Katu

The blade-like pen tip gently slid across a blue-grey card. Slender lines of blue extend smoothly from under the nib. The light blue lines on the palm-sized card continued to increase, and gradually, a complex and mysterious pattern became more perfect as the pen tip slid.

Chen Mu stared at the card intently, breathing slowly, as if he was afraid of disturbing something. If you look carefully, you can see that his right arm has not moved at all from beginning to end, only his wrist moves. His right wrist is as flexible as a snake and as soft as boneless. Turn the pen tip gently, and an elegant arc appears on the card. Suddenly the pen tip suddenly gave a heavy stroke, changing from its previous nimbleness, and then suddenly made a sharp side hook, the pen hook was like a knife edge! The pattern on the card suddenly lit up, then dimmed quickly and returned to normal.

Chen Mu casually put it into a pile of cards piled on the table. His movements were skillful and natural, and there was no sign of any hindrance. After completing this card, his face remained as focused as ever. He had only completed fifteen cards now, and there was still ten cards left before today's task. What he is making now is a one-star energy card. As the lowest level energy card, it is currently the most widely used and one of the cards with the highest consumption. At this moment, the room suddenly became dark.

"Damn it, the energy is used up again!" Chen Mu muttered a few words, casually pulled out an energy card from the card pile with his left hand, then lightly pressed it on his right wrist, and the meter worn on his right wrist shot out a bright beam of light. With the help of the beam, Chen Mu carefully walked to the corner. The room was too messy and he didn't want to knock over anything. There was a square meter on the wall in the corner of the room, and there was a slot under the meter. Chen Mu inserted the energy card on his hand into the slot of the meter.

As soon as the energy card was inserted into the card slot, the room returned to light. The number one hundred was displayed on the meter. Unexpectedly, the energy was used up. It seems that today's task will involve adding another card. Returning to the table, Chen Mu quickly threw himself into work. All his sources of livelihood depended on this most paper-level card. Since he learned to make this kind of energy card three years ago, he has never stopped working on twenty-five cards a day.

Chen Mu's room was very small, less than 40 square meters, and there was a semi-old work table in it. Except for the work table, which was relatively clean, there were mountains of clutter everywhere else in the room. These sundries are also various, including piles of old books and various raw materials scattered around.

Chen Mu lived in this simple place for three full years. This is a relief house specially provided by the federal government. For a small room like this, you only need to pay 150 euros a month to live in it. For poor people like Chen Mu, there is really no cheaper place than here. What's more, in his opinion, he was doing pretty well this way. He had even seen a whole family of four squeezed into the same size room.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Mu finally completed today's work - twenty-five energy cards. He carefully counted the number of cards, twice in a row, and after making sure that the number was correct, he carefully put the energy card into the card bag in his clothes.

Walking onto the street, the night was getting darker. The colorful lights are lingering in the night, and the fireworks ejected from the rear of the shuttle car flying from time to time in the sky drag out one beautiful track after another that passes by in a blink of an eye. Chen Mu tightened his coat slightly and looked up at the sky. The cold is getting heavier, and it seems that winter is coming soon. There is no extra thought to lament the passage of time, but heating in winter will cost more money, Chen Mu thought in his heart.

Passing by the back door of Dongwei Academy, Chen Mu had walked this road for three years, but every time he saw the students going in and out together, he couldn't help but feel an inexplicable emotion in his heart. After gathering his thoughts, Chen Mu walked quickly towards a small shop next to the school. The store is called "Dongwei Grocery Store" - there are at least twenty similar stores with the same name around Dongwei University. Chen Mu has been visiting this small shop every day for three years, rain or shine, and has never stopped. It's just that he didn't come here to buy things. On the contrary, he came here to sell things.

As soon as he entered the door, the shopkeeper noticed and greeted: "Ah Mu is here!"

"Well, Uncle Hua." He replied to the shop owner. The owner, Uncle Hua, is an old man about fifty years old, and time has left traces on him that cannot be concealed. Fine wrinkles, half-white hair, and a pair of reading glasses.

"This is today's goods." Chen Mu carefully took out the card package from his arms, pulled out the stack of energy cards, and handed them to the shop owner: "Twenty-five."

Uncle Hua took the card from Chen Mu's hand and put it on the shelf without looking at it. He said with a smile: "Thank you, Ah Mu, for sending cards every day, otherwise I would be short of supplies here."

Chen Mu smiled slightly, but did not answer. He knew that Uncle Hua's words were probably meant as a joke. One-star energy cards are the cheapest energy cards, but they are also one of the most consumed cards. What's more, this place is located near Dongwei Academy. Where can only twenty-five energy cards be sold a day?

