To be honest, with Hong Dali"s experience, he had absolutely no clue how he could squander away 100,000 yuan within a single night. In his previous world, occasionally treating his friends to a meal in a restaurant had been an extravagant act for him. Yet now he had to squander away 100,000 yuan in a single night. This was definitely something that was very difficult for him.
This was also his main reason for bringing Tang Muxin along—her family could at least be considered rather aristocratic, so her taste for the finer things was definitely higher than that of a lower-cla.s.s person such as him.
Sure enough, Tang Muxin couldn"t sense Hong Dali"s motives in asking her that. After all, she was still a young lady, so she had already forgotten about their earlier dispute. She said, "Isn"t that easy? Just go out and gamble. It is very easy to lose several hundred thousand yuan that way within a night."
Gamble? That was indeed one of the best ways to squander. Hong Dali was overjoyed. "Then let"s go gamble! Driver, find… let"s go!" He had been planning to say "find the largest casino around and head there," but he had remembered that since the previous owner of this body had been a prodigal, he might already be a regular visitor to the casinos here. If he showed any sign that he was unfamiliar with the casinos in this city, that might just give him away. Therefore, he directly instructed the driver to set off, believing that the driver should be familiar with most of the routes in the city since that was basically required of his job.
Unsurprisingly, the driver replied, "All right." The engine roared as he stepped on the accelerator and the car sped away.
On the way to the casino, Hong Dali carefully observed the scenery along the road and calculated in his heart. From the villa to the city takes around ten minutes or so. Since we got on the main road, the buildings and scenery have not looked that different from where I come from. I am still unsure of what this country is called and its governing system. I will need to check up on that slowly in the future. More importantly, I must be careful of what I say and not get carried away later.
The surrounding scenery went past rapidly as the limosine sped forward. Along the way, Hong Dali noticed many hotels, internet cafes, private clubs, nightclubs, and so on. Generally speaking, everything was almost identical to the big cities in his previous world.
Very soon, the car slowly came to a stop. The driver looked back and said, "Young Master, we have reached Deborah Casino."
Hong Dali turned around and had a look. Their car was parked beneath a dazzling and magnificent building. The building was six stories high and brightly lit by neon lights. There was constant traffic of socialites coupled with successful-looking men streaming in and out of the building. One look and Hong Dali knew that this was a prestigious casino.
Straightening his outfit, Hong Dali gave a dry cough and held Tang Muxin"s hand naturally. He said with a smile, "OK, let"s go, Xinxin. It"s time to go squander with me!"
Trying to pull her hand back, Tang Muxin angrily said, "I am warning you, don"t touch me. Otherwise, you will not like the consequences. Even if you are my… my fiancé, I will not go easy on you!"
"All right, fine." Hong Dali shrugged nonchalantly. "Hurry up and let"s go squander. We can talk about other things later on. Oh, this reminds me. You will have to help me squander afterward. It"s too slow if I do it alone; two pairs of hands are faster than one."
"You useless prodigal!" Tang Muxin pouted. Her face seemed to be full of unwillingness.
After entering Deborah Casino, a bellboy was already standing in wait. Seeing Hong Dali, he immediately bowed and greeted. "Young Master Dali, you are here? Welcome, please enter."
As expected, the people here knew him. Hong Dali secretly wiped away his cold sweat. He was lucky that he had changed his words fast enough back in the car. Otherwise, he would definitely have given himself away. His driver might look ordinary, but he didn"t doubt that his driver would report what Hong Dali said or did in detail back to his parents upon returning. If his parents started getting suspicious of him, that would surely become a very troublesome issue.
Hong Dali was totally inexperienced when it came to casinos. Luckily, he had Tang Muxin by his side. It was best to let her lead the way. "Xinxin, it"s time to test you—there is 300,000 yuan on this card. The PIN is six zeros, which you already know. So show me how you are going to squander." Hehe, it was all right even if he was unfamiliar with this place. Tang Muxin was a native of this world and came from a prestigious family herself. Even if she had never really done this sort of thing before, she should at least know a little about it. Activities such as exchanging for casino chips and finding a table to gamble at should be no problem to her.
"Hmph, you big prodigal, isn"t it enough that you are squandering alone? You have to drag me into it as well?" Tang Muxin gave him a dark look but did not reject him. She directly pa.s.sed the card to the bellboy. "Exchange this for 200,000 yuan worth of chips, then bring us to the VIP room on the top floor. This prodigal will be paying the bill anyway." Although she didn"t dare to reject Hong Dali"s request, her tone showed her unhappiness toward him.
Fortunately for him, he had asked her along and let her lead the way for him.
Hong Dali"s heart had almost jumped out. It was a good thing that he had found a hatchet man to do his work for him. If not, he would have aroused suspicion about himself within just two sentences. As for Tang Muxin"s att.i.tude toward him, that wasn"t important at all.
Tang Muxin did not in the least regard herself as a hatchet man. She proudly said, "Your aim is to squander, but I will prevent you from doing exactly that today. Hmph, I will follow you everywhere you go!"
"Fine, fine, fine." Hong Dali was secretly laughing in his heart, but his expression seemed nonchalant about it. "As long as we can squander, you can follow me as much as you want. It"s no big deal to me."
Right then, they entered the elevator and went upstairs. In the elevator, Hong Dali was still bickering with Tang Muxin. "Xinxin, you must help me squander later, the quicker the better. If we run out of money, I will ask for more from my parents. Our only aim here tonight is to squander!"
