CHAPTER 58: CHAPTER 52: THE ICE QUEEN OF SHANGHAI

Then the engineer prepared to change to a completely new set of pre-warmed semi-slick tires for Qin Miao.

Although semi-slick tires are more durable than slick tires, this set of tires is enough for Qin Miao to finish the entire race.

However, changing to a new set after the qualifying race will definitely improve the speed in the competition.

But Qin Miao refused without even thinking about it, there’s no way, the skill card has too many restrictions, and changing the tires would make him lose the familiarity with the car.

There is a half-hour break after the qualifying race.

During this time, Qin Miao just sat in the driver’s seat with his eyes closed to relax, while Yu Jialiang gathered with his group of friends to chat and joke around.

Qin Miao glanced curiously at them, the other three were talking at length about their own performance on the track, boasting about how they took a corner at the extreme and how late they braked.

Yu Jialiang, however, remained silent, looking normal, even somewhat helpless and disappointed.

If Qin Miao hadn’t seen him with bright and lively expressions before, he would have thought Yu Jialiang had resigned himself to the outcome of this race.

As for the generous reward they mentioned, Qin Miao didn’t hold any expectations.

In Qin Miao’s understanding, a generous reward among young people is at most a meal or a drink.

At this point, although Qin Miao knew he was at a gathering of rich people, his mindset and subconscious thoughts hadn’t changed due to the different environment.

But that’s a story for another time.

After glancing at them, Qin Miao withdrew his gaze.

Getting a top three position consistently wasn’t easy because most of the people who came to participate in today’s race haven’t really obtained a racing license.

They were just here to experience the atmosphere of the race.

During the start phase, Qin Miao could very likely be torpedoed out, after all, when playing "ACC" on the online mode, Qin Miao was often torpedoed by those novice drivers.

Of course, during the time when he just started playing "ACC", Qin Miao also frequently torpedoed others.

So now Qin Miao decided to conserve his energy. During the starting phase, he had to be fully alert, first ensuring he doesn’t retire from the race immediately at the start before considering anything else.

The half-hour seemed to pass in an instant for Qin Miao in this state, and as the car door opened, Yu Jialiang got in.

When he got in, his face still had that look of resignation with a bit of helplessness, but as soon as the door closed, his face changed to bright and lively expressions.

"Qin Miao, whether I can show off in front of those guys this time depends on you," he said, patting Qin Miao’s shoulder after settling in.

But in the end, he added, "But don’t put too much pressure on yourself, anyway, this time I didn’t stand out much, they didn’t notice anything unusual about me, so even if you don’t do well, it’s fine."

Hearing this, Qin Miao was really a bit surprised, but he didn’t put too much pressure on himself, knowing that with his abilities, as long as he performed stably and didn’t retire due to an accident, getting into the top three wasn’t too difficult.

"It’s alright, I’m not nervous, I’m just a bit worried that you might not handle the intense driving for a long time."

"That won’t be a problem, I admit my racing skills aren’t as good as yours, but I’ve driven race cars before," Yu Jialiang asked curiously, "But I am curious, with such good driving skills, what car do you usually practice with?"

Qin Miao didn’t think too much, thinking about the car he recently drove while practicing on "ACC" and honestly answered, "Depends on the situation, but recently I’ve been driving a Lamborghini Huracan GT3."

"Do you have a favorite car though?"

Qin Miao shrugged, "Ferrari 488, this car matches my aesthetic very well, and also for some special reasons, I have a special sentiment for this car."

Yu Jialiang nodded understandingly.

"Twenty minutes to race start," the engineer’s voice rang out.

"Got it."

After responding, Qin Miao, who wasn’t really nervous, suddenly felt the urge to pee.

Knowing how this urge came about, Qin Miao clicked his tongue secretly, scolding himself for being unconvincing, but physically he obediently opened the gull-wing door of the AMG GT and went to the toilet.

On the way back, he even drank half a bottle of water.

By the time he got back to the car, some vehicles had already started moving out from the parking area, heading to the starting grid for final preparations.

Qin Miao fastened his seatbelt, felt the condition of the car beneath him, and once confirmed there were no issues, slowly drove out of the pit area through the repair area and onto the track.

After circling around, he returned to the starting grid on the main straight.

All 20 cars participating in today’s race had parked on the starting grid according to their qualifying results.

After they parked, sexy and voluptuous grid girls appeared on the track.

Many drivers sitting in their cars whistled at these scantily-clad gird girls, which was normal as most participants in such races were young people.

Some even pulled out their phones to exchange contact information with them.

Some went as far as getting directly into the race cars.

Besides the grid girls, there were also staff members coming to each ready-to-go race car, handing their tablets into the vehicles.

Qin Miao had an engineer come over to him as well.

