It had only been about ten minutes since Shui Miao entered the room, yet the weather couldn’t possibly change that quickly. Moreover, the stars at the edge of the sky were still shining brightly. Additionally, there wasn’t a breeze outside at all, even though a strong gust of wind had clearly blown moments ago. What was going on?
Shui Miao’s first thought was that he had encountered a ghost; otherwise, such a situation wouldn’t have occurred.
He turned his head to look at everyone else. They were playing cards, especially Grandpa, who was completely absorbed in gambling and didn’t care what was happening outside, not even bothering to look up. Of course, Grandpa was winning the most at his table. They were playing a game called Dou Di Zhu (Fight the Landlord), and they managed to make it lively despite the relatively quiet nature of the game, something not many people could achieve.
Wang Yong was more reserved, maintaining a neutral position overall without losing or winning much, though he had no time to pay attention to what was happening outside.
At that table were also Sun Jijun and one of his bodyguards. Sun Jijun was losing the most, but he was just there for the excitement and didn’t care much about how much he lost or won. Besides, the stakes weren’t that high; by morning, the total win or loss would only be a few thousand yuan at most.
However, Shui Miao knew that as long as Grandpa won enough, he would change games, seemingly uncomfortable until he lost all his winnings.
Shui Miao turned his head back, thinking that no one would probably believe him if he spoke up now. Even if they did believe him, he couldn’t say anything! If he did, wouldn’t Grandpa and his godfather scold him to death? After all, everything would be fine once tonight passed, and if he mentioned it, wouldn’t Sun Jijun immediately use it as an excuse to ask for the payment back?
Since no one could be relied upon to help, Shui Miao decided to observe the situation himself first.
Thus, Shui Miao focused his mind, began practicing his qigong, and when a cool sensation rose to his head, his Yin-Yang Eyes opened.
As soon as the Yin-Yang Eyes opened, the scenery before Shui Miao instantly changed!
Nights were different from days, as the daylight was too strong with yang energy, making it impossible to see any colors of spiritual energy under the sunlight.
At night, it was completely different. Although yin energy was everywhere, everything still looked somewhat normal before the witching hour (zi shi), when yin energy reached its peak. Once zi shi arrived, the yin energy was terrifying enough to scare someone to death.
Shui Miao first looked toward the pond. Within the thin black mist, faint gray and white mists were diffusing. The gray mist was earth spiritual energy, which had been released because the ground had been disturbed. The white mist was water spiritual energy, and there was nothing unusual here. Shui Miao then looked elsewhere, at the newly replaced iron fence on the wall, which was wrapped in golden-yellow mist. As for the weeds that had been removed, their roots remained in the soil, causing green wood spiritual energy to cover the ground and slowly spread in all directions. However, yin energy erupting from underground dispersed and vaporized the wood energy.
At night, fire spiritual energy and yang energy were the rarest.
Yin energy feared fire the most, and it also feared yang energy.
After looking around and seeing nothing unusual, Shui Miao didn’t dwell on it much. Instead, he became fascinated by the various colors of spiritual energy. He reached into his pocket and took out a lighter, crouched down, and lit a flame… Instantly, red fire spiritual energy appeared, and the yin energy nearby quickly dissipated. The green wood spiritual energy was attracted to the flame, entering the red fire and transforming into wisps of smoke. Initially, there was no smoke when the wood energy hadn’t arrived yet, but once the wood energy spread over, smoke appeared!
“I get it!!”
Shui Miao was thrilled as he suddenly understood a principle: the reason smoke appears when fire is lit is because the wood spiritual energy in the air is being burned.
Following this, Shui Miao began to question the colors of the rainbow. The rainbow’s colors are red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. These colors are combinations of seven types of spiritual energy. Sunlight itself has no color, but due to its illumination, these colors become visible under the influence of water spiritual energy. No wonder he once saw a news article online stating that rainbows couldn’t be seen in outer space because the vacuum of space lacks the five elements’ energies, making it impossible to see a rainbow.
With this discovery, Shui Miao was extremely excited, fully concentrating on the spiritual energies, completely forgetting the strange occurrence from earlier.
After extinguishing the lighter flame, a sudden thought appeared in Shui Miao’s mind.
“Wait! Besides the Yin-Yang and the five elements’ energies, there should be other types of energy in this world. The rainbow’s colors are red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. Red represents fire, orange and yellow represent metal and earth (some earth appears yellowish rather than purely gray), green and cyan represent different types of wood, and blue represents water. What does purple represent? Yang energy is white, and yin energy is black, yet the meaning of purple remains unknown.”
