Ch30 - Paper Gold

As Jiang Fang wandered around, Nan Zhou held two egg tarts and watched the slot machines. He thought that the gradient lights on the slot machine were well-designed.

Nan Zhou ate two egg tarts and watched as the player manipulating the slot machine threw 800 points into it. The female companion next to him had eyes red from anxiety as she tugged at him. “Forget it, let’s go. It is so hard to save points…” 

However, a gambler who was betting wasn’t the type to listen to people. He was so stimulated that blood rushed to his head and all types of negative emotions burst out. He roared, “Don’t fuck with me! I lost so much and my bad luck has stacked up. The next one is sure to be a win! Do you want to throw away all the previous points for nothing?!”

Nan Zhou kindly warned, “Probability won’t accumulate.”

He wanted to say that this should be learned in middle school mathematics but the red-eyed gambler succinctly expressed his opinion. “Get lost!”

Nan Zhou, “?” 

Nanji Star poked out his head from Nan Zhou’s sleeve. Before he could show his teeth, Nan Zhou covered his mouth. He whispered, “No.”

Nan Zhou glanced at the small cartoon that said ‘no fighting’ on the wall. If they fought then they would be kicked out. For the sake of the cake, he couldn’t do so. Nanji Star nibbled on Nan Zhou’s finger, confused for a moment. He poked out his little tongue and licked it twice before falling quiet.

Nan Zhou went back to the bar to replenish his sugar. He saw Jiang Fang coming toward them after talking with Qu Jinsha and put down the cupcake in his hand. He intuitively sensed that Jiang Fang had something to say to them.

Sure enough, Jiang Fang opened his mouth. “I want to play a few games.”

Li Yinhang was surprised. “Didn’t you tell us not to play?”

Jiang Fang explained, “Boss Qu wants to invite me to play and will give me some points.”

Then he looked at Nan Zhou. “Is that okay?”

Nan Zhou thought about it. “How much is Boss Qu giving you?” 

Jiang Fang answered, “100 chips.”

This meant 100 points.

Nan Zhou replied, “Oh, that’s generous.” It was quite tempting as a bargaining chip to entice gambling. Nan Zhou asked again, “Did you agree?”

Jiang Fang watched Nan Zhou. “I told him that I would ask my partner for instructions. If you don’t agree then I won’t play.” 

Nan Zhou thought, ‘This excuse is good. He can attack or retreat. If he wants to backtrack then there is no problem.’

Li Yinhang thought, ‘Why does it feel like Jiang Fang is taking advantage of Nan Zhou?’

Still, the party involved Nan Zhou didn’t say anything and she chose to shut up. As the three people were talking, a man standing close to them like he was a gambler who was tired of gambling and was standing near them to rest started moving away.

Jiang Fang squinted slightly at the back of the person leaving. 

Nan Zhou had long discovered the existence of an eavesdropper. “Who is it?”

Jiang Fang’s expression didn’t change. “In a Ukrainian casino, they are called oko (eye). In Macau, they are called ‘bate-ficha’. Their job is to solicit customers and listen for information.” He smiled slightly as he spoke. “The reason is unknown at this point but it seems that Boss Qu attaches great importance to me as a guest.”

Jiang Fang saw that Nan Zhou was still weighing the pros and cons and asked his other teammate. “Yinhang, what do you think?”

“I…” Li Yinhang spoke with a bit of hope. “Once you lose all the chips he gave you, stop playing okay?” 

Jiang Fang agreed. “Okay.”

Nan Zhou thought of the pained look Li Yinhang made when she paid the admission price. “How about you win back the points paid for the eating self-service?”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Jiang Fang’s gaze was on Nan Zhou’s small plate as he judged which desserts had been placed on it and determined what flavors Nan Zhou liked. At the same time, he nodded with a smile. “Okay.”

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Nan Zhou tried to resist the urge to count his eyelashes. “Go play.”

