Racing

The racetrack.

Ding Yiheng excitedly led Cen Xia off to change. "Well? Nice place, right?"

"My friend's older brother owns it. It's the biggest track in the whole capital."

The red-and-white racing suit fit Cen Xia's figure perfectly, its lining smooth and soft against his skin. A belt cinched his waist into a sharp silhouette. The legs were tucked into his boots, perfectly outlining his calves.

Ding Yiheng came out wearing the same racing suit. When he saw Cen Xia, he froze for a moment, then spoke in a sour tone.

"Dude, are you a male model?"

The two came out of the changing room and stood at the edge of the track.

Someone was driving laps inside. The roar of the engine rippled through the air, reaching every corner of the grounds.

The air carried a mixture of motor oil, rubber scraping against the track, and coolant.

Ding Yiheng closed his eyes and took a deep breath, looking utterly intoxicated.

"Ah, the smell of freedom!"

People who raced loved modifying their own cars, and Ding Yiheng had one of his own. He eagerly led Cen Xia over to see his beloved ride.

"Isn't she gorgeous?"

It was a ground-hugging widebody, its waistline tapering inward, its lines sharp and sleek. The matte red paint was both flashy and flamboyant.

Cen Xia nodded in approval. "Nice. It's got style."

The praise smoothed the expression on Ding Yiheng's face. He grinned. "Of course. This is my precious baby!"

"Do you know how to drive one? Want to give it a try?"

Cen Xia raised an eyebrow and smiled. His face, as ordinary as any passerby's, suddenly gained a touch of radiance.

"Of course," he said.

The moment the familiar scent reached his nose, the blood in his veins suddenly boiled.

Every cell in his body clamored for it, desperate to feel the ultimate exhilaration and pleasure of an adrenaline rush.

He had suffered the torment of the world's will for so long. Now that there was no plot and no protagonist, surely he could enjoy himself to his heart's content?

Ding Yiheng couldn't bear to part with his precious baby, so he took Cen Xia to get two standard black sports cars instead.

After the two had driven a warm-up lap, Ding Yiheng was the first to open his door and climb out. He whipped off his helmet and strode over to Cen Xia's car.

Cen Xia sat in the cockpit and removed his helmet. A fine sheen of sweat covered his forehead, and his black hair clung damply to his skin. He raised a hand and swept every stray lock back from his forehead.

"Not bad, Cen Xia! You used to race a lot, didn't you?"

It had been so long since he'd been on a track that he had been tense the entire time. His wildly pounding heart had yet to settle, and the tremors in his chest hadn't stopped.

At that, he curved his lips. "I've done it a few times."

Before he transmigrated into this damned novel world, he had been a professional racer for several years.

Ding Yiheng clicked his tongue. "I never would've guessed. I always thought you were an honest guy."

Cen Xia leaned back in his seat, relaxed. "Can't an honest guy do this?"

"That's not it. You just don't look like someone who enjoys extreme sports."

Ding Yiheng's gaze fell on his face, no longer hidden behind heavy bangs.

That face was still as ordinary as he remembered. Showing all of it hadn't made Cen Xia any more handsome. If Ding Yiheng ran into him on the street, he was sure he'd forget him the moment he turned around.

But for some reason, despite his ordinary looks, Ding Yiheng thought Cen Xia in a racing suit, covered in sweat, was fucking sexy!

Maybe racing gave men a certain charm?

With that thought, he struck what he considered a handsome pose.

"Do I look sexy?"

"You look pretty sentimental."

"...You don't know how to appreciate beauty!"

Cen Xia had thought that without the plot constraining him, he could let loose for once today. He wouldn't have to worry about his shitty npc character setting or be a backdrop in someone else's colorful life.

But as it turned out, as long as he spent a day in this world, he had to keep ringing the bell for as long as he was a monk.

Just as the two were about to have a showdown between men, the staff cleared the track and sent them out.

Besides the two of them, there were several other guests who had come to have fun that day.

They all followed behind the staff, looking bewildered.

"What's the meaning of this?"

"Yeah, we came here to have fun! You're asking us to leave without even giving us an explanation?"

"Is there a problem with the track?" someone guessed.

The staff member leading them looked helpless and explained quietly, "We're terribly sorry. A guest has booked the whole place, and there's nothing we can do."

