The Card Apprentice

Chapter 121: Weak Water

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

With his droopy eyelids and muttering to himself a little, Mark Victor then calmly said, “I have two schemes.”

“Oh.” Chen Mu acknowledged, waiting to hear.

Mark Victor held out a finger, “The first plan, is for me to teach you some skills that are essential for close-combat card artisans. If you learn them, then among close-combat card artisans your skill would be in the mid to high range. In this scheme, what you would provide would be contribution points.”

Chen Mu’s expression showed that he was thinking about it.

“For the second scheme, you wouldn’t have to pay any contribution points.” Seeing that Chen Mu’s expression was the same as always, and hadn’t changed at all because of what he’d said, Mark Victor was still more firm in his resolve. After a brief pause, he went on to say, “I would give you all the skills and techniques that I have, without holding anything back. But I need a commitment from you.”

“What kind of commitment?” Chen Mu’s gaze was as clear as water.

“If I run into some trouble later, such as someone challenging me to a duel, I’m hoping that if it were convenient for you, you would help me.” Mark Victor spoke completely at ease.

Chen Mu was dumbstruck. He was an intelligent person and could understand what Mark Victor was saying. What he had said wouldn’t bind Chen Mu if he didn’t want to keep his end of the bargain. He didn’t respond right away, but voiced his skepticism instead, “This doesn’t seem very fair to you.”

Mark Victor looked indifferent, “What I want is hope,” Then he looked at Chen Mu, “To be able to make an exchange for hope makes a very cost-effective bargain for me. What do you think? You can consider if for a while.”

Chen Mu was startled. Obviously, what Mark Victor had said stunned him.

Looking at Chen Mu’s startled expression, Mark Victor smiled, “I’m still really not too clear about why you want to become a card artisan. Being a card master is much safer. And since you can pay such high compensation, your work as a card master must be outstanding, so it wouldn’t be worth wading into a card artisan’s dirty water.” Chen Mu could detect the loneliness and melancholy in Mark Victor’s speech.

“I’ll agree to the second scheme.” Chen Mu earnestly nodded his clear consent, and gave his own condition, “I hope that you can keep everything related to my learning to be a close-combat card artisan a secret. If anyone asks, please just say that you’re helping me to test out a new close-battle card.”

“OK.” Mark looked serious, not showing either surprise or joy. He took at look at Chen Mu, and then calmly said, “Very well, let’s begin. The training is a little rough.”

When Chen Mu returned to his room, his legs had gone soft. He was too tired to even lift a finger, fully understanding what Mark Victor had implied by ‘rough’ just then. He’d spent the whole afternoon training desperately, wildly, and repeatedly. He felt as though Mark Victor has squeezed every last ounce of energy out of him, and he didn’t even know how he had been able to get back to his room. Mark Victor seemed to have instantly turned into a cruel taskmaster, with a face like a brick, giving Chen Mu a bad taste as he thought about it.

It had been a long time since he’d been so tired. Ever since practicing those exercise gymnastics, his physical strength had steadily improved. He was also becoming more and more confident in his strength, that was until then, when he found out that his physical strength was still insufficient.

Being a close-combat card artisan really was a rough profession. That was only the most basic training, and they still hadn’t gotten to using cards. No wonder there were so few close-combat card artisans. Chen Mu was afraid that most people were scared away by the intensity of the training.

He never even got to wash, just falling asleep in the dark corner. He had always remembered what the demonic woman had said, that ‘you have to get used to the dark.’

He slept straight through about three hours, when Chen Mu finally opened his eyes, awakened by knocking on the door.

It must be Ning Peng or Ning Yan who were the only ones who would ever knock on his door. He cautiously turned on the light and looked around the room to be sure that there wasn’t anything offensive, and then opened the door.

Outside the door was standing a stranger with a slight smile on his face.

“Hello, may I ask if you are Mr. Chen Mu?” the stranger asked with his smile. His eyes showed some surprise when he saw the bruises on Chen Mu’s face.

Chen Mu was on guard as he sized up that stranger, and then said, “I am. And you are?”

“My name is Bo Wen.” The stranger introduced himself very properly, “I’ve been admiring Mr. Chen Mu’s estimable name for a long time. Brother Ning Peng praises you endlessly every time he speaks of you and of your excellent skills in making cards.

So, the stranger in front of him called Bo Wen is a friend of Ning Peng? Although he’d kept smiling and he seemed harmless and friendly, Chen Mu was still somewhat keeping up his guard. He quickly denied his own conjecture since while they might be friends, Ning Peng would never have mentioned him to this person. Still, since he must have gotten his room number from Ning Peng, the relations must be close between them.

