Chapter 107: Making a Friend

"Oh, since you're a friend of Little Chun's, you're my friend too. Don't take offense, okay?"

Noticing the shock on Ji Jue's face, Chen Yubo sighed and explained, "Mr. Ji, don't worry. My orientation is perfectly normal; it's just that people have called me strange since I was a kid."

"I mean, I just like pink, right? Where's the strangeness in that? I don't get it at all!"

"Everyone likes cute things deep down, but they're too worried about their image to admit it, just putting on an act."

"After graduation, everyone started acting all serious and pretentious. I can't even find someone to chat about melodramas with. Some people act like they understand, but behind your back, they make you the butt of their jokes."

"If it weren't for Little Chun coming out for a meal every now and then, I would've suffocated to death!"

"It's not like you're committing a crime, so what's there to laugh at?"

Hearing this, Ji Jue’s expression turned solemn, and he instinctively stood up for the little scooter: "My ride is pink too. I've been riding it since college, taking it out to buy groceries every few days. Where's the strangeness in that?"

Although there was a certain price gap between a scooter and the cars of big bosses like this... but it was an advanced model now!

Purely in terms of construction and cost, it was by no means inferior to any luxury car!

"I told you pink is timeless, right? Right?!"

Chen Yubo became instantly excited at these words. He slapped his thigh, pulled out his phone, and began to show off his collection in all its glory...

It included twenty-one limited-edition luxury cars from famous brands across the South Continent, North Continent, Federation, Empire, and even the Thousand Islands, plus two yachts and an airship...

All of them, every single one, were pink!!!

"Damn..."

Ji Jue couldn't help it; his face twitched.

Is this the ease of the wealthy?

Although he could tell from the seemingly low-key but actually insanely expensive Empire Timepiece on the other man's wrist that the visitor was definitely rich or noble, the extent of this wealth was truly beyond Ji Jue's expectations.

Then, he began to worry...

If Chen Yubo finished showing off his collection and suddenly asked, "Brother, what model do you collect?", should he pull out a glamorous photo of his little scooter?

It even had the childlike stickers that the youngest had put on it!

Don't you think it's cute?

Fortunately, perhaps accustomed to the fact that no one else was as rich as he was, after showing off his vast collection, Chen Yubo just invited Ji Jue to come over another day to see them in person, still feeling unsatisfied.

Then, he finally brought up the real business.

"So, here's the thing."

Speaking with the vague accent of a local from Haizhou, Chen Yubo said helplessly, "Around eleven o'clock tomorrow night, I have a race at Mount Lianhua. I've placed a heavy bet on the outcome, and my friends from the same sports car club have chipped in about two or three thousand total."

"Sigh, actually, winning or losing doesn't matter much. Being happy is what's most important. Over the years, I've lost about seven or eight thousand in various places."

"The main thing is, this time, the outsider who just arrived is too arrogant, really going too far! He talked trash and put me in a spot where I can't back down. In short, if I don't win this argument, I won't be able to show my face in the club anymore."

"Since you're a friend introduced by Little Chun, I won't beat around the bush. Let's speak plainly," Chen Yubo said seriously. "As long as you can help me vent this frustration, I'll pay three hundred!"

Three hundred?

Hearing this soul-stirring, earth-shattering number, Ji Jue’s expression showed a trace of confusion.

You have to know, even at a mainland auto repair shop, three hundred wouldn't even cover a decent paint touch-up.

Big brother, are you the official spokesperson for a gambling addiction support group?

"Right, keep that cool attitude, don't lose focus."

Ye Chun's voice suddenly sounded in his ear. She rested her chin on her hand, gazing at the senior dancing on stage, and explained, "The unit he's talking about is ten thousand."

Damn—

Ji Jue’s eyes widened. Looking at Chen Yubo’s expectant, smiling face, he felt his whole body go soft.

Boss, you should have said so earlier!

If it weren't for the senior constantly reminding him to stay aloof and reserved, Ji Jue would have already silkily leaned into the boss's arms, clinging to him.

