The blade-like tip of the pen glides gently over a blue-gray card. Slender blue lines run smoothly from under the nib. The pale blue lines on the palm-sized card continued to increase, and gradually, an intricate and mysterious pattern became more and more perfect as the tip of the pen slided.

Chen Dui's eyes were focused on the card, and his breathing was slow, as if he was afraid of alarming something. If you look closely, you can see that his right arm has not moved at all from beginning to end, only his wrist has moved. His right wrist was as flexible as a snake, soft as boneless. With a slight turn of the nib, an elegant arc appears on the card. Suddenly, the tip of the pen was heavy, changing the lightness just now, and then suddenly a sharp side hook, the pen hook is like a blade! The pattern on the card suddenly lit up, then quickly dimmed and returned to normal.

Chen Du casually placed it among the stacked cards on the side of the table. His movements are skilful and natural, and there is no obstacle in the slightest. His face was still focused on completing this card, he had only completed fifteen cards now, and he was ten miles away from today's task. What he's working on now is a one-star energy card, which is currently one of the most widely used and most consumed cards as the lowest-level energy card. At that moment, the room suddenly went dark.

"Damn, I'm running out of energy again!" Chen Du muttered a few words, took out an energy card from the card stack with his left hand, and then pressed it lightly on his right wrist, and the meter worn on his right wrist shot out a bright beam. With the help of the beam, Chen Du cautiously walked to the corner, the room was too cluttered for he 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, and Chen Du inserted the energy card in his hand into the slot of the meter.

As soon as the energy card was inserted into the card slot, the room was lit up again. The number one hundred is displayed on the meter. I didn't expect to run out of energy, and it seems that today's task is going to add one more. Returning to his desk, Chen Du quickly threw himself into his work, relying on the most paper-level cards for all his livelihood. Since he learned to make these energy cards three years ago, he has never stopped working on twenty-five cards a day.

Chen's room is small, less than forty square meters, and contains a half-used work desk. Except for the work desk, which is relatively clean, the rest of the room is littered with piles of clutter. These miscellaneous items are also varied, piles of old books, scattered all kinds of raw materials.

In this humble place, Chen Duan lived for three years. This is a relief room specially provided by the federal political axe, a small room like this, which can be moved in for only one hundred and fifty odds per month. For a poor person like Chen, there really is no cheaper place than here. What's more, in his opinion, he is already quite good in this way, and he has even seen the whole family of four crammed into a room of the same size.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Du finally finished the day's work - twenty-five energy cards. After carefully counting the number of cards, counting twice in a row, and making sure that the number was correct, he carefully put the energy cards into the card wallet in his clothes.

Walking down the street, the night was already getting thicker. The colorful lights make people linger in the night, and the fireworks from the tail of the shuttle that fly by in the sky from time to time drag the gorgeous trajectory of one after another. Chen Du tightened his coat slightly, and looked up at the sky. The cold is getting heavier, and it seems that winter is coming. There is no extra mind to lament the passage of time, but there is another amount of consumption for heating in winter, Chen Du thought in his heart.

Passing by the back door of Dongwei Academy, Chen Du has been walking this road for three years, but every time he sees those students coming in and out together, he can't help but feel an inexplicable emotion in his heart. After regrouping his mind, Chen Du walked briskly towards a small shop next to the school. The name of the small shop is "Dongwei Grocery Store" - there are at least twenty similar shops with the same name around Dongwei Academy. In the past three years, Chen Du has been visiting this small shop every day, rain or shine, and it has never stopped. It's just that he's not here to buy something, on the contrary, he's here to sell something.

As soon as he entered, the shopkeeper noticed and beckoned, "Twilight is here!" ”

"Yes, Uncle Hua." He replied to the shopkeeper. The owner, Uncle Hua, is an old man about fifty years old, and the years have 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 Du carefully took out the card pack from his arms, took out the stack of energy cards, and handed them to the shopkeeper: "Twenty-five." ”

Uncle Hua took the card from Chen Dui's hand, put it on the shelf without looking at it, and said with a smile: "Fortunately, Adui you send the card every day, otherwise I will have a shortage of goods here." ”

Chen Du smiled slightly, but did not answer, he knew that Uncle Hua's words were probably a joke. The one-star energy card is the cheapest energy card, but it is also one of the most consumed cards, not to mention that it is located near Dongwei Academy, where can only twenty-five energy cards be sold in a day?

