After the breakup, I was taken in by a group of trendy young women.

Lin Ye's lips twitched involuntarily.

Are all young men these days this brave?

He leaned against the dark gray will-o'-the-wisp, his arms crossed, looking at Li Hao's modified will-o'-the-wisp, painted with fluorescent purple and covered with silhouettes of flaming skulls and naked women. He then glanced at the chubby girl in the back seat of Li Hao who was picking her teeth with a milk tea straw.

He had never seen such a scene before, even after reading so many books about rotten persimmons.

Huang Mao was already in the zone.

She pushed the pink will-o'-the-wisp forward half a meter, and her honey-tea brown twin ponytails shone with a warm, golden glow under the bright headlights.

The hem of her Lolita dress billowed in the night wind. She held the handlebars with one hand and tucked the stray hairs that had fallen across her face behind her ear with the other. Her chin was held high, and her deep brown eyes burned like two flames under the neon lights.

"Come on! Only a coward would hesitate!"

The energetic young men and women around them were screaming excitedly.

The girl with the fluorescent green rooster comb held a wrench above her head and waved it like a glow stick, while the girl in fishnet stockings took a lollipop out of her mouth and whistled sharply.

Dozens of people surged from both sides of the track, completely blocking the starting line. Some stood on old tires and held up their phones to live stream, while others squatted on the roadblocks and banged on the subwoofers of modified audio equipment like war drums.

The area under the overpass was turned into a complete mess.

The blond-haired man waved his hand contentedly.

The gesture was elegant yet arrogant, like a queen greeting her subjects before a royal procession.

Her wave wasn't large, but every fingertip exuded the confidence that "today I'm going to show you what real will-o'-the-wisp is."

The crowd immediately parted to both sides from the track entrance, making way for a passage just wide enough for two Ghost Fire cars to pass side by side.

Old tires were kicked to the side of the road, roadblocks were removed, and someone used spray paint to draw a crooked white starting line on the bridge pier.

Li Hao was smug.

He rode on the fluorescent purple ghost fire, one foot on the ground, twisted the throttle, and the roar of the engine made a few pieces of cement fall from the bridge above his head.

He pushed his sunglasses up to his forehead, revealing his receding hairline and his eyes squinting in the car headlights, while the corners of his mouth curled down in what he thought was a very intimidating arc.

"Yellow Hair, it's not too late to back out now. Kneel down and call me daddy to admit defeat, and I'll take the car back and at least let you become a familiar face here."

She threw her canvas shoe at his face with a thud.

The sole of the shoe struck Li Hao squarely on the bridge of his nose with a crisp, muffled sound.

Li Hao leaned back, his sunglasses flew off his forehead and landed on the ground where they were stepped on by someone next to him.

The canvas shoe bounced back and landed in the middle of the track, leaving a clear gray mark on its surface.

"Fuck you! Who do you think you are!"

With a tattooed arm, he stood on one foot, his other bare foot resting on the scooter's footrest. The koi carp on the tattooed arm taut every scale under the car headlights.

Her tongue stud flashed between her lips, and her voice was as cold as a can of beer just taken out of the freezer.

"You fucking—!"

Li Hao jumped up from his seat, covering his nose. A red mark of a shoe sole pattern was imprinted on the bridge of his nose, and tears welled up in his eyes from choking.

The chubby girl behind him quickly threw the milk tea into the bicycle basket and took out a crumpled tissue from the pocket of her leopard-print skirt and handed it to him.

Li Hao snatched the tissue and covered his nose. Blood seeped from the edge of the tissue and dripped onto the collar of his tight black T-shirt.

"Both sides should calm down."

Lin Ye spoke up.

The sound wasn't loud, but everyone under the overpass could hear it clearly.

He took his sunglasses off his collar and hung them on the handlebars, then stepped off the bike, put his hands in his tight pants pockets, and walked to the middle of the track.

The loafers trotted across the cement floor, each step neither hurried nor slow.

"If you're going to compete, then compete. If you're too scared, get out now."

He said this while looking at Li Hao, his tone completely flat.

There was no mockery, no threats, and not even an emphasis on the word "you".

But Li Hao's hand, which was covering his nose, tightened involuntarily, and a little more blood seeped out from the tissue.

Li Hao told the chubby girl to leave.

The chubby girl reluctantly climbed off the back seat, her strappy sandals twisting her ankle on the concrete, and the hem of her leopard-print skirt brushing against the tire, leaving a ring of dust.

She steadied herself by holding onto Li Hao's handlebars, leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Don't come looking for me if you lose." Then, carrying her half-finished milk tea, she retreated to the side of the track and stood next to the girl in fishnet stockings.

Li Hao threw the blood-stained tissue on the ground, twisted the accelerator, and roared to the starting line with the glowing purple flames.

Yellow Hair also rode the will-o'-the-wisp to the starting point.

Pink and fluorescent purple will-o'-the-wisps were parked side by side in front of the white paint line. The wheel hub lights of the two cars turned into two complete halos under the dim bridge piers—one pink and one purple.

People outside the venue are already betting on who will win.

A man with a fluorescent green rooster-like hairstyle stood on a discarded tire, wielding a wrench as an auctioneer's gavel, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Place your bets! Place your bets! Those betting on pink will-o'-the-wisps, stand on the left! Those betting on fluorescent purple, stand on the right!"

The crowd split into two groups, with the left side noticeably smaller than the right—Li Hao had dominated this venue for over half a year, with 80% of the people betting on him to win.

Someone pulled crumpled banknotes from their pocket and slapped them on the tire; someone else bet half a pack of cigarettes on it; and a fat man in flip-flops threw his keychain into the pile of betting chips.

"Are all the bets placed? Let's begin!"

With his tattooed arm, he hopped on one foot to the side of the track, picked up his canvas shoes, and put them on.

The woman with the floral dress stubbed out her cigarette on the roadblock, and the side slit of her floral dress was blown up by the wind, revealing a rose tattoo on the side of her thigh.

She held her phone up to the starting line and started her live stream: "Guys, today it's Pink Will-o'-the-Wisp vs. Fluorescent Purple, place your bets now!"

Green-haired and pink-haired girls squeezed into the front row, their dyed earrings rubbing together, and shouted in unison, "Go, blonde-haired sister! If you win, we'll treat you to barbecue skewers!"

Qi Liuhai stood quietly next to Shen Qing, holding Wangcai. Wangcai poked its head out of its cat carrier, one ear perked up, its amber eyes fixed on the two cars at the starting line.

Shen Qing and Shen Na stood side by side behind Lin Ye. The two sisters did not shout encouragement, but Shen Qing's fingers gripped the hem of her knitted cardigan so tightly that her knuckles turned slightly white.

Lin Ye leaned against the dark gray will-o'-the-wisp, his arms crossed over his chest.

He watched the blond-haired man's back as he rode on the pink will-o'-the-wisp—his honey-brown twin ponytails fluttering in the night wind, the hem of his Lolita dress bunched up like a flower on the seat.

She gripped the handlebars tightly with both hands, her thumbs resting on the accelerator button, her whole body like a fully drawn bow.

Just then, the blond-haired man suddenly turned around.

She looked at Lin Ye, her deep brown pupils shining brightly under the neon lights.

His lips curved into an extremely arrogant arc.

"Brother, if I win, I'm eating potato chips in your master bedroom tonight. Don't yell at me if there are crumbs on the bed."