Jiang Fang smiled. “Do you believe me?” 

“Otherwise?”

Jiang Fang smiled and patted Nan Zhou’s shoulder. Then he immediately turned around and headed to Qu Jinsha in the distance. Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang followed closely.

The moment he turned around, the smile on Jiang Fang’s face changed from confident and calm to shy. This youthful inexperience was hypocritical.

Qu Jinsha, who had been waiting not far away, watched Jiang Fang’s back with a smile. The news from the bate-ficha came from his headset. “There are three people in a group. Just now, they were discussing whether to play or not.” 

“The three of them seem to be newcomers and have no experience.”

“This is definitely the first time the man with long hair has come here. He doesn’t understand the rules. He just went to intervene in another person’s betting and was scolded.”

“The woman is very cautious. She has been eating and doesn’t watch the others playing.”

Qu Jinsha said, “Girls will be more cautious and are less likely to believe that they are infallible. This is normal.” 

The bate-ficha continued to report. “That foreigner is quite keen to play and encouraged his teammates…”

At this point, he hesitated. “The two men… look like a couple.”

Qu Jinsha raised an eyebrow.

The bate-ficha seemed to describe the atmosphere around them. “They are very sticky and seem like they have hooked-up…” 

Qu Jinsha let out a prolonged ‘oh—’ and raised his eyes in time to see Jiang Fang turn around. He couldn’t help his smile growing wider. This was such a tall and beautiful young man. Just looking at the outline from the casual pants, the hardware was first-class and fit the standard specifications of a foreigner.

He liked it very much. He liked it even more that this person was gay. Once this person lost everything. Qu Jinsha would raise him in a small house, buying him a bit of oxygen and giving him a bit of food every day. It was extremely interesting to let such a proud and beautiful person with an elegant temperament, who hadn’t experienced too much life at first glance, be reduced to the state of having to rely on others to live.

Qu Jinsha thought about this while waving to Jiang Fang kindly like a Maitreya Buddha. Qu Jinsha took the group of three around the various gambling equipment, introducing them one by one. Blackjack, Texas hold’em, roulette, baccarat, mahjong…

He asked gently, “Which one do you want to play?” 

Nan Zhou glanced at Jiang Fang and found that this person had an expression of hesitation like he found it hard to decide. He looked around carefully, his face flustered. Even Nan Zhou wanted to ask him what was wrong.

Qu Jinsha sensitively became aware of the change in this person’s mood. “What’s the matter?”

Jiang Fang’s cheeks turned red. “It’s like this… I’ve played bridge and card games with my classmates but this is the first time I’ve seen these new games. You told me so many rules and I’m not sure…”

A beautiful person was pleasing to the eye even when clumsy. Qu Jinsha was happy and relaxed so he became even more patient. “Why don’t we play the slot machine?” 

Then he sat down in front of an idle machine. The machine showed that it took 50 chips to play one time. In Douzhuan Casino, 1 point was exchanged for 1 chip. The face value of a chip was 10 points, 50 points and the maximum was 100 points.

Qu Jinsha took out a 50 point blue chip from his pocket. “The gameplay is very simple. Do you see? There are three glass flames on the interface of the machine and the patterns in the frames are the same. After putting in the chip, pull the lever…”

He followed the procedure and pulled the lever. The design on the interface started spinning at a dizzyingly high speed.

“If the three patterns that appear are exactly the same, you can get 5 times the chips. If three of them are a specific pattern, the tiger, you can take all the chips accumulated in the prize pool—” 

The three frames spinning quickly started to stop in turn. Qu Jinsha’s luck wasn’t bad. The first two patterns were exactly the same. They were both little bears. Unfortunately, the last pattern was a snake. This was regarded as Qu Jinsha’s win since his chips doubled. He picked up two blue chips from the coin slot and smiled humbly. “To put it another way, you just have to pull the lever and it depends on luck. It is especially simple.”

