"That was slick, Old Si! What kind of crazy trick was that?"
"How did you light a match like that?!"
Wang Wei and Jiang Zhe were both a little stunned. They curiously took a few playing cards and a match from Chen Jue and tried rubbing them together, but they couldn’t get it to light even after nearly rubbing the red tip off the matchstick.
They could only stare blankly at Chen Jue, wide-eyed, and ask him how he did it.
"It’s probably because the instantaneous speed of the Flying Card was fast enough for the friction to generate enough heat to reach the ignition point."
"These old-fashioned matches have a lower ignition point, so you can light them without using the striking surface on the side." As Chen Jue spoke, he pulled out another match, scraped it hard against the sole of his shoe, and with a FWOOSH, it burst into flame.
Wang Wei and Jiang Zhe were once again dumbfounded by such a stylish way to light a match. They both tried to copy him, and after a few attempts at striking them on their shoe soles, they finally got their matches to light.
"No wonder that rich guy said these Panda cigarettes and matches were so expensive!"
"I didn’t notice before, but it looks like these really are different from the matches we used as kids." Wang Wei slapped his forehead as if he’d just remembered something.
The common matches on the market are safety matches, which can only be ignited by striking them against the special surface on the box that contains red phosphorus.
However, the box of high-end matches Wang Wei had swiped were clearly made using an older, strike-anywhere match technology. The match head itself contained potassium chlorate and phosphorus sesquisulfide, allowing them to ignite with a simple strike on any rough surface without needing a special strip.
As for why that wealthy man would use these slightly more dangerous vintage matches, it was probably to flaunt his unique style and personality.
After all, these days, whether it was matches or any other nostalgic item, as long as it was branded with "traditional craftsmanship" or "custom-made," the price could easily be marked up by dozens or even a hundred times.
...
After learning the elegant fire-starting trick from Chen Jue, the three of them sat on the curb chatting for a while longer, reminiscing about the past before heading their separate ways under the cover of night.
Chen Jue drove back to Wangyang Apartment and immediately went online to order a batch of strike-anywhere matches, spending over two hundred yuan on props for his trick shot videos.
When he was a kid in the countryside, you could buy matches at the local convenience stores and old co-ops—ten boxes for one yuan. They were used for lighting cooking fires, so every household had to keep a supply.
But now, with both cities and rural areas using natural gas and lighters, matches had become a thing of the past. If you wanted to buy them, your only real option was the ever-reliable Taobao.
As for the high-end matches Wang Wei had swiped from his wealthy sponsor, Chen Jue saw the exact same brand on Taobao.
An imported collector’s edition box sold for over a hundred yuan, more expensive than a regular pack of premium cigarettes. It truly was an eye-opener for Chen Jue. ’Rich people really do have money to burn!’
...
After his massage at the Jingtang Club, Chen Jue had planned to go home and get to sleep early.
The sets of Hannibal Pull-ups he’d done that afternoon had been incredibly draining.
It was an advanced street workout move; most people couldn’t even do a single one properly, let alone several sets.
But just as he lay down in bed, his phone buzzed with a WeChat notification.
He opened it to see someone had @’d him in the "Hang City Pest Control Elites" group chat he had joined earlier.
"Trick Shot Master! Meet at point 6 on the pest control map tomorrow at 9 AM!"
"We’re organizing a big offline event this time. Over 30 members have already signed up, and we hope you can grace us with your presence, Master."
Guo Shao announced in the group, and a crowd of pest control enthusiasts below started spamming meme stickers with phrases like "Roger that, over" and "Please carry us, Master!"
The group chat was buzzing with excitement. They had probably all seen his incredible feat of killing rats with nails and were now eagerly anticipating a live performance from him.
Chen Jue saw their messages and decided not to refuse. His [Hidden Weapon Throwing] progress bar still had a little less than half to go, and participating in these pest control activities would help him level up the Skill faster. He sent an "OK" sticker to the group, put his phone down, and went to sleep.
When he woke up the next day, the muscle fatigue in his body was gone. Feeling fully energized again, Chen Jue went up to the roof to perform his eye exercises and the newly activated [Ear Health Exercises] in the morning sun.
Since he had added a new ear exercise to his routine, Chen Jue had gotten up a little earlier than usual.
He also allocated some of the time from his eye exercises to grind more Skill Level for his [Ear Health Exercises].
After forty minutes, his ears were bright red under the sunlight, and the Skill Level had increased by about ten points.
Although the progress was slow and couldn’t match the rate at which his vision was recovering, it was clearly much more efficient than when he did it distractedly during class.
’Slow and steady wins the race. I’ll get there eventually.’ Seeing no notification about an increase in [Constitution] on his panel, Chen Jue sighed softly, went downstairs, and drove to the park for his morning workout.
On this Saturday, Teacher Wu was clearly a bit later than usual.
She had probably had a busy week at school and was a bit tired, so she slept in a little. She actually ended up entering the park gates at the same time as Chen Jue.
Seeing Chen Jue arrive empty-handed, Wu Fang greeted him first, then asked curiously, "Morning, Brother Jue! You didn’t bring your equipment. Are you not filming a video today?"
"I’ll film tomorrow! I have something to do this morning."
Chen Jue smiled slightly, not revealing anything about the pest hunt.
The scenes of pest extermination could get a little gory—either things would be splattering or blood would be spurting—and girls tended to get squeamish at the sight.
"Tomorrow?"
"If it rains, I won’t be able to help you, you know!" Wu Fang winked, then slipped away to meet up with an old gentleman by the chess tables for her morning exercises.