.

The atmosphere gradually became thick and ambiguous, almost as if pink threads were being drawn in the air—

"Beep beep!"

To avoid pedestrians, a food delivery electric scooter suddenly veered from the non-motorized vehicle lane onto the sidewalk and headed straight for Gu Ailing's back.

"Be careful!"

Lin Feng's pupils contracted sharply, and he stretched out his long arm to grab Gu Ailing's slender waist, pulling her forcefully into his arms.

Gu Ailing gasped, her entire body crashing into his broad chest. The faint scent of mint mixed with the warmth of his youth instantly enveloped her.

The electric scooter whizzed past, brushing against the hem of her clothes, and the delivery guy drifted over with an apologetic "Sorry..."

The two were in a very intimate position: Lin Feng's hands were firmly wrapped around her waist, while Gu Ailing's hands instinctively pressed against his chest. They were so close that he could see the trembling of her eyelashes and feel her warm breath on his collarbone.

The dim yellow light of the streetlights cast a glow, and time seemed to stand still.

Gu Ailing looked up, and her eyes, which usually held a flamboyant smile, flashed with a hint of panic and shyness, and two blushes quietly crept onto her cheeks.

Lin Feng stared at the crimson stain, his Adam's apple bobbing involuntarily. He was about to lower his head and say something—

"Lin? What a delightful night."

A deep and magnetic baritone voice rang out from less than two meters away from the two of them.

Lin Feng and Gu Ailing separated instantly as if electrocuted, turning their heads at the same time.

A man nearly 1.96 meters tall, wearing an expensive-looking white shirt, was standing at the entrance of a coffee shop, holding a cup of espresso, looking at them with a half-smile.

Toto Wolff, team principal and CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, is known as "Toilet Wolf" among Chinese racing fans.

Lin Feng's lips twitched.

It felt like a high school romance where you were about to hold hands, and then the head teacher suddenly jumped out from the bushes.

However, being someone who had seen a lot, he only felt awkward for a second before quickly adjusting his expression and taking a half-step forward very naturally, partially shielding Gu Ailing behind him.

"Good evening, Mr. Wolf." Lin Feng nodded to Toto in greeting. "Still drinking coffee so late?"

Toto looked him over with interest, then glanced at Gu Ailing behind him, and nodded with a smile: "A very beautiful lady. Lin, you're not only daring on the track, but you also have good taste in life."

"Thank you for the compliment, we're just digesting our food." Lin Feng shrugged.

"To aid digestion?" Toto took a step forward, his sharp gaze fixed on his face. "Looks like you've fully adapted to the pace of F1. I looked at your race stats in Melbourne and Suzuka—that Williams car got to that position entirely thanks to you."

He cut straight to the point, his tone making no attempt to hide his recruitment intent: "You know, Lewis is going to Ferrari next year, and our team happens to have a vacancy. Maybe next year you could drive a more competitive car to your hometown?"

If it were any other driver, they would probably have been so excited by the offer from the "Toilet Wolf" that they would have immediately slid to their knees.

But Lin Feng didn't even blink.

He looked directly at one of the most powerful men in the F1 paddock and chuckled. "Mr. Wolff, your invitation is tempting. But as far as I know, your W15 this year doesn't seem to have completely cured your dolphin jump problem yet, does it?"

He patted the back of his neck, looking helpless. "My neck isn't very good. I'm afraid if I go to your place, a ride there will give me cervical spondylosis. Let's sit down and have a cup of coffee once you've fixed the chassis turbulence issue—what do you think?"

Toto paused for a moment, then burst into a hearty laugh.

He pointed at Lin Feng and said, "You little brat, you drive like a jerk and you talk like a jerk too."

Toto raised his coffee cup: "Enjoy your home turf, Lin."

"I never put pressure on myself, Mr. Wolf." Lin Feng grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth. "I only put pressure on my opponents."

Lin Feng finally let out a long breath after watching Toto's tall figure disappear from sight.

"Wow—was that the guy from Mercedes-Benz?" Gu Ailing peeked out from behind him, her eyes sparkling. "You didn't even give him face?"

"If I give him face, how am I supposed to overtake him on the track?" Lin Feng turned his head and looked at Gu Ailing's bright smiling face so close to his. The excitement that had been interrupted earlier quietly rekindled in his heart.

He coughed lightly. "Let's go, I'll take you back to your hotel. If we keep wandering around, I'm afraid Zach Brown will crawl out of some bushes too."

……

Unbeknownst to the two, in the few seconds that the electric scooter brushed past each other and Lin Feng put his arm around Gu Ailing, and in the short few minutes that Lin Feng talked with Tuotuo afterwards, several paparazzi with DSLR cameras and sharp-eyed passersby across the street had already captured this scene, which was comparable to a movie scene.

Less than an hour.

Lin Feng had just returned to his room to take a shower when his phone suddenly started vibrating wildly.

On the other end of the phone, agent Zhou Kai's voice carried a strange emotion that teetered between collapse and ecstasy: "Holy crap—what did you do now?!"

"What did I do now?" Lin Feng retorted irritably as he swiped his room card.

"Who the hell cares whether you've eaten or not! Go look at Weibo—you're in two of the top five trending topics!"

Lin Feng's heart skipped a beat. He quickly hung up the phone and opened Weibo.

#1 trending topic: #Lin Feng and Gu Ailing's waist-hugging scene at Xintiandi#

Second on the trending list: #Lin Feng and Mercedes team leader have a secret meeting late at night! Will he transfer to Mercedes next year?!#

Lin Feng didn't dare click on the first entry, so he clicked on the second one.

In the photo, Lin Feng is half-blocking Gu Ailing's path, his sharp eyes fixed on Toto Wolff across from him. The two seem to be engaged in some extremely deep business game.

The racing world is in an uproar:

[The Toilet Wolf himself has made a move?! Mercedes is probably going to lock in Lin Feng to fill the old man's vacancy ahead of time!]

[Lin Feng's gaze is incredible; his aura is just as powerful as Toto's! Suit-wearing thug vs. Eastern Madman!]

[Williams! Your gem of a boy is about to be poached by a big car fleet!]

[Having just finished dating, Lin Feng secured a transfer deal worth hundreds of millions; his night in Shanghai was more thrilling than a James Bond film!]

Lin Feng stood in the hotel corridor, watching the comments scrolling wildly on the screen, his lips twitching uncontrollably.

Just then, a message popped up on WeChat.

It was sent by Eileen Gu. There was only one picture, which was the one of them where she was hugging someone's waist.

A voice message followed immediately.

Lin Feng clicked on it.

Gu Ailing's laughter rang out: "Hahahaha! Lin, the great racer, where are your hands? Let's see how you explain to those reporters at tomorrow's press conference on Thursday—that you weren't dating, but rather playing the hero and rescuing a damsel in distress!"

Lin Feng took a deep breath, pressed the voice button, and replied through gritted teeth, "You just wait! If I don't make it to the podium this weekend, I'll say you're my nemesis!"

After sending the message, he threw his phone onto the bed and slumped heavily into the soft mattress.