11 Chapter 11

Scattered in the silence of the room, Renae sat on her bed with the excitement in every heartbeat, the nerves pricking in her hands and the urge to finally see her face to face was in every breath.

The three with eleven minutes that marked the clock ceased to be important, in his head only hovered the nervous thought of tomorrow, unable to sleep again, he got up from bed put on a black sweater and walked to the living room.

He sat in front of the desktop computer he had bought a few months ago, turned it on and started writing.

On days when it was impossible to go back to sleep, instead of staying in bed, he would write anything down, just to stay calm and distract from the possible nightmares that would surround his dreams when he would finally be able to sleep.

…..

Ji Syaoran woke up in a good mood the next day, the smile with which he greeted the morning did not disappear in the course of the day, only in small moments when he had to keep his seriousness, yet his eyes reflected that joy.

Practices of the day were normal, perhaps with a little more enthusiasm on his part, now that he knew who the girl was in his dreams, ji syaoran wanted to make a good impression on his upcoming motocross events.

So he had to try three times as hard as he normally did. The exhibition event was in a few days, almost immediately Harper's bazaar charity gala would take place, only about two days apart from each event.

After that he would have no such engagement other than the interview for Harper's in a month, so he could devote enough time to his practice and rehearsal careers.

This year he wanted to win at all costs the motocross championship and then prepare for the x-games, after that he would have a few months off to be with his family, he would also take advantage of that time to practice skateboard tricks that just hour had quite abandoned, but it was one of the sports he liked the most.

And if everything went well, he could use those months to get to know his dream partner better.

The expectation had him in the clouds, he was looking forward to being able to be face to face with the person who visited him in dreams.

…..

The day of the event came, ji syaoran was preparing behind the scenes, sitting in the chair arranged for him, while having a casual conversation with his mentor wang tian and fellow nai sheng.

The event was outdoors, so the runners were sheltered under a tent. The audience was on the other side, right in front of the stage where he would do a small demonstration of the models of motorcycles, then invite the riders to the stage to talk a little about their craft and the risks of it.

After all the talks, they would proceed to the exhibition race, then some of their freestyle peers would give a small demonstration.

Although he was a professional motocross rider, he would also have a small space inside the freestyle demonstration, obviously not doing any such dangerous stunt as he was just beginning to practice tricks and high jumps.

He still had a lot to learn, so doing or trying some more advanced trick like 'kiss of death' would be quite irresponsible on his part.

Probably events of this kind were the ones he liked to do the most, talking about motocross was definitely a simple thing for him and the satisfaction he felt whenever he saw someone in the audience become so interested in this sport was a bonus.

The event started at about 12 o 'clock on the current day, people gathered behind the metal berries that had been placed for the safety of the attendees as well as for the runners.

The main mechanic of the yamaha team, Shinkai Yusei, took the stage together with the presenter of the event and the director of the company's largest store in Yamaha. So the three men started showing the motorcycles that were on a right-hand side platform, while the presenter asked questions and gave a brief description of each of the six motorcycles that were on the platform.

Between the director and Yusei they gave details about their new collection of motorcycles, for them every little detail was something important as insignificant as it seemed. The runners watched attentively the people on the stage, showing great interest in every single thing being said through the microphones and some slides on the back screen.

Ji Syaoran and nai sheng, were getting more and more excited, the new yamaha motorcycles were specially made for motocross, and even though they were provided days before the event to be used in their practice, it was interesting to get to know the team more thoroughly.

Wang Tian, I tell everyone that they will take their positions, twenty minutes after the start of the event. Nai Sheng, Mei Tai, Wang Kai, Yu QingHeninghen and Ji Syaoran were the runners who would take the stage, give a talk about motocross, and then answer questions from fans and enthusiasts of the extreme sport.

Wang Tian arranged for them to line up on the stage according to their names. The presenter made a short announcement and went on to mention each of the invited runners.

Ji Syaoran was the last to climb, as he was the main star of the event as the most recent motocross champion. The people in the place clapped and shouted as in a concert of some famous idol, while syaoran and her companions waved with their hands raised in the air.

Afterwards the event's driver asked some questions about professional racing as well as everyone's point of view on illegal motorcycle racing taking place in several countries as well as in China.

They later did some dynamics to entertain the attendees, and finally answered fans' frequently asked questions. Ji Syaoran replied calmly, unable to hide the emotion this caused him. Some fans asked about the initial fears of his career, others preferred to move on to more personal questions and outside of his work, while others preferred to ask about his future in motocross.

