Zhou Xuan shook his head, then said, "Then I regret to inform you that you are doomed. But it's better that way, so you won't be used by the casino to do more heinous things, and so you won't suffer any more torment. You can only reign supreme in Africa; outside your territory, you are nothing."
The lion roared even louder, lunging forward to tear at the iron bars separating Zhou Xuan from him. Its large, sharp teeth sent chills down the spines of the gamblers.
Zhou Xuan could only sigh. This lion, like some people, was out of touch with reality and couldn't see the situation clearly. Only a tragic end awaited it.
With a gesture from the host, the iron fence slowly fell down. The lion, which had been cornered for a long time and hadn't been able to eat Lu Dapao in the previous round due to Zhou Xuan's superpower control, felt even hungrier. As soon as the fence was lowered, it roared and pounced.
Amidst the screams of the crowd, Zhou Xuan reached out and blocked the lion. He unleashed his supernatural power, and the lion was frozen in mid-air. As soon as its body touched Zhou Xuan's palm, it fell to the ground without even being able to utter a sound.
It looked as if Zhou Xuan had chopped down the lion with his bare hand, leaving President Chen and his men utterly astonished. Of course, they were only surprised at first, not yet anticipating the more serious consequences.
Zhou Xuan gave them no illusions. He bent down and punched the lion's head hard again. This punch was just a superficial action. In reality, he used his superpower to transform and devour the lion, splitting one of its large heads in two, and blood stained the ground.
What Zhou Xuan actually showed everyone was that he chopped the lion to the ground with one palm, and then punched the lion's head in two, killing the lion on the spot.
At first, Mr. Chen suspected that Zhou Xuan might be secretly colluding with the animal trainer to swindle money from them, and that the lion was just playing along, just like in the previous round with Yan Xuesong and his black bear—it was all an act. But Zhou Xuan's second punch immediately shattered his thoughts.
With such powerful punches, capable of killing a lion with a single blow, there are very few people like that in the world; they are true top-tier martial arts masters.
Mr. Chen's heart sank to the bottom of an iceberg. His original plan was completely shattered in an instant, and he was immediately drenched in sweat, his clothes soaked through.
Looking at the display screen, Zhou Xuan's total bets amounted to 2.4 billion, and now he faces an immediate payout of a massive 23.5 billion in cash, which is beyond his means.
Sweating profusely, General Manager Chen looked ashen-faced. He quickly picked up the phone, ran into his office, and slammed the door shut. None of his subordinates dared to speak to him.
Mr. Chen immediately called his back office from his office to report the situation. This was no longer something he could control, and he needed his boss to give him instructions on how to handle it.
Zhou Xuan killed the lion with a single punch, then clapped his hands, wiping the blood off his hands onto the lion's clean fur. He then stood up, broke the railing with another punch, crawled out through the hole, and no longer took the elevator under the casino table.
The audience erupted in a deafening roar of cheers and shouts, a scene of pure celebration.
Looking at Zhou Xuan's calm and composed expression, and then at the festive atmosphere in the casino, Yang Tiancheng immediately understood what was going on, and his brows furrowed involuntarily.
It seems Zhou Xuan is confident of winning. His concern is that if the members of the joint team win, the casino might not be able to pay out the money. Yang Tiancheng runs an underground casino, so how could he not understand this?
He did win, winning a billion in cash, but how could Zhou Xuan know so much about the casino's decision? This clearly shows that the casino failed to control the course of the game. In fact, this round should have been a victory for them, but the news that came out later must have been leaked by the casino itself. Yang Tiancheng understood this situation; it was generally one of the casino's tactics. But the condition for doing so was that the casino had absolute control and could make the outcome of the game happen according to their plan.
But the result was the opposite. The casino made a mistake because it did not understand Zhou Xuan's personal abilities. In fact, it was hard to predict, because in reality, it is difficult to find someone who can kill an African lion with his bare hands.
Yang Tiancheng squinted, realizing he had indeed seen through Zhou Xuan and found him to be special and unusual, but he never expected him to possess such formidable skills.
