Becoming a life winner from infancy

In this world, the soapbox derby design competition is a long-standing children's entertainment event, where participants decorate their cars in various bizarre styles and slide down a slope without any motor power to finish the race. It got its name because the early designs of the cars were made on wooden soap boxes.

There are several important rules for the soapbox derby design competition: first, motors are not allowed; soapbox cars must have at least four wheels; there must be some braking functionality; helmets are mandatory when driving the soapbox car; participants are allowed to give their car a push at the top for extra speed.

Of course, other rules are slightly adjusted in different competitions, but overall they are built on these basic rules.

Among these, the Green Bull Cup is the most widely known cup competition in all of Hua Country and even the world.

It's worth mentioning that Green Bull, as a functional beverage and food manufacturer, sponsors many strange competitions. In addition to the soapbox derby, they organize no-protection cliff diving contests, wingsuit flying competitions where participants dress like flying squirrels, stunt flying contests with planes, and extreme walking marathons across the Death Desert.

That's right, as sharp-eyed buddies may have noticed, these events have one thing in common—they provide the money, you risk your life.

Compared to those, the soapbox derby is practically the epitome of safety, since it's just like riding a skateboard down a moderately sloped hill. So one's fate is firmly in one's own hands. That's why there have always been many elementary and middle school students participating.

After watching the Green Bull Cup soapbox derby, Fang You quickly understood Xia Nuo's intention:

"So... you just want to play for fun, right?"

"Just tell me if it can count as a competition score!"

Xia Nuo pouted and tilted her head, her eyes sparkling with laughter as she watched Fang You, "And designing our own war chariot is so cool, don't you think? We can start building our own racing cars now, and what we might build in the future, I can hardly even imagine! Can you imagine it, You You?"

Xia Nuo's eyebrows fluttered enticingly, winking non-stop while doing so.

Stop kidding... You're talking about building rockets, aren't you!

However, Xia Nuo's words did indeed remind Fang You.

Creating, huh...

Designing racing cars does represent "creating knowledge."

Years ago, Fang You had already mentioned that "creating knowledge" could supply a vast amount of knowledge energy.

Looking at it this way, the racing competition indeed seemed like a great opportunity.

Fang You took the poster from Xia Nuo's hand, adopting a serious attitude:

"Then, let's study the rules and regulations more closely..."

"Yay! I knew You You loved me the most!"

Xia Nuo hugged Fang You tightly and then turned to ask Luo Xianyu:

"Ayu Ayu, come and join us too!"

"Sure, I'd like to..."

Luo Xianyu leaned on her hand, showing a somewhat troubled expression, "but I don't really know what I could do?"

"Ayu, you draw so well, you can help us design the car's exterior, and then, since the maximum number of drivers can be two, it'll naturally be me and You You driving—"

The extremely proactive Xia Nuo was already brainstorming ideas as she spoke.

The first step, after deciding to participate, was to design the car in the secret base playground.

Then Fang You began to gather information about past soapbox derbies to understand the main rules of the racing car design evaluation.

The soapbox derby competition scores from four aspects:

Speed Score — which is the time taken to reach the finish line; note that if the vehicle is damaged en route, it is immediately disqualified.

Skill Score — the level of driving technique exhibited by the operator during the race;

Style Score — judges score the performance before the race and the overall design of the car;

Popularity Score — online audiences score the overall performance of the contestants and cars during the race.

"But what's this pre-race performance for the Style Score, You You?"

"It seems like before the start, we need to perform a show to tell the story behind our race car."

Fang You thought for a moment, "It's sort of like a brief 30-second opening show."

"I can't do this!" Luo Xianyu waved his hands, "It's too embarrassing. I can cheer for you guys, but I won't do such a shameful act."

"Besides the performance, we also need someone to give us a push from behind, but Ayu is too weak, obviously not suitable for this task."

Fang You and Xia Nuo looked at each other as the same person came to their minds simultaneously:

"It sounds like only Uncle Fang can complete the task."

"That's true, but—"

My dad has changed a lot compared to before.

Since he set his goal to become an outstanding father, Fang Guanghui became proactive and ambitious at work, abandoning his previous laid-back attitude.

After two and a half years of effort, Fang Guanghui finally managed to beat several juniors with much less seniority, securing a promotion to a section-level position, taking the first step towards something very impressive.

However, despite rejuvenating his career with a second wind, the price was busier workdays, with his laid-back days gone forever.

In recent years, the time Fang Guanghui spent with his son had dwindled, even limiting Paru to one hour of playtime a week. Perhaps because of this, the smile on his father's face had visibly become rarer.

Fang You could see this, and although he felt sympathy for his father's situation, he believed these were necessary experiences on his father's path of growth. All Fang You could do was continuously encourage his father to keep striving:

"Things will get better when I'm in middle school."

With aspirations of his father's success, Fang You would always encourage Fang Guanghui to stand tall, "Once I get into Zhendan Academy, you can play however you want!"

Encouraged by Fang You's words, Fang Guanghui kept working hard.

Gradually, over the past six months, his work performance had improved by leaps and bounds, even beginning to enjoy his job, feeling more in his element.

So, when Fang You found his father, Fang Guanghui, hard at work in the study and told him about the soapbox derby design competition, Fang Guanghui showed an expression of regret and patted Fang You on the head.

"Ah, yes, but I have to go to the countryside to do some research recently, so I can't play with you on this."

"Just having your name attached is fine, dad, and it could buff your resume."

Fang You was thinking of tricking his father into joining first, and then Nuo Nuo could simply coax him into it.

"If we can win the Green Bull Cup prize money together, it could also prove your comprehensive abilities—"

"Hey, you little guy... your dad is an official now. We officials should set an example, do real work for the people, serve as their stewards. How can we prove our excellence by boosting our resume?"

Fang Guanghui refused Fang You righteously. And while Fang You wanted to say more, Fang Guanghui already showed signs of impatience, expressing distaste before Fang You could even finish talking.

"Go on, go, don't distract dad from his work... go play with someone else."

Fang Guanghui chased Fang You out of the study!

...

So much for filial respect, am I right? When the sky is flipped upside down?

Being sent out by his father made Fang You feel an unprecedented sense of humiliation, but his emotions quickly stabilized.

It was understandable that his father, having finally found a direction for his efforts, wanted to immerse himself fully in it.

But this meant Fang You still had to find another powerful and like-minded companion.

If dad is not an option, then are there any other suitable companions around him—

Fang You fell into deep thought.