The words just came out, without much difficulty.
Kai had thought he didn't care. He had already prepared himself for this.
Sure, Formula racing was fun. It had opened the door to a whole new world. But he had always remained rational, never letting the current happiness go to his head.
In this world, every step forward required massive amounts of money. Drivers often had to pay teams just to get a seat in F3 or F2. Zhou Guanyu was in that boat; although he'd never said it, Kai knew his parents were constantly hustling to find more sponsors.
This was not a life Kai could afford.
So, even if his mother hadn't objected, Kai had already decided he would leave when the three months were up. He was just here to fleece the Ferrari sheep, anyway.
It was all planned out. But... what was this empty, hollow feeling in his chest?
A faint, bitter taste spread across his tongue.
Kai picked up another piece of beef from the pot and stuffed it in his mouth, but he couldn't taste a thing.
Amidst the soft sound of the falling snow, the silence in the room suddenly gained weight, pressing down on his heart.
The three young men were all lost in their own thoughts. The "growing pains" of life had ambushed them in different ways. They were all facing choices about their future, their lives, their dreams. They didn't have enough experience to understand the meaning of it all, but they were being forced to make decisions anyway, to step onto an unknown path.
That confusion, that doubt... it was the most painful, agonizing part of being young, but it was also the most beautiful. It was the final, agonizing step of breaking out of the cocoon.
It wasn't just Zhou and Kai. Surprisingly, even Leclerc—the "golden boy," the "Prince of Ferrari"—seemed to be lost in thought. His handsome face blurred in the rising steam as he tumbled down a rabbit hole of his own.
Finally, Kai took a deep breath, and a smile returned to his face, breaking the silence.
"But I'm not worried."
"I'll go back to school. I'll get into a university, pick an interesting major, and keep having adventures."
"Trust me, the world is a big place. Life has infinite possibilities, and so many amazing things to discover."
Zhou looked at him quietly. "But you love racing, don't you?"
Kai opened his mouth to make a joke. "I love a lot of things. Ha."
But the joke felt hollow. His throat was suddenly dry, and the word "ha" came out as a scratchy cough, which he quickly tried to cover with a smile.
Without any warning, Leclerc spoke. His voice was muffled, like a stone dropping into the snow. "My father is very sick. The doctors... they say he might only have a few months left."
Leclerc, who never, ever talked about his personal life, looked lost and helpless.
"He used to be an F3 driver, but he gave up his dream when he had kids. He got us into karting when we were young."
"His dream was to see one of us make it to an F1 team. But he never forced us. He respected our choices. My older brother already quit; he doesn't like racing. But I love it. I want to achieve his dream for him. And it's my dream, too."
"But now..."
Kai froze, looking at Leclerc. His heart skipped a beat. It was a story so similar to his own, but with such a different, tragic twist. The words came out in a jumble, but Kai could clearly feel the pain and grief behind them.
Leclerc met his gaze, his eyes a mixture of sorrow and confusion. "But... I don't know if I have enough time."
That one sentence grabbed Kai's heart and squeezed, cutting off his breath.
"That's why I came back from the holiday early," Leclerc mumbled, his voice fading into the sound of the snow. "I just thought... maybe if I spend ten more hours in the simulator, I can change something."
Kai let out a soft sigh.
Only when faced with life and death do you realize how fragile it all is, how small you are. There was so little they could actually change.
"So," Kai said, his voice quiet, "we just have to seize every moment we have. We use every 'now' to build the road to 'tomorrow.' Maybe we'll succeed, maybe we won't. But what really matters is the process of chasing the dream. At least in that, we can be happy."
"Right?"
The words were soft, but they landed with weight. Zhou and Leclerc both looked at him, a new thoughtfulness in their eyes.
Then, as if to prove his own point, Kai's tone shifted instantly.
"Like right now. This shrimp. Who wants it? No one? Then it's mine."
The words were barely out of his mouth when Leclerc, in a rare display, shot his bowl forward. "Hey! Hey! I'm the guest! Guest!"
Zhou looked indignant. "And I'm not a guest?"
Leclerc ignored him, his chopsticks clumsily trying to snatch the shrimp from Kai's bowl. As it was about to fall, he lunged forward and caught it with his mouth. He bit down, and two seconds later, his eyes bugged out and he started hissing. "Hot! No—numb! Why is it numb and hot? Sss! Sss!"
He was a mess of tears and snot, all his princely composure gone. He'd clearly gotten a mouthful of chili and Sichuan pepper—a double hit.
Kai and Zhou completely lost it, howling with laughter.
Zhou shook his head, looking serious. "Charles, you can't hang. If you can't even handle that, let me tell you, that's nothing back home."
As he spoke, he grabbed a piece of radish, some beef, and some vegetables, and stuffed them all into his mouth.
Less than a second later, he was hissing too, his face instantly covered in a sheen of sweat. "Hah! Sss! Hot!" The boast was immediately exposed.
And then, he spit it all back out.
Kai and Leclerc recoiled in disgust, leaning away.
"Zhou!"
"Ah, Zhou Guanyu!"
Zhou, his face scrunched up in agony, was in a full-body spasm. "Kai... Kai!" he gasped, his eyes watering, trying to signal that this was not a joke, it was really that spicy.
Kai, still dying of laughter, managed to pour a glass of coke and hand it to him. But just as he did, there was another knock on the door.
Kai rolled his eyes. Who now? He figured he'd just grab another set of chopsticks. "Come in, it's unlocked!"
The door opened.
It wasn't a driver. It was Rosana.
She was completely unprepared for the scene: a room filled with steam like a heavenly realm, and three young men, red-faced and sweating, huddled around a bubbling pot like a pack of monkeys in a hot spring. She froze.
The three of them froze, too.
Four people, eight eyes, all locked in a stunned silence.
Rosana was the first to recover. "I just saw the lights on in the other apartments and came to check. It's... fine. Carry on."
She backed out and gently closed the door.
The three of them just stared at each other. Before they could react, her voice came through the door.
"Watch the smoke alarm! You'll set off the entire base!"
And then she was gone.
The three of them looked at each other, then at the pot. Kai finally broke the silence. He picked up a piece of beef with his chopsticks, blinked, and asked:
"So... who wants this?"
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