Night Rose

The red race car stopped in the starting area like a silent beast, its four paws on the ground, its back arched, its whole body taut, ready to hunt at any moment.

The countdown timer above our heads was a blinding red light.

Zhou Zheng and Wang Tianle sat in the car, looking intently at the ceiling.

Su Jin wore headphones, her breathing became soft, and she silently cheered them on.

"3! 2! 1!"

Countdown is over!

As the lights went out, a sharp cheer erupted from the crowd. A flash of red streaked across the sky like a streak of a popcorn, carrying a dazzling light as it launched off with a roar!

The steel behemoth trembled, and the G-force slammed the driver and navigator firmly into their seats. The car surged forward steadily, and with each precise call from Wang Tianle, Zhou Zheng drove the race car into the track with perfect form.

Wang Tianle stared at the route map, his lips pressed tightly against the earpiece. "Three to the right, then four to the left. There's a big tree and some people about thirty meters before the turn. Be careful not to enter the turn too late!"

"Received!" Zhou Zheng responded, adjusting his state according to the route map. Sure enough, before entering the bend, he saw several spectators standing under the big tree, waving at them.

Even as the car reached 120 km/h, he spoke as steadily as ever, "Don't get distracted, watch the road. Second to the left, there's a slope, loose sand on the road, and a ditch!"

The car body bounced up and down, speeding down the slope. The tires ran over ditches, but fortunately the water wasn't deep and didn't affect the tires.

The sand and gravel on the road were flying everywhere; if someone was nearby, being hit by it would be comparable to being hit by a blank bullet.

Su Jin was in charge of directing the operation. Her eyes were very busy, not only watching the race car's movement, but also observing the trajectories of all the race cars on the screen, and paying attention to the weather forecast.

She assigned the simple task of monitoring the weather to Tu Ying, instructing Tu Ying to keep a close eye on it and notify her immediately if the weather changed.

In such high-altitude areas, the weather varies from place to place, and different sections of the road are affected in different ways.

"The weather is relatively stable right now, so please be careful of the terrain," Su Jin said to them through the channel.

"I know, how are the other teams doing?" Zhou Zheng asked.

"There have been many unexpected situations, but you're still relatively stable. Keep moving forward. The rescue team is dealing with debris at 1200 meters. Stay alert," Su Jin said.

As Su Jin said, the other teams were in all sorts of trouble.

The worst case was the two cars that started after Zhou Zheng and his team. Their cars broke down after less than a kilometer because of some unknown malfunction.

One of the cars ahead of them spun out of the track, but managed to get back on after adjusting, though it wasted a lot of time. Another car lost control while entering a corner, crashed into the mountainside, and overturned.

By the time the rescue team arrived, a lot of time had been wasted, and the driver was almost completely disheartened.

Zhou Zheng and his team gradually caught up with the cars in front. Due to the complex road conditions, the cars were not far apart, and everyone drove cautiously. Especially after several accidents, no one dared to make any sudden advances.

"Drive steadily, follow them, and try not to get caught in the wake," Su Jin said.

She took off her headset and shouted at Tu Ying, who was standing outside, "Boss Tu, how's the weather?!"

Tu Ying looked unwell. He clenched his fist and called out to her, "The weather's not good! The clouds are heavy, and the forecast says it might rain or snow!"

In this cold and windy weather, sleet will freeze almost immediately upon landing, making the roads more slippery and greatly increasing the chances of tires slipping.

"Zhou Zheng, there might be sleet, so you must be careful of your tires slipping," Su Jin said solemnly into the channel.

Zhou Zheng and Wang Tianle did not reply immediately. A raindrop fell on their windshield, followed by a snowflake drifting by.

"Zhou Zheng?" Su Jin asked anxiously.

"It's already started raining." Zhou Zheng stepped on the gas and accelerated through this relatively smooth section of road.

The other cars shared his idea, and for a moment, cars on this section of the road began to race against time to get on the right-of-way, with no one giving way to anyone else.

Among the cars, Zhou Zheng spotted the familiar black car heading towards a yellow and white car ahead, pushing it off the track and seizing the right-of-way.

"Brother Zhou, the road ahead is gravel with lots of puddles, be careful!" Wang Tianle reminded him from the side.

Zhou Zheng steadily cut into the overtaking lane, driving a race car behind the black car. He tried to break away, but was always kept behind the black car.

The rain in the mountains was heavy, pounding against the glass with a thunderous crash, probably mixed with hail.

The field of vision became blurry, and visibility was extremely low; you could basically only see the tail of the car in front.

Qian Ke, driving his black car, saw the red race car following behind and sneered inwardly, "Does he think he can catch me?"

There was a deep puddle ahead, and the navigator quickly warned him.

"Just in time!" Qian Ke drove at full speed over the deep puddle, the car took off and then crashed down heavily. In the midst of the tremors, he did not realize that the tires had become deformed.

Instantly, dirty water splashed everywhere, splashing onto the windshield of the red car that was about to come up.

The windshield was filthy, obstructing most of the view. Wang Tianle could barely see the road and could only call out directions from the road book. He had to rely on Zhou Zheng for everything else.

"Brother Zhou, I can't see!"

A fire ignited within Zhou Zheng, but he gripped the steering wheel and calmly drove forward. "I can still see a little bit."

The dirty water splashed out, leaving a small clean patch in front of the driver's seat. Zhou Zheng stared intently at the black car in front of him through that clean patch.

He would never let Qian Ke get away with it.

"How could I not see it?" Su Jin nervously gripped the pen in her hand.

"You idiot, the car in front splashed dirty water on the windshield!" Wang Tianle cursed.

"It won't affect anything," Zhou Zheng said sternly, continuing to drive the race car at high speed.

Even though visibility was low, he drove almost blindly, relying on his trust in Wang Tianle's route guide, and had already left the car that was driving alongside him behind.

The rain washed away a lot of the dirt on the windshield, but a lot of dirty water still polluted the view. They could only try to discern whether the road conditions ahead were the same as when they were surveying the road, using the clean areas in the extremely poor visibility environment.

At high altitudes, rain can come and go suddenly, and it may only fall in one area.

The car drove along a long road, and after taking off and landing on the slope, the rain stopped behind them and did not catch up.

But this doesn't mean the road conditions have improved; on the contrary, they need to consider whether areas that were previously icy will become even more slippery.

Qian Ke's car was not far away. Zhou Zheng drove his red car closer to him. In Qian Ke's view, the car behind him was getting closer and closer, almost touching the rear of his car, and even making a probing move!