The Favored Heiress
Chapter 369: Racing with Shang Yu

Chapter 369: Chapter 369: Racing with Shang Yu

Li Qiao looked at the RX7 sports car, her gaze slightly burning.

But why were there seven?

She shifted her gaze from the sports car, and on the brightly lit racetrack side, Shang Yu was already striding leisurely toward her.

The man’s shoulders were covered in the frosty white of the lighting effects, his silhouette against the light, tall and upright.

Li Qiao’s heart stirred with an unusual feeling as she brushed away the stray hairs on her forehead blown by the breeze and walked towards him.

Shang Yu stood in front of her with one hand in his pocket and the other resting on top of her head, ruffling it gently, his voice magnetic and deep, "Busy day today?"

Li Qiao looked up, locking eyes with him, and while glancing at the RX7 sports car, she pulled down his fingers to hold them, "Mmh, a bit busy, where did all these cars come from?"

The RX7 sports car was usually reserved for top-tier events and it was rare to see so many at once.

The man’s deep-set eyes focused on her face, his thin lips curling into a light arc, "Want to take a lap?"

Li Qiao’s eyelids suddenly lifted, a glint of eagerness in her eyes, "Together?"

"That’s possible," Shang Yu pressed his lips together, arching his brows, indulgently responding to her.

The three assistants standing by exchanged glances, and the two other bodyguards also looked confused.

Hadn’t Master Yan said he wanted all seven cars on the track together?

How come it was just the two of them running alone now?

Li Qiao and Shang Yu walked towards the row of seven parked cars, the man holding her hand, his tone robust, "Which one?"

The seven cars were different colors; the one in the center was sky blue.

Without much hesitation, Li Qiao pointed to the middle RX7 and declared, "This one."

Shang Yu smirked, let go of her hand, and they got into their respective cars.

Next to the sky blue RX7 was a black one of the same model.

After getting into the car, Li Qiao rolled down the window, buckled her seatbelt, and then turned to look outside.

The passenger side window of the neighboring car was also slowly being rolled down.

This was the first time Li Qiao saw Shang Yu driving firsthand.

She cleared her throat, finding it hard to look away.

The man’s black shirt was slightly open at the collar and even from this short distance, one could see his long legs awkwardly tucked into the driver’s seat.

Though there was no cheerleading squad present, the tension before the race had already imperceptibly enveloped the track.

Shang Yu held the steering wheel with one hand and the gear shift with the other, turning his head to look at her, he whispered, "Safety first."

Li Qiao rested her elbow on the car door, her palm gliding around the steering wheel, "You too."

After speaking, they both rolled up the windows, and Li Qiao adjusted the manual transmission, briefly checking the dashboard.

The standard RX7 sports car, with FR drive, was equipped with a five-speed manual transmission and a rotary engine, boasting 280 horsepower.

Li Qiao focused on the track outside, glanced through the window at the car next to her, and the two of them honked simultaneously. Three seconds later, the black and blue cars took off at lightning speed.

It was supposed to be a race, but Li Qiao’s speed was comparable to street racing.

The international racetrack was 5.41 kilometers per lap, with seven left turns and seven right turns, and nearly a kilometer of straight incline.

Reaching the first bend, the two cars arrived one after the other.

Light shone in Li Qiao’s eyes. As she approached the bend, she fiercely pulled down on the gearshift, hit the brakes, and turned the steering wheel. At the moment of the turn, she stomped on the accelerator; the angle formed between the front of the car and the body carved out a perfect drifting arc, quickly rounding the bend.

Meanwhile, the black sports car behind her drifted past in the same posture, side by side, the ground emitting white smoke due to friction.

The sound of the car cutting through the wind, as well as the noise of the tires rubbing against the ground, echoed incessantly on the racetrack.

Liuyun and the others watching from a distance were boiling with excitement, their blood racing as the excessive speed of the cars reduced them to mere phantoms shuttling back and forth on the track.

Li Qiao’s driving skills were superb, and so were Shang Yu’s.

The two cars, one ahead and the other behind, chased and fled from each other, with Li Qiao occasionally circling to the front of the black car to block the route.

But the man always found an angle to break through her defense and overtake her smoothly.

Street racing was probably a kind of high-speed thrill that united body and mind.

Although Li Qiao and Shang Yu appeared to be racing, there was a clear sense of playful competition between the two cars.

As they reached the fifth bend on the track, Li Qiao’s blue car suddenly accelerated.

Passing the black car with sheer speed, just as Liuyun and the others held their breath in anticipation, they saw the blue car, in the instant of drifting around the curve, emit a piercing screech of friction, and then the blue car harshly reversed direction to start backpedaling.

The other two bodyguards were stunned.

Forcibly changing positions on the racetrack, without real skills, one could easily flip over.

At that moment, Li Qiao was driving in reverse, with the front of her car facing Shang Yu in the driver’s seat.

She was in front, and he was behind; with such driving tactics, she blocked the black car’s chance to leap forward.

Inside the car cabin, Li Qiao and Shang Yu sat in the same posture.

Both of them were speeding at extreme velocity, yet each held the steering wheel and gear shift with one hand, eyes bright and alert, displaying an ease that belied the intense tension of racing.

As they approached the straight slope, Li Qiao executed a series of reverse accelerations—clutching, braking, accelerating, and sharply turning the steering wheel in one fluid motion.

In the blink of an eye, her car’s nose was back in position, and she soared up the slope at breakneck speed.

As the racetrack neared the finish line, both cars were still not slowing down.

And the distance between the cars, which had been one behind the other, soon diminished as they came to drive side by side.

In the distance, amidst billowing white smoke and under the bright searchlights, the black and blue cars were suddenly right before their eyes.

In an instant, the cars aligned, one left and one behind, stopping amid the other five cars.

Smoke was still emitting from the rear of the cars as they returned to their original positions with uncanny precision.

Liuyun looked down at his smartphone’s stopwatch and nudged the bewildered Wang Yue; though it wasn’t as precise as professional timing equipment, the time shown was still astonishing.

However, a speed of one minute and nineteen seconds was shocking.

Because the fastest speed in the previous qualifying race was one minute and fourteen seconds.

What surprised them wasn’t Shang Yu’s driving technique, but Li Qiao’s proficiency with racing.

This kind of control, which usually requires long periods of training, how had Miss Li achieved it?

Even at a certain bend, they had witnessed the blue RX7 perform a one-sided wheel grab drift technique so expertly that it completed the turn in an instant.

Such control over the car and mastery of grip were things no ordinary person would dare to try unless they were professional racers.

Soon, the doors of the two cars opened successively.

Li Qiao and Shang Yu emerged, looking calm and composed after a thrilling race like no other.

The man, with pursed lips, closed his car door and strode straight toward Li Qiao.

The young girl was just about to offer a word of praise when her arm was suddenly gripped tightly, and she was yanked in front of him.

"What the... mmm..."

Before she could finish, Shang Yu wrapped one hand around her waist and cupped the back of her head with the other, ignoring the ’audience’ of several people nearby, and leaned in to kiss her deeply.

Li Qiao was caught off guard, her lips captured, and she instinctively wanted to retreat.

Because with five pairs of eyes nearby, such intimacy in a public space left her unavoidably feeling bashful.