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Lin Lang has personally removed any obstruction he might encounter at the city gate by issuing a pass of safe conduct to him just before they landed, so that all he needed to do was to pay the tax and he could enter the city immediately.

Walking along the main street, heavy with endless stream of horses and carriages, Xu Ziling had a feeling that he was returning to the mortal world. This Three Gorges trip would forever be engraved in his heart.

In less than ten steps, Xu Ziling already sensed an unusual feeling, like a bucket of iced water was poured on his head and soaked his entire body. Instantly he reacted by looking at shop on his right. The first thing he saw was a powerful, as bright as lightning, abundant in divine light, fierce and severe without equal – pair of eyes.

And then he saw ‘Kou Zhong’.

In that instant, he knew that just like him, after they parted, Kou Zhong had made incredible breakthrough in his martial art skill; he was not the same as the former Kou Zhong.

Kou Zhong was raising his cup to toast him, with a bright, ‘ugly’ smile on his face.

But this smile could not hide the profound, touchingly strong emotion exuding from his pair of tiger-eyes, brimming with delight, joy, and excitement of meeting again after a long period of separation.

Xu Ziling signaled with his eyes from a distance; he suddenly walked faster and disappeared into a side lane.

Inside the shop, Kou Zhong put down his cup and shouted loudly, “Three taels of silver, I want the table closest to the back door.”

After throwing off the people who were following his tracks, Xu Ziling entered the shop via the back door. Kou Zhong already poured him a cup of good wine and waited respectfully for his honored-self’s arrival.

One cup of wine gone, the two boys’ four eyes met, they looked at each other and then laughed. In this moment, being able to stay alive was indeed a rarity.

Kou Zhong poured another cup of wine for him; lowering his voice, he said with a sigh, “Kid, you are amazing; unexpectedly even the ‘Heavenly Lord’ Xi Ying was slaughtered under your hands.”

Stunned, Xu Ziling said, “Did you develop a pair of tail-wind ears [fig. a well-informed person]? Unexpectedly your information is so fast and abundant.”

Immensely proud of himself, Kou Zhong said, “It was Yuzhi who told me. Luckily I told Song Que that Yue Shan is your disguise; otherwise, you, this kid, will be killed by Song Que without knowing what’s going on. If you don’t see it with your own eyes, you wouldn’t know to what extend the awesomeness of his Heavenly Saber; even my eggs were nearly cut off by him.”

He has been keeping his belly full of foul language in check, so now he needed to pour out everything.

Smiling wryly, Xu Ziling said, “Unexpectedly you sneaked away to Lingnan to meet the beauty; too bad I have promised Song Yuhua not to let you see her Die.”

Staring blankly, Kou Zhong said, “I am not mountain spirit or demon, why would she talk to you about stopping me from seeing her Ol’ Dad?”

Although Xu Ziling had thousands of words, he did not know how to bring it up. Changing the subject, he said, “How did you know to wait here for me to enter the city?”

Kou Zhong picked some food and put it in Xu Ziling’s bowl. Leaning closer, he said, “When there is an effect, naturally there is a cause. Today, I met face to face on a narrow path with two groups of old friends. One is Yin Gui Pai yaonu yaofu [female demon and witch] who conspired to split your corpse five ways by pulling it with horses. The other group was led by Yun Yuzhen, that stinky poniang [reminder: woman (derogatory)]. Ay! Seeing you alive and well, there is no need for me to have a headache alone.”

And then he stared blankly at Xu Ziling, who had become fine-gem like jade, clean, beautiful and lustrous. Lifting his hand holding the chopsticks, he said, “What actually happened? It made you appear like you shed your mortal body and exchanged your bones.”

While eating, Xu Ziling said, “It’s complicated and not easy to express succinctly. Right now I must hurry to the casino. I’ll tell you on the way!”

Yin Ru Ge was located in the heart of the most prosperous business district in Jiujiang, about seven, eight buildings away from Chun Zai Lou where they assassinated Ren Shaoming. The scale was grand. The main building complex consisted of five wooden structures on a central axis, connected to each other by corridors. On both sides of the corridors, there were ponds, mountain rocks, flowers and plants in pots. Outside the main complex, there were more than a dozen smaller buildings, courtyards and residences, in all-the-stars-cup-themselves-around-the-moon configuration [idiom, from Analects: to group around a revered leader] with the five main halls as the core, surrounded all around by high walls.

