Chapter 2 Chapter 1 A strange gamble

Gambling is human nature. Every second of life does not know what will happen in the next second, and you have to live on, so you have to be mentally prepared for good or bad-in a general sense, this is already a gambling behavior. Even in the narrow sense of gambling, there are so many tricks that it is impossible to have a correct statistics, and almost anything can be used as a tool for gambling.Some gambling tools have a long history and can be compared with human civilization. Many years ago, I used a thing I heard about gambling and turned it into a short novel.People who write stories often have many people come to provide stories, and I will say it bluntly: Ninety-nine percent of the stories are extremely boring, of course there are exceptions, and the story I turned into a novel is very interesting.

Since the novel was used at that time, the characters, places, time, etc. were not explained.At that time, I didn't expect that this story would have further development, and the development would be colorful, so I just wrote it as a short story. Now this story, of course, originated from the story about gambling that I heard back then, so it is quite necessary to read this novel first.Fortunately, the novel is short and not ugly. After reading it, I have a certain degree of understanding of what happened. Let me talk about who told me about it, and when and to whom it happened. , and then describe many things derived from it, it will be much easier to understand.

(I don’t know how many stories in the world are derived from the behavior of gambling!) The following is the novel entitled "The Banker, the Loser and the Winner". The novel is written in the form of martial arts novels. The yellow gold looks attractive, but the sound it makes when it collides with each other is not very pleasant. At the foot of the dealer, there was a small hole on the floor, and the hole was full of gold ingots and nuggets, big and small.When a big bamboo stall swept all the gold on the table into the pit, the sound it made made the loser feel heartbroken. At the gambling table, it is easy to separate the banker, loser and winner.

The banker is calm and relaxed, you fight for the sky, the god of gambling punishes you with curses, Xie Zu Xie Zong, laughing and joking, that is your family's business.The banker just rolls the dice, accepts bets, sweeps the gold on the table into the pit, or takes out gold from the pit to give to the winner. The winner is naturally elated and foaming. The losers are not necessarily dejected, some of them have red eyes, and some have blue faces.No matter how coquettish the beauties in the casino are, they only talk coquettishly around the winners, and never dare to tease the losers, lest they make themselves feel uncomfortable.

The Gold Casino is the largest casino in the capital, where you can only see gold but not silver.No matter how precious the treasure is, as long as the gambler bets on the table, there will be someone to appraise it immediately.If you lose, you will just sweep it into the pit with your scissors; if you win, even if it is one hundred and eighty thousand taels of gold, even if it is just a bet and go, you will be paid very happily. It is said that the backstage of the Gold Casino is backed by the nine-door admiral of the capital, so rich businessmen, wealthy merchants, high-ranking officials and dignitaries can rest assured that they can gamble heartily here.Overnight, countless gold treasures changed hands on the gambling table.

The situation tonight is somewhat different from the past.As soon as it was dark, three Persian Hus came in, all with beards, high noses, dark eyes and short beards.One of the tallest ones, as soon as he entered the door, his arms grew, and he hugged a waitress. The waitress immediately leaned towards him, making the Persian barbarian chatter and say something. What, but unambiguously rubbed and fumbled on the waitress, extremely noisy. But when they sat down at the gambling table, they had no distractions and gambled extremely well.As soon as he came up, he shook open the three small leather bags, and under the light, diamonds the size of broad beans shone so brightly that people couldn't even open their eyes.The noisy casino suddenly fell silent, there are probably two hundred or so of those diamonds!

A gorgeously dressed old man immediately came over under the sign of the dealer, picked up a few, turned towards the light, squinted his eyes, turned around and said, "Well, no matter how big or small, each one counts as one thousand taels." The Persian Hu people looked at each other, nodded, and when they opened their mouths, they said in a straight voice: "There are two hundred and four pieces in total, and I bet them once!" The Persian Hu people looked challenging, but the banker didn't even move his eyebrows, he opened his mouth to answer, and suddenly there came a rather tender voice: "Wait a minute, the banker won't take it!"

