Chapter 20 Tongli trip

After setting up this ambush, Hu Xueyan felt relieved.The next morning, they got up early, washed and dressed, and when they were done, Yang Fengmao arrived, had breakfast and boarded the boat together.The boat stopped at Changmen Wharf, and the oars flew like flying, crossed the famous Chuihong Bridge in Wujiang, and arrived in Tongli at noon. The boat stops at the back door of a person's house, and when it sets foot on the pier, it is considered to have reached its destination.On the boat, Hu Xueyan heard from Yang Fengmao that the family was in the rice business, their surname was Zhu, and the boss of the Zhu family was Yu Wucheng's apprentice, that is, Yang Fengmao's younger brother.As long as Yu Wucheng came to Tongli, he would live in his house, Zhu Boss treated his master very respectfully, so Hu Xueyan and Liu Bucai might as well live in Zhu's house.

Hu Xueyan followed Yang Fengmao's arrangements here, although he felt that it might be very inconvenient to live in Zhu's house, which he had never met before, but it was also inconvenient to express his objection. , eliminated many. After introducing the greetings, Boss Zhu immediately said to Yang Fengmao: "Brother, Master has gone to Qingpu. If you don't come back tonight, you will definitely arrive tomorrow morning. Before leaving, please leave a message to apologize to the distinguished guest. I am uneasy about welcoming you." , please be sure to stay here.” Speaking of this, facing Hu Xueyan and Liu Bucai, “The dormitory is too small, I’m afraid the lack of hospitality will make you feel wronged.”

So Hu Xueyan couldn't help but have a few polite words of thanks. While socializing, he thought in his heart, thinking that it was a waste of half a day's time, and he should think of ways to make good use of it.Before he could change his mind, the servants of Zhu's family came to treat him to dinner. The land of fish and rice, the food is rich and delicious. Although it is a light meal, it is like a feast. Boss Zhu also said: "It is rude and disrespectful. I will welcome the distinguished guests in the evening." In addition to the four guests and the host, there were three other companions, the third child of the Zhu family, the accountant and the teacher.It was very easy to talk about the scenery of Wujiang during the meeting.After dinner, Yang Fengmao consulted Hu Xueyan for his opinion on whether to take a nap in the guest room of Zhu's house, and then make sense, or go out for a walk.

"I've heard for a long time that Tongli is a blessed place, let's pay my respects!" So accompanied by Yang Fengmao and Boss Zhu, they went out for a walk.The back door comes in, the front door goes out, a long street, paved with extremely smooth bluestone slabs, and as far as the eye can see, there are rows of buildings, quite neat.Pedestrians on the street wore silk shirts when they were nineteen, and even country folks wearing straw sandals were all clean and dressed in fine blue cloth shorts and trousers. A jade pendant is tied around his waist.The handsomeness of the characters in Wuzhong is not difficult to imagine just by looking at these country people.

Walking to a house with lanterns and festoons, Boss Zhu stopped and said, "Do you two want to go in and play?" Looking in from the gate, there were several gambling tables inside, so Hu Xueyan asked, "Can people who don't know me go in?" "Yes, yes, this is the custom in our place." So I went in and took a look. There were Pai Gow and shakers.Hu Xueyan entered the country to ask the customs, aiming at sightseeing, and refused to make a move, while Liu Bucai kept the three-character tactic of "cold, wait, and ruthless" and was unwilling to make a move.In this way, even breaking into a few houses, they just walked around in circles, from south to north, a long street was coming to an end.

Because both Hu Xueyan and Liu Bucai looked a little uninterested, Boss Zhu felt quite uneasy, and quietly asked Yang Fengmao, "How about going to Xiao Jinxiu's place for a while?" Yang Fengmao was a little hesitant. Hu Xueyan had sharp ears and quick thoughts. He could tell that Xiao Jinxiu must be a local "famous flower". Don't worry, it's fine to just walk around like this." While talking, I came to a lively house again. The situation of this house was different. The stone storehouse door was opened straight, and many hawkers selling cooked food stretched from the outside to the inside of the door. It seemed that there were two courtyards.The people who came in and out were not as well-groomed as in other houses. They were of three religions and nine streams, and dragons and snakes were mixed together. Hu Xueyan couldn't figure out what path it was.