This moment the entire complex was as bright as white painting; the external wall facing the main street was resplendent with colored lanterns. Outside the main gate vehicles and horses were forming a long queue, as they slowly entered in. The streets in the vicinity were crowded to bursting point with pedestrians; some were there just to enjoy watching the bustling scene, some others, because they did not have enough money to pay the admission fee for the gambling meet, were unable to get in.

Everybody who had ‘head and face’ in Jiujiang was there; hats and head coverings converged into one place. It was indeed a magnificent and unprecedented event.

Watching the bustling scene outside the main gate from a distance, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were both speechless. Emotionally moved, the former said, “Just like that time we went to Wang Tong’s mansion to listen to Shi Qingxuan’s flute; history repeats itself, very quickly it has been several years! At that time we were on the run every day. But now, even if Zhu Yuyan and Ning Daoqi came to give us bad luck, we, two brothers, are not afraid of his mother.”

Having his bad memory of Shi Qingxuan mentioned, Xu Ziling hung his head and did not say anything.

Kou Zhong thought Xu Ziling was recalling his lot in life, just like he just did, so he did not mind him; he went on, “When we have time later, I must try how formidable your Nine-word Incantation Handprint is.”

Putting his worry out of his mind, Xu Ziling laughed and said, “I knew you would not let me get away with it. Don’t blame me for not giving you a warning in advance; if somehow my hand slips and I injure you, I don’t care how many faces you have, you will lose them all!”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Kid, stop showing off, your words are too full of yourself. How can I, Kou Zhong, be like Xi Ying, flaunting off his demonic name without restraint, looking impressive but was actually worthless?”

The two have not teased each other for a very long time, so they both found it amusing. After looking at each other and roaring in laughter, they walked toward Yin Ru Ge’s main entrance.

From a side alley someone rushed out and blocked their way. He was wearing brocade clothes and gorgeous attire, but his face looked unfamiliar. Kou Zhong was about to bark and cuss, Xu Ziling just saw that this person was Lei Jiuzhi in disguise. “He’s a friend,” he hastily said, “This is Lei Dage.”

Lei Jiuzhi did not know Kou Zhong. After the introduction, he was immediately pleased beyond his expectations to finally meet him. Due to their mutual relationship with Lu Miaozi, naturally Kou Zhong and Lei Jiuzhi hit it off right away.

The three stepped aside into an alley to discuss their grand plan. Xu Ziling asked in surprise, “Didn’t Lei Dage say you wanted to force Xiang Gui out using Lei Jiuzhi’s identity? Why are you dressed like this?”

Smiling, Lei Jiuzhi replied, “This is Lei Jiuzhi’s ‘real appearance’; I am using false in place of real. When I am not in ‘Lei Jiuzhi’ disguise, I can make my nine fingers appear to be ten. Lu Shi was a great master precisely in this kind of trickery, I have a model to learn from!”

“What are you going to play tonight?” Kou Zhong asked, “I hear that the Tian Jiu competition is not going to start until tomorrow night.”

Astonished, Lei Jiuzhi said, “Shao Shuai’s news is indeed fast and abundant. The difference between tonight and tomorrow night is that the participants of tomorrow night’s Tian Jiu competition are by invitation only; people who, if not giant businessmen, then must be leaders of gangs and societies, anybody who has name and surname within the Dulin [reminder: gambling forest] world.”

Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “Turns out that little con man used fake token to swindle me; but the fake article looked very exquisite.”

Lei Jiuzhi opened up his palm to reveal a round bronze token. He laughed and said, “The real bronze token looks like this.”

Stunned, Kou Zhong said, “That’s the token, only the number is different.”

After listening to Kou Zhong’s explanation one more time, Lei Jiuzhi said, “I wonder if Shao Shuai remember the number?”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Lei Dage asked the right person. Ling Shao can read ten lines at a glance, but once I see it, I won’t forget it. It looked to be ... Ha! It looked to be forty-eight. No! Now that I think about it, it ought to be twenty-eight. Yes, I am sure it was twenty-eight.”

Lei Jiuzhi said, “If it is indeed twenty-eight, then this is called ‘heaven’s net has wide meshes, but nothing escapes it’ [idiom, from Laozi].” Turning toward Xu Ziling, he said, “The nicknamed ‘dian shi cheng jin’ [‘Midas touch’ see Chapter 8] Lai Chaogui’s number is precisely twenty-eight.”

Xu Ziling could not believe his ears; he said, “You disembarked just a moment before I did; how could you be so quick that you even looked up Lai Chaogui’s number?”

