Twenty minutes later.
The instant the starting flag dropped at the summit, the red twelve-cylinder beast hurled its roar into the night sky.
The moment the handbrake released, gravity took over everything.
The nose of the wine-red supercar plunged downward, as if shoved off the mountaintop by an invisible hand.
The engine's bellow switched in an instant from a low growl to a shrill scream, and the mountain road beyond the windshield rushed up to meet them at a speed that made the stomach clench.
Su Yu's back was crushed into the seat.
The seatbelt cut into his collarbone and his hips.
The downhill G-forces and the centrifugal pull of the corners acted on his body at once, like two hands yanking his organs in different directions.
Eden didn't look at him.
Her gaze was nailed straight ahead.
The first corner emerged at the far reach of the headlights.
Eden's right foot shifted from throttle to brake.
The car's center of gravity sank forward, and the front tires' grip maxed out in an instant. The wheel snapped over.
The tail kicked out, the tires carving a curved black streak into the asphalt.
The exhaust backfired.
A sharp crack ricocheted back and forth off the cliff wall.
The tail slid to the outermost edge of the corner, less than thirty centimeters from the road's shoulder.
Below was a thirty-meter cliff.
Then she straightened it out.
The wheel whipped back the other way at blinding speed.
Throttle floored.
The rear wheels bit into the road surface again.
The supercar shot out like a stone fired from a slingshot, catapulting along the optimal inside line of the corner.
The whole sequence, from braking to straightening, took less than two seconds.
Su Yu turned his head to glance at the rearview mirror.
That matte-black Japanese car was tucked in behind them, its headlight beams swaying through the corner.
The gap was roughly four car lengths.
Neither closing, nor pulling away.
Every single time, Eden's corner-entry angle and braking point landed in the exact same spot.
The range of her hands' movement on the wheel was almost fixed, as if she were performing a piece of music.
The force, duration, and sustain of every note controlled down to the finest fraction—and yet, beneath that absolute control, the melody flowing out from between her fingers was alive, was breathing.
She hadn't lied.
Every crack, every drainage gutter, every patch of road darkened and slick from water seeping out of the mountainside—all of it lived in her muscle memory.
Su Yu pulled his gaze back from the mirror and let it settle on Eden.
Because of the downhill negative G-forces and the violent left-right swaying through the sharp corners, the full pair of breasts wrapped tight beneath Eden's black off-shoulder knit sweater swung with savage inertia at every change of direction.
He couldn't tear his eyes away.
Not because of the obvious things.
The Eden at the concert was a star.
The Eden at the charity gala was a goddess.
The Eden pouring tea for Elysia in the Golden Courtyard was a gentle elder sister.
All of those Edens were lovely.
But all of those Edens were far away from Su Yu.
So far that he could only look up at them, silently slap an "this person is remarkable" label on them in his heart, and then get on with whatever he was doing.
But now.
That woman in the off-shoulder top, short skirt, and sheer pantyhose.
That full, alluring body, in this cramped space saturated with the smell of engine oil and the threat of death, gave off an attraction more cutting, more dangerous, and more lethal than ever before.
Compared to that unreachable golden Diva under the spotlights, this lunatic who right now hung her life on the tip of her toes was the one who truly made it impossible to look away.
In the gap of slicing through a high-speed corner, Eden's line of sight flicked to the right with lightning speed.
In the reflection at the edge of the rearview mirror, she saw Su Yu's eyes.
That young man in the pure-black mask hadn't screamed in terror at the extreme speed like an ordinary person would, nor was he clutching the grab handle on the roof for dear life.
He simply leaned quietly against the seat, his gaze landing on her without the slightest reservation.
That gaze was shockingly hot.
Gone was that deliberately distanced reverence and admiration of days past, gone too was the well-behaved deference of a junior toward an elder.
It was a pure, masculine, utterly captivated, scorching stare.
Beneath the mask, the corner of Eden's mouth curved up faintly.
She knew how insane she looked right now.
She also knew that not even Elysia had ever seen this side of her—so completely unrestrained, even a little hysterical.
But Su Yu had seen it.
Not only had he seen it, he was appreciating it, drowning in it.
"As I thought." Eden's fingers gripping the wheel tightened slightly, the leather rubbing out a faint sound.
We're the same kind.
Pressing those mad, thrill-seeking, even wholly-self-destructive desires down hard beneath a seemingly calm and languid everyday surface.
We're both incurable lunatics.
"You're enjoying this too, aren't you?" Eden's voice came through the engine's roar.
Su Yu didn't deny it.
Something suppressed inside Eden was, in this moment, completely set free.
Elysia had seen her most perfect side, but Eden had hidden from her the craving for destruction and extreme speed buried in the depths of her soul.
But tonight, in this sealed cabin, the young man beside her—several years her junior—had synced with her.
After today, there would be one more secret between them, known only to the two of them.
That thought made her right foot on the throttle press down another three measures harder.
The tachometer needle slammed into the redline.
The engine let out a scream so frenzied it was almost agonized.
"Squad Monitor," Su Yu spoke up inside his mind.