But Liu Bucai knew at a glance that the other house was a "study gambling house", and this one was a real casino. "If you want to play, you have to be in this kind of place," he said, "'If you open a restaurant, you don't have to be afraid of big bellies'. It's refreshing to gamble." "Liu Sanye has really good eyesight!" Boss Zhu understood his words and sincerely admired him, "This is the only real casino in Tongli. Do you want to go in and have a look? This is the only one to gamble on 'Bai Xing Bao'." Hearing that it was "Bai Xing Bao", Liu Bucai felt itchy, "This is a gamble!" He asked, "This kind of bet is very popular in eastern Zhejiang, how did it spread to your place?"

"It was originally passed down from eastern Zhejiang—" There was a Shaoxing man surnamed Zhang who came to Tongli to open a wine workshop. He was gambler by nature. He first gathered friends and played with the door behind closed doors. People, the new inspector Wu is a fellow villager of Boss Zhang, and he took advantage of the situation to shield him from officially opening a casino, while the inspector master took a lot of money and made a lot of money every day. After two years, he has already pocketed 100,000 yuan. After listening to Boss Zhu's explanation of the story, Liu Bucai thought that he must have gambled hard, so he might as well go in and have a look.

When I went to the lobby, I saw that there were Pai Gow and shakers, but there were not many gamblers.The situation is quite different from the sidewalk to the second hall. There is a large square table with people on three sides. There are three rows of people. The first row sits, the second row stands, and the third row stands on benches, shoulders folded. Shoulders, head to head, squeezed tightly.Fortunately, Boss Zhu is also a face-saving figure in the local area. He found acquaintances with emotional intelligence, so he vacated a seat and let them squeeze in. Regardless of whether it is a shaker stall in the south of the Yangtze River that uses dice, or a stall in Guangdong that grabs the number of chess pieces, they are all unknown. Only Baixingbao is a "treasure" that the dealer can manipulate, so Liu Bucai said, "This is a gamble"—— A gambler bets his mind on someone who is not there.

This person is called "Zuo Shou" and lives upstairs. In order to prevent disadvantages, and to prevent his calm thinking from being affected by the victory or loss on the field, the stairs are closed, and only a small hole is made on the board wall. A hanging basket passes the treasure box.Downstairs there was a little boy who was in charge of running around. As soon as the bell rang, he hung up the basket, took the copper treasure box, and gave it to the master who was puffing on the smoke couch. Notified by the bell, the basket was hung down, and the gamblers placed their bets only after the treasure box was on the table.