Uncle Hua also knew Chen Dui's temper, and he didn't talk nonsense, and asked directly: "Does Ah Dui need cash or transfer?" "Transfer." Chen Duan replied simply, and after speaking, he handed Uncle Hua a pale green Dika that had been prepared a long time ago. After settling the settlement, Chen Du said goodbye to Uncle Hua and wanted to turn around and leave.

Uncle Hua suddenly stopped Chen Dui: "Ah Dui, wait a minute." ”

Chen Du stopped, turned around and looked at Uncle Hua with a little surprise: "Is there anything else?" Uncle Hua. ”

Uncle Hua took out a goose-yellow piece of paper from the drawer and looked at Chen Du with a smile: "I almost forgot something." This is a card maker training class attendance card, which was given by the dealer when it was purchased yesterday. It's also a piece of waste paper here, so take it. ”

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

Three years ago, he had just learned how to make energy cards and peddled them everywhere, but few people cared about them, and no merchants were willing to buy them. The amount required for one-star energy cards is very large, and merchants prefer to buy in large quantities at one time. And Chen Du can only make a maximum of 30 sheets a day, which is only a small amount that is not even a fraction for merchants.

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

Four years ago, Chen Du was a homeless child with no fixed home. Once, he met a card maker, a card maker who was already dying. He exchanged the five months he had accumulated for the cardmaker's lifespan, extending his life by seven days. During these seven days, he learned one skill, and that was the making of one-star energy cards. After his death, the cardmaker left no relics for him, and Chen Du buried him in the wilderness. He still doesn't know the name of the card maker, but his fortunes have changed since then.

He spent a year doing as many days as he could, during which time he did six different kinds of day jobs, and this year, he was twelve years old. It was also in this year that he finally had a small savings, a thousand Odi. For this 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 1005 euros, and the uniform retail price is 110 euros, and its cost is only 98 hours.

Every card maker can make one-star energy cards, but not many people know the price difference, and even if they do, almost no one will have the idea of this. The one-star energy card is one of the simplest cards, and it is fully industrially producible. And even a master-level card maker can only make twenty or thirty energy cards a day at most, and the output is really pitiful. Moreover, for card makers, they don't bother to pick up the money they earn through the difference when it falls to the ground. But for Chen Dui, this money is enough to feed him.

He succeeded in making eight for the first time, almost losing two hundred odds, but this gave him hope. But what he didn't expect was that when he was selling energy cards, he was hindered. The merchants had no interest in the few energy cards he had. He ran all day, did not eat, and at eight o'clock in the evening he stepped into Uncle Hua's shop. When he entered the store, his legs were a little shaky, and he was almost on the verge of coma after not eating a drop of rice all day.

Although the price of one hundred and three odds was lower than the wholesale price of one hundred and five, Chen Du felt that he was surrounded by great joy. I sold all the energy cards in my hand and bought the cheapest food, and the rest of the money was all used to buy the raw materials for the energy cards.

Since then, Chen's life has finally stabilized.

Twenty-five energy cards a day, he didn't break a day.

This is three years. In the past three years, he has only made one type of card - a one-star energy card. By the second year, he had been able to keep the cost under ninety-seven odds. Although it is only a difference of Odi, it is a great encouragement for him. In addition to making energy cards, he spends all his time researching how to reduce costs.

Finally, in the third year, the cost of the energy card was controlled by him at ninety-five Odi, and he could make a profit of eight Odi per energy card, and his daily income was stable at two hundred Odi, which was a figure he could not have imagined three years ago. The income of 6,000 Odia a month allowed him to live an ordinary life, but he still lived in a relief house that only required 150 Odia a month.

Chen Dui, who came back to his senses, smiled at Uncle Hua: "Thank you, Uncle Hua!" He took the pass and carefully placed it in the card case in his arms.

Training courses, especially for card makers, are one of the most prevalent training courses at the moment. They often advertise with incomparably gorgeous advertisements, such as what is said on this attendance card, "Dongwei University recognizes academic qualifications" and "Dongwei University's senior card maker authoritatively speaks" Yunyun, in fact, what is inside Chen Duan is clear. The only thing that had to do with the institution that hosted the course was that the institution had to pay a fee to the institution each time as a price for them to maintain this nominal "joint event".