Following the sound, a young man with a pale complexion and a black suit stared at twenty piles of diamonds: "I'm just looking for some diamonds, I'm too lazy to buy them one by one, so I'll bet against these three." The three Persians looked like they didn't care about anything as long as they got something to gamble on. The Zhuang family and the old man looked at the young man together. Although the capital is a big place, and there are all kinds of people in all directions, the Zhuang family is not a person who sleeps when he is idle. .However, this young man's appearance was not impressive, and he didn't know when he came in. The banker gave a dozen winks to his own people in the casino, but no one knew where he came from.

The old man let out a "huh" with a long tail, and looked at the young man. The young man put his hand into his bosom, but he didn't take it out immediately, but smiled very strangely: "More than two hundred thousand taels of gold, Can’t carry it with me, if I lose—” Speaking of this, he looked at the three Persians and said, "Just take this as the balance!" He stretched out his hand from his bosom, holding a piece of black lacquered wood, two fingers wide, one finger thick, and one palm and a half long, gently placed it on the table, and stretched out his hand to press it.

The gamblers bet against each other, whoever loses wins, has little to do with the dealer, and the winner will naturally give the dealer a draw.If the young people take out banknotes that can be cashed immediately, then it will not be a problem.But now it is such a piece of wood, the dealer had to say: "Well, what kind of treasure is this your Excellency, pardon me for my stupid eyes!" The dealer gave him a wink, and two thugs in densely buttoned hero jackets walked over from behind the young man: "Let's have a look!" As they said, they stretched out their hands to grab the table.

