The blade-like nib lightly slid over a greenish-gray card.
Thin blue lines flowed smoothly down from the nib.
The pale blue lines on the palm-sized card kept increasing, and gradually a complex and mysterious pattern became more and more perfect as the nib slid over it.
Chen Mu's gaze was focused on the card, and his breathing was slow, as though he were afraid of startling something.
If you looked closely, you could see that his right arm hadn't moved at all from beginning to end, with only his wrist moving.
His right wrist was as nimble as a snake, soft as though it had no bones.
The nib lightly turned, and an elegant arc appeared on the card.
Suddenly, the nib paused heavily, changing from its previous lightness to a sharp hook, which was as sharp as a knife's edge!
The pattern on the card abruptly lit up, and then quickly dimmed, returning to normal.
Chen Mu casually put it into a pile of cards on the side of the table.
His movements were skillful and natural, without the slightest hesitation.
His face was still as focused as ever when he finished the card. He had just finished fifteen, and there were still ten more to go until the day's task.
What he was making just then was a one-star power-card. As the lowest-grade power-card, it was one of the most widely used and consumed cards.
Just then, the room was suddenly plunged into darkness.
"Damn, I've used up the power again!"
Chen Mu mumbled a few words, as his left hand casually pulled out a power-card from the pile, and then pressed it lightly on his right wrist. The apparatus on his right wrist shot out a bright beam of light.
With the help of the beam of light, Chen Mu cautiously walked to the corner of the wall. The room was really too messy, and he didn't want to knock over anything.
There was a square gauge on the wall in the corner of the room, and there was a slot under the gauge. Chen Mu inserted the power-card in his hand into the gauge's slot.
As soon as the power-card was inserted, the room was restored to its brightness.
The gauge showed the number one hundred.
He hadn't thought the power would be used up, and it looked like he would have to add another card to the day's task.
Returning to the table, Chen Mu quickly threw himself into his work, relying on that lowest-grade card for his entire livelihood.
Ever since he'd learned how to make the power-card three years ago, he'd never stopped working on twenty-five cards a day.
Chen Mu's room was very small, no more than forty square meters, with a half-used worktable in it.
Other than the work desk, which was relatively clean, the rest of the room was piled with piles of junk.
There were piles of old books and all kinds of raw materials scattered all over the place.
Chen Mu lived in that simple and crude place for three whole years.
That was the relief room provided by the federal government. You only had to pay 150 Oudi a month to stay in a small room like that.
For a poor person like Chen Mu, there really wasn't a cheaper place than there.
What's more, in his opinion, his situation was already quite good. He had even seen a family of four squeezed into a room of the same size.
At five in the afternoon, Chen Mu finally finished his day's work — twenty-five power cards.
He carefully counted the number of cards, counting them twice to make sure there was no mistake. Only then did he carefully put the power cards into the card bag in his clothes.
Walking on the street, the night had gradually darkened.
Colorful lights lingered in the night sky, and from time to time, the rear of the shuttle cars flying across the sky would spit out fireworks, leaving behind beautiful trails in the blink of an eye.
Chen Mu tightened his coat a little and looked up at the sky.
The cold was getting heavier, and it looked like winter was coming.
He didn't have any spare thoughts to lament the passing of time, but he was calculating in his mind that he would have to spend more money to keep warm in the winter.
Chen Mu had already been on that road for three years, but every time he saw those students going in and out of Eastern Wei Academy, he couldn't help but have an indescribable feeling rise in his heart.
Straightening out his mood, Chen Mu walked briskly toward a little shop next to the academy.
The little shop was called "Eastern Wei Sundry Shop." There were at least twenty similar little shops with the same name around Eastern Wei Academy.
Chen Mu had visited that little shop every day for three years, rain or shine, and had never stopped.
But he hadn't come there to buy anything. On the contrary, he had come to sell something.
The shopkeeper noticed him as soon as he entered, and called out, "Ah Mu, you've come!"
"Mmmm, Uncle Hua." He responded to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper, Uncle Hua, was an old man of about fifty, and the years had left their marks on him that couldn't be hidden.
He had fine wrinkles, half white hair, and a pair of reading glasses.
"This is today's stock."
Chen Mu carefully took out the card bag from his chest, and pulled out the stack of power cards, and handed it to the shopkeeper, "Twenty-five."
Uncle Hua took the cards from Chen Mu's hand, and without looking at them, put them on the shelf, and said with a smile, "It's a good thing you send cards here every day, Ah Mu, or I'd be short on supplies."
Chen Mu smiled slightly, but didn't respond, knowing that Uncle Hua was probably joking.
One-star power cards were the cheapest, but they were also one of the most used. Moreover, they were so close to Eastern Wei Academy, so how could they only sell twenty-five power cards a day?
