Cheng Cheng and the Cicada

Chapter 41 The Oriole's Purpose

"Okay!" Lin Xian agreed readily.

It was exactly what he wanted; he was just waiting for her to say that!

Watching Su Su's "clumsy" driving skills… Lin Xian stared anxiously at the Ferrari receding into the distance, itching to take the wheel and chase the oriole himself.

But he couldn't.

It was Su Su's car after all; he couldn't just snatch the steering wheel, could he? Now that Su Su had finally given him the opportunity, Lin Xian couldn't wait any longer:

"Quick, quick, pull over and let me drive."

"Are you crazy!" Su Su looked at Lin Xian like he was a lunatic:

"Do you really think this is some old folks' scooter, where you just step on the gas and go? It's not as simple as you think!"

"Just forget about it and pull over!"

Lin Xian pointed to the red Ferrari that had already disappeared around the corner:

"If you keep dawdling, we'll really lose them. Can you swallow this insult? Can you sleep tonight if we don't chase them?"

Hearing this, Su Su was speechless.

Indeed…

She had suffered more grievances today than in her entire life! Never before had anyone been so arrogant in front of her. She had to overtake them!

Seeing Su Su obediently slow down and pull over to the right, Lin Xian chuckled inwardly. Sure enough… this girl was also easily understood. A thousand lectures were no match for a little reverse psychology. She took the bait instantly.

*Click.*

Su Su unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car, glancing at Lin Xian in the passenger seat:

"Don't act tough if you can't drive."

"Don't worry, I guarantee I'll get back the face for your McLaren Windrunner!"

Lin Xian switched to the driver's seat, buckled his seatbelt, and watched Su Su close the door –

*ROAR!!!!*

He floored the accelerator, and a surge of powerful force hit him!

In that instant of being pushed back into his seat, Lin Xian felt like he had become one with the car, sensing the rhythm of every horsepower output, every degree of the steering wheel's turn!

This was the powerful sixth sense gained from decades of racing in dreams. The power details and responsiveness of the entire car were already in his mind.

The McLaren, its tires screeching, launched like a leaping antelope! It accelerated violently forward into the traffic!

"Hey, hey, hey! There are cars in front!" Su Su exclaimed.

Because they had pulled over to the rightmost lane, and the lane to the right was the slow lane, there were several slow-moving cars ahead and to the left.

Accelerating at such high speed in these conditions was tantamount to crashing!

However!

Something incomprehensible to Su Su happened!

Lin Xian's right hand moved up and down, turning off all the driver-assist systems on the dashboard. The entire car entered full manual mode… even the basic Electronic Stability Program was turned off!

Amidst a flurry of activity, the McLaren, with the accelerator never released for a second, began to swerve through the traffic! Like a swallow, it darted through the narrow lanes, and its speed continued to increase!

Su Su was so shocked that her mouth dropped open!

This…

Was this still her car?

How could it be driving sideways like a crab? She couldn't understand how to drive this car even more than QQ Speed when she was younger!

In a matter of seconds, the McLaren Windrunner switched from the rightmost slow lane to the leftmost fast lane, and the speed had already soared to 160 kilometers per hour.

And it was still increasing!

There was a sharp left turn ahead!

There was no sign of slowing down at all!

Su Su quickly grabbed the seatbelt…

Driving herself and being a passenger were completely different psychological states. Especially in the current situation, at such high speed, she really didn't know how to safely navigate this sharp turn!

She hurriedly looked at the man beside her.

She saw…

He was still so calm and collected, without even a hint of a frown.

His right hand was like practicing Wing Chun, she couldn't even see what he was doing:

"Hold on tight."

The man said softly, and a powerful centrifugal force hit instantly! Pressing Su Su firmly against the right car door!

At this moment, the McLaren was like a yo-yo, drifting extremely close to the inner edge of the road, drawing a curve as beautiful as a work of art!

This was the first time Su Su had seen a car continue to accelerate while drifting through a turn.

She had only driven this car up to 200 kilometers per hour, but now, the number on the dashboard had soared to 240 kilometers per hour! At this high speed… even with slow-speed front glass, the passing cars retreated like flying arrows, and she couldn't see anything clearly!

Could a car be driven like this?

Su Su really felt like her worldview had been turned upside down!

Compared to Lin Xian… her own operation of just flooring the accelerator in a straight line was as childish as driving bumper cars in an amusement park!

By the time they exited the sharp turn, the speed had increased to 260 kilometers per hour.

This wasn't a racetrack…

This was an ordinary overpass in the suburbs of Donghai City.

Daring to drive at such a high speed here was almost a reservation for supper with the Grim Reaper.

Su Su already felt a little nauseous.

She held her breath.

Her heart beat faster.

But the man next to her was still so calm and collected, it was impossible to figure out where his limit was!

And at this moment, in Lin Xian's eyes…

There was only the red sports car, the Ferrari Laferrari, weaving through the traffic ahead.

He could feel it.

The driver in that car was clearly waiting for him.

He was sure of this.

He and Su Su had wasted so much time switching places. If the Ferrari Laferrari wanted to get rid of them, it could have done so easily.

But he had caught up with just one turn… obviously, the other party was deliberately holding back, waiting for him.

Now, Lin Xian was even more certain that the person in the Ferrari was the oriole.

This woman had said that she was not Lin Xian's enemy.

Lin Xian also believed this. She knew too many of Lin Xian's secrets. If she were really an enemy, Lin Xian would have died long ago.

On the contrary, she had revealed a lot of information to him at critical moments, and had even guided him to notice the mysterious organization, the Genius Club… therefore, her appearance was no accident.

Since she could accurately stake out his office in Zhao Yingjun's office, then it was not surprising that she was staking him out outside the restaurant today.

