Su Mei?

I paused slightly, turning around to look.

The girl’s features bore a faint resemblance to Su Mei.

It seemed that Mad Kun was truly obsessed with Su Mei.

“What’s your name?”

“Boss, my name is Su Mei!”

Mad Kun let out a shrill laugh.

He beckoned the girl over with a crooked finger.

The girl immediately walked over to him.

It had to be said, the girls under Tao Hua were well-trained.

As soon as she reached Mad Kun’s side,

She knelt gracefully, like a flight attendant serving passengers.

“What should you call me?”

“Boss!”

“No!”

“Husband…”

“No!”

The girl smiled sweetly.

She placed her hands on Mad Kun’s legs and softly called out:

“Daddy…”

“Ha ha ha!”

Mad Kun laughed hoarsely, his laughter piercing and insane.

It was so unpleasant that it made one’s hair stand on end.

Mad Kun gently stroked the girl’s hair with his hand,

The gesture resembling someone petting a small dog.

“Su Mei, oh Su Mei, your birthday is tomorrow. I’ll make sure to celebrate it properly…”

Mad Kun’s expression was sinister as he spoke.

A chill ran through me as I listened.

It seemed that Su Mei’s birthday tomorrow would not be an easy one.

As soon as he finished speaking,

Mad Kun stood up abruptly.

“Come on, Su Mei, let’s go vent some steam!”

As he left, he made a point of patting the busty girl’s shoulder.

“Little darling, don’t be jealous. Win more for Mad Kun. Tonight, I’ll dote on you…”

Saying this, Mad Kun took the girl to the next room.

It wasn’t long before the sounds of their activities thundered through the wall.

The people at the table seemed accustomed to it and continued playing cards.

The game was Three Card Poker, and the stakes were high.

A thousand for the base bet, five thousand for the cap, and a hundred thousand for the showdown.

This game wasn’t easy to manipulate.

Because they had a casino dealer dealing the cards.

The dealer’s shuffling was professional,

A one-corner riffle shuffle that didn’t reveal any points.

It was impossible to memorize the cards by sight.

To cheat,

One could steal or switch cards.

But both methods would leave evidence.

I hardly ever used these methods.

My chosen method of cheating

Was the most primitive, even the most basic technique.

Marking the cards with a weld.

Many would scoff at the mention of marking cards.

Because without using a swindler’s tricks,

Even seasoned gamblers knew a few tricks.

Some marked cards with rings or used their fingernails.

Then there were those like Li Dabiao,

Who marked the sides of the cards.

Their markings followed a pattern,

And with careful comparison, one could spot the discrepancies.

But my method was different.

Three Card Poker required 52 cards.

The marks I left on each card were unique.

To put it simply,

Take the four Aces, for example.

I wouldn’t mark the same spot on each.

Instead, I made four different marks.

For the 52 cards, excluding the suits, just for the points,

I needed to make 52 different marks.

Including the suits, the number of marks I made was in the hundreds.

With this method,

Even the top swindlers couldn’t decipher it.

As I played, I marked the cards.

Before long, I had marked almost the entire deck.

During the game,

I tried to avoid the busty girl.

Because from the start, she was cheating.

She had hidden two cards on her person.

Her method of switching cards was the old spring-hand trick.

Another round began.

The dealer dealt the cards.

The five of us didn’t have strong hands.

I had 7, 8, 9, two Spades and one Club – a mixed sequence.

The next player had a pair of Queens with a Spade 6.

The busty girl had 2, 3, 4, two Hearts and a Spade – another mixed sequence.

Uncle Tong had a pair of Kings.

The last player had scattered cards.

It was my turn to bet first.

I placed a blind bet of a thousand.

My next player called.

The busty girl raised to five thousand without looking at her cards.

Uncle Tong also called without looking.

His next player looked at his cards and folded.

At this point, if the busty girl didn’t switch her cards,

I had the strongest hand at the table.

I chose to call the five thousand blind.

The boss next to me had already lost over a hundred thousand.

He was getting reckless.

He called blind as well.

The busty girl and Uncle Tong continued to play passively.

The four of us went on like this for four rounds.

The money on the table was about to reach a hundred thousand.

It looked like this round would go to the cap without looking.

When it was the busty girl’s turn, she suddenly looked at her cards.

Normally,

Looking at the cards now didn’t make sense.

Because in two more rounds, it would be time to show down at the cap.

To call now would cost ten thousand.

It was clearly a losing proposition.

But I knew.

The busty girl was looking at her cards to switch them.

After all, her mixed sequence of 2, 3, 4 wasn’t strong.

She looked at her cards with her hands cupped around them.

I saw her fingers move.

Her wrist bent slightly.

She had switched her cards again.

The switched cards turned into a Straight Flush of 2, 3, 4.

She placed a ten thousand bet.

The busty girl laughed smugly.

“I advise the three of you to not call. My hand is not small…”

At this point,

No one could look at their cards anymore.

Uncle Tong, with a stern face, placed ten thousand.

When it was my turn,

I felt a bit frustrated.

Just now, I had the strongest hand.

But after she switched her cards, she had the strongest hand.

I had already lost seventy to eighty thousand in the early rounds.

And the busty girl was playing outrageously, switching cards every few hands.

If we continued like this,

Not to mention winning, even breaking even would be difficult.

I couldn’t let her have her way anymore.

But if I wanted to win this round, I had to switch my hand to a Straight Flush or a Leopard.

And now all the cards were in the dealer’s hands.

The dealer was too far from me.

It was impossible to switch cards with her.

Seeing that I hadn’t moved,

The busty girl looked at me disdainfully and said:

“Pretty boy, what are you dawdling for? If you’re not calling, step down. Don’t waste time…”

“Of course I’ll call!”

I said expressionlessly.

“Then stop talking nonsense and place your bet. What, if you think it’s too small, shall we open a private table?”

“Open a private table” meant

Betting privately with our hands, unrelated to the money on the table.

“How big?”

I asked.

“How much money do you have left?”

The busty girl pointed at my stack of money.

I looked over.

Tao Hua had brought out three hundred thousand.

She had lost thirty thousand, and I had lost about eighty thousand.

Plus, I had bet over twenty thousand this round.

I had about one hundred and sixty thousand left in my hands.

“About one hundred and sixty thousand!”

I said.

“Then let’s bet one hundred and fifty thousand privately! Do you dare?”

The busty girl challenged me with a defiant look.

There’s a kind of audacity that comes from pushing one’s luck too far.

The busty girl was that kind of person.

I looked at my cards.

In my hand was still the 7, 8, 9, two Spades, and one Club mixed sequence.

“Forget it, I won’t bet.”

I said indifferently.

But I knew the busty girl wouldn’t give up so easily.

Sure enough, she sneered.

“What, scared?”

I looked up at her and countered.

“Why are you being so aggressive?”

The busty girl tilted her head.

She looked at me coldly, taunting:

“Yes, I’m pressuring you! What about it, scared?”

Looking at the three cards in my hand,

I slowly said two words.

“Let’s bet!”