Chapter 1259 - 473: Daughter (2)
And that really did match Qin Miao’s own experience. Apart from ordering a round of barbecue at around three in the morning because he got hungry, he spent all the rest of the time buried in the game.
By the time he came back to his senses, the sky outside the window was already fully bright.
Stretching his slightly sore back, Qin Miao went to the hotel front desk to check out, then headed back to his own front door.
The main door was still locked, but even at the doorstep Qin Miao could already vaguely hear people talking inside.
He pressed the doorbell, thinking someone would come open the door, but a voice suddenly rang out at the entrance: "Sanshui? When did you get back?"
The voice came from the speaker under the doorbell. Obviously, someone inside heard the doorbell, didn’t rush to open the door, and instead checked the camera or something to see exactly who was outside.
The voice wasn’t unfamiliar to Qin Miao either; it was Qimeng’s dad.
Before Qin Miao could say anything, the door just opened.
But before going in, Qin Miao hurriedly said at the entrance, "Dad, don’t tell Qimeng I’m back yet, I want to give her a surprise."
The other side of the doorbell went silent for a moment, and just as Qin Miao thought his words hadn’t been heard, Qimeng was already sprinting out from the doorway in slippers.
Qin Miao froze for a second, then opened his arms to the Qimeng who was half-running, half-bouncing toward him.
...
As for the little family reunion and affection, there’s no need to go into tedious detail here. Suffice it to say Qin Miao clearly felt that same "want to stick together 24/7" vibe they had when they first got together.
After resting at home for a day, on the second day Qin Miao went to the hospital with Qimeng and the three elders for a prenatal checkup.
Besides making sure Qimeng’s current physical state was all good, they were also curious whether the baby in her belly was a boy or a girl.
After the checkup, the two of them naturally tried to ask the doctor, in a roundabout way, about the baby’s gender.
Hearing Qin Miao’s question, the doctor who was writing the form flicked the pen in his hand a couple of times, like it was running out of ink.
Then he casually took a pink-shell pen from a pen holder that only held two pens, and continued writing.
The other pen that wasn’t taken out was blue.
As an F1 driver, Qin Miao’s biggest edge is that his eyesight is way better than most people’s, and his powers of observation are naturally sharper.
So of course he caught the doctor’s little move, and he instantly did the math in his head—a girl.
He didn’t know why, but right now Qin Miao felt even happier inside.
A little cotton-padded jacket, that’s what this is.
What man doesn’t want a pretty, adorable daughter?
For the next two days, Qin Miao stayed home with Qimeng, basically spending his entire vacation back in China.
But Qin Miao was still in the middle of an F1 season after all; squeezing out almost four days between two race weekends was already the absolute limit of what he could manage.
Even though Qin Miao currently had a massive points advantage over Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, no advantage is big enough to tank like this forever.
So after two days at home, Qin Miao set off again on his world title campaign.
Next up, there were only two races left in the whole 2022 season.
Brazil Grand Prix and Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Not much needs to be said about the Brazilian Grand Prix—Senna’s homeland. Mention Interlagos and any fan who’s watched races for a few years will automatically think of Car God Senna.
The two have basically become an indelible mark on each other.
And this race weekend was another sprint weekend. At the same time, the Brazilian Grand Prix was also the last sprint weekend of the 2021 season.
Interlagos is also a high-altitude circuit, which is without a doubt a massive plus for the current aero efficiency of the Mercedes car.
Meanwhile, as the penultimate race of the season, if Qin Miao took the win here, he could clinch the 2022 world championship one race early.
He didn’t even have to win. As long as Qin Miao didn’t DNF today and finished the race itself in the top four, then even if he scored nothing at all in Saturday’s sprint in Brazil, he’d still secure the 2022 title defense early.
Given that forty-point gap to Verstappen is right there.
If anyone wanted the title fight to stay alive into the next race, then Verstappen would have to take both the sprint win and the main race win here.
And Qin Miao’s result on track would have to be fifth or lower.
Of course, rather than fifth, every Red Bull fan right now would much rather see Qin Miao blow his engine and DNF in both the sprint and the main race.
And in the final race in Azerbaijan, Qin Miao would be slapped with a five-place grid drop because he had to change to a fresh internal combustion engine.
Of course, that was just the ideal scenario.
This time going to Brazil, Qin Miao was traveling alone.
The three elders at home were ridiculously anxious about Qimeng right now. After this trip back, Qin Miao even obviously noticed that Qimeng had filled out quite a bit compared to before—she felt much softer in his arms too.
Gotta admit, hugging someone just a bit chubby is actually pretty comfy.
Safe to say the girl’s been eating well lately.
And thanks to the three elders being over-the-top nervous, Qimeng had basically been put under soft house arrest by them.
During the days Qin Miao was home, he wasn’t even allowed to sleep in the same room as her.
Qin Miao was pretty helpless about that.
But once the plane took off, all those everyday trivialities were gradually peeled away from his mind. Qin Miao returned to his usual race weekend calm.
Interlagos was no stranger to him; he’d raced there last season. The only pity was that he hadn’t taken the win there back then.
This season, of course he wanted to give it another shot. But considering his current position in the drivers’ standings, Qin Miao’s first priority was to lock down this year’s world championship. Only once he had a stable shot at finishing in the top five would he look to move up places or fight for a podium.
As for public safety, Brazil vs Mexico—let’s just say neither can claim total dominance, they both have their own special flair.
It’s South America, after all—Uncle Eagle’s back yard. Having inherited all of Britain’s bad habits and worse ethics, Uncle Eagle has taken his handling of neighboring countries and little bros from "terrible" to "even worse."
On one side you’ve got drug lords running rampant, banging the authorities till they’re crying for mommy.
On the other side you’ve got gangs perched on every hilltop; glare at them once and Rio jumps three times.
Calling the pot black is what it is.
But compared to Mexico, Qin Miao was actually a lot safer in Brazil, mainly thanks to his teammate Hamilton.
Hamilton was granted honorary Brazilian citizenship this June, so Brazil is basically his home race now.
With that "love me, love my dog" effect, Brazil kind of became half a home race for Qin Miao too. A bunch of local gangs even publicly announced before the event that there must be zero security incidents during the F1 weekend—no riots allowed.
Honestly, compared to the government, sometimes Qin Miao felt like it was the Brazilian gangs who actually got things done.
During the pandemic, the Brazilian government basically went AWOL, and it was the gangs that were enforcing order.
Kinda surreal when you think about it.
Very soon race week arrived, and Qin Miao settled into a local hotel in Brazil and started his recovery training.
On one hand he needed to maintain his fitness, and on the other he had to grind the track details, making sure that through qualifying and the race he wouldn’t make a single mistake on track.
For Qin Miao, this kind of work was naturally very easy, with no mental burden at all. He was even genuinely enjoying himself.