The casino was practically in chaos. The host's microphone was drowned out, and no one paid any attention to him. Since the window had been temporarily closed, the gamblers couldn't collect their winnings, so how could they not be furious?
Zhou Xuan invited Gao Mingyuan back to his seat, avoiding the chaotic commotion. Gao Mingyuan looked at the noisy casino and then asked Zhou Xuan, "Brother, did you know this would happen, which is why you made me exchange the money first?"
Zhou Xuan smiled faintly and said, "I didn't know beforehand, but I knew I could win. I don't know who spread the word in the hall, but they said the casino wanted me to win and wanted the lion to lose. Didn't you see everyone frantically betting on me to win? If I really win, the casino will lose a lot of money, and that's no small amount. So let's be safe and secure our winnings first."
Gao Mingyuan was stunned for a moment. It turned out that Zhou Xuan wasn't worried about losing, but rather about not being able to collect the money if he won. If he hadn't gone to collect the money back then, he wouldn't be able to redeem the previous receipts, and he didn't know what the gambling association would do about it.
"Damn it..." Gao Mingyuan cursed viciously, unable to contain his anger. He had bet 22 million, and if he won it all back, it would be 242 million with interest. Such a huge sum was beyond imagination; just thinking about it would make one tremble. Now it was a reality, but the casino might not be able to pay it. No wonder he was cursing.
There were plenty of people in the casino betting hundreds of millions, totaling 2.4 billion. Of that, Zhou Xuan, Yang Tiancheng, and Gao Mingyuan's combined bets amounted to only 172 million. The remaining 2.2 billion belonged to other gamblers in the hall. This was, in fact, the first time they had ever won such a large bet. They had lost this much money in many bets, but this was a one-time win, and with such high odds of 1 to 10.
Volume 1, Chapter 606: Eating meat without spitting out bones (Second update, 5,000 words, requesting monthly votes)
Despite his anger, Zhou Xuan had the foresight to let him exchange the money first. In any case, he still managed to keep 20 million in cash today, so he still made a profit.
Gao Mingyuan was furious. On one hand, he was glad that Zhou Xuan had let him exchange the money for cash first, so that he could get back the money he had won. On the other hand, he was also angry at the casino for not paying back the money they had lost before, but now they were refusing to pay back the money after winning once.
Zhou Xuan smiled faintly and ignored him. Even if Gao Mingyuan had placed bets before, they were only a few thousand or a few hundred thousand, at most tens of thousands. His current excited expression was mostly for the sake of winning that bet of more than two hundred million.
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Xuan quickly shifted his attention to President Chen, who was on the phone with his backer. With his supernatural abilities activated, Zhou Xuan could hear him clearly.
The boss behind the scenes was berating President Chen: "What are you doing? I paid you such a high salary just so you could lose money for me? Damn it, you lost 23.5 billion in one go! I really want to chop you up and feed you to my dogs!"
Mr. Chen kept wiping the cold sweat from his face, not daring to make a sound. Even though they were just talking on the phone, the backstage boss couldn't see his expression. Mr. Chen was very respectful and didn't dare to show the slightest disrespect. The backstage boss said he would chop him up and feed him to the wolfhounds. He knew that his backstage boss was definitely that ruthless, and he was so frightened that his face turned ashen.
The backstage boss pondered for a moment, then hummed and said, "Have you found out that person's background yet?"
“I understand, I understand…” Mr. Chen quickly replied. “His name is Zhou Xuan. He is a jewelry merchant from Beijing. He owns Zhou Zhang Antique Shop and Zhou's Jewelry Company. His assets in China exceed 20 billion yuan.” In addition, he has a special identity. He is the grandson-in-law of Fu Tianlai, the richest man in the world. Seventy percent of Fu's shares have been transferred to Zhou Xuan’s name. In fact, Zhou Xuan controls assets of nearly 200 billion yuan!
Upon hearing that it was this person, the back-office boss hesitated for a long time before finally saying in a deep voice, "Don't make any rash moves against this person for now. Also, how much cash flow does the casino currently have?"
