The Card Apprentice

Hugo was slowly drinking his red fungus gruel. The silvery mask covering half of his face was reflecting the red gruel, which made him look especially weird. His expression was, as always, without any sign of the recent huge battle he’d been through. Butchie was sitting in front of Hugo, absent-mindedly stirring the gruel in her bowl and looking somewhat dispirited.

“Are you still thinking about that card artisan assassin?” Hugo’s ear-piercing voice pulled Butchie out of her reverie.

Butchie only grunted in response, still stirring unconsciously with the soup spoon in her hand.

“The folks from the spy department will get here soon.” Hugo was drinking the gruel as he spoke. “I’m pretty sure we will soon find out who that guy is. I’ve seen the wound on the body of D26. His adversary’s methods were masterful. His throat was crushed by bare hands in a kind of strangling move. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a professional barehanded kill.” He was half admiring and half in sorrow, and then he added, “If he’s a specialist in hand-to-hand combat, he’ll actually be easier to manage.”

Although a hand-to-hand assassin might have a shocking amount of power in certain situations, he would also have a lot of shortcomings. Hugo had lots of ways to deal with such an assassin.

Butchie put down the soup spoon and shook her head. “That’s not the way I feel. His perception is no weaker than mine. He must be a card artisan. He’s also good at hiding himself—much better than I could have imagined. It was complete luck I found him this time.” The image of that indistinct and bizarre face looking up from the dark shadows floated unbidden in front of her eyes. Those two icy eyes devoid of emotion seemed to be looking right at her.

She shuddered as her actions slowed.

Hugo was extremely sensitive. Although Butchie’s moves were slight, he accurately captured them. His face showed he’d been somewhat moved, understanding how her adversary had unconsciously imprinted himself on Butchie’s mind. He placed a lot of importance on Butchie’s description. Their power had reached such a level that it would be difficult for him to evade their scouting him out with their six sensory inputs being as keen as they were.

Butchie’s unspoken thought was that her adversary had far more skills.

There wasn’t anyone more clear than Butchie about how far her power went. No matter whether her adversary’s skills were truly so unfathomable, she’d still been scared by his weird moves. They were enough to show she shouldn’t underestimate the guy who hid in the dark.

“Why didn’t he kill me?” Butchie suddenly looked up at Hugo with a puzzled look in her eyes.

That was also something Hugo didn’t understand. When they’d found Butchie, she and her comrade were unconscious on the ground, which was a little strange.

Was he friend or foe? That was impossible for them to judge. If he were an enemy, then why did he let Butchie live? If he were a friend, then why hadn’t they heard anything about him? Plus, he hadn’t given them any help in the battle.

“The reason isn’t clear at the moment.” Hugo’s tone became deeper. “Lu Xiaoru hasn’t been seen either, and it’s thought that she must have fallen into that person’s hands.” He drew that out, saying, “If Lu Xiaoru really fell into his hands, I’m curious about why he would be so interested in her.”

It was only after Hugo spoke that Butchie remembered Lu Xiaoru had disappeared. She felt her mind going wild. Who was that guy in the end? Why hadn’t he killed her? How was he connected to the Central Island Firm? And why did he show up on the battlefield?

Seeing Butchie so distressed, Hugo laughed involuntarily. “Don’t think about it. Be careful about hurting your brain, or the boss-man will make trouble for me.” Hearing that, Butchie stared at him. Everyone in the organization knew she was a little scared of the boss-man. Hugo laughed out loud, and that ear-piercing guffaw came out as pretty carefree.

“They’re really serious about the issue!” Butchie protested as she remained unsatisfied, her face full of annoyance.

Hugo looked at Butchie adoringly as though he were looking at his own naughty little sister without being annoyed. The mask didn’t hide the right side of his face, where some rare tenderness showed through. He comforted her with a soft voice. “Leave the matter alone. We still have some other things to gain this time, which I feel might have something to do with this person.”

Butchie came back to her spirits, and she asked with wide eyes, “What gains?”

Hugo pulled out a small ball from his pocket and handed it to Butchie. “This was found on the body of a Central Island Firm card artisan. It didn’t originally attract our attention, but we discovered later that every one of the card artisans form the Central Island Firm had one on them. This was taken from their corpses. There are a few more that were sent to the boss-man. I reckon we’ll have some news very soon.”

Butchie took the little ball with curiosity, turning it over to look at it several times. She couldn’t help but ask, “What is this?”

“We still don’t know.” Hugo shook his head. “But I feel it must be crucial to the Central Island Firm’s mobilization this time. I wonder if that card artisan assassin you spoke of might be one and the same with the object of the Central Island Firm’s card artisans. If that were the case, then it would explain why he would be so interested in Lu Xiaoru.” The silvery mask flashed with a demonic glow.

“That’s just your speculation,” Butchie said unconcernedly.

Hugo smiled. “We still have time to verify it.” There was a note of unsurpassed self-confidence and dominance in his ear-piercing laugh.

