Chapter 147 - 69: A Leisurely Day

Chapter 147: Chapter 69: A Leisurely Day

Around seven o’clock on the morning of June 30, Wu Shi woke up on time and walked into the living room, yawning.

Martina was humming a little tune as she prepared breakfast. Though "breakfast" was a bit of a stretch—her main focus was freshly ground coffee, while the croissants and butter meant to fill their stomachs hardly required waking up this early to prepare.

"You’re up so early." Martina didn’t turn around, acting as if she already knew who it was.

"Yeah, I’m used to it. I couldn’t go back to sleep even if I tried."

Wu Shi walked into the washroom. After freshening up, he stared at himself in the mirror. He rarely did this; his impression of his own appearance mostly came from photos in the media. In those pictures, his hair was always damp with sweat, and his fair skin always bore a flush of heat, giving him an unmistakable boyish charm.

Now, with his hair neatly combed, he looked no different from a typical high school student back in Hua Country. If there was any difference, it was that his hair was relatively short, completely out of place with the emo-style trends currently popular back home.

By the time he returned to the living room, breakfast was ready.

"Xiao Shi, go call Louise for breakfast," Martina said, taking off her apron. At home, she usually spoke to Wu Shi in Chinese.

"Did she not set an alarm?" Wu Shi really didn’t want to drag a sleepyhead out of bed.

"Alarms are useless on her," Martina said with a laugh. She picked up her coffee, blew away the steam, and took a gentle sip.

"Alright." Seeing that Martina was already enjoying her coffee, Wu Shi had no choice but to turn around and knock on Louise’s bedroom door. "Louise, time to get up and eat! You have school at eight!"

"GRUMBLE GRUMBLE..."

An unintelligible sound of struggle came from the bedroom. Wu Shi knocked twice more, but when there was still no movement, he simply pushed the door open and walked in.

Unsurprisingly, the curtains in Louise’s room were drawn tight as always. Even though it was broad daylight outside, the room was pitch black. No wonder she wanted to sleep in.

Wu Shi remembered reading in a book that sunlight was the switch that activated the human body. Without seeing the sun first thing in the morning, one naturally wouldn’t realize that a new day had arrived. He walked straight to the window and pulled the curtains open with a loud SWISH.

"Louise! Time to get up."

Sunlight flooded the room, illuminating the bedding, but Louise had already burrowed deep beneath her covers.

"Since when did you love sleeping in so much?" Wu Shi walked over to the bed and gently pulled half the blanket back. Louise was curled into a ball, clutching her orca plushie. The moment she met the sunlight, she desperately buried her little head under the pillow. "If you don’t get up now, you’ll be late. And no one will accompany you to school."

"Mmm, just a few more minutes," Louise mumbled incoherently.

Wu Shi didn’t indulge her. He reached past her messy, cream-white hair, accurately pinched her ear, and gave it a gentle tug.

"AHHH! That hurts!" Louise immediately covered her ear, abandoning her plushie.

Wu Shi let go. She rubbed her eyes, still heavy with sleep.

"Waking you up is seriously no easy task."

The sunlight fell on Louise’s pale, cool-toned face, making her shine as if she were standing under a spotlight. A few strands of long hair swayed, causing the light and shadows to dance gently across her features.

"It’s not like you have to wake me up very often..." she muttered softly, pushing the orca plushie aside before reaching her hand out to Wu Shi.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Pull me up." Louise turned to look at him, blinking twice.

"You’re too heavy. I can’t lift you."

"UGHHH..." Louise let out a dissatisfied groan.

"Alright, alright, stop groaning, you lazy cat."

Wu Shi grabbed her hand and hoisted her up in one smooth motion. Louise took the opportunity to wrap her arms around his arm as she rolled out of bed. Leaning against him, she chirped happily, "Hehe~ See? I’m up!"

With that, she slipped on her slippers and skipped out of the room.

"At least change your clothes first," Wu Shi grumbled. He glanced at his own arm, then followed Louise out to the living room.

Returning to his seat, he picked up a croissant, dipped it in some butter, and took a bite, foregoing a fork and knife entirely.

"Would you like some coffee?" Martina asked.

Wu Shi shook his head. "If I needed a pick-me-up, I’d rather drink a Red Bull."

"Then it’s a real shame you aren’t trying to join the Red Bull Racing Team," Martina laughed. "Your father is exactly the same. He always says having black coffee for breakfast is pure torture."

