Night Rose

"Brother Qian, that kid's catching up! He's going to get revenge on us!" the navigator shouted.

He wants revenge on us.

This sentence disrupted Qian Ke's train of thought, leaving him only with the thought that the other party was there to cause trouble.

"This kid was clearly a few behind us, but he caught up with us." Qian Ke gritted his teeth, stepped on the gas, and accelerated. He had to race against time and couldn't afford to get entangled with him; he had to shake him off.

The black car accelerated, attempting to shake off the red car behind it.

Looking in the rearview mirror, Qian Ke saw the red car like a ghost, always by his side, and occasionally accelerating forward.

Qian Ke was horrified, and Xu Jingyi's somewhat hurried voice came through the earpiece.

"Brother Qian, why have you slowed down? This won't do! I haven't even reported that you guys smashed the rear wing during the scouting trip. If we don't win the race, we'll get a scolding!"

"Screw you! Who said we'd lose!" Qian Ke cursed, gritting his teeth and speeding up every time the navigator read out the route, taking even more risks than when scouting the route.

"Brother Qian, control the speed! It's too risky!" The navigator was thrown off balance by gravity and squeezed against the car door, his cheek almost deformed from being pressed against the door.

"Give me your route map!" Qian Ke roared.

The navigator gripped the handle on the roof tightly, staring at the data in the route book. The route book had been altered, and his eyes blurred, causing him to misread the data.

"Left...left four, no! Left five! Watch out, it's slippery on the ice!"

Qian Ke cursed the navigator a hundred times in his heart. After competing with him in so many races, how could he still make a mistake!

Ahead was a bend, and Qian Ke slammed on the gas pedal. The tires screeched violently, the ear-piercing sound piercing through his helmet and scraping against his ears, as uncomfortable as a stone rubbing against his eardrums.

However, they overlooked a crucial point: it had just snowed, and the ground was slippery. If they continued to use the same accelerator gear as when surveying the road, there was a high possibility of something going wrong.

"They're catching up!" The navigator was still pushing himself to maintain a high level of alertness.

The thought of skidding that had just crossed Qian Ke's mind was immediately suppressed. He accelerated and rushed into the corner. At the last possible braking point, he slammed on the brakes. Under the extreme braking, the tires began to swerve and veer, resulting in a fatal deviation!

Under extreme pressure, a screw came loose, the front left tire burst, and the car could no longer maintain its balance. It spun on the slippery ice and crashed into the edge of the straight road ahead.

"Bang!"

Smoke accompanied by a crashing sound, the black car completely stalled, and thick fog quickly enveloped the interior.

Qian Ke regained consciousness a few seconds after the impact, opened the car door and ran out. He hadn't gone far when his legs gave way and he knelt down coughing. He hadn't even had time to take off his helmet when tears and snot mingled together, making him look extremely disgusting.

In his blurry vision, a red race car sped away, leaving only a trail of exhaust.

Qian Ke wanted to curse, but his throat was choked by cigarette smoke, so he could only let out an incomprehensible roar like an animal, and he didn't even have the strength to stand up.

"Su Jin, the top chain has a flat tire. Even if we catch up, we won't be able to take first place," Zhou Zheng suddenly called out to Su Jin in the channel.

"It's tire problems again, huh." Su Jin raised the corners of her mouth, her tone unchanged, but she felt a sense of relief. However, now was not the time to celebrate.

"Don't get too excited. Our goal is not just to surpass TopChain, but to take first place."

Faced with Qian Ke's mishap, Zhou Zheng and Wang Tianle remained calm. They did not show excessive joy, but instead became more cautious about the road ahead. They were about to enter the snow-covered area, which was like dancing on the tip of an iceberg. One wrong move and they could be thrown off.

The only things they could trust were the route book in Wang Tianle's possession and Zhou Zheng's absolute judgment.