Of course, he didn’t say that the winning rate of the slot machine had long been set by the computer. The lever of winning or losing had never been in the hands of players.

Nan Zhou thought calmly, ‘It is quite simple but the side effect is that it eats the player’s brain.’

Jiang Fang’s pale gray eyes were filled with sincere admiration. “Boss Qu is very lucky.” 

Qu Jinsha was very happy and tempted him, “Do you want to play?”

To his surprise, Jiang Fang shook his head. Jiang Fang said, “I want to gamble with Boss Qu.”

He explained, “You are taking me to play and you let me borrow chips. I haven’t played in a casino before. If you can take me then I will feel more at ease.”

“Okay.” Qu Jinsha agreed. “Texas hold’em?” 

“It is too difficult.” Jiang Fang’s voice was soft. “Let’s play a simple game…”

“Then you…”

“Boss Qu is so lucky. I want to gamble with Boss Qu.” Jiang Fang mused for a moment. “Just… how about big and small?”

Qu Jinsha suddenly felt that the atmosphere was wrong and he took a second look at the other person. This man… 

Before he could think too deeply, he saw Jiang Fang smiling brightly as he placed his hands together in front of his lips. “Please, Boss Qu.”

Li Yinhang, “???”

Nan Zhou, “……?”

He stared at Jiang Fang in a daze. This person was acting spoiled and cute. He wanted to touch Jiang Fang’s head like Nanji Star. 

Qu Jinsha was shaken by his appearance and nodded. Still, his sanity remained. After agreeing with a smile, he looked around and said regretfully, “Oh, there are no free tables.”

Jiang Fang also followed him in looking around, expression slightly disappointed. “Yes…”

“It’s fine.” Qu Jinsha raised his hand to call another bate-ficha. “Move a table.”

Qu Jinsha rarely gambled in person. This time, he was playing and it naturally attracted a lot of attention. The moment the table was moved, a large group of people gathered around the square gaming table and exchanged whispers. 

“I heard it is big and small.”

“No, isn’t this too simple?”

“Why don’t you just play ‘connect the bamboo pole’?” (this is a card game mainly played by children so they’re mocking the simplicity of the game)

Regardless of the snickers and comments, Qu Jinsha’s expression was as usual. “Have you played big and small before?” 

He received Jiang Fang’s positive answer and took an absolutely fair and just posture. “I will repeat the rules again, lest we have been playing with different rules and there is a problem.”

Jiang Fang leaned forward and listened carefully. “Yes.”

Big and small was simple to play compared to poker. As the name implied, two people drew a card. They compared the points of the cards and the bigger one won.

“There are 54 playing cards. If we remove the jokers, then 2 is the largest, followed by A. Then it is KQJ all the way to the smallest 3.” 

Jiang Fang asked, “What if we both get a 2?”

Qu Jinsha laughed. “Then it is ranked by the suits. Spades is the biggest, Hearts is second and then Diamonds and Clubs.”

He touched a corner of the card table. “The machine shuffles the cards and there is no dealer. It is absolutely fair.”

Jiang Fang let out a faint hum and turned to the beautiful dealer used to enliven the atmosphere. The bunny girl dealer who was used to attract the players’ eyes found it hard to be looked at by Jiang Fang and blushed. 

Jiang Fang wasn’t very concerned about her dress. He only saw his past self in her figure. In the year when he first entered the casino to work, he was at an age where it was illegal by Ukrainian law for anyone to hire him. However, underground casinos didn’t have such a strong sense of the law.

After signing a crude but lucrative contract that would pay him well, Jiang Fang went through two weeks of intense closed training. Once he became familiar with all the secrets of cards and machinery, Jiang Fang was pulled to the makeup room to put on makeup to cover his youthful face.

The end of his left eye was painted blue and the end of his right eye was painted red, with a shining line of sequins that went to the hair behind his ears. A pink heart-shape teardrop was drawn in the corner of his eye, like the joker card in a card deck. He was dressed up as a beautiful clown.

