Chapter 634: The Ground Monkey's Rules
The group sat around the table. The Ground Monkey shuffled the deck of cards, then lifted his head and calmly looked at the others.
Qi Xia rubbed his forehead and said, "Ground Monkey, are you really not going to explain the rules of this deck?"
"What's the matter? With your level of skill, you should be able to figure it out during the game." The Ground Monkey carefully placed the cards down, then pulled a cigarette out of his suit pocket and lit it.
Chen Junnan felt that this was a bit unreasonable after listening. He held back for a while but finally opened his mouth: "Brother Monkey, so you're really not breaking any rules here?"
"Oh?" The Ground Monkey blew out a smoke ring and asked blandly, "How am I breaking the rules?"
"Your honorable establishment here is called 'The Gambling Den,' and you, as the proxy of this 'Gambling Den,' won't let the participants understand the rules?" Chen Junnan laughed. "Then you're really taking a big risk, old pal. When is this place gonna go under?"
"Ha." The Ground Monkey took the cigarette out and held it between his fingers. "Losing all your 'Tao' because you're unfamiliar with the rules of a particular game happens every day in this gambling den. So technically, I'm not breaking any rules."
Qi Xia snorted after hearing this. "But that's just boring."
"Boring?"
"You've been waiting for so long to finally be able to use this deck of 'Shuowang Moon,' and all you can come up with is winning through an information gap?" Qi Xia reached up and rubbed his chin. "Is that the best strategy you can think of? What are you afraid of?"
The Ground Monkey's gaze flickered slightly at these words, as if he were carefully pondering Qi Xia's statement. After a few seconds, he let out a faint sigh and said, "You're right. To make the game go smoothly, I should still explain the basic common sense to you."
Not knowing what the Ground Monkey was thinking, Qi Xia simply crossed his arms and waited for his explanation.
The Ground Monkey placed the shuffled cards on the table. Taking a look, everyone could see that the deck wasn't large—certainly fewer than a standard poker deck, maybe around thirty or forty cards.
He flipped over the top card and placed it on the table, revealing its face.
On it were only two characters in regular script—
"Grain in Ear."
The Ground Monkey looked at this card, then picked up the second card from the deck and showed it to everyone.
"Mid-Autumn."
Seeing these two cards, the group naturally understood what they represented. "Grain in Ear" was one of the twenty-four solar terms, while "Mid-Autumn" was a traditional festival. With about thirty cards in total, the deck most likely included all the twenty-four solar terms and some traditional festivals. But what kind of game would be played with such a deck?
"At the start of the game, one 'community card' will be drawn and placed in the center of the table, shown to everyone," the Ground Monkey said. "Then each person will draw two cards—one open, one hidden. The open card can be shown to everyone, but the hidden card can only be viewed by the player themselves."
Qi Xia nodded after hearing this. "And then?"
"Ha..." The Ground Monkey revealed a sinister smile. "Then, using the two cards in your hand plus the 'community card' in the center, we'll compare three-card hands against everyone else. The player with the highest hand wins all the chips on the table."
"Comparing hands...?"
These three words made everyone's expressions turn puzzled.
These cards only had Chinese characters on them—where was the basis for "comparing"? Were they comparing dates?
But if they were really comparing dates, then why use the "open card" and "hidden card" in hand plus the "community card" in the center? Wouldn't it be simpler for everyone to draw one card and compare directly?
"As for the victory conditions... you can rest assured," the Ground Monkey said. "My 'Gambling Den' does have its bottom line. If your hand beats mine, I won't deny it—meaning there's no 'false declaration.' If you win and I renege, that would truly be against the rules."
"Then... how do we determine the winner?" Qi Xia asked again. "One round decides it all?"
"No... of course not." The Ground Monkey shook his head. "After waiting so long to finally bring out my 'Shuowang Moon,' how could I decide it in just one round?"
He picked up the two cards on the table, reshuffled them, and said, "Eight rounds. Eight rounds total. After that, regardless of the chips, the game ends."
Qi Xia frowned and nodded after hearing this.
Now they not only had to figure out the rules within eight rounds but also win enough "Tao" to redeem all six of them.
"How many 'Tao' can you get per round?" Xiao Cheng asked from the side.
"Good question," the Ground Monkey said. "At the start, everyone pays one 'Tao.' Then each person is dealt one 'open card.' Everyone must reveal that 'open card,' and the person with the highest date on their card starts the decision on whether to raise the bet."
"Raise?"
"Correct." The Ground Monkey nodded. "This is a gambling den, after all, and a gambling den has its own rules. After the first person raises, the remaining players, in clockwise order, have three choices: either 'fold,' 'call,' or continue to 'raise.' In simple terms, folding means giving up the 'Tao' already bet on the table to cut losses. Calling means matching the same chips as the first raiser. Raising means putting in more chips than the first raiser."
The others nodded after hearing this.
"And if someone 'raises' midway, the remaining players who haven't folded must go clockwise through these three choices again, until everyone either folds or calls." After saying this, the Ground Monkey swept his gaze across the group. "These are basic table rules. Have I explained clearly enough?"
Now everyone showed hesitant expressions. Although what the Ground Monkey said wasn't hard to understand, the key rule—how to compare hands—remained an enigma to them.
Once they got their hands, how would they know whether their hand was worth "betting"?
And on top of that, there was an even more troublesome issue.
Even if the game really did compare the dates of the twenty-four solar terms and traditional festivals—the traditional festivals were easy enough, but who could accurately list the dates of the twenty-four solar terms?
Which is later in the year: "White Dew," "Grain Rain," or "Grain in Ear"?
They could only hope that what was being compared wasn't the dates, but rather the stroke count of the characters on the cards. Otherwise, the difficulty of this game would skyrocket to an unbelievable level.
"Whether you understand or not... this is all I can tell you about the game." After saying that, the Ground Monkey looked up again at the six people sitting before him. "Are you all participating in this gamble?"
Tiantian and Xiao Cheng both turned their heads to look at Zheng Yingxiong, while Chen Junnan whispered to Qi Xia, "Old Qi, do you know the exact dates of the twenty-four solar terms?"
Qi Xia rubbed his forehead after hearing this. Though he was feeling a bit dizzy now, he knew that wasn't the real issue.