Chapter 52: 「Lu Mingfei?」「Su Xiaoqiang?」「Liu Miaomiao?」

Hot water washed over him, white mist filling the air.

In the haze, Lu Mingfei let out a comfortable breath.

The warm water at just the right temperature seemed capable of washing away the lactic acid accumulated in his muscles from anaerobic activity; he had been working out for a full three hours, all of it failure-set strength training, yet the soreness and fatigue in his body were fading at an extremely rapid pace.

Hot water, of course, did not have such an effect; it would be more like the legendary "Fountain of Youth." Lu Mingfei sighed with emotion at the efficacy of 【Physical Recovery】; if not for this entry, he probably would have trained himself into a wreck long ago, right?

After relaxing for a few seconds, he suddenly sped up his bathing.

The Schedule did not allocate much time for bathing, just enough for him to clean his body following normal steps; relaxing for a few seconds meant the rest would naturally have to be sloppy. Besides, Su Xiaoqiang was still waiting for him outside.

Lu Mingfei's movements paused; why did it feel like the connection between these two things was not quite right?

It was all Brother Chu's fault for telling lies with such a straight face; hidden beneath that icy, expressionless face, besides being flammable and explosive, was there also the heart of a gossip? Now it was a fine mess, making him start to let his imagination run wild too...

Lu Mingfei shook his head, pulling his thoughts back on track—nothing else mattered now! What mattered was transforming 【Force Analysis】 into an improvement in real-time combat power.

He activated 【Force Analysis】 once again, only this time, it was directed at himself.

"Magnitude, direction, and also..."

"Did you really wash clean?"

Su Xiaoqiang raised an eyebrow at Lu Mingfei, her tone somewhat skeptical.

"Of course."

Lu Mingfei reached out his hand with great confidence, "Want to take a sniff?"

"Get lost, get lost, get lost!"

Su Xiaoqiang had no way to deal with his thick-skinned, shameless antics and simply started walking.

"Let's go, I'll take you home! Let me tell you, this is out of respect for Brother Chu, otherwise I wouldn't give you a ride; no boy has ever been in my car before..."

"Yes, yes, yes, I trouble you, my lady, to show mercy to this lowly one; this lowly one thanks you for your great kindness!"

Lu Mingfei naturally offered a string of pleasantries; anyway, saying nice things didn't cost money, and he was currently in a state of "guilty conscience," so it wasn't good to provoke Su Xiaoqiang further... What if he pushed her too far and she played her trump card?

"Hmph, you may rise."

The corners of Su Xiaoqiang's mouth curled up; why did it feel like the flattery from this loser Lu Mingfei was particularly pleasing?

Perhaps it was the contrast; for the past two and a half years, he hadn't said a single nice word, and now he was tossing them out like they were free!

That was normal, after all, she had managed to get a handle on him...

The two arrived outside the gym.

Su Xiaoqiang's family driver was already waiting by the car; she was a middle-aged woman who looked very capable.

"Zhang Yi, this is my classmate, I'm giving him a lift."

Su Xiaoqiang greeted her, then turned her head to look at Lu Mingfei, "Where is your house again? I remember it was..."

"It's not there anymore, I moved out, at California Sunshine, Street One, Number Two," Lu Mingfei hurriedly explained.

"Oh, you moved out?"

Su Xiaoqiang was a bit puzzled, but didn't pay it much mind, "Then California Sunshine, Street One, Number Two."

Zhang Yi had already been sizing up Lu Mingfei for a long time without leaving a trace, and upon hearing this, her gaze became even sharper... That was a villa area, everyone living there was rich, so why would he need Su Xiaoqiang to help give him a ride?

She feared he had ulterior motives and was up to no good!

But she didn't voice her suspicions, instead silently inviting the two to get in the car.

As a full-time driver and bodyguard, she only needed to report all of this to her boss, which was Su Xiaoqiang's father.

The vehicle drove smoothly through the city under the night sky.

Usually, Lu Mingfei would have nothing to do but climb onto the rooftop to gaze at the entire city, imagining that every moving stream of traffic was a living firefly, bound to the roads, only able to keep moving forward to find an exit.

But now, Lu Mingfei had no heart to think about those "poetic" images, instead blankly conceiving that idea in his heart, pondering how he should go about realizing it.

This should be a very fluid set of movements, not a long process, precise and elegant, and it could be used in combination with other entries... He worked hard to perfect it, completely immersed in it, even forgetting where he was.

He had just entered a "Flow State"!