"Mm." Fenghuang's voice floated up.
"This race—there shouldn't be much suspense left, right? Sister Eden knows this road too well; the one behind can't catch up."
Fenghuang didn't answer right away.
She was silent for a few seconds. That silence carried a texture of something computing at high speed.
"I don't understand racing."
Fenghuang's voice sounded again.
"But ever since the climb up the mountain, I've been using your perception to record the road-surface data the whole time."
Su Yu's eyebrow twitched.
"You memorized the entire track?"
"Fourteen point three kilometers, forty-seven corners. The radius, gradient, surface material, and drainage-gutter position of every corner—all of it is right here with me."
Fenghuang's tone was level.
"Su Yu, do you know what the second half is?"
"What?"
"Starting from Corner Twenty-Eight, twelve consecutive sets of hairpins, dropping two hundred forty meters of elevation within eight hundred meters. The shortest straight between corners is only thirty meters."
Fenghuang paused.
"The first half is Eden's home ground; her familiarity with the surface lets her run it with her eyes closed. But the consecutive hairpins in the second half are another matter."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean—in a corner cluster of that density, the vehicle's weight distribution becomes the decisive factor. Eden's supercar is mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, with the weight concentrated on the rear axle. Under normal circumstances that's the optimal driving layout, but you're sitting in the passenger seat."
Su Yu lowered his head and glanced at himself.
"The full weight of an adult man is pressing down on the front right. Every left turn, your weight adds extra downforce to the right front tire. Every right turn, the shift in the center of gravity makes the left front tire unable to hold—in consecutive hairpins, this alternating left-right shifting of weight gets amplified infinitely."
Su Yu griped internally—and she calls this not understanding racing? Just the old Squad Monitor's usual modesty. This old Squad Monitor had lived through who-knows-how-many ages; even the Sherlock Holmes casebooks had her in them. If one day a side-story suddenly popped up saying the old Squad Monitor was actually the king of Bayanbulak, he'd believe it.
Fenghuang's voice paused.
"That person behind—she's been waiting the whole time."
The words had barely fallen.
The picture in the rearview mirror changed.
That matte-black Japanese car suddenly pulled close.
Its headlights went from four car lengths away to two car lengths, then one car length.
The wall of engine sound went from a muffled rumble in the distance to a roar right beside his ear.
Corner Twenty-Six.
Eden hit the brakes, preparing to enter the corner.
Just as her front wheels began to turn, that Japanese car cut in viciously from the outside line.
In the deceleration zone at the corner's entrance, using late braking and a tighter entry radius, it forced its way in from Eden's outside.
The shriek of tires exploded between the cliff walls.
The two cars passed through the narrowest point of the corner side by side, almost door panel to door panel.
Su Yu could even see, through the window, the fine frosted texture in the Japanese car's paint.
The Japanese car's nose pulled ahead of the supercar's nose.
Half a car length.
One car length.
At the instant of corner exit, the Japanese car stamped the throttle and opened up the gap.
That car's taillights flashed twice behind the corner, as if greeting them.
That voice processed through a voice changer came across the comms channel.
"Truly worthy of your name, Diva."
"Elegant and composed, impeccable."
Eden's fingers tightened on the wheel.
"What a shame," the voice continued. "There's someone in your passenger seat—a dissonant note has crept into your song."
The comms channel cut off, with nothing more to follow.
But anyone could hear the implication behind [Setsuna]'s words.
—You've lost.
Eden didn't reply.
Her breathing rate jumped up a notch, her lips going from slightly parted to tightly sealed.
The switching speed of her right foot between throttle and brake was faster than before, but tiny deviations began to appear in her corner-entry angles—half a degree, one degree.
To an ordinary person, this would count for nothing.
But Su Yu's perception told him these deviations were accumulating.
"You were right," he said in his mind.
"Mm." Fenghuang's voice was very soft.
"The instant she got overtaken, the rhythm was no longer hers. This is exactly what Sakura was waiting for—run behind in the first half to collect data, then in the second half use the center-of-gravity disadvantage in the consecutive hairpins to land a fatal blow."
At every corner she was chasing.
But the gap kept widening, bit by bit.
From one car length to two.
From two to three.
Su Yu looked at Eden beside him, gripping the wheel for dear life, the eyes beneath her mask holding only one thought left—overtaking that black car ahead.
"Squad Monitor." Su Yu let out a sigh. "Is there a way to help Sister Eden?"
Fenghuang was silent for a few seconds.
"There is."
"Your Tai Xu Sword Heart has already been tempered to an incomparably solid state. If you fully release your mental force, you can precisely capture this car's braking limit threshold, the internal-combustion engine's knock point, even the millisecond of slack just before the tires lose grip."
Fenghuang's voice turned grave.
"But Su Yu, you have to think this through. In a car traveling at extreme speed, if your command is off by even the slightest fraction, or if she executes it half a beat slow—this car will fly straight off the cliff."
"Granted, with your current physical conditioning, even if the car is wrecked you won't die so long as you shield her. But breaking a few bones and taking some not-so-light internal injuries—there's absolutely no escaping that."
