“Not looking at your cards and betting straight away?” Earth Monkey frowned slightly.
“A casino boss afraid to gamble?” Qi Xia retorted. “I’m currently ‘eight-eight,’ and the ‘community cards’ are ‘one-one.’ Do you think I can beat you?”
Earth Monkey didn’t answer, just stared at the hand Qi Xia was using to cover his cards before asking, “Aren’t you afraid of losing?”
“Why assume it’ll be me who loses?” Qi Xia shot back.
Earth Monkey sighed and shook his head, withdrawing his gaze. “I have a feeling the odds are against you.”
As he spoke, Zheng Yingxiong was gripping Tian Tian’s arm tightly, his expression grim.
Tian Tian, infected by his tension, swallowed hard and called out, “Qi Xia… be careful.”
Hearing this, Qi Xia glanced at Tian Tian’s serious face, then down at Zheng Yingxiong, whose nose was twitching. He slowly narrowed his eyes.
Though Tian Tian hadn’t said much, her and Zheng Yingxiong’s expressions pointed to an utterly bizarre answer—one that left Qi Xia stunned for three full seconds.
Pausing to collect himself, Qi Xia picked up the cards on the table and subtly moved them beneath it.
“Oh?” Earth Monkey found the motion intriguing. The wrinkles on his face relaxed slightly as he chuckled. “What’s this about?”
Qi Xia couldn’t pinpoint why, but something about Earth Monkey’s demeanor felt off—like something inside him had unlocked, even shifting his entire state of mind.
“Nothing,” Qi Xia replied. “Are you betting or not?”
“Sure.” Earth Monkey nodded, still covering his own cards. “Qi Xia, without looking, I’ll raise by one.”
Earth Monkey’s confidence unsettled Qi Xia inexplicably, as if the game had reset to its initial state.
Was his confidence rooted in his “hole card”? Or some hidden “rule”?
The thought had barely crossed Qi Xia’s mind when a fog of confusion invaded his brain, swirling relentlessly.
He quickly pinched his right pinky, but his mind seemed numb to the pain now, failing to dispel the fog immediately.
Gritting his teeth, Qi Xia lowered his head and twisted his pinky hard.
A sickening crunch echoed faintly in the room, like shattered bones being pulverized again.
Qi Xia stifled a groan, burying his face as his entire body trembled. The others stared at him in alarm.
“Liar…” Qiao Jiajin immediately bent down to check on him.
Qi Xia clenched his jaw, waiting for the mental fog to clear, but it only seemed to descend more frequently, growing harder to shake off.
“I’m fine…”
The others exchanged worried glances. Qi Xia looked far from okay—something had been off about him all day, as if he were ill or injured.
After a long pause, Qi Xia finally raised his head, feeling slightly clearer.
His mind now told him there was only one way to test Earth Monkey’s “confidence level.”
“Earth Monkey, I’ll raise the stakes again—a side bet between us.” Qi Xia, drenched in cold sweat, spoke weakly. “I’ll wager two extra ‘tokens,’ against the two in your hand.”
Qiao Jiajin frowned at Qi Xia’s pallid face.
“A side bet…?”
“Exactly. Just you and me—no one else involved.” Qi Xia nodded. “Dare to take it?”
Earth Monkey studied Qi Xia’s eyes for a few seconds before asking, “One to open, one in the first round, one in the second, and now two more… If I recall, that’s all five of your tokens, right?”
“Yes.” Qi Xia exhaled faintly. “I’m betting everything. You can refuse.”
“No reason to refuse.” Earth Monkey calmly placed two more tokens on the table, his expression unreadable.
Without seeing his “hidden card” or knowing how the rules had shifted, Qi Xia sensed he’d already lost.
In gambling, sometimes neither rules nor cards matter—just the opponent’s expression. And from Earth Monkey’s, Qi Xia saw the outcome.
Seeing the two engage in a side bet, the others could only match Earth Monkey’s single token for the round before checking their own hands.
No one could raise further—their tokens were nearly depleted, and Qi Xia had gone all in.
Qi Xia lowered his head and flipped the card beneath the table.
“Major Snow…?” His brow furrowed. “November eighth…?”
Wait…
Luck had arrived.
His earlier hand was “White Dew”—”eighth month, eighth day.”
The community cards were “Spring Festival”—”first month, first day.”
Numerically, his first card was two “eights,” the table center two “ones.”
And now, he’d drawn “one-one-eight.”
What incredible fortune.
His current hand was four “ones” and three “eights.”
What had seemed like disjointed “eights” and “ones” had been transformed by this late “Major Snow.”
If the earlier rules held, was there any hand on the table that could top this?
This wasn’t just a “full house” (three of a kind plus a pair)—it was “four plus three.”
Every digit contributed to the hand, with none wasted.
Qi Xia hadn’t expected his blind gamble to yield such a monstrous hand.
He glanced at Earth Monkey, whose expression remained perfectly controlled—no cracks to exploit.
His calm eyes and posture gave nothing away. Whether truly confident or flawlessly deceptive, he simply re-covered his cards after checking them and locked gazes with Qi Xia.
Dismissing Earth Monkey, Qi Xia turned to his teammates.
Most looked uneasy—except for Chen Junnan and Xiao Cheng, who were scrutinizing their hands, calculating their odds.
Their mental math wasn’t as sharp as Qi Xia’s, though. After about ten seconds, Xiao Cheng nodded in satisfaction and tucked his cards away.
Chen Junnan, however, hissed softly after checking his hand, then cupped his cards and leaned in close.
“Bloody hell…” He suddenly straightened and began patting his pockets frantically—but they were empty.
“Handsome, what’re you looking for?” Qiao Jiajin asked.
“My damn property deed!” Chen Junnan wailed. “How’d I forget to bring it today?!”
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