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

"Raw materials, but we only want high-grade goods. If there are any items you can't identify, you can bring those out as well. In addition…" Xi Ping glanced at Bogner, "if you have any fine card appliances, you could also bring those out for us to take a look at."

Miss Xiao smiled sweetly. "All right, please wait a minute."

After a moment, one of her workers sent over several fantasy cards. Miss Xiao's scallion-like fingers pulled one of them out and slipped it into a card projection device in front of Chen Mu and the rest. An ordered list immediately appeared in front of them. By picking any one among the list, more detailed information about its parameters would pop out.

What Miss Xiao hadn't expected was that the one flipping through the list wasn't the richly experienced Xi Ping; it was their young boss.

The Hughes Chamber of Commerce (II)