Chapter 154: The Young Man Who Chases The Wind [Part 1]
Cillin looked at him. The young man before him was obviously only seventeen to eighteen years old, but he exuded a maturity that exceeded his age. It was slightly similar to the feeling of change of this city, but the good thing was that he did not sense any ill will from him.
“Yes, we are looking for a place to stay in. Do you have any recommendations?”
The young man looked at them and raised a gloved hand, sticking out one finger, “One hundred a day, GAL credits. If you agree, then I will take you to check out the room.
“Sure.” Cillin nodded. This price was still reasonable compared to the private housings at the city center.
The young man pointed at the faded, old cloth spread out as a seat – there was only the driver’s seat at the front – and said, “Come on up.”
This flying car looked worn-out, and when it flew it was… very thrilling as well. The shaking made them wish that they could shake out what little was left inside their stomach, and it felt as if the flying car would fall apart with the wind at any moment.
When they reached their destination, Tang Qiuqiu was carried out by Cillin. She was shaken by the car so badly that she became absent-minded, and for a short time she couldn’t even find her balance. Cillin’s condition wasn’t that serious though. On his shoulder, the disdain in the gray cat’s eyes as it watched the shabby car worsened. The ride had proven his point – this car was a pile of junk.
The place the young man mentioned was his own house. It was a small two story house built with rocks at the edge of Wind City Vento. Looking at the stones, it was probably built not too long ago within the past five years. There was a small courtyard. There were some old flying car parts piled up at the corner of the small courtyard and covered up with a cover, so as to prevent the wind from blowing them away.
After the car was parked at the courtyard, the young man walked over and pointed at the second floor of the house, “You guys can go in and take a look first. If there are no problems, then you may pay the rent and sign an agreement right away.”
Cillin nodded and walked to the second floor while carrying Tang Qiuqiu. There was only one flight of steps in the courtyard leading up the second floor. The gray cat had already jumped on the stairs and scuttled into the house.
The space inside the house wasn’t huge, but it had a distinct lay out of one room, one living hall and even one simplistic toilet. The bed inside the bedroom could be split into two smaller beds.
First, Cillin put Tang Qiuqiu on the bed so she could rest. The gray cat had already patrolled around its domain once and even took a dump in the simplistic toilet along the way. It crouched on top of the window sill and looked towards sandstorm at the distance, wearing the expression of the profound thinker.
Inside the courtyard, a woman with her head wrapped in a kerchief stood beside the young man. She was probably the young man’s mother. She was wiping the young man’s face with a moistened towel.
Seeing Cillin descending down the stairs, the young man asked, “How is it?”
“It’s passable.”
Hearing Cillin’s answer, joy leaked out of the woman’s eyes.
The young man passed the contract that had been drafted a long time ago to Cillin. After Cillin had given it a look and found no problems with it, both sides then signed the agreement.
Cillin paid five days of rent in advance right away. He would pay more if they needed to stay longer at this place. Besides that, the water bill was also billed separately by the volume used.
Night had already arrived. After Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu lay down and rested after they had eaten a simple meal. Tang Qiuqiu quickly fell asleep. Cillin finally got to experience the devil’s sound of Wind City people were talking about as he listened to the high and low pitched whistling sound of the wind.
Suddenly, the gray cat’s ears shook once, and it jumped up like a spring while its eyes shone with hidden gleam, “Cillin, something came out from inside the desert. I’m going out to hunt for a bit!”
“Go. Don’t cause too much commotion.”
“I know!” the gray cat impatiently jumped up to press the door lock before rushing outside.
When the door had closed automatically, Cillin opened his eyes and sighed once. This place was even worse than the polarisation on Planet Brown Earth. The difference between the luxury of the city center and the old fashion of the ghetto was literally day and night.
Although the sandstorm outside was pretty big, Cillin’s quality of sleep was pretty good tonight. However, Cillin had picked up a beating noise at midnight. It wasn’t too obvious when mixed within the chaotic sounds of the wind though.
The gray cat came back when it was almost daybreak. It looked satisfied, and it even brought back a snake about two meters long to enrich Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu’s diet.
“Oh right Cillin, I saw that guy at the sandstone area.” the gray cat lay sideways on the bed while licking its paws, saying, “It is still that same junk car he’s driving shaking all the way as it flies. He even purposely picked the places where there were plenty of rock ledges. He sure isn’t afraid of death alright.”
“He’s practicing his driving. He’s a flying car racer.”
