84 Third Letter of Recommendation, Collected (1/2)

When Yao Zhixing gave the address, Ye Shuang had felt it sound very familiar. When she arrived, she realized the place was truly familiar.

It was a 24-hour barbeque shop on the left corner of the street. Business was nice, and it provided barbeque seafood and porridge in the morning and barbeque buffet at night. Yes, it was where the group of racers had been enjoying their supper when Yao Zhixing's car was robbed.

Ye Shuang managed to locate Yao Zhixing in one glance. She walked over to his table and knocked on it lightly. Yao Zhixing pulled his gaze away from the streets to look at Ye Shuang with confusion.

”Brother Yao?” Ye Shuang sat. Even though she had recognized the man, she still pretended this was their first meeting, which in a way was true.

”…Ye Shuang?” Yao Zhixing inquired hesitatingly. After the girl nodded, he looked at her with some interest. ”How did you know I'm Yao Zhixing?”

Naturally, Ye Shuang could not say because she had met him before as Brother Shuang. She thought about it and said, ”Because of your little habits?”

Yao Zhixing raised his brow as if signaling for Ye Shuang to explain herself, and she obliged. ”Since car racers have the tendency to pursue the upper limit of speed, they don't use the clutch as often as normal drivers. For the most part, their right leg operates the brake and oil at the same time. Even though 'heel-and-toe' is the basic of racing, to be able to train this skill until it becomes part of their habit is rare. I noticed how you unconsciously wiggle your feet. Normally, people move their leg up and down, but yours moves left and right in a fan shape…”

And is so much faster than most.

The overly detailed explanation that incidentally exposed the man's unsavory habit caused Yao Zhixing to cough awkwardly. ”Fine, I understand! You're right.”

Ye Shuang then realized the social faux-pas and quickly tried to salvage the situation. ”But your habit is only limited to your right leg. Since your left leg is only responsible for the clutch, it doesn't suffer from this habit. Next time, you can wiggle your left leg, and no one would find out.”

Yao Zhixing felt even more awkward. Can we please move away from the topic of my legs‽

…

If Ye Shuang was just a normal girl, Yao Zhixing would have been his normal self, but being in the company of a beautiful member of the opposite sex, even if the man had no special interest in the woman, he would unconsciously try to leave a good impression.

Or if Ye Shuang was just a normal citizen, Yao Zhixing probably would not have given her any thought; after all, if the circles that they ran in was too different, no amount of beauty was going to make up for that distance. Why would he care about someone whom he was sure did not understand his perspective and would not meet again‽

However, the person who sat before Yao Zhixing was a beauty, and on top of that, she understood a thing or two about racing. Additionally, she was in Han Chu's group of talent and had a racer boyfriend. In conclusion, Yao Zhixing treated Ye Shuang better than how he would normally treat a stranger.

To shift the awkward topic away, Yao Zhixing turned to grab an envelope out from the bag that hung from the back of his chair. ”The letter of recommendation you wanted.”

Ye Shuang accepted it. Finally, she had collected all three letters of recommendation and she sighed in relief. ”Brother Yao, thank you.”

Yao Zhixing merely shrugged. Ye Shuang was about to leave when she realized that Yao Zhixing had been staring at the same spot outside the shop. Compelled by curiosity, she also turned to look and realized why Yao Zhixing was called a local millionaire. In just two days, all the parts of his car had been replaced. Parked at the secluded corner of the street was Yao Zhixing's race car that had been hijacked last time.

Ye Shuang hesitated before saying, ”Brother Yao, I feel like you'd better move your car elsewhere or have your lunch someplace else… I hear the car thieves in this area are very rabid; a few citizens have fallen victim to them already.”

Ye Shuang did hear from the community grapevine that after Yao Zhixing's car was stolen, another few local car owners had been victimized. This street was a rather famous night market street. Other than tourists, the types of individuals that populated this street the most were beggars and thieves. Yao Zhixing was not the first nor the last to have suffered such a fate, but he had definitely suffered the most damage to both his face and his wallet.

There were much easier cars to enter that night, but the thieves had purposely chosen Yao Zhixing's car and had even taken away his steering wheel. It did seem like the group of thieves had some hatred toward the rich…