Su Jin observed the vehicles ahead. It was quite difficult to determine a winner at this point. There were two convoys ahead of them that maintained a fairly good speed and had not encountered any accidents along the way.

The two cars are locked in a fierce battle ahead, neither willing to give the other an easy time. One car cuts into the other's side, attempting to slow it down.

The red car followed steadily behind, and Zhou Zheng could occasionally catch a glimpse of the two cars' tails on the mountain road.

"Keep the car steady. The ice and snow conditions here are complicated. Adjust your speed while ensuring safety," Su Jin said.

Wang Tianle glanced down at the road map, then looked up to compare the road conditions and almost cursed, "The snow ahead is ten centimeters less than when we surveyed the road! Those cars have driven over it several times, compacting the snow!"

"Right three connects to left four, long!"

Within half a second, Zhou Zheng had considered all of Wang Tianle's words. He braked hard, downshifted, and entered the curve. As the car cut into the apex of the curve, the right front wheel ran over the snow that Wang Tianle had mentioned being compacted.

For a moment, Wang Tianle thought the car was about to be thrown off, so he gripped the roof handle tightly.

The red car passed the third car on the right, immediately straightened its body, and entered the fourth car on the left with the brakes applied.

The car body swung out in a beautiful arc, skidding along the edge of the track, and the rear of the car completed the turn due to inertia!

The car's maneuvers were thrilling and amazing, and viewers in front of their TVs held their breath, their eyes glued to the screen for a moment, especially the family and friends who almost couldn't catch their breath.

Only after seeing the car perfectly navigate the slippery snow did they cheer and take a sip of wine to calm their anxious hearts.

"You can drive freely on the straightaway, Zhou Zheng. Just go with your usual pace, don't hold back, have fun as much as you want," Su Jin reminded him in his earpiece.

Zhou Zheng's unconventional driving style, free from many rigid rules and constraints, might actually be his winning strategy.

Although he received systematic training later on, he always drove with his own style.

His unconventional approach actually helps him align the car with the exit direction earlier on icy and snowy roads, saving more time for a final sprint.

Long straightaways are where racing excels, allowing Zhou Zheng to accelerate recklessly and feel the roar of the accelerator. Entering the corners, he only applies the brakes at the very last second, pursuing maximum speed.

As we approached the finish line, a series of S-shaped curves lay ahead. The strategy chosen by the car in front was clearly visible on the road: a standard "outer-inner-outer" line, aiming to minimize the distance to each curve.

But Zhou Zheng didn't think that way. If he used the same method to take corners as the professional teams, he would definitely not save time compared to others. He had to be different.

"We'll stay inside and not cut out."

"Not cut?!"

"No way! I trust Su Jin's racing skills!"

Su Jin heard Zhou Zheng's decision through the earpiece and did not object. She gave Zhou Zheng the authority and let him make his own decisions.

The final stretch of the track will decide the outcome; if Zhou Zheng fails to gain time, defeat is inevitable.

The favorite team to win the championship has already broken its best record. Su Jin looked at the approaching seconds, her heart pounding like a drum. She had never felt so nervous in a competition before.

She prayed silently in her heart, "Zhou Zheng, hurry up, faster!"

With the first bend in sight, Zhou Zheng plunged into the inside line, tilting the car to an almost tipping angle. He stubbornly held on without releasing the accelerator. The high drag of the new snow, without being compacted, provided him with a higher cornering speed.

The car slid along the road, but he gripped the steering wheel tightly, managing to bring the car back to control just before it was about to go out of control each time.

"brush!"

The car sped off the curve and onto the last straight!

At this moment, there are no skills, no worries, just floor the accelerator and rely on the car's performance to sprint to the finish line!

The electronic screen suddenly displayed the updated results!

11 minutes and 23.6 seconds!

The original first place has rolled to second, and the name of the Hao Xiang Lai team has appeared in the first line!

To everyone's surprise, the championship favorite professional team was defeated by an inconspicuous dark horse team!