The proprietress’s sharp, beast-like eyes stared at Bai Lixin across from her. Her fair, slender arms peeked out from her long sleeves as she shook the dice cup in the air. The dice shot up like a shooting star before she guided them back into the cup.
Then, the proprietress spun in place, creating elegant black arcs in the air with the dice cup.
Her slender white arm danced in the air, almost leaving afterimages. At first glance, it seemed like the thousand hands of Guanyin.
*pic at end of chapter
The onlookers’ eyes revealed fascination.
This was the proprietress’s unique skill – the Thousand Hands of Guanyin.
It was said that this proprietress was one of the most famous figures in the capital city. Numerous high-ranking officials and nobles came to her casino just to witness the Thousand Hands of Guanyin.
With this skill, she earned the title of “Gambling Goddess” and stood tall for many years.
Ever since the proprietress semi-retired and opened this casino in Qingcheng Town, she rarely used this Thousand Hands of Guanyin move.
Today, she employed it; it seemed she was serious.
As she shook the dice, her eyes didn’t leave the young man across from her.
The young man awkwardly placed the dice in the tray. He covered the dice cup, held up the tray with unpracticed hands and gave it a shaky shake.
Clearly, he was an amateur!
Where did this naïve young master come from? Had his family sheltered him too much?
But the world needed such wealthy young masters. Without these rich yet naïve young masters, where would she earn her money?
The proprietress thought of this, and her initially cautious gaze became increasingly arrogant.
With the final shake, she pressed the dice cup firmly onto the black tray.
The young man across from her also stopped. It seemed he wanted to imitate the proprietress’s momentum, forcefully pressing the tray and the dice cup onto the table.
At that moment, there was a crisp “bang.”
The moment he pressed down, the proprietress couldn’t wait any longer. “Release the dice cup. Someone, open it!”
This was their rule: once the dice cup touched the table, the hands had to be immediately removed, never to touch the dice cup again.
Someone else would open the dice cup.
Following the rules, Bai Lixin removed his hand from the dice cup.
At the same time, two men dressed alike arrived at their table.
The proprietress’s gaze was eager, but she still patiently addressed Bai Lixin, “Young Master, are you ready? We’re about to open the dice cup.”
Bai Lixin asked, “I didn’t quite understand it earlier. We increased the stakes later, so if I lose, do I just give you the Night Pearl and the gold, or do I still pay a hundredfold?”
The proprietress: “Naturally, it’s the latter. I stated it clearly at the beginning. If you win, it’s a 200× profit, if you lose, you pay a hundredfold. If you lose, you have to pay me the additional amount.”
Bai Lixin frowned, “But I don’t have that much money.”
The proprietress: “Young Master, you haven’t opened the dice cup yet but you’re already admitting defeat? The game has started and can’t be stopped, understand?”
Bai Lixin questioned, “What about you? If you lose and I win, what will you give me?”
“You said it yourself, and everyone heard it. The value of my Night Pearl should be the same as your casino and the money in your warehouse, right? So if I win, you have to give me two hundred times the value of your casino and treasure trove, correct?”
The Proprietress didn’t hesitate to reply, “Of course.”
‘How could I possibly lose?
Leaving aside that I would never lose at dice, even if we both rolled the same number at first, I still have a trump card.’
The young man opposite finally nodded, “Alright, I understand now. Proprietress, you’re truly bold. In the whole world, I truly admire you.”
The proprietress sneered inwardly.
‘Admire?
I’m afraid you’ll lose your pants later.’
She signaled to the attendant beside Bai Lixin, “If there are no issues, shall we open the cup now?”
Bai Lixin politely stepped back, “Certainly, let’s begin.”
The attendant discreetly nodded at the proprietress and both attendants simultaneously reached out. The crowd held their breath, staring without blinking as the two opened the dice cups.
The two raised their hands simultaneously, and the proprietress looked at her dice confidently.
Then there was an uproar in the casino.
The proprietress didn’t react much; she was used to this kind of noise. Throughout her gambling career, praises and astonishments always surrounded her – they were not just affirmations but also the indispensable flowers and applause on her path to becoming a gambling deity.
‘Be surprised, be amazed. Open your eyes wide so you country bumpkins, who have never seen the world, witness the true power of a gambling goddess.’
She lowered her head, as expected, the three dice were stacked together, and the visible number on the top was one.
Three dice, a total of one point. It was an absolute minimum, a winner without suspense.
The proprietress had already known it would be this result when she rolled the dice earlier. However, at the moment the dice were revealed, she felt somewhat bored.
She suddenly lost interest in wealth.
With just one Night Pearl, she could buy several cities, let alone a hundred times the amount.
When wealth is abundant, it seemed like the nature of earning money couldn’t be stirred anymore.
Is this the life of a wealthy person?
How boring, so tasteless.
Amidst the surrounding noise, whispers started to spread.
“How can this be? It’s so strange.”
“What is that?”
“Can this be possible?”
“It should be possible, but how did he do it?”
The proprietress frowned.
‘So noisy, what are they talking about? What’s possible or not?