"Hey, Lu Mingfei, why were you Learning when you were working out just now, but you aren't Learning now?"

Su Xiaoqiang looked at Lu Mingfei with some confusion, unable to stop herself from asking.

"It couldn't be that your Learning efficiency was higher while working out than it is sitting in the car, right?"

Such a question naturally caught the attention of Zhang Yi, who was driving; she first scanned the traffic, saw the green light and normal flow, maintained a safe distance, and then quietly pricked up her ears, checking through the rearview mirror.

Lu Mingfei did not answer.

The "Flow State" was like this; unless there was a relatively large stimulus, one would completely ignore everything else.

But in Zhang Yi's view, this was Lu Mingfei "playing hard to get"! How could he not hear her in such a quiet car, and how could he be distracted while sitting in the back seat with Su Xiaoqiang?

And what was this about Learning while working out? It sounded like a deliberate trick to pick up girls!

Yet Su Xiaoqiang seemed to really fall for it; Zhang Yi even saw her curiously reach out her hand, wanting to wave it in front of Lu Mingfei...

Zhang Yi's heart tightened.

"Beep!"

A piercing horn blast tore through the night sky.

Zhang Yi reacted instantly; she observed the situation clearly at high speed, the car in front swerved hard to avoid something, and the view finally cleared—it was a runaway heavy truck driving straight toward them, the driver honking wildly!

Zhang Yi, who could be hired as a full-time driver and bodyguard, naturally had some skills; she even had time to shout "Watch out," while simultaneously slamming her foot on the gas and twisting the steering wheel.

The Mercedes, which had been driving smoothly, suddenly let out a roar! The suddenly accelerating tires and the sharp turn even left charred skid marks on the ground.

Lu Mingfei came to his senses after Zhang Yi's "Watch out," Su Xiaoqiang's scream, and the vehicle's near-out-of-control swerving.

Noticing the "King of the Road" heading straight for them, he entered 【Explosive Sprint】 at the first opportunity!

Everything that happened rapidly was cut into slow motion, and the sounds were also stretched into a strange, distorted tone.

Lu Mingfei did not rush to get out of the car; his heart stirred, and he activated 【Force Analysis】.

Those "lines" appeared once again.

Within the framework of classical Physics, all forces can be viewed as vectors—quantities possessing both magnitude and direction. And now, dense vectors were displayed within his field of vision just like that.

They are the essence of motion, now dissected and highlighted by 【Force Analysis】!

"Magnitude, direction..."

Lu Mingfei muttered.

It was easy to understand: the length represented the magnitude of the force, and the direction the arrow pointed was the direction of the force.

Mastering these two things was actually nothing; the most critical part had been ignored by Lu Mingfei at the beginning, until now...

His gaze fell upon the "starting points" of those "lines."

Vectors with magnitude and direction naturally also have a "starting point," which represents the point of application of the force; it determines the force's location of action and its path of transmission.

Different vectors acting simultaneously at different points of application, with different magnitudes and directions, eventually synthesize together to become "motion," the events that ordinary people can observe.

And at this moment, from Lu Mingfei's perspective, motion was a collection of countless vectors!

Having magnitude, having direction, having a point of application.

Students who have studied Physics all know what this means—motion has become calculable.

Compared to simple problems on an exam paper, everything before his eyes was undoubtedly an extremely massive amount of calculation. With so many vectors densely stacked together, how long would it take to calculate? Without a draft notebook, he probably wouldn't be able to finish.

But for Lu Mingfei, who possesses 【Super Speed Calculation】, it was very simple. For this level of calculation, he only needed to know the data to obtain the answer!

The only problem was that the number of "lines" was too high; even without needing to calculate, the process of "listing the data for estimation" still required time.

Fortunately, Lu Mingfei's speed had been enhanced, and his speed enhancement included his thinking ability!

After spending about five seconds in reality, nearing the final four seconds of "rescue time" Lu Mingfei had preset for himself, he arrived at the answer—

It definitely wouldn't collide.

With that, everything became much simpler.

He even had time to find himself a comfortable posture that happened to counter the vehicle's drift, and exerted force in a predetermined direction to generate a counter-torque.

Just as he was about to deactivate 【Explosive Sprint】 early, Lu Mingfei suddenly noticed Su Xiaoqiang beside him.

Her body was slightly floating; it looked like she would be violently thrown against the car door due to inertia, and her hand was reaching toward him, her eyes full of terror.

His heart stirred.