The young man moved very quickly, his hand on the wood shrank back slightly, the wood turned out to be a box, the lid of the box was removed a little, in an instant, everyone's eyes lit up, the young man The lid of the box was pushed back immediately, and everyone didn't see what was in the box! The faces of the three Persian barbarians suddenly turned red, and their eyes shone brightly, shouting, "It's a bet!" We all know that the Persian Hu people are used to knowing all kinds of rare treasures, and they are willing to gamble, so naturally the banker has nothing to say.All of a sudden, everyone felt itchy and unbearable, wanting to know what treasure was in the box.Although the young man withdrew his hand, no one dared to touch the box. The dealer stopped shaking the dice cylinder, and the Persian Hu rushed to shout: "Big!" The young man said in a deep voice, "Small!" The dealer uncovers the dice cylinder, two three three, small.Everyone shouted loudly that the young man had won. As if nothing had happened, he first put the wooden box into his arms, and then stretched out his hand to gather the three piles of diamonds. The three Persian barbarians shouted suddenly, their sabers were shining, and the three half-moon-shaped sharp blades attacked the young man. The young man flicked his fingers, and three flashes of lightning flashed across the place. The three diamonds shot at the blade with such great force that the three knives rebounded upwards, and the back of the knife hit the forehead of the Persian barbarian holding the knife heavily, causing blood to splatter everywhere.He fell on his back, not knowing whether he was dead or alive. In the silence, the young man put the diamond into the leather bag and muttered to himself: "It's really good to use this shiny thing as a hidden weapon!" He stood up and waved to the dealer: "The three on the ground are yours." Until he walked out of the casino, the Yangtze was still quiet for a while. A short story is a novel form, it is just a cross-section, it writes what happens in a moment, without context, and without complicated plots. After I heard about this incident, I felt that this gamble was quite shocking and suitable to be expressed in short stories, so I wrote such a novel. Another reason is that the person who came to tell me about this gamble was very annoying. Although what he said was interesting, he was boring, so I didn't want to add more extravagance to what he said. Now that this matter is brought up again, of course, it is because the matter has developed further. Since this novel is the source of many developments in the future, it is necessary to talk about it in detail. In this novel, the most important thing is not the characters, but a thing.That thing is placed in a small wooden box, no one knows what it is, only that it emits a strong flash. And that thing must be extremely precious, at least it can be compared with two hundred and four broad bean-sized diamonds—according to the estimation of casino code experts (valuation experts), it is about 200,000 taels of gold. The time of the plot in the novel is obviously not modern, but in ancient times, the value of gold was many times higher than in modern times. It's not that no one knows what the treasure in the small wooden box is. In the novel, at least four people know what it is. The young man was the owner of the object, of course he knew it.And those three Persians, of course they also know—otherwise they wouldn't bet against young people.And after they lost, they actually tried to grab it.It can be seen from this that the things in the small wooden box are so attractive to them that they lose their normality. All in all, the things in the small wooden box must be earth-shattering, precious and priceless. The novel also mentions that the Persian Hu people have a high ability to appreciate and distinguish rare treasures.Regarding the ability of the Persian Hu people, there are many mentions in the novel notes of the past dynasties.Many of them are very legendary. For example, there is a thing that looks like a turtle shell. The Persian people know that it is the shell of one of the nine sons of the dragon, and there is a night pearl inside.Another example is a beggar's broken quilt, and the Persian people know that there is a louse king in the quilt, etc.I don't know where the Persian people's ability comes from. In short, the Persian people have the ability to know the treasure. Another intriguing part of the novel is the mystery of the young man. Not only is the young man superb in martial arts, but he also uses diamonds as hidden weapons. He is extremely wealthy. He is a typical character in martial arts novels—the money that can never be used up , and the money does not know where it came from. The novel does not clearly state in what era it happened, but it must have been in the era when there were emperors, because the official title of "Nine Gates Admiral" was mentioned during it.This official does not have a high rank, but he has great power, and he is also a common character in martial arts novels. Well, now we can start talking about the source of the plot of this novel. I can’t remember the exact date, but it’s spring, when the purple flowers are in full bloom. Near my residence, there is an old purple tree. Every spring, during the flowering season, the purple flowers are in full bloom. Looking from a distance, it looks like a group of purple clouds, magnificent. Peerless.In front of it, the fragrance is refreshing and refreshing. During these days, Bai Su and I would admire the purple flowers every day. That morning, Bai Su went out early in the morning, and I was the only one standing in front of Zihua for a while, took a few deep breaths, turned around, and saw a person standing behind me. That person was actually nearly two meters away from me, but for me, who has been engaged in an adventurous life for a long time, this distance is too close, so close that it feels as if it is clinging to my back. And I don't know when this person came quietly behind me, so I was