The bet is exactly the same as that of the stall, except that the front Suzaku, the back Xuanwu, the left green dragon, and the right white tiger are represented by heaven, earth, people, and four Pai Gows.Moreover, although it is a "treasure", there is also a "road".Liu Bucai borrowed the "road" drawn by others to take a look. He thought that this hand-maker was a master, and the treasures he made were unpredictable. Every road was good, but in fact it was neither, so he decided to wait and see. . At this time, three "Old Treasures" have been opened in a row, all of which are land cards, and the fourth one is still an old treasure.When we arrived at the Fifth Treasure, the bell on the upper floor still didn't ring, Baoguan could hold his breath, but the gambler became impatient and urged him repeatedly, so Baoguan asked someone to ring the bell, urging the higher-ups to bring down the treasure box quickly. The urging tube urging, but nothing happened above, and the bell rang only after the third urging.But the gamblers looked at the treasure box, but they were hesitant to know how to place their bets, because they opened four old treasures in a row, and the fifth treasure was delayed for so long. Bao is very difficult to guess. "I'll play according to the road, it should be this door!" Someone put the bet on the door of the natural card. "I can't follow the road! It must be Lao Bao." Another person said, and immediately placed a bet on "Lao Bao". "That's right, that's right!" Another gambler nodded again and again, "I've been procrastinating for so much time just to be ruthless and be an old treasure." Because these two people teamed up and decided it was Lao Bao, the other gamblers were unknowingly affected, and they bet one after another. Baolai was drawn, and they cheered uproariously. Sure enough, it was another land card, and the dealer lost money. A big door. The sixth treasure got slower and slower, and when the treasure box was pushed down, there were fewer people hitting Laobao, but the one who opened it was actually Laobao again.This time, he was more surprised than anything else, and the more he was surprised later, he played six land cards in a row. "It's a gambler!" Someone said to Bao Guan, "Get a string of long ingots and burn them!" "Joke! How can such a thing happen?" Baoguan rejected the man's proposal because the number of land treasures was getting less and less, and he got what he deserved. In the ninth chapter, the old treasure will be released again, and the gamblers stop, no one believes that there will be another old treasure. So the man who said there was a gambler talked about the anecdote, saying that during the Qianlong period, there was a gambling stall in a casino, and there were nineteen "fours" in one night. ", forcing the casino to close its doors. "What mystery?" "That night, the dragon boat of Emperor Qianlong's southern tour spent the night in Tongli. When the real dragon appeared, would there be four?" "Yes, yes!" The fourth is Qinglong. The person who asked the question understood it, but he couldn't help being confused, "Then what is the trick at this moment? The emperor is in the capital, and there will be no real dragon in the same place, and the land card is' Get in the door'!" "That's why I said there are gamblers." "According to what you said, do you still want to produce Laobao?" "I don't know!" The man shook his head, "I know it's Lao Bao, but I can't hit him. From my point of view, this stroke will definitely not be 'eyes straight'!" "Two eyes straight" is a description of the land card.Other gamblers take his words as their own, but Liu Bucai, who has been listening and watching calmly, has a unique ingenuity. He thinks that if he talks about "roads", he will blame the road and fight, and he should chase Laobao , if it is about gambling, then this person is an old treasure and others dare not bet, this is a good idea!According to this inference, there are actually a few old treasures to open. The words "cold, wait" have been achieved, what is needed now is the word "ruthless".Just as Bao Guan was about to reveal the treasure box, he softly said: "Please wait!" "Okay." Baoguan held back his hands and said, "Wait until we win or lose." "Excuse me, how many 'closed doors'?" "One thousand taels." "One thousand taels!" Liu Bucai took out a roll of bank notes from his body, took one, and placed it on the door of the land card. This made the whole audience look sideways.Because Liu Bucai was a stranger, and seeing that he had a peaceful demeanor, he treated thousands of liang of silver as if he didn't care about it, so he felt more and more mysterious about this person, so he became more and more curious. Under the gaze of more than a hundred eyes, Kailai unexpectedly has "two straight eyes" again!As a result, the venue seemed to be boiling, with