Soaring Past the Constant Star [Rebirth] - Chapter 5

The next Grand Prix was two weeks away. However, these fourteen days were the busiest time for the team personnel. They had to conduct non-stop testing on the cars, analyze massive amounts of complex data based on the results, and provide feedback to the design and manufacturing departments to ensure the driver could achieve the best possible performance at the next race.

The following day, Jiang Yue returned to the Aston team’s headquarters in Newport Pagnell. After a post-race meeting to review the data, he began a relentless cycle of car testing, physical conditioning, and simulator training.

In addition, he and his teammate John attended a community charity event, followed immediately by a series of interviews with several major domestic media influencers.

The reason was simple: in one month, he would be competing in his home race as the only Chinese driver among the current twenty. Since the F1 official calendar confirmed the Chinese Grand Prix last year, domestic fans had focused their attention on him, placing high expectations on his shoulders.

As race day approached, the frequency of these interviews increased, and various domestic media outlets began a grand campaign to build momentum for the Chinese Grand Prix. Eventually, even citizens who didn’t usually follow F1 learned through the overwhelming news coverage that Jiang Yue was about to compete on home turf.

This represented the immense value and support a country with deep national pride placed on its own driver. But for the old Jiang Yue, the logic that “the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment” had constantly circled his mind. In his past life, under that heavy pressure, he ultimately missed the points zone by a single position.

That became a lingering regret of his previous life.

However, the past is like smoke. The current priority was to demonstrate his true strength at the next race. To this end, he spent almost all his spare time in front of the simulator, familiarizing himself with the track over and over again.

He had five years more experience than his pre-rebirth self. While car performance is a decisive factor, five years of honed experience, muscle memory, and psychological resilience would not betray him.

Before the first practice session, one can never be 100% certain. But for years, Jiang Yue had strictly adhered to the principle of “accumulating steadily to break out later.” He didn’t know how much longer Duan Xingheng could wait for him on the track, so he had to grasp every opportunity with his own hands. He needed to be faster, stronger, and achieve more striking results to catch the eye of the top-tier teams.

On the Tuesday of race week, the team’s flight arrived at Kansai International Airport.

After checking into the hotel, Jiang Yue learned that the Silver Snake team was staying at a hotel only a ten-minute drive away. Over the past ten days, apart from the occasional casual photo of daily life sent by Duan Xingheng, the two had barely been in contact.

Jiang Yue washed away the sweat from the long flight in the hotel bathroom. While drying his hair, he saw Duan Xingheng’s message pop up on the phone screen.

It was just one picture: a shark plushie nestled in the center of a hotel double bed.

That was the 20th birthday gift Jiang Yue had given to Duan Xingheng.

Duan Xingheng had once been invited to record a program where he introduced the essential items he carried during intercontinental travel, which netizens jokingly dubbed the “Veteran Driver’s Nine-Piece Set.” It included sunglasses to help adjust his biological clock, shampoo, hair gel, a razor, aftershave, a pillow, a water bottle, and that shark plushie.

What the netizens didn’t know was that more than half of those items were gifts from Jiang Yue.

The sunglasses were wholesale items Jiang Yue had bought from a roadside shop during a vacation in Bali with Duan Xingheng long ago. Duan Xingheng’s face suited any shape, so Jiang Yue bought over a dozen different pairs at once, and Duan Xingheng rotated through them.

As for that shark plushie, Jiang Yue originally had a small one himself, but after eight years, it had long been lost in some forgotten corner. Duan Xingheng’s, however, was well-preserved. It had traveled the world with him for many years but still looked in good condition.

Since that program aired, the manufacturer of the shark plushie resumed mass production after several years of being discontinued, only for it to be instantly cleared out by Duan Xingheng’s fans. Even when Jiang Yue wanted to buy another one, he couldn’t get his hands on it. But that is a story for later.

Looking at the big-toothed shark in the photo, Jiang Yue thought for a moment, snapped a photo of the cherry blossoms under the streetlights outside his hotel window, and sent it to Duan Xingheng.

Duan Xingheng didn’t reply immediately. Jiang Yue couldn’t help but scroll up, looking at their trivial conversations from the past few days:

March 26

Duan Xingheng: [Image] A bowl of Zhajiangmian (noodles with soybean paste), topped with rich sauce and bright green shredded cucumber.

Duan Xingheng: Haven’t made this in a long time, it’s a bit salty.

Jiang Yue: [I want some.]

Duan Xingheng: [Once this busy period is over, I’ll sneak over and make some for you.]

Jiang Yue: [:-)]

March 27

Duan Xingheng: [Image]

Duan Xingheng: Oreo misses you. Oreo was a stray tuxedo cat Duan Xingheng had adopted.

Jiang Yue: [He seems to have gotten fat again.]

Duan Xingheng: [The nanny keeps feeding him too many snacks, he’s up to 17 pounds. It’s time for a diet.]

Duan Xingheng: [Come see him when you have time, he’s almost forgotten who you are.]