Earlier, Cillin had already noticed that the young man’s arms and wrists were very strong. His constitution was very good as well. At the same time, the young man wasn’t as impatient as his peers. When he encountered Cillin he had examined him calmly, probably analysing if a person like Cillin would make a good renter.
Did you know? It was incredibly taxing to control the steering while driving at high speed under the effects of air pressure. This was especially true when turning a corner, since powerful arms were even more necessary when a racer attempted to maintain their flying car on course. Therefore, a pair of strong arms and wrists were necessary in a long distance race.
During a flying car race, the formidable lateral centrifugal force would cause the blood in a racer’s body to flow towards one side. However, a racer needed to have a calm mind to be able to face the next corner and potential dangers ahead during this moment. Furthermore, the difference of heart rate during the start of a race and in the middle of a race was pretty huge. Thus, a racer’s heart and lungs must be stronger than the average person.
That wasn’t all. Physical endurance was also important to a racer. In a race, even the shortest course of a race ran more than ten hours. However, the amount of body fat and water exhausted in a race that lasted over ten hours was more than ten kilograms. The racers must replenish their body water and attend to the surrounding dangers at the same time. Severe dehydration would cause the body to go into shock, and the moment a racer became absent-minded and made a mistake, it might just be a devastating outcome for the driver.
Besides that, although the cockpit had a temperature control instrument, it was inevitable that it would suffer from damage during the course of a race. If a temperature control instrument failed, the temperature inside the cockpit would rise up to twenty degrees higher than the body temperature. Therefore, an accident might happen if a racer did not have good tolerance and endurance. Therefore, a tough constitution was an insurance for a racer.
The gray cat had only paid attention to the worn out car and not the young man. It said disdainfully, “A flying car racer in that piece of junk?”
Cillin patted the gray cat’s head, “Go to sleep already. It’s almost daylight!”
For the first two days they arrived at Wind City, Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu did not venture too far away. They only traveled within Wind City Vento for a bit since the race in Wind City was still three days away. The races at other regions were too far, and Tang Qiuqiu did not want to venture too far. Plus, the races of different regions really weren’t that different from each other. They could decide later after watching the race in Wind City.
During the two days he stayed here, Cillin had gained a little bit of understanding about his landlord.
The young man was called Udoze Vento. Vento was his surname. Normally speaking, in GAL the big families who had compound surnames loved to put their surnames at the front as a show of respect to their families*. Therefore, on the flip side, there were plenty of people who would automatically categorise someone like Udoze into the ranks of common poeple just based on his name alone.
*Apparently I screwed up when I introduced Pride, Knight and Lung; it should be Andrea Lung, Feigler Knight and so on. For now we keep the arrangement as it is. The arrangement of Udoze Vento was correct, however.
In the Sector language of Sector F, ‘Udoze’ meant ‘chase’. It would appear that Udoze loved his own name a lot. He heard that Mrs. Vento once thought of getting him a new name, but was turned down by Udoze.
Mr. Vento had passed away when Udoze was still very young. It was a physical problem. Mr. Vento was prone to sickness since he was born, and so when he was sixteen years old, his parents had married him to Mrs. Vento, who was ten years older than him so that he could leave behind an offspring. Mrs. Vento was the woman he once met inside the courtyard.
However, after Mr. Vento had passed away, his brother chased out Mrs. Vento and Udoze, who was only two years old at the time. Thus, the orphan and his widowed mother lived at the edge of the city.
Oh right, one thing. The Vento Family had a larger flying car model shop at the center of Wind City Vento. Later on, the shop was purchased by outsiders and had its name changed. However, it was growing better and better right now, so the other members of the Vento Family all enjoyed a significant income. In comparison, Udoze and Mrs. Vento’s lives were much bleaker.
Udoze worked in the racing team of Wind City Vento. His income wasn’t much, but it was enough to maintain the mother and son’s life. Besides that, there was rent money as well. In the past, the house didn’t look like this and was basically made of sandy soil completely. It was after Udoze had earned some money in the car team that he rebuilt it as a stone house after flattening the former sandy soil house.
Since Udoze spent the majority of his time constantly on the move, he worried about leaving his mother alone in the house if he rented out the house. After all, not all renters who came here were easy to get along with. Therefore, Udoze would seek out his renters personally every time. He would seek out those who were reputable and looked like they could get along well. If he couldn’t find a suitable renter, then he would rather not rent out at all.
