With that thought in mind, Wang Liang counted out a thousand yuan and put it in as a blind bet.
Wang Liang wanted to throw in 1,000 yuan to test Zhou Xuan and see if he would bet blind or reveal his hand. If Zhou Xuan also bet blind, then he could drag Zhang Sinian out of the game, because if there were three players left on the table, the player with the revealed hand could not see the hidden card.
After Wang Liang placed his bet, Zhou Xuan guessed Wang Liang's intentions. If he also placed a bet, and with Li Wei following behind, they could wear down Zhang Sinian in nine more rounds. Then Zhang Sinian would be out of money.
Zhou Xuan smiled. He no longer felt any sympathy for Zhang Sinian. He gave him ten thousand yuan and his mother's twenty thousand yuan for no other reason than the secret in the pen holder in Zhang's house. Although he didn't plan to search for the treasure himself, it was still a treasure map.
Zhou Xuan used his icy aura to test Wang Liang's trump card, and what he did surprised him. Good heavens!
This guy actually got a flush of ten spades! This flush is huge, much bigger than his last hand. It seems that what they say is true: a loser is a loser, no matter how hard he struggles, he will still lose. Zhang Sinian, Zhang Sinian, you're just destined to lose money!
Volume 1: The Lotus Buds Just Begin to Emerge, Chapter 218: A Trap Within a Trap
The 113-year-old class naturally managed to take away Zhang Sinian's 10,000 yuan in just a few rounds.
Zhou Xuan tested his own hand again. As soon as the icy aura dissipated, he immediately knew Wang Liang's hole cards: a four of diamonds, a seven of clubs, and a nine of clubs, with the highest being a nine. There was no need to bet blindly with this hand, because he already knew Wang Liang's hole cards. Whether he bet blindly or openly, Wang Liang would have to reveal his hand, just like in the last hand, and it would also drag Zhang Sinian down with him.
Zhou Xuan picked up the cards, glanced at them casually, smiled faintly, then threw them into the discard pile and said, "I'm not playing anymore!"
Wang Liang felt a sense of relief, a mixture of joy and disappointment. He was happy that Zhou Xuan had folded, relieving his pressure. But he was disappointed because Zhou Xuan had folded, and he had nothing to fight against the others; even if he won, he wouldn't win much money.
Zhou Xuan threw down his cards. Li Wei also stopped betting blindly, picked up his cards, looked at them, and muttered angrily, "Damn it. They're all useless cards." Then he threw down his cards.
Now, only two players remain in this round: Zhang Sinian and Wang Liang.
Zhang Sinian was both excited and thrilled. With trembling hands, he counted out another two thousand yuan and put it in, saying, "Two thousand more."
Wang Liang was much calmer when facing Zhang Sinian, and said calmly, "Zhang Sinian, aren't you going to see my trump card?"
Zhang Sidong shook his head and said, "I don't want to see it!"
Wang Liang knew that Zhang Sinian did indeed have a strong hand, thinking that since he had only bet a thousand yuan, it didn't matter. He then took another look at his cards. When he saw that his hole cards were a high flush of spades with a ten, his eyes narrowed. He held the cards in his hand, pretending to hesitate for a moment, then counted out two thousand yuan and put it in, saying, "Zhang Sinian, are you going to look at my hole cards or not? I'm not looking. I'll play a few more hands with you and then fold. Anyway, I'll lose if I see my hole cards."
Zhang Sinian immediately understood Wang Liang's ambiguous words as a bluff, since he himself held a strong hand and would call no matter what Wang Liang did. So he smiled and said, "Then let's go for it. I won't even look, I'm calling!"
He counted out two thousand and pushed it to the middle. However, the smile on his face was a tense one. He didn't look relaxed at all.
"It's like gambling; sometimes you try to plant flowers with care but they don't grow, while you plant willows without thinking and they thrive." That's Wang Liang's thought.
With a slight smile, Wang Liang counted out another two thousand yuan and put it in.
To be honest, ever since Zhang Sinian started playing cards here, he had been wary of Wang Liang and his gang. When Wang Liang quietly handed out another two thousand, Zhang Sinian became very uneasy.
If Zhang Sinian still had a lot of money, it wouldn't matter; he could at least play a few more rounds. But he had already played three rounds, accumulating 6,000 yuan. After deducting the three pots, he only had 3,970 yuan left out of his 10,000 yuan. Even looking at Wang Liang's hole cards, he was still 30 yuan short, so he dared not play any more.
Zhang Sinian wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, then pushed all the money in front of him forward and said, "Boss Wang, I still have 3,970 here, I'm short 30 yuan. Let's see what you have to offer, okay?"
Wang Liang smiled. Stealing the chicken would definitely not work, but he figured he had won. If he refused now, he would seem petty. It was only thirty yuan, not a thousand or two thousand. It didn't matter.