immediately in a state of extreme tension. As I said before, the person who told the story to me was annoying. This first impression was the main reason—that person was silent and stood behind me for an unknown amount of time. Isn’t it extremely annoying? . So looking at him at that time, the eyes were undisguised and full of hostility. And after I saw this person's face clearly, the disgust in my heart increased a bit.I saw that the man not only had the eyes of a deer-headed mouse, but also had sparse two mustaches, which seemed particularly disgusting. I looked at him, and he looked at me. When he looked at me, his small eyes kept rolling.It reminds me of the saying "the eyes are right, the heart is right"──If you judge according to this sentence, the person's mind is not right, it can be said to the extreme! He seems to be about the same age as me, but when he opened his mouth, what he said was extremely unpleasant, which made him even more annoying. With a half-smile, his voice was like a broken gong, he pointed at me, and then said: "You are Wesley!" The best way to deal with this kind of thing who doesn't even understand the basic manners is to punch him in the face. But my self-cultivation is pretty good, so I won't do that.Of course, my self-cultivation is not good enough to pay attention to him, so I stopped looking at him, half turned around, and walked towards the door. I only took two steps, when my eyes blurred, the man was already in front of me, blocking my way.His physical skills are extremely fast, and he clearly has extremely high martial arts attainments, which is not to be judged by appearances. I immediately stood up, and saw his right hand flipped, as if he was going to attack me, I was not surprised, but happy——Although he did not commit any crime, he had a hideous appearance, and for no reason, he couldn't beat him to vent his anger. He actually attacked me first, isn't it just in his favor! So when I saw his right hand stretched out to me after flipping it, I immediately shot and grabbed his wrist. At that moment, I suddenly saw that he was holding a business card in his hand. The business card was larger than ordinary ones. It was made of dark blue paper with only one white word on it: "White". As soon as I saw this business card, I grabbed my hand and abruptly took it back──Because I shot fast and hard, I hoped to catch the opponent at once and throw him out, so I used a lot of force, suddenly It was not easy to take it back, although it was done in an instant, but the body couldn't help taking a step back, looking quite embarrassed. The guy obviously knew exactly what happened. He smiled at me with a very hateful expression. Although I was very angry, I couldn't attack it. Because I could tell at a glance that the one in his hand was the business card used by Boss Bai. That business card is unique, Boss Bai is very proud of it, since he was honored as "Boss" by the world, he no longer uses his name, so there is only one word "Bai" on the business card.He often said: "On the business card of the chairman of the National Government, there are also three words, only my business card has one word!" He once explained to me: dark blue represents the ocean and the sky, between the sea and the sky, I am the only one white, and this is what this business card represents. Boss Bai is arrogant, which can be seen from this. And this business card does have a very high status in the Jianghu. It is said that seeing a business card is like meeting a person, so Boss Bai will never give the business card to anyone easily. That rogue-headed guy actually holds Boss Bai's business card, which is beyond my expectation.The bad thing is, he didn't show it out as soon as we met, but deliberately made me look ugly, which naturally made me angry. But no matter what, he has Boss Bai's business card in hand, so I have to be polite to him. I settled down. At that time, Boss Bai hadn't settled down in the south of France, and his whereabouts were erratic, so my first sentence was: "When did you meet the old man?" That man not only had an ugly voice, but also had a strange tone of voice, and when he spoke, he had a smile on his face, which made people want to give him two slaps! He said: "About a month ago, the old man said, go to Wesley and tell him about your affairs." I know that Boss Bai has a habit of asking people to talk, so I didn't take it off when the man said that, and made a gesture to him: "Please sit in the room." The man agreed--he actually just made a "hmm" sound in his nose.In short, there is nothing in this person's words and deeds that is not annoying. In order not to waste words, I will not give specific examples in the future. When I got to the house, I saw that he was still holding Boss Bai's business card in his hand, so I naturally reached out to take it, but he withdrew his hand, and I took an empty one, which added fuel to the fire and made me even more angry. Moreover, Boss Bai's business card is very useful in Jianghu. If he refuses to hand over his business card, he will use it to bluff and cheat. The matter can be big or small.So I immediately glared at him with stern eyes. The man knew why I was like this, he said: "The old man wants me to meet some people, this business card is still useful." As he spoke, he quickly put away the business card——his movement of putting away the business card was like magic, with a slight shake of his hand, the original business card in his hand had disappeared. I snorted, and it was difficult to judge whether what he said was true or not. I thought that since Boss Bai handed over the business card to him, he should have a certain degree of credibility, so I didn't say anything else. I saw him looking around, as if looking for something, and asked, "Is Miss Bai there? Ask her to come out." At this time, my disgust had reached its peak, and I said coldly, "There is no Miss Bai here, only Mrs. Wei!" The man seemed not expecting my reaction to be so strong. He was slightly taken aback, but he didn't mention it anymore, and sat down: "Master Bai