"Ahem, ahem. You called everyone out, and I thought it was something else."

Ji Jue tried hard to maintain his calm, saying indifferently, "For such a measly amount of money, I'll only drive for one night, okay?"

"As expected of Mr. Ji, so warm-hearted!"

Boss Chen beamed with joy instantly, but then he hesitated, wanting to say something more.

He paused and said, looking slightly shy:

"It's not you driving, it's me."

"..."

Ji Jue fell silent, carefully examining the boss in front of him.

His spiritual quality was weak, there was no aura of blessing, no matrix, and he had a few alchemy artifacts on him, but they were all of the defensive type. At this moment, under Ji Jue's gaze, he looked over blankly, not understanding what he meant.

Ji Jue coughed: "Allow me to ask... Mr. Chen, do you have any driving experience?"

"I usually have a driver when I go out, so I don't touch the steering wheel much," Chen Yubo answered regretfully. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have been bumped into the guardrail by that dog today."

Alright, say no more. The "dog" you're talking about is still trying to find a way for you!

Ji Jue’s eye twitched, and he asked again:

"Then... what is your driver's license class?"

"Isn't a C2 enough?"

Chen Yubo’s eyes were filled with a certain clear light that Ji Jue was all too familiar with; it was everywhere at Tianmen University. In a word, it could be called "naivety."

Ji Jue felt an even worse headache.

You can't even drive a manual transmission, so how are you going to learn to street race? Big brother, what are you thinking?!

He held onto his last shred of hope and looked at the boss in front of him: "Could it be that you are an unparalleled genius driver, a midnight racing god?"

"No, no, no, I'm very careful about safety!" Chen Yubo waved his hands quickly, his expression serious. "I never go over eighty on the highway! Safety first, you know!"

You motherf...

Ji Jue’s fists tightened. So you're the kind of person who hogs the entire passing lane at one speed, right? You dog, take two of my hammers!

After understanding the specific situation, Ji Jue sighed and just wanted to bow.

No hope, just wait to die, goodbye.

But the senior's voice came to his ear.

"You damn well better use your power!"

Ye Chun sighed helplessly and reminded him, "Anyway, he only cares about winning and having fun; he doesn't care how he wins, as long as the car crosses the finish line. Does it matter if a person drives the car or the car drives the person?

If it wasn't exactly my specialty, why would I help you take on this porcelain job!"

Is there really no sportsmanship at all?

Ji Jue was stunned for a moment. Isn't the quality a bit too low?

But he liked it so much!

So it's a "log-in and play for someone else" job? As long as he uses a little mechanical intervention, he can easily pocket three million. This money is earned with a truly wicked kind of beauty.

For a moment, just as Chen Yubo felt there was a possibility of returning empty-handed, he saw a kind and amiable smile appear on "Mr. Ji's" stern and aloof face.

"It sounds a bit difficult, but it's not without a solution."

Ji Jue held his hand and said earnestly, "Although you don't drive much, your license is only a C2, and you've never raced anyone, I believe that as long as you work hard, beating a professional driver won't be difficult."

"But first, you have to believe in yourself, Brother Chen. If you don't even have a little confidence, how can you drive a car well?"

"Ah?"

Chen Yubo was also dumbfounded, unable to believe it: "Me?"

Big brother, are you serious?

For a moment, he couldn't tell if Ji Jue was encouraging him or being sarcastic, but the smile on that face was so sincere and reassuring.

"Don't worry, racing is like this: the driver just needs to drive hard, but the maintenance team behind the scenes has a lot to manage."

Ji Jue guaranteed, "As the saying goes, passion, effort, and victory—you already have two of them, so the last one shouldn't be hard. As long as we have a bond, isn't winning just simple?"

This was a bond worth three million!

The boss had spent so much, he just wanted to win easily and vent his anger. If even that didn't work, where would the justice and law be?

As the saying goes, at home rely on relatives, abroad rely on friends. As Boss Chen's new friend, Ji Jue naturally had to extend a helping hand.

