Chapter 323: Greed

It is often said that no gambling means no greed, no greed means no gambling; once a gamble begins, the outcome is always win or lose.

But the gambler’s attitude at the card table is one of extreme greed that cannot even accept breaking even—it demands only victory, rejects any result other than total domination, and accepts nothing but winning.

“You win, win, win—then end up losing everything.” Ning Zhe glanced back at the empty, deep corridor behind him, his eyes as calm as still water.

On the card table, the next round of drawing had already begun; Xia Yubing gripped her pen tightly, about to write and ask Ning Zhe what the condition was for becoming the “winner,” but before she could lift the pen, as if sharing a telepathic link, a line of black characters appeared stroke by stroke on the paper:

【I cannot tell you yet what the condition is for becoming a “winner.”】

【But I can teach you how to identify who might be the “loser.”】

【Raise your head now and look at everyone’s hand cards on the table—find the one holding the most cards.】

【The joker is in their hand.】

Xia Yubing’s gaze moved from the period at the end of the sentence, and she lifted her head toward the opposite side of the table.

The gambler had inherited five cards from the deceased A Lun, then drew from I Ke, pulling a club A and successfully pairing it with his own spade A; both cards were discarded together into the pile.

Gambler’s hand card count: 4

Next was I Ke, who originally held seven cards; after losing one to the gambler, he had six left, then drew from the God of Wealth, pulling a diamond 2 and successfully pairing it with his own heart 2, discarding both together into the pile.

I Ke’s hand card count: 5

Then came the God of Wealth, who originally held nine cards; after losing one to I Ke, he had eight left, but immediately drew one more from Sally Sally—a club Q—bringing his hand back to nine cards.

God of Wealth’s hand card count: 9

“Ah, this…” Xia Yubing froze, watching as Sally Sally, after being drawn from by the God of Wealth, turned around and cautiously extended her hand.

Sally Sally originally held five cards; after losing one to the God of Wealth, she had four left, then drew a heart K from Xia Yubing and paired it with her own diamond K, discarding both together into the pile.

Sally Sally’s hand card count: 3

Xia Yubing looked down again at her own hand—she now held five cards.

It was Xia Yubing’s turn to draw.

“According to Ning Zhe’s words, the joker must be in the hand of the person holding the most cards—undoubtedly the God of Wealth.” Xia Yubing thought.

The God of Wealth held nine cards—the initial hand size given to every player when the gambler finished dealing and the game officially began. This number would gradually decrease with each round of drawing and pairing.

“But the God of Wealth’s hand count has never decreased—not once since the game started. Through so many rounds of drawing, it has discarded not a single card; its hand has remained exactly nine cards, not one less.”

That meant the God of Wealth had drawn not a single card matching any in its hand so far—what a pointless game.

“What terrible luck…” Xia Yubing couldn’t help stealing two more glances at the headless old corpse draped in a wide Confucian robe—the black lightning-wood tattoos on its pale skin were startlingly vivid.

As she pondered, the gambler’s hand, clutching the cards, reached toward her; its rotting flesh emitted a foul stench that made Xia Yubing’s nose wrinkle. “Why so eager?” she wondered inwardly, then reached out and randomly grabbed one of the gambler’s four cards and drew it.

Spade 9

Xia Yubing looked down—the matching club 9 was right there in her hand; the pair matched successfully, and she discarded both together into the central pile.

Xia Yubing’s hand card count dropped to four; the gambler now held only three cards.

This round of drawing ended.

Alright, let’s organize the known information so far.

1. The wandering gambler randomly drags people into a gambling game, forcing them to play under conditions that vary.

2. All game types that have appeared so far involve the concepts of “win” and “lose,” along with “stakes.”

3. Any player who cheats or cheats during the game is immediately declared a loser, has their stakes confiscated, and is expelled.

4. The gambler’s competitiveness—or rather, its greed—is extreme; it will keep gambling until it becomes the winner, claiming all other players’ stakes for itself.

“It is currently known that the joker is very likely in the God of Wealth’s hand. If this joker is never drawn in the upcoming drawing rounds, then when all other players have emptied their hands and left, the God of Wealth, still holding the joker, will be declared the ‘loser.’”

“Also known: players who empty their hands and leave are not declared ‘winners.’ This game has a different condition for determining the winner—the gambler left, picked up A Lun’s cards, and returned to the table precisely to fulfill this condition and become the winner.”

“So what is this condition? What must be achieved to become the ‘winner’?”

Think, Xia Yubing, think—can your brain really be this dull? Can you do nothing at all without Ning Zhe beside you? If he were here, what line of reasoning would he use to find the one solution hidden within these vague rules?

“The joker… first, the joker. The condition for being declared a loser is ‘being the last one holding the joker.’”

!

“Now I know the joker is in the God of Wealth’s hand, but I don’t know which specific card it is—because the gambler didn’t follow the domestic ‘draw turtle’ rule by removing the big joker and an 8, nor did it follow the international ‘joker as lone card’ rule by randomly selecting one card from 54 to create an unmatched card.”

“Though I cannot determine which exact card is the joker, I know a pattern: whether under the domestic ‘draw turtle’ rule or the international ‘lone card as joker’ rule, the joker in both systems shares one key trait—it cannot pair with any other card.”

“The joker is a solitary card—it cannot pair, so it is never discarded. It merely passes between players like a ticking bomb until the game ends, when all others have escaped, and the joker explodes in the loser’s hand.”

“In a full 54-card deck, which card cannot pair with any other?”

“Only the joker—the big joker and the little joker.”

Xia Yubing looked down again at her hand—there, unmistakably, was the colorful big joker.

The ‘big joker’ had been in her hand since the very end of the initial deal.

“It is known the joker is in the God of Wealth’s hand, and the big joker is in mine. If the joker is indeed either the big or little joker, then the little joker in the God of Wealth’s hand must be the joker.”

(End of chapter)