Jiang Yue: [Okay:-)]

March 28

Duan Xingheng: Press conferences are so boring. Those reporters ran out of questions long ago, yet I have to go every time.

Jiang Yue: [Hugs.gif]

**

As the core of the Silver Snake team, Duan Xingheng had to deal with all kinds of PR activities, press conferences, sponsor banquets, various interviews, and endorsement shoots.

Back when he didn’t have his current track record, he would occasionally suffer from the teasing and excessive jokes of insiders and was frequently exposed to public scrutiny. He would complain a little to Jiang Yue. At that time, Jiang Yue didn’t understand how formidable public opinion could be and didn’t know how to comfort him, so he would just give him a hug.

Later, when Duan Xingheng became invincible, there were still constant critical comments online, claiming he was arrogant and looked down on others, that he didn’t respect his seniors, or that he had road rage and lacked a human touch.

Duan Xingheng went from initial disgust to eventual indifference. As a driver, as long as he was the fastest, he was beyond reproach. By the time Jiang Yue began to face all of this, Duan Xingheng was mature enough to guide Jiang Yue through the rumors, using his own influence when necessary to block the hidden arrows coming from all directions.

Jiang Yue scrolled to the very top, where the chat history became much less harmonious.

Sure enough, it was because of Qin Yun that the two had fought bitterly.

Duan Xingheng had gone from earnest persuasion to being irrational, his language becoming heated. Jiang Yue, for his part, was completely unyielding. The more out of line Duan Xingheng’s words became, the more biting the retorts Jiang Yue chose to fire back.

Looking at the screen filled with words that cut like knives, Jiang Yue couldn’t help but frown.

This particular memory had become blurred in his mind. The content of the argument lacked context, and he couldn’t understand why, even though Qin Yun was a thing of the past, she could still be the fuse for such a conflict.

He was still trying to remember when two messages popped up at the top of the screen.

One was from Duan Xingheng:

Duan Xingheng: I’ll come find you later.

And the other came from a name Jiang Yue hadn’t expected.

Qin Yun.

Qin Yun: [Jiang Yue, have you made up your mind?]

Qin Yun: [Please help me, no one else is willing to help me except you.]

Jiang Yue stared at those two lines, filled with doubt and alarm.

He tried to find their previous chat history, but it had been wiped completely clean.

Qin Yun’s messages kept popping up:

[I’m sorry, I know your race is coming up and I shouldn’t bother you now.]

[Do you still not believe me?]

This was followed by several images that were still loading.

Jiang Yue stared at the screen, and as he opened the images, they turned out to be ultrasound photos.

[I went for a check-up, I’m already two months along.]

Jiang Yue’s heart rate spiked, but he took a few quick, deep breaths to calm himself down.

In his previous life, Qin Yun had indeed sought him out again after disappearing from the internet for a long time.

But it was definitely not because of something as absurd as this.

Was this a butterfly effect? But this was far too bizarre.

After a moment, Jiang Yue began to type slowly. He didn’t realize that a cold sneer had formed on his lips.

Jiang Yue: [What do you want?]

During their relationship, Jiang Yue and Qin Yun had only gone on three dates. They did the usual things couples do: watched movies, went to the amusement park, and ate together.

But that was it. He remembered only holding hands with Qin Yun, they hadn’t even kissed.

Whose child was Qin Yun trying to threaten him with now?

Qin Yun’s reply was much slower than before: [I want to see you one more time.]

Jiang Yue: [Impossible.]

Qin Yun: […]

Immediately after, she sent a photo.

It was a selfie. A long-haired woman was lying in the arms of a man whose face was not visible. Both were unclothed, with clear traces of intimacy on their bodies.

The woman was naturally Qin Yun, but the man holding her…

If Jiang Yue didn’t clearly remember everything that happened with Qin Yun and wasn’t certain that he had never lost his composure in front of her, he might have actually been shaken by this photo.

Because that man’s physique was simply too similar to his, even the mole on the collarbone was identical.

Qin Yun: [I have many more photos like this.]

Qin Yun: [Your home race is coming up, and the domestic attention on you is unprecedented. You wouldn’t want to deal with negative PR while preparing for a race, would you?]

Jiang Yue remained silent.

He knew Qin Yun was telling the truth. As the internet became more developed, netizens received a massive, snowy avalanche of redundant information every day. Gradually, many people lost the ability to think independently and started believing whatever they heard.

In such an environment, the smearing of a person’s reputation by rumors is often irreversible. And turning black into white and manipulating public opinion was exactly Qin Yun’s specialty.

Furthermore, she knew Jiang Yue’s weakness. In the Internet age, information is all about timing. Even if Jiang Yue could quickly produce evidence to debunk the rumors, he would ultimately be affected at this critical juncture of the competition.

But Jiang Yue would not agree to Qin Yun’s request to meet. He knew it was a trap.

Jiang Yue: [Anything else is fine, but no meeting.]

After a long time, Qin Yun’s message came through again:

[I want 800,000.]

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