Chapter 86: Chapter 79: She’s Just My Sister
Returning to the apartment in Suzuka City, Chen Xiangbei took a bath as usual, then turned on the TV and sat on the sofa, watching a Japanese program he couldn’t understand.
Actually, it didn’t matter whether he watched TV or not. The main thing was being alone in a foreign country, he was used to having some noise for company.
Taking advantage of this free time, Chen Xiangbei sent the news of passing the trial training to Liang Chi.
Liang Chi, possibly influenced by Chen Xiangbei, wanted to show his breezy side and briefly replied with the word "noted."
Seeing the old guy pretending so much, Chen Xiangbei couldn’t help but chuckle and tossed the phone aside.
After watching for about half an hour, a wave of drowsiness swept over him.
Chen Xiangbei knew his physical fitness was his biggest shortcoming at the moment, and during physical training, he would deliberately increase the intensity. Even though he was in the prime stage of youth recovery, as soon as he had some downtime, he couldn’t resist the fatigue.
Turning off the TV, just as Chen Xiangbei was planning to go back to his room to sleep, the phone rang, and the name Qin Lianjie appeared on the caller ID.
He pressed the answer button, and before Chen Xiangbei could speak, Qin Lianjie’s voice came through the phone.
"Xiangbei, sorry, I might need to ask you a favor."
"Go ahead, what’s the matter?"
Without hesitation, Chen Xiangbei directly agreed.
This apartment that Qin Lianjie provided had helped him a lot, and interpersonal relationships should involve understanding and empathy.
You can’t just be friends when you need help and dodge when others need you.
"My sister will arrive in Suzuka tonight. Could you please help look after her?"
What?
Upon hearing this, Chen Xiangbei was a bit bewildered.
"I mean, I don’t even know your sister, how am I supposed to look after her?"
"My family bought two apartments in this building; the one next door is my sister’s. She’s my half-sister, and we don’t communicate much usually. Now that she’s entering a rebellious phase, it’s even harder to communicate and manage her."
"But I can’t keep an eye on her either."
Chen Xiangbei was at a loss for words. Although they lived next door, a rebellious little girl that even her brother, Qin Lianjie, couldn’t handle—what right did he have...
"I’m not asking you to watch over her, just keep any suspicious people away from her for me."
"Alright, got it."
Chen Xiangbei replied, when he was practicing racing overseas in his past life, he had encountered many young students who gradually became rebellious and hard to manage due to their parents’ prolonged absence. He understood the helplessness of elders well.
"Thanks, once I’m done here, I’ll come to Japan to meet you."
"Alright, no need to be formal."
Ending the call here, Chen Xiangbei couldn’t figure out how to look after her, so he decided to sleep and think about it later.
After a night’s rest, Chen Xiangbei freshened up briefly and prepared to head to the Honda Suzuka Racing School.
Although the academy doesn’t provide accommodations for entry-level learners, they have nutritionists to manage meals, which saved Chen Xiangbei the big hassle of cooking.
Chen Xiangbei put on his shoes and left the room, just as he was about to close the door, the door of the apartment next door opened with a "click."
A girl with trendy attire and purple-dyed hair, wearing heavy makeup, appeared in Chen Xiangbei’s sight. Her features somewhat resembled Qin Lianjie.
With their eyes meeting, the purple-haired girl first spoke, "You’re my brother’s friend, Chen Xiangbei?"
"Yes, hello."
"My name is Qin Qiuyu. From now on, let’s stay out of each other’s way. Don’t try to boss me around, and definitely don’t snitch."
After speaking, Qin Qiuyu turned and left.
[Hey, she’s quite a character.]
Chen Xiangbei was somewhat amused; it seems Qin Lianjie had also called to instruct his sister, but judging from the effect, it seemed useless.
However, Chen Xiangbei didn’t plan to interfere. As long as nothing outrageous happens, staying out of each other’s way is pretty good.
Catching the shuttle bus to the Suzuka Racing School, Sawano Hiroyuki immediately gathered the students and announced that today’s main training content was racing simulator practice.
After saying this, Sawano Hiroyuki deliberately gave Chen Xiangbei a meaningful look, wanting to see how this Chinese kid would perform on the racing simulator.
The students soon arrived at the simulator hall, where a four-axis driving cabin was positioned centrally, with a giant curved screen on the wall.
Without talking about technology, just the appearance differentiated it significantly from ordinary home racing simulators.
This simulator at the Honda Racing Academy was equipment retired from the Honda F1 Team. The system’s cost even greatly exceeded a regular F1 car, and without backing from a large auto manufacturer, producing such a realistic simulator would’ve been impossible.
Huasi Sports’ racing simulator in comparison was truly a child’s toy.
However, compared to the most advanced six-axis simulators of the later generations, capable of moving in any direction in three-dimensional space and controlling speed and precision delay within 3 milliseconds, this era’s four-axis simulators also seemed outdated.
"Now, based on your student numbers, proceed with simulator training in sequence. Today’s practice maps are Suzuka and Fuji!"
