When Liu Ni and Zhou Ziwei were dating, Zhou Ziwei was also a big gambler. At that time, Zhou Ziwei was highly regarded by his father and his monthly allowance was not subject to any restrictions. However, even if he played a game of mahjong with a winning or losing amount of tens or hundreds of yuan, he would still break out in a cold sweat.
But the Zhou Ziwei standing before her now remained calm and composed, even when faced with a gamble where one step could lead to heaven or hell. Liu Ni could hardly reconcile this demeanor with the timid Zhou Ziwei of the past.
Moreover, influenced by that demeanor, Liu Ni's heart was filled with regret once again... Was this... the man she had missed because of a liar?
Or perhaps only the two escorts who had just snuggled up to Yang Hongtao were secretly overjoyed. Regardless of whether Yang Hongtao was a penniless wretch or not, they knew that the huge pile of chips in front of him was more than they could earn in half a lifetime. If Yang Hongtao won another round, the money would rise to a level that would drive any escort crazy.
Although the money didn't belong to them, judging from Yang Hongtao's generous demeanor, they knew that if Yang Hongtao really won, they would definitely get their share of the reward money!
"Young Master Zhou... are you really going to continue betting on a draw this round? Do you think a miracle will happen on your side again?"
Uncle Yuan sat there expressionless, but a bead of cold sweat kept soaking his vest. Watching Yang Hongtao stand there calmly, silently urging him to deal the cards with a faint smile, Uncle Yuan seemed to have been exhausted by the previous three rounds of cards, unable to even make a gesture of waving his arm.
He couldn't understand why this spendthrift son, whom he had always despised and looked down upon, was now giving him an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. In truth, given Uncle Yuan's wealth, a mere three or four million wouldn't really cripple him, and since he dared to act as the bookmaker in this kind of setting, he must have been aware that winning or losing didn't matter.
But now, the bet between him and Yang Hongtao seems to be no longer just about money. They are also betting on confidence and dignity. Just now, he had belittled Yang Hongtao indirectly, but in the blink of an eye, if he were to be defeated by Yang Hongtao at the betting table and lose everything, it would be as if he had slapped himself in the face!
Hearing Uncle Yuan's words, Yang Hongtao found it somewhat amusing and couldn't help but shake his head, saying, "Are you trying to instruct me on how to place bets? Then let me ask you, Uncle Yuan, which side do you want me to bet on? Of course... I need to understand first that if I follow your instructions and lose, I wonder if you will compensate me?"
"You—" Uncle Yuan blushed at Yang Hongtao's words, then snorted heavily, gritted his teeth, and said, "Fine... since you, a spendthrift and gambling addict, dare to place a bet, I have no reason not to accept... dealer... deal the cards—"
Upon hearing the words "deal the cards," everyone craned their necks, staring intently at the dealer's hands, their eyes wide as they watched the cards being turned over, their tense expressions as if they were the ones who had placed a heavy bet in the game.
The dealer's hand was extremely bad, as if all the heads in the deck had popped up and were concentrated in this one hand. Since heads are zero in Baccarat, the dealer's hand ended up with zero points, which is colloquially known as "killing ten points".
Despite the terrible hand of cards, Uncle Yuan was in an unprecedentedly good mood.
If we bet on 10 points, so be it. In any case, only Yang Hongtao is betting in this round. Regardless of whether the banker or the player wins in the end, as long as there is no tie, Uncle Yuan will be the final winner.
Looking at the cards, the player has a ten of clubs and a six of diamonds. This is a pretty good hand. It is estimated that the final score will be around seven or eight points. In any case, as long as the player's bottom card is not a 4, they cannot make a winning ten. And as long as there is no tie, Yang Hongtao is doomed to lose.
After Uncle Yuan revealed the dealer's cards, he saw Yang Hongtao just standing there blankly, not revealing the other players' cards for a long time. He immediately felt relieved, sat down firmly, took the cigarette offered by the escort next to him, took a deep drag, and said mockingly, "What's wrong... Young Master Zhou, why aren't you revealing your cards yet? Is your heart unable to handle this kind of ups and downs? Are you desperate because you've seen your hard-earned hundreds of thousands go down the drain? Hahaha... A loser is a loser. Even when it comes to eating, drinking, gambling, and whoring, you're no match! Okay! Seeing how pitiful you are, as long as you bark like a dog three times in front of everyone, I'll return your thousand yuan in chips, so you don't lose everything... How about it?"
