The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu shook out his head, to keep himself from thinking about those things.

Chen Mu really didn’t know who the person was that he’d killed, and he really didn’t want to know what sort of background he came from.

But the affair was making huge waves in Eastern Shang-Wei City. And how could it avoid enraging the higher reaches of Eastern Shang-Wei City for that kind of unexpected street violence among the students at Eastern Wei Academy to have occurred during the exchange with the Star Academy? Everyone at Eastern Wei Academy was in a state of anxiety, and the administration passed strict restrictions on scholars coming and going.

The Eastern Shang-Wei City garrison was feeling the most pressure of any of them. What puzzled them the most was that there wasn’t a single clue on the scene. The most crucial piece was that there was nothing missing among the person’s belongings, including the Red Star Stone pendant still hanging on his neck as always, which was worth over 800,000 Oudi. It was clearly not done for the money.

Considering it a revenge killing created still more difficulties for the garrison, since they had discovered that the guy was a trouble-maker in the Academy, having committed who knows how many bad deeds, and whose enemies numbered in the dozens if not hundreds. And among those were some whose identity checks weren’t so simple either, making them not dare to reach out.

The victim’s injuries were also very strange. From the wounds on his neck you could see that he must have died having his skull cracked on the wall after being grabbed by the neck. But before dying, he had used arrow bolts from a fight-card, making it apparent that his adversary must have been someone tough, with unusual power. A person’s cranium is quite hard, and it requires pretty good strength to smash it.

In the city-wide investigation opened by the garrison, Chen Mu was eliminated in the first round with his pallid face, and frail, genteel looks.

Chen Mu and Copper were feeling really enthusiastic about how well the sales volume of the card play “The Legend of Master Shi” was doing. Because of the strict restrictions on students leaving, most of the students were dutifully remaining on campus. They were inevitably looking for things to pass the time with. Having started circulating among the female students, “The Legend of Master Shi” would also land in a male-student’s hands every once in a while.

The male students were all grabbed by its vast starry reaches and its glorious battles, as well as by the Iron Man called Shining Armor, among the ranks of all sorts of strange characters. The “Master Shi” card play immediately surged over the campus of Eastern Wei Academy like a wind storm sweeping through. The Star Academy students were especially enthusiastic about “Master Shi.” The shops around the school were practically bursting every day, though it was still very difficult to buy. After a while, a set of “The Legend of Master Shi” made it onto their projection system, making the names of ‘Mu and Cop’ extremely influential all over the Eastern Wei Academy.

There was no shortage of people looking up high for the card maker, but none of them ever caught on to how shrewd and slippery that card-seller was, and they never considered him. The shopkeepers were equally ignorant.

Faced with that kind of demand, Chen Mu spent almost all of his time making the card play, as they didn’t have the ability or funds to engage a factory to make the card play for them. Chen Mu didn’t really know if he had the ability to continue such large-scale production under the current conditions.

Still, he had developed great proficiency, and even his pathetic perception was being deployed so that his hand followed his heart more and more. Given such a huge market, all that the two of them could do was to watch, without any way to satisfy the demands. Fortunately, the two of them had good attitudes, and wanting another set’s profit was a matter of mind-set, and so they could be considered satisfied.

Once Chen Mu had completed three hundred sets, he was too tired to move. The two of them together decided to call it quits on that first episode, since the money would never stop growing. Three hundred sets had given them quite a plug of money.

The ‘content’ of that first episode of “The Legend of Master Shi” was much richer than that of “Chance Encounter,” and the price was quite a bit higher as well. One set was 20,000 Oudi, which made it rather higher than other card plays on the market. That was also Copper’s way of thinking, that since they couldn’t meet the market demand, just raise the price, and make it into a boutique-grade item.

Chen Mu knew nothing about those matters; he only knew that the two of them could make still more money. Although the production costs were increasing, on average the net profit from a set ran to 12,000, more or less. From three hundred sets, the two of them could make 3,600,000 Oudi, which would be enough for them to buy a house in the city proper.

If they were to throw in 800,000 for the production costs of the next episode, Chen Mu’s take would be 1,400,000.

Copper suddenly realized something, “Blockhead, it seems that you have spent all of what we made last time.”

“All gone.”

Copper couldn’t help rolling his eyes, “I remember when you spent money so fugally. How have you become so wild?” He furrowed his brow, “You spent it all on making cards?”

Seeing Chen Mu nod, he couldn’t help scolding him, “I say Blockhead, you should consider saving some money, since buying a house and getting nicely married cost money. Ha ha, think about it! To live a life having your own house with a wife wouldn’t be so bad! Isn’t that our dream life?”

Chen Mu remained mute, and didn’t say a thing. If it . . . if it weren’t for that mysterious card, his ideals and Coppers wouldn’t be any different.

But . . .

Seeing Chen Mu’s expression, Copper understood a little better, and sighed as he sat up straight, “Ai, suit yourself, since you and I are different. At your current card making ability, finding work is a simple matter. But I still suggest that you save a little money, since I’m afraid we can’t be making card plays forever.”

“Why not?” Chen Mu lifted his head to ask dubiously.

Copper laughed coldly, and wiped away his usual frivolity, “Blockhead, if you weren’t cooped up in here all the time, you might be feeling even more pressure. Why am I only selling the card plays at Eastern Wei Academy? Ha ha, on the one hand it’s because the market is sufficient for us. But on the other, I don’t want to get the attention of those large card firms.”

Chen Mu also started to have a more serious expression. even though Copper looked topsy-turvy most of the time, he was actually a smart fellow.

“They haven’t found out yet, but once they do, ho ho, they are likely to do something about it. Blockhead, you don’t know how advanced your skills are, ha ha, being able to compress thirty fantasy cards down to ten. We’re like candy in their eyes, and when the time comes we have only two paths, one is to be useful to them, while the other would be to find some bigger backer. Can you choose among those two paths?” Copper turned around to face Chen Mu.

“I can’t.” Chen Mu’s response was very calm, but very resolute. He still had doubts, wondering if it could be that the token card was not so widely used?

“Haha! We’re brothers after all!” Copper smiled broadly, “I can’t choose either. Hey, I think we can see through that gang, and so I plan to finish ‘Master Shi’ and call it quits. We should be able to get enough spending money from this card play.”

Chen Mu finally understood why Capper was so careful when he went out to sell the card plays.

The two of them looked at each other and smiled.