A bunch of ignorant villagers, I just rolled a one with three dice, what’s there to fuss about? I have even more impressive skills.’
Moreover, the rules had been stated clearl. As long as the dice are inside the dice cup, it’s valid. It didn’t say all three have to be on the flat surface. What’s there to argue about?
‘Too noisy.’
The proprietress’s eyes turned fierce as she glared at the people talking behind her.
The surrounding voices immediately reduced significantly, but then more voices started to emerge.
“Hey, the proprietress just made a fool of herself.”
“Look at her, she’s not calm anymore.”
“I never expected it to turn out like this.”
“It’s so unexpected.”
The conversation became increasingly strange, making the proprietress furrow her brows tightly.
‘What’s going on?
What does “made a fool of herself” mean? Didn’t I win?
Why are they all worried about me, as if I lost?
But, didn’t I win?’
With these questions in her mind, the proprietress finally looked across the table.
Upon seeing the dice on the black tray on the opposite side, she first froze, then her whole body went still.
On the black tray, there were no dice at all, only three piles of powder.
The proprietress suddenly widened her eyes, pointing her index finger at the opposite side and shouting, “What is this?!”
The young man opposite shrugged casually, “Aren’t you the gambling goddess? You can’t even see this – dice turned into powder.”
“Three dice, I have zero points, you have one point, I win.”
The young man, who was originally looked clueless, suddenly curled up his lips and smirked. This smile was filled with cruelty and madness. He no longer looked like an inexperienced youth; he was a full-fledged villain. “I won, thanks to you.”
The proprietress was dumbfounded. She looked at the attendant standing beside the young man at and found that he was also staring at the dice with an expression of disbelief.
The proprietress took a deep breath. “This is not right, you, this is a violation of the rules!”
“How is it a violation of the rules? I asked you before the game started, whether it’s fine as long as the dice are inside the cup, and you admitted it yourself. Oh, the great gambling goddess can’t accept losing?”
“With so many pairs of eyes watching, they all saw me put the dice in and I immediately took my hand away after they fell on the table. I strictly followed the rules you set, and I didn’t make any mistakes.”
“On the contrary, you stacked all three together. Tsk, it’s quite a trick. You can exploit loopholes in the rules, but I can’t?”
“Officials can set fires, but common people can’t light lamps? Proprietress, this won’t work, you can’t run a business without sincerity.”
The young man across sneered, “I don’t know what you were doing dancing all over earlier, it was too flashy.”
The proprietress’s legs instantly went weak. She gripped the edge of the table with all her might, preventing herself from collapsing on the ground.
Just as she was about to continue arguing, the young man opposite spoke again, “Moreover, if we talk about rule-breaking, it should be your Xu Family Gambling Den.”
The proprietress’s mind was buzzing. She had no ability to think anymore, only able to ask in confusion, “What do you mean?”
Bai Lixin: “What do I mean? Don’t you know?”
As he spoke, he suddenly grabbed the attendant’s arm.
The attendant immediately realized what Bai Lixin intended to do and tried hard to free his arm.
But despite his sturdy build, he couldn’t move a bit in the slender and gentle scholar’s hands.
He looked at Bai Lixin in terror and then cast a panicked look at the proprietress across.
This wasn’t just some rich fool, they had all been deceived by this person. He was a lunatic pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger!
“Everyone, pay attention,” Bai Lixin said, bringing the attendant’s hand closer to the three piles of powder.
He placed the palm over them, not really touching the powder, but the powder moved by itself.
Everyone’s eyes widened.
Bai Lixin rotated the attendant’s hand a bit, and two steel beads the size of green beans emerged from the powder.
Slowly, they moved toward the attendant’s palm.
The crowd erupted in an uproar.
“Scam, it’s a scam! Xu Family Gambling Den actually has scammers!”
“Fuck, no wonder I always lose. It’s because of this cheater!”
“Give me back my money! Give me my money back!”
“Three dice, two steel beads. Why don’t you just give me three rigged dice?” Bai Lixin clenched the attendant’s wrist tightly, and the strong hand got a bruised shade of purple. “You hid magnets in the flesh of your fingertip and when you opened the dice cup, you deliberately shook it to mix up the dice into the numbers you wanted, right?”
“It’s just a pity. My dice had turned into a pile of powder long ago, so no matter how you move, it’s useless.” The young man then looked at Zhang Biao. “Head Constable Zhang, lend me your dagger.”
Zhang Biao was utterly shocked. “What are you using the dagger for?”
Bai Lixin held the attendant’s middle finger. “To cut off the fingertip of this hand. There’s a magnet hidden inside.”
Zhang Biao instantly glared and twitched his dagger, “Sir, how can you do such a bloody job? Just let me do it!”
Zhang Biao immediately seized the attendant’s hand, and the sharp dagger fell ruthlessly. The attendant’s middle finger was instantly severed.
Amidst the attendant’s screams, he handed the bleeding, severed finger to a young constable, who examined it and indeed found a piece of metal inside the flesh.
“Found it, boss!”
