Chapter 56: The Insult of Passing by in Silence!

"What... what on earth? How did they end up on the opposite lane?"

When Xia Qianyi opened her eyes inside the car, the first thing she saw was the paparazzi's white sedan crossing over to the opposite side. Her mind went completely blank, and she blurted out that very question.

"Hahaha..." Gu Yin couldn't help laughing.

"Hey, do you mind if I provoke them a little?" Gu Yin asked Xia Qianyi.

Though she had no idea what was happening, Xia Qianyi subconsciously nodded anyway...

With her approval, Gu Yin's left hand, which had been steering, gently rested on the light control stalk.

At that moment, with a swift drifting U-turn, his car ended up directly facing the paparazzi's white sedan. While the two paparazzi inside the white sedan were still in shock over Gu Yin's "drift cornering"...

They saw Gu Yin, whose car was now facing them squarely, suddenly switch on his high beams!

"What the hell..." Taken completely by surprise, both men in the car were blinded by the glaring light.

Just flashing the high beams once would have been one thing, but Gu Yin's stalk wasn't just pushed forward—he was pulling it backward repeatedly. Damn it, this was the exact flash function he had used last night to teach a lesson to a tailgating car owner who drove with high beams!

"Click, click, click..."

Gu Yin flashed them continuously several times!

On purpose!

This was totally on purpose!

Provocation!

He was blatantly, nakedly provoking them!

So arrogant... This was just too damn arrogant!

It was nothing short of an insult!

Inside the car, Xia Qianyi couldn't hold back either and burst out with a soft "pfft" of laughter. Although Gu Yin's drifting had left her head spinning and slightly nauseous, for some reason, she felt an inexplicable thrill of satisfaction.

As a female celebrity, Xia Qianyi was constantly harassed by these paparazzi on a daily basis. Fearing negative publicity, she wouldn't even dare to call the police. Ordinarily, wouldn't you call her life one of endless "forbearance and swallowing insults"?

How could Xia Qianyi not be happy today, seeing this group of paparazzi get completely humiliated?

Turning her head to glance at Gu Yin, Xia Qianyi thought to herself that spending those thirty thousand yuan was worth it—so damn worth it!

"Screech..."

The sound of tires frictioning against the pavement rang out once more. Gu Yin stepped hard on the gas pedal. Before the two paparazzi could even recover their wits after having their eyes blinded, he drove right past them in a "brushing shoulders" close pass!

Facing each other, he headed off in the opposite direction.

As he passed them, he even rolled down the window and shot them a mocking, contemptuous smile!

"U-turn! Quick, make a U-turn!" the chubby man in the car panicked, frantically slapping the hat-wearing man beside him.

"How the hell is it that easy to make a U-turn here?! Do you think I'm him, that I can drift?!" The hat-wearing man cursed furiously. This narrow lane was cramped to begin with, and there were far too many cars parked on both emergency shoulders. A normal U-turn definitely couldn't be completed in one go; no matter what, he would have to brake and reverse...

"Oh, come on... they're already far away!" Looking back and watching Gu Yin's taillights disappear around the corner, the chubby man felt his heart turn half-cold.

Damn it, two professional paparazzi got shaken off by a driving school instructor. If word got out, they would lose all face!

...

Driving out of the old district, seemingly to give Xia Qianyi a moment to recover, Gu Yin slowed down his vehicle, cruising leisurely and steadily along the elevated highway.

"They didn't chase after us, did they?" The young girl poked her fluffy little head out and looked backward through the side-view mirror from the passenger seat.

"Relax, they can't keep up," Gu Yin said with a reassuring smile, confident enough not even to glance in the rearview mirror.

"Phew..." Xia Qianyi finally let out a sigh of relief, raising a delicate hand wrapped in a black knitted sweater to press against her temple. Massaging the area, she muttered complaints, "I feel like my head is about to explode. You really scared me to death just now."

