Those who had seen what the recording card looked like immediately lit up with excitement, their emotions stirred.
The screen lighting up already indicated that the recording card was functional!
In the next moment, the screen displayed numerous battleships swiftly darting through meteoroids. After a few shots, a face familiar to everyone in the Long River Galaxy appeared before the crowd.
“Xu Bai!” exclaimed a younger wealthy woman.
Hearing this exclamation, the middle-aged passenger, who had been quickly checking the recording card’s condition, snapped back to reality and hurriedly turned off the screen. However, he could hardly contain his excitement as he rushed forward and grabbed Chi Yun Su’s hand.
“Master, almost all the footage in the recording card is still there! It’s actually still there!!” The middle-aged passenger’s eyes reddened as he spoke.
Having never experienced card repair before, he had no idea that the data inside a damaged card could still be preserved after repair.
Although he noticed during the inspection that the total duration of the master tape had decreased significantly, retaining eighty percent of it was already beyond his expectations.
Having a card maker recreate the master tape was a last resort. The thought of losing the film he had painstakingly edited, dubbed, and color-graded over several months had been heartbreaking for the middle-aged man.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have carried this card with him at all.
A repaired recording card and a repaired recording card containing most of its original footage were two entirely different concepts for this middle-aged passenger.
However, Chi Yun Su, long hardened by experience, remained unmoved. She even had the leisure to glance at the circular mark she had left on his forehead earlier with the engraving knife handle. Calmly, as if she had anticipated this all along, she extended her citizen ID to the middle-aged passenger.
“Mhm, if the goods are verified, please transfer the payment,” Chi Yun Su replied perfunctorily before getting straight to what mattered most to her.
Fifty star coins were a quarter of her current savings!
The middle-aged passenger eagerly complied, swiftly opening his citizen ID and tapping it against Chi Yun Su’s. Shortly after, a beep sounded from Chi Yun Su’s account.
It was the notification of a successful transfer.
Out of habit, Chi Yun Su opened her account to check and saw that the agreed-upon fifty star coins were followed by several extra zeros.
It was clearly five hundred thousand star coins.
Chi Yun Su immediately looked up at the man, who was still overwhelmed with excitement. He enthusiastically said to her, “Master, you’re heading to Changhe Star, right? I know quite a few people there, both high and low. Whatever you need, I can arrange it for you.”
His words seemed to express gratitude and goodwill toward Chi Yun Su.
In reality…
Considering his identity as a director in the entertainment industry, it was likely the opposite—he needed Chi Yun Su’s status as a card maker to open doors in certain circles.
Coincidentally, Chi Yun Su also needed a channel with broad access to information and the ability to move seamlessly through various circles.After quickly weighing the pros and cons in her mind, Chi Yun Su’s eyes immediately turned pure and clear, as if shedding the adult facade she had been struggling to maintain, revealing a genuine innocence that matched her age. Upon hearing the other party say, “We can arrange anything you need,” her eyes lit up as if she had been promised candy.
“Really?” Chi Yun Su asked with full expectation.
“Of course…” The middle-aged passenger was about to agree wholeheartedly when he was immediately pulled aside by other passengers who were displeased.
After seeing the excellent performance of the recording card, Chi Yun Su had also become a coveted figure in their eyes. Hearing the middle-aged passenger’s earlier attempt to deceive a child, whether out of righteousness or selfish motives—or a mix of both—they pulled him aside and began speaking to Chi Yun Su in a clamor.
“Don’t listen to his nonsense. Liang Laixi is just a filmmaker who can only introduce you to some people. I’m from the Riqi Group, and we have strong connections in material research. If you need anything, Riqi will always welcome you to join without requiring any effort on your part.”
“I’m from Xinjin, and we’ve always collaborated with universities in the Long River Galaxy. If you need help in this area, we can also provide some assistance.”
“…I’m from the Zhao family. The Zhao family has involvement in all kinds of industries. As long as you’re willing…”
“…………”
A group of people who believed they had the means to recruit Chi Yun Su crowded around her, causing her to immediately show a frightened expression. She nervously backed away several steps with her chair, then seemed to realize her embarrassing behavior and became flustered and annoyed. “If you keep this up, don’t even think about asking me to repair or craft cards anymore!”
“I’ve already made up my mind,” Chi Yun Su said, pointing to the middle-aged passenger from earlier. “I’ll just have him help me find someone. I’ll earn the money myself—I don’t need your help! My teacher said you people are the best at exploiting others.”
Though unsure what was happening, Chi Yun Su sensed the situation was getting out of control. She quickly made up a story, pretending to have a strong background as a card maker, and lashed out at the group.
Still, Chi Yun Su’s words were quite effective.
Although the classification of card makers isn’t actually so simple and crude, in the eyes of most people, a card maker capable of consistently crafting purple cards is already at the two-star level.
Blue cards are one-star.
For three stars, one must be able to craft Yellow Cards, or even Gold Cards. At this stage, the skill gap among card makers is actually quite wide because, to advance further, four-star card makers must conduct in-depth research in other card-related fields and become leaders in a specific area of card crafting.
The requirements for this rating are extremely high.
Five-star card makers are legendary, with only two in the alliance’s capital. Other galaxies are fortunate to have even one, and the Long River Galaxy doesn’t have any at all.
Within the card-making community, reaching the three-star level is considered the baseline for competence.
But in the outside world, two-star card makers are already highly sought after and can serve as resident specialists for major corporations.
