Chapter 16#
Chapter 16 0.5 Second Choice
0′00″000, 0KM/h
0′01″116, 54KM/h
0′03″715, 103KM/h
0′05″458, 200KM/h!
The roar of the engine was the only sound all the contestants could hear at this moment.
Accelerating from 0 to 200 within six seconds, the naturally generated force was like a pair of invisible hands, firmly pressing Gu Chenzhou’s shoulders and pinning him to the seat. The gentle breeze from a few seconds ago instantly changed its face, revealing a ferocious and fierce appearance, whistling and entangled around him, waiting for a gap to turn its body into a sharp sword and cut open his skin and flesh.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
The heart was beating right next to his ears, and the sound of blood flowing was amplified to the point where he could hear it clearly. He opened his mouth to take a deep breath, but the wind waiting for an opportunity blocked his throat tightly.
He began to laugh, laughing very loudly, laughing very presumptuously. There were no evaluating eyes from elders, no critical eyes from peers, no chasing eyes from men and women, and no hostile eyes from enemies. His spirit was highly concentrated yet completely relaxed; some cars were overtaken by him, and some cars left him behind.
The roar of the wind turned into a scream, and the rumble of the engine that just resounded in his ears faded away unknowingly.
The earliest curve appeared in his sight. With a smile that even he didn’t know what it looked like, he stepped on the accelerator to the end!
The silver-blue racing car and the gray-red racing car drove side by side for the first time in the curve.
The two drivers glanced sideways at this moment as if they had a tacit understanding.
It was the same smile.
After a moment of distraction, He Hailou turned his gaze back to the front, and at the same time exerted force with his feet. The racing car was like lightning in the dark night, shooting out like thunder!
At the same moment, Gu Chenzhou’s gaze swept to the dial of his racing car. The speed pointer had exceeded the number 300. He felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest. The straight track ahead seemed to be slightly distorted under the extreme speed. Reason grabbed his ears and shouted, but madness grabbed his right foot and pressed it hard against the accelerator with a grim smile!
Everyone in the stands was paying attention to the race.
Young Master Chen took a pair of binoculars and looked carefully for a long time. Even Young Master Wen, who was sitting next to him and focusing on the track, was distracted and looked sideways: “Is it more exciting to watch with this thing?”
“No,” Young Master Chen put away the binoculars and said slowly, “I just want something fresh.”
Young Master Wen was speechless: “You are really interesting!” He wanted to complain a few more words, but the time announcement started on the field—a racing car had already crossed the finish line of the first lap!
Young Master Wen quickly turned his gaze back to the track, just in time to see the gray-red racing car chasing the silver-blue tail across the line. He glanced at the time on the big billboard and said almost in amazement: “Less than two minutes! These two lunatics actually dare to speed up like this! Do they really think they are professional racers?”
“Is the track five thousand meters or six thousand meters?” Young Master Chen took over the conversation while looking at the racing cars behind that were almost thrown out by two or three curves after only one lap, and couldn’t help saying, “If it were me, I really wouldn’t have the face to continue driving.”
Just as the words fell, a racing car hit the guardrail with a bang.
Young Master Wen, who was about to agree, was dumbfounded. He looked at Young Master Chen and said: “This pressure… is indeed a bit big…”
The staff on standby by the lane immediately stepped forward to rescue. The people in the stands saw that the guy in the car accident could still move, so they continued to focus on the field.
This was a race without an elimination ranking system, but in just two or three laps and less than ten minutes, all racers except Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou were eliminated: This was not strange. What was really strange was that there were amateur racers who dared to push the speed close to that of professionals.
Really not afraid of death for showing off! At this moment, almost everyone in the stands cursed jealously in their hearts.
But in fact, the two people in the field who really sped up to more than 300 had no mind to think so much. Under the extreme speed, Gu Chenzhou almost split into two personalities, one concentrating on driving and accelerating, and the other occupying a higher position, coldly evaluating the race.
Curve, curve, another curve!
After a small half lap of chasing and overtaking, the silver-blue racing car and the gray-red racing car almost rubbed against each other due to being too close in another curve. Then they began to consciously change directions, compressing each other’s forward space.
“How long is the total run?” Young Master Wen asked in the stands.
“Not according to the rules, run for twenty minutes in total.” This time it was Young Master Chen staring closely at the field. Since Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou threw off other racing cars by a full lap with a speed far exceeding the average level of everyone, at least two-thirds of the racing cars drove out of the track successively to show their withdrawal from the race.
Young Master Wen looked at his watch. It had been nearly seventeen minutes since the start, “This time passes too fast.” He muttered and asked again, “Which of the two do you think can win?”
“Hard to say, betting on luck?” Young Master Chen said.
“Maybe.” Young Master Wen was noncommittal.
The wind clamored for too long, and the sharp wild laughter turned into hoarse shouts.
Gu Chenzhou’s back was tightly pressed against the seat, inhaling deeply and exhaling deeply, but still unable to suppress the gradually rising depression in his chest.
Slight hypoxia.
Thinking about it, he slammed the steering wheel to the left, and the wheels clung to the edge of the track and stabbed out obliquely from the inside of the silver-blue racing car.
