Chapter 343: The 86 Flies Down the Mountain! The Sports Car Climbs the Tree!
"I won't tell you for now!"
When Ye Liyou saw the reply from the Senior on the other side, her cool and elegant face instantly turned pale.
The glow of the smartphone screen illuminated her features in the dim luxury of the hotel suite, casting long shadows that seemed to mirror the sudden darkness in her heart. After all that happened—after he had descended like a god to save her from the brink of death, after the intimacy of the medical treatment, after she had bared her soul—he wouldn't even tell her his name?
Was he really going to abandon her after getting what he wanted? Was he the type to pull up his pants and deny everything, treating their encounter as a fleeting one-night stand?
Although Ye Liyou was constantly thinking about repaying his kindness, seeing this cold, short reply still made her feel an indescribable wave of grievance. It felt as if a heavy stone had been dropped into the lake of her heart, creating ripples of sorrow.
"Alright, Senior, I'm sorry to have bothered you..."
Ye Liyou typed the words slowly, her fingers trembling slightly. She was disheartened; since that was the case, perhaps there would be no more entanglement between them in the future. She would bury this thumping of her heart deep within her soul and consider the most important thing as simply repaying his life-saving grace with her blade in the shadows.
Buzz.
Just then, her phone vibrated in her palm, and a new text message popped up.
Ye Liyou's starry eyes scanned it, and the gloomy clouds in her heart were instantly pierced by a brilliant ray of sunlight.
"I think we have a fated connection. The next time we meet, you will know."
A fated connection?
Ye Liyou savored these three words, reading them over and over again. She held her phone to her chest, feeling the warmth of the device seeping into her skin, and couldn't help but roll around on the plush Persian carpet.
"He says we have a fated connection... He didn't abandon me!"
She was extremely happy. A flush of excitement rose on her cheeks, making her look not like a legendary assassin, but like a teenage girl who had just received a confession from her crush.
If her several Senior Sisters and Junior Sisters from the sect, or the terrifying powerhouses of the international Dark World, were to see this scene—to see the "Blood Shadow Rose," who killed without batting an eye and whose name alone could stop a child from crying, acting like a lovestruck fool—their eyeballs would probably pop out in shock. They might even suspect she had been possessed by a demon.
[Ding! Detected destined heroine Ye Liyou's Favorability +3, Plundered +9000 Destiny Points!]
...
In the presidential suite next door, Shen Anyu sat on a leather sofa, holding a glass of red wine. Through the holographic projection of the [Nanometer Monitoring Robot], he saw this adorable, unguarded side of the cold and beautiful assassin Ye Liyou, and he couldn't help but smile.
"Women..." he murmured, swirling the wine. "No matter how cold the exterior, the heart always yearns for a conqueror."
"If Ye Liyou knew that I had relations with her Second Senior Sister Liu Ruyan and Fifth Junior Sister Zhong Lingyin, and that I am effectively playing the entire sect in the palm of my hand, I wonder if she would try to kill me?"
Shen Anyu pinched his chin, a playful, devilish smile appearing on his handsome face. The thought didn't scare him; it excited him. Dancing on the edge of a blade was the prerogative of a true Villain.
Tap, tap, tap.
Just then, light, hesitant footsteps sounded from the bedroom.
Shen Anyu turned his gaze.
Immediately after, a stunning Sakura Country beautiful girl walked out from the changing room.
It was Suzuki Natsuki.
Her reddish-orange long hair, freshly washed and smelling of high-end jasmine shampoo, naturally draped over her shoulders, framing a face that was exquisite, pure, and agonizingly beautiful. But it was her attire that drew the eye.
Beneath her fair, fragile collarbone, she was wearing a dark blue "School Swimsuit" (Sukumizu).
It was the classic design—tight, modest yet paradoxically the most erotic garment in existence due to what it represented. The fabric clung to her skin like a second layer, outlining the soft swell of her chest and the slender curve of her waist with ruthless precision. The high cut of the legs exposed her thighs completely.
Her straight, slender, slightly plump legs were perfectly shaped, glowing with a pearlescent sheen under the warm room lights. They were unlike the common bow-legged or pigeon-toed stance often seen in some Sakura Country girls; her legs were a masterpiece of jade.