To think that someone would choose to ask him for help when encountering danger... and that he truly had the ability to help?

It would only take a very effortless helping hand.

This feeling, honestly, was quite marvelous. At least in the past, Lu Mingfei had never experienced it... at most, it was someone getting beaten in StarCraft and asking him for internet money or a cola, letting him help play on their behalf to get back at the opponent.

But while it was simple for him to adjust himself, adjusting someone else's "motion" was more troublesome, because others would not cooperate by exerting force.

Lu Mingfei switched his observation target to Su Xiaoqiang, and after calculating earnestly for a moment, chose to give up on futile struggles.

So he muttered, "Even in the back seat, you have to wear a seatbelt. I'll reluctantly act as a human seatbelt today; don't be ungrateful and say I'm being a hooligan when this is over," and grabbed Su Xiaoqiang.

A clever force was applied; the direction, magnitude, and point of application were all just right!

Moving someone else at high speed would cause injury if one were even slightly careless, but for Lu Mingfei, this was very simple; the perfectly-timed force formed a perfect torque, pulling Su Xiaoqiang into Lu Mingfei's embrace, holding her.

After he finished calculating the counter-torque needed for an extra person, he silently exerted force.

【Explosive Sprint】, deactivated.

The engine roared, accompanied by the screeching sound of tires scraping the ground, echoing through the street. Zhang Yi, with extremely fast reflexes and superb driving skills, successfully swerved and cut into the flow of other traffic to continue driving away, but she felt not a shred of joy, instead looking into the rearview mirror in a panic.

She was stunned.

The boy was hugging the girl tightly, sitting steadily in the original position on the seat, as if they hadn't been affected in the slightest by the thrilling drift just now; the two were motionless, with only the neon lights dancing between them.

Su Xiaoqiang's screaming had stopped at some point; she didn't speak, only a trace of lingering terror and unease remained in her eyes. And Lu Mingfei didn't speak either; in fact... he had no strength left to speak, as a state of exhaustion enveloped him.

Zhang Yi's eyes were almost popping out; she opened her mouth, wanting to say something but hesitating.

To say "get down quickly" would be awkward, as it was her young mistress on top of someone else; to say "let go of the young mistress quickly" would be awkward, as he had just saved her, and it didn't seem very nice to burn bridges like that?

Besides, Su Xiaoqiang herself hadn't said anything!

And so, everything returned to silence...

Lu Mingfei's eyes gradually filled with confusion; even if she were overly shocked, Su Xiaoqiang should have reacted by now. But since she had reacted, why hadn't she gotten off him yet?

At this moment, he finally recovered a bit of strength to speak.

"Human seatbelt, more comfortable than a leather one, right?" he asked.

"... It's okay?"

Su Xiaoqiang seemed to have not yet reacted.

"... It costs money, you know," Lu Mingfei threatened.

Su Xiaoqiang blinked; her bright eyes finally regained their liveliness, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, a look that was neither a smile nor a frown.

"How much for a buyout?"

Lu Mingfei shut his mouth and said nothing; he suddenly realized... the person in his arms had never lacked money; she was truly someone with mines at home, and not just one or two!

Su Xiaoqiang "tched," saying that this young lady letting you hug her for free is already a profit for you, and you still want money!

Then she moved off, calmly saying for Zhang Yi to continue driving to California Sunshine, and that as for that out-of-control heavy truck, remember to let her father send people to investigate it as there might be a problem... all in one breath, quite imposing.

Only the faint blush on her earlobes was hidden in the shadows of her hair.

After a series of twists and turns, the vehicle finally arrived at its destination.

Lu Mingfei breathed a sigh of relief; his state of exhaustion had barely recovered, and he could walk, otherwise he would have had to trouble Zhang Yi... he struggled to get up and stepped out of the car.

But as soon as he got out of the car, a familiar voice rang out from across the street.

"Lu Mingfei?"

Lu Mingfei stiffened; in fact, he did not know why he had stiffened subconsciously, and he attributed it to the fact that his state of exhaustion had not yet fully faded.

Su Xiaoqiang opened the car door, stepped out, and looked at the familiar figure opposite who had also just stepped out of a car.

"Liu Miaomiao?"

Liu Miaomiao was stunned.

"Su Xiaoqiang?"

PS: I had originally finished three thousand words by six o'clock, but after reading through it, I felt it lacked substance, so I deleted two thousand and rewrote it... That's equivalent to ten thousand words today! Please vote with monthly tickets and keep following~

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