Chapter 97 - 27: Wu Shi Must Be Thinking of Me

Chapter 97: Chapter 27: Wu Shi Must Be Thinking of Me

He never interacted with Bianchi back in his karting days; after all, they weren’t in the same age group.

But after he became friends with Leclerc, he got to know the incredibly talented driver through Lock’s introduction.

Right now, that very driver was out on the track, tearing it up in an F1 car.

A persistent feeling of unease made him realize that maybe he should give Lock a heads-up about his mentor and friend.

He was so far in the lead, and so familiar with the Silverstone Circuit, that he was able to execute all the maneuvers mechanically while his mind was elsewhere.

If there was any difference from when he drove with his full concentration, it was perhaps a lack of flair.

"ACHOO!"

In the stands, Louise suddenly sneezed.

"Do you need a jacket?" Ophelia asked.

"I’m fine." Louise rubbed her nose and said happily, "Wu Shi must be thinking about me."

"???" Ophelia looked completely baffled.

"He told me that where he’s from, there’s a saying about sneezing: one means someone’s thinking of you, two means someone’s cursing you, and three means you’re catching a cold." Louise said confidently, "I only sneezed once, so he must be thinking about me."

"..." Ophelia, not quite getting it, said, "Couldn’t it also be possible that Aunt Martina is thinking of you?"

"!" Louise jumped like a startled cat, furtively scanning her surroundings, but she didn’t see anyone.

"Phew! Don’t scare me like that!"

"Are you going to find him after the race?" Ophelia asked.

Louise hesitated, then shook her head.

"You came all this way and you’re not even going to say hi? He’s not going to yell at you," Ophelia said.

In the stands at Turn 5, a large group of international students had gathered, many of them from Hua Country.

"Did you get it on camera?" Zhang Guo asked her boyfriend.

"I did. Car number 32. I get a shot every time he passes," Li Zhenmin nodded.

"Zhenmin, send me a copy later, would you?" someone nearby said.

"Sure thing, sure thing!"

"Looks like Wu Shi’s about to grab another win! Two in a row, wow. What a talent from our Hua Country!" someone said with a hearty laugh.

And they had every reason to be happy. They were all members of racing clubs from various universities. After coming abroad and immersing themselves in the rich racing culture, they had naturally started following all sorts of competitions.

Previously, they only watched top-tier events like F1 or WRC. But after seeing the news about Wu Shi yesterday, they immediately organized a group of interested countrymen to buy up tickets from others. They were determined to see the race, if only to get firsthand data on Wu Shi.

"Yeah! But the next race is in Germany, and I probably can’t make it," Li Zhenmin said.

"Germany? Perfect! I just applied to my boss for a project that’ll take me there for work. Shouldn’t be a problem to go a little early and catch the race, right?" someone else chuckled.

As the race entered its penultimate lap, gasps suddenly erupted from the stands. The group looked over to see that a car had spun off the track.

However, they didn’t see that. Instead, they saw Verstappen, after a ten-lap battle, finally overtake Jordan King to claim fifth place!

The race was nearing its end. The car that had spun out had landed in the gravel trap far from the racing line, so there was no yellow flag or safety car deployment.

"And there’s our race leader! With an incredibly steady drive, Wu takes the checkered flag once again! That’s another win for him! As a rookie, he’s now secured two consecutive victories! Unbelievable!

"Following him is O’connor, and in his second year, he’s earned his place on the podium."

"Oh, and the driver who crashed was Oni."

...

Wu Shi drove his car into the designated stopping area in the pit lane, unbuckled his seatbelt, and climbed out.

After hugging the mechanics, he shared a fist bump with Alan.

"Congratulations on your second win."

"Thanks."

Wu Shi wiped away his sweat. This win had been even easier than the first. He had spent nearly the entire race lost in thought or chatting with Alan.

Reporters swarmed him—a scene rarely witnessed at an F3 race. Many of them were there specifically for Wu Shi, particularly a few media outlets from Italy.

After the routine interviews, reporters published all sorts of sensational headlines, like "Rookie on a Two-Win Streak" and "Will the Hua Country Genius Dominate F3?"

Meanwhile, on the internet in Hua Country, clips of the race posted by fans began circulating on social media.

But it didn’t make many waves. After all, motorsports still didn’t have a huge following. However, within the small world of racing, Wu Shi’s name was already becoming known to everyone.

He was unaware of his burgeoning fame back home. After having dinner with his team, just as he was getting ready to turn in for the night, his phone rang.

’Louise?’

’Didn’t we just talk yesterday?’

Wu Shi answered the phone. "Hello, Louise."

"Yeah! Um, I... I..."

"Hm? What’s wrong?" Wu Shi sensed something was off. "You didn’t get into trouble again, did you?" he asked. "It won’t be so easy to smooth things over with Aunt Martina this time."

"What are you talking about! I don’t get into trouble *every* day, you know!"

Louise said indignantly, but as soon as the words were out, she realized—’Wait, didn’t I just sneak over to the Silverstone Circuit? Isn’t that getting into trouble?’

’I’m so dead! I really am in trouble! This is all Ophelia’s fault. If we hadn’t made this call, everything would have been fine. Now he’s found me out!’

"I seem to recall you skipping your tutoring session at Christmas to go watch a race, didn’t you?"

After he said that, he thought for a moment. ’Louise doesn’t have tutoring this weekend, so it should be fine... right?’

No, his intuition told him something was wrong!

"Louise! You didn’t actually come to the race, did you?!"

"Huh?!" Louise was dumbfounded.

Ophelia, who was standing right next to her, was also shocked. ’Is this the kind of intuition people who grew up together have?’

"You really did come? Where are you now? I’m coming over right away!" Wu Shi said, his voice a mixture of resignation and worry.

Even though media outlets like Yelin were always touting how great the West was, the truth was that public safety wasn’t all that good. For a young girl like Louise, traveling to another country by herself was incredibly dangerous.

"I’m..." Now that she was caught, Louise started stammering again.

"We’re at the Hilton Garden Inn Silverstone," Ophelia said, grabbing the phone from Louise, unable to stand her dithering.

"Hey! Ophelia!"

Hearing Ophelia’s voice on the other end, Wu Shi breathed a sigh of relief. He was quite familiar with her; compared to Louise, she was far more cautious and sensible. With the two of them together, things were at least a little safer.

He told one of his team members he was heading out. When Alan heard the story, he immediately had a female mechanic accompany him.

"Be safe. You’ve got another race tomorrow. My advice is not to spend the night out," Alan said with a meaningful look.

...

Wu Shi didn’t know how to respond. The culture here was certainly more open; plenty of people their age had already "tasted the forbidden fruit." But he was still deeply influenced by the traditional culture of his home country and wasn’t nearly so liberal.

When he got to the hotel, he found the room number and rang the doorbell.

After about ten seconds, the door opened to reveal a mature young woman. Wu Shi had never seen her before and was taken aback. ’Did I come to the wrong room?’

"You must be Wu Shi?" Caroline asked.

...

"Ha, so it is! Just kidding. Come on in, our champion driver," Caroline said, inviting Wu Shi and the female mechanic inside.

"Thank you, I’m Wu Shi. And may I ask who you are?"

"Oh, I’m Ophelia’s older sister. You can just call me Caroline."