Chapter 87: He Will Surely Be Safe and Blessed

On the day of the race, Qiao Zhen changed into a light brown fleece-lined dress and even looked up a beginner’s makeup tutorial online to do her face.

Eyeshadow, blush, lip gloss...

She found the hardest part was applying false eyelashes. It took an enormous amount of effort, and only after a long struggle did she manage to stick them on in a reasonably natural way.

The venue was lively and chaotic. As the start drew near, a crowd had taken their seats in the stands, staring tensely toward the track.

Whether it was her imagination or not, Qiao Zhen kept feeling that the boys seemed strangely off today.

Usually they were all such simple-minded giants, but today it was as if they were collectively hiding something important from her, even their expressions somehow not right.

With a heavy bag on her back, Qiao Zhen hesitated for a long time before finally unable to hold back any longer. She leaned over on her own and asked in a low voice,

“Does my makeup look weird?”

“Huh?” Niu Yifeng looked utterly baffled. Frowning, he stared at her for a long while before asking, “You put on makeup?”

The lip gloss Qiao Zhen wore was a cherry-pink shade, fairly light, not the kind that looked very red.

Niu Yifeng truly had not noticed at all that she was wearing makeup!

A sudden sense of frustration rose in Qiao Zhen, and she murmured, “You can’t tell?”

The boy beside her hurriedly comforted her. “We can tell, we can tell. You look amazing, seriously amazing, not weird at all. It’s enough to drive Brother Chi crazy!!”

Qiao Zhen: “...”

Then why were all your expressions so strange?

Even Zhang Ning, that little third-year girl, was staring at her with an expectant look.

Something was wrong. Very wrong!!

At that moment, the electronic screen at the track switched to the racers, instantly drawing a wave of screams.

“Holy crap, look, it’s Brother Chi! He looks insane!” someone suddenly shouted.

Qiao Zhen lifted her head.

On the giant screen, the man wore a black-and-red racing suit, his proportions strikingly perfect. Within those slightly long, sharp eyes was a distinctly roguish handsomeness, and the tear mole beneath his right eye was even more bewitching and seductive, pulling at the heart with a single glance.

In that instant, he looked like a male lead stepping straight out of a comic, hotter and more dazzling than the sun itself.

He was pure adrenaline, overwhelmingly aggressive.

Qiao Zhen’s heart instantly overflowed with honey.

Her liking for him was like soda after the bottle had been shaken hard, bubbles rising nonstop, nearly bursting through her body and spilling out completely.

Several beautiful older sisters nearby lit up and grew excited, shrieking while filming wildly on their phones:

“Help me, look at that number one racer. How is he so handsome? Damn, I’m about to switch sides, ahhh!”

“Oh my god, my friend found out he’s actually a college guy? A handsome college student! Sister, I’d give him my life!”

Qiao Zhen’s face turned faintly yellow.

Yet the beautiful sisters beside her were still covering their mouths and talking about things like being full of drive, lasting endurance, and a stable core.

The more Qiao Zhen heard, the hotter her ears grew, the lower her head sank, and the more faintly red her cheeks became.

What even was all this?

On the track, the racers were ready, and the stands were blazing with excitement and cheers.

Niu Yifeng hurriedly clutched at his chest. “Help, I’m so nervous, ahhh!”

“...” Zhang Yu remained silent for a moment, then patted his shoulder and said, “It’s fine. We have to trust Brother Chi.”

Qiao Zhen lowered her eyes and murmured softly, “Mm. Qin Yichi... he’ll definitely be okay.”

Whether she was comforting others or herself, she kept repeating it over and over: everything would be fine, Qin Yichi would surely be safe and prosperous.

After all, he was the future world-class racing ace, the so-called “track hunter”...

With a sharp crack, the starting gun fired, and the black-and-white checkered flag came down. The race officially began!

The cars shot forward like lightning, engines roaring with power, shaking the skies as smoke spread through the air.

The atmosphere in the stands was ignited in an instant.

Watching on the screen and feeling it from the stands were entirely different experiences; being there in person was far more shocking and thrilling.

Qiao Zhen’s eyes blurred with excitement as she looked at the figure of the number one racer on the screen, in that red-and-black racing suit.

He was like a blazing flame racing madly all the way, burning fiercely and stirring the blood.

Wild enough, fierce enough, as if every cell in his body was about to explode.

The tires screeched against the road course. At the turn, his car body nearly scraped the ground, and even his knee came close to the asphalt. The tires seemed like razor blades as he drifted through the corner in a move full of danger.

Qiao Zhen’s heart suddenly tightened. She pressed her lips together, feeling the air around her crazily shouting, boiling, and tearing apart.

The boys beside her screamed, “Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap—”

“Help, my heart is about to leap out of my chest!!!”

Qiao Zhen could not say a word. She even held her breath, afraid to draw in a deep gasp.

Her heart flew up into her throat, and every corner made her watch in dread.

On the screen, that blazing figure was like a released beast, suddenly erupting with astonishing power. With a perfect drift he overtook the others, took first place, and pulled far ahead.

Qiao Zhen let out a breath, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly.

But at the next turn, Qin Yichi was overtaken by the number six racer behind him and fell back a short distance.

The breath Qiao Zhen had just released came rushing back again. Her mouth turned down, and she was once more strung tight with worry, her heart pounding wildly, fingertips trembling faintly.

Yet on the second lap, Qin Yichi overtook again, and the deafening roar seemed to set the very air ablaze.

Qiao Zhen smiled once more, her mood rising and falling like a roller coaster.

The people around her began cheering happily.

But when the camera cut to a close-up of car number six, Qiao Zhen suddenly froze.

Her face went deathly pale in an instant, her lips trembling nonstop.

In that flash of lightning and fire, it was as though she had been dragged back into that terrifying nightmare, falling into a bottomless cliff, her heart stabbed bloody by countless needles.

It hurt. It hurt so much...

Seeing that something was wrong with her, Niu Yifeng hurriedly asked, “Qiao Mei, what’s wrong? If you’re nervous, just close your eyes first, it’s okay!”

He said it as comfort, but his own thigh was trembling nonstop too.

“I... I’m fine. I just haven’t been sleeping well lately.” Qiao Zhen came back to herself and tightened her grip on the peace charm in her hand.

She and Qin Yichi each had one of those charms.

Last night, Qin Yichi had promised her again and again that he would be safe, and that if he lied he would turn into a puppy...

At that, Niu Yifeng breathed a sigh of relief and looked back up at the race, cheering them on.

The final lap, the most, most, most intense stage of all, sent every spectator into a frenzy of shrieking.

At a turn, the number six racer caught up, nearly side by side with Qin Yichi, pressed so close they almost touched, the struggle becoming fiercely intense.

The entire crowd wore tense expressions.

Even Niu Yifeng was so nervous that sweat had broken out on his forehead, his muscles taut.

Then, the next second, a dull thud sounded by her ear!

He turned his head, and his face changed drastically. Qiao Zhen had actually collapsed directly to the ground.

“Holy crap, Qiao Zhen, what’s wrong with you! Don’t scare me like that, ahhh!!”

The boys erupted into sharp, piercing cries:

“Quick, quick, Qiao Mei fainted!!!”