Chen Du still planned to listen to what was being said in the training class. Card making is one of the most difficult studies, and for so many years, he has not given up self-study, but with little success. It wasn't until last year that he understood what was going on. His foundation is really poor, and he has not received any cultural education after more than ten years of wandering life.

For a teenager who has no foundation, it is naturally more difficult to learn by himself the notoriously difficult and obscure card making science. However, he had no doubts about his intelligence, and he was able to learn to make one-star energy cards in a week using only his memory, and the card maker praised his talent back then.

Since then, he has let go of this goal, which is temporarily too high for him, and has begun to move on to the most basic theoretical studies. Every day, no matter how tiring he is from work, he will find time to learn these boring knowledge.

After saying goodbye to Uncle Hua, Chen Du walked down an alley towards the south. Today is Saturday and he has one more job.

After walking for about twenty minutes through two streets, he came to a second-hand card buying station.

"Hey, man, here!" He was greeted by a black, skinny, skinny bald head, his name was Xiao Hei. He is also the owner of this acquisition station. Every Saturday and Sunday evening, Chen Du would come here to work for three hours.

Chen Du nodded slightly at Xiao Hei, but his face was still a little blank.

For Chen Dui's face, Xiao Hei has long been accustomed to it. When Chen Du came here to ask for a part-time job, Xiao Hei originally refused. This buying station has been taken care of by himself since his father, and when it comes to his hands, he has also been in charge of it himself.

Hire someone? Blackie can't afford that.

However, when Chen Du said that he didn't want to be paid, Xiao Hei finally agreed. Of course, Chen Du is still paid, and usually Chen Du will choose a few scrap cards to take away as his salary. Sometimes Chen Duan would pick out a few unused energy cards from these waste piles, and Xiao Hei would calculate an account, and every month, he would save a lot of money on them. It's just that for the taciturn Chen Dui, he can't help but be a little curious, how does this guy know that there is still residual energy in these cards?

But since then, every time he sees Chen Dui, he smiles.

Chen Duan squatted down and began to sort through the stacked waste cards. There are many types of cards, including energy cards, item cards, skeuomorphic cards, and even some of the less common plant cards and animal cards. However, the cards here are all useless without exception, and all Chen Du has to do is to sort these cards into categories.

The work was going fast and it was clear that he was very familiar with the work.

Chen Du flipped his wrist and threw a card at Xiao Hei: "Well, this card can be used for a while." "There is at least half of the energy in this two-star energy card, and Chen Du can't understand why the original owner of this card would be so wasteful. The capacity of a two-star energy card is one thousand, that is, there is almost five hundred energy in it.

"Hehe, thank you Brother Chen!" Xiao Hei looked at the two-star energy card in his hand, and his eyebrows and eyes smiled. Running to the energy meter, he inserted the card into it, and when he saw the "523" number lit up on it, Xiao Hei's facial features were almost crowded together with a smile.

Chen Du ignored it, and he went about rummaging through it wholeheartedly. Although there will also be some obsolete intermediate cards, such as three-star four-star cards, the probability of appearing is still quite high. But for him, it has little value. The only thing he's interested in right now is a one-star energy card.

After three years of production career, he has his own understanding of this most ordinary and low-level card. There is not only one way to make one-star energy cards, and Chen Du has already collected twelve one-star energy cards with different structures from this one. Chen Du was greatly inspired by these one-star energy cards with different structures, and it was because he borrowed some of the techniques from these cards that he succeeded in reducing the cost of making one-star energy cards to ninety-five Odi. However, this kind of good fortune does not happen every day, and so far, he has only collected twelve.

Today's luck seems to have been good, though.

Looking at the one-star energy card in his hand, judging from the surface pattern, he was a one-star energy card that Chen Duan had never encountered with another new structure.

He put the card aside and continued to rummage through it. The number of one-star energy cards was too many, but Chen Du took the trouble to check them one by one. His speed was so fast that he could tell if he wanted it by stroking his hand over these one-star energy cards.

All of this comes from his familiarity with one-star energy cards. This familiarity was left over from three years of uninterrupted production, and he didn't need to look at it, just by feeling it, he could tell if this card was a one-star energy card, or if it was a structure he had seen. He was so familiar with them that he had every detail of them.

The fingers that skimmed over the edge of the card stopped suddenly.

This card ......