Chapter 142: The God of Gamblers

True to his word, Chen Peifeng sent someone to deliver ten million in funds to Yang Jiekai the very next day, along with the equity of a casino.

Yang Jiekai accepted it all without any false modesty.

The entire Dragon Hall was jubilant. In the blink of an eye, they not only had a massive influx of cash but also owned a casino. Everyone felt an urge to envereate Yang Jiekai like a deity.

"Brother Yang, I propose this toast to you."

In a private dining room at a restaurant, Yang Jiekai, Long Xiaoman, and other core members of the Dragon Hall were gathered. Red Boy was the first to raise his glass, speaking respectfully and candidly to Yang Jiekai, "I, Red Boy, am a straightforward man. I used to have a shred of doubt about you, but now, I am completely convinced, heart and soul. From now on, my life belongs to you, Brother Yang."

Wang Sankui and Yuan Datou nearby quickly raised their glasses as well. "Brother Yang, starting today, our lives are also in your hands."

Yang Jiekai chuckled. "No need to be so formal. We're all family."

Long Xiaoman also shared a drink with Yang Jiekai, though she didn't ask how he had pulled it off. She never pried into matters Yang Jiekai chose not to mention.

The happiest person in the private room was undoubtedly the iron rooster Ouyang Tiedan. From the moment he stepped into the room, his face had been blooming like a flower.

"Damn it, Iron Rooster, what the hell are you grinning about? Keep smiling like that and your jaw's going to drop off!"

Qin Feng glared at Ouyang Tiedan, irritation bubbling up inside him.

Everyone was thrilled about the unexpected windfall of funds and a casino, but Ouyang Tiedan seemed disproportionately excited, acting as if he had secured these assets himself.

Ouyang Tiedan didn't bicker with Qin Feng. He took a sip from his glass, turned to Yang Jiekai, and said, "Brother Yang, there's something I want to discuss with you, and you have to agree."

"Damn it, you punk!"

Yang Jiekai cursed at Ouyang Tiedan. "You're already telling me I have to agree, so there's nothing to discuss! Spit it out."

Only then did Ouyang Tiedan smile. "I want Brother Yang to put me in charge of managing the casino."

"Screw that, forget it!"

Before Yang Jiekai could speak, Qin Feng pointed at Zhang Hua and said, "We already have Minister Zhang managing our rear guard. When is it ever your turn to spout nonsense?"

Zhang Hua, sitting nearby, was indeed a management genius. Aside from engaging in physical fights, he handled all the major and minor affairs in the rear of the Dragon Hall, keeping everything in impeccable order and firmly cementing his position as the tactician.

Ouyang Tiedan wasn't angry at all. He shot Qin Feng a playful look and said, "I don't know management; that still has to be left to Minister Zhang. But when it comes to the casino, you really can't do without me. If you don't believe me, we can test it out."

"How do we test it?" Qin Feng looked at Ouyang Tiedan, completely puzzled.

Ouyang Tiedan maintained a mysterious expression without saying a word. First, he had a waiter bring in a pack of playing cards. Then, with a half-smile at Qin Feng, he said, "Let's play 'Catching the Chicken'. I'll deal, ten rounds. If you win even once, I will never bring up managing the casino again."

"Damn it, bring it on! You think I'm scared of you?" When Qin Feng had free time, he enjoyed playing small-stakes games with Old Stick and the others. Hearing that they were playing Catching the Chicken immediately piqued his interest.

Catching the Chicken was a simple card game, known in some places as "Zha Jinhua" or Three-Card Brag. The rules were extremely straightforward: each player is dealt three cards, and the highest hand wins.

Ouyang Tiedan skillfully shuffled the deck and dealt three cards to each of them.

Qin Feng picked up his cards, narrowed his eyes for a moment, and then burst out laughing as he tossed his cards onto the table. "Iron Rooster, you've lost! I've got three twos!"

Ouyang Tiedan shook his head with a faint smile, slowly revealing his own cards. "Sorry, mine are just a little bit bigger than yours."

When Qin Feng saw the three cards in front of Ouyang Tiedan, his eyes went wide, disbelief plastered across his face.

In the game of Catching the Chicken, three of a kind is an extremely high hand, and the statistical probability of getting it is microscopic.

"Damn it, consider yourself lucky! Again!" Qin Feng slammed his cards down angrily, rolled up his sleeves, looking utterly unyielding.

Ouyang Tiedan leisurely shuffled the deck and dealt another round.

Qin Feng gingerly picked up his cards, peeling them open one by one. Looking down, he saw three of a kind again—three fours.

Only this time, he didn't feel the same excitement as before. In Catching the Chicken, getting three of a kind once was already rare, but getting it twice in a row was practically impossible.

"Don't tell me you have three fives?" Qin Feng asked tentatively.

Ouyang Tiedan smiled and nodded, flipping his cards over. Sure enough, they were three fives.

In the subsequent rounds of dealing, every single hand Qin Feng received consisted of three identical cards, yet Ouyang Tiedan's hand always managed to be just slightly higher than his.

"Damn, are you the God of Gamblers? Iron Rooster, how on earth did you pull that off? I clearly watched you shuffle the cards!"

Qin Feng had been dealt three of a kind ten times in a row without winning a single time. Looking at Ouyang Tiedan now, a sense of deep respect welled up within him.

At this moment, Yang Jiekai suddenly burst into laughter. "Forget it, Qin Feng. As long as Tiedan is dealing, you wouldn't win even if he dealt a hundred more times."