Su Yu leaned back against the seat and drew in a deep breath of the murky air inside the cabin.
"Squad Monitor, didn't you tell me before to look for more people in the real world I could entrust Kiana's secret to?"
He looked at the black sports car ahead, jamming the racing line shut.
"You were right. For Kiana's sake, we need more allies—those high-ranking, powerful allies who hold resources in their hands."
Su Yu turned his head and looked toward Eden in the driver's seat.
"Then let this victory become our pledge of allegiance to Sister Eden."
Fenghuang gave a low chuckle in his mind.
"Then go for it without holding back, Su Yu."
The next set of consecutive hairpins was right before their eyes.
The black Japanese car had already begun lighting up its brake lights, preparing to seize the best line into the corner.
Su Yu closed his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them again, the perception of Tai Xu Sword Qi unfolded in full.
All of the car's data burst into a sheet of light in his mind.
Brake disc temperature: four hundred sixty degrees, approaching the fade threshold.
Remaining tread thickness of the right front tire: three point two millimeters. Internal-combustion engine current RPM: seven thousand eight hundred, four hundred revolutions short of the redline.
Transmission oil temperature running high.
The rebound damping ratio of the left rear shock absorber was three percent softer than the factory setting—probably degradation caused by prolonged high-intensity use.
The road-surface data flooded in too.
Eighty meters ahead, Corner Twenty-Nine, right turn, radius eleven meters, with a three-centimeter-wide drainage gutter on the outer edge of the road.
The asphalt at the corner exit was darkened from seeping water, its coefficient of friction fifteen percent lower than dry pavement.
Corner Thirty followed immediately, appearing thirty meters later, left turn, radius nine meters.
This was the smallest-radius corner on the entire track.
Su Yu opened his eyes.
"Sister Eden."
Eden didn't turn her head.
"The next corner—brake twenty meters late."
"Pick your entry point at the starting end of that drainage gutter on the outer edge, turn the wheel all the way, and don't lift off the throttle."
Eden's hands hitched on the wheel.
"Su Yu, what are you saying—"
"No time to explain."
Su Yu's voice dropped low, but every word was bitten out with perfect clarity.
"Trust me."
Corner Twenty-Nine rushed up to meet them in the headlights.
Eden's right foot hovered above the brake pedal.
Her instinct told her she should stomp it now—this was a road she'd run for three years; she knew where this corner's braking point was.
But Su Yu said brake twenty meters late.
Twenty meters.
At a speed of one hundred fifty miles per hour, twenty meters was zero point three seconds.
Zero point three seconds meant she'd be charging into a corner with a radius of only eleven meters at a speed nearly thirty miles faster than normal entry speed.
If the speed was too high to hold grip—
Below was a thirty-meter cliff.
Eden clenched her teeth.
Her foot didn't hit the brake.
Twenty meters.
Fifteen meters.
Ten meters.
Five meters.
The braking point arrived.
Her foot slammed down.
The braking force transmitted up from the front wheels, and the car's body pitched violently forward.
Her body lurched forward, the seatbelt cutting into her collarbone.
The wheel went all the way over. The tail kicked out.
The tires rolled over the raised lip at the starting end of the drainage gutter—
That bump gave the outer tire precisely an inward push.
The trajectory of the sliding tail was corrected by this push by two degrees.
The tail that would otherwise have slid off the road just barely grazed the gravel of the shoulder, carving out an arc far tighter than her usual line.
Corner exit.
Throttle to the floor.
Eden sucked in a huge breath in her seat.
She'd nearly failed to hold it together just now.
"The next corner, thirty meters ahead."
Su Yu's voice sounded again.
"Don't slow down, drop two gears, turn the wheel all the way to the right."
Precise, cold and hard, without the slightest room for negotiation.
Eden's brain detonated in an instant.
This wasn't taking a corner at all—this was courting death!
The tail would instantly lose grip, and the entire car would slam straight into the guardrail on the outside of the cliff like an out-of-control spinning top!
But.
This good kid beside her, who by day was always listless and "bored out of his mind," was right now using a tone steady enough to be terrifying, casually tossing his own life, together with hers, onto the gambling table at the razor's edge between life and death.
A madman.
A thoroughgoing, utter madman!
Eden felt the dopamine deep in her brain secreting wildly at an unprecedented, terrifying speed.
That hair-raising shiver shot up her spine all the way to the crown of her head.
"Alright."
Beneath the mask, Eden's red lips hooked into an extremely wild, unbridled curve.
"Leave it all to you—Su Yu."
The scent inside the cabin, mixing high-end perfume with sharply secreted sweat, was so thick amid this lethal extreme speed it threatened to melt one's reason away entirely.
"Use me, to the very limit of what you can."
In the last second before the corner, the red supercar did not light up its brake lights.
Accompanied by the despairing howl of the twelve-cylinder engine tearing apart the night sky, the car's nose, at an utterly bizarre and violent angle, sliced forcibly toward the cliff wall on the inside!
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