"The total for the past two weeks is 2.3 billion, plus the 800 million from the first few rounds today, making a total of 3.1 billion. Subtracting this 3.1 billion, we still need a shortfall of 20.4 billion..."
The back-end boss was gritting his teeth. This huge sum of money was almost their entire year's profit, and now they had no choice but to hand it over, otherwise the casino would have to close down. This casino was a huge treasure trove, and it would be such a waste to give it up. It could bring them two or three hundred billion in cash every year. It was really not worth giving up the casino for such a small amount.
"First, appease the gamblers and pay out 3.1 billion to the smaller clients. That will attract more people. Keep the big bettors first. How you appease them is your business. I'll call an emergency meeting with the shareholders and raise another 20 billion in cash. This will take at least two days, and those two days are your responsibility. Don't give me any nonsense!"
"Yes, yes, please rest assured..." Mr. Chen kept saying. But before he could say anything more, the other end of the phone had already hung up, and all that could be heard from the phone was the "beep beep beep" sound.
Upon sensing this, Zhou Xuan smiled at Gao Mingyuan and said, "Old Gao, forget it, don't get into a fight with them. They'll pay us back as long as they don't run away, it'll just be a couple of days later. Look at all these people here, it's not going to be your turn or mine. Think about it, with so many people, the casino will have to pay out at least tens of billions in cash. The casino can't possibly have that much cash stored here, so there's no point in waiting. Come back and cash out tomorrow or the day after!"
Gao Mingyuan was reluctant to part with it. Such a large sum of money, over two hundred million! He couldn't sleep at night, how could he not think about it? With Zhou Xuan's wealth, he naturally wouldn't think about it. It was just a small amount of money. Besides, he still had the two hundred and fifty million he had won, so he wouldn't lose anything. Of course, he hadn't lost anything either; Pingbi had gained another twenty million in assets. But he had won even more money, over two hundred million. He had never had so much money before. These two days were probably his lucky days. Seeing the money he had gained these two days, he was afraid he would never have such an opportunity again in his life.
Somewhat reluctant, Gao Mingyuan followed Zhou Xuan after seeing him get up to leave. At this moment, the people from President Chen's casino were too busy dealing with the gamblers who wanted to cash out to attend to them.
He was still driving his Volkswagen, but Gao Mingyuan's demeanor and aura were completely different. He acted as if he were driving a Mercedes or BMW, not a cheap Volkswagen. Head held high and chest puffed out, he drove onto the road before saying to Zhou Xuan, "Brother, today is the most enjoyable day of my life, Gao Mingyuan! Let's go have another big meal, and then..."
“Eating is fine, Lao Gao. Haven’t you thought about your future career?” Zhou Xuan asked with a smile.
Gao Mingyuan paused for a moment, then nodded and replied, "Yes, I used to think that if I had a few million, I could open my own jade factory and be my own boss. I have a lot of experience, but I didn't have the funds. Now I have the funds, but I'm a little hesitant..."
Previously, Gao Ming had planned to save up three to five million yuan before opening a factory. He wanted to run a small business, but now that he suddenly had tens of millions of yuan in assets, he couldn't keep up with the pace of the situation. He felt like a nouveau riche. Moreover, he thought that since he was going to open a factory, he couldn't make it too small. He was also unsure how to allocate the large sum of cash he suddenly had.
Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "It's good to open a factory and run it yourself. I'll come here to get my goods from you in the future. However, I like to select the raw materials myself. You can do what you did before and build good relationships with other factories. I mostly select raw materials from waste stone. I can always give you a price several times higher than the cost price of this kind of raw material. This way, you can make a profit from others."
Gao Mingyuan chuckled. Zhou Xuan had hit the nail on the head. That was exactly what he had been doing. He had thought Zhou Xuan was unaware of his tricks, but now it seemed Zhou Xuan knew everything, understood everything but didn't care. He was practically giving him the benefit of the doubt. In the future, he shouldn't hide anything from Zhou Xuan to avoid ruining their relationship. Although they had only known each other for two days, Gao Mingyuan had already figured it out. Zhou Xuan would never argue with him about such petty gains, nor was he a stingy person. Only by being completely honest and open with him could he win his favor.