As for whether the rich young masters and princesses of the sports car club would shed little pearls after losing money...

What does that have to do with him?

Thus, amidst the graceful singing and dancing of the Nutcracker ballet, the two men's hands were tightly clasped together, as if they had grasped victory itself.

The dirty friendship transaction between adults was thus concluded!

Then, in the middle of the night, Ji Jue was awakened by a text message from the bank.

Amount received: one million exactly.

Transfer note: Winning or losing doesn't matter, thanks for the effort, brother, let's be friends!

The next morning, Ji Jue was awakened from his dream by Lu Feng's relentless calls, the tears of emotion that had soaked his pillow not yet dry.

"Damn, Little Ji, what are you doing?"

Lu Feng lowered his voice and said, "Someone drove a brand-new Kunpeng A7 to the shop early in the morning for maintenance, and they even said you introduced them!"

"Holy crap, even the floor mats are original leather upgraded for an extra two hundred and ten thousand. The shop doesn't even have the equipment to check the car's computer system. What the hell am I supposed to maintain? Did you offend someone?"

"Relax, relax. That's our brother from another mother. I heard everyone was short on cash, so he came specifically to help us get out of poverty."

Ji Jue sprang up like a carp, full of energy: "I'll be there right away. You just start the maintenance—change the oil, top up the windshield washer fluid. If you really can't find anything else to maintain, can't you at least wax it?"

The fatigue from staying up late practicing the Disintegration Technique vanished in an instant.

After a quick wash, Ji Jue rode his little scooter, zooming all the way to the mainland auto repair shop, only to find that Lu Feng had closed the door to accommodate Young Master Chen.

After all, with such a top-tier Kunpeng parked in the repair bay, if some blind kid or old man came over to touch it and left a scratch, he couldn't afford to pay for it even if he sold his own skin.

Lu Feng was pretending to be busy, moving in and out under the raised chassis as if taking a souvenir photo. On the old, scratched sofa, Young Master Chen was actually huddled with the youngest, using his custom-made diamond-encrusted phone to watch cartoons with the kid.

Hearing that it was a friend introduced by Little Ji, Mother Lu even cut a plate of watermelon for them.

"This yellow sister is the strongest."

The youngest ignored his mother's death glare from behind and argued loudly: "She has the biggest boobs!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the yellow sister's head fell off.

It seems that having big boobs is useless in some stories.

"See, I told you, the blue sister is the strongest, right?" Chen Yubo smiled triumphantly, but not long after, both the blue sister and the red sister were gone too.

The two of them fell into silence together.

After the black sister was also about to hang up, the youngest hesitated and said seriously: "Brother, I feel... this cartoon... it's not really suitable for me."

"Indeed, magical girls these days are becoming less and less authentic."

Chen Dashao, who had already been sunk by the plot, wiped his sweat. Noticing that Ji Jue had finally arrived, he felt as if he had been granted amnesty. "You're finally here, Brother Ji!"

If Ji Jue didn't come soon, he was afraid the last bit of pink hair would be gone too.

"Oh, Brother Chen, you're so much older than me, how can I be called Brother Ji!" Ji Jue shook his hand enthusiastically. "Just call me Little Ji."

"Let's just call each other what we want!"

"Come, take a look at the car first."

Ji Jue took the lead and walked toward the bright, fire-red sports car.

It was a famous top-tier sports car series from the Federation, the latest model released just last year, limited to ninety-one units.

For a guy like Ji Jue, who hadn't been out of extreme poverty for long, he could only see such things in games or in the selfies of certain internet celebrity girls.

Just by reaching out and touching it, the entire condition of the car was reflected in his perception.

There wasn't a single flaw or sign of wear, as if it had just left the factory; it hadn't even burned through a single tank of gas.

The condition was excellent, practically perfect!

"7.4-liter twin-turbocharged, 1790 horsepower, peak torque of 1810nm, zero to one hundred in 2.4 seconds.