This question puzzled Shui Miao for a while.
Shui Miao thought about seeking help from his grandfather and instinctively turned to look inside the house. Suddenly, he was shocked to see a large amount of purple mist emanating from his grandfather!
“How can this be!?”
Shui Miao hurried into the house and approached his grandfather, observing intently…
Everyone thought Shui Miao was watching the cards and no one noticed his unusual expression.
“Haha! I won again!”
Xiong Ying excitedly slapped the cards he had just drawn onto the table. Everyone was stunned by the hand he had: four Kings, eight 2s, eight Aces, and the rest a straight, with the landlord role assigned to Grandpa!
Such an incredible hand was almost impossible to get!
Everyone sighed in amazement. According to the rules, drawing eight of the same card required paying double the winning money. Xiong Ying’s hand, including four Kings and being played openly, won him twelve times the usual amount!!
“Unbelievable! I’m done. I can’t play anymore…”
Wang Yong had been winning before, but this round cost him 600 yuan. He got up, patted his pants, and was about to leave. Wang Yong wasn’t particularly fond of gambling anyway; he had only joined in tonight out of boredom. He never expected Xiong Ying to have such incredible luck. If this continued until morning, he might lose several thousand yuan!
Xiong Ying was in the middle of his winning streak and quickly stood up to stop Wang Yong, “Don’t go! Such a good hand is a once-in-a-thousand-years occurrence. The next rounds won’t be this lucky. Sit back down and play a few more rounds, okay?”
Xiong Ying pretended to pull Wang Yong back while secretly giving him a meaningful look.
Seeing Xiong Ying winking at him, Wang Yong suddenly understood. At that moment, Sun Jijun also pleaded with him, and seeing an opportunity to back down, Wang Yong nodded and agreed to play a few more rounds.
This seemingly ordinary interaction of pulling and sitting down revealed a shocking secret to Shui Miao!!
Xiong Ying said Dou Di Zhu was boring and suggested playing the currently popular “Bullfighting” (Dou Niu).
Sun Jijun didn’t mind; the more people playing Bullfighting, the better. Sun Jijun invited people from another table to join. Soon, nine people formed a circle. This time, Wang Yong drew the banker position, and one of Sun Jijun’s henchmen dealt the cards. Once the cards were dealt, no one was allowed to look at them first; they had to place their bets. Wang Yong also placed 3,000 yuan in front of him as the bank. As it turned out, Sun Jijun drew a “Five Flower Divine Bull,” sweeping the table and winning over 2,000 yuan, making Xiong Ying stare in disbelief.
In the following rounds, Wang Yong’s purple aura grew stronger, and he won five consecutive hands, accumulating over 10,000 yuan!
Sun Jijun lost over 3,000 yuan, continuously losing without a single win, making him so frustrated he could barely sit still.
Wang Yong was satisfied with his winnings and prepared to give up his banker role, “Haha, five rounds are enough. I’m going to quit now; if I don’t, I’ll start losing soon.”
Hearing this, Xiong Ying quickly persuaded him, “Don’t be a party pooper. Since you’ve already won so much, even if you lose a couple of hands, how much could you really lose? Everyone is having such a good time. Let’s play a couple more rounds.”
“Yeah, Brother Wang, we’ve all been losing badly. If you quit now, where can we vent our frustration?” Sun Jijun took out 10,000 yuan from his bag and placed it on the table, “If you really insist, let’s play one last round. If you win this round, we’ll let you quit without any complaints.”
“Sun, you’re betting 10,000 yuan in one go, we can’t really match that,” Xiong Ying wanted to bet more, but seeing Sun Jijun bet so much at once made him itch to play, hoping Sun Jijun would bet less.
Sun Jijun was already a bit frustrated from losing and waved his hand, “Let’s play one more round. This time, I’ll place the bet.”
“Alright then.”
Reluctantly, Xiong Ying placed a bet of 1,000 yuan.
The other bodyguards each placed bets of 150 yuan; they didn’t have much on them to begin with and had already lost most of it.
Once everyone had placed their bets, they each revealed their cards.
Wang Yong picked up his cards without even looking and flipped them over. Everyone looked and was stunned; Wang Yong had drawn four 9s, a bomb hand!