Fuji Speedway is Japan’s second track, recognized by FIA standards as a tier-one formula track. The F1 Japanese Grand Prix in 2007 and 2008 was held at Fuji Speedway, and it currently also hosts the Super GT and Asian Le Mans series.
Sawano Hiroyuki added this track mainly to test Chen Xiangbei’s versatility.
It’s worth noting that although Fuji Speedway has been the venue for the F1 Japan Grand Prix for the past two years, it actually hosted the last race thirty years ago, and most formula drivers aren’t familiar with this track.
Since Chen Xiangbei can handle the Suzuka Circuit with a simulator, let’s see how he does with the Fuji Speedway.
If the Chinese Kid has no problem even with this unpopular track, it means his familiarity with Formula tracks won’t be a weakness. If he gets a chance to race in Europe’s Renault main event, he can also achieve high-speed performance on unfamiliar tracks.
A hexagonal warrior is the highest expectation for a driver!
"Yoshino Hideyoshi, proceed with the simulation test drive."
"Yes, Mr. Sawano."
The named trainee responded, and as he prepared to sit in the four-axis cockpit, the simulation hall door was pushed open from the outside.
In front of everyone appeared a man in his fifties, followed by a teenager, walking into the hall one after the other.
"Principal Nakajima!"
Before Chen Xiangbei could understand what was happening, everyone, including Sawano Hiroyuki, bowed and greeted in unison.
Is he Nakajima Goro?
Chen Xiangbei realized that his impression of Nakajima Goro was limited to hearing his name without having met him.
Unexpectedly, he met him today, this Japanese national hero-level F1 driver.
"Director Sawano, I’m just here to take a look; you all continue your training."
Nakajima Goro waved his hand with a smile. Compared to Sawano Hiroyuki’s seriousness, his first impression was very amiable.
It’s understandable, allowing his son to go against the grain isn’t something most forceful parents would accept.
After speaking, Nakajima Goro turned to the teenager behind him and said, "Hoshino Yoshi, go ahead."
"Yes, Principal Nakajima."
The teenager responded and stood next to Chen Xiangbei naturally.
With a hint of curiosity, Chen Xiangbei glanced at the driver named Hoshino Yoshi a few times, and his first impression was that he looked quite like Oguri Shun from "Crows Zero," sporting the same wolf-tail long hair.
As Chen Xiangbei scrutinized him, Hoshino Yoshi merely glanced aside and then stared ahead expressionlessly.
{"Not bad, even cooler than me."}
Chen Xiangbei muttered inwardly and shifted his gaze as well.
Nakajima Goro absorbed the small gestures between the two, a meaningful smile appearing on his face.
Last night, he watched Chen Xiangbei’s driving footage and racing data overnight. As an experienced former F1 driver, Nakajima Goro could immediately see that Chen Xiangbei’s track line and driving operations were immensely superior to entry-level formula drivers.
It’s fair to say he already possesses the skills of F3 and even GP2 level drivers.
Aside from a few minor flaws in the racing line at high-speed corners, the choices of braking points and lines at low-speed corners were essentially impeccable.
There’s no doubt; Chen Xiangbei’s performance deserves the title of genius driver!
In the racing world, genius needs to collide to squeeze out more potential.
Just like the fates of Senna and Prost, the duels of Schumacher and Hakkinen, the red-blue battles between Alonso and Schumacher, and so on.
Nakajima Goro specially called Hoshino Yoshi back to the academy; he wants to see what kind of sparks will fly between Japan’s new generation of genius kids and the emerging genius driver from China!
The simulation training continued as usual; the first one up was Yoshino Hideyoshi, and his performance was quite average. Even on the most familiar Suzuka Circuit, his fastest simulated lap time was only 2 minutes 08.233 seconds.
Sawano Hiroyuki shook his head unconsciously at this result.
It’s known that simulators, due to the relatively static platform, cannot simulate prolonged lateral G-force pressure at high-speed corners. Combined with the absence of any car damage and safety factors, drivers often find the racing limits more easily on them.
Theoretically, breaking the track record isn’t too difficult, let alone being two or three seconds slower.
The results of the next few trainees were better compared to Yoshino Hideyoshi, with one even running close to the track record at 2 minutes 05 seconds.
But when it came to the less familiar Fuji Speedway, the lap speed was disastrous, with the slowest gap reaching as high as 10 seconds!
"Chen Xiangbei, you’re up!"
In this situation, Sawano Hiroyuki couldn’t hold back any longer and directly called out Chen Xiangbei.
"Yes, Mr. Sawano."
Chen Xiangbei responded and then sat in the four-axis simulation cockpit.
Honestly, Chen Xiangbei had never used a racing simulator from this era. He could only rely on the operations by other trainees earlier and then adjust the parameters based on memories from his previous life.
This unfamiliarity immediately raised a question mark in Sawano Hiroyuki’s mind.
This kid claims his racing basics come from simulators, yet he needs to fumble through some basic setups. Could Miyamoto Shigeru’s information be wrong?
But the problem is, if Chen Xiangbei truly hadn’t used a racing simulator, where did those car skills come from? Or perhaps, it’s as Miyamoto Shigeru initially said.
A self-taught talent?