“If you had simply used ‘gambling techniques’ against me, I might not have seen through it so easily. But why did you have to add ‘deception’ into the mix?” Qi Xia asked.
“My… deception?”
“It’s a simple logic—just think carefully and you’ll understand,” Qi Xia said. “You have guts, but you lack attention to detail. Look closely at the bloodstains on the cards. Do you see the problem now?”
Di Hou picked up his card, “Xiaoman,” and examined it.
Under the table, he had used his fingernail to prick his finger, flicking tiny, barely visible blood droplets onto the card. He had carefully controlled the distance and force to make them indistinguishable from the blood sprayed by the child earlier.
How could Qi Xia possibly see through his scheme just because of these bloodstains?
Seeing that Di Hou still didn’t understand, Qi Xia shook his head helplessly and asked, “When Zheng Yingxiong’s nose started bleeding… had that round of the game ended yet?”
The short question made Di Hou’s eyes widen in realization.
That was it…
What an absurd oversight…?
How could the “bloodstains” appear on the *back* of the card?
That round had already ended—everyone had already revealed their cards.
But wasn’t the truly unbelievable thing the man named Qi Xia standing before him?
He could barely even stand steadily, yet he had immediately grasped this detail… No, not only that, he had even orchestrated a deception far more masterful than Di Hou’s own.
“But I still don’t understand…” Di Hou frowned. “Even if you knew my card was forged, how could you be certain of its actual value? You blindly followed my bets—weren’t you afraid I might actually win this round?”
“At first, I wasn’t sure. But your reactions gradually confirmed my suspicions,” Qi Xia said, blinking heavily. “Every time I raised the bet, you would double-check with Qiao Jiajin to confirm if he was really following. If it had happened once, I might’ve dismissed it. But you kept asking—that could only mean one thing. You were afraid he wouldn’t fold. Your card could beat mine, but not his. Yet you underestimated his trust in me. As long as he kept raising with me, you were doomed to lose.”
“I really can’t comprehend it…” Di Hou gave a bitter laugh. “I’ve always known that at the gambling table, even fathers and sons don’t trust each other… but brothers?”
“For you, what happens at this table is just a ‘gamble.’ But for the rest of us, this is a battlefield with no retreat,” Qi Xia said. “On the gambling table, you might betray your brothers. But on the battlefield, you can’t.”
“I really underestimated you…” Di Hou shook his head. “You truly are a con artist… Now that I think about it, every time I believed I saw through your lies, I was actually falling into your trap.”
“I’m glad you’ve realized that in time,” Qi Xia replied. “But there’s one thing I wasn’t lying about—my mind really is in chaos. If we kept gambling, I’d be the one to lose.”
“Yet in this very round, you deceived me with just one sentence… Is *this* your so-called ‘chaos’?”
“No…” Qi Xia shook his head. “Di Hou, you didn’t lose because of that one sentence. You lost because of *every* word I’ve said.”
Hearing this, Di Hou blinked, momentarily lost in thought, before sinking back into his chair. After a long silence, he forced an ugly smile back onto his face.
“It doesn’t matter… Even if you win eight ‘Dao’ from me this round, so what?” Di Hou rasped. “The sixth round is coming… You won’t have time to win sixty ‘Dao’… You’ll die…”
“True,” Qi Xia nodded. “Di Hou, you’re a bit smarter than I thought. After all, you folded this round.”
“What…?”
“I had planned to go all-in this round and take all sixty ‘Dao’ in one shot,” Qi Xia sighed. “But a seasoned gambler is still a seasoned gambler. Even if you didn’t know where the flaw was, your instincts for avoiding danger kicked in. You folded, sparing yourself a crushing defeat.”
“So… you’re not going to gamble anymore?” Di Hou glanced at the chips in front of Qi Xia, then raised his chin. “You still have enough capital, and you seem lucid enough. Why not take one last gamble?”
“No matter how much capital I have, it only matters if you keep calling my bets,” Qi Xia said with a wry smile. “But this round, I played all my best moves, and you still didn’t go all-in. From now on, you’ll be on guard. No matter how much I raise, you won’t follow. So I’ve already lost.”
“Oh…?” Di Hou slowly curled his lips. “Qi Xia, you’re underestimating me. Why wouldn’t I keep calling?”
“You would?” Qi Xia countered.
“Of course,” Di Hou licked his lips confidently, his expression that of a man in the heat of battle. “Qi Xia, I still have two ‘hole cards’ I haven’t shown you yet. Isn’t it too early for you to surrender? Can’t you let me enjoy my victory a little more?”
“Two hole cards…” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Di Hou like he was a child. He slowly raised a hand to his forehead. “Di Hou, what if I told you I already know both of them?”
Di Hou’s eyes narrowed again as he studied Qi Xia warily.
The blood on Qi Xia’s forehead had dried, making his expression seem even more menacing.
“Qi Xia, you’ve given me a very strange feeling all along…” Di Hou said. “Because every word you say is so outrageous, it’s hard for me to believe.”
“Oh?”
“But every time I choose *not* to believe you,” Di Hou continued, “the outcome is never good for me.”
“So do you believe me now?” Qi Xia asked impassively. “Do you believe I already know your ‘hole cards’?”
“No… Like the story of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf,'” Di Hou mused, “I think I’ve finally figured out the pattern to dismantling your lies…”
“Such as?”
“I thought I’d seen through your deception twice in a row, only to fall for it both times,” Di Hou said, slowly wearing a smug smile. “So this time, I’ll still choose to unravel your lie. I refuse to believe you’ve seen through my two ‘hole cards,’ and I refuse to believe you’d use the same trick *three* times in a row.”
Qi Xia’s brows furrowed slightly, but he said nothing.
“So… do you still dare to ‘gamble’ with me?” Di Hou challenged. “For your teammates’ sake—to fight for their chance to survive.”
Qi Xia closed his eyes for a few seconds, deep in thought. Then, he finally spoke:
“Fine. But this time, we settle it in one round.”
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