The Card Apprentice

Chapter 87: Eight Million?

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

Seeing Zuo Tingyi come home through the door, Zuo Tang came running and skipping toward him and tugged at his wrist.

“Did you miss me, big brother?” Zuo Tang looked up adorably.

A little bit of tenderness flashed in Zuo Tingyi’s otherwise cold eyes. It seemed as though those past few days of being worn out had vanished. He smiled lightly, and rubbed Zuo Tang’s little head, saying, “What happened today to make you so happy?”

I rode in Sister Phoenix’s ‘fiery mayfly’ today. What fun! Such a nimble shuttle car, just like a fish, and it’s beautiful!” Zuo Tang was so excited that she was almost jumping.

Zuo Tingyi didn’t know what the fiery mayfly was, though he could make a guess. Seeing Zuo Tang so happy, those few days of gloom opened into sunshine. “Ha Ha, you like it that much? Would you like your big brother to get you one?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Zuo Tang looked so happy the she couldn’t wait to fly right up, but she quickly frowned, “But big brother, you can’t buy the fiery mayfly.”

Zuo Tingyi reached out and lightly smoothed Zuo Tang’s frown, laughing, “Where could there be a shuttle car that can’t be bought, how about your more expensive big brother helps you to buy one, OK?”

“But . . .but . . .” Zuo Tang wanted to say something, but she was cut off by Zuo Tingyi, “Fine, fine, you don’t need to frown! You’ll get stuck that way. Just give this over to your big brother!”

Just then a servant came forward, “Young Master, the Master has instructed that you are to please come to the library the minute you return.”

“Got it.” Zuo Tingyi’s expression resumed its chill, while his right hand affectionately patted Zuo Tang on the head. Then he left to go to his father’s library.

Seeing Zuo Tingyi thinned down, a hint of tenderness flashed past Zuo Tianlin’s eyes, while his expression remained unruffled as always.

“You were looking for me?” Zuo Tingyi asked respectfully. As he grew gradually older, he had already begun to take on some of the family responsibilities, since he was to be the patriarch of the next generation.

“Mmmm, sit down.” Zuo Tianlin said mildly.

Zuo Tingyi sat up very straight with his spine like a ramrod, awaiting his father’s instruction.

“You’ve made a lot of progress recently.” Zuo Tianlin gave rare praise for his most recent work, though seeing him still sitting up so straight, with a calm expression and no least bit of self-satisfaction, he couldn’t help feeling consoled.

After that slight pause, he continued, “Your time at school will likely be decreasing. I’m getting old, and you will start learning to take on the household affairs. From what I’ve seen, you’re doing very well.”

“Yes.” Zuo Tingyi slightly bowed in response.

“Oh, yes, is there any news about Chen Mu?”

“Still nothing.”

“Hmmm, then you’d better get busy.”

As he was leaving the library, Zuo Tingyi’s mood returned to being as gloomy as the day outside. It was as though he had a rock pressing on his heart. Although he’d known his fate for a very long time, with the day finally arriving, he still couldn’t feel at ease. It was clear to him that while his father hadn’t had any affairs to discuss when he looked for him, what was behind what he did say was unequivocal; the time had come to part with the school.

The image of his father looking tired as he said that he had gotten old just now made Zuo Tingyi’s heart sour and filled his mouth with a bitter taste. For the Zuo household, being a card master wasn’t important for the person who would be the patriarch, no matter what. He hadn’t had a choice from the time he was born.

He suddenly saw Zuo Tang jumping and skipping in the courtyard, playing, which calmed his mood quite a bit. He called through to Hong Tao’s communications card, who had become more useful since guiding Wang Ze from the Star Academy and was now training day and night.

As soon as Hong Tao took the call, he blurted out, “How long has it been since you’ve been at school you knucklehead? This kind of laziness is over the edge! You’re conduct is unacceptable.”

Zuo Tingyi didn’t show any emotion, “You know what I’ve been doing.”

That stopped Hong Tao from talking, since he certainly knew Zuo Tingyi’s recent situation. But those were the issues which every big household’s offspring had to face, not even considering that Zuo Tingyi had already been designated as the future patriarch of the Zuo clan.

“I say, you have really been too ruthless in framing that guy Chen Mu! For good or bad, he helped us once.” Hong Tao had to change the subject, purposefully making a fuss about nothing. Hong Tao and Zuo Tingyi had recognized Chen Mu immediately when they saw his likeness on the wanted posters. His picking up a stool and lunging that time had left a deep impression.

Hong Tao didn’t have the slightest thought of coming to Chen Mu’s defense, since it wasn’t worth offending the Zuo family for such a small thing. He was just trying to make a joke of it all talking that way.

“I’m looking for you to help me with something.” Zuo Tingyi hadn’t talked with Hong Tao about this scrape and went directly to his subject.

“Hong Tao looked baffled, “You have something you want my help with? There sure are a lot of strange things happening today!”