Suddenly, certain thoughts clicked in Yang Jiekai's mind.

For such hands to appear ten times in a row, even someone using their toes could figure out that Ouyang Tiedan was definitely cheating.

Yet everyone sitting right beside him, including Yang Jiekai, hadn't caught a glimpse of how he cheated. Red Boy and the others were already staring in utter shock.

Though Yang Jiekai didn't know the exact mechanics of what Ouyang Tiedan had done, it immediately reminded him of another title belonging to Ouyang Tiedan: the Saint of Thieves.

Every finger of the Saint of Thieves, Ouyang Tiedan, possessed eight joints, and when he stole things, he came and went without a trace. Thinking along those lines made it all make sense—since the Saint of Thieves could steal objects, stealing cards was naturally child's play for him.

Ouyang Tiedan looked smugly at the group whose jaws were agape in astonishment. Narrowing his eyes, he smiled and said, "When it comes to general management, I certainly don't have Minister Zhang's ability. But as long as I'm in the casino, no one will ever be able to cheat under my nose. Furthermore, whenever we encounter a master gambler, I can personally step in and beat them at their own game."

"Splendid!"

Having just witnessed an eye-opening feat, Yang Jiekai clapped a few times and said, "From now on, the casino is yours. With you keeping watch, we can all rest easy."

Zhang Hua also raised his glass toward Ouyang Tiedan and said, "I'll be counting on your full support in the future."

Ouyang Tiedan raised his glass to clink it against Zhang Hua's. "You just focus on management and growing the casino. Leave the rest of the dirty work to me."

The group was already in high spirits, and this little interlude made the atmosphere in the private room even more lively, with everyone drinking until they were thoroughly intoxicated.

"Xiaoman, I want to go downstairs to buy a pack of cigarettes. Keep me company for a walk."

Seeing that everyone at the table was just about drunk, Yang Jiekai spoke to Long Xiaoman, who was sitting beside him.

Long Xiaoman nodded, stood up, and left the private room with Yang Jiekai, leaving only Qin Feng, Red Boy, and a few others shouting finger-guessing drinking games.

"Aren't you going to ask how I pulled it off?"

Walking side by side with Long Xiaoman on the late-night street, Yang Jiekai had a cigarette hanging from his lips, hands shoved into his pockets, admiring the night view of Anhai City as he spoke to her.

Long Xiaoman tightened her black windbreaker and replied, "If you don't volunteer it, I won't ask."

Yang Jiekai smiled. "You're the boss of the Dragon Hall, so I think it's necessary for you to know."

With that, Yang Jiekai recounted his dealings with Chen Peifeng from start to finish, omitting Tate's true identity and simply claiming that he had helped Chen Peifeng defeat a formidable expert.

Long Xiaoman didn't show much surprise after hearing the story. Having known Yang Jiekai for so long, she felt that the man himself was an enigma; he never mentioned where he had learned his skills, and she didn't even know where he was originally from.

"I know Chen Peifeng. He's been operating in Anhai City for over a dozen years and is quite a heavyweight in the underworld. He always wears a friendly facade, but he's extremely deep."

Long Xiaoman belonged to the martial underworld herself, so the name Chen Peifeng was far from unfamiliar to her. As she walked, she kicked a small pebble on the ground like a young girl and continued, "Don't let his current grandfatherly demeanor fool you; I've heard he was ruthless back in his younger days. When he first arrived in Anhai City, he knew absolutely no one, yet he carved out his path to where he is today step by step, relying solely on two large broadswords."

Yang Jiekai nodded. "Anyone who wants to rise to a position of power is bound to pay a price, and Chen Peifeng is no exception. Although I haven't fully figured out his background yet, we must lean on this towering tree. For the Dragon Hall, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"By the way, Jiekai, let me ask you something," Long Xiaoman said, sudden inspiration striking her.

Yang Jiekai nodded gently. "Go ahead."

Long Xiaoman reached out, affectionately hooking her arm through Yang Jiekai's. "You've done so much for the Dragon Hall, why don't you just become the boss of the Dragon Hall yourself?"

Yang Jiekai smiled. "I have no interest in the underworld, and besides, my wife doesn't let me get mixed up with gangsters."

Hearing Yang Jiekai steer the conversation back to his wife, Long Xiaoman unhappily pursed her lips. "Three sentences in and you're already talking about your wife. I really want to find a chance to meet her and see what kind of fairy she is to have bewitched you like this."

Yang Jiekai shrugged, at a loss for words.

Long Xiaoman hooked her arm a little tighter around his and smiled. "Well, it doesn't matter anyway. I don't care whether you have a wife at home; I've decided that you're going to be my man for the rest of my life. Whatever I, Long Xiaoman, set my mind on getting, I always get."

"Good grief, you can do that?!"

Yang Jiekai laughed out loud, though he wasn't the least bit surprised by Long Xiaoman's declaration. Having known her for so long, he had a fairly deep understanding of her personality.

If he had to use an adjective for Long Xiaoman, she was a woman born of fire—straightforward, speaking her mind without beating around the bush, loving and hating with fierce intensity. That distinct clarity was actually rather appealing to Yang Jiekai.

Just at that moment, a Bentley slowly pulled over to the roadside ahead. A woman dressed in an ivory-colored business suit stepped out of the vehicle and happened to see Long Xiaoman holding onto Yang Jiekai's arm as they walked toward her.

Their eyes met. Deep inside, Yang Jiekai silently cursed *holy crap*, followed by a stampede of ten thousand mythical creatures galloping across his heart...