Lin Xian didn't know the reason. In short, the oriole woman seemed to know his whereabouts every day… maybe not every day, but her understanding of him and Zhao Yingjun was frighteningly detailed.

That's why Lin Xian wanted to catch up with her and ask her about these things!

"We've caught up!"

Su Su pointed at the Ferrari a few car lengths away and shouted excitedly:

"Just a little bit more! Overtake her!"

For a girl with such a strong sense of pride, there was nothing more exciting than overtaking that provocative sports car!

She leaned over and patted Lin Xian's shoulder:

"Quick, quick, quick! Overtake her from the left! Open the right window!"

"Why?"

"I'm going to flip her off!!"

"…"

At this distance, and on a straight track, overtaking was much easier for the McLaren, which had a huge advantage in power.

As the right window slowly rolled down, the McLaren Windrunner overtook the Ferrari on the left at a wind-like slow relative speed.

Su Su's slender middle finger was straight and erect, sticking out of the car window, and she fiercely gestured at the Ferrari a meter away.

"That's satisfying!"

Su Su snorted, stuck out her tongue, and looked proud!

"You're awesome, bro! I'm really impressed!" Su Su slapped Lin Xian on the shoulder, her eyes sparkling:

"Luckily you helped me win back my face, otherwise I really wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, haha!"

Then, she took out a piece of bubble gum from her pocket and handed it to Lin Xian:

"Here, have some gum!"

"No, thanks."

Lin Xian's attention was not on this at all. He was constantly watching the Ferrari Laferrari in the rearview mirror.

He understood that the oriole would never have come to race him for no reason. There must be a purpose for her leading him here.

Sure enough.

The Ferrari following behind suddenly slowed down, turned on its right turn signal, and exited the overpass, driving down below.

Lin Xian quickly turned the steering wheel and followed.

Looking ahead, white letters shone on the top of a huge high-rise building –

【Donghai University Affiliated Hospital】

Huh?

What was the oriole bringing him here for?

The only two times Lin Xian had come here were to visit Xu Yiyi's ward to find Xu Yun.

Could the oriole's visit here be related to Xu Yun, or Xu Yiyi?

She was like a riddle person, always trying to guide him to something, but in the end, she always acted mysterious like solving a lantern riddle, never saying the whole story, which was very annoying.

The green light turned on, but the Ferrari was long gone. Lin Xian drove straight into Donghai University Affiliated Hospital… He wasn't worried about losing the oriole, she was obviously here to lead the way, and she was more likely to be worried about him losing her.

Lin Xian drove straight to the hospital's inpatient department.

Sure enough, as he had guessed, the red Ferrari was parked in the parking space in front of the inpatient department.

Lin Xian opened the car door and got out.

"Hey, where are you going!" Su Su shouted from the passenger seat.

"I'm going to visit a patient." Lin Xian waved goodbye to her:

"Thank you for the ride, I can get home myself later, bye bye!"

"Hey!"

Amidst Su Su's shouting, Lin Xian ran straight over… leaving Su Su in the car, her face changing.

……

Lin Xian quickly walked to the Ferrari.

The car door wasn't locked. He pressed the handle and the door automatically opened.

There was still no one inside. The oriole had long disappeared…

"What's up with her, appearing and disappearing like a ghost every day."

Lin Xian touched the leather seat.

It was still warm, meaning the woman had just left.

The car key was on the dashboard, with a tissue underneath.

Lin Xian picked up the tissue. There was a line of words written on it in lipstick –

"Remember to return the car for me"

"…"

Lin Xian was silent.

This oriole really treated Zhao Yingjun like her personal assistant, casually entering her office, taking her keys, and driving her luxury car.

Just like his relationship with Li Cheng in the first dream.

Lin Xian got out of the car, stood up straight, and looked around.

He didn't see the oriole's figure at all.

It was hard to find someone in such a dark night, especially someone as good at hiding as the oriole.

However…

Lin Xian believed that the oriole had deliberately led him to Donghai University Affiliated Hospital for a "purpose," most likely to provide him with some "unspeakable" clues, just like last time.

That rainy night in the office, the oriole had said:

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, Lin Xian, it's that I can't say."

What was the reason that caused her to be unable to say it?

Lin Xian's intuition told him that it should be related to the laws of space-time. Because after explaining that she couldn't say it, the oriole directly advised him to study the laws of space-time more. These two things must be related.

Then, let's go back to the present.

Perhaps, it was precisely because the oriole was subject to some kind of restriction and could not directly tell him the answers and clues, that she was "taking a roundabout route" to lead him to the hospital, so that he could discover some necessary clues.

And the only person in this hospital who could have a relationship with him…

Was Xu Yiyi.

Lin Xian recalled the bedridden, skinny, brain-dead girl.

Honestly, Lin Xian had never gone to the ward to see Xu Yiyi again after Xu Yun's death.

Although he knew that Zhao Yingjun would definitely take good care of Xu Yiyi, but… how should he put it, his remorse and guilt made him very reluctant to step into Xu Yiyi's ward.

He had always thought that after he caught the murderer who killed Xu Yun, he would visit Xu Yiyi and tell her the news.

And he was determined that after the hibernation pod was successfully invented in the future, he would definitely send Xu Yiyi in safely, in order to fulfill Xu Yun's last wish.

Actually.

These were all just Lin Xian's self-procrastination.

"Sigh."

He sighed.

Indeed, he should have come to visit Xu Yiyi a long time ago.

"No matter what."

Lin Xian stood outside the gate of the inpatient building, looking at the row of lights lit up on the 17th floor:

"Let's go to Xu Yiyi's ward and take a look."