Jiang Fang escaped from his memories and looked down at the set of cards presented by the dealer. Qu Jinsha pulled out the two useless jokers and put them aside. 

Every outstanding dealer would have their own nickname. This was the glory of an underground dealer and a recognition of their ability. The sexiest and hottest female deal was called ‘Queen’, the cutest and sweetest girl was called ‘Hearts’ and the calmest and most experienced dealer was called ‘King’.

After working in the casino for two years, the 16 year old Jiang Fang had a height of 180cm. His bones were still growing in this filthy underground. His face gradually grew into something that the casino could use to make money from.

On the day that the clown makeup was washed off, Jiang Fang got his nickname. On that day, Jiang Fang was dressed in a dark suit, his silver hair combed back and tied behind his head. During the performance of the dealer’s skill, he showed a standard smile as he skillfully flicked the cards in his hand one by one, catching the falling cards like they were snowflakes. He spread them all out and the 53 cards that were shuffled returned to their normal order in his palm.

Meanwhile, he was biting a separate card in his mouth. Snow white teeth and natural red lips that were curved up gently. Everything fit perfectly. Later, this card became his nickname. The ghost card, the Joker. 

On the body of this beautiful rabbit girl dealer, Jiang Fang saw a person who was locked in a training room and repeated the introductory skills including false shuffling, diagonal card control and bottom sliding for 10 hours, demonstrating it 456 times.

Now the dealer was just a prop to hype up the atmosphere and the solid and basic skills were no longer needed. He retracted his gaze and all his thoughts, moving his fingers back and forth. His slightly longer thumbs touched each other, softly fitting together. At first glance, there wasn’t much strength or dexterity.

To show fairness, Qu Jinsha took the initiative to hand over the cards to Jiang Fang. “These are our cards. You can take a look. There are no markings and they aren’t prop cards.”

Jiang Fang smiled. “Thank you.” 

Then he took them and examined them carefully. Qu Jinsha watched Jiang Fang’s movements with a slightly playful expression Just now, Jiang Fang had given him a strange feeling. However, Qu Jinsha wasn’t afraid of him discovering anything.

It was because the real secret was hiding in the table. The so-called fully automatic machine shuffle and the ‘absolutely fair’ table were just big jokes. This table was specifically designed for ‘big and small’. The cards really weren’t prop cards and there were no marks but this was just before entering the table.

After entering the shuffling stage, it would automatically identify the size of the number on the card according to the magnetic code of the card. Then it would provide a certain heat temperature on the complex pattern on the back of the card, so that special and subtle changes would occur on the pattern. Only those who fully understood the craftsmanship of this type of card could discover the tiny changes. The principle was simple but it was easy to deceive everyone.

Qu Jinsha clasped his hands together and placed his double chin on them as he said with a smile, “Let’s not play too big in the first game. You can just bet 10 chips and then add on to it as you want, okay?” 

Qu Jinsha’s request was another scheme. He gave Jiang Fang a 100 point chip. Bet 10 chips first. Regardless of whether he won or lost, the chip would be broken up. In this way, once he won or lost, he would take the initiative to increase the number of chips.

Jiang Fang’s slender thumb rubbed over the cards like he was counting them. He heard Qu Jinsha’s suggestion and smiled. “Okay.”

As he spoke, he stacked all the cards on his palm. He pinched all the cards, accurately picked the upper center point and gripped it lightly. The entire card deck was forced into a slightly incomplete C-type shape. It was just an ordinary card-gripping move but Qu Jinsha’s expression changed suddenly. His actions would destroy the magnetic code in the cards!

As Qu Jinsha was stunned, Jiang Fang smiled at him and politely pushed the cards whose magnetic codes were destroyed back toward the center of the table. “There are no problems at all. Do you want to start now?” 

Qu Jinsha’s throat became cold and his heartbeat gradually accelerated as he became tense. Was this man someone who knew the ropes?