"Fine, take a look!" Wang Liang said casually, then turned the cards over and spread them out on the table.
Zhang Sinian chuckled and turned his cards over, saying, "Sorry, I have a four and a seven of diamonds. Ten of a kind!" He then reached for the money on the table, but seeing Wang Liang stop him, he paused and asked, "Boss Wang, what do you mean by this?"
"What do you mean?" Wang Liang asked with a smile. "There are rules to every bet, why can't you see my hand?"
Wang Liang's words made Wu Yong, Wang Damao, and Zhu Yonghong burst into laughter.
Zhang Sinian was taken aback. He quickly glanced at the cards Wang Liang had laid out on the table and saw that it was a pair of spades—a huge flush! He was stunned, as if he had been hit hard with a sledgehammer. It took him a while to come to his senses. Then, it was as if a bucket of ice-cold water had been poured over him, chilling him to the bone!
Ten thousand yuan, barely warmed in my hands, and I lost it all in just three hands of cards!
Zhang Sinian was stunned for a moment, then looked at Zhou Xuan with a mournful face and said, "Boss Zhou, could you lend me some more? Just another ten thousand."
Li Wei shouted, "With your abilities, you still want to borrow? Even if you borrow, you'll still lose. If you lose, how will you pay it back?"
Zhou Xuan waved his hand, stopping Li Wei. He said calmly, "Borrowing isn't impossible. How about this, you write an IOU, but I won't lend it to you. I'll lend it to Li Wei, and then you can borrow from Li Wei, but not just 10,000. You have to borrow 100,000. Is that okay?"
Zhang Sinian was stunned upon hearing this. And he wasn't the only one stunned; everyone else was astonished. Wang Liang and the others knew Zhang Sinian's background; lending him 100,000 yuan would be like throwing good money after bad—a sure thing. However, it was a good thing for them; at least they could easily win the money from Zhang Sinian.
Of course, they didn't know Li Wei's background. If they did, they wouldn't dare to think like that. Zhou Xuan knew that if he lent the money to Zhang Sinian, he would definitely lose it all. But he owed Li Wei a debt. Who is Li Wei?
He could easily get a lot of people to flatter and fawn over him with just a few words. If Zhang Sinian owed him a debt, and if Zhou Xuan had Li Wei give the order, wouldn't that drive him to the brink of death?
So Zhou Xuan figured that to pressure Zhang Sinian, he needed to make his debts as high as possible. That's why he immediately offered to lend 100,000 yuan; the bigger the debt, the more he'd be trapped, and Zhang Sinian would have no choice but to obey Li Wei's orders.
Perhaps Li Wei's methods could actually get Zhang Sinian to quit gambling, which might be a good thing. Look at Zhang Sinian's mother, she's really quite pitiful.
Zhang Sinian was stunned for a moment, then became incredibly excited. Someone wanted to lend him 100,000 yuan—where else could he find such a good deal? He didn't care who it was from; as long as he wrote an IOU, it didn't matter who it was from. He'd pay back a large sum if he made a big fortune, and if it was just a small one, he wouldn't even pay back the principal. This 100,000 yuan in his hands was like a gift from heaven—who cared whose it was!
Wang Liang was the foreman, and he had all the necessary paper, pens, and inkpads. He asked Wu Yong to find them.
Zhang Sinian wrote the IOU with a smile, and then asked one last time, "Hehe. One more question. What's your name, young man?"
Li Wei remained silent, but he had guessed Zhou Xuan's meaning and said coldly, "Li Wei, the Li of Li Shimin, and the Wei of 'difficult'."
Zhang Sinian wrote his name with a smile. Then he signed his name, pressed his thumbprint on it, wiped the ink off his thumbprint, and handed the IOU to Zhou Xuan.
Zhou Xuan glanced at it briefly, then casually handed it to Li Wei, and counted out 100,000 from in front of him and gave it to him.
Zhou was winning from the very beginning. Of the 100,000 he brought, he only gave 10,000 to Li, leaving 90,000. He didn't even open the bank's seal. He gave Zhang Sinian nine stacks of cash, and then counted out a hundred loose 100-yuan bills.
Zhang Sigou had never owned so much money before. He was incredibly excited.
Zhou Xuan and Li Wei could tell from his expression that this guy had absolutely no intention of returning the money. Li Wei just sneered, deciding not to say anything now and to deal with him later.
After counting the money, Wang Liang laughed and said, "All done? Now I'll start dealing the cards!"
While Zhou Xuan and Zhang Sinian were getting together, Wu Yong had been shuffling the middle cards. Li Wei and Zhang Sinian didn't notice, nor did Zheng Bing and Jiang Jin, because they didn't really understand it either. It's normal for someone to shuffle the cards, because the winner will shuffle them again in the end.