said that I can tell you something." Originally, I should have at least asked his last name, but since I really hated him beyond words, I didn't bother to ask, so I just waved my hand: "Tell me." That person started talking, talking about the gamble that I later turned into a novel. At that time, while I was listening, I was thinking in my heart: It can be said that the matter is very interesting, but what is the purpose of Boss Bai thinking that I am listening to this matter? When the man talked about the gamble, just like in my novel, there was no time, character names, etc. After he finished speaking, he looked at me, waiting for my reaction, and I also looked at him, waiting for his further explanation.The two stared at each other for a while, but neither made a sound. Impatient, I broke the silence first and asked him, "Is it finished?" This question was already very impolite, and the man said: "It's over." I stood up and gave the order to evict the guest: "After talking, please go ahead." While I was talking, I made a gesture to the door, indicating that he could go. The man moved his lips, as if he wanted to say something, but he finally made no sound and walked out.When he reached the door, he turned around and said, "Student with a small surname, a student with a living name." This surname is very strange, and it is the first time I know someone with the surname Sheng.However, this did not arouse my further interest.I followed his example and made a sound in my nose as a response. The man looked at me for a while, then suddenly raised his head and said loudly: "Master Bai, you are wrong!" In his situation, he is clearly acting—there are often such scenes in the novel, when the lobbyist’s words are not accepted by the other party, this kind of behavior will appear, the purpose is to ask people to ask questions, so that he can go further. play. Originally, I also wanted to ask him what Boss Bai was wrong about, but since I had seen through his tricks, of course I wouldn't cooperate with him, so I didn't say a word, watching him sing a one-man show alone, how to accept it! He was waiting for my reaction, but I turned my eyes to the sky and didn't even look at him, secretly amused in my heart.The man really couldn't do anything, but at this moment, he came to a savior.Only Bai Su's voice could be heard from outside the door: "My father is wrong, I would like to hear the details." As soon as I heard Bai Su's voice, I knew that person could step down, and my careful arrangements were in vain. I looked forward, and saw that the man had turned around, and was face to face with Bai Su. It moved extremely quickly, and it had already held Boss Bai's business card in its hand, and handed it to Bai Su respectfully, with the same attitude as it faced me. time, there is a world of difference. And he hatefully called himself "Miss Bai", and immediately introduced himself: "Student with a small surname, named Nianzu." Bai Su first glanced at me across him, and nodded at the man at the same time: "Mr. Sheng's surname is so strange!" The guy who claimed to be the ancestor of Sheng Nian, when he heard Bai Su's question, he was so excited and rejoiced, he made a sound of admiration, and at the same time he bowed to Bai Su, before he straightened up, he said: "Mr. As expected, he said, as long as I declare my surname, I will attract attention, and it is true!" When he said this, he gave me a squinting look. The implication was that Boss Bai hadn't guessed anything wrong, but I was too dull, so I didn't respond to his strange surname. Later, Bai Su laughed at me: "Where did your curiosity go? Hearing such a strange name, I didn't ask what happened." I don't think so: "His surname is not strange, who knows that there are secrets hidden in it. And it is not the first of his family. I once met a person with the surname 'Six' who claimed to be the descendant of Fang Xiaoru── In the process of being 'Destroyed Ten Clans', it slipped through the net and covered the lower part of 'Fang', and it became the character 'Six'. It was hundreds of years earlier than that guy's surname!" Of course Bai Su didn't continue to argue with me. But at that time Bai Su asked: "Is there any story about your surname?" The guy didn't answer, but just made a gesture towards the room, Bai Su understood: "Please sit down and talk." That guy came back in a big way, after he sat down, Bai Su poured wine for him, while he drank, he couldn't stop praising the wine, he didn't say anything about his surname. Her behavior was so disgusting that it was everywhere, even Bai Su couldn't help frowning, I said to her: "This man told me a story just now, about a weird gamble." Bai Su responded, and looked at that guy, who said sharply: "Mr. Wei heard me say it just now, so I asked him to tell it." I couldn't help rushing up, Bai Sulian gave me three winks, and I managed to hold back the attack. The message Bai Su conveyed in her wink was very obvious—anyway, looking at Boss Bai's face, don't be as knowledgeable as this guy. So I described the gamble he just mentioned in the simplest way.The guy frowned, as if he was not very satisfied with my narrative. Bai Su remained polite and asked: "Your Excellency told us this matter, what is your intention?" That guy──he has actually given his name, called Sheng Nianzu, but I really hate him, so I naturally call him "guy" Bai Su asked this question, but he didn't answer, he just shook his legs and looked at Bai Su with a half-smile, his appearance was disgusting.Bai Su also felt that she couldn't bear it, but her tone was still very polite: "If you want to play charades with us, we can't accompany you. I believe you have told this story to my father before. Could it be that you also play charades with his old man in front of my father? No?" Bai Su's words were very strong, we didn't kick him out because he came with Boss Bai's business card.If he looked like this dead in front of Boss Bai, how could Boss Bai bear it?I have already caught him and thrown him several feet away, so why would I give him a business card!