APR 60

Zhong Su stared at the phone screen after the call ended, pressed the power button, and stuffed the phone into his pocket as if this action could also seal away the tangled emotions and toss them out of sight.

But after waiting a moment, the car still hadn’t started. Zhong Su turned his head to look at Xiao Lao Dao in the driver’s seat. “Why are you spacing out? Aren’t you going to drive?”

“Ah, oh.” Xiao Lao Dao seemed to snap back to reality, hurriedly shifting the gear.

He couldn’t hear Chen Huan’s voice on the phone, but Zhong Su’s words, “Go to the hospital to remove the IUD,” had pierced his ears word for word.

The car slowly pulled out of the parking lot, but Xiao Lao Dao’s eyes kept drifting toward the passenger seat. His mind churned with thoughts: Had Zhong Su gotten back together with Bai Ruolin? No, that didn’t seem right. That woman was insatiably greedy, if she had really reeled Zhong Su back in, she wouldn’t stop until she had squeezed every last penny out of him. Then was it some actress from the filming site? During filming, there were indeed a few young starlets who always hovered around Zhong Su…

Lost in thought, Xiao Lao Dao drove halfway when the Mazda approached a crosswalk. The yellow light flashed and suddenly turned red. He didn’t react in time, slamming on the brakes.

Screech— The Mazda let out a sharp friction sound and promptly stalled.

Zhong Su was jolted by the braking inertia. Holding onto the seatbelt in front of him, he looked at Xiao Lao Dao, puzzled. “What’s wrong with you tonight? If you can’t drive, just say so, and I’ll take over.”

“I can drive, I can drive!” Xiao Lao Dao couldn’t very well admit that his mistake was due to curiosity about Zhong Su’s gossip. He awkwardly scratched the back of his head. “This is just a minor technical adjustment. I’ll restart the engine.”

“Hah… What the hell is going on?” Xiao Lao Dao tried turning the key to restart the engine, but the key creaked as he twisted it. The car engine only sputtered a few times before stalling again, refusing to start no matter what.

“Ghost,” Xiao Lao Dao muttered in disbelief. “Ah, it just gave out? I didn’t even brake that hard.”

Fortunately, it was midnight, and there were no other cars on the road. Otherwise, if Xiao Lao Dao’s car had stalled like this, the blaring horns from other vehicles would have drowned him out completely.

Zhong Su glanced at the quiet, empty street and said, “Don’t panic. I’ll get out and take a look. It might be a minor issue.”

He pushed the door open, walked around to the front of the car, and lifted the hood. He gestured to Xiao Lao Dao, “Try starting it again. Let me listen to the sound.”

Xiao Lao Dao followed the instruction and turned the key. The engine emitted intermittent sputtering sounds, like an old, worn-out bellows about to fall apart.

“That’s enough. Turn off the key.” Zhong Su leaned close to the engine, carefully listening for the source of the noise.

He rolled up his sleeves, his fingers deftly navigating through the tangled pipes, searching for the problem, the coolant hose wasn’t swollen or cracked, so was the belt loose…

He had always enjoyed tinkering with purely mechanical systems. Whenever he could accurately pinpoint a fault and fix it, making the machinery run again, he always found pure joy in it.

This fascination with intricate systems was also one of the reasons he had wanted to study medicine in school. Besides wanting a respectable job, it was also because…

In essence, treating illnesses and saving lives is akin to repairing machinery, cutting open human skin is disassembly, realigning broken bones is reinstalling components.

Delving into it is quite fascinating. Of course, fixing people also pays far better than fixing cars.

Xiao Lao Dao got out of the car, watching Zhong Su’s dazzling series of maneuvers with wide-eyed astonishment. "You can fix cars too? When did you learn this skill, and you kept it from your buddy?"

"It’s not that difficult. Just watch how others do it a few times at the repair shop, and you’ll naturally pick it up," Zhong Su said casually.

"Oh, really? So that’s how it is…" Xiao Lao Dao responded, half-understanding, still unable to figure out when and where Zhong Su—a lazy, homebody slacker—had ever watched a master mechanic at work.

But rather than dwell on that, he was more concerned about the condition of his beloved car. Seeing Zhong Su straighten up after a moment of probing, he quickly asked, "So, what’s wrong with it? Can you fix it?"

At this hour, calling a tow truck would cost at least a few hundred bucks. Xiao Lao Dao desperately wanted to avoid a major hit to his wallet and looked pleadingly at Zhong Su, hoping his good friend could rescue him from this predicament.

"Can’t fix it," Zhong Su withdrew his hand, glancing leisurely at him. "You slammed the brakes too hard, overheated the engine, and burned out the vacuum hose. Unless I have tools and a spare hose right now to replace it, the only option is to tow it to a repair shop for someone else to fix."

After all, it was a secondhand car, and the vacuum hose was severely aged. It couldn’t withstand the strain and cracked under the heat, a perfectly normal occurrence.