After Uncle Yuan finished his mockery, Yang Hongtao finally raised his head, somewhat amused and exasperated, and said, "You're really generous, aren't you? You'll give someone a thousand yuan just for barking like a dog three times? I'll get those beggars under the overpass to come to your company and bark at them. You can just wait to open the safe and hand out money! Oh, but I have to ask first, did you drive your own car here? If not, do you have any money for a taxi? If not, how about I lend you some... Hehe, I just counted your chips. You're still short seventy-nine thousand yuan after you finish this bet with me. Hmm... How about I lend you another thousand to make it eighty thousand? That number is a bit more auspicious. What do you think, sir?"
"You... what did you say? What... what is your hole card?" Upon hearing this, Uncle Yuan could no longer sit still. He stood up abruptly, reached across the gambling table, and flipped over the player's hole card. To his astonishment, the hole card was a damned little 4. As a result, the player's points reached a dead ten, the same as the banker's, resulting in a tie!
Life's circumstances are truly unpredictable!
When Yang Hongtao walked out of the hotel carrying two travel bags full of banknotes, countless people were so envious that their eyes almost popped out of their sockets. In less than half an hour, Yang Hongtao's net worth had skyrocketed from a pitiful 1,000 yuan to 3 million yuan! The so-called overnight riches are definitely not as fast as Yang Hongtao's.
Yang Hongtao had won over four million from Uncle Yuan, but according to the rules of the temporary gambling game, he, as the big winner, had to pay a 25% cut. So, he only got three million in the end. He wasn't stingy with the two escorts who had been fawning over him, and gave each of them 100,000.
The two sisters were so happy that they almost wanted to offer themselves to Yang Hongtao... Of course, that would only happen if Yang Hongtao was willing.
Normally, it would be safest to transfer such a large sum of money directly into a bank account, but Yang Hongtao had just lost Zhou Ziwei's wallet, and naturally all the bank cards, ID cards, and other items inside were gone as well. Reporting the loss and getting replacements would have to wait until later. Helpless, Yang Hongtao had no choice but to have all of Zhou Ziwei's chips exchanged for cash.
Fortunately, Mr. Hong, who organized this gambling game, had extraordinary influence. With just one phone call, he directly transferred a large amount of cash from the bank and paid Yang Hongtao the full amount.
Having tasted the sweetness of the power of the soul for the first time, Yang Hongtao was not blinded by it. After winning four million from Uncle Yuan, he showed no intention of pressing his advantage and sweeping through the other rooms.
Although he was confident that with his all-pervasive spiritual power, he had virtually no chance of losing in any form of gambling, being too prominent was definitely not a good thing. Being invincible in one form of gambling was understandable, but winning at everything would make even a blind man suspicious.
Moreover, Yang Hongtao still needed to maintain his position as Zhou Ziwei in Dangyang for a while, so he naturally didn't want to make too many enemies. Therefore, after winning all the money from that bald guy surnamed Yuan, he immediately withdrew without hesitation. In any case, with Yang Hongtao's current abilities, as long as he had the initial capital, there were plenty of opportunities to make money, and there was really no need for him to resort to this shady gambling method.
Volume 1: The Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 018: Buying a Car
Yang Hongtao left the hotel carrying two large bags of cash, but he didn't go home immediately. It was really not safe to leave so much cash at home. As the saying goes, it's not the theft itself that's scary, but the thief's eye on it. After all, the miracle of winning four million in four hands in the impromptu gambling game today would probably spread soon. If someone saw him carrying these two bags home again, it would be strange if no one was interested.
So Yang Hongtao decided to use the money to buy a car immediately, so that it would be more convenient for him to get around in the future. In his previous life, Yang Hongtao's biggest wish was to have his own car. However, he spent all the money he earned on Xiaoya and her sister, and he never managed to realize his dream. But he never expected that after being reborn, he would realize his wish in just one day.