Tang Muxin angrily said, "All you think of is squandering, even when you are out with me. Keep dreaming, then. With me around, you will never get what you want!"
They reached the top-floor VIP room very quickly. Upon seeing Hong Dali, the steward instantly pulled the door open and said, "You are here, Young Master Dali. Please come in. Your favorite table two has been kept reserved for you."
"OK, I got it," Hong Dali replied plainly. However, his heart was racing at this. Where is this table two at? I have to find it fast. Otherwise, it will be difficult to explain why I don"t know where it is.
Again, it seemed like bringing Tang Muxin along with him today was G.o.d"s blessing to him. At this point, she curiously asked, "Why do you always go to table two? I just realized that whatever you buy or do, you always favor the number two."
You are really my fairy angel. This question had come at just the right time! Hong Dali was so thankful that he almost wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her. "It is in my character to be a foolish person. 1 If I want to sit at a place, it has to be number two. Sitting at the number one table would just be doing injustice to myself."
Seeing the steward struggling to keep a straight face, Tang Muxin couldn"t help but wish that she could dig a hole right here and hide in it. Her face turned bright red and she loudly said, "I do not want to behave like a fool with you! I am not sitting at that table! Change to another one immediately or I am going home!"
Those were just the words that he had been waiting for. Hong Dali pretended to shrug helplessly and said, "All right then, we will just sit at a random table for today. We will sit wherever you want to, how about that?"
"That"s better." Tang Muxin pouted and walked inside, at the same time instructing him. "I am warning you beforehand, don"t get too close to me. If not, I am afraid that I will become as foolish as you!"
"All right, all right, whatever you say." Hong Dali forced himself not to laugh as he swaggered into the VIP lounge together with Tang Muxin.
As expected of the infamous top prodigal, Hong Dali could hear greetings from all around as he walked in.
"Yo, it"s Young Master Dali. What a rare guest."
"What are you planning on playing today, Young Master Dali?"
"Ah, Young Master Dali actually brought a young lady with him. Is she your sweetheart? I give you my congratulations!"
Hong Dali had a slight smile on his face, but he said nothing. If someone greeted him, he just politely smiled back in return and kept some distance between them. Otherwise, if he b.u.mped into someone familiar or someone asked of him to put in a nice word for them with his parents, that would be really troublesome.
Very quickly, they found a table with empty seats. Hong Dali took a quick glance at the table"s gameplay and deduced it to be a poker table 2 . This looked good, he could definitely lose money very quickly by playing this. The mission to squander 100,000 yuan would have to depend on this game then!
Tang Muxin sat down while Hong Dali pulled over a small stool beside her and sat down as well. This act seriously surprised the other gamblers around them. It also caused them to try to infer her true ident.i.ty. However, none of them could guess who she was. After all, even though the Tang family was quite close with the Hong family, their status these days was no longer comparable to the Hong family"s. There were far fewer people who knew who Tang Muxin was than those who knew Hong Dali.
The steward swiftly brought to them the 200,000 yuan worth of gambling chips that they had exchanged for earlier. The chips were placed on a very large plate, which the steward carefully put down on the table in front of Tang Muxin. The game then started.
The banker dealt the cards. Everyone"s first card was dealt face down, and the second one was dealt faceup. Tang Muxin"s open card was a ten of spades. The other players" open cards ranged from smaller to bigger values than her card. Two of the players had higher-value cards, of which one was the jack of clubs and the other the king of diamonds.
Then they started placing their bets.
Tang Muxin took a chip with the number "500" on it from the stack in front of her and placed it at the center of the table. Hong Dali"s eyebrows twitched when he saw that, and he asked in a low voice, "Hey, I have to ask this, Xinxin. Do you actually know how to squander? With 200,000 worth of chips, why are you only betting 500 at a time? You should be betting at least 5,000!"
Tang Muxin turned to look at him and angrily said, "Five hundred yuan worth of chips is already a lot, OK? Do you think that everyone is as prodigal as you?"
Hong Dali was sweating hard at this. By starting at 500, even if she kept following and stayed in the game, it was still unlikely for her to be able to lose much in this round! He only had about three hours or so left until his deadline. As such, after just one round of following, Hong Dali raised the bet by 5,000 without any hesitation, even before seeing the third card.
After placing the 5,000 chip, Hong Dali had a look at the closed card. It was an eight of clubs. He immediately donned a satisfied expression when he saw that. With such cards, he was definitely going to lose this game. He would have lost 5,500 yuan in just the blink of an eye. That would be quite a good speed to lose at, definitely worthy of praise.
However, Hong Dali was soon dumbfounded.
The first player folded. Then, the second player folded too, followed by the third, fourth, and even the last player, who had an open pair of Kings!
Hong Dali looked on with his head full of sweat. This wasn"t how the script was supposed to go! With a hand so obvious, why didn"t they take the opportunity to win as much as they could from me? I must be playing the game the wrong way today! That must be the case!
The other players were all thinking to themselves, He placed a bet of 5,000 without even looking at his cards, so this must show that he knows exactly what cards he will be getting this game. If that"s the case, only a fool would follow!
Since he brought along such a pretty lady to play cards with him, I should at least leave him some face. I don"t mind letting him win a little, but this is 5,000 we"re talking about! If I followed, I would end up with at least 30 to 40 thousand in the pool. That is already more than enough to pay for half a car, so there isn"t a need to go so big.
This young lad is too impatient; he should have played slowly. Starting off with such a big bet, who can afford to play with him that way?
The number two represents foolishness in the Beijing dialect