The first time Chu Zhao saw Chu Wang, she was seven years old, on the second day after she was brought back to the Chu family.
Her younger brother was two years younger than her. It was winter, and he was wearing a fluffy panda loungewear set, sitting on a soft cushion as he twisted a Rubik's cube that looked like a colorful piece of candy.
"Older sister?" He tilted his head to look at her, the panda ears on the brim of his cap twitching slightly. His big eyes were clear and bright as he looked at her.
So cute.
Young Chu Zhao thought.
"Are you my older sister, too?"
Even though there was a "too" in that sentence.
Even though she was not the only one.
Yet that was truly the first time young Chu Zhao heard a greeting from a family member in the Chu family—not the cold, chilling two syllables of "Chu Zhao."
In an instant, she grew fond of this younger brother.
"Yes, Xiaowang, I am Chu Zhao."
"I am your older sister."
"I will treat you well and protect you forever."
***
Chu Zhao held a pen. As she smeared the black ink, she covered Chu Wang's signature on the life-and-death agreement bit by bit, until not a trace of the original writing could be seen.
After finishing this, Chu Zhao's movements grew brisk. Right beside the black patch, she cleanly and decisively signed her own name.
Without looking back, she then walked toward the SA sports car she had driven all the way here.
"No way, are they really playing for keeps like this?"
"I've never heard of Young Master Chu's sister being into street racing. Can she actually pull this off... won't something go wrong?"
"Oh, what are you worrying about? If Young Master Chu isn't worried about his sister, how is it your turn to care?"
"No way, could you be—someone who's even willing to swallow this kind of bait?! Hahaha!"
"Get lost! How could I possibly..."
Chu Zhao ignored those worthless men and their worthless chatter. She started the sports car and accelerated straight toward the starting point of this race.
With no obstruction, built solely to push speed to its absolute limit, the moment the sports car was set in motion, the winds from all sides rushed in recklessly. In the cold night, there was an illusion of embracing freedom.
Chu Zhao had already tied her long hair back, her bangs pinned to both sides. Beneath her helmet, her cat-like eyes were cold and indifferent. Yet amidst all that rationality, something seemed to have broken entirely off its track.
When was the first time she ever raced? Chu Zhao could no longer remember.
Perhaps the only thing she remembered was that back then, she still harbored the fantasy that as long as she worked hard to change herself, trying to understand and learn the things her family members cherished, she could win even a tiny bit of their favor.
The Chu Zhao of today, of course, no longer held any expectations for such things.
And Chu Wang would certainly never be an exception.
She knew clearly that doing more would be meaningless.
Chu Zhao gripped the steering wheel tight. The moment the referee blew the whistle and dropped the flag, she slammed her foot on the accelerator, sending the SA shooting up the mountain road like an arrow released from a bow.
The howling wind, the night growing thicker the further ahead she pushed—perhaps only at a time like this could she completely empty herself out, thinking of nothing at all, drawing close to both freedom and death, moving forward without worry or fear.
Both life and death were hers alone to manipulate.
Chu Zhao turned the steering wheel. Just as the car body was about to surge onto the first U-turn, she pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor, recklessly accelerating and accelerating again.
***
"Oh my god! Is Chu Wang's sister really driving this fiercely too? Isn't that fatal U-turn right up ahead?"
"Yeah! Even if she just maintained her current speed, I'd still praise her as a brave soul, but I never expected her to be this insane—she actually sped up!"
"It feels even more life-risking than the way Young Master Chu drives."
"Is Young Master Su's speed slowing down?"
"It's slowed down a bit... Wait! Young Master Su has sped up too! Good lord, don't tell me they're planning to play an overtaking game right here at the U-turn!"
In the deep, ink-black night, two supercars—one blue, one silver—shifted from trailing one another by more than half a car length, until the silver SA executed a tail-flick, pressing directly upon the driver's side of the blue supercar.
At that instant, the two cars were running almost neck and neck, and the people watching the live broadcast down below all caught their breath in unison.
But soon, the camera angle shifted to the view ahead—the stretch leading into the first fatal U-turn was right before them.
Decelerate, maintain current speed, or lightly brake for a massive drift.
Before witnessing the outcome with their own eyes, no one could know what choices the two racers would make on this bend, which was folded almost in half.
Chu Wang stared expressionlessly at the screen, his hands hanging at his sides tightening unconsciously.
A bend of this caliber—if it were him, he wouldn't drive the first section nearly this aggressively.
He would simply wait until the U-turn was just about to clear its most perilous section, and when the opposing driver unconsciously relaxed just a fraction, he would violently accelerate and play a face-to-face dance with the rival's car body.