surprise, envy, anger, and annoyance, all voices came together, and all expressions were expressed.Liu Bucai remained calm, but turned his head and whispered to Boss Zhu, "It's a fluke!" It was only then that everyone realized that this big gambler with an unfamiliar face was Boss Zhu's friend, and they all looked at him with admiration.What people in the Jianghu love most is face, Mr. Zhu is naturally proud of having such a "amazing" friend, his face is like flying gold, his heart is like being ironed, and he feels very comfortable. Baoguan wins over gamblers, and he also joins in to express his admiration, and takes care of the "payment" standing on the "Qinglong Corner", free of tap money-the jargon is called "Shuizi", ranging from three per cent to five per cent.Of course, Liu Bucai was also very beautiful, and when the three thousand taels of chips were paid out, he took a one hundred tael tooth chip and threw it on the Qinglongjiao. When the treasure box is placed on the gaming table again, everyone will have to see how Liu Bucai will do it before making up his mind.There is also a red saying here, called "lantern".Lanterns illuminate the "road", there are red and black, and casinos pay attention to avoiding the dark and turning red. If someone has been chasing the old treasure just now, and someone missed several treasures and did not make a move, "look at the imperial calendar on New Year's Eve, the good times are over" If you place a bet again, you will know his blackness!People who are good at avoiding will draw back their bets and change their bets to other places, but Liu Bucai's lantern is a red lantern. Others dare not bet on Laobao, but he dared to, and he actually caught up with him. lucky!So bet with him. So when Liu Bucai bet one thousand taels of silver on the land cards, the bets were like rain, and one after another followed up.When the box was opened, Bao Guan and Kai Dao looked at each other in disbelief, but the gamblers were all happy. The banker lost more than 20,000 silver in this old treasure. This time, the audience was full of excitement, and even the gamblers in the lobby rushed in.Liu Bucai was worshiped as a god, and the two gamblers on his left and right shrank their bodies as far as possible, fearing that the crowd would make him uncomfortable.And at this moment, he felt someone pat him on the shoulder, and when he looked back, it was Hu Xueyan who was winking at him, and then pouted his mouth to signal him to leave. Liu Bucai was really reluctant to get up, but he dared not disobey Hu Xueyan's command, so he finally took out his gold watch to look at it, nodded, indicating that it was time for the appointment, then grabbed the silver ticket and stood up. In the casino, there were people in the special class, and when they saw that Liu Bucai had won six thousand silver, they surrounded them to show their hospitality. Liu Bucai naturally understood the "rules". Chips, one per person, all comers are welcome. On the one hand "dividends", on the other hand there are complaints, "You shouldn't rush me," he said to Hu Xueyan, "I have figured out the way to do it, and there are at least three old treasures." "I urged you to leave just because you touched it. Everyone followed you, and if you hit it twice, the casino would be knocked down. Why bother to cause people to stumble as soon as you arrive in Tongli?" "Uncle Hu!" Boss Zhu followed Yang Fengmao in addressing him, "Your old man is really an old man, and you are very loyal." Liu Bucai was dissatisfied in his heart, "There are no fathers and sons in casinos", and he was unlucky for himself, but in front of his master, seeing how respected Hu Xueyan was by Boss Zhu, he had no choice but to hold back.Take a step back and think about it, in a short time, you won six thousand silver, and it is truly "betting without losing, making a living the best in the world"!Can't help but smile. "Liu Sanye gambles well, but Uncle Hu is even better if he doesn't gamble!" Yang Fengmao said to Boss Zhu, "No wonder Uncle Hu has such a good popularity, you and I have to learn from his old man." "Serious words, serious words!" Hu Xueyan touched his face and smiled, "You two made me blush." "Shut up the gossip." Yang Fengmao asked, "Where should we sit?" "I'm afraid Uncle Hu and Mr. Liu are also tired, so go back to the dormitory to take a rest and have a drink!" So An Bu took the car and returned to Zhu's house.The best house in his family is a water pavilion. When the guests came, there happened to be relatives and female guests of the Zhu family living there. At this time, it had been vacated, and Mr. Zhu took Hu Xueyan and others into the water pavilion to rest. . As soon as he sat down, the old servant of the Zhu family called softly outside the door: "Young master!" He invited him out with a wink, and said quietly: "Boss Zhang from the casino has come and said he wants to see a guest from our family. Bringing four gifts, please go out and have a look, Eldest Young Master." What an unexpected visitor!Boss Zhu didn't know which one he wanted to see, and even if he thought about which one he had nothing to do with him, he really couldn't figure it out.So I hurried out of the hall to meet each other. We are acquainted with each other, and we don't need to greet each other when we meet, just ask why we are here. After asking, I realized that it was Hu Xueyan he wanted to see.Boss Zhang learned that Hu Xueyan was benevolent from those idlers who begged Liu Bucai for money, and deliberately took Liu Bucai's "lantern" away, which solved a big problem in the casino.Therefore, I paid a sincere visit, expressing thanks on the one hand, and wanting to make friends on the other. "This Uncle Hu is my master's friend, and he's a bit of a relative. He's very popular in the world. You don't need to thank him, but you can definitely make friends. But," said Boss Zhu, "you can save yourself these four rituals." "I also know that a few food items are not respect, but I'm sorry to come empty-handed." Boss Zhang also felt that the four water gifts were not given properly. If it was a thank you gift, it seemed to belittle Hu Xueyan. , so he hesitated for a while and said, "Well, you don't have to tell Mr. Hu. However, you have brought all your things, and it will be troublesome to take them back. You can just throw them in the kitchen." "That's a sentence. Come, come, I'll take you in." They went all the way to Shuige, and after the introduction, Boss Zhu represented Dao Ming's intentions, and Hu Xueyan humbly thanked him for his unexpected reputation.Boss Zhang had a sincere expression on his face, and when he reached the ground, he almost knelt down. "Mr. Hu, you have helped me a lot. To be honest," he pointed at Liu Bucai and said, "This third master Liu is also the first person I have met in gambling for 20 or 30 years. If Mr. Liu plays for a while longer, and everyone follows him 'side by side' and fights 'into the door', I will go bankrupt today!" "What's the matter?" Hu Xueyan asked, "Lao Treasure is coming out next?" "There are sixteen episodes in total. Speaking of which, it's also a piece of news. Fortunately," Mr. Zhang seemed to still have lingering fear when he mentioned it, "only Mr. Liu can see through it. Once Mr. Liu left, no one would know." If you dare to bet on the old treasure, the dealer will still win.” When Liu Bucai heard this, he naturally had a color on his face, so he specially smiled and said: "I'm just doing weird things, just bumping into each other." "Gambling is gambling on a chance. Only Mr. Liu can grasp the once-in-a-thousand-year chance. It is unbelievable to say it. I only made four old treasures, but the one that came out was sixteen. The problem lies in On the fifth note—" "Ah, I just remembered." Liu Bucai interjected, "In the fifth chapter, the treasure box never came down. It took me three times to ring the bell to get it. What's wrong?" It was because of a sudden illness in his hands that he was unconscious on the cigarette couch.The little boy who passed the treasure box didn't know what to do, and pushed him desperately, but he couldn't wake up. The bell sounded to make him flustered, so he gave the original box down without asking any questions.When I got to Chapter 16, I could faintly hear crying upstairs, I took the key and opened the door, went up and saw that the boy had nowhere to call for help because of the isolation, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, his face was pale.Looking at the hands again, even the body is cold. This is an unheard of strange thing, even Liu Bucai, who has spent half his life in the casino, finds it inconceivable. In that calm, peaceful and prosperous Tongli, even the Zhang family's bitch feeding the Li family's kittens would become interesting news, and such a strange event of "dead people making treasures" would naturally cause a stir.Therefore, at the moment Boss Zhang visited Hu Xueyan, the tea house and wine shop were talking about it everywhere.So the "two guests of Mr. Zhu" immediately became the limelight figures in Tongli. This news just arrived in the afternoon, and Qiu Fengyan and Zhou Ming, who were drinking and working by themselves in the hotel, also heard it. They looked at each other and smiled, very excited.Qiu Fengyan was still cautious, but Zhou Yiming couldn't help it. At the same time, he and Hu Xueyan had learned a lot of tricks to create famous brands in the past many days, so he exposed the identities of Hu Xueyan and Liu Bucai. The truth is that it is not the boss Zhu. A friend is a friend of Boss Zhu's master Yu Wucheng.This time, in everyone's minds, the name Yu Wucheng seemed to be very resounding.