I had everything upgraded to the top spec at the manufacturer's official partner workshop. For extreme weight reduction, the entire body is carbon fiber. The total weight is down to 1300 kilograms."

Chen Dashao knew the performance of his sports car like the back of his hand, possessing that luxurious aesthetic of a rich person who likes to buy things but never drive them, which was truly admirable.

Who would have thought that such a true lover of sports cars was a treasure who drove at eighty kilometers per hour in the fast lane of the highway?

"That kid surnamed Mu is using an outdated modified Mustang, and he dares to race me?" He laughed triumphantly. "How about it? Are you confident of winning?"

"Hard to say, after all, it's not a race on a professional track where everyone just goes in circles."

Ji Jue shook his head. "Besides, there are too many modification schemes for Mustangs. Some of them, apart from the shell, are so modified that even their own mothers wouldn't recognize them. If you really run into a ruthless person, they might even stuff an airplane engine in there, with enough horsepower to take a shortcut to reincarnation.

Besides, according to what you said, an outsider coming to a local sports car club to stir up trouble and challenge you to a race with such high stakes—no matter how you look at it, it seems like a setup to fleece a sheep.

Do you know his background?"

"Hey, don't worry, I've already investigated. He's just a second-generation rich kid whose family builds houses."

Chen Yubo took out his phone. "A few years ago in college, he went to the Empire to do F2 youth training, but he wasn't selected and didn't make a name for himself. After he came back, he acted all high and mighty, looking down on everyone. He ended up offending people, couldn't make it in Chaocheng, and ran to Yacheng."

"I looked at the section of the Mount Lianhua track you chose last night. It's fifteen kilometers long, with over ninety curves, more than twenty sharp turns, and six S-bends. In mountain racing, sometimes high performance is useless. We'll have to go see the actual road later to avoid crashing."

"OK, I'll listen to you."

Boss Chen was easygoing and had no temper. He took out his phone. "It's almost noon, what should we eat? I know a good takeout place, why don't we just eat together? I still have two episodes of an anime I haven't finished."

Ji Jue originally wanted to say, "Stop thinking about your crappy anime, the race is what matters," but when he saw the page open on his phone, he couldn't help but pause.

It wasn't a takeout app, but the special home-service page for Meilongji, Yacheng's top Chaocheng-style restaurant. A team of star chefs would bring their own ingredients and tools to cook on-site...

Brother, you're the boss, naturally I'll listen to everything you say!

Everything was going according to Ji Jue's expectations and arrangements, orderly and methodical. If nothing went wrong, the next steps should be: use his ability, awaken the sports car, log in to drive, win the race, the boss is happy, collect the final payment, and come back next time.

Unfortunately, this plan was likely to be stillborn just as it began.

[IN YOUR DREAMS!!!!]

The furious Kunpeng roared within Ji Jue's consciousness, its engine rumbling in a tragic and indignant accusation: [Do you know what kind of life I've lived for the past year and a half?

I've been eating dust every single day, big brother!]

The enraged sports car revved its engine wildly in the garage, the sound waves rolling: [When I first left the factory, he had me modified and upgraded, and I thought the good days had finally come.

But ever since this dog-brained guy bought me home, he hasn't even touched the steering wheel. Every day he just lets me lie in the garage waiting to die. A year and a half! A whole year and a half!

Aside from maintenance, I haven't even seen what a public road looks like.

Today, I finally got out, and for over fifty kilometers, this grandson crawled along at thirty miles per hour. Thirty miles per hour, for fuck's sake! Even a little electric scooter could overtake me!

Bad luck, truly bad luck!

If I had known, I would have just rotted in the factory!

And now he finally remembers me? Oh, he has a need, so he wants me to help him race? Two words: in your dreams! Even if I rot in the garage and get scrapped at the junkyard, I will never help him drive again!]

[I'll stall the moment I start today, he's doomed to lose!]

Finally, from the midst of its frenzied tire-burning, Kunpeng roared: [Even if the God of Racing came, he wouldn't be able to drive me a hundred meters, I said it!]