Uncle Hua also knew Chen Mu's temperament, and didn't waste words, asking directly, "Ah Mu, do you want cash or transfer?"
"Transfer."
Chen Mu answered crisply, and then he handed over a light green card that he had prepared earlier to Uncle Hua.
Having settled the bill, Chen Mu said goodbye to Uncle Hua and turned to leave.
Uncle Hua suddenly called out to Chen Mu, "Ah Mu, wait a moment."
Chen Mu stopped, and turned to look at Uncle Hua with some surprise, "Is there something else, Uncle Hua?"
Uncle Hua took out a yellow piece of paper from a drawer, and looked at Chen Mu with a smile, "I almost forgot something.
This is a card master training class attendance pass, which was given by the dealer when we bought the goods yesterday.
It's just a piece of waste paper if you leave it with me. Ah Mu, you take it. "
Looking at Uncle Hua's kind face, Chen Mu couldn't help but feel moved.
He knew how much the old man in front of him had helped him all those years, and if it weren't for him, Chen Mu believed that his current life would be just as far out of reach for him.
Three years ago, when he had just learned how to make power cards, he went around peddling them, but there were few people interested, and no merchant wanted to buy them.
One-star power cards required a lot, and the merchants were more than willing to buy them in bulk.
Chen Mu could only make 30 a day at most. For a merchant, that wasn't even a small number that couldn't be considered a fraction of what they needed.
Fortunately, he ran into Uncle Hua.
Uncle Hua agreed to buy his power cards, but the purchase price for each card was one hundred and three Oudi, which was two Oudi lower than the wholesale price of power cards on the market.
Even so, Chen Mu was still very grateful to Uncle Hua.
Four years ago, Chen Mu was still a street kid with no fixed abode.
Once, he ran into a card master, a card master who was already on his last breath.
He used the five months' worth of food he had accumulated in exchange for the card master's lifespan, which was extended by seven days.
During those seven days, he learned one skill, which was to make one-star power cards.
After the card master died, he didn't leave any belongings for him, and Chen Mu buried him in the wilderness.
He still didn't know what the card master's name was, but his fate began to change from then on.
He spent a year doing his best short-term work, during which he did six different kinds of short-term work. That year, he was twelve years old.
It was also during that year that he finally had a little savings, a thousand Oudi.
That thousand Oudi was all used to buy the raw materials needed to make power cards.
That card master had once told him that the wholesale price of a one-star power card on the market was one hundred and five Oudi, and the uniform retail price was one hundred and ten Oudi, while its cost was only ninety-eight Oudi.
Every card master could make a one-star power card, but not many people knew about the price difference, and even if they did, almost no one would have any ideas about it.
The one-star power card was one of the simplest cards, and it could already be fully realized in industrial production.
Even a grandmaster-grade card master could make no more than twenty or thirty power cards a day, which was pitifully small.
Moreover, for card masters, they wouldn't bother to pick up the little money they made from the price difference that fell to the ground.
But for Chen Mu, that amount of money was enough to keep him full.
He had made eight the first time, and had lost nearly two hundred Oudi, which gave him hope.
But he hadn't thought he would run into some obstruction when he was promoting the power cards.
The merchants weren't the least bit interested in the few power cards he had in his hands.
He ran all day and didn't eat, stepping into Uncle Hua's shop at eight o 'clock in the evening.
His legs were trembling when he entered, and having not eaten anything all day, he was almost on the verge of passing out.
Although the price of one hundred and three Oudi was lower than the wholesale price of one hundred and five, Chen Mu felt like he was surrounded by great joy.
He sold all the power cards he had, bought the cheapest food, and bought the raw materials for the power cards with the rest of the money.
From then on, Chen Mu's life finally stabilized.
Twenty-five power cards a day, and he didn't stop for a single day.
That went by for three years.
During those three years, he only made one kind of card — the one-star power card.
In the second year, he was able to keep the cost to ninety-seven Oudi.
Although it was only a difference of one Oudi, it was still a great encouragement for him.
Apart from making power cards, he spent all his time studying how to lower the cost.
Finally, in the third year, he managed to keep the cost of the power cards at ninety-five Oudi, making eight Oudi profit from each power card. His daily income stabilized at two hundred Oudi, which would have been a figure he wouldn't have dared to imagine three years ago.
An income of six thousand Oudi a month was already enough for him to live an ordinary life, but he still lived in the relief room, which only cost one hundred and fifty Oudi a month.
Coming back to his senses, Chen Mu smiled at Uncle Hua, "Thank you, Uncle Hua!" He took the certificate and carefully put it into the card bag in his bosom.
Training classes, especially those for card masters, were one of the most popular kinds of training classes at the time.
