Chapter 648: Hypercore Calculation
Since Earth Monkey didn't raise this round, Zheng Yingxiong began the second round of dealing.
He slid a card facedown to each person, finally reaching Earth Monkey last.
As Zheng Yingxiong crawled across the table to hand Earth Monkey his card, he suddenly twitched his nose, his outstretched hand freezing mid-air.
Earth Monkey, reaching to take the card, also paused, taken aback. "What's the matter, kid? You don't wanna give me my card?"
Zheng Yingxiong looked around with a puzzled expression, then fixed his gaze back on Earth Monkey and sniffed again.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Earth Monkey asked.
"This... Uncle..." Zheng Yingxiong seemed to encounter something confusing. He hesitated for a moment, then sniffed once more, his expression relaxing slightly. "Nothing... must be my imagination."
After handing the "hidden card" to Earth Monkey, Zheng Yingxiong returned to his seat with a baffled look, then scratched his head.
A trickle of blood dripped from his nostril, but his expression showed no sign of feeling it.
Beside him, Tiantian was startled. She quickly reached out to wipe the blood from Zheng Yingxiong's nose, dirtying her palm in the process.
"Brother Hero, why are you bleeding again?"
Zheng Yingxiong turned his head blankly to look at Tiantian, as if still not fully present. His lips moved slightly, and he slowly squeezed out a few words: "Just now, for a moment... it was really stinky."
"Really... stinky?"
Tiantian quickly sniffed the air. As for "stinky," the "End of Eternity" was inherently filled with the odor of decay and heaviness, so ordinary stench was nothing new to them.
Besides, this room had likely just had a death; the floor was covered in sticky blood, and the smell was probably even worse than outside.
But Zheng Yingxiong said it was stinky for just a "moment." Tiantian suspected the "stink" he referred to came from his own "Resonance."
He had smelled something only he could detect.
"What kind of stench?" Tiantian leaned in, asking in an almost inaudible whisper. "Is it the smell of a 'Resonance'?"
"Hard to say..." Zheng Yingxiong shook his head, replying just as quietly. "Sister, what you all call 'Resonance'—to me, most of it smells like a light fragrance. I've only ever smelled a few very powerful 'Resonances' that had a bit of a stink... but the smell I just caught was strange..."
"How strange?"
"It smelled a lot like 'Heaven'..." Zheng Yingxiong's face even turned pale. "I think I caught a stench far beyond an ordinary 'Zodiac,' but I don't know where it came from..."
"Where else could it come from..."
Tiantian recalled that earlier, when Human Monkey gave them Earth Monkey's address, he had clearly stated, "I want to know if Earth Monkey has a Resonance." That statement likely wasn't baseless.
"Brother Hero," Tiantian whispered. "If you smell that kind of odor again, tap my arm, okay?"
"Mm." Zheng Yingxiong nodded.
Earth Monkey didn't notice the odd behavior between Tiantian and Zheng Yingxiong. After receiving his hidden card, he lifted it to take a look, revealing a slightly complicated expression—one that was deeply concealed and extremely hard to detect. He pondered for a while, then set the card down and looked at the others.
"Anyone want to 'raise'?"
Qi Xia caught that subtle expression, but it was difficult for him to guess its meaning. What kind of card could have made Earth Monkey show such a look?
At present, the biggest visible cards on the table were Earth Monkey's "New Year's Eve," [1230], and Zheng Yingxiong's "Winter Solstice," [1123].
Since the community card this round was "Start of Summer," and this year's Start of Summer was [46], both players' hands plus the community card had a chance to form a "straight" of [123456].
But this straight was different from the rule Qiao Jiajin had mentioned—it wasn't made of five cards, but six.
As long as either Zheng Yingxiong or Earth Monkey drew a card with a "5," they could potentially get a dragon-shaped hand of six cards.
Qi Xia had already calculated: the chance of forming a "straight" in this game was very rare, its probability far lower than "flush," "three of a kind," or "pair," roughly comparable to "four of a kind." So a "straight" should carry significant weight.
Theoretically, he had no need to continue in this round. But if he didn't keep thinking, Zheng Yingxiong might very well end up losing this round even with a good hand.
The pressing matter now was to guess Earth Monkey's "hidden card."
What kind of card was it that made him show such a slightly complicated expression?
"If no one's raising, I'll raise," Earth Monkey said. "One chip."
He tossed a "Tao" onto the table, then lifted his head to look at the group.
By now, Tiantian and Zheng Yingxiong both wore slightly complicated expressions. Since they had no chips left, they had no choice but to concede.
Seeing this, Qi Xia slowly turned his head. "Fist."
"I got it."
He exchanged a glance with Chen Junnan, and the two slowly stood up. Qiao Jiajin said, "Aiya, Miss Tiantian, I can return the 'Tao' you lent me earlier."
Chen Junnan also reached into his pocket. "Kid, I found a bead by the door just now. Is that yours?"
Without hesitation, the two slapped their chips onto the table, then lifted their heads to glare fiercely at Earth Monkey, showing no intention of backing down.
Earth Monkey knew there was no way he could stop private chip exchanges among them, so he could only sneer and turn his head away.
Xiao Cheng looked at his own card, "Summer Solstice," with a troubled expression. He also had only one chip left. After thinking for a moment, he was about to announce his withdrawal when Qi Xia, not far away, spoke up.
"Stay with him. No need to be afraid," Qi Xia said. "Your hand is good."
"Good...?" Xiao Cheng was taken aback. He lowered his head and pondered for a while, then decided to trust Qi Xia, pushing his last chip forward.
Qi Xia thought carefully. He had almost overlooked Xiao Cheng's hand just now. Logically speaking, Xiao Cheng's hand was even more likely to win than Zheng Yingxiong's or Earth Monkey's.
Xiao Cheng's "Summer Solstice" was [521], and this round's community card "Start of Summer" was [426]. He was also only one card short of a [123456] straight—specifically, a "3."
The "3" he lacked was far easier to obtain than the "5" that Earth Monkey and Zheng Yingxiong needed.
Because in the lunar calendar, all the "solar terms" in the second half of the year fell on "the 23rd of the eighth month," meaning at least six solar terms had the date of "23," and in the first half of the year, there were two solar terms, "Qingming" and "Grain Rain," from the third month, plus a festival from the third month, "Shangsi Festival," and a festival with a "3," "New Year's Eve." In total, there were ten cards carrying a "3."