Yang Hongtao, full of high spirits, hailed a taxi and went straight to the largest car market in Dangyang City. After looking around for a while, he didn't waste any time and immediately chose a Mercedes-Benz sedan that he had liked in his previous life.
When the car dealership's saleswomen saw Yang Hongtao dressed in ordinary casual clothes and carrying two travel bags wandering around the dealership, they didn't pay him any attention. They all thought he was a country bumpkin from out of town, so naturally no one was willing to waste their breath on him.
But when Yang Hongtao found the car he wanted, he went straight to the sales manager and demanded to pay and take delivery of the car immediately. The saleswomen were so regretful that they almost jumped off a building.
You should know that car saleswomen like them usually don't have much of a base salary; they mainly earn commissions. If a customer they serve eventually reaches an agreement with the dealership, pays for, and picks up the car, the saleswoman who served that person will receive a substantial commission.
However, for customers like Yang Hongtao who directly approach the sales manager to buy a car, even if there is a commission, it goes to the manager, and they have nothing to do with it.
They now realized that Yang Hongtao was not only sincere about buying a car and had the ability to buy one, but he was also the kind of good employer who would buy a car as easily as buying a block of tofu. Just now, no matter who they were, as long as they casually went up and chatted with him for a few words, they would probably get the commission immediately without having to put in any effort.
When they saw Yang Hongtao open the two large travel bags he was carrying and pour out a pile of brand-new banknotes, everyone was dumbfounded.
These days, people actually bring cash to buy a car? That's... incredible!
Seeing the stacks of pink hundred-yuan bills piled up on the ground, the impact was hundreds of times stronger than the strings of numbers on a computer account. Instantly, the eyes of the beautifully dressed car saleswomen began to shine with hearts for Yang Hongtao, making him smile wryly.
It seems that the allure of money is indeed considerable. It works not only on escorts who make a living by selling their bodies, but also on car saleswomen who look quite respectable. They too will succumb to the magic of money!
Yang Hongtao was also planning to find a project to invest in in a couple of days to start his own business. He definitely needed to set aside some start-up capital, so the car he chose this time only cost him a little over 1.6 million yuan. He casually threw the rest of the cash into the car. Although driving a brand-new car home would be quite eye-catching, it was still not as enviable as carrying two bags of cash!
It is said that in New Century Garden, there is no shortage of luxury cars. Everyone who lives there drives a private car.
Even with several luxury cars worth four or five million, Yang Hongtao's car, worth just over a million, was really not eye-catching in that neighborhood.
Zhou Ziwei, a well-known rich second-generation in Dangyang, should have had a nice car, but he was too addicted to gambling and never considered the consequences when he was blinded by greed. He had already lost the car his father bought for him three times. Even if his father had the best temper, he would never spend money to buy him a car to pay off his gambling debts without complaint.
The car dealership was supposed to handle all the car purchase procedures and registration for free, but Yang Hongtao didn't have an ID card, so many things couldn't be done. For now, he had to pay and take the car away, and deal with the rest after he got his ID card.
In his previous life, Yang Hongtao didn't know how to drive at all. However, among the batches of death row inmates he merged with, there was a professional race car driver. So now, Yang Hongtao doesn't need to learn anything. As soon as he gets behind the wheel, he immediately feels incredibly familiar with the car's performance. He drives as if he has twenty or thirty years of driving experience, extremely skilled, fast, and stable.
In less than two hours, Yang Hongtao had gone out for a stroll and had suddenly transformed from a poor household into a nouveau riche. He drove his brand-new car, which still didn't have license plates, back to New Century Residential Complex in a leisurely manner.
From afar, Yang Hongtao could see the secondhand Buick parked in front of the villa. Wang Xuewei was standing at the door, pacing back and forth anxiously, occasionally tapping her phone.
Yang Hongtao planned to drive his newly purchased car directly into the garage in the yard, but Wang Xuewei's Buick was blocking the entrance and he couldn't drive into the yard. So he had to stop his car first and then honked the horn a few times to signal Wang Xuewei to move her car.