By the time his car body, briefly driving forward balanced on just two wheels, slammed back down onto all four, that would be the moment he overtook his opponent and recaptured victory.
But such a high-skill maneuver... Chu Zhao could never pull it off.
"Hey, it's Young Master Su! Young Master Su is still in first!"
"Come on, out of just these two cars, are you really going to bother ranking them?"
"So what if I am? Young Master Su is just that awesome. Chu Zhao isn't as trashy as we thought, but compared to Young Master Su..."
"Well, she's a woman after all. Figures she can't cut it. No guts—she drove halfway and turned cowardly."
"It's already not bad that she dared to go up there. For a woman, pulling this off counts as pretty decent."
As expected.
Chu Wang withdrew his gaze with zero interest.
Chu Zhao's so-called hard work had always been limited to this pitiful level.
"Overtaking failed. Chu Zhao is done for."
"Tch, with this road—curve after curve, twenty-one bends in total—one slow step means every step is slow. Even if Chu Zhao bites her heels tightly, there's no way she's getting past Young Master Su."
"Hey, isn't that stretch of road up ahead completely without guardrails?"
"Yeah, the section they're driving on right now doesn't have any anymore."
"Fine then, I suppose Chu Zhao has some guts after all."
"If she didn't have guts, she wouldn't have dared to step in for our Young Master Chu, hahaha!"
"Haha~ Anyway, no matter the outcome, it's going to be a good show! I am so looking forward to it!"
***
Four point seven kilometers—for supercars with such superior performance, this distance was practically nothing.
It was merely the unique layout of this winding mountain road on Yunlan Mountain that added life-or-death thrills beyond mere speed to the race.
Twenty-one bends; even without a head-to-head race, this road condition alone was plenty interesting.
Yet, after Chu Zhao's failed attempt to overtake, Su Jingmo inevitably found himself growing bored.
The only reason he pulled this stunt today, aside from finding it amusing and wanting to treat the Chu family's messy accounts like a good show—
Was also because he genuinely harbored some anticipation for Chu Zhao's strength, having been casually mentioned and proactively praised by Viture, a retired race car driver he held in high regard.
But now—
"Ever since Viture retired these past few years, his judgment has gone soft."
Could it be that he valued someone of Chu Zhao's caliber simply because she was a woman?
Su Jingmo's expression was cold and indifferent, his gaze fixed straight ahead—the final U-turn was about to arrive.
"Let's get this over with quickly." He was already sick of it.
***
"U-turn! The guardrail-free edition!"
"Crap! Has Chu Zhao lost her mind? Is she speeding up?!"
"What is she trying to do? Another overtaking attempt? But the last one didn't work, and now with zero guardrails..."
"Young Master Su has sped up too! Crap, I think Young Master Su is completely fired up now!"
"A life-and-death showdown! This wave is a life-and-death showdown! If both of them have a death wish, it's no use for Chu Zhao just to be crazy! She still won't be able to pass!"
***
Being right in the middle of it, Su Jingmo was naturally the first to notice Chu Zhao's abnormal movement.
Watching the SA in his rearview mirror—abandoning all else just to catch up to him—a glint of renewed interest flickered deep within his eyes.
"Admirable courage."
For Chu Zhao to dare play an overtaking game with him at a guardrail-free U-turn was certainly worth this bit of praise from him.
However—the only winner would be him.
Down at the foot of the mountain, Chu Wang raised his head to look at the screen. His expression lacked its usual hostility, replaced only by a blank indifference that made his true emotions unreadable.
Chu Wang watched as the silver SA on the recording pushed its speed to the absolute maximum, desperately chasing after the blue supercar.
And Su Jingmo was accelerating as well, refusing to grant the silver supercar even a shred of an opportunity to pass him.
Aside from the complete lack of protective barriers along the roadside, the scene unfolding before them was an exact duplicate of what had happened shortly before at the first U-turn.
A boring reenactment.
Chu Zhao was finished.
"Using the same trick twice. What an idiot." Losing interest, Chu Wang prepared to look away.
The next instant, his pupils quivered, and his eyes widened abruptly.
As if he were witnessing something incomprehensible to reason, Chu Wang's face was painted in a daze of utter disbelief.
On the screen, right at the tail end of the U-turn, the silver SA suddenly surged up the mountainside and raced back down.
Like lightning cleaving the dense night, like a sword-light splitting the mountain ridges, the silver-white car body tilted onto its side, tearing forward on just two wheels.
At the edge of the guardrail-free road, it brushed right past the blue supercar, hurtling ahead into the lead position with a hair-raising, death-defying degree of extreme difficulty.
Chu Zhao's overtaking maneuver had succeeded.
Chu Wang stared blankly at the sight. "How... is that possible?"