Lei Jiuzhi laughed and said, “Under heavy rewards, there must be brave men. The power of this saying is more effective toward gamblers than anything else. The people who came to participate in the gambling meet this time, a lot of them are my old friends. Looking up this kind of thing is just a matter of the exertion of lifting my hand!”

Kou Zhong drew a blank. “Who’s Lai Chaogui?” he asked.

Lei Jiuzhi said, “Shao Shuai, please give us the description of that Liu An’s outward appearance and body shape. According to reason, based on Lai Chaogui’s status and prestige, he could not possibly do such a thing.”

Thereupon Kou Zhong described how he looked, as well as what happened then.

Lei Jiuzhi sighed and said, “Indeed this guy’s character does not change even if he’s dead. This Liu An fellow is Lai Chaogui’s ‘agent’ [lit. middleman]. Before the Tian Jiu meet, he went everywhere looking for a fat sheep on sedan chair. First, they would let you win big, so that you’d think that you are in collusion with him to swindle the other fat sheep’s money, while actually you are the fat sheep. This kind of gambling cheat is called ‘releasing the kite’. First, they let you win small, afterwards, lose big. After the event, they would even push the blame on you.”

Xu Ziling happily said, “Lai Chaogui shouldn’t have enough capital to compete tomorrow night!”

The admission fee was actually a tax that has to be paid to the local government. During the time when money was desperately needed like right now, governments in all parts of the country administered all kinds of way, concocted various items to draw taxes.

Yin Ru Ge’s admission tax was collected by a gambling officer dispatched by the local government, and was then transferred into the government coffers bypassing the casino.

Starting in the Warring States period [475-221 BC], due to severe devastation caused by gambling, which oftentimes made one losing his family fortune, also because it attracted all kinds of damage to the societal order and corrupt practices in general, there was a law that prohibits gambling. Then Qin Shihuang unified the world, so Li Si [c. 280-208 BC, Legalist philosopher, calligrapher and Prime minister of Qin kingdom and Qin dynasty from 246 to 208 BC] drew up the law to prohibit gambling. Light punishment would be ‘pricking the outline of a whale on the face’ [not sure: 刺鲸纹脸], heavy punishment would be ‘flogging on the thigh’.

The Han dynasty also continued this gambling prohibition.

Until the Wei, Jin, and North-South dynasties, during the rise of the land-owning class, the prohibition relaxed. Although in name, the gambling prohibition provision remained, the reality was gone.

During the last years of the Sui Dynasty, governments slackened and crippled, bureaucrats and businessmen in cahoots, gambling industry flourished, they joined hands to make big fortune.

After the Sui Dynasty collapsed, this style aggravated, all over the place government authorities happily increased their revenue by collaborating with businessmen to form joint venture like Yin Ru Ge.

Kou Zhong handed over the admission tax and entered the casino.

Yin Ru Ge’s reputation as the most famous casino along the Yangtze river basin was not in vain; the furnishings were gorgeous and tastefully chosen, the halls connected by the corridors were setup with various gambling equipment. There were also VIP rooms for people with special status to enjoy.

This moment there were three, four hundred gamblers gathered in each hall, yet it did not feel crowded or stuffy at all. In the brightly lit halls, the overwhelming majority of the guests were men. Although there were only a small number of women guests, they all looked exceptionally beautiful, comparable to Auntie Hong of Chun Zai Lou; some gambled even more ruthlessly than the men.

Adding the beginning of spring [i.e. thoughts of love] feeling to the atmosphere were the female attendants going back and forth in the hall; none was not young, beautiful women with jade appearance. Their silky breasts were half-exposed, their jade arms brilliant and varied, sexy and captivating.

Kou Zhong was not good at betting. After going around the hall once, he realized that the most familiar to him were domino solitaire, tou bao [lit. precious dice; Sic Bo], and fan tan [lit. repeated divisions; Fan-Tan], three types of gambling game. [Translator’s note: in case you want to know more, Baike Baidu has all three entries (牌接龙、骰宝、番摊) in Chinese, Wikipedia only has the last two in English.]

While he was considering whether he should try a couple of games, Liu An appeared from who-knows-where, enthusiastically pulled the sleeve of Kou Zhong’s garment, and took him to a corner, where several mahogany chairs were provided for the guests to sit down, and said with a laugh, “Daye really came! Xiaoke [(polite) my humble person] just saw four fat sheep, I could pick one for Daye, and then we could go to the VIP lounge to make big fortune. Yin Ru Ge may only draw 10% commission, so the money Daye win will stand for 70%, because Xiaoren will be perfectly satisfied with 20%. After we get our money’s worth, Xiaoren will hand the token to Daye to take part in the competition. If Daye reaped total victory, you may share 20% to Xiaoren, otherwise, Xiaoren will not receive a single penny. What does Daye think?”