Wang Xuewei turned around when she heard the horn and saw that it was an unfamiliar car. She immediately frowned in disgust.
The roads in this residential area are very wide, and Wang Xuewei's car was parked right next to her own door, so it was impossible for it to block other people's lanes. Therefore, the person behind her honking the horn repeatedly was obviously trying to taunt her.
Wang Xuewei had seen many things like this. Sometimes being too beautiful was a troublesome thing. Every day she might encounter some arrogant guys. Fortunately, we live in a society governed by law. Otherwise, if it were ancient times, with Wang Xuewei's devastatingly beautiful appearance, she would probably have been kidnapped and taken home by some young master and forced into prostitution long ago!
Therefore, after glancing back, Wang Xuewei ignored it and continued to fiddle with her phone, dialing the number that kept saying it couldn't be reached.
"Hey... um... who is this... could you please move your car a bit so I can drive it in?"
When Yang Hongtao realized that honking the horn was ineffective, he had no choice but to roll down the car window and stick his head out to negotiate with Wang Xuewei.
He originally wanted to call Wang Xuewei "wife," but when he thought about Wang Xuewei's reaction after he called her those words, his heart turned cold. If he didn't call her "wife," Yang Hongtao didn't know what to call her. Calling her "comrade" felt a bit stupid, and calling her "Miss" felt a bit insulting.
If he called her Weiwei or Xiaoxue, the beautiful woman in front of him would probably immediately turn hostile. Helpless, Yang Hongtao had no choice but to use "that person" instead.
Wang Xuewei was stunned for a moment when she heard the voice. When she turned around again and saw that the person sitting in the car was Yang Hongtao, she couldn't help but show a hint of joy. She quickly ran over and asked through the car window, "Where did you go? I've called you more than a hundred times, but I can't get through to your phone."
"My phone?" Yang Hongtao scratched his head with a wry smile and said, "I don't know where my phone is anymore, of course you can't get through. Oh... you need something?"
“Yes…it’s a very important thing, that equation…” Wang Xuewei said, taking her folder out of the Buick in front of her again.
Upon seeing this, Yang Hongtao immediately understood what was going on. He waved his hand repeatedly and said, "Okay... if there's something, let's go inside and talk about it, okay? You can move your car forward a bit so I can drive mine into the garage."
"Your car? You... just bought it?"
It was only then that Wang Xuewei began to notice Yang Hongtao's car, and a sense of suspicion arose in her heart.
This guy was so poor just now that he used despicable means to swindle a thousand yuan from her, how come he's back driving a brand new car in the blink of an eye?
No! This can't be his car. If he has any money, he'll either go to prostitutes or gamble. Where would he get the money to buy a car? Hmph... This car is probably borrowed from some of his cronies to show off!
As Wang Xuewei thought about it, she felt it was very likely. However, since she needed Yang Hongtao's help, she didn't use harsh words to provoke him. She just curled her lips in disdain, started her Buick, and drove to the side to make way for the villa's gate.
By the time Yang Hongtao parked the car in the garage and returned to the living room with the travel bag of cash left over from the car purchase, Wang Xuewei had already been anxiously waiting for a long time with the document in hand.
"Now can we have a proper talk?"
Seeing that Yang Hongtao seemed to be carrying things upstairs, Wang Xuewei quickly stopped him at the bottom of the stairs.
Yang Hongtao waved the travel bag in his hand and said, "Didn't you see I'm carrying things? Even if you have something to do, you have to let me go upstairs and settle in first. Um... I'll take a shower later, and then have a glass of milk..."
Seeing Yang Hongtao's arrogant attitude, Wang Xuewei was immediately enraged and wished she could punch him in the face right away.
However, remembering Professor He's instructions, she could only suppress her anger and said anxiously, "Please... why do you, a grown man, have to go through so much trouble? I've been waiting for you all afternoon!"
Yang Hongtao rolled his eyes upon hearing this and said, "Really? But what does that have to do with me? I didn't make you wait for me."
“You…” Wang Xuewei’s eyes reddened with anger, and she almost burst into tears.