At this moment, the dial speed did not decrease but increased. Gu Chenzhou almost failed to stabilize the racing car, but fortunately it was only almost.
The lights on both sides of the lane were turned on simultaneously, and the road in front was revealed in detail. In contrast, there was the weird darkness at the end of the line of sight. It was like a desperate beast holding the last hope and rushing forward in panic, but plunging headlong into the devil’s harbor.
In just a few long breaths, the silver-blue racing car that was one body length behind rushed up again. Gu Chenzhou’s line of sight did not move, and he could glimpse the color that was particularly abrupt in the darkness only with the corner of his eye.
The last curve and slope…
Gu Chenzhou’s hands in the gloves were sweaty, and the helmet pressed heavily on his neck like a block of iron. The initial madness and wantonness faded, and the mind occupied by hot blood calmed down again, accompanied by a strong sense of exhaustion.
If it were normal times, under such exhaustion, Gu Chenzhou would have slowed down and driven slowly across the finish line: he was not a professional racer and did not need such honors or the sportsmanship of fighting until the last moment.
Playing cards, drinking, racing, communicating or relaxing, were all means for him to achieve a certain purpose, not the purpose itself. He could play, but he didn’t force himself to play to what extent; he used these to consolidate his position in the circle, but did not rely on these to gain status in the circle.
I am using the tool, not the tool using me.
But an exception can be made today, just for once.
Exhaustion made him squint slightly, and his thinking seemed to be a beat or two slower.
But on the track, the gray-red racing car and the silver-blue racing car were still as fast as ghosts in the dark night. The sound of driving was still in the ears, but the car body had already plunged into the darkness.
The last right curve.
The two racing cars driving side by side passed obliquely. Having played racing for fully five years, Gu Chenzhou used his skills to throw off He Hailou by half a body length again. But after the curve was a slope. The two racing cars with too much speed flew one after another for a long distance before landing heavily back on the ground.
The violent vibration made Gu Chenzhou and the car shake several times, and his right foot almost slipped off the accelerator. The wheels of the silver-blue racing car next to him, which was faster than him, ran over the track edge line for a long distance.
At this time, the red line of the finish line had come into view; at this time, the audience in the stands watched intently; at this time, the silver-blue racing car needed at least two or three seconds to adjust due to a mistake.
One second is enough!
Gu Chenzhou stepped on the accelerator to the end, instantly passed the silver-blue racing car, and rushed towards the red line hundreds of meters away.
Almost at the same moment, He Hailou also stabilized the steering wheel again and sprinted towards the finish line.
Too late.
The same thought appeared in the minds of the two racers.
The distance of hundreds of meters left no time for He Hailou to make up for the mistake.
Gu Chenzhou, who was driving the racing car, had not relaxed yet, but he was sure of the result. He just didn’t see, no one saw, the crazy and presumptuous smile on the face of the silver-blue racing car driver at this moment.
“Screech!”
A very short and slight sound, just the noise caused by the tires turning slightly, a negligible bit.
But after this little bit, the silver-blue racing car rushed towards the gray-red racing car like a cannonball!
Everyone who saw this scene clearly was dumbfounded.
Gu Chenzhou was not dumbfounded. The sound of the wind, the sound of the engine, sweat, exhaustion, the faint pride of reaching the finish line… At this moment, everything left him. Only the thumping heartbeat, amplified countless times, crazily occupied his eardrums.
What to do?
In a flash, this thought passed through Gu Chenzhou’s mind like light smoke.
The finish line was right in front, and the racing car was also right in front.
So, what to do?
“Screech——————”
“Effective lap time: 2′01″215.” The huge green characters on the billboard displayed clearly.
Long and short exhalations sounded in the stands.
“He Hailou…” Young Master Chen spoke, his voice slightly tight, “This lunatic… is he really not afraid of causing trouble?”
Young Master Wen stared closely at the finish line. On the billboard, Gu Chenzhou crossed the finish line only 0.3″ slower than He Hailou. Four or five meters in front of the gray-red racing car, He Hailou got out of the silver-blue car and walked towards Gu Chenzhou’s car.
“He was sure Gu Chenzhou would dodge.” Young Master Wen said.
“How are you so sure?”
“Just because He Hailou is having fun, he probably doesn’t want to go to prison right away. Who is Gu Chenzhou? He has been racing for five years. Without some skills, could he drive at this speed?” Young Master Wen said softly, “Playing in the same circle since childhood, it’s not like you don’t know Gu Chenzhou. When has he ever done something he wasn’t sure of? Look at the only thing he caused in so many years? He was sent abroad, and those rumors spread like wildfire. People talked, but how many really believed it?”
“Now three years have passed, logically everyone should be different. As a result, only two months later, how many people ran to watch their car race? If Gu Chenzhou stood up and shouted to do something, to what extent could he do it?” Young Master Wen asked again.
Young Master Chen didn’t speak.
“Look,” he said, “If you, me, or others went up, I don’t know the result. But Gu Chenzhou dodged it, this is a fact. If the top spot in the circle is so easy to sit in, why isn’t it you or me, the Shen family’s, or the Qiu family’s?”
“But He Hailou is a lunatic, I agree with your point of view.” He said finally.
At this time, He Hailou had already walked in front of Gu Chenzhou.