After Zhou Tai'an returned to his bedroom, Oguri Cap silently lowered her head, staring at the hands her trainer had just held. Her fingers curled and then unfurled again.
"Trust my trainer, and trust the me that my trainer believes in?" she repeated the phrase over and over in her heart.
Brand New Shine, hiding behind the crack in the door, felt her cheeks burn. "What did Trainer just say to Oguri Cap?"
She hadn't heard clearly at all, only feeling a sense of crisis, as if she had become an outsider to the team.
"If I ask Oguri, I probably won't get a straight answer, but it's too embarrassing to ask Trainer directly..." Brand New Shine pursed her lips. "But if it all becomes reality..."
She found it hard to imagine how she would face Oguri Cap and her trainer then.
"No, no!" she shook her head like a rattle. "I have to find a chance to be proactive!"
Meanwhile, Zhou Tai'an had collapsed onto his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"I haven't been to the hot spring yet today," he grumbled to himself.
But there were no footsteps from outside, and he didn't feel right walking naked through the living room to enjoy the onsen. What if Oguri Cap or Brand New Shine came out of their bedroom? That would be extremely awkward.
Ever since that accident, he had been much more careful in this regard. He could get away with the cold shoulder treatment the first time, but if it happened again, it would be hard to explain.
But as he lay there quietly, the young man's eyes slowly closed, and he drifted off to sleep.
…
In today's dream world, Zhou Tai'an was scheduled to partner with Oguri Cap in an Open-class race at Nagoya.
Not only that, thanks to his miraculous performance of 7 wins in one day at Kasamatsu, he had also gained the support of other owners and trainers. Today, he was scheduled to ride in 5 races at Nagoya.
"The first, fourth, fifth, eighth, and Oguri Cap's eleventh," Zhou Tai'an scanned his race schedule and muttered to himself.
Apart from Oguri Cap, he had met the other four partners in the dream world over the past few days. Their skill could only be described as average—the stronger horses all had regular partners, so there was no way the current Zhou Tai'an could pick up any leftovers.
But because he had built up his confidence, his goal this time was still to win them all.
However, he was hit with a setback right from the start. The horse he rode in the first race, despite being the top favorite, was overturned.
It was overtaken by the second favorite by a head at the finish line.
After dismounting, he frowned, his face showing his displeasure.
Saginomi Masao noticed this and comforted his apprentice, "It's alright. Don't worry about losing on the top favorite. A lot of people only backed this horse because you were in the saddle."
"But that's exactly why I feel bad," Zhou Tai'an forced a tearful smile. "To let down the expectations of my supporters... I'm truly sorry."
He could now fully understand Oguri Cap's nervousness.
"You don't need to be like this," Saginomi Masao clapped him firmly on the shoulder. "The horse is seventy percent, the jockey thirty. No matter how hard you try, seventy percent still depends on the horse's quality. You're a jockey, not a savior."
"I understand," he replied sullenly, his head down.
Although he understood the logic, he still wanted to get revenge in the next race.
After the loss in the first race, he won all of the next three, leaving no chance for his colleagues.
"It's just that the horse in the first race was really too poor. Otherwise, Zhou Tai'an would have had another perfect day," the on-site commentator at Nagoya said.
This remark was met with approval from the audience.
And in the jockeys' room, to his surprise, he was not given the cold shoulder as he had been at Kasamatsu.
The jockeys from Nagoya all gathered around, asking him for riding tips.
No matter how long they had been jockeys, they had all clearly recognized today that this apprentice jockey from Kasamatsu possessed riding skills that surpassed even the local and Central standards.
Even if they couldn't grasp the essence of his technique in a few words, learning a new trick or two was still good.
He didn't hold back either. During his time in the dream world, he had discovered that his riding technique was inseparable from his powerful physique. Even if he taught them everything he knew, with their physical condition, the local jockeys wouldn't be able to use it.
So he was quite generous, and also managed to build good relationships with the Nagoya jockeys.
…
That being said, when it came to the main event of the day, the eleventh race, which was Oguri Cap's, his sunny smile disappeared, and he became serious again.
The previous races were for his own pride, but this race was for Oguri Cap's honor.
Although she had already achieved a six-race winning streak at Kasamatsu, this was her first time at Nagoya. Even with her regular partner, she was only the second favorite in this Open-class race, slightly behind the local "General."
But he didn't care about that at all.
He calmly guided her into the gate, got a smooth break, grabbed a good forward position, leisurely followed the leading opponent, came to the final straight, drifted wide, broke out, gave a single whip to signal her to accelerate, all in one smooth motion.
"The white meteor from Kasamatsu easily breaks out from the pack! Heading straight for the finish line! The combination of a genius and a genius can indeed overcome people's prejudices!" The commentator was clearly on their side, as evidenced by his words.
"An undefeated seven-race winning streak! Oguri Cap has reached the summer peak of Nagoya's 2-year-old division!" After crossing the finish line, he clearly heard the commentator's shout.
"A seven-race winning streak," he thought.
After arriving at the waiting area, he leaped from the saddle and landed lightly.
The usually dazed Oguri Cap suddenly turned her head and nuzzled the back of his.
Wincing in pain, he smiled and rubbed her nose.
The next moment, he heard the prompt from the Stat Viewer again—
After opening it, he was surprised to find that his Affinity with Oguri Cap had broken 200.
"201... so what is the upper limit of Affinity?" He was completely clueless now.
In addition, there was another matter that had been troubling him for two months—
"That 'Oni of the Forward' skill... how on earth do I teach it?"
These two perplexing issues, coming one after another, made his expression, which had just been victorious, turn serious again.
-------
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