However, she was always very strong-willed and of course wouldn't allow herself to shed tears in front of this man she disliked so much. So, she suppressed her grievances, gritted her teeth, and held up one finger, saying, "Same as always, one thousand yuan per question. I hope you can answer a few questions truthfully, okay?"
"Oh... I can make money again! Great... Go ahead and tell me! I'm listening."
Seeing that Wang Xuewei was almost brought to tears by his antics, Yang Hongtao decided to stop pretending and returned to the sofa to sit down in a grand manner.
Volume 1: The Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 19: Useless Effort
Seeing that Yang Hongtao immediately agreed to the money, Wang Xuewei couldn't help but feel contempt for him in her heart. Then, she sat down opposite Yang Hongtao angrily, opened the folder in her hand, pointed to the paper that Yang Hongtao had scribbled on, and asked with a serious expression, "It's the same question. I hope you can answer me truthfully... Who wrote these?"
Yang Hongtao shrugged and said, "I've already answered this question. If you want to repeat it again... shall I pay this time?"
Seeing Yang Hongtao's money-grubbing attitude, Wang Xuewei almost lost her temper again. After holding back for a while, she finally snorted and said, "Pay... I'll pay you right now, okay?"
As she spoke, she opened her purse, counted out a thousand yuan, and threw it in front of Yang Hongtao.
Yang Hongtao, of course, accepted the money without hesitation, pocketing the thousand yuan without any politeness. Then, he said with a grin, "You actually asked the same question repeatedly. Isn't this just blatantly offering me money? Hehe... In that case, I'll gladly accept it..."
Wang Xuewei said coldly, "Stop talking nonsense. You've already accepted the money, so please answer my questions quickly."
Yang Hongtao laughed and said, "I already told you you're giving me money for free. Do you think I'd give you two different answers if you asked the same question? Fine! If you insist, I'll tell you again: I wrote all of this myself. Whether you believe me or not, my answer is the same. If you want to ask me about this a third time... hehe... I won't mind, as long as you keep paying."
Wang Xuewei was so angry upon hearing this that she almost vomited blood, but then she realized that the question she had asked was indeed incredibly stupid.
She only went upstairs for a few minutes, and there was no one else in the villa, so the data and equations on this paper could only have been written by Yang Hongtao.
After hearing Wang Xuewei recount the situation, Professor He immediately concluded that Yang Hongtao had solved all the equations by himself. After all, he had only compiled this data sheet that morning, and even his assistants were not familiar with some of the data and equations. Others were completely unaware of the secrets behind it.
Therefore, it is absolutely impossible that someone had figured out how to solve these messy equations and taught Yang Hongtao in advance so that he could perform them later... This is absolutely impossible!
After listening to Professor He's analysis, Wang Xuewei could only agree with the conclusion. However, when she saw Yang Hongtao's demeanor and thought about his lack of high school education, she completely overturned her previous opinion and couldn't help but ask such an idiotic question.
Wang Xuewei didn't care much about spending an extra thousand yuan; the key issue was that Yang Hongtao ridiculed her for it, which made her feel extremely indignant.
"Alright! Let's leave that question for now and move on to the second question..."
As she spoke, Wang Xuewei consciously pulled out another thousand yuan from her pocket, slapped it on the coffee table, then opened the last two pages of handwritten data and equation analysis diagrams in the folder, and asked with a serious expression, "If you really solved those equations by yourself, then... can you also solve these last two pages?"
As usual, Yang Hongtao took the money first, then frowned and replied, "This money is really hard to earn. I didn't even have time to look at the last two pages before you snatched them away, so I can't be sure if I can solve them. And I'm a man of my word. Since I've taken your money, I won't make empty promises. So... if you want me to answer your question, you have to bring me those two data equations first so I can study them carefully."
As Yang Hongtao spoke, he naturally reached out to take the folder to look at it, but Wang Xuewei, as if guarding against a thief, snatched the folder back from the coffee table, clutching it tightly to her chest. She looked at Yang Hongtao warily and said, "No! This...this contains the most crucial data from our company's research project. If you see it all, and then...and leak it again, then..."