Chapter 669: The Life-or-Death Gamble
Tiantian was shuffling the cards, mimicking Ground Monkey’s movements from earlier as she split the deck into two piles.
Then she interlaced the two piles together. Just as she was about to shuffle again, whether from nervousness or inexperience, her hands trembled, and all the cards instantly scattered across the table.
Everyone turned to look at the same time, only to see each card face-up, completely exposed for all to see.
Seeing this, Tiantian quickly gathered all the cards back together, flipped them face-down on the table, and prepared to deal.
“Hold on.” Qiao Jiajin frowned and raised his hand.
“What…?” Ground Monkey questioned. “Your own person is shuffling, and you still don’t trust her?”
“Whether I trust her or not,” Qiao Jiajin replied, “you saw the card faces. I need to reshuffle.”
“Since when is that a rule…?” Ground Monkey said. “We specifically brought in a separate ‘dealer’ this time to avoid us shuffling, didn’t we?”
“There are six lives on the line here, fat monkey.” Qiao Jiajin didn’t back down an inch. “Six lives hanging in the balance—don’t we even have the right to shuffle?”
“Fine, but after you finish, I want to shuffle too,” Ground Monkey said.
“So that’s how we’re playing this? Fine. Brother Monkey, after you finish, I’m shuffling too,” Chen Jun’nan followed up. “Watch me shuffle you into the ground.”
Ground Monkey shrugged and didn’t object.
Qiao Jiajin took the deck and shuffled it in his hands, feeling Ground Monkey’s eyes fixed on his movements the entire time.
“Fat monkey… In movies back home, there’s always that kind of scene—a gambling expert just has to stare at the shuffler’s hands, and he knows exactly where every card he wants is.”
“Oh?” Ground Monkey nodded. “But do you think that kind of gambling skill actually exists in reality?”
“Just in case,” Qiao Jiajin said. He then lowered the deck below the table, shuffled it loudly, then lifted it back up and handed it to Ground Monkey.
Ground Monkey took the deck, turned it sideways to inspect the edges, and after confirming there were no creases, symbolically shuffled it a few times before passing it to Chen Jun’nan.
Chen Jun’nan also imitated Qiao Jiajin’s method, holding the deck below the table and shuffling casually. Just as he was about to hand it back to Tiantian, Ground Monkey stopped him again.
He took the deck back, examined it for a long while to make sure no tricks had been played, then reshuffled it several times before finally letting Tiantian begin dealing.
No matter what those two were trying to do, the only ones actually gambling this round were him and Qi Xia. Everything else the others did was just a series of bluffs.
But maybe it was because Chen Jun’nan had put too much pressure on Ground Monkey earlier that now, just looking at Chen Jun’nan’s carefree expression made Ground Monkey irritated—so much so that he couldn’t calm his mind.
Tiantian took a deep breath, flipped over the top card from the deck, and gently placed it in front of herself.
“Minor Snow.”
“October 23rd.”
“1-0-2-3…” Chen Jun’nan murmured in his mind, then looked away.
The others around naturally knew this wasn’t a good omen. That single card was already too big.
Just the sum of the digits on one card had reached “six.” That meant the total of Qi Xia’s and Ground Monkey’s two cards couldn’t exceed “ten.”
Tiantian lightly covered her lips. She had clearly heard Qi Xia and Ground Monkey set the new rule earlier: a “draw” counts as Qi Xia’s loss.
But if the first card was already this big… didn’t that dramatically increase the odds of Qi Xia losing?
Qi Xia sat there swaying slightly, completely ignoring the cards on the table, as if he were about to pass out.
Chen Jun’nan reached out to steady Qi Xia and gave Tiantian a look. “Old Qi’s not feeling too well, but give the first card to Brother Monkey first. We respect our elders.”
Tiantian nodded and dealt the card to Ground Monkey.
Ground Monkey slowly flipped the card, revealing its inscription.
“Rain Water.”
“January 21st.”
“1-2-1, total of four…” Chen Jun’nan shook Qi Xia. “Old Qi, wake up. The cards are being dealt.”
Qi Xia barely opened his eyes and took a card from Tiantian’s hand.
He took a deep breath and flipped the card over. His expression instantly darkened.
“New Year’s Eve!”
“Fuck…” Chen Jun’nan was about to jump up in shock, but then he thought of something.
Even though this card looked huge, when you broke it down, the digits were just “1-2-3-0,” totaling only “six.”
“Old, Old Qi, hang in there. We haven’t lost yet.” Chen Jun’nan shook Qi Xia again. “If you’re gonna pass out, at least wait until after we’re dead.”
Qi Xia nodded symbolically.
Since all bets for this round had already been placed before it started, no mid-round betting was needed. Tiantian was about to deal the “hidden cards.”
Just like the previous round, she gave the first one to Ground Monkey, then gently picked up another and handed it to Qi Xia.
Qi Xia looked at the card face, frowned slightly, and as soon as he placed it on the table, his whole body seemed to lose consciousness and he slumped forward, landing right on top of the “hidden card.”
“I’ll be damned!”
“Old Qi!”
The two beside him quickly helped Qi Xia sit up, only to find his eyes had nearly glazed over.
The wound on his forehead, bleeding from the impact, had smeared fresh blood across the back of that “hidden card,” leaving a gruesome red flower.
Seeing this, Chen Jun’nan felt something was wrong. He snatched the “hidden card,” lowered it under the table, and wiped the blood off the back as hard as he could. But this deck had a matte finish that wasn’t waterproof—small blood spots were manageable, but this much blood had already seeped into the card fibers. It couldn’t be cleaned.
He quickly shoved the card back into Qi Xia’s hand from under the table, then patted him again. “Old Qi! Wake up! Look at this card!”
Qi Xia looked down at the card, his expression ashen.
But he seemed lost in thought, refusing to place the card on the table.
“Qi Xia, what’s wrong?” Ground Monkey glanced at his own hidden card and slowly placed it on the table, then said, “Does that card let you win?”
Clutching the card in his hand, Qi Xia kept his head down. The flamboyant calligraphy on the card’s face looked like a sinister grin, making him unable to speak.
“You said you knew my two hole cards, but why haven’t you done anything?” Ground Monkey laughed. “Is that all you’ve got?”
Qi Xia heard Ground Monkey’s words and slowly shook his head.
Seeing Qi Xia’s expression, Ground Monkey grew even more arrogant. “You’re holding a ‘Double Ninth Festival’ in your hand—how the hell are you supposed to beat me?!”
Beside him, Chen Jun’nan and Qiao Jiajin both looked down at the “hidden card” Qi Xia had hidden beneath the table.
It was indeed “Double Ninth Festival.”