"Haha, was it really that dramatic?" Gu Yin freed his left hand from the steering wheel and pressed a button, lowering the passenger side window slightly for Xia Qianyi.

At around ten-thirty, the temperature was below ten degrees Celsius, and a chilly breeze whistled in through the gap in the window glass, stirring a few strands of Xia Qianyi's hair.

Her dark, glossy hair had somehow gotten tangled into strands. The engine's temperature had risen earlier due to Gu Yin's speeding, causing the car's heater to run a bit too high, and Gu Yin had assumed Xia Qianyi was just hot. But the moment he turned his head...

"Ugh..." She was about to vomit!

"Hey, hey, hey!" Gu Yin panicked instantly. "Throw up in the car and it's five hundred yuan!"

The female celebrity rolled her eyes so hard they almost reached the back of her head. "I paid you thirty thousand yuan for paparazzi evasion, plus ten thousand yuan for the pickup and drop-off service. You're still going to charge me money if I throw up in your car? Are your eyes made of money or something?"

"Money is hard to earn and shit is hard to eat. Do you think everyone makes money as easily as you stars?" Gu Yin retorted.

"You!" Xia Qianyi gritted her teeth...

Despite her anger, she truly had no choice but to look at Gu Yin in a new light. Muttering under her breath, she said, "I really didn't expect your driving skills to be half-decent..."

"Huh? What did you say?" Gu Yin cupped his hand around his ear. "Speak up a bit, I didn't catch that."

Xia Qianyi: "(￢_￢) glare"

"Haha, looking is fine, but don't even think about learning it," Gu Yin said. Xia Qianyi initially thought he was going to tell her that this kind of stunt driving was unsafe, but the next second, this guy immediately launched a personal attack: "With your reflexes and your brain, you'll be doing well if you can figure out the clutch and accelerator coordination in this lifetime."

"If you say another word, I really am going to pinch you." Xia Qianyi was so furious her cheeks puffed out. There genuinely weren't many people in this world who could make her this angry.

"...You've already pinched me." Gu Yin winced, swatting away her hand. "Can you not just pinch a tiny patch of flesh? It hurts!"

"I meant to make it hurt!" Having succeeded, the female celebrity finally felt her mood ease up, and a smile returned to the corners of her mouth.

Tonight, terrifying as it had been, was actually quite thrilling. This was the first time since she entered the industry that she had ever put the paparazzi in their place, and if word of this got out, her peers would all be green with envy.

At the same time, this also left Xia Qianyi with even more lingering questions about Gu Yin...

"This isn't just a matter of driving skills, is it?" Her willow-leaf eyebrows arched upward as she asked Gu Yin, "What on earth is the reason you retired?"

Whenever this question was brought up, the smile that always lingered on Gu Yin's face would instantly freeze. While it wouldn't disappear entirely, it would grow awkward, bit by bit...

This guy knew how to deflect and turn the tables. He asked instead, "Then why did you quit the entertainment industry?"

"I..." Xia Qianyi was momentarily at a loss for words. "I'm the one asking you, not the other way around. Can you stop changing the subject?"

"Well, you tell me first, and then I'll tell you," Gu Yin said with an utterly stubborn attitude.

"You..." Xia Qianyi was grinding her teeth in exasperation.

A long while passed.

Just when Gu Yin assumed Xia Qianyi had finally given up on asking and was trying to think of another topic to pivot to...

The silent female celebrity suddenly spoke in an exceptionally strange tone:

"You'll find out soon enough."

"Huh?"

Gu Yin was stunned. He turned his head to look. In the dim cabin, the young girl's exquisite profile was always as breathtakingly beautiful as if she belonged to a completely different layer of reality than the scenery outside. Her bright, alluring eyes reflected the endlessly retreating landscape. Some things could be left in the past, but that didn't mean they had to simply be let go.

"What do you mean?" Gu Yin asked.

"Nothing."

Xia Qianyi shook her head and merely said, "I'm not going for driving practice tomorrow. I have things to do."

"What things?"

"Beating some dogs."