“You’re being polite.” Chen Mu responded. Living under someone else’s roof, he had to give someone at least that amount of face. Although he looked simple and slow, he had much richer experience compared with people his own age,.

Bo Wen was mildly smiling all along, as he unhurriedly said, “I was so bold to pay my respects this time because I have a request.”

Chen Mu made a sound that he’d heard and waited for Bo Wen to keep going.

Bo Wen seemed slightly bashful, “I would like to ask Mr. Chen to make a three-star card for me.”

“Three-star card?” Chen Mu looked warily at Bo Wen, since what he had asked was so precisely what Chen Mu had surmised; he assumed that he had come looking for him to make a card.

“I specialize in the wavy-blade style card, but I’m not very satisfied with the one I have now.” He pulled a card out from his apparatus and gave it to Chen Mu.

Chen Mu took the card that Bo Wen had handed over, and looked at it closely, finding that it was a layered-blow wavy card. Layered-blow wavy cards have tremendous power, based on the very simple principle of layering multiple wavy blades together to increase the firepower. Chen Mu looked at Bo Wen in surprise. While the layered-blow wavy card had a lot of power, there weren’t many who used it. If you wanted to layer a lot of wavy blades together, it required extremely precise perceptual control, which was very difficult. It was also one of the reasons that many card artisans abandoned it.

“The layered-blow wavy card’s power is quite good. What function aren’t you satisfied with?” Chen Mu asked.

Bo Wen earnestly said, “Frequency. It’s firing speed is a little slow.”

Chen Mu endorsed what Bo Wen had said. Because it involved perception to fold several wavy blades together, it took a lot of time, which naturally slowed down the firing rate. That was another reason that the card’s use was limited. It is a natural law that there are always gains and losses, and Chen Mu couldn’t do both things. There would never be a card in the world which could meet all the needs of mankind.

After thinking it over, Chen Mu asked, “What kind of a card would you like?” Owing to the deep relationship with the Ning family, Chen Mu had decided to make a card for him. But it would depend on his mood what kind of card he would make.

“A mid-range rate would be OK, but there has to be enough power for the wavy blade type. That’s all.” Bo Wen was slightly smiling as he looked at Chen Mu.

Chen Mu didn’t say anything, since Bo Wen was speaking so generally. No matter what profession, contrary to what one might think, in taking an order, the stricter a person’s requirements were, the easier it was to manage. If the requirements were vague and general, that would actually be hardest to take care of. For example, the biggest headache for jewelers would be “As long as it’s pretty, anything is fine.” Or “There aren’t any specific requirements, as long as it feels right.” Jewelers certainly must be wary and cautious with that kind of customer, always having to drill down and stipulate the particular style and pattern.

Like with what Bo Wen said, what did ‘mid-range frequency’ mean? And what about ‘sufficient power?’ That kind of talk is obscure, and always makes orders hard to satisfy. But Chen Mu wasn’t planning to make such a great card for him and would just fulfil the order with any old card.

Seeming to have seen through what Chen Mu was thinking, Bo Wen didn’t wait for him to say anything. He smiled, and then threw out a condition that Chen Mu had no way to refuse, “By way of payment, I will present Mr. Chen a set of card pens which were the pride of the grand master Kuo Haofeng: The ‘weak water’ pens.”

Chen Mu’s expression looked suddenly dignified. The grand prize for the card making competition organized by the Star Academy at Eastern Shang-Wei City that time was Kuo Haofeng’s famous “success” pen. After that, Chen Mu had familiarized himself with the well-known pen-making masters of the time of Kuo Haofeng, and he’d specifically examined material about that grand master pen maker.

He had a vague impression of the ‘weak water’ pen set. It seemed that it could greatly increase the compatibility between the card ink and the card, especially with liquid card ink, where it had an excellent effect. Among all the card inks, liquid card ink is the most often seen and the mostly widely used. Which was also what made the practical value of the set of ‘weak water’ pens so high. He never would have thought that it could be in the hands of such a young person.

A fine set of card pens was indispensable for a card master. The card master himself must contribute to making the card ink, while card masters would be helpless to make pens. There were far fewer pen masters than card masters, and grand masters who could climb to the top like Kuo Haofeng could be counted on one’s fingers.

Countless card masters dream about getting a treasure like ‘weak water’ and never do. And now for it to be dangling in front of Chen Mu, how could he not be excited? Such a distinctive card pen as the ‘weak water’ basically couldn’t be purchased on the market.

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