The world I imagined, must be full of bloodshed and violence.
But when I arrived in the city from a small town, I realized that everything seemed no different from the small town.
There were just more lights, tall buildings, and bustling streets.
When I left, Master Liu only gave me a hundred yuan for travel expenses.
Master Liu was wealthy; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to find so many women.
The reason he only gave me a hundred yuan was because he told me:
Money is abundant in the world, and women are everywhere in the world.
If you want them, go find them yourself.
But I didn't know where to find them.
The place I lived was a border city in the north, where bathing culture was prevalent.
In order to make a living, I had to find a job first. I became a service staff at Sky Like Bathhouse, responsible for distributing supplies to various bathing areas.
Of course, this didn't include the women's bathing area.
I did this for half a year.
One afternoon, as usual, when I finished distributing supplies and was about to get off work, the team leader, Hou Jun, called me and asked me to go to the manager's office on the sixth floor to deliver a fruit plate to Sister Mei.
Sister Mei was the manager of Sky Like, young and probably in her mid-twenties.
I remember the first time I saw her, I was somewhat shocked.
She was beautiful, even more beautiful than the secret prostitutes Master Liu had found.
She was about 1.7 meters tall, with fair and smooth skin that seemed delicate enough to be broken with a breath.
Especially her pair of slender and straight jade legs, shining white.
Any man who saw them would be enchanted.
I carried the fruit plate and knocked on the door, entering the office. Sister Mei was playing mahjong in the adjacent room.
The bathhouse staff knew that Sister Mei loved playing mahjong.
Whenever she had free time, she would play a few rounds upstairs.
Many men would compete to accompany her in order to get close to her.
"Sister Mei, this is the fruit plate prepared for you!"
After placing the fruit plate down, I greeted her and prepared to leave.
"Wait a minute…"
Sister Mei suddenly called me.
She pointed to the teapot next to her and said:
"Change the tea, brew a new one. Use the box of Longjing tea under my desk!"
I began to boil water and brew tea.
While waiting for the water to boil, I stood not far away, watching them play mahjong.
They were playing the most common game here, Toppling Victory, with a stake of a hundred yuan.
Don't underestimate this hundred yuan, because the way points are calculated is different.
After a game of mahjong, the winnings or losses could often reach tens of thousands.
From where I stood, I could see Sister Mei's and her neighbor's tiles.
Sister Mei's neighbor was also a woman, about the same age as Sister Mei, but their temperament was completely different.
This woman was also quite good-looking, but she wore heavy makeup and was fully adorned.
She wore a low-cut black top, allowing her ample bosom to be exposed.
After watching for a while, I felt something was strange.
I thought they were just having a normal game among friends.
But I found that something was off between the woman in black and the man opposite her.
They were cooperating in their play, seemingly cheating.
And their cheating method was not clever.
It belonged to the most common and ordinary cheating technique in mahjong, using hand gestures as secret signals to request specific tiles.
The woman in black had a hand of all one suit and all pungs.
She held her left thumb behind her hand and her right hand at the end of the tiles.
Her eyes were fixed on the tiles, not looking elsewhere.
And the man opposite her had a somewhat distracted look in his eyes, often glancing at the woman in black's hand intentionally or unintentionally.
When the tiles were halfway through, the man opposite played an eight of bamboo, and the woman in black immediately made a pung.
Seeing this, I was still thinking in my mind.
Could this just be a coincidence?
But after making the pung, the woman in black still held her left thumb behind her hand and slightly closed her right hand.
In my mind, I secretly speculated that if she was cheating, she would want a hand of five of bamboo.
Sure enough, after a couple more rounds, the man opposite played a five of bamboo.
The woman in black made a pung and quickly won with a self-drawn hand.
Self-drawn, all simples, all one suit, all pungs, a total of 24 points.
Each of the three players, including Sister Mei, won 2,400 yuan.
In fact, there are countless ways to cheat in mahjong, with various types and methods.
Some use dialogue, such as saying "It's hot today." The word "hot" might mean they want the bamboo tiles.
Or saying "You look beautiful today." The word "beautiful" might mean they want the character tiles.
And for those who use hand gestures like these two, it's called the "Nine-Section Whip" in the swindler techniques.
It uses the various joints of the fingers to transmit secret signals to the other person.
Although I could confirm that they were cheating, I didn't know what their relationship with Sister Mei was, and it was impossible for me to expose them.
After brewing the tea, I was about to leave.
The man opposite Sister Mei received a phone call.
The call was short, and after hanging up, the man said:
"Sorry, I can't continue playing. My child is sick. Let's play another day. I have to go now. I had bad luck today and lost over ten thousand…"
As soon as the man left, the enchanting woman in black started complaining.
"Su Mei, what kind of person did you find? He left before the game was finished. He said his child was sick, but I think he just can't handle losing and made an excuse to leave. I haven't had enough fun yet…"
Sister Mei casually played with the mahjong tiles in front of her, smiled lightly, and said:
"My Sister Hua, all three of us lost, and you're the only one who won. Aren't you satisfied? How much more do you want to win?"
The woman in black, called Sister Hua, quickly counted the money in her hand, pouted, and said:
"I haven't won even thirty thousand yet. Su Mei, why don't you find someone else to play a few rounds with me? I just want to play mahjong today…"
Sister Mei was helpless against her persistence. She looked at her phone's contact list and didn't know who to call at this time.
After thinking for a moment, she turned around and looked at me, who was pouring tea, and asked:
"Chu Liu, do you know how to play mahjong? Come and play a few rounds with us…"I never expected Sister Mei to suddenly call me, but I immediately responded:
"I know a bit, but the stakes you play with are too high for me…"
In reality, even if I didn't bring any money to this card game, I would still win for sure.
After all, I didn't spend over a decade mastering the swindler techniques for nothing.
But I had to say this, as Master Liu once taught me.
A qualified swindler must know how to keep a low profile, play safe, and act stupid.
Only when your opponent completely ignores you, can you deliver a fatal blow.
"It's okay, if you lose, it's on me. If you win, it's yours. Come on…"
Sister Mei said, pulling out a stack of ten thousand yuan from her bag and throwing it to the opposite seat.
"Just sit there and do us a favor…"
Without further delay, I sat across from Sister Mei.
In 2000, hand-scored mahjong was still the norm here, as mahjong machines hadn't become popular yet.
This type of hand-scored mahjong is especially suitable for swindlers to stir things up.
Of course, even with a mahjong machine, cheating is still possible.
While shuffling, Sister Hua, dressed in black, deliberately touched my hand and teased me:
"Oh, this young man is quite tender. Tell Sister Hua, do you have a girlfriend? Are you still a virgin?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she started giggling.
Sister Mei and another man also laughed along.
But I remained expressionless, scoring the mahjong.
When practicing the swindler techniques in mahjong, the first thing Master Liu required of me was to not only remember the tiles I scored but also remember all the tiles revealed by others when they scored.
This way, even without cheating, I can still ensure a very high win rate.