Chapter 1: Repairing cars, watches, and computers

Four hundred years after the natural disasters swept across the world.

The once seemingly eternal great empires have collapsed and vanished, leaving only scattered city-states amidst the fog, reflecting their former glory.

Some say everything will be rebuilt after the destruction.

Others say this is merely the final glimmer before the end.

June, Northern Federation, Haizhou, Yacheng.

Under the scorching sun.

White clouds are scattered across the sky, which is too dazzling in the glare. As the sea breeze blows, the reflections on the sea surface gradually blur within the waves, no longer clear. When the faint cries of seagulls ring out, everything seems to be shrouded in the sound of the tides.

For the people of Haizhou, this is a common sight, not worth noting.

On this sweltering afternoon that makes one sweat profusely, only the cicadas buzz, and the vehicles on the street have become sparse. In a car repair shop, the atmosphere is gradually becoming scorching...

"Little Master Ji, do you think my two headlights have a problem?"

In the reflection of the sports car's paint, a slender, delicate arm gradually rests on the young mechanic.

The youth lowers his head at the words, looking toward the massive headlights, examining them carefully.

The headlights are large and bright, as if looking back at him, charming as silk.

"It does seem like there's a bit of a problem."

Ji Jue leans back tactically and concludes: "It should be a minor scratch; a maintenance service will do. Our shop just launched a 998 maintenance package, including full-body waxing and four deep cleanings. It's a great deal, don't you think, Brother Feng?"

"Ah, yes, yes, yes!" The dark, sturdy mechanic covered in grease not far away nods frantically at the words.

"Hate you~"

The female car owner playfully taps Ji Jue's shoulder, leaning in.

"Then what about this exhaust pipe?"

She whispers a request in the youth's ear: "My husband says it makes a very loud noise every time I drive, which scares me. Could you please help me take something to blow it?"

Ji Jue looks at the exhaust pipe.

The weathered exhaust pipe also looks at him, dark and deep.

"Just replace it."

Ji Jue concludes: "Our shop just received two, both are Mustang parts, the kind with certificates, all genuine products from Universal Heavy Industries... Only 12,888, take the Mustang exhaust home! Brother Feng, come take a look quickly!"

As he speaks, he tries hard to pull away, but he cannot escape the entanglement at his side, struggling in vain like a small hamster caught by a python.

"No, I still feel like this car has a problem..." The woman with permed long wavy hair bites her lip, her eyes lingering: "The engine has been leaking a lot of oil lately, it seems to be leaking right now. Help me take a look."

"It's that serious?!"

Ji Jue is shocked, staring at the innocent engine under the hood for a long time, and concludes: "It might be a lack of maintenance. I suggest you purchase our 24,999 full-car maintenance package. If you sign up now, we'll give you exquisite floor mats and air fresheners. After the maintenance, I guarantee it will drive like it just came out of the factory!

Right, Brother Feng?"

"Ah, yes, yes, yes!!!" The man holding a wrench nearby nods: "If you sign up for a card and top up now, there's also a 20% discount! Don't just think about it, act now!"

Unfortunately, after promoting for a long time, the car owner didn't even look at him.

Instead, she was about to stick her entire body onto Ji Jue.

As if she had no bones.

"But my husband can't drive it for more than two minutes before he can't go on, saying the push-back feeling is too strong to handle." The female car owner bites her lip and blinks: "Little Master Ji, is what he said true?"

I don't know!

Ji Jue really wants to tell her that asking Little Master Ji is useless; he is only nineteen, has been repairing cars for three and a half years, and has no experience. You have to ask Big Master Ji for that!

Oh, it seems she came specifically for his Big Master Ji...

But this woman doesn't look like a good person. What if Big Master Ji comes out and gets beaten up by her?

He is so scared!

Since he was a child, he has suffered too much covetousness like this.

Originally, in school, only senior girls and female hooligans were after him. Since he came out to work, these bad women in society have kept popping up, coveting his beauty and wanting to get handsy. As for now... she looks like she wants a free ride, and she didn't even bring a gift? It is truly a collapse of ritual and music!

Narcissistic woman, so annoying!

Ji Jue keeps winking at the mechanic Lu Feng, but Lu Feng stops talking, just leaning against the wall watching the show, gloating.

Until the savior descended from the sky...

Bang!

Amidst a loud noise, a burly figure appeared at the door, like a mountain of flesh, carrying two brand-new tires and throwing them on the ground, breaking the silence.

"What are you doing?"

The female boss with short hair, whose arms were as thick as an ox's and could ride a fine horse, raised her hand, wiped the grease off her apron, and looked over with fish-eye eyes: "Changing the engine, right? I'll do it... Are you two very free? If you're free, go unload that cart of tires into the warehouse."

"Okay, okay, okay, tires, tires, I love tires the most!"

Seeing the boss save Big Master Ji from danger, Ji Jue was overjoyed. The female car owner's expression twitched twice, as if dissatisfied that someone had ruined her fun, but the female boss revealed a terrifying aura of 'fist suppressing the mountains and rivers,' along with a gaze like a dead fish, and she opened and closed her lips twice, not daring to speak.

In embarrassment, she pinched the face of the child doing homework behind the counter, praised the child for being cute, and then got in the car and left.

Lu Feng, who had watched enough of the show, watched the pair of massive headlights go away and clicked his tongue in regret. Then, he was slapped on the back of the head by Lu Ma, almost rolling like a gourd.