“Tang Tang likes a shuttle car called the ‘fiery mayfly.’ It’s the one Phoenix Lin has, a modified car. Help me to find out who made it and buy one. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little expensive. I haven’t had time to come to school recently.” While Zuo Tingyi was calmly talking he was watching Zuo Tang amid her energetic play, not far away.

“So, it’s our little princess who wants it! No problem! Leave it to me!” Hong Tao was pounding his chest to the heavens, since Zuo Tang had always gotten everyone’s affection, and Hong Tao was the same, always spoiling her.

Having resolved that issue, Zuo Tingyi pulled back his gaze, and walked steadily forward, still having some business he hadn’t completed.

* * *

Hu! Chen Mu was in a sweat, wet as though he’d just been fished out of the water. Though he actually was more or less fished out from the water – the “Swordfish Training,” or rather more precisely, it should be called the “Bubblefish Training”– was also in the water.

The strong resistance in the water made Chen Mu struggle enough. As the training time got longer, the feeling was especially clear. Since one had to coordinate one’s whole body’s strength to move in the water, it led to his entire body feeling unusually sore.

Without the guidance of the demonic woman, he could only fumble along by himself. He blended together the dodging and evading skills that she had taught him with his underwater exertion skills. But judging from what he now saw, he still needed a longer period of effort.

It was a good thing that he had never thought from the outset that it would be an easy challenge to complete.

With the demonic woman still not having returned, he lingered for a while gazing out the window in a trance, before going to sleep in the dark.

The class was very boisterous, everyone seeming to be animatedly discussing some topic. Chen Mu discovered that very rare occurrence as he arrived at the classroom door. For such a gang of rich kids, the probability of diligence so early was really no different from that of the sun coming up in the West.

When Chen Mu walked into the room, all the voices sank of a sudden, and everything became silent, while everyone’s gaze turned to Chen Mu.

Chen Mu was a little frightened, checking himself out a little to be sure that he looked normal, with nothing strange about him.

Chen Mu kept his usual expression under everyone’s gaze, while inwardly he was very much on guard.

Little by little, Chen Mu’s nerves tensed up, and he would have reacted if there were the tiniest bit of wind moving a blade of grass.

The air seemed to have congealed, as Chen Mu very cautiously walked, while putting on a calm expression as though nothing were out of the ordinary.

From the door to his seat was only a few paces, though it seemed strangely endless for Chen Mu in that instant.

The atmosphere was just too weird!

A very fine bead of sweat was forming on his back, as he was afraid of being found out.

The classroom was weirdly silent until he sat down.

The ones who broke through the silence which was nearly suffocating Chen Mu were Phoenix and Ya Ya.

The two of them ran over to Chen Mu, and Phoenix very excitedly said, “Yao Ke, you are so awesome!” Ya Ya kept flitting her eyes toward Chen Mu from beside her, as though she thought she saw something unusual on him.

“What?” Chen Mu asked, deliberately calmly, still not having clarified what was going on.

“Don’t you know?” Ya Ya was amazed.

Chen Mu shook his head, “No.”

Looking carefully at Chen Mu’s expression, and feeling that he wasn’t faking, Ya Ya finally said half believing and half doubting, “Spanner won the defensive competition yesterday!”

“Oh.” Hearing that, Chen Mu thought maybe it wasn’t something bad, and he gradually started to relax.

“You’re not even a little bit excited? How can you not be excited? Ya Ya was looking at Chen Mu as though she were looking at someone from outer space.

Chen Mu stayed completely silent. It was probably only those poor bored guys who would put on the so-called defensive competition, and then be bored enough to get excited about it.

“It’s true, it’s true! How can you not be excited?” Phoenix was just as excited, “We watched the defensive competition yesterday. It was terrific! You don’t know how stupid all those guys looked after Spanner won the first prize! Ha Ha, it was great! All the firepower came down on that energy cloak.”

“Oh.” Chen Mu responded without emotion. He had completely relaxed, finding that the way they were was because of that matter. So, there wasn’t any danger, and he considered his responses just then to be an overreaction for sure.

“We only found out afterward that you’re the one who made that energy cloak card that Spanner used. You are too awesome! Spanner was just here looking for you. The winnings for the defensive competition this time were ten million. Adding in the side-bets, Spanner made at least thirty million. According to the rules, he has to split it with you four to one. That’s nearly eight million. I’ve never made that much money.” Ya Ya said this full of a little envy, not about the eight million, but because she thought it was pretty amazing that Chen Mu could make that much money.

“Eight million?” Chen Mu was stunned. The number was probably the biggest amount of money he’d every heard. But he wasn’t greedy about the money; for him to use a three-star fantasy card in exchange for Spanner’s dual composition is what he thought he was earning.

That gang of people burned money like mad! That was Chen Mu’s second thought.

But apart from those two thoughts, Chen Mu was restored to normal. No wonder they had just been looking at him so strangely. They were probably blown away by the eight million. That’s what Chen Mu was thinking.