At this moment, under Shen Anyu's admiring and fervent gaze, Suzuki Natsuki was trembling. She was filled with a mix of extreme shyness and a strange, subservient pride.
She bit her lip, recalling the script Shen Anyu had forced her to memorize, and finally spoke the words, though she barely understood their layered meaning.
"I... I bought a very sexy swimsuit..."
As soon as she finished speaking, Suzuki Natsuki shyly lowered her head, burying her chin in her chest. She felt extremely embarrassed, her earlobes burning red as if they were on fire.
For such a pure and beautiful Sakura Country girl—a "National First Love" archetype—to stand in a hotel room wearing a tight school swimsuit and say such provocative words... the visual impact was nuclear.
99.9% of men worldwide would be instantly excited, their blood boiling; the remaining 0.1% probably preferred men or were dead.
Shen Anyu's eyes darkened. He placed the wine glass on the table with a soft clink.
He stood up, his tall figure casting a shadow over her petite frame. He walked quickly towards Suzuki Natsuki, looking at the stunning beautiful girl with unmasked admiration and hunger.
"Natsuki-chan," his voice was hoarse, magnetic, and commanding. "You're really too cute. I want to..."
He reached out, his large hand grasping her waist, pulling her flush against him. The heat of her skin burned through the thin swimsuit fabric.
...
[Location: Akina Mountain Pass - Starting Line]
The night air was cold, biting into the skin, but the atmosphere on the mountain peak was boiling hot. The roar of engines, the smell of burning rubber, and the shouts of the crowd created a symphony of adrenaline.
When Echizen Takumi stepped out of the modified, black-and-white Toyota AE86, everyone present was shocked, a clamor erupting like a tsunami.
"The 86! It's that 86! Is he the legendary Akina Mountain Car God?"
"It's hard to imagine that an ordinary, delivery-spec 86 could be so fast. They say no one can beat him on the downhill!"
"Yeah, even the famous racer Jiro Ikeda lost to him last month. It was a complete humiliation!"
"He's so young... and looks kind of dazed. But he's quite handsome in a plain way. I want to go on a date with him."
"..."
The crowd whispered, pointed, and stared.
Standing near a sleek, yellow RX-7, the famous Sakura Country professional racer Jiro Ikeda was also looking at Echizen Takumi. His pupils contracted sharply as he looked at Echizen Takumi's young and clear face.
Humiliation washed over him again. He would never forget that night. He, a pro racer, driving a high-performance machine, was left in the dust by a tofu delivery car. The ghost-like drift, the inertia drift through the five consecutive hairpins... it was a nightmare.
This absolute technical dominance, as a professional racer, made Jiro Ikeda feel a pang of acidic jealousy, but also immense, begrudging admiration.
"This time," Jiro Ikeda gritted his teeth, turning to the man beside him. "I brought the big gun."
He had specifically invited his friend, Fujii Yusuke, who had just won an international racing championship, hoping to defeat that damn 86 and reclaim the glory of professional racers.
But he hadn't expected that the one driving the 86 was truly just a young boy wearing a tofu shop uniform.
Especially seeing Echizen Takumi's black and white overalls with the words "Echizen Tofu Shop" embroidered on the pocket, Jiro Ikeda's expression was incredibly complex. Was I really defeated by a tofu delivery boy?
"Interesting!"
Fujii Yusuke, leaning against his modified Evo, held a cigarette between his fingers. He looked at this scene, a look of predatory interest appearing on his arrogant face.
Initially, when his friend Jiro Ikeda had dragged him to this remote mountain race, he had been disdainful.
Akina Mountain Car God? What a joke. Just a country bumpkin playing on a home track. He was Fujii Yusuke, the number one racer in Sakura Country, a man who competed on international circuits.
"No matter how fast, it's still an AE86. It's junk from the last century," Fujii Yusuke sneered.
But now, seeing the aura around the boy, things seemed to be getting interesting.
Watching the crowd erupt in clamor, shocked into silence by his arrival, Echizen Takumi stood by his car door. In his black and white overalls, he looked calm, but inside, he was extremely smug.
