I still wore a cold expression on my face.
"What I mean is simple. If you take her away now, it would be breaking the rules. Even if you do take her, it should be after midnight, right?"
The two of them looked at each other.
After a while, one of them finally spoke:
"Fine, let's follow the rules. Su Mei, I'll give you a few more hours. If you don't return the money by midnight, don't blame us, brothers..."
Mei Jie's face still displayed a look of despair.
The two of us sat in the car, and she gently caressed the steering wheel, hesitatingly saying:
"I bought this car less than a year ago, and now it's gone. Ah, Chu Liu, you shouldn't have let them have these few extra hours. These few hours are torture for me. With or without these few hours, the result is the same for me!"
I opened a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes, lit one, and looked out the window, saying calmly:
"Not the same."
"What do you mean by not the same?"
"Perhaps, we still have a chance to turn things around!"
"We?"
"Yes, us!"
As soon as the words left my mouth, Su Mei looked at me in astonishment.
Her gaze was extremely complex.
Hope, worry, surprise.
After a while, she spoke again:
"But I don't have a single penny now, what can I use to turn things around?"
I took out a stack of money from my pocket.
This money was the red envelope gift Su Mei gave me before.
"This is the ten thousand yuan you gave me as a lucky money. We can give it a try..."
My calm tone surprised Su Mei even more.
"How can ten thousand be enough?"
I flicked the cigarette butt out the window, turned to look at Su Mei, and said calmly:
"You won't know until you try."
Since that summer when I was six years old, no one has been kind to me except Liu Ye.
Although Su Mei couldn't be considered exceptionally kind to me,
the ten thousand yuan lucky money and the cigarettes and tea she gave me today
were enough to make me feel a hint of warmth.
Beneath my cold exterior, there is actually a heart filled with gratitude.
So, I decided to intervene and help Su Mei.
The casino Su Mei took me to was located in an industrial warehouse in the outskirts of the city.
The casino was not large, and there were only a few dozen gamblers, nothing more.
Upon entering, if it weren't for various gambling tables reminding me, I would have thought it was a warehouse. The surrounding area was cluttered with miscellaneous tables and chairs. There was even a musty smell in the air. There were plenty of gambling tables, offering baccarat, roulette, blackjack, dice, and more. After exchanging for ten thousand worth of chips, I casually walked around different tables, observing. Su Mei remained silent, always following behind me.
After watching for a while, I quietly asked Su Mei, "Are you sure we can safely take the winnings if we win?"
Many underground gambling dens are only in it for quick profits. They never intended to operate long-term. Not to mention encountering wealthy gamblers, even average gamblers will be squeezed dry by them. And once a gambler wins money, they will use all sorts of means to get the money back: cheating, framing, and employing various tactics. If necessary, they will resort to direct surveillance and violent robbery.
Upon hearing my question, Su Mei immediately replied, "Rest assured, the money can definitely be taken away. This casino is quite fair..."
Fair? I sneered inwardly. If fairness existed, there wouldn't be any casinos in this world. And there certainly wouldn't be hustlers like me.
"What game did you lose money on?" I asked again.
"Dice!" she responded.
The dice gambling table had only four or five gamblers. The dealer was shaking the dice. Su Mei chose a spot and motioned for me to sit down. However, I shook my head. I had set a rule for myself: regardless of the stakes, I wouldn't rush into a game but observe first. Only when I confirmed there were no issues with the game or deciphered the opponent's cheating method would I make a move.
Only by doing so can one ensure that they won't be cheated.
After all, there are numerous experts in this field.
Only caution can make the ship last for thousands of years.
The dice game here is no different from other casinos.
You can bet on big or small, odd or even, or even on a specific number or the sum of the dice.
Of course, you can also bet on a straight, triple, and so on.
The minimum bet requirement is 200, with a maximum of 50,000.
I stood by and watched for a while, and the gamblers weren't betting much.
At most, they were using chips worth only a couple of thousand.
But it was precisely these small bets that made me discover the trick.
To be precise, the casino was cheating.
There are many ways to cheat with dice.
There are special mercury dice, oiled dice, coded dice, fixed-point dice.
There are also remote-controlled dice, chip dice, and cobalt element dice, and so on.
These dice look no different from normal dice on the surface.
But they all share one common characteristic.
They allow gamblers to roll the desired numbers they have in mind.
And the dice used in this casino are remote-controlled.
After each roll of the dice by the dealer, after the gamblers have placed their bets.
The dealer will discreetly use the remote control based on the size of the bets.
For example, if there are more chips on the big side, the dealer will secretly manipulate the dice cup to make the dice smaller.
Of course, they don't do this every time.
They also let the water out appropriately to deceive the gamblers.
The remote control device for this gambling table is located underneath the table.
Although the dealer's hands are placed on the table, they can use their legs to lightly press the remote control button to change the dice.
And the reason I could detect the cheating in the casino.
One was due to the dealer's leg movements.
Additionally, I relied on my hearing.
When the dealer touches the remote control button, the dice flip inside the dice cup.
The sound is extremely faint, so faint that ordinary people cannot perceive it.
But I could hear it.
In the eyes of gamblers, dice-listening is just a legend, existing only in movies and television.
However, in the world of martial arts, there are indeed dice-listening experts.
In the 1970s, a group of exceptional dice-listening experts emerged in the Southern region of Guangdong.
These individuals possessed exceptional hearing abilities.
Even in noisy environments, they could still discern the sounds and locate their sources.
For a while, these dice-listening experts wreaked havoc, causing a frenzy in the major casinos of Southern Guangdong and Macau.
This also brought forth a legendary figure in Macau, the King of Gambling on the High Seas, Ye Han.
At that time, Ye Han was still a dealer, not yet the Gambling King.
Due to his extraordinary skills, he was invited to work at the casinos in Southern Guangdong.
This led to another chapter of legend in the martial arts world, as Ye Han crushed the dice-listening experts.
Ye Han became famous through this battle and eventually rose to become a generation's King of Gambling on the High Seas.
However, even as a Gambling King, Ye Han was well aware of the dangers of gambling.
On his deathbed, he left behind a four-character parting message.
"Meeting gambling means losing!"
Seeing that I remained motionless, Su Mei thought I wasn't interested in dice and whispered to me:
"Shall we go to another table?"
I shook my head.
"No need, let's stay here..."
Saying that, I sat in a position closer to the edge.
I chose this spot because it was closest to the remote control under the table.
Close enough that with a slight lift of my foot, I could easily reach it.
However, I still didn't place any bets, just watched.
Noticing that I occupied a spot but didn't bet, the dealer looked at me with unfriendly eyes.
He occasionally gave me a disdainful glance, but I paid no attention.
I was waiting, waiting for the perfect moment.
The dealer shook the dice cup once again.
And my ears involuntarily twitched.
In my mind, I immediately visualized the image of dice rolling inside the cup.
As the dice cup landed on the table, the dealer spread his hands and said:
"Place your bets!"
The gamblers placed their bets one after another.
And this time, I also made my move.
I directly placed a chip worth ten thousand on the "Pair 2" bet.
Seeing my bet, everyone couldn't help but look at me.
You should know that the payout for hitting a specific Pair is a hundred times.
(End of chapter)