Kou Zhong pretended to act boorish; he waved his hand to tell the female attendant in front of him, who was going to serve him, to hurry up and leave, and then assuming a greedy look he said, “Where are those four fat sheep? Why would they want to bet against us?”

Lowering his voice, Liu An replied, “Naturally we must play a little bit of trick, which is we put on an act, let them think Daye is a fat sheep, naturally they will be happy to keep you company. Daye, don’t worry, at that time Xiaoren will arrange everything. Right now the first step is to select the sheep. All these four fat sheep show bankrupt aura on their faces, they will undoubtedly lose.”

Finished speaking, he took Kou Zhong to select the fat sheep.

Xu Ziling and Lei Jiuzhi entered the casino about half a sichen later than Kou Zhong. This time Lei Jiuzhi has turned into a rather rich and respectable-looking old and gray-haired elderly gentleman with ‘ten fingers’.

But tomorrow night, he would appear with ‘Lei Jiuzhi’ face.

Xu Ziling was still the scar-faced man; following Lei Jiuzhi, they went into the second hall, where nearly a hundred people were surrounding a fan tan table. Presided over the game was a middle-aged, but still attractive woman, brimming with windblown dust impression; her technique was quite skillful.

Fan-tan was also known as tanqian [lit. bearing part of the cost] or yanqian [covering up the money]. The rule of the game was that the casino personnel occupy the ‘home’ position. During the game, the home position grabbed short small bamboo tokens as the ‘stall’, which was covered quickly with a bowl, so that people could not see the number. After the people put their bet, the ‘stall’ was open to see who win who lose. The method of calculation was the ‘stall’ was taken four at a time, the remaining number could be one, two, three, or four, four different gates. Those who bet on the winning gate was compensated three to one, which was called ‘fan’ [occurrence]. Betting on two gates but hit one of the gates would be compensated one to one; this is called ‘jiao’ [corner].

When the two arrived, the fan-tan has been played three times with two repetitions; the atmosphere was boiling, the warmth shook the heavens. Many of those people who were usually dignified, this moment were gnashing their teeth, making a fist or waving their palms, shouting loudly at the stall gate that they put their bets on, as if the louder they shouted, the more it would influence the number of the stall.

Lei Jiuzhi leaned over to Xu Ziling’s ear and said with a laugh, “This poniang is one of the four prominent figures within Jiujiang’s Dulin world, the gambling ghost Zha Hai’s capable assistant; her technique is not bad.”

Astonished, Xu Ziling said, “You mean there’s trick in their skill? On the surface, it looks very difficult to cheat in this game!”

Lei Jiuzhi said, “Nine out of ten gambling games can be cheated, anything can be cheated. The most common tricks in Fan-tan are ‘la zhu’ [leaving out tree trunk] and ‘fei zi’ [flying pieces], two types of tricks. In ‘la zhu’, the stall is rigged, so that if necessary, one can be divided into two. In ‘fei zi’, the stall can fly away using some trick. Either way, there are accomplices nearby ‘prying on the side’, using tobacco smoke or some other method to divert other people’s attention, so that the old castaway [see Chapter 6] presiding over the game can play his trick. Naturally big casino like Yin Ru Ge will not resort to such trick, but at the top of the streets and the bottom of the alleys [idiom: everywhere in the city], most of the temporary Fan-tan stalls use such deceptive tricks.” [Disclaimer: I am not familiar with gambling world, so I just translated it as is; might be grossly inaccurate. Apologies.]

These days, Xu Ziling have learned not a few of ‘on-the-job’ clever tricks related to gambling from Lei Jiuzhi. Curious, he asked, “In this kind of game, what technique would Lei Xiong use to ensure victory?”

Lei Jiuzhi laughed and said, “Unless we are cheating, there is no way we can ensure victory. But if in ten bets we win five, due to the high rate of the compensation, it is equal to certain victory. When the ‘home’ spills the tokens on the table and cover them with the bowl, relying on the eyes and the ears, there will be 50% chance of success.”

Speechless, Xu Ziling said, “Lei Xiong is really formidable.”

