Early the next morning, Han Chi went back into the room at the very back of the workshop.
All sorts of implements stood in several rows, things that hadn't sold over the years. He reached out to feel one, then picked up another, unable to make up his mind for the moment.
Young Master Lu had said to film something special.
There really weren't many ordinary things here.
But when he recalled something else said in class last night, his gaze fell on an axle leaning by the door.
Depending on whose hands a thing ended up in and how it was used, other people might never have seen some of the skills he had grown used to seeing.
Han Chi thought for a while, tucked his phone into his clothes, and went out.
A freight company outside the city was sending out a load of bananas today. He had repaired one of its cargo bikes a couple of days ago and still hadn't brought the old parts he'd replaced back to the workshop.
A good chance to go take a look.
The so-called cargo bike wasn't a carriage with a cargo compartment.
It had two wheels, one in front and one behind, with a slender frame connecting them. Beneath the handlebars was a fork for steering, while the pedals drove the rear wheel through a belt. The freight company had brought this unusual kind of pedal bicycle from the south. Han Chi had repaired it several times and had long since learned where it tended to wear out.
But when it came to riding it steadily, he might not know as much as they did.
Before he reached the loading area, Han Chi spotted an enormous pile of green bananas.
Whole bunches of bananas, long stalks still attached, were bound tightly to the rear rack with ropes wound around them in layer after layer. The top of the load rose well above the saddle, and both sides extended far beyond the rear wheel.
Han Chi walked around to the side before he could make out the red saddle between the bananas.
Two thin black crossbars showed beneath the load. Compared with the huge pile of cargo behind them, they looked as though they'd been put there on a whim.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
The bike hadn't looked like this when he repaired it.
"Lu Zhuo, did you load an entire banana grove onto that thing?"
The freight worker checking the ropes looked up, showing a row of white teeth.
"This load has to be delivered."
Lu Zhuo had little Soul Power and earned his living through physical labor. Han Chi knew him. Years of working for the freight company had left his palms rough, but he rarely liked to talk about how hard he worked.
Han Chi looked down at the front wheel, then at the pile of cargo, and suddenly pulled out his phone.
"Go about your business. I'll film a bit."
"Film what?"
"This."
Lu Zhuo followed his gaze and took a look. He clearly didn't understand what was worth filming about a bike full of bananas.
Han Chi had already shifted half a step to get both wheels and the cargo above them into the frame.
Standing directly in front of it just now, he'd nearly filmed nothing but bananas and missed the bike altogether.
At the Heaven Dou Royal Academy, Yu Feng took out his phone as soon as he finished training.
The ball dance he'd posted a few days ago had picked up a few more comments.
Some people asked what he'd been doing in the last few moves. Others said they didn't understand it, but had still tapped the red heart for him. After reading them, Yu Feng was in a very good mood and casually swiped to the next video.
The screen was full of green bananas.
Yu Feng stared for a moment.
"A fruit seller?"
He was about to swipe up when the camera shifted slightly, revealing two wheels underneath.
One in front, one behind.
Most of the red saddle in between was blocked by cargo crammed in front of and behind it. No matter how he looked at it, there didn't seem to be room for anyone to sit.
Yu Feng's finger stopped at once.
"There's a bike under all that?"
Osler heard him, leaned over to take a look, and stayed.
As the video continued, a paved road stretched downhill, and several bicycles carrying similarly large bundles of bananas were heading away along it.
From a distance, the first thing visible was the cargo, followed by the people showing in front of it, and finally the wheels turning steadily underneath.
One after another.
Yu Feng instinctively brought the phone a little closer.
They weren't standing still and posing for people to look at-they were actually going downhill!
Immediately afterward, a bend appeared on-screen.
A rider straddled the frame, leaning forward with both hands holding the handlebars steady. Whole bundles of bananas were stacked high behind him, but he kept his eyes on the road ahead, adjusting the front wheel as he followed the curve.
The front wheel turned little by little, and the bike carried its great bundle of cargo along the winding road.
Without realizing it, Yu Feng tilted his shoulders slightly to the side.
It looked ready to fall.
Yet the man on-screen kept control of the bike, keeping both wheels on the road.
