Can the System Detect Weight Loss Too?

"Old Huang, you really opened my eyes today. But you're seriously not being a bro—secretly learning such great bike-building skills and keeping them from me all this time. Even someone as petty as Master Liu admitted you're amazing."

After the bike shop closed that evening, Du Wei complained to Huang Chong in the passenger seat as he drove them home.

Huang Chong was currently living at Du Wei's place, with room and board included. Hearing this, he had no way to explain too much.

Who could have known he would be reborn—and awaken a system on top of that?

After thinking it over, he could only casually come up with an excuse.

"I didn't say anything before because I was afraid you'd think I was fantasizing if I told you I wanted to become a professional rider. So I first learned everything I needed to know and mastered all the skills I needed. Saying it now is definitely more convincing than just blurting it out."

"No, I'd think you were fantasizing no matter when you said you wanted to become a professional rider."

Du Wei refuted him with a solemn expression, but quickly smiled and said with a sigh.

"But as your brother, you've got way more courage than I do. I'd never dare dream of becoming a professional rider.

So no matter what, since you dared to take that first step, I'll definitely support you.

Maybe one day, you really will bring home a professional-level race title?"

Hearing the doubt in his voice, Huang Chong's mouth twitched.

He didn't know about other riders. After all, road cycling was a team sport. Some people could only be domestiques their entire lives, silently sacrificing themselves for their team leaders, and truly had no chance to fight for championships.

But as someone with cheats, if he rode through an entire professional career without winning even a single professional race, he might as well go back to his hometown in the county and give up right now.

After giving it some thought, he firmly planted his flag in advance and replied domineeringly.

"Old Du, just wait and see. I'll definitely win championships, and if I'm going to win, I'll win the most prestigious ones."

Du Wei knew the championships Huang Chong was talking about referred to the top races with over a century of history and immense prestige, such as the three Grand Tours—the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Vuelta a España—as well as the five major one-day classics—Milan–San Remo, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, and Il Lombardia.

After all, they were the supreme honors that even his idol Pogačar—the current number one rider in road cycling—wanted to collect in full.

But collecting victories in all eight of those races was a hell-level challenge. Even an all-round Martian like Pogačar had absolutely no chance of doing it within the next few years.

As for Huang Chong, forget collecting the full set. Even if he won just one of those eight races, it would probably cause a massive uproar throughout China's cycling world—and even the world's cycling scene.

After all, the overall titles in those eight races were honors coveted by the world's top professional riders, the things they dreamed of fighting for with everything they had!

"Alright, then I'll wish your racing career all the best in advance. When you really win the championships you want someday, don't forget your brother. As they say, don't forget your friends when you strike it rich. You can't forget where you came from!"

Du Wei had always been great at talking nonsense, but he didn't plan to keep spoiling Huang Chong's mood. Changing the subject, he said.

"But from what you said at the shop earlier, you don't plan to work as a full-time mechanic?

Honestly, with your bike-building and repair skills, it'd be a waste for you to stay an assistant. I can't keep paying you an assistant mechanic's salary, can I?

So tell me yourself—should I pay you the same as Liu Chaoyang, eighteen thousand a month, or give you a fixed commission for every bike you build?"

Huang Chong had nothing to hesitate over and answered directly.

"I'll take the commission. Since I want to become a professional rider, I definitely can't work as a full-time mechanic.

I can't be like Liu Chaoyang either, working more than ten hours at the shop every day. If you paid me a fixed monthly salary, you'd be losing out.

I'd rather get paid for however much work I do. That's more reasonable."

Du Wei actually wanted to give Huang Chong a fixed monthly salary, as a way of supporting his brother's dream. The shop was doing well right now, and the past two years had been a boom period for cycling in China. He also operated in the high-end market, where his customers were basically rich young masters like Zhou Ming.

Aside from bike building and maintenance, he had overseas Chinese relatives in Europe and the Americas, with specialized channels for obtaining frames, components, and other products from top bicycle brands. That allowed him to help wealthy guys in China build complete custom bikes from start to finish.

Because of the mask incident, overseas productivity had been severely insufficient over the past two years. The more high-end the road bike product, the more demand outstripped supply in China. The profits were enormous. Though his shop was only a small boutique bike store, making one or two million in net profit every year was easy.

Of course, in this kind of high-end circle, connections and social networks were what mattered. Ordinary people couldn't make it work no matter how good their bike-building equipment was or how wide their product selection was. Du Wei had only caught this wave of profits thanks to his parents' business status in Hangzhou.

"Alright, since you've made up your mind, we'll do it your way."

In the end, Du Wei didn't say anything more. As long as Huang Chong didn't work three days and slack off for two, he might not reach a monthly income of eighteen thousand on commission, but making over ten thousand would be easy enough.

After all, at his shop, the labor fee for assembling a top-tier road bike had an average price of four figures, and the profits were quite substantial.

"Oh, right. You haven't eaten dinner, have you? How about we go to Ancient Water Street, find a food stall, and knock back a couple of bottles before heading home?"

When Du Wei drove past Hangzhou's most famous food street, he made the usual suggestion.

However, Huang Chong, sitting in the passenger seat, decisively shook his head.

"I said I'm losing weight, so I'm not eating. Beer, burgers, and barbecue are all off-limits for me for now. Drive to the supermarket. I want to buy some fat-loss food. A vegetable salad for dinner will be enough!"

"Fuck, Old Huang, you really mean what you say!"

Du Wei was completely dumbfounded and couldn't help complaining.

"You weren't this disciplined back in school. Who would've thought riding a bike would change you so much?

Tell me, how am I supposed to get along with you from now on when all I love in life is booze and pleasure?"

The speaker had said it casually, but the listener took it to heart.

Du Wei's unintentional words had hit the nail on the head.

Cycling really had become the thing Huang Chong was most obsessed with in life.

Even in his previous life, he had trained with all his strength, lost weight, and controlled his body weight, only managing to reach an average speed of 35 km/h before he could no longer improve. But he knew that when it came to cycling, he would stick with it for the rest of his life, until the day he could no longer ride.

And now that he had been reborn with a system, he had gained the possibility of chasing his ultimate dream—the Tour de France title. There was even less chance that he would give up.

So if he couldn't even manage something as minor as losing weight, what kind of passion was that supposed to be?

However, after he bought a huge pile of fat-loss ingredients—chicken breast, cod steaks, eggs, raw corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, apples, black coffee, and more—and returned home to make his first fat-loss meal, the system intelligently displayed a new prompt.

[Detected that the host is consuming a low-calorie fat-loss meal. Please set your desired target weight.]