Consider the cards used in the core components of the F171 Port Cleaning Company—they’re only blue. Purple cards are reserved for the very core of the core.
So, as a three-star card maker, the Inspector indeed holds a very high position within the Cleaning Company.Chi Yun Su, at her age, already possessed at least a two-star level and had card repair skills that most card makers lacked. She indeed appeared to have a profound background, making it difficult for others to force her into anything.
The middle-aged passenger Liang Laixi had initially thought he had no chance when he saw this group of influential individuals step forward. He was completely surprised when Chi Yun Su ultimately chose him, and he immediately stepped forward again, skillfully managing the somewhat chaotic situation.
As someone working in the entertainment industry, Liang Laixi certainly had the ability to handle such situations. He acted very humbly and even paid for a drink for everyone present.
Although no one there was short on money, Liang Laixi’s gesture effectively soothed everyone’s emotions.
After all, with a way to save face, they didn’t want to offend a young card maker with a promising future and a mentor behind her.
However, some people still expressed curiosity about the Purple Card Liang Laixi had repaired.
They wondered whether the recording card had truly advanced in quality, as its color seemed to have changed.
Having been chosen by Chi Yun Su, Liang Laixi saw no reason to hide anything. He understood his current position clearly—this was the moment to prove his worth to Chi Yun Su and demonstrate that he could bring her benefits.
Without holding back, Liang Laixi sincerely extended two fingers to those curious: “I’m not entirely sure if the color has changed, but when I checked earlier, I found that the recording card’s capacity for storing footage has increased by twenty percent.”
The value of a recording card is directly tied to its storage capacity. Regardless of whether the card had truly advanced in quality, its value had undoubtedly increased.
Everyone present understood this, and another wave of astonishment swept through the crowd.
…Of course, there were also those who were completely clueless, holding their drinks and unaware of what was happening—like the group who had boarded the starship with Chi Yun Su.
But no one had the time to explain the situation to them. After learning that Chi Yun Su could not only repair cards but also enhance their quality, the previously calmed crowd grew restless again.
However, Chi Yun Su did not change her choice of collaborator based on their shifting attitudes.
Liang Laixi was indeed her most suitable option.
Although he had initially been stingy, offering only fifty star coins, his early decision to support Chi Yun Su’s business showed that his character, judgment, or luck were at least above average.
Moreover, his status wasn’t too high.
Chi Yun Su had never considered those with prominent backgrounds from the start.
While they might have greater capabilities and could quickly help her find Lu Wei, their influence also meant it would be difficult for Chi Yun Su to break free from them later.
She had already experienced this unpleasant situation back in Black Port and didn’t want to go through it again.
Liang Laixi, with his moderate status and hopes of collaborating with Chi Yun Su for mutual benefit to reach higher channels, was actually the most suitable choice.
Seeing that Chi Yun Su remained unwavering, the others gave up their attempts and instead took out their own cards for her to repair.
Chi Yun Su accepted them all without hesitation.Although the five hundred thousand star coins Liang Laixi gave her had already achieved Chi Yun Su’s desired goal in one go, after rejecting these people’s solicitations, she still had to give them some face.
Liang Laixi actively took on the role of a servant, collecting those Cards and handing them over to Chi Yun Su.
Chi Yun Su glanced over them briefly. In fact, most of the collected Cards didn’t have major issues and were still usable. Some even had Circuits that were only slightly grayed, clearly not having been used for many years.
This was actually normal. Severe damage like the recording card from earlier was very rare. Generally, Cards that were completely destroyed would naturally be discarded rather than kept on hand.
There were only about twenty Cards in total. Chi Yun Su returned four that she basically saw no damage on—she didn’t know why these people had slipped them in.
For the remaining dozen or so Cards, Chi Yun Su gave quotes one by one.
With the five hundred thousand star coins as a foundation, Chi Yun Su still chose to give what she considered normal quotes based on the extent of damage—tripling the reward standard of the Cleaning Company.
Chi Yun Su didn’t know if this was the normal market price, but after the quotes were given, none of the passengers raised any objections. Only a few passengers said they would be leaving at the next planet and hoped Chi Yun Su could repair their Cards first, even offering to pay extra.
Chi Yun Su had no issue with this, but she didn’t agree to the extra payment. Instead, she asked Liang Laixi to arrange the order for card repair.
Liang Laixi happily took on this small task.
Arranging the order was a small bit of power that fell into Liang Laixi’s hands, and it was also a good way for him to build relationships with others.
Immediately, Liang Laixi felt that Chi Yun Su, this card maker who only knew card crafting and card repair, was quite savvy.
A partnership had to be enjoyable for both sides to work.
With her goal achieved, Chi Yun Su didn’t linger in the activity room. After telling Liang Laixi her rest cabin number, she left with the Cards that needed repairing.
She arrogantly stated that she found the activity room too noisy.
Everyone expressed understanding.
They had also never seen a card maker just pick up a pen and start working in public like that.
Perhaps card repair was different from regular card crafting.
They convinced themselves of this.
Now, Chi Yun Su’s complaint about the noise actually reassured these wealthy individuals, who had begun to question their common sense about card makers.
Chi Yun Su was still a card maker within their normal understanding.
Unaware that she had unconsciously restored others’ perceptions, Chi Yun Su finally lay down peacefully in her rest cabin.
She could finally rest.
Feeling secure with her newfound wealth, Chi Yun Su gleefully counted the string of zeros in her citizen identity account, but this joy didn’t last long.
A knock sounded at the door of Chi Yun Su’s rest cabin.