The Mysterious Card Maker: Starting with Zhang Jiao's Deification

Lin Fan, who had no money, finally had to borrow five yuan from Zhou Chen to take the subway. Before leaving, he was mocked by Zhou Chen.

Although Lin Fan is only an intern card maker, he is capable of making cards independently. It's the first time someone like him has fallen so low that he can't even afford to take the subway.

When he appeared at Fenglinwan Residential Area, the sky turned gloomy, as if it was about to rain.

"This weather is so strange, it changes so quickly!" Lin Fan thought to himself, and quickened his pace.

Upon arriving on the sixth floor, Lin Fan did not return to his own room. Instead, he went straight to the room next door where Qin Muyao was, stood in front of the door, and gently knocked.

"Knock knock knock"

"Who is it? You're here!" Qin Muyao's voice rang out in the room, but no one came to open the door for a long time.

After waiting a few minutes, just as Lin Fan was about to knock on the door again, he heard the clattering of slippers coming from behind the door.

"click"

The door was slowly opened a crack.

Qin Muyao poked her head out to peek outside.

"What's with this outfit?" Lin Fan asked, noticing that she had her hair in a bun and a tiger-patterned face mask on her face.

"It's you!" Qin Muyao opened the door completely when she saw that it was Lin Fan.

Her loungewear hung loosely on her body, the neckline askew to one side, revealing half of her fair shoulder.

"Is it convenient? If not, I'll come back later."

Lin Fan's gaze unconsciously fell on her fair shoulder, then he immediately looked away.

"It's convenient, why wouldn't it be convenient?" Qin Muyao's voice rose a few decibels.

Lin Fan pointed to his shoulder.

"Here you are..."

"What's wrong?" Qin Muyao looked at the clothes in the direction of his hand, then glanced at her own clothes and casually adjusted her collar.

"This is how the clothes are. Come in, I have something to discuss with you!"

"Oh!" Lin Fan nodded and followed her inside.

"Change your shoes!" she mumbled, touching her face.

Lin Fan originally intended to step in directly, but after hearing this sound, he obediently took off his shoes, put on the slippers that had been prepared beforehand, and went in.

"Did you need something from me?" Lin Fan sat down opposite Qin Muyao.

Qin Muyao peeled off the face mask and casually threw it into the trash can next to her.

"Yes, it's still about yesterday's live stream!"

After doing all this, Qin Muyao picked up her phone, looked at her face in the light, logged into her Douyin account, and handed the phone to Lin Fan.

"Look, our inbox is overflowing with messages from fans."

Lin Fan took the phone and looked at the chat interface on the screen, which showed 999+ private messages.

"Is this all you wanted to tell me?"

Lin Fan placed his phone on the table and said in a calm tone.

If she wanted to say the account had become popular, then there was really no need for that; he might as well go back and make the cards sooner.

However, the two cards he bought in the morning arrived surprisingly quickly, in the afternoon. Lin Fan had to give a thumbs up to the recent speed of card delivery.

"Yeah, we're famous now, look, this is it." She leaned over, swiped her finger across the screen a few times, and pointed to a private message labeled (offline event provider).

"This card trading platform's special live stream gave us 150,000 yuan."

She then scrolled down and pointed to a conversation, saying, "Look, there's this one too. They want us to be product spokespeople for 200,000 yuan, but they said it's negotiable."

"Look...and there's more..." Qin Muyao pointed them out one by one, each price she mentioned impacting Lin Fan's sensitive nerves.

"How much did you say... 200,000, 100,000, or 500,000?" For the first time, Lin Fan realized that making money was so easy.

"Yes! But..." Qin Muyao paused, then added.

"However, they required us to sign the contract using our real identities. In public, we would still appear as 'Xiao Hei' and 'Xiao Bai,' but the contract had to use our real names."

"They want to know who we are." Upon hearing this, Lin Fan immediately understood; this money didn't seem so easy to earn after all.

"You definitely need to confirm that the person signing the contract is the real person. If any fraud is discovered later, you can get the money back. This is common sense in the industry," Qin Muyao said, sounding like a seasoned professional.

"Let's forget about it then. It's not convenient for us to show our faces right now." Lin Fan shook his head, looking resistant.

"Putting aside whether the Qin family will discover your identity, if the All Souls Society finds out about us, it could cause even more trouble."

Qin Muyao paused for a moment, but did not refute.

Just then, a new message appeared at the top of the screen.

"New World Foundation, cultural promotion project, offering access to a secret location! Compensation negotiable! No identity information required!"

Upon seeing this message, Lin Fan's pupils contracted, and something seemed to explode in his mind.

"The New World Foundation!" he exclaimed.

"The New World Foundation..." she read aloud, tilting her head to look at Lin Fan as if confirming something, "This name sounds familiar, it's..."

"The person Wei Ming from the Card Master Association mentioned in your Qin Group is also the one who introduced Zhang Li to your grandfather!"

Qin Muyao frowned. "Is it that organization related to the Society of Ten Thousand Souls? Why would they approach the 'Lord of the Underworld'? Or have we been exposed?"

Lin Fan shook his head, his gaze fixed on the message. "Not necessarily, but it's always better to be cautious!"

He picked up his phone and read the message from beginning to end. Just then, another message popped up in the chat window.

"To show our sincerity, the access to the secret realm can be granted in advance, and the details of the cooperation can be finalized later."

The other party immediately offered access to the secret realm.

The strangeness of the secret realm is something many card masters dream of; compared to the strangeness in reality, it is easier to obtain high-quality materials there.

This doesn't seem like a business negotiation; it's more like an attempt to curry favor.

The two exchanged a glance but did not rush to reply.

"Is that what you think?" Qin Muyao asked.

Lin Fan stared at the message for a few more seconds, then said, "We can let them reveal some of the content of the announcement."

Qin Muyao raised an eyebrow: "Not refusing? Maybe it's a trap?"

"Such good offers, refusing them would only make them think there's something wrong with us!"

Qin Muyao nodded, took her phone in her hand, and quickly replied.

The other party replied almost instantly after the message was sent:

"Your live stream content is novel, especially the presentation of the novel element of 'the Gates of Hell,' which is exactly our philosophy of exploring new things."

Immediately afterwards, a QR code was sent over.

"To show our sincerity, this is a single-entry D+ level qualification for the Secret Realm [Hidden Ruins]. If you are interested, please come to the coffee shop on the third floor of the Jiang City Card Trading Center at 3 PM tomorrow to discuss the details."

"Go?"

Lin Fan stared at the QR code on the screen, paused for a few seconds, and said, "Tomorrow, let's go and meet them. In a public place, they probably can't pull off anything."

"But before that..." He stood up, a sharp glint in his eyes, "I'll make some cards first, to save some trump cards for ourselves!"

"Another card-making operation?" Qin Muyao's eyes lit up. "What is it this time?"

Lin Fan walked to the door, changed back into his own shoes, and glanced back at her.

"The underworld is unpredictable."