Chapter 301: One Round Decides the Winner

Room 408 on the 4th floor, against the south wall, the room at the end of the corridor.

Before even reaching the door, my nose caught the smell of smoke drifting out from under the door crack, curling and winding in the corridor, lingering for a long time.

I knocked on the door with the signal of three long and two short taps; the person who opened it was Deng Hanyu, his sleeves rolled up high, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, his eyes glowing with a green light, and when he saw me, he grinned.

"Town Mayor Chen has arrived, everyone get up and welcome him," he called back into the room.

In the middle of the room was a small round table surrounded by a circle of people who seemed to have been driven into a bloodthirsty frenzy; they acted as if they hadn't heard Deng Hanyu's words, urging the dealer to deal the cards.

The lighting was dim, the air thick with smoke, and in the ashtray on the table, cigarette butts were piled like a mountain; a case of mineral water had its packaging torn open, with several bottles lying inside in a jumble.

Everyone had a cigarette clamped between their fingers, though they were too busy to smoke them, the ash growing long and trembling, on the verge of falling; some were half-squatting on their chairs, others leaning back, and among them were two women with disheveled hair and haggard faces.

No one looked at us, their eyes fixed motionlessly on the playing cards in the dealer's hands, their expressions tense and serious, as if the world had collapsed and had nothing to do with them.

Deng Hanyu unceremoniously pulled away a guy who was half-squatting and kicked the chair to my feet, his eyes fixed on Huang Qishan as he teased with a mocking smile: "Secretary, did you come back with the money?"

Huang Qishan laughed instead of getting angry and said: "Isn't it just money? I'm not short of it."

As he spoke, he pressed down on my shoulder, pushing me hard onto the chair.

"Deal a hand!" he shouted at the dealer, slapping the table with one palm, causing a few bills from the pile of loose money in front of someone else to fall off.

"I'm raising the stakes!" Huang Qishan pressed down on a card, staring viciously at the dealer.

"Raise by how much?" The dealer seemed to have everything under control; he stopped dealing and looked at Huang Qishan with an interested expression.

"Three thousand a round."

"Isn't that too much?" The dealer hesitated, looking at Deng Hanyu.

"Accept it," Deng Hanyu commanded like a boss, saying with a smile: "Seven points is double, eight points is triple, and Three Lords is fifteen times."

"I know the rules!" Huang Qishan spat out a thick glob of phlegm, which landed squarely in the trash can by his feet: "Deal."

Huang Qishan is being fleeced! I thought to myself, I don't have much money, not enough for you to lose two hands.

So I also extended a finger, pressed it on the cards, and said: "Brother, we agreed I would handle this."

Huang Qishan sheepishly let go, stood behind me, and watched the dealer deal the cards nervously.

The dealer was a young man of about twenty with wavy hair, deep-set eye sockets, and a nose as sharp as a knife blade; his face was pale, clearly someone who lived a nocturnal life, but his hands were as well-maintained and supple as a woman's, his fingers long and slender, fluttering like butterflies.

Three cards were dealt; as soon as I picked them up, Huang Qishan leaned in nervously, his nose almost touching my face, breathing heavily.

The first card was an Ace of Hearts, and I felt a surge of joy.

Before the second card was even revealed, Huang Qishan was shouting nervously in my ear: "8... 8... 8."

I turned my head, glanced at him, and said with a smile: "Two cards, what's the use of that?"

I unfolded the second card and saw it was actually an Ace of Spades.

Now Huang Qishan grew nervous, sweat beginning to bead on the tip of his nose; ignoring my mockery, he reached out to grab the cards from my hand, shouting loudly: "A... A... A!"

I laughed out loud, pressed the cards onto the table, and stopped looking.

Deng Hanyu looked at me and flipped over his own cards: 8 points, a high score, triple the payout; he had bet one thousand, and if he won, he would take three thousand.

"Little brother, you have two Aces," Deng Hanyu exhaled a smoke ring elegantly: "The cards in your hand will definitely not be bigger than mine."

"What makes you say that?" I smiled calmly, still not revealing my cards, but said to Deng Hanyu: "Town Mayor Deng, let's play an outside game, a bet of five thousand; whoever has the higher hand wins, dare you?"

Deng Hanyu hesitated for a moment and turned to look at the dealer.

The dealer didn't seem to see Deng Hanyu's inquiring gaze; he appeared to be very seriously looking at his own cards, but I noticed his little finger hook slightly.

