Chapter 347: The Horse Hunter Explains the Secret

I could only gather the corpse of the Blackhead General and put it into a jar,

One hundred thousand yuan.

Damn it, it was only a matter of minutes; 1.6 million is gone. With the crickets, it's 1.7 million.

This thing's stakes are really huge.

Qiao San and Li Tian were feeling extremely smug,

holding that bomber in their hands,

"My god, you're impressive, you can even defecate, and you pooped onto the General's head. What kind of General is that? Surely one from the countryside."

"Country bumpkin. Hahaha."

Hearing their sarcasm, my face flushed red and then turned pale,

Not only did I lose money this time, but those two dandy sons of wealth also mocked me.

I was quite angry,

My fists clenched tightly,

He Zuming at this moment said, "Jianqiang, losing is losing; it's just a game."

"Mr. He, they're mocking me," I said.

"Alright, as long as the green hills remain, there's no fear of lacking firewood. Jianqiang, there will be plenty of chances later to turn the loss into a win. Let's continue watching the match," He Zuming encouraged.

"Let's continue watching the match," He Zuming encouraged.

If He Zuming hadn't urged me, I would have gone up and beaten those two kids already.

I no longer have a cricket in my hand, so I can't join the competition; I can only watch others' crickets compete.

The competition continued,

Someone else took out a cricket and placed it in the fighting basin, then started with five packets of tea leaves as the challenge.

Some people immediately offered ten packets of tea leaves, daring anyone to take the bet.

The other person agreed. At that point, the stakes were in the millions.

So everyone's attention was drawn to those two crickets.

Since the Blackhead General lost, I was in a bad mood and didn't want to watch,

thinking that stepping outside for a cigarette might clear my mind.

Smoking wasn't allowed inside; the crickets are afraid of smoke.

He Zuming, however, stared with both eyes and gathered around the table to watch.

It seemed Mr. He was also a player, fond of this thing.

Then let him watch; I won't watch any longer.

I stepped out of the room,

went to Nuan Peng, took out a cigarette and lit it.

The others in Nuan Peng were drinking tea and chatting,

One short‑haired woman said, "Why didn't Second Master Wen come to this cricket duel?"

It was my first time hearing anyone mention Second Master Wen,

I felt a sense of alertness,

Another long‑haired woman said, "I heard that before the New Year, Second Master Wen went to the island nation.

Not sure if he has returned.

He only came, and the scale of this cricket duel has expanded by more than double; he's truly a super player, with stakes over a hundred packets of tea leaves."

Hearing that, I thought, wow, a hundred packets of tea leaves—that's tens of millions.

My few dozen packets of tea leaves at stake are, I believe, completely ignored by him.

"It's still more interesting to watch Second Master Wen's cricket duel; he has the scene, and only when he wins do the people present hand out red envelopes.

You see, the people in the room are all scrimping; even when they win money, they don't even get a red envelope," the short‑haired woman said.

The beautiful long‑haired woman continued, "Second Master Wen is a rising star, probably the top young master of our Sijiucheng. Ah, a super diamond king Lao Wang. When will he come, to see me?"

"Alright, stop being flirtatious; Second Master Wen won't linger on us," the short‑haired woman sighed.

I silently smoked beside them,

The two women saw me smoking nearby, stood up and went to chat elsewhere.

I couldn't follow them.

Fine, I'll just wait here for Mr. He to come out.

After about an hour or so, the match inside ended. The people inside came out, some happy, some sighing.

I saw He Zuming, and waved at him,

"Mr. He, the match is over."

"You were here; the match behind was so exciting, you missed it," He Zuming said cheerfully.

"Let's go, we can chat at home," I said.

"Alright, let's go back to the villa to talk," He Zuming replied.

He Zuming and I quickly left the narrow alley, and drove back to the villa.

Ding Li had already found a renovation firm, which was giving our villa a high‑end remodel to raise its grade.

The villa couldn't be inhabited for the time being.

We found a hotel to stay in.

Zhu Sheng asked, "Jianqiang, how was today's match?"

I said angrily, "We lost, damn it, not only did the cricket die, but people also mocked me."

Hearing me say that, Zhu Sheng said: 'The cricket worth 100,000 each died.'

I nodded and took the dead cricket out of the jar.

He Zuming said: "Let Ma Lie Ren have a look at this cricket. I feel it's simple-minded."

I said: "Right, I feel the same. As soon as it enters the bowl, it just kicks the rim with its legs and doesn't attack."

After saying that, I handed the cricket to Ma Lie Ren.

Ma Lie Ren took the dead cricket,

placed it on his nose to sniff,

then broke open its corpse to examine its muscles closely.

After a while,

Ma Lie Ren then said: "This cricket was fed medicine."

I said: "What medicine? How do you feed medicine to this thing?"

Ma Lie Ren said: "Mr. Zhao, you don't know this. In our line of work, to make crickets grow big and develop muscles, we feed them medicine, commonly called 'supplemental feeding'."

Crickets raised this way have well-developed limbs but simple minds,

their intelligence is clearly lacking.

Besides making them grow big, feeding them medicine also makes them easy to keep alive; they don't die easily under artificial rearing conditions.

Crickets like this, when placed in the wild, die within half a day; their adaptability is poor.

To deal with such crickets, one usually uses wild crickets in a grappling match.

They lack intelligence and rely only on brute force; just a grappling match makes them irritable, and they may even bang themselves to death against a wall.

Hearing Ma Lie Ren say that, I finally realized there were many intricacies involved.

So being in different lines is like being separated by a mountain.

So the 100,000 I spent on this thing gives it no fighting power; I can only lose.

Hongguo Li and Qiu Xi selling this stuff isn't just making a fortune; many people buy crickets from them.

They also have them raise the crickets.

As soon as there's a match, they can only lose.

I said, "They live in mansions worth hundreds of millions, all obtained by swindling others."

I asked He Zuming,

"Mr. He, how much money did Qiu Xi win this time?"

He Zuming thought for a moment and said: "Including the cut, it's no less than 5 million."

"With this match they can earn 5 million; you can imagine how formidable they are." I said.

"We can do that too, Jianqiang. Let's invite Ma Lie Ren over, and we can also have our crickets make money." Zhu Sheng said.

I nodded,

"Zhu Sheng, I and Mr. He are just getting familiar with their circle for now. As for making money, we'll hold off."

"Mr. Ma, may I ask, how can that cricket fly up in the bowl?"

"It's normal for crickets to fly, but the bowl's space is small, making takeoff difficult and landing even harder; they often exit the bowl before they even get airborne. That's the crucial point."

"Such crickets that can fly inside the bowl are called flying daggers."

"They must be trained to do so."

"It takes thousands of crickets to train just one like that,"

"it can take off inside the bowl, land inside the bowl, and even land on an opponent's back."

I said: "Mr. Ma, you're absolutely right. My Black-headed General was killed when that whatever bomber flew onto its back and bit it."

"Damn, it pisses me off. Mr. Ma, I want to ask: is there a special way to deal with such flying crickets? I can't stand this."

"Of course there is. As the ancients said, one thing counters another. If you can make crickets fly, I can make them jump." Ma Lie Ren said.