Wu Shi nodded vigorously in agreement. Soy milk and deep-fried dough sticks were the only right way to do breakfast. As for coffee, he thought he’d be better off drinking tea. Even after spending so many years in Europe, his habits hadn’t changed in the slightest.

"Mommy! I want a cup of coffee!" Having taken her seat at the dining table, Louise excitedly raised her hand, as if she had finally gathered the energy she needed for the day.

"Alright~ I made some for you, too."

Breakfasts in Italy were never particularly lavish. In fact, in Wu Shi’s mind, the only place with truly hearty breakfasts was the Guangdong Region back home—though traditional morning tea probably didn’t even count as breakfast.

After they ate, Martina took Louise to school, leaving him completely alone in the house.

"Being this free... I really can’t get used to it," he muttered.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than his phone rang. It was Verstappen.

"What’s up? Aren’t you practicing right now?"

"Get online! Let’s do a few laps!" Verstappen yelled directly into the phone.

"No way. My house isn’t like yours; I don’t have all those simulators. Forcing me to race with a controller is just asking too much." Wu Shi firmly refused. He fully intended to spend the day lounging around.

"Aw! What a shame to waste your time like this," Verstappen sighed.

Wu Shi simply couldn’t relate to this racing fanatic, a guy who drove real cars on race days and ran simulator laps on his days off.

Still, since he had nothing better to do and hadn’t watched any anime in ages, he quickly logged onto AC Station. At this point in time, the site hadn’t yet lost its original flavor; the ACG atmosphere was still incredibly strong.

However, as soon as the homepage loaded, a recommended video immediately caught his eye: *"[Epic Edit / Wu Shi] ’Only Victory Can Define My Life’ — Sweeping Europe, I Am Invincible!"*

The title alone made him cringe. He wondered if he was seriously already considered to be sweeping Europe and invincible. Despite his inward complaints, he couldn’t stop his hand from clicking on the video.

It began with soothing music as several karting tracks flashed across the screen. Comments scrolled rapidly over the video: *"The Hua Country driver closest to F1!"*, *"International student in Germany here, saw him live, his racing is insanely good!"*, and *"What kind of clickbait title is this? He won a few F3 races and suddenly he’s sweeping Europe?"*

Wu Shi turned off the scrolling comments and began to watch seriously. He realized that the tracks shown were all from the 2007 CKC races, which made him think the uploader really knew their stuff to include such incredible attention to detail.

The soothing music abruptly stopped, and the frame froze on a photo of him wearing his racing helmet. He had no idea who had snapped the picture. His visor was up, and his gaze was resolute, as if he were staring intently at something in the distance.

Then, the music resumed, accompanied by footage of his races. The flashing clips synchronized perfectly with the heavy drumbeats, slowly building up an intense, adrenaline-pumping vibe.

Just as the melody swelled, it paused once more. The screen cut to black before the music suddenly exploded into its climax. Amidst blood-pumping cheers, the video showed him crossing the finish line time and time again, interspersed with clips of a few major crashes.

Simultaneously, crisp white text continuously flashed across the screen:

"2007 CKC Overall Champion!"

"2008 Italy ACI Karting Championship Winner!"

"..."

"2013 KZ Championship Winner - The Highest Hall of European Karting!"

"2014 F3 Championship Six Consecutive Wins!"

At this point, the climax of the music faded. The visuals lingered for a few frames before transitioning to a black screen with white text:

"The legend continues..."

Following the text was a photo of him, Ling Kang, and Zeng Tianyi walking away at the Peng City Extreme Speed Racing Circuit. Set against the setting sun, the young boys were carrying their helmets and walking with their arms slung over each other’s shoulders, happily chatting about who knows what.

After finishing the video, Wu Shi immediately clicked into the comment section. The pinned comment read:

"Many people are saying my title is an exaggeration, but you can’t deny that the results Wu Shi has achieved in karting and F3 are unprecedented! If he really enters F1 next year, I believe he will absolutely be a genius driver on par with Vettel!"

Scrolling down, most of the comments were full of praise, though it was obvious that the majority of viewers didn’t actually know much about these races. They didn’t understand the technicalities, but they were deeply impressed nonetheless.

"The uploader is a legend! This got my blood boiling. I’m heading to the park to drive bumper cars for ten minutes right now!"

"Isn’t karting just for kids? Is winning a championship really that impressive?"

"What’s F3? Never heard of it. I only know about F1."

"Uploader, I’m a hardcore Wu Shi fan too. Where did you get all this footage? I’ve literally never seen any of these clips before!!!"