He wasn't hiding it anymore. Tonight, he wasn't just a delivery boy. He was the legendary Akina Mountain Car God!
And he was doing this for one reason only.
"Natsuki-chan..."
He wanted to confess to the girl he loved, his childhood friend, Suzuki Natsuki.
He had a plan. A perfect, romantic plan. With a crushing, overwhelming victory, amidst the cheers of the crowd and the flashing lights, he would walk up to her, kneel, and confess to his beloved Natsuki-chan. He would use the glory of the win to win her heart.
"Natsuki-chan knows I'm good at driving, but she doesn't know I'm this good. She doesn't know I'm the ghost of Akina."
"If Natsuki-chan knew, she would definitely be thrilled. Her eyes would light up with admiration. She would definitely fall in love with me, and she might even be so excited she'd jump on me and kiss me right in front of everyone."
Thinking of this, Echizen Takumi was exploding with excitement. His heart raced faster than his engine ever could. His eyes were full of anticipation and longing.
However, he looked left and right, back and forth, searching and searching through the sea of faces.
"Where's Natsuki-chan? Eh? Eh? Where's my Natsuki-chan?"
Echizen Takumi craned his neck. He looked at the cheerleaders, the spectators, the mechanics. He looked for that familiar reddish-orange hair, that sweet smile, that cute school uniform.
But he couldn't find his beloved Suzuki Natsuki.
Where is she?
Hadn't Natsuki-chan promised him she would come to Akina Mountain to watch the race tonight? He had told her specifically. She had smiled and said she would cheer for him.
Could it be...
"Wait," Takumi thought, a lightbulb going off in his simple mind. "Could it be that Natsuki-chan isn't at the starting line, but waiting for me at the finish line?"
That must be it!
Echizen Takumi figured it out, and his heart immediately swelled with joy. Natsuki-chan must have known he would win. She had so much faith in him that she went straight to the bottom of the mountain to welcome the victor.
As for the possibility of Natsuki-chan lying to him or not coming? Echizen Takumi never considered such a thing. Not even for a second. They were childhood friends. She was pure, kind, and innocent. She would never lie to him.
"Kid, are you an idiot?"
Just then, Fujii Yusuke walked over, exhaling a puff of gray smoke into Takumi's face. His gaze towards Echizen Takumi was disdainful, as if looking at a fool who had never seen the world.
"Why are you looking left and right, front and back, like a monkey searching for a banana? Is this really the demeanor of the so-called Car God?"
Echizen Takumi lazily glanced at Fujii Yusuke. He didn't bother to explain. In his world, besides his beloved Natsuki-chan and his car, nothing else mattered. This arrogant man was just an obstacle on his road to love.
"No need for nonsense," Takumi said flatly, his eyes sharpening. "I will definitely beat you."
"Hah," Fujii Yusuke laughed, throwing his cigarette butt on the ground and crushing it with his racing boot. "No matter how fast you are, garbage is garbage. An 86 is just a scrap metal delivery van!"
Echizen Takumi and Fujii Yusuke's gazes met, sparks seemingly flying in the air. The tension was palpable, thick enough to cut with a knife.
"Start your engines!" the referee shouted.
Then, amidst the deafening cheers and applause of the crowd, the race began!
VROOM!
Two cars shot out like arrows from a bow, disappearing into the dark, foggy curves of the mountain pass.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side.
In the warm, pheromone-filled luxury suite.
Shen Anyu's hand was no longer on Suzuki Natsuki's waist.
Looking at Shen Anyu in front of her, seeing the 'weapon' that was about to destroy her innocence, Suzuki Natsuki's beautiful eyes widened...
[Akarin Note:
Your Support Keeps This Story Alive!
If you're enjoying this novel, your support means the world to me. Simple actions like leaving a review, power stone, comment, or sharing the story let me know you're out there. It's the greatest motivation for me to keep updating until the very end and ensures this project continues.
For those who wish to support me more directly, you can join my Patreon at [patreon.com/AkarinTL]. As a thank-you, you'll receive access to 50 advanced chapters.
I hope I am still worthy of your support. My life truly depends on this... haha, I know I'm so shameless.]