This moment the bowl was lifted up, the tokens were spread out, unexpectedly it was the second stall. Everybody sighed in despair, shouting about dishonest practices.

The two men moved toward the third hall; the main game in this hall was tou bao. The number of people in this hall was higher than the previous two halls. Every table was surrounded by so many people that it would be difficult to insert a needle; the atmosphere was blazing.

Lei Jiuzhi swept his gaze around; he still did not see Kou Zhong’s shadow, thereupon he proceeded toward the fourth hall. The main game in this hall was card games; all those orange bulrush [橙蒲], double-continent, leaf play, dominoes, Tian Jiu, Pai Jiu [pai gow], horse crane, and so on; everything that should be there was there.

After many days hanging around the casinos, Xu Ziling was very clear about why gambling continued despite repeated prohibition. The casino world, where people were able to indulge themselves, was able to offer the excitement of getting lucky while taking the risk, which could not be obtained under normal day-to-day circumstances.

“Look!” Lei Jiuzhi suddenly said.

Following his gaze, Xu Ziling saw a particularly-bustling-with-noise-and-excitement Pai Jiu table, where sitting in one of the seats around the table was a young woman. This woman’s eyebrows were like crescent moon, her eyes looked like limpid autumn waters, her face, her complexion were extraordinarily beautiful, enough to match other beauties of Shen Luoyan’s caliber, and definitely would not be inferior in any respect. Especially alluring was the exquisite curves of her fully developed figure.

The number of spectators continuously grew. It was an inevitable matter.

Lei Jiuzhi spoke in low voice, “This is Hu Xiaoxian [lit. little fairy], the ‘Da Xian’ [great immortal’ Hu Fo’s only daughter. I did not expect her to come to join in the fun. The Tian Jiu Big Meet tomorrow night will be more interesting.”

It was only then did Xu Ziling recall that Hu Fo was the Hu Xian Pai’s zhangmen daxian [great immortal head of the sect], who opened Ming Tang Wo in Guanzhong, the most famous casino in the nation. Hu Xiaoxian was his beloved daughter, who had obtained the gambling skill that he personally passed on to her.

Lei Jiuzhi suddenly give Xu Ziling a push in his back and said, “Go on, play with her a few hands.”

Knitting his brows, Xu Ziling said, “I am not well-versed in Pai Jiu at all!”

Laughing, Lei Jiuzhi said, “Without a novice, how could there be any skilled person? The rule here is that any gambler can take turn being the banker; the casino will only draw commission. Look, the house banker has been under pressure from her that his eyes nearly pop out. Ziling may take over the banker position to have some fun, the banker you protect will be extremely grateful to you.”

Xu Ziling’s scalp went numb; trying to decline in any possible way, he said, “Aren’t we going to use the hard-earned silver we won for tomorrow night’s Tian Jiu competition? If I lose it clean, what are we going to bet with in the Tian Jiu competition?”

Lei Jiuzhi laughed and said, “This is precisely the most brilliant aspect of our plan; in the past few days, you never worried about losing money, hence you were able to gamble with confidence and at ease, completely without any pressure. Just consider this time a test and a challenge for you. If you can apply the gambling technique and tactics that your LaoGe taught you, and you are able to put it in real-life application of life and death battle on the gambling table against a worthy opponent, if you win, I could say that you graduate with honor!”

Smiling wryly, Xu Ziling said, “Don’t we have an appointment with Kou Zhong to help him select the fat sheep? How could a new branch grow out of a knot [idiom: side issues keep arising]?”

Lei Jiuzhi burst out laughing, saying, “Don’t push to the left and ward off to the right; just look at Hu Xiaoxian as someone like Evil Monk or Amorous Nun, then you’ll do just fine.” While saying that, he pushed the pouch containing the gambling chips into Xu Ziling’s hand.

Under repeated push from Lei Jiuzhi, Xu Ziling had no choice but to steel himself [lit. harden his scalp] to squeeze in by the banker’s side and said, “Let me be the banker for a few rounds.”

Everybody was stunned; they thought how could there be such a stupid person that went so far as to take over while the banker was in disadvantageous position?

Hu Xiaoxian cast a disdain glance toward him, giggled tenderly and said, “Why not? Zhuangjia DaGe [big brother the banker (in gambling)] is exactly what I’ve been looking for!”

Everybody roared in laughter in response to her remark.

Xu Ziling felt his face was burning hot, but this moment ‘if you ride a tiger, it’s hard to get off’; without any choice he took the banker’s, who was slipping away from his seat, position.