42: Chapter 42 The Screwdriver That Was "Slipped Away"

The afternoon in the Old neighborhood always carried a lazy heat.

In front of Brother Li's bicycle stall, Chen Jie was squatting on the ground, dismantling the pedal of an old-fashioned bike.

When the wrench turned the rusted-shut screw, a familiar tingling sensation suddenly traveled to the web between his thumb and index finger—this was a sign that his spiritual energy was about to emerge.

He glanced to the side; Zhao Kai was leaning against a phoenix tree, gnawing on a popsicle.

The plastic wrapper was torn crookedly, and sugary water was dripping down his fingers onto his army-green shorts.

"I'm telling you, why are you fixing this piece of junk?" Zhao Kai threw his popsicle stick into a pile of steel bars with an impatient face.

"Uncle Wang's scrap truck will be here next week. We can just sell it then and get two catties of braised food!"

Chen Jie, however, seemed to have not heard Zhao Kai at all.

He just stood there quietly, his fingertips gently stroking the handle of the wrench, as if it were a precious treasure.

In his backpack, that jade stone was emitting a faint glow, as if he were carrying a small sun.

A continuous stream of warmth seeped through the canvas, drilling straight into his bones.

Chen Jie suddenly remembered how the mysterious green light had traveled along the data cable when he helped Su Rui fix the scanner yesterday, and his heart stirred.

He deliberately pushed the screwdriver deeper into the toolbox, then, without lifting his head, said, "Hand me a Phillips screwdriver."

Zhao Kai grunted and unwillingly shuffled over, rummaging through the toolbox for a long time, muttering, "Where is it? Your broken box is even messier than Wang Lei's braised food cabinet!"

Chen Jie's attention was fully focused on the screw of the pedal, and he secretly mobilized the spiritual energy within his body.

Suddenly, deep inside the toolbox, the Phillips screwdriver wrapped in tape seemed to be supported by something, and it began to vibrate slightly.

Immediately after, it floated up shakily, as if it had broken free from the shackles of gravity.

It passed over Zhao Kai's elbow and, with a "pop," landed steadily in Chen Jie's palm.

"Holy crap!" Zhao Kai's popsicle almost fell to the ground.

"That's weird! Did this knife fly over by itself?"

Chen Jie slowly inserted the screwdriver into the screw slot and then deliberately twisted it hard, making a "creaking" sound.

While twisting, he said nonchalantly, "Oops, my hand slipped, and I accidentally threw it over. You must have misread it."

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Zhao Kai squatting next to the toolbox, constantly rummaging for something; it looked like he was searching for a magnet.

Chen Jie chuckled inwardly.

He had already used this trick when he fixed the radio last time, and when Grandma Zhang asked about it, he had brushed it off in the same way.

Sunlight spilled down through the gaps in the phoenix tree leaves, landing right on the screwdriver.

The metal surface reflected a very faint light, as if telling its story.

Chen Jie's thoughts were suddenly pulled back to Suiyu Slope, and he remembered the scene where the jade stone made the pebbles in the stream roll to his feet by themselves.

At that time, he thought it was the effect of the water current, but now that he thought about it, that was the simplest form of object manipulation!

Just like adjusting a bicycle chain, you have to find the right tension.

The use of this spiritual energy was the same; you had to grasp the right measure.

If you used too much force, I'm afraid this screwdriver could be thrown up to the roof; but if the force was too small, it probably wouldn't even come out of the toolbox.

"Jie-zi, look!" Zhao Kai suddenly ran over holding a magnet.

"Is this thing causing trouble?"

Chen Jie had just finished dismantling the pedal and was throwing the screws into the parts box.

Hearing this, he handed the screwdriver to Zhao Kai.

The magnet "clicked" onto it, which actually startled Zhao Kai.

"See, it's just a regular piece of iron."

He snapped the parts box into the toolbox.

"My hand speed was just a bit fast; just consider it practiced from making pancakes."

This wasn't exactly a lie.

When he was a child, he helped Auntie Liu watch the pancake stall, and he could flip the bamboo dragonfly better than anyone; the neighbors all joked that he had eyes on his wrists.

Now, the feeling of controlling spiritual energy was exactly the same as playing with the bamboo dragonfly back then—a light turn of the wrist, the force following his will, without needing to waste brainpower calculating angles, relying entirely on muscle memory.

Zhao Kai was still pondering the magnet, while Brother Li came out of the hallway carrying an old tire pump.

"Jie-zi, help me take a look at this thing. It leaks air after pumping the tire twice."

Chen Jie took the pump, pinched the rubber hose to feel it, and found a fine crack at the joint.

He glanced toward the toolbox, wanting to get some tape, but saw the roll of black electrical tape roll out of the toolbox by itself, crawling to his feet like a little snake.

"Hey, this tape..." Brother Li's words hadn't even finished before they were forced back by a look from Chen Jie.

Chen Jie quickly picked up the tape, his movements as fast as lightning, and in the blink of an eye, he had wrapped the tape.

He casually stuffed the pump into Brother Li's hand and said offhandedly, "My hand slipped and knocked it over."

When Chen Jie stood up, he seemed to accidentally step on the roll of tape.

However, all of this was seen by Zhao Kai, who was standing to the side.

Zhao Kai narrowed his eyes, staring fixedly at Chen Jie's wrist, as if he wanted to see through that layer of skin to the bones inside.

Under the sunlight, the thin callus on the web of Chen Jie's hand was faintly visible, as if it were a symbol hiding countless secrets.

In the evening, when Chen Jie and Brother Li were packing up their stall, Zhao Kai suddenly appeared from behind and tapped Chen Jie on the shoulder like a ghost.

Chen Jie was startled, but when he turned around and saw it was Zhao Kai, his heart settled slightly.

"Seriously, do you know how to do magic tricks?" Zhao Kai looked at Chen Jie with a suspicious face.

"Last time when you were fixing the fan, that screwdriver was like it had grown eyes, and it screwed the screw in by itself."

Chen Jie was stuffing tools into his backpack.

Hearing Zhao Kai say this, his hand suddenly stopped in mid-air.

His fingertips touched the cold jade stone in his backpack, and a chill spread through his whole body along his fingers.

Grandma Zhang's words suddenly flashed through his mind: "The stones of Suiyu Slope will move nests."

Chen Jie steadied himself, zipped up his backpack, and then flung it onto his shoulder like he was throwing away trash.

"Can magic tricks put food on the table?"

He said to Zhao Kai, sounding annoyed.

"Let's go, Wang Leis Braised Food Stall is having a discount today; if we go late, it'll be gone."

When the streetlights at the entrance of the alley lit up, Zhao Kai was still rambling about that flying screwdriver.

Chen Jie gnawed on a braised pig's trotter, listening to Brother Li bragging about how well the pump was fixed, and suddenly felt that this spiritual energy was just like life in the Old neighborhood; there was no need to be too serious about it, as long as you could get by.

Anyway, the neighbors only cared about whether things were fixed or not; who cared if the screwdriver was handed over, or "accidentally thrown" over?