“I see you value money over your life!” Zhang Biao glared fiercely at the pale-faced attendant. “Having metal in the body is a life-threatening situation. And you actually stuffed such a big magnet into your hand?”
“It’s true that birds die for food, and humans die for wealth!”
After saying this, he looked at the woman across. When he saw the proprietress, who was preparing to slip away quietly, he roared, “Where are you going? Stop right there, don’t move! Nobody can leave, or I’ll dig three feet underground for you. I’ll catch you even if I have to dig up your ancestors’ graves!”
The proprietress instantly halted her steps.
The gambling den was now chaotic. The noise, curses, and smashing sounds were incessant.
Zhang Biao shouted again, “Shut your mouths, all of you! Who allowed you gamblers to be so foolish?! This is an official investigation. If anyone dares to make noise or cause a disturbance, I’ll send you straight to the prison!”
The scene, which was about to explode, fell into complete silence due to Zhang Biao’s furious roar.
Bai Lixin scanned the scene. “Out of every ten gambles, nine are rigged. I hope today’s events will teach you all a lesson. Selling is better than buying. You think you’re winning money at the gambling house, so you assume winning is normal. But you don’t realize that when you win, there’s always someone else losing, and they’re losing much more than you’re winning.”
“And the people losing money now had also made small profits before.”
“In simple terms, this is just a tactic of the gambling house. Lure people in, slowly boil them like frogs, then chop them up. You are those brainless frogs.”
“Proprietress, since you’ve lost to me, this gambling house is mine now. Since it’s my gambling house, I can do whatever I want, right?”
The proprietress had lost her earlier arrogance. She stood there like a defeated rooster, soft and helpless, looking at Bai Lixin at a loss. “Sir, I beg you, spare me this time. I promise… no, there won’t be a next time! I was confused, that’s why I thought of cheating.”
“I know you must detest gambling, so you just wanted to teach you a lesson.” She pleaded anxiously, “Can we do it like this? I… I…”
She gritted her teeth and said firmly, “All previous debts are forgiven! I won’t ask them for a penny anymore, nothing, no debts at all, alright?!”
“Hey hey hey, don’t put on airs with me. Who said I just wanted to teach you a lesson?” Bai Lixin waved his hand dismissively. “It was your own words, if you’re willing to gamble, you must be willing to accept the consequences. Since you agreed to the gambling rules, don’t stir up trouble now.”
“Now that this gambling den is mine, I declare thay from today onwards, this gambling den is closed, never to reopen.”
“this should be the only gambling den in Qingcheng Town, right? My principle has always been ‘no gambling in the world,’ and here is no exception.”
“As for the money you owe me, of course you still have to pay me. But I can discuss a favorable condition with you. If you accept it, you don’t have to pay the remaining money.”
The proprietress asked urgently, “What condition?! Please tell me.”
“I won two hundred times what I bet. The money you have in stock should be enough to open another gambling den, plus this one from the beginning, that makes two gambling den.”
“200x for the two gambling dens, that’s 200×2, a total of 400.”
“You just need to help me destroy four hundred gambling dens and I won’t ask you to repay this money.”
The proprietress gritted her teeth. “Fine!”
A dead Daoist is not a poor Daoist. If you really have to choose someone to die, let the others in the same trade die!
“So many people are here watching, and Constable Zhang from the government is also here. We’ll put it in writing. From now on, every year, you must bring back at least twenty other gambling den’s deeds for me, hand them over to Constable Zhang until we have four hundred gambling dens gathered.”
The proprietress looked at Bai Lixin, then glanced at the crowd, and finally fixed her gaze on Constable Zhang. “Fine! I agree! Bring me a pen!”
A servant hurriedly brought pen and paper. On the sturdy gambling table, under the gaze of numerous spectators, the proprietress painstakingly wrote the contents on the paper.
Before, it was her making others sign and seal.
Now, she was the one signing and sealing here.
It was too ironic.
Enduring the shame, she finished writing the content and handed the paper across. “Please read it!”
Bai Lixin took a glance at it. The contents were clear. The cause, process, result, and the things that needed to be done were all outlined, with no loopholes.
This proprietress was quite straightforward in this regard.
Bai Lixin: “Sign and seal it.”
When the proprietress’s signed and sealed IOU was handed to Bai Lixin, he finally showed a polite smile to the proprietress. “Proprietress, welcome to the Anti-Gambling Alliance. If you feel unwilling, if you think you’ve been humiliated here by me, you can also transfer this humiliation to others like I did. Let other gambling den owners join you and close other gambling dens together. Otherwise, even if you destroy twenty per year, it will still take you twenty years to close four hundred dens. With more people, more helpers, you can pay off your debts sooner.”
“Your methods are a bit flashy, but you do have skills. I’m rooting for you.”
The proprietress felt like she was going to vomit three yards of blood on the spot.
‘Bah! Get lost!’
The spectators around cautiously spoke up, “Sir, since you said you’re closing the gambling den, can our debts be forgiven? The proprietress just said so.”
Thousand Arms of Guishan