They were often beautifully advertised, such as this certificate, which said things like "Eastern Wei Academy recognizes academic qualifications," or "Eastern Wei Academy's senior high-grade card master authority to speak in person," and so on. Chen Mu was very clear about what was actually going on inside.
The organization that organized the training classes only had a little relationship with Eastern Wei Academy, which was that each time the organization would pay a fee to Eastern Wei Academy as the price for maintaining such a nominally "joint organization."
Chen Mu still planned to go and listen to what was actually being taught in the training classes.
Card making was one of the most difficult subjects of study, and he hadn't given up on self-study for so many years, with very little result.
It wasn't until last year that he understood what was really going on.
His foundation was really too poor, and he hadn't received any cultural education in his ten years of vagabond life.
For a youth without the slightest foundation to want to self-study the art of card making, which was known for its abstruse and obscure nature, was naturally very difficult.
Still, he didn't have the slightest doubt about his own intelligence. To be able to learn how to make one-star power cards from memory within a week, that card master had praised his talent back then.
Since then, he had set aside what was temporarily too high a goal for him, and had started to turn to study the most basic theory.
No matter how tired he was from work, he would always find some time to study that dry knowledge.
After saying goodbye to Uncle Hua, Chen Mu walked south along a small alley.
It was Saturday, and he still had work to do.
After passing two streets and walking for about twenty minutes, he arrived at a second-hand card purchasing station.
"Hey, buddy, you're here!"
The one who greeted him was a dark-skinned, bald-headed man called Little Black, who was also the owner of the purchasing station.
Every Saturday and Sunday night, Chen Mu would come there for a three-hour day job.
Chen Mu nodded slightly to Little Black, though his face still looked a little wooden.
Little Black had long since become accustomed to Chen Mu's face.
When Chen Mu had first come there to ask for a day job, Little Black had originally refused.
The purchasing station had always been managed by one person from his father's time, and when it came to him, he had always managed it himself.
Hire someone?
Little Black couldn't afford that kind of pay.
But when Chen Mu said he didn't want any pay, Little Black finally agreed.
Of course, Chen Mu still got paid, and Chen Mu would generally pick out a few old cards to take with him as his pay.
From time to time, Chen Mu would pick out a few unused power cards from the pile of trash. Black did some accounting, and every month, he would save a lot of money on that.
But he couldn't help but be curious about the taciturn Chen Mu. How did that guy know there was still energy left in the cards?
But from then on, every time he saw Chen Mu, he was all smiles.
Chen Mu squatted down and started to sort through the pile of used cards.
There were many kinds of cards, including power cards, item cards, object cards, and even some of the rarer plant cards and animal cards.
But all the cards there were useless without exception, and all Chen Mu had to do was sort through them.
The work went quickly, and he could see that he was very familiar with the work.
Chen Mu flicked his wrist and threw a card at Little Black, "Here, this card can still be used for a while."
That two-star power-card still had at least half its energy left, and Chen Mu couldn't understand why the original owner of the card would be so wasteful.
The capacity of a two-star power-card was one thousand, which was to say that there was still about five hundred left.
"Ha ha, many thanks, Brother Little Chen!" Little Black looked at the two-star power-card in his hand, and his eyes were beaming.
Scampering over to the machine, he stuck the card in. When he saw the number "523" lit up on it, Little Black smiled until his features were almost squeezed together.
Chen Mu didn't pay any attention, as he concentrated on his rummaging.
Although there were some worn-out mid-grade cards among them, such as three-star and four-star cards, the probability of them appearing was still quite high.
But they didn't have much value to him.
The only thing he was interested in then were the one-star power-cards.
After three years of making them, he had developed his own understanding of those most ordinary and low-grade cards.
There wasn't only one way to make a one-star power-card, and Chen Mu had already collected twelve different kinds of one-star power-cards.
Those different kinds of one-star power-cards had given Chen Mu a lot of inspiration, and it was because he had borrowed some of the techniques from those cards that he had been able to successfully reduce the cost of making a one-star power-card to ninety-five Oudi.
But that kind of good luck wouldn't happen every day, and he had only collected twelve up until then.
But his luck that day seemed pretty good.
Looking at the one-star power-card in his hand, from the composition on its surface, Chen Mu could tell that it was a new kind of one-star power-card with a different composition that he had never encountered.
He put the power-card aside and continued to immerse himself in the rummaging.
There were really too many one-star power-cards, but Chen Mu took the trouble to examine them one by one.
He was so fast that he only had to lightly brush his hand over the one-star power-cards to know if they were what he wanted.
All of that stemmed from his familiarity with the one-star power-card.
That familiarity came from three years of nonstop making them. He didn't even have to look to know that the card was in the end a one-star power-card just by feeling it, and whether it had the composition he had seen before.
He was so familiar with them that he knew every detail of them.
His fingers skimming over the edge of the card suddenly stopped.
That card..