Fang Xiang

This is both a work of science fiction and an exploration of the meaning of life, love, literature and art. Brainpower is no longer the main ingredient for being human in this far distant future world.  Spirituality, physical balance, and diligence all come together as integrity for Chen Mu, the Card Apprentice.  The cards which Chen Mu masters in his own scrappy way, distill all the powers of the cosmos –  human and nonhuman –  into something that is not a book, not technology, and neither art nor magic, but is these and more.  Learn about these strange cards, which can embody everything you might imagine for the future of technology, but also a future beyond technology which promotes the best, and sometimes the worst, from mankind’s past.

The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu very safely left the station, mixed up in the crowd. The station exit was a ball of confusion, with panicked crowds everywhere, making the scene of thousands upon thousands running out through the exits quite a spectacle. Chen Mu was insignificant among them, with no one paying any attention to him.

He sighed to himself since he didn't know how many innocent people might have lost their lives getting mixed up in the chaos. He felt gloomy, not having realized that the situation would become so chaotic. While there would still have been pandemonium, no-one would have been killed If the apparatus hadn't exploded on that card artisan that he had killed. If the ones killed had been those card artisans, he wouldn't have felt bad at all, but when it spread to these innocent travelers, he felt very sorry.

He quickly got rid of all those extraneous thoughts, and strode away, quickly departing from the station exit.

The Ning Household