The shot changed again, and the rider had dismounted.
With both feet on the ground and both hands pressing down on the handlebars, he slowly pushed the banana-laden bike past two marker posts beside the road. When he'd been riding, he and the bike had moved together, and nothing had seemed amiss. Now that he was standing on the ground, the load towering over the back of the bike stood out all the more.
Without thinking, Yu Feng said, "He's not riding here?"
Osler glanced at the two posts.
"He rides when he can and pushes when he should. Does he have to crash into them?"
Yu Feng didn't answer.
Fair enough.
He'd been so busy watching how the man took the bend that he'd nearly forgotten that simplest of things.
Osler looked at the phone, then at Yu Feng.
"What's leaning sideways going to do?"
Yu Feng immediately sat upright.
"I wasn't leaning."
"You were practically leaning on me."
Yu Feng ignored him, his eyes still fixed on the screen.
He could fly, and if he really had to carry some things somewhere, he naturally had his own ways of doing it. But the man on-screen had neither wings nor a glowing Soul Ring. All he had to rely on were the handlebars in his hands, the bike beneath him, and a well-practiced skill.
Yet the pile of bananas was no smaller for it.
"Is that a Soul Tool?"
He went to the comments and found someone asking the very same question.
Han Chi's reply was clear.
"An ordinary frame, with pedals driving the wheel. The rider doesn't have Soul Power either."
Someone immediately asked another question below.
"No Soul Power, and he's carrying that much?"
"Don't ask how much he's carrying. First, try finding the bike."
"Master Han, did you put cargo on a bike, or put two wheels on the cargo?"
When Yu Feng saw that, he finally burst out laughing.
It really was like that.
At first glance, he hadn't found the bike at all.
But after laughing, he dragged the video back to the short stretch at the bend and watched it again.
This time he didn't just look at the bananas. He made a point of watching how the man held the handlebars and adjusted his body to the road.
The video didn't explain it to him, but his eyes could see it. They were both sets of two wheels, yet in different people's hands, they really weren't the same thing.
Yu Tianheng came over from the other side and stopped when he saw the two of them huddled around the phone.
"That ball dance of yours again?"
"No, Captain, look at this."
Yu Feng handed him the phone.
After watching, Yu Tianheng's brows twitched slightly, but he didn't laugh.
"If you haven't practiced with a bike like this, you can't just try copying it."
Yu Feng was about to say that he had plenty of Soul Power, but as the words reached his lips, he suddenly remembered the flag during that practice bout.
Having stronger Soul Power than someone else didn't mean he could immediately do whatever he saw.
He swallowed the words and merely nodded.
"I know. I just didn't expect ordinary people to have that kind of skill too."
Once Yu Tianheng had walked away, Osler held out a hand to him.
"Send it to me."
"Haven't you already watched it?"
"I'll watch it on my own phone, so I don't have to lean along with you."
Yu Feng glared at him but forwarded the video anyway, then casually tapped the red heart himself.
After filming, Han Chi returned to the workshop, edited the footage, and posted it. Once he had finished the work at hand, he wanted to see whether anyone had liked what he'd filmed that morning.
As soon as he opened it, notifications began popping up one after another.
Some asked about the bike, some about the rider, and others said they had never seen cargo transported that way before.
Han Chi scrolled down for a while, the smile on his face growing wider and wider.
In the past, when he held out the things he'd made for others to see, they hadn't been very willing to listen.
Now, filmed a different way, so many people were eager to ask questions.
He immediately replied to several people asking about the frame. Which parts bore the load and where to check regularly were all things he dealt with when repairing bikes, so explaining them took no effort at all.
But when he came to one comment, his finger paused.
"Master Han, enough talking. Play the riding part again."
Han Chi looked at it for a long while, then suddenly laughed too.
"All right, let's first see how he uses it."
He set the phone on the table, picked up the small hammer beside him, and tapped the axle sleeve he'd just replaced.
He used to think only his own implements were worth showing people. Today he learned that things were just as worth watching when others put them to use.
And more people were watching than he'd expected.
His phone chimed again.
Han Chi had only just picked up the hammer, but he couldn't resist stopping.
One more comment.
After that one, he'd get straight to work.