Deng Hanyu smiled knowingly, tossed five thousand onto the table, and tossed another five thousand, saying: "I'll raise another five thousand."

I immediately understood why Huang Qishan had been losing money; as the saying goes, nine out of ten bets are rigged, and Huang Qishan had been slaughtered like a pig yet still blamed his own bad luck, which just goes to show how naive and adorable he is.

"Must you be so ruthless?" I said, keeping my cards pressed down without moving an inch.

"Gambling has winners and losers! Heaven is watching, and gambling doesn't deceive the heart," Deng Hanyu looked at me with a grin.

"Heaven is indeed watching. The problem is that Heaven only has one pair of eyes, how could it keep track of everything?" I sighed, turned my head to look at Huang Qishan: "Secretary Huang, Town Mayor Deng doesn't want us to have a good New Year."

"Maybe we should just forget it. We won't play this round," Huang Qishan softened.

"Since Town Mayor Deng has raised the stakes, if we don't play, wouldn't that be disrespectful?" I said, smiling at the two women: "Do you dare to bet on this round with me?"

One woman hesitated, tucked her cards into the remaining deck in the middle of the table, and muttered: "I'm not playing, this is a deadly way to gamble."

The other woman looked at me, then looked at the cards in her hand, wanting to speak but holding back.

"Do you have two Aces?" she asked me, seemingly disbelieving.

I smiled and flipped over two cards, an Ace of Hearts and an Ace of Spades; a smile tugged at the corner of my mouth as I said: "Afraid I'm lying to you?"

The woman laughed and handed me the cards in her hand; she had an Ace of Clubs.

"Do you still want me to follow you?" she asked with a smile, face-downed her cards on the table, took a cigarette from her pack, lit it, and exhaled a long, leisurely smoke ring.

"Follow my cards, not me," I said: "I haven't even married a wife yet, I'm not at the stage of looking for a mistress."

"Oh, so you're still a greenhorn," the woman laughed, her body shaking with mirth.

"Greenhorns have good luck. I'm in!" the woman said, pulling out five thousand yuan and throwing it in front of me.

"Yo, Li from the Women's Federation, you aren't the type to forget your old love for a new one, are you?" Deng Hanyu looked at the woman, picked up the three cards in front of him, and spun them rapidly between his fingers.

"Since when did I become your old love?" the woman called Li from the Women's Federation cursed with a smile, extending a leg as if to kick Deng Hanyu.

"And you're supposed to be Party cadres, yet you can do such things," Li from the Women's Federation seemed to sense my gaze and squeezed back in, leaving me feeling quite melancholy.

"Enough with the nonsense, are we betting or not?" Huang Qishan couldn't hold back anymore, shouting for the cards to be revealed.

"What's the rush?" I said: "Town Mayor Deng and I, one round to decide the winner."

Deng Hanyu's eyebrows twitched as he stared at me: "Town Mayor Chen, you have guts. Since you want to decide the winner in one round, everyone else withdraws, just me and Town Mayor Chen, how about that?"

The people around the table saw the situation and honestly threw their cards into the middle of the table.

The current situation was that Deng Hanyu had 8 points, a solid score, while my cards were 2 points, with one card unknown.

If my hole card was a 6, I would tie with him; lower than 6, I would lose; if it was a 7, I would win. If an 8 or 9 appeared, I would lose; face cards would also mean I lose; there was one other possibility, that my last card was an Ace. If I had three Aces, I would deal a fatal blow to Deng Hanyu.

I already had two in my hand, Li from the Women's Federation had one, so there was only one left; this was no different from looking for a needle in the ocean. The probability of a 7 appearing was only four times; out of 54 playing cards, 21 had already been dealt, leaving 33, which meant there was less than a ten percent chance. In a gambling game like this, even a fool wouldn't follow me.

Deng Hanyu said triumphantly, "If we're going to play, let's play big. Mayor Chen, right now you and I are both the house; they can place their bets, and whichever side they bet on, that side is responsible for the odds. Do you dare?"

The people around the table all saw clearly, and upon hearing Deng Hanyu's words, they one after another threw their money in front of him, piling it into a small hill in an instant.

Only Li Fulian hesitated for a moment, but still threw her money in front of me, saying without a shred of confidence, "I'm putting in three thousand yuan; if I win, I'll only take three thousand, and if I lose, I won't blame anyone. Today, this old lady will trust the luck of this yellow-flowered lad for once."

The bets on both sides were settled, just waiting for me to flip the hole card, and the winner would be decided immediately!