Uncle Hua also knew Chen Mu's temper, so he asked directly, "Does Mu need cash or transfer?" Pass it to Uncle Hua. After finishing the settlement, Chen Mu said goodbye to Uncle Hua and turned to leave.

Uncle Hua suddenly stopped Chen Mu: "Ah Mu, wait a moment."

Chen Mu stopped and turned around to look at Uncle Hua in surprise: "Is there anything else? Uncle Hua."

Uncle Hua took out a piece of goose-yellow paper from the drawer and looked at Chen Mu with a smile: "I almost forgot something. This is a card maker training course attendance certificate. It was from the dealer when the goods were purchased yesterday. It’s included. It’s just a piece of waste paper if I leave it here, so take it, Amu.”

Looking at Uncle Hua with a kind face, Chen Mu couldn't help but feel moved in his heart. He knew how much the old man in front of him had helped him over the years. If it weren't for him, Chen Mu believed that his current life would be equally out of reach for him.

Three years ago, he just learned how to make energy cards and sold them everywhere, but few people cared about them and no merchants were willing to buy them. The quantity required for a one-star energy card is very large, and merchants are more willing to purchase large quantities at one time. Chen Mu can only make up to thirty pieces a day. For merchants, this is just a small amount that is not even a fraction.

Fortunately, he met Uncle Hua. Uncle Hua agreed to buy his energy cards, but the purchase price for each card was one hundred and three euros, which was two euros lower than the wholesale price of energy cards on the market. Despite this, Chen Mu was still extremely grateful to Uncle Hua.

Four years ago, Chen Mu was still a wandering child with no fixed address. Once, he met a card maker, a card maker who was already dying. He used the five months of food he had accumulated in exchange for the life of the card maker, extending his life by seven days. During these seven days, he learned a skill, which was the production of one-star energy cards. After the card maker died, he didn't leave anything behind, so Chen Mu buried him in the wilderness. He still doesn't know the name of this card maker, but his fate has begun to change since then.

He spent a year working as a day laborer to the best of his ability, during which time he worked six different kinds of day labor, by the time he was twelve years old. Also during this year, he finally had a small savings, a thousand euros. With these one thousand odi, he bought all the raw materials needed to make energy cards. The card maker once told him that the wholesale price of a one-star energy card in the market is 105 euros, the unified retail price is 110 euros, and its cost is only 98 euros. .

Every card maker can make one-star energy cards, but not many people know about the price difference, and even if they know, almost no one would even think about it. The one-star energy card is one of the simplest cards, and it is fully capable of industrial production. And even a master card maker can only make twenty or thirty energy cards in a day, and the output is really pitiful. Moreover, for the card makers, they would not even bother to pick up the money they earned through the difference. But for Chen Mu, the money was enough to keep him fed.

He succeeded in making eight for the first time and almost lost two hundred euros, but this gave him hope. But what he didn't expect was that he would be hindered when promoting energy cards. The merchants had no interest at all in the few energy cards he had. He ran around all day without eating, and at eight o'clock in the evening he stepped into Uncle Hua's shop. His legs were shaking a little when he entered the store. He had not eaten even a drop of rice all day and was almost on the verge of coma.

Although the price of 103 Oudi was lower than the wholesale price of 105, Chen Mu felt that he was surrounded by great joy. I sold all the energy cards in my hand, bought the cheapest food, and spent the rest of the money to buy the raw materials for the energy cards.

Since then, Chen Mu's life has finally stabilized.

Twenty-five energy cards a day, and he didn't have a day off.

This time, it will be three years. In the past three years, he has only made one type of card - one-star energy card. In the second year, he was able to control the cost to ninety-seven euros. Although the difference is only one Oudi, it is a great encouragement to him. When he was not making energy cards, he spent all his time studying how to reduce costs.

Finally, in the third year, he controlled the cost of energy cards to ninety-five euros. He could make a profit of eight euros from each energy card. His daily income stabilized at two hundred euros. This was his three years ago. Totally unimaginable numbers. His monthly income of 6,000 euros allows him to live an ordinary life, but he still lives in a soup kitchen that only costs 150 euros a month.

After coming back to his senses, Chen Mu smiled at Uncle Hua: "Thank you, Uncle Hua!" He took the lecture ticket and carefully put it into the card holder in his arms.