Seeing Big Brother Hugo’s hearty laugh, the haze seemed to disperse from Butchie’s mind, and she looked at Hugo infatuated.

“Your spirits aren’t very good. Take a good rest these next couple of days. You don’t need to worry about what’s happening in the organization with me here. Relax. We’ll certainly ferret that guy out.” Hugo’s tone was firm and full of self-confidence and strength.

“Mmmm.” Buchie lowered her head as she gave her soft response. She couldn’t help the glimmer that wafted toward Hugo from the corner of her eye.

* * *

When Chen Mu raised his head, there was a whole platoon standing in front of him. Every one of the employees in the company had come, with some of them even wearing their pajamas. But none of them showed any sleepiness; their gazes were all focused on the two things in front of Chen Mu.

The Weak Water set of card making pens looked impressive. They were made by the once-in-a-generation pen making master, Kuo Haofeng, at his peak, so of course they attracted attention. Although the employees were all low-grade card masters, they could still tell the pens in front of their boss were no ordinary goods. As compared with Kuo Haofeng’s other works, the Weak Water had a very low profile and had been in a private collection for a long time. Those who knew about them were pitifully few. Even if some people did know about the set of Weak Water pens he’d made, practically no one had seen them apart from the core members of the Eastern Nings.

It wouldn’t be anything remarkable to those employees for the boss to have a good set of pens. But there was nothing strange about their envy.

Still more of them had turned their gaze toward the card Chen Mu had lowered his head to make in one straight shot. They were curious about what kind of delights the card the boss had made this time would bring them. When the boss got to work, it had to be something fine that would earn the endorsement of everyone in Heaven’s Wings. They’d all heard Bu Qiangdong’s detailed explanation of the job.

Taking in a piece of work that required them to produce 20 sets of fantasy card advertisements in two days’ time was probably something only a person as skilled as their boss had the nerve to do! And the other party was the Central Island Firm. That was enough to heat up the blood of every employee.

Plus, being able to watch the boss make cards live with their own eyes was an opportunity they had never had. Every one of them was staring wide-eyed, afraid to miss the slightest detail. They would regret that for the rest of their lives. Even Bu Qiangdong couldn’t resist clinging to the front of the boss’s desk to get a close-up look.

The beautiful Lu Xiaoru couldn’t help but be a little jealous. That was her first time to be ignored in front of so many men. Their gazes were all focused on Chen Mu, filling her with curiosity about what kind of card that mysterious youth could really make. Was he really a card master?

There wasn’t a sound in the huge room during the process of Chen Mu’s card making.

Wei-ah wasn’t paying any attention to them. He was alone in a corner guarding a viewer fantasy card. He was watching the program on the screen with great interest. He had been totally into that thing ever since he’d watched that fight between the Gemini from Desert Camp and the icy woman from Moon Frost Island when he was on the street with Chen Mu. Because of that, Chen Mu had specifically bought him a viewer fantasy card and had even laid the wiring for it. That had become Wei-ah’s only entertainment.

The programs on the screen were endless, and there were more and more of them.

Chen Mu had found something really unique about Wei-ah—no matter what program was broadcast, Wei-ah would watch it with relish. He had even seen Wei-ah attentively watching “Lectures on the Nursing of Pregnant Women.” But what was hardest for him to take was that Wei-ah watched every lecture in the series from beginning to end, never missing a segment. Was he thinking about giving birth?

No matter the program, Wei-ah never changed his poker face. He always maintained his cold expression even while watching the most popular comedy programs, such as the one that gave countless people belly cramps, “The Daily Laugh.” He would watch the screen in concentration. He never missed one of those episodes either, but Chen Mu had never even seen the corner of his mouth twitch.

However, Wie-ah’s expression changed that day. He was staring intently at the screen when a doubtful look floated up on his face. Puzzled, it seemed as though some issue was confusing him. But his gaze didn’t leave the screen for an instant.

Having just completed the card, Chen Mu wasn’t paying any attention to Wei-ah’s changing expression in the corner, or he would have been very surprised. What could actually cause Wei-ah to look moved?

Chen Mu’s attention had gone from the card he’d just finished to the row of people standing in front of him—all his employees. Each of them was watching him full of reverence.

“Has everyone arrived?” They were all neatly arranged. Chen Mu had originally thought it would be pretty good if even half could come; he never thought nearly all would show up.

Bu Qiangdong said respectfully, “They’ve all come.” There were a few among the employees who had just been recruited to the company by Bu Qiangdong. They’d heard all kinds of rumors about the valiant boss and had seen all kinds of the boss’s work in the exhibition hall. It was still their first time seeing the actual Chen Mu. The look of curiosity couldn’t be hidden from their gazes.

Chen Mu didn’t waste words and said straight out, “Let’s look at the card first.”

There was a card play generator set up in the middle of the room. Although it was normally used to show card plays, it had no problem showing fantasy card advertisements. Bu Qiangdong had set it up earlier.

Each of the employees was craning their neck to watch the boss insert the completed card into the card play generator.