A closer look revealed he was an acquaintance, the engineer who had been providing him technical support.

The engineer handed over the tablet and said, "These are some suggestions from a professional driver after reviewing your fastest lap video. If you’re interested, you might want to take a look before the race starts."

After speaking, he handed the tablet to Qin Miao, then went to the front of Qin Miao’s car and began inspecting its equipment by lifting the hood.

Qin Miao didn’t stop him, even though he was quite familiar with the car’s condition due to the Man and Car Unity skill card.

However, Qin Miao’s understanding of the car was largely based on his intuition.

It’s like how you can feel your hands and can control them freely, but you wouldn’t know if there’s any unnoticed wear and tear inside your hands.

Therefore, Qin Miao thought it was still necessary to have a professional check his car’s condition.

Ten minutes later, the engineer closed Qin Miao’s hood and gave a thumbs up, indicating that the vehicle was problem-free.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao finished watching the video on the tablet handed to him. He didn’t know the driver providing guidance, but the advice gave him significant insight.

After the engineer completed the inspection, the racegirls on the track also began to leave. The engineer came over to Qin Miao, took back the tablet, and said, "The race is about to start. Don’t be nervous; I won’t go into any more technical details. Maintain a calm mindset, good luck."

"Thanks, I’ll do my best."

"Radio contact." After saying that, Qin Miao’s engineer also left the track.

While waiting for them to leave, Qin Miao instinctively checked to see who was driving the car in pole position.

Turning his head, he saw a familiar silhouette.

The passenger window of the car wasn’t closed. Although she was wearing a helmet and a fireproof racing suit just like him, Qin Miao recognized her from the plain black racing suit without any advertisements—she was Yun.

Damn, this girl isn’t showing off at all, but her performance is better than mine?

Qin Miao was surprised, and he was also a bit curious about her.

Of course, Qin Miao’s curiosity wasn’t because she was good-looking; his motivation was purely because her driving skills earned his respect.

Thinking about it, it seemed like someone from her affluent circle was sitting next to him, so Qin Miao turned off the noise-canceling function on his headphones and asked Yu Jialiang, "Do you know the person in that car?"

"Who?" Yu Jialiang looked curiously, but from his angle, he could only see the side of her helmet.

"Can’t see clearly, I can’t help you recognize her." Yu Jialiang shrugged helplessly.

Qin Miao thought for a moment and briefly described his impression of Yun’s appearance.

This jogged Yu Jialiang’s memory, and he said, "Don’t even think about it, she’s Shanghai’s untouchable high flower, out of our reach."

"But she’s actually from your family, with the surname Qin, single character ’Yun’. Unlike us who live off our parents’ legacy, she’s a true first-generation millionaire, a business genius, though I’m not sure of her net worth. We’re not in the same circles; she’s in our parents’ circle."

"Wow, impressive." Qin Miao exclaimed, and then clarified, "Don’t overthink, I have a girlfriend."

Yu Jialiang rolled his eyes: "It’s just us here, you don’t have to act like that. Man, I can guess your little thoughts in a second."

Qin Miao rolled his eyes helplessly, thinking: just because your mind is in the gutter doesn’t mean mine is.

However, due to the helmet, Yu Jialiang couldn’t see Qin Miao roll his eyes.

Still, Qin Miao didn’t bother explaining further. The more you say, the darker it gets, it’s better just to let it go.

Qin Miao was somewhat envious of Qin Yun.

This girl has money, she can practice racing as long as she wants, pushing it to the limits, not afraid of car damage from accidents due to errors.

If only he were as rich, he wouldn’t need to cautiously probe during a qualifier race, fearing car crashes.

The unapologetically observing gaze from Qin Miao was noticed by the other party, who simply turned her head to look at him.

Qin Miao, being slightly socially awkward, was already not very comfortable making eye contact with others, especially when facing a very beautiful woman.

So Qin Miao awkwardly turned his head away, avoiding looking in that direction again.

Qin Yun was also a bit curious about Qin Miao.

Even though she knew her racing talent was average, her passion for racing was no weaker than others; it might even exceed theirs.

Because of this, even though her racing talent was average, she had the time and money to support this niche hobby.

Also, with a massive investment of time and money, Qin Yun’s skills were indeed quite good. At least in her view, there was no pressure in dominating the other rich kids in the race.

Yet despite this, it took her being in top form and scoring a flying lap to grab the pole position from Qin Miao, with just a 0.1-second difference.

This indicated that among those wealthy heirs participating, unexpectedly, there was someone with really good racing skills, and that person got easily embarrassed.

However, Qin Yun quickly noticed that this person had someone else in the car?

Bringing someone along for the race? This extra weight of over 100 pounds at least slows lap time by 0.3 seconds.