"Ah… how could this happen?" Xiao Lao Dao clutched his head and wailed. "My luck is just too rotten."

But wailing wouldn’t save the unlucky soul. Utterly despondent, the chubby guy returned to the car, rummaged through the glove compartment for the tow company’s number, and dialed with a weary sigh. "Zhong Su, you go home first. This will take at least two or three hours tonight. I can handle it alone."

In this regard, aside from being a bit of a chatterbox and backing down when faced with tough characters, Xiao Lao Dao was quite good at taking responsibility.

Zhong Su had gotten his hands dirty with grease and simply wiped them with a wet wipe. He nodded at Xiao Lao Dao. "Then I’ll head off. Focus on getting the car fixed. Once it’s done, come pick me up the day after tomorrow."

Xiao Lao Dao mumbled an acknowledgment, then suddenly seemed to remember something and called out to him, "Oh, right, Zhong Su… be careful. Don’t get scammed."

His expression was somewhat awkward, but he forced himself to finish. "These days, lots of men and women claim to be in relationships, but they’re just after money—not sincere at all. Don’t just get swept off your feet because someone says they like you a few times. Otherwise, you’ll end up losing both money and heart, with nothing left."

"Zhong Su, you understand what I mean, right? In your situation… you can’t just fall for anyone casually." Xiao Lao Dao was genuinely afraid Zhong Su would get love-struck again—previously, he’d been desperate over Bai Ruolin, even going crazy and getting a whole ear full of piercings. Now, he was being led around by some other bad woman, about to remove those earrings.

"Heard you."

Without looking back, Zhong Su raised his hand and snapped his fingers crisply as a response.

The spot where Xiao Lao Dao’s car broke down wasn’t far from Yonghe Community. Zhong Su decided against taking the bus and simply walked back on foot.

Even though it was already late at night, the streetlights along Yan Port's roads remained lit. A gentle breeze passed through the trees lining the sidewalk, rustling the leaves with a soft, whispering sound.

Zhong Su stopped at a deserted intersection, staring at the red light across the street, and habitually pulled out a cigarette case. He lowered his head to bite onto a cigarette but accidentally tugged at the wound at the corner of his mouth. His movement paused, and the cigarette fell to the ground.

"Tsk, seriously…" Zhong Su bent down to pick up the cigarette.

Just as he lowered his head, the roar of several massive engines tore through the silence of the street, shaking the ground.

What was going on?

Zhong Su looked up and saw five modified sports cars—with wide, eye-catching spoilers and bodies covered in light strips, speeding toward him.

These Ferraris and Lamborghinis were already flashy in design, but with the shimmering, flowing lights on their bodies and the deafening rock music blasting from inside, they looked like several moving neon billboards, dazzling Zhong Su's eyes.

Just as the sports cars were about to rush through the crosswalk, the pedestrian signal happened to turn from red to green. The cars slammed on their brakes, tires screeching sharply against the pavement.

Watching this scene, Zhong Su raised an eyebrow: Not bad, at least they knew to hit the brakes.

He bent down, picked up the dropped cigarette, casually tossed it into a trash can, and leisurely crossed the street.

At that moment, a girl's sweet, crisp laughter, like the sound of silver bells, came from a bright red convertible Ferrari: "Young Master He, I heard your dad gave you a new yacht as a birthday gift and is planning to throw you a birthday party on it. Is that true?"

The girl, with her meticulously applied makeup, wrapped her arms around the red-haired young man in the driver's seat, shaking him playfully.

Several young men in the other sports cars immediately joined in with laughter, raising their voices boisterously: "What a silly question! Of course, Young Master He's birthday celebration will be as grand as possible!"

"Young Master He, when you throw that party, it wouldn't be too much to invite everyone to play for seven days and seven nights, right?"

Surrounded by admirers, He Jinzhao proudly lifted his chin, as haughty as a peacock: "Of course! I'm not like those pathetic poor ghosts who can't even afford a yacht and have to rent one just to show off, pretending like their family could actually buy one. How laughable."

At his words, those who weren't as wealthy as him and had rented yachts for parties felt a bit awkward but still forced smiles and chimed in.

Zhong Su found the sound of this raspy voice somewhat familiar. He turned his head and glanced over, just as He Jinzhao in the Ferrari met his gaze.

That streak of dyed red hair on He Jinzhao stood out vividly under the flowing lights of the car. His handsome face, with slightly upturned phoenix eyes and a defiant smile curling at the corners of his lips, radiated youthful arrogance and undisguised sharpness.

His gaze unexpectedly collided with those hazel eyes that had appeared in his dreams many times, beautiful as if mixed with gold, yet cold as if covered in a layer of frost.

He Jinzhao froze, his smile stiffening as he blurted out, "Ah, it's you!"

Zhong Su also recognized He Jinzhao's face and thought to himself: The rebellious teenager isn't racing motorcycles anymore; he's switched to sports cars.