A guest who heard this grew angry. "We paid for memberships, and even if someone booked the place, we were here first. What do you mean, there's nothing you can do? Does your boss not want to stay in business?"

The staff member looked even more helpless. "The one who booked it is the third young master of the Yan family."

After a pause, he lowered his voice and added, "Young Master Wen will be coming too."

The guest who had just been holding the staff member up with an "I won't let this go without a satisfactory explanation" attitude fell silent.

Everyone looked at one another and accepted their bad luck.

Cen Xia and Ding Yiheng followed behind them. Hearing this, they exchanged a glance.

When they reached the giant shaded stands on either side, Ding Yiheng tugged at Cen Xia and whispered, "Wasn't the crown prince supposed to be abroad? Why's he back?"

In the plot, Wen Ci's formal appearance was a month away. The author hadn't written what happened in the meantime, so Cen Xia didn't know why Wen Ci had returned to the country in the middle of it.

Cen Xia assumed the parts the plot hadn't covered had filled themselves in automatically.

He was just here to race, not returning to school. It wouldn't affect the plot.

"No idea. Maybe the food abroad was bad, so he came back for a taste of home?" he made up on the spot.

"Why don't you say the air abroad was bad, and the crown prince's precious body couldn't adapt to it?"

"That's possible too."

Up in the stands, a young man in a black T-shirt leaned his lean, toned arms against the metal railing, listening to the two below talk with an air of indifference.

"Why are you eavesdropping on them?" A young man sitting behind him stood up and walked over.

"I'm not eavesdropping. Their voices insisted on coming into my ears." His tone was lazy, but he sounded entirely justified.

"They called you the crown prince. Could they be from our school?"

The young man leaned out and looked around. They were gone; he couldn't even see a trace of them.

He didn't answer. Straightening up, he said, "Let's go. Weren't you going to welcome me back?"

"The food abroad was awful. I hope you can surprise me with dinner tonight."

A surprised voice came from behind him. "You really did come back to eat?"

Before they had even left the racetrack, fine rain began drifting down from the sky.

Ding Yiheng wiped a raindrop off his nose and laughed. "Now nobody gets to race!"

Neither of them had brought an umbrella, so Ding Yiheng called his family's driver and told him to pick him up.

At the school gate, Cen Xia opened the umbrella kept in the car and walked alongside Ding Yiheng.

"Being short has its advantages. At least I'm not the one holding the umbrella," Ding Yiheng remarked.

Their dorms were far apart, and Cen Xia reached his building first.

Ding Yiheng said, "I really envy you people with single rooms. You don't have to put up with weird roommates."

Cen Xia didn't ask what miserable experience had prompted him to say that. After handing him the umbrella, he jogged into the dorm building.

Brushing the raindrops off his clothes and hair, Cen Xia went to press the elevator button.

There were three elevators on the first floor, set side by side into the wall. At the far end of the wall was a corner that enclosed a small space used to store firefighting equipment.

The first two elevators both showed they were on high floors, while the last one was on the third floor. Naturally, Cen Xia chose the faster one.

He walked farther in, but before he got close, he heard a rustling sound.

He stopped for a moment, then continued inward, past the elevator doors and around the corner.

"..."

There were two young men. One had striking red hair; the one pinned against the wall had tears in his eyes. It was a standard pose for apprehending a criminal in an American TV show.

But this wasn't an American TV show. It was a danmei novel.

Cen Xia watched expressionlessly as Lin Jiandu's shirt bunched up in folds, exposing the pale, smooth skin at his waist.

It was Cen Xia's first time encountering such an explosive scene. His brain, which had been straight for over twenty years, seemed to have rusted over. It wanted to turn, but couldn't.

Instead, his thoughts veered off to the lovey-dovey young couple he had once caught outside his dorm building in college.

The two of them saw him too.

Ling Xian showed none of the emotion or reaction expected of someone caught in the act. Instead, an even more excited light flared in his eyes.

Lin Jiandu's eyes brimmed with tears, their corners flushed red as though painted with rouge.

A tear in his eye was like a dewdrop on a lotus leaf in summer, trembling on the verge of falling. The moment he saw Cen Xia, the lotus leaf tipped.

A beauty in tears would stir anyone's pity.

But Cen Xia had no time to appreciate the beautiful sight. There was only one thought in his head.

He was unwilling.

Lin Jiandu was unwilling.

This wasn't a young couple outside a dorm building.