The Card Apprentice

The moon-shaped rippled blade didn’t meet with any obstructions while sinking into the thicket.

While the group of people were in the midst of astonishment, not knowing what was going on, there was suddenly a dramatic quaking at that place in the thicket, and a blue-green python as thick as a leg was writhing in pain on the ground, leaving a trail of blood from its seven-inch nest-hole.

Each of the Eastern Wei Academy students stared dumbly, not able to believe that they were looking at a big writhing python, and even the Eastern Wei Academy teachers showed fear on their faces.

But the most stunned was certainly Hong Tao. Hong Tao had always thought of himself very highly, but he then knew that there were men beyond men. He could see very clearly that there wasn’t only one trail of blood, but that the moon-shaped rippled blade had pierced right through the entire snake, leaving two symmetrical blood trails.

Are the six great academies really that powerful? Hong Tao’s heart was in turmoil, as always. The Star Academy was the lowest ranked among the six great academies, and yet they were like that. Whichever student might come forward, their skills would be as terrifying as this!

That Star Academy student seemed as though he had done some trivial thing not worth talking about, just lightly pushing up his glasses.

* * *

Ten completed cards were laid out in front of Chen Mu, with serial numbers on their corners, from one to ten. His face shone with satisfaction, since what could be a more beautiful result? He had not only succeeded in making the card-play, but he had compressed the originally projected thirty cards down to ten cards, and so the production costs wouldn’t go beyond a third of what they would have been.

Together with having completed the card show, he was also pleased with what he had gained for himself. He had become keenly interested in the magical token card. Being able to compress the content of thirty fantasy cards down to ten was enough to prove the magic of the token card, and yet among the ten cards he had already finished, there wasn’t one token card. They were all fantasy cards. In reality, although he had already gotten to a very high place regarding the use of the specialized token card from the knowledge he had learned from inside that mysterious card, what Chen Mu was studying at that time could only be considered “token” knowledge.

If a little foundational understanding could have those results, it made Chen Mu very eager. If he could really make use of a complete token card at some time, what amazing results might that produce?

Copper was looking at Chen Mu as though he were from outer space. “Blockhead, how did you make these?”

“That could be very complicated to explain,” Chen Mu was drinking water and cautioning at the same time.

“Forget it.” Copper quickly took back his words, since he really understood Chen Mu. In his eyes, Chen Mu was a fanatical and passionate lover of card techniques. If even he says it’s pretty complicated, then as far as he was concerned, it was certainly inscrutable. And it was somewhat painful to listen to Chen Mu talk so seriously about something about which Copper himself knew absolutely nothing.

He didn’t actually care about technical-level questions. What he was interested in was the quality of the card play.

“Excellent, Excellent!” Copper was all golly-gee-whiz, his two huge metal earrings swinging back and forth, his whole face full of satisfaction, “This card play is the best I’ve seen. Blockhead, your technique is fantastic! Of course, we don’t need to mention the screenplay.” He didn’t feel that he was exaggerating. No matter whether from the design aspect or from the story, the card play was impeccable.

Realistic-style depictions, sensible rendering of light and dark and a suspenseful story, and then add to that how compact and smooth it was; those all made the card play very appealing.

He suddenly stood up, and with his hands raised to the sky, and a face full of arrogance said, “Wee ha! We two men among men, Copper and Mu, our time in the world of card play has arrived!”

Seeing Copper so excited, Chen Mu was also very happy, but he still had to remind him, “Now you have to think about how we are going to sell these. Oh, and there is still the sound card problem.” Sound cards had to be ordered from a specialist, since Chen Mu couldn’t make them.

“Ha ha, just give me all those problems.” Copper looked like he had a card up his sleeve.

The two of them went to work immediately. Chen Mu made card plays using all of the remaining material, while Copper went out to order sound cards, and to sell all of the cards. The two of them could be considered penniless, and if they didn’t sell the card shows they would immediately face a situation of no rice to put into their wok.

Chen Mu’s work had to be a lot faster than Copper’s. But once he had the experience of making the first set, he was able to turn them out really fast. Until later, he didn’t know whether it was that he was taking advantage of his perception more, but the progress was significant, and it made Chen Mu more relaxed. By that time, he could produce all ten cards in a set in a single day. Later, he was able to make five sets a day.

The production costs for each set were 3,000 Oudi, averaging two hundred per card, plus the sound cards, which were the most expensive part at 800 Oudi per card, and then a 200 Oudi packing fee to make the card-play set look elegant and beautiful. Chen Mu felt that a card play would sell for 4,300, which would give them a chunk of change. He hadn’t realized that Copper had a different idea; he’d set the price at 10,000 per set. This floored Chen Mu, who doubted they could sell them at that price. Copper said that was the market price. Could the card play industry really be so profitable? He also hadn’t realized that his card play would have only ten fantasy cards, when in general a card play would have thirty to fifty, making their profits that much higher.

The other thing that he hadn’t realized was that during the first week, Copper had sold five sets. Doing the math, the two of them made 35,000 Oudi in one week, which made Chen Mu speechlessly excited.

. . . that you could actually sell something which couldn’t be worn or eaten for this kind of money.

The second week, Copper sold ten sets, for a clear profit of 70,000.

Chen Mu really didn’t understand, “Where did you find so many suckers?”

Copper looked derisively at Chen Mu, “I have been shut up in this hole for so long, without having the chance to meet even a few people. Do you think that everyone is like the two of us poor devils? Don’t you understand that everyone else is chasing after spiritual satisfaction. In their eyes 10,000 Oudi is the price of a meal. And what’s more, the kind of romance in ‘Chance Encounter’ is the medicine which satisfies the spirit for the young women in those wealthy families. We called it right. Don’t people say that no matter what happens, you can’t put a price on spirit? If we sell too cheaply, won’t that be like disrespecting their spiritual world?”

Chen Mu said nothing.

After the initial excitement, Chen Mu quickly got used to it, until by the end it had become entirely a matter of numbers. Two months later, they had sold one hundred and fifty sets of “Chance Encounter” from their inventory, which figured out to making nearly one million Oudi. Divided equally, that made 500,000 Oudi apiece.

The two of them had never seen so much money, and after a while they could only look at one another dumbfounded.

“I . . . We are rich!” Copper was excited beyond words; his two eyes shining like gold.

Unlike his usual calm, Chen Mu was also very excited. That 500,000 Oudi could guarantee his living for a long time. But he also knew that a smooth life demands money.

A sales volume of one hundred fifty was very satisfying to Copper, and naturally Chen Mu had nothing more to add. By Copper’s estimation, that would be about it for sales, since after all the two of them were not a firm, and they had no channels.

“Blockhead, I’m going to take a vacation,” the calmed-down Copper threw out suddenly.