The Card Apprentice

Copper gritted his teeth, “Blockhead, I know what you’re thinking. You really can do this! Believe me! When have I ever tricked you? That 50,000 Oudi can be our startup capital. I intend to put it all in. Old Mu, you blockhead, why do you hesitate? Let’s go!”

Copper’s had a fanatical expression.

They looked at each other for a long time, and then with some hesitancy, Chen Mu nodded, “OK, I’ll try it.”

“Yeah!” Copper looked just like a kid, and jumped up. Seeing Copper so jubilant, a little smile formed in the corner of Chen Mu’s mouth.

And so, the two of them immediately started to do the math.

Fifty thousand Oudi wasn’t really very much for a card-play. Chen Mu also threw in his savings, and they eventually swept together 100,000 Oudi.

But it was still too little for a card show, so the two of them decided to make a ‘short’ card play.

Copper would wrack his brain on the screenplay, where all Copper demanded from Chen Mu was that he figure out just what kind of thing a card play really was.

As it happened, Copper knew that there would be a lecture the next day about card plays at Eastern Wei Academy. The two planned to go see it.

Copper was sporting two dark circles under his eyes when he arrived at Chen Mu’s place at sunrise the next day. He was so excited the evening before that he couldn’t sleep. When he saw Chen Mu, he yawned to the sky, weak and worn out.

“Why so many people?” Chen Mu was curious. The number of sightseers in Eastern Wei Academy had multiplied considerably from normal, with people everywhere.

“It couldn’t still be about Star Academy coming. Those bunches of people have eaten their fill. Having nothing else to do, they’ve just come out to join the fun.” Copper was yawning while he talked.

Chen Mu was surprised, “Star Academy is coming to Eastern Wei Academy?”

“No way! How could you not know this huge piece of news!” Copper looked at Chen Mu’s expression and felt as though he were looking at someone from outer space. “Hey, same old Blockhead!”

Star Academy is coming to Eastern Wei Academy. Chen Mu was still digesting the news. In both Chen Mu’s and Copper’s eyes, Eastern Wei Academy was an extremely sacred place. But if Eastern Wei Academy were paired against Star Academy, no one would pay any more attention to its existence. In the eyes of ordinary people, the six great academies seemed like the realm of legends and fairy tales.

Three years before, a boy from Eastern Shang-Wei City was selected for entry to another of the six great academies, The Repository of Classics. It caused quite a sensation all over Eastern Shang-Wei City at the time, and that boy was received personally by the mayor.

The six great academies had quite stringent selection processes, and their principal recruitment targets were residents in the five large flourishing districts, plus the capital. The admissions requirements for residents of the twenty-two ordinary residential districts were much more severe. If someone from one of the ordinary residential districts was able to enter one of the six great academies to pursue studies, that was a clear indication that they had extremely outstanding talent.

The six great academies were so elevated that they had always had discriminatory policies against the ordinary residential districts. Now that they had taken the initiative to come to Eastern Wei Academy, how would that not make anyone feel a little curious?

It appeared that Eastern Wei Academy was about to enter a period of rapid development. Chen Mu wondered to himself about how many benefits Eastern Wei Academy could obtain by taking advantage of the situation. Their name recognition would go way up, and the advantages were too many to count in every other aspect.

After getting through his initial shock, Chen Mu resumed his impassivity. It really was stunning news, but it didn’t have much to do with him. Not only wasn’t he an Eastern Wei Academy student, but he also wouldn’t get any benefit because of it. It wouldn’t have any effect on his life.

Among the mountains and seas of humanity – the vast throngs – Chen Mu and Copper stubbornly carved out their own warpath. Chen Mu was fine. His training during that recent time had made his health a lot more robust, so he wasn’t squandering much effort. To look at him, Copper cut a much sorrier figure. He was panting and gasping, and his clothes were completely wrinkled, with his shoes showing footprints on top of scuffmarks. Copper couldn’t keep his clothes neat. He stuck out his neck looking all around.

“Over here, over here!” Not far away, someone was waving their arms.

Copper was pleased, and immediately led Chen Mu to squeeze over in that direction.

“Ai yo! Mamma Mia, your school has really developed. After a while you won’t be able to squeeze in.” Copper grumbled.

In front of Chen Mu was a student wearing a school uniform, though he looked a little shifty-eyed, was of small stature, and didn’t look like a very good person. “Ha ha, so it has. I hear that this year’s revenues are soaring, and the school is considering whether to cancel next year’s tuition.” He said with satisfaction.

“Alright, alright, don’t brag in front of us.” It looked as though Copper was very familiar with him, as he offhandedly introduced Chen Mu. “This is my brother Chen Mu.” And then turning to Chen Mu, “This is my friend, named Lao Shu, but everyone calls him “Rat.” He’s the boss around here.”

There were large numbers of curious people sitting all around. It was Chen Mu’s first time in an Eastern Wei Academy classroom. Most of the people were students, but Chen Mu still found a few other ‘fish in troubled water’ like him. The atmosphere in the classroom was very relaxed, with students casually discussing which recent card shows were worth seeing.

A female student went up to the lectern, and things below started to quiet down right away.

“Everyone quiet down. What we are showing today is the recently acclaimed ‘A Summer Day’s Talk.’ As soon as this card play hit the market, it became hugely popular, with an outstanding narrative, and well-done character portrayals. You could say that this is the recent card play most worth paying attention to.”

Chen Mu suddenly discovered that Copper, sitting next to him, had a pained look on his face, and his two hands on the seat were trembling.

Startled, Chen Mu then understood in a flash, and asked in a quiet voice, “Is it yours?”

“Mmmm.” Copper was biting his lip, and looked a little scary.

Sighing, Chen Mu didn’t say any more, and turned his attention to the card play that was about to be shown. It was his first time to see a card play, and he couldn’t help his strong feeling about the novelty of it.

Any apparatus could be used to emit card plays, but there were already devices on the market specifically made to show card plays. The one emitting the card show in the classroom then was like that, emitting illusions that were more clear, with a specialized sound card slot for creating remarkable sound effects.

The card show finally finished a half hour later.

“This is what a card show is?” Chen Mu asked Copper with a little disbelief.

Copper had already returned to normal, and he understood what Chen Mu was thinking about, and laughed lightly, “Yep, have some faith now.”

This is really what card shows are like! Chen Mu didn’t know what he should say. While he was watching, whether objects or characters, none were realistic, and all must have gone through a certain exaggeration and simplification process. As for the degree of difficulty, the card show fell a long way short of the fiery dragon illusion card that Chen Mu had made, never mind that Two-Hoop card store’s billboard.

Although he didn’t know if the card play’s production level would be considered good or bad among card plays, Chen Mu felt that the most brilliant part was still this card play’s story. He had to say that there was no need to doubt Copper’s talent in that regard. Even a cold and wooden person like Chen Mu was enchanted by it.

Chen Mu felt that the results would certainly have been even better if it had been made with more realism.

Don’t think about it anymore. If they did that, the production costs would be astronomical. In a flash he thought, so that’s why card plays all use these simplified and exaggerated illusions.

He certainly didn’t know if that was only one of the reasons. But if one wanted to make card plays with characters who were the same as real people, not only would the production costs go way up, the degree of difficulty would go up as well. Card masters who had the skill to get to that point were scarce.

Immediately following, they re-broadcast some old classic card-shows.