Sun Jijun looked at his cards: two 5s, a 10, a 7, and a 2, making a “Bull 9.”
“Damn it! I got a Bull 9 and still lost!”
Sun Jijun threw his cards down and slammed 10,000 yuan in front of Wang Yong before sitting back down.
Xiong Ying slowly flipped over his cards, revealing three 10s and two 5s.
“Darn it! Why wasn’t it four 10s!” Xiong Ying was unhappy, feeling frustrated about his loss.
Wang Yong gathered all the money in front of him, delighted, “Haha, I said I didn’t want to play anymore, but you insisted. So don’t blame me now! Shui Miao, come here, this is for you.”
Wang Yong generously grabbed a handful of hundred-yuan notes and stuffed them into Shui Miao’s arms.
Shui Miao was practicing his energy when Wang Yong’s hand touched his. At that moment, he saw all of Wang Yong’s purple energy surge into his body… Immediately afterward, Shui Miao felt a sensation of floating and an incredible comfortableness inside.
Did I just absorb the purple energy into my body? Won’t this make me lose control of my energy cultivation? Shui Miao was startled and quickly stopped practicing his qigong.
Everyone was dispirited, having lost almost all their money.
Xiong Ying still had some money left, “Come on, let’s play again! Your luck is good; I’ll play with you. At most, I’ll just lose it all to you.”
Among the people present, only Xiong Ying still had purple energy around him now.
It wasn’t because Xiong Ying saw the purple energy on himself, but because he was addicted to gambling. Once he started playing, he couldn’t stop himself.
Wang Yong rubbed his nose, “Alright then. I feel a bit awkward taking all this money, so let’s play one more round. If I win again, I really won’t play anymore.”
“Great! I’ll bet 10,000 yuan on this last round.”
Xiong Ying took out 10,000 yuan in cash and placed it on the table. He had a total of 13,000 yuan, which he had earned earlier by having dinner with Sun Hong at a hotel. He had just lost 3,000 yuan, so now he was using the remaining 10,000 yuan to bet on this final round.
“Alright! I’ll play with you!”
Wang Yong grabbed the deck of cards and personally shuffled them.
Sun Jijun wasn’t willing to accept his loss and took out another 10,000 yuan from his bag. This was the last 10,000 yuan in cash he had left.
Once everyone had placed their bets, Wang Yong dealt the cards under everyone’s watchful eyes.
Then, as usual, Wang Yong flipped his cards immediately. Three 4s, a 5, and a 7—no bull.
“Oh no, I lost, I lost…”
Seeing such a bad hand, Wang Yong himself was stunned.
Indeed, the result was exactly as expected—Wang Yong lost all around, losing all the money he had won in an instant.
Xiong Ying won 10,000 yuan and was delighted, shaking his head at Wang Yong, “You see! This is what you get for giving tips halfway through the game.”
There were many rules in gambling, and giving tips halfway through was considered very taboo. Wang Yong, who didn’t gamble much, naturally didn’t know this.
Sun Jijun won back 10,000 yuan and breathed a sigh of relief, smiling as he asked Wang Yong, “Brother Wang, don’t be discouraged. You still have a few hundred left on the table. Maybe you can win it all back in a few rounds.”
“Godfather, here you go.”
Seeing Wang Yong lose money, Shui Miao returned the money to him, “Wait until you win again to give it to me. If you lose, just forget it.”
“Get out of here, it’s yours. How can I take it back after giving it to you? Your godfather has money.” Wang Yong was a man who valued face and naturally wouldn’t take back money he had already given.
Seeing that Wang Yong didn’t have much cash left, Xiong Ying wanted to continue playing and thus persuaded him, “Wang Yong, since the kid gave it to you, just take it for now. At most, you can give him double when you win again.”
“No, no, no. Brother Wang, if you’re short on money, you can borrow from me. Don’t take Shui Miao’s money. Shui Miao is idle anyway, so why not let him play a few rounds? What kind of man can’t gamble?” Sun Jijun raised his hand and signaled one of his bodyguards to give up his seat for Shui Miao to play.
Shui Miao felt a bit excited and looked toward his grandfather…
Xiong Ying waved his hand, “Alright, let him play. Anyway, you’ve already earned the money. It doesn’t matter if he wins or loses.”
“Then I’m in!”
Shui Miao was thrilled and excitedly took the seat.
Gambling—this was Shui Miao’s very first experience in life.
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