Training courses, especially those for card makers, are one of the most prevalent types of training courses at the moment. They often have extremely gorgeous advertisements. For example, this class attendance certificate says "academic qualifications recognized by Dongwei University" and "authoritative personal lectures by senior senior card makers of Dongwei University". In fact, what is inside? Chen Muyi Qinger Chu. The only relationship between the organization hosting this training class and Dongwei University is that this organization has to pay a fee to Dongwei University every time as the price for maintaining this nominal "joint organization".

Chen Mu still planned to go and listen to what was being said in the training class. Card making is one of the most difficult subjects. Over the years, he has never given up on self-study, but with little success. It wasn't until last year that he understood what was going on. His foundation is really poor. In more than ten years of wandering life, he has not received any cultural education.

For a young man with no foundation at all, it is naturally even more difficult to teach himself the notoriously difficult and obscure art of card making. However, he had no doubts about his IQ. He was able to learn to make one-star energy cards within a week just by relying on his memory. The card maker at that time once praised his talent.

From then on, he put down this goal that was temporarily too high for him and began to turn to the most basic theoretical study. No matter how tired he is at work every day, he will take time to learn these boring knowledge.

After saying goodbye to Uncle Hua, Chen Mu walked south along an alley. It's Saturday and he has another job.

After crossing two streets and walking for about twenty minutes, he came to a second-hand card collection station.

"Hey, man, here we come!" He was greeted by a dark and skinny bald man named Xiao Hei. He is also the owner of this buying station. Every Saturday and Sunday night, Chen Mu would come here to do part-time work for three hours.

Chen Mu nodded slightly towards Xiao Hei, but his face was still a bit blank.

Xiao Hei has long been accustomed to Chen Mu's face. When Chen Mu came here to ask for part-time work, Xiao Hei originally refused. This buying station has been managed by one person since his father started it, and when it came into his hands, he also managed it by himself.

Hire someone? Xiaohei can't afford the wages.

But when Chen Mu said he didn't want wages, Xiao Hei finally agreed. Of course, Chen Mu is still paid. Usually Chen Mu will choose a few scrap cards and take them away as his wages. Sometimes Chen Mu would pick out a few unused energy cards from these waste piles. Xiao Hei calculated an account and found that he saved a lot of money on these every month. But he couldn't help but feel a little curious about the taciturn Chen Mu. How did this guy know that there was still energy left in these cards?

But since then, every time he saw Chen Mu, he was always smiling.

Chen Mu squatted down and began to sort through the piles of discarded cards. There are many types of cards, including energy cards, item cards, quasi-object cards, and even some rare plant cards and animal cards. However, the cards here are all useless without exception. All Chen Mu has to do is sort these cards into categories.

The work went quickly and it was obvious that he was very familiar with the work.

Chen Mu flipped his wrist and threw a card towards Xiao Hei: "Here, this card can still be used for a while." This two-star energy card still has at least half of the energy in it. Chen Mu can't even figure it out. Why was the original owner of the card so wasteful? The capacity of the two-star energy card is one thousand, which means that there is still almost five hundred energy in it.

"Hey, thank you, Brother Chen!" Xiao Hei looked at the two-star energy card in his hand and smiled. Peipianpidian ran to the energy meter and inserted the card into it. When he saw the number "523" lit up on it, Xiaohei smiled so hard that his features almost squeezed into a ball.

Chen Mu ignored it and focused on rummaging. Although there will also be some used mid-level cards, such as three-star and four-star cards, the probability of them appearing is still quite high. But to him, it was of little value. The only thing he is interested in now is the one-star energy card.

Three years of production gave him his own understanding of this most common and low-level card. There is not only one way to make one-star energy cards. Chen Mu has collected twelve different structures of one-star energy cards. These one-star energy cards with different structures inspired Chen Mu a lot. It was precisely because he borrowed some techniques from these cards that he successfully reduced the cost of making one-star energy cards to ninety-five euros. However, such good luck does not come every day. So far, he has only collected twelve pieces.

But my luck seems to be good today.

After looking at the one-star energy card in his hand, judging from the texture on the surface, it was a one-star energy card with a new structure that Chen Mu had never encountered before.

He put the energy card aside and continued to rummage through it. There were too many one-star energy cards, but Chen Mu took the trouble to check them one by one. His speed is extremely fast, and he can almost tell whether it is what he wants just by lightly stroking these one-star energy cards.

All of this comes from his familiarity with the one-star energy card. This kind of familiarity was the result of three years of non-stop production. He could tell whether the card was a one-star energy card and whether it had the structure he had seen before just by looking at it. He knew them so well, down to every detail.

The fingers skimming the edge of the card suddenly stopped.

This card...