Who told him to make the cards!

This is where the money is collected; don't forget.

Although the box was never full.

New cards are almost nowhere to be seen in the mining area.

To save money, everyone uses old parts, which means less material is needed for repairs, making them naturally cheaper.

This is also a helpless move.

Baita Group sells standard mining cards for 27 copper jiao each, and hemostasis cards and hot water cards for 22 copper jiao each.

The price wasn't high, but Ding Mao was simply inhuman.

The miners now only receive a monthly special subsidy of 5 copper coins, which is not even enough to buy half a copper coin.

Since no one was willing to spend their own money, they could only mend and patch things up, and make do as long as it wasn't broken.

Old Zhou was at the front of the line, with two flatbreads in his pocket.

He is almost fifty years old and has been working in the Black Stone mining area for nearly thirty years. He has survived several mining accidents, but he is lucky to have survived them all.

The price was two fingers missing from his right hand.

Old Zhou looked Chen Zhi up and down, his eyes filled with doubt. He wondered why the kid had changed his clothes today and was wearing a dustproof jacket.

"Are you going down the mine today too?" he asked.

"No, I'm not wearing any," Chen Zhi replied casually. "Just whatever I'm wearing."

As he spoke, he pulled out a stone from somewhere and threw it into the tin box containing the money.

Old Zhou exclaimed "Eh!"

"Your mine..."

"It doesn't look like the one in Asai."

The ore was very small, only about half the size of a fist, but it was crystal clear and very beautiful, with fluffy inclusions inside, like a high-quality jade.

"Brought out of well number 13?"

Old Zhou asked in surprise.

Chen Zhi made a shushing gesture: "Shh."

Old Zhou immediately showed a knowing expression.

Chen Zhi was once a miner.

Stealing fragments of ore or associated stones from the mine was a favorite pastime of veteran miners.

It's for collection, as a badge of honor for surviving from the depths of a dangerous mine.

Because it's worthless, the steward Ding Mao usually turns a blind eye to it, as long as you don't flaunt it in front of him.

Old Zhou has quite a few stones in his collection, but none of them can compare to Chen Zhi's.

Well No. 13 is the deadliest well in the entire Black Stone mining area, with accidents occurring almost every year, the most recent one just half a month ago.

This wasn't a topic for discussion, so Lao Zhou, seeing that Chen Zhi had set up the stall, dropped the subject and got back to the main point, handing Chen Zhi a miner's lamp card with three fingers.

"Come on, Chen, take a look at this for me."

"It was fine last night, but suddenly it went dark this morning. What happened?"

“The mineral mist damaged the lamp pattern.”

Chen Zhi took it and glanced at it, immediately knowing: "Did you go to Well No. 7 yesterday?"

Old Zhou was taken aback: "You know that?"

"I told you a long time ago that well No. 7 would be foggy recently, and I told you not to go there, but you wouldn't listen."

The mines in the Blackstone mining area are not mines on Earth; they are far more dangerous.

Mineral fog is not ordinary fog; it contains a large amount of mineral dust and magical debris that can corrode cards. Once the miner's lamp card is damaged and the light weakens, it can no longer penetrate the dense fog.

In the intricate network of underground mines, not being able to see the way is fatal.

Getting lost usually means death.

“Your card is practically unusable. Even if you fix it, it will only stay lit for a short while,” Chen Zhi said. “If you don’t want to die down there, you’ll have to find a different well today.”

"..."

Old Zhou was much older than Chen Zhi, but he was scolded so badly that he didn't dare to say a word.

Years of experience with him had taught him that Chen Zhi was a mysterious guy, and most of what he said was true.

He was indeed reckless this time.

The ore in Mine No. 7 was more valuable, and the foreman was offering higher wages, so he couldn't resist.

Old Zhou didn't speak, but a young miner behind him asked sarcastically, "How do you know how long the mine fog will last?"

"Xiao Chen, did you look at the moon again last night?"

"They say you understand astrology and can tell fortunes."

"Why don't you calculate it for me too, and see how many truckloads I can dig today? If there are too many, I'll share some with you."

Chen Zhi lit the furnace used for baking the card, glanced at him, and said, "I not only know how long the mine fog will last, but I also know that you secretly went to the abandoned mine entrance yesterday."

His sense of smell is just as good as his hearing.

Even from half a meter away, Chen Zhi could smell the sweet, rusty scent of the young miners' breath as they spoke.

This is a sign of poisoning.

"Let's go again tonight, and everyone can have the feast tomorrow."

"I'll sit at the children's table."

The young miner's expression froze.

You're really good at math?

Old Zhou, who had been silent, seemed to have found a moral high ground and immediately turned around to scold him.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"You dare to go to an abandoned mine?"

It's near an incinerator, and it's filled with all sorts of waste year-round. The air is smelly and toxic; if you stay there for a few hours, you'll be half dead, if not dead.

The young miner shrank back and said sheepishly, "I just went to take a look. Someone said you could find treasure over there."

Old Zhou sneered: "Treasure, my foot! I think you're the real treasure."

"..."

Chen Zhi ignored the two of them.

When the oven reached the right temperature, he put on gloves and placed Lao Zhou's miner's lamp card on it to bake.

Once the card surface warms up and the "sealing glue" used to close the gap from the previous repair softens, he picks up a needle, pries away the sticky glue, and begins the card repair process.

The overall structure of a miner's lamp card is relatively simple.

The complex Chen Zhi was also beyond his reach.

He had studied the standard cards from the mining area for a long time, and soon found its core light pattern from a bunch of black lines.

Each line of the brand-new lamp pattern should be straight, like a taut line, but after being corroded by the mineral mist, the ink faded and diffused, as if it had been scratched, turning into a rope that was thick at both ends and thin in the middle, and was also somewhat twisted, and might break at any time.

Chen Zhi scraped some all-purpose white marrow mineral powder from the bottle, mixed it with water to make a thick paste, and then applied it to the tip of a needle. He used the needle tip to thicken the fine details of each line bit by bit.

After that, you also need to clean up the ink stains that are spreading around the patterns.

This step also uses a needle.

Or rather, Chen Zhi always used needles to replace cards.

Because his pen was homemade and very rough, it wasn't suitable for such delicate work.

After a while.

The lamp pattern structure repair is complete.

Chen Zhi squeezed another drop of sealant into the notch where the needle had been inserted.

He blew on it again to cool it down, then returned the card to Lao Zhou.

"It can only stay lit for about sixty more hours."

"Don't go to Well No. 7, you hear me?"

Chen Zhi repeated.

Old Zhou was his best friend in the mining area, and he didn't want to eat at Old Zhou's banquet.

"Okay, listen to you."

Old Zhou nodded eagerly in agreement, his face beaming with joy.

That Chen kid is really capable; he fixed the card for him in no time, so he doesn't have to buy a new one for now.

He touched his pocket, his smile faltering for a moment, then he asked, slightly embarrassed, "How much?"