Chapter 158: A Half-Successful Drift

Whether due to drowsiness or sheer carelessness, the driver of the black Passat failed completely to notice the speeding white BMW. Ignoring the red light straight ahead, the vehicle bolted directly into the intersection.

At this sight, Lin Yu felt a jolt of alarm as a massive surge of adrenaline flooded his system. With less than twenty meters separating them and traveling at a speed nearing two hundred kilometers per hour, a violent collision against the side of the other vehicle seemed all but certain.

In that fraction of a second, he found himself trapped in an awkward predicament: a Passat blocking his path horizontally in front, and a Mercedes-Benz tailing him aggressively from behind.

He had already pushed the white BMW to its maximum speed. Unlike a few days prior when he drove a Ferrari, he could not suddenly accelerate to shake off the danger. Furthermore, with the Mercedes closing in at breakneck speed, hitting the brakes to slow down was out of the question; doing so would guarantee a rear-end collision.

"What should I do?"

In this moment of crisis, the time left for Lin Yu to think was barely the blink of an eye—fleeting in the extreme. Within the span of a thought or two, if he failed to devise a solution, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Drifting!

At the most perilous juncture, the word that set many a young heart ablaze flashed through his mind.

Yes! If he could successfully execute a drift, he could rapidly alter his direction while decelerating. Handled well, it might entirely avert tragedy.

Driven by necessity, Lin Yu—who had no prior experience with drifting—had no choice but to consult his internal search system for the essential techniques of drifting.

The moment he entered the keyword "drifting" into his mental search system, lines of text immediately surged into his mind.

Drifting refers to a series of maneuvers where a large angle is created between the pointing direction of the front wheels and the actual direction of the vehicle's movement, causing the car body to slide sideways through a corner. Its purpose is to counteract understeer when cornering. However, on standard asphalt roads, tire grip is minimal, making this maneuver extremely difficult to execute.

As this text swept across his mind, Lin Yu felt a chill in his chest. If it was extremely difficult to accomplish on asphalt, didn't that mean he and his passengers were in grave danger?

"Screw it, I have to try even if it's dangerous."

Recalling Sean, the protagonist of *The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift*, Lin Yu quickly familiarized himself with the core principles of drifting and immediately embarked on a bold attempt.

The fundamental condition that produces a drift boils down to one thing: the rear wheels lose most or all of their traction, while the front wheels retain the vast majority of theirs. At this point, as long as the front wheels exert a certain lateral force, the car will fishtail—thus creating a drift.

The only favorable factor in his favor was that the higher the speed, the easier it was to initiate a drift. Although the white BMW's speed of nearly two hundred kilometers per hour could not rival an F1 car, compared to ordinary private vehicles, it was nothing short of defying the heavens.

Lin Yu had no time to digest the professional descriptions in detail. He simply selected one of the easier drifting methods from the manual: while driving in a straight line, slam on the brakes and sharply turn the steering wheel.

Everything hangs in the balance!

The moment Lin Yu slammed on the brakes, both Yang Zhilin and Xiao Qiangwei let out soft gasps of terror. Facing the sudden crisis, they were unmistakably terrified.

As for the white BMW, owing to its modifications, it was surprisingly well-suited for executing a drift.

Once Lin Yu completed the combined action of braking and steering, the pristine white body of the car—illuminated by the streetlights—actually swung sideways. However, because the asphalt lacked sufficient traction, the vehicle slid sideways across the pavement.

Amidst the ear-piercing screech of tires grinding violently against the asphalt, Lin Yu watched with astonishment as the Passat beside him suddenly accelerated.

With Lin Yu's vehicle decelerating and the Passat accelerating in tandem, the two cars managed to brush past each other just as a collision seemed inevitable.

Having narrowly escaped his first brush with death, Lin Yu had no time to catch his breath before realizing that the black Mercedes behind him was about to crash into him.

In this perilous moment, his right foot shifted instantly from the brake to the accelerator pedal, pressing it down hard. He gambled that the superior performance of the modified car would propel the BMW rapidly forward, thereby evading the black Mercedes bearing down from behind.

Meanwhile, the driver of the black Mercedes had clearly observed everything unfolding ahead. The moment the white BMW had skidded out sideways, the Mercedes driver had already slammed on the brakes. Yet due to excessive momentum, the Mercedes maintained a speed of roughly seventy or eighty kilometers per hour.

Amidst the panicked cries of everyone inside the car, the Mercedes driver realized with despair that their fate now rested entirely in the hands of the BMW driver. If the other vehicle successfully bolted forward, everyone would be safe; if it continued to spin out, a catastrophic collision driven by the speed differential would be unavoidable.

Subconsciously glancing at the decelerating Mercedes and then back at his own skidding chassis, Lin Yu sensed impending doom. Remaining passive would likely result in a fatal wreck where everyone perished.

Yet the traction on the asphalt road was clearly insufficient. After Lin Yu braked, the white BMW refused to move forward along the direction of its nose, continuing instead to slide sideways.

In that instant, Lin Yu had to rely entirely on himself. At the most critical juncture, instead of seeking help from the search system in his mind, he gritted his teeth and pulled the handbrake, locking the rear wheels momentarily.

Having completed this motion, he immediately released the handbrake, shifted gears, and stepped on the gas.

Following this frantic maneuver, the white shadow genuinely surged forward into the night, veering off in a completely different direction just as the black Mercedes was about to ram into it.

Having survived back-to-back near-death experiences, Lin Yu finally let out a long breath. By this point, his back was entirely soaked with sweat, testifying to the immense psychological pressure he had just endured.

The hearts of Yang Zhilin and Xiao Qiangwei, whose faces were pale with terror, pounded wildly before slowly settling back into place as the crisis temporarily receded.

In truth, they were not the only ones feeling a sense of reprieve. Inside the black Mercedes, four or five men in black also let out massive sighs of relief after the two vehicles brushed past one another.

The only one entirely unaffected was Qi Ye, who remained fast asleep in sweet slumber. Enjoying her sleep to the utmost, she had no inkling that several people had just skirted the gates of hell.

The black Mercedes did not immediately give chase, but Lin Yu did not take the opportunity to flee at high speed either. Instead, he swung the car around and drove back toward the Mercedes.

Since this route led toward the coast, his objective was to capture these four or five men in black and extract information regarding Liang Tian. If possible, he intended to hand these individuals over to Hu Rong强 (Hu Rongqiang) to serve as state's evidence, helping to implicate the thoroughly corrupt Liang Tian.

When the men in the Mercedes first saw the white BMW turning back toward them, they were quite taken aback. Yet a few seconds later, they watched as the white shadow flashed past—they had been overtaken.

Having been tasked with recapturing Xiao Qiangwei and her friend, the men in black were hardly willing to let the matter drop. At the command of their leader, the driver accelerated once more, taking up the pursuit.

Another chase commenced, but this contest between the BMW and the Mercedes did not last long.

Because the coastline had been reached. Under the cover of night, Lin Yu drove the BMW directly onto the sandy beach, with the black Mercedes tailing close behind.

No sooner had the Mercedes come to a halt than the four or five men in black scrambled impatiently out of the vehicle. One of them swept a flashlight beam across the BMW, which was partially concealed in the nocturnal shadows.

He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Get out of the car! You can't run anymore."