He climbed up and giggled: "Ouch, Mom, if you had come a little later, maybe she would have signed up for the 9999 gold card!"

"I opened this shop to repair cars, not to sell ducks! Little dog, don't ask for a beating!"

Lu Ma scolded, calling out his nickname, clearly very angry: "You like watching the show, right? Since you've watched enough, after moving the tires, get lost and clean the outhouse in the backyard!"

Now, it was Ji Jue's turn at the door to watch the show.

Brilliant.

Truly brilliant!

A cart of tires didn't take much effort; the shop had an old forklift, and Lu Feng, who had retired home, also had strength in his arms, so naturally, it didn't require a college student working part-time to exert himself.

In the afternoon, business was also slow.

After moving the tires and washing two cars, everyone lay in the shade, with nothing to do.

Lu Ma watched a few children doing summer homework, Lu Feng lay on a mat, giggling at short videos. And Ji Jue borrowed the old computer in the shop, which might be as old as he was, and started to continue writing his thesis.

In the afternoon, the sunlight shone on the youth's handsome profile, making the passing girls and aunties stop and watch.

The only pity was the burn scar that crawled from the collar up to the neck and finally spread to the cheek. It was so hideous, a flaw in the white jade, a pity and a sigh. Otherwise, wouldn't it be wonderful to debut as an idol?

At worst, there would be wealthy aunties waving banknotes to invite him to a big villa to sing and dance; wouldn't that be better than repairing cars in this place?

But Ji Jue didn't think it was a pity, and he never felt there was anything wrong with working part-time at a car repair shop.

In this day and age, disasters are rampant, and everything is difficult. It's not easy for an orphan whose parents died early and who is plagued by bad luck to survive. Having kind people take him in to work, never deducting his pay, and trying every way to help him is already a sign of his ancestors' graves smoking.

What's more, he was admitted to university, and although his food and clothing are not luxurious, he doesn't have to worry. Compared to the bleak loneliness of the past, his life has begun to improve visibly.

Since God has given him a chance to turn his life around, he must rely on his own abilities to live like a human being.

There is no qualification or reason not to work hard.

"A kind of... joint design and analysis... with a high-precision harmonic reducer?" Lu Feng leaned over to peek, feeling dizzy just looking at the title:

"What kind of thing is that?"

"It's probably a mechanical joint design equipped with a small reducer," Ji Jue explained. "This principle is used in mechanical equipment to reduce speed and increase output."

"Oh, flexible joint, right? I've seen it on exoskeleton armor in the army."

Lu Feng understood immediately, patted Ji Jue on the shoulder twice, and was even happier than if he had made money himself, "Not bad, Little Ji, awesome."

Ji Jue shook his head and smiled: "Not at all, it's the professor who is guiding me."

The new planetary carrier that served as the basis for the thesis and design was originally the professor's own research result. Being able to give Ji Jue a chance to have a sip of soup was like a pie falling from the sky.

Moreover, apart from the opening report, the rest was basically just a frame, and Ji Jue himself was also trembling with fear.

With Professor Ye's notoriously harsh style, if he messed it up, he might be considered useless and kicked out of the group directly. He still wanted to rely on the professor's recommendation letter to take the second-level engineer exam, so he couldn't help but be careful.

It's just a pity that the busy time didn't last long. The old computer's case hummed and vibrated, and the fan wailed, clearly unable to support the arduous task of opening two web pages while opening a document. Ji Jue could only stop for a while.

He looked down at his watch; it was only past four.

He pulled out a tissue and wiped the grease off the watch chain, seriously and carefully.

To be honest, in this day and age, except for a few people, wearing a watch has basically changed from a functional need to an act of showing off. Otherwise, why not take out your phone and look at it?

Was it because he forgot to charge it last night?

The times are changing.

In the early years, when Ji Jue's grandfather was still alive, his family's constant-time clocks were a famous brand in all of Haizhou. In those years, if a child could get into the navy, they would definitely come to the shop to buy a Seagull pocket watch. After changing into the uniform, half of the watch chain would be exposed from the pocket, and no one knew how many girls' eyes it could attract.

Unfortunately, Ji Jue's parents died early, and the times changed too fast. The small glory of the past had long been submerged in the dust. For Ji Jue, apart from an old shop that could no longer open, only a few meager skills remained, as well as this relic left by his parents.

To be honest, after so many years, Ji Jue still hasn't figured out what brand this watch is. He can only guess from the complex mechanical-like logo on the dial that it is probably a watch used for timing in some precision work.

The style is rare, and the design is different from most on the market. It looks like a style that early sailors liked to use, but sailors' watches usually have a perpetual calendar or moon phase display. But this watch's dial, apart from the hands, only has a window that he doesn't know what it is.

Two rows of small numbers seem to change gradually with time, gradually increasing, but the trend is too slow. When Ji Jue first wore it as a child, the numbers on it were only 06; now, they are already 92.

Besides that, what's even stranger is that it has no crown for timing, no place to wind it, and not even any gaps.

Ji Jue even borrowed a high-precision microscope from the school laboratory and couldn't find any seams or weld points on the watch case at all. It was integrated, and even the watch glass was wrapped inside, seamless.

Ji Jue once placed it on the table for several months, observing it every day, and the result was that it kept time as usual, proving that it didn't rely on arm movement to wind automatically... So where did the power come from?

Could it be a perpetual motion machine? ===== CHAPTER 2 =====