Ji Syaoran, actually had no problem with personal questions, although he will find them out of place, if any of his fans had any doubts about his private aspect, he would answer as briefly as possible and move on to the next question. Unlike when asked a question about his work as a runner, in that case, his answers could be more extensive.

One of the questions she answered and liked the most because of the things it involved was: do you still get nervous at the start of a competition? Or when you made your debut, were you afraid?

Being true to himself, Ji Syaoran knew that the answer was a resounding no, perhaps in his debut and early RACES the nerves and fear were his only companions, but once he was completely used to, that feeling disappeared without a trace. Fear and nerves were only part of its beginnings but did not prosper much later.

Now, Ji Syaoran didn't feel that way, he was confident in what he was doing and that whether he failed or not, he could get up and try again. In the present Ji Syaoran, he was safe and although this sport was dangerous, he could say with certainty that he had enough experience to continue, however young he was.

…..

The question and answer time is over, leading to the exhibition race. Ji Syaoran placed himself in the assigned place, secured his gloves, his helmet and put himself in position to begin. Nai Sheng said a few things before they gave the signal to start, words that made the previous world champion laugh.

With a funny puff, the show began.

The motorcycles began their march, the noise of the engines, the people in the audience, and the speed itself filled the place, overflowing with emotion. The adrenaline rush in every lap on the uneven terrain, was something almost magical, a unique sensation that only those who love this sport would understand.

Nai Sheng took the lead in the first round, as it was a friendly run no matter who won first place. Ji Syaoran stood a few feet behind Sheng, smiling under his helmet, because of Nai Sheng's childlike frown on him as he passed him and led the way.

Ji Syaoran and nai sheng were friends since they met at the debut of the younger of the two, the veteran of the sport, he identified with the young runner, reminded him a lot of how he was as a young man, Ji Syaoran was stubborn, he didn't give up easy and if he erred in something, he tried it as many times as necessary until he got it, without losing the good humor and the smile of his face.

Although, of course, that didn't mean he was never angry, he was just less likely to get angry and take revenge on others.

Quite the opposite to nai sheng, who was a little more angry, and there were times when he even ignored everyone around him, to avoid offending someone or directing his bad mood towards someone who was just passing by. In almost everything else they were quite alike, so they could understand each other and make jokes that only they understood.

The veteran was also his 'mentor' for a few months, he helped Ji Syaoran in various aspects of racing, taught him some tricks about motorcycles, among several other useful and useless things about motocross. Nai Sheng was an older brother to Syaoran, and Syaoran was a younger brother to him.

The second lap was more complicated, some of the rookies of the event fell in the middle of the second round, complicating the pace of the other participants. The mounds of earth that came out above were especially difficult for those who could not keep their nerves in check, because in the end they ended up betraying their mind and losing concentration as well as control of the motorcycle, falling disastrously on the ground.

Ji Syaoran briefly observed the fall of one of the rookies, fortunately he was far enough away from some other runner to cause some spectacular accident. The race continued without any serious mishaps other than the accidental falls on the ground and the inexperience of the rookies, yet it was pleasant.

The third lap started with the fall of wang kai, accelerated a little too much right on the curve, which subsequently allowed the fall of the bike, saw the incident out of the corner of his eye, before returning to concentrate on the road. Nai Sheng continued to lead the laps, in these last practices the veteran had greatly improved his times, so much so that he had been able to break his personal record by being the first place in his group in the practices that week.

Although obviously Ji syaoran had also surpassed his personal time mark, leading the group that had been assigned to him in his daily practices.

The race was about to end, the fourth round would be the last, and it was in it that ji syaoran managed to take the lead and pass nai sheng. Previously he had not been able to go through the inconveniences with rookies, guessing that maybe he is too distracted watching the falls he concentrated on the way or maybe nai sheng was getting better every day.

Crossing the finish line followed by Nai Sheng and Wang Kai, Ji Syaoran stopped in front of the crowd to thank the fans and then walked over to the area where they would perform the freestyle motocross show. There were already some of the experts and also some novices like him. Excited but with nerves blooming at every minute, they waited their turn to show what they had learned so diligently over these weeks.

Ji Syaoran was calm; Richard had explained to him that the key to doing freestyle's tricks was to stay calm, concentrate and take every minute at once. Deep breathing a few times before starting, and that was all.

So before starting he followed step by step, each of Richard's tips to be able to do the 'double backflip ', he just hoped the event would not be seen by his mom or he would be scared to death and then call at midnight to scold him.