Chapter 257 The Show Began
The woman won. She became the first female player of all time to win in that boxing field. As for the man lying flat on the ground, he became the first one losing to a woman. Speaking of the woman’s last move, leg kicking, which was unexpected and designated to stay clear of her enemy’s main force and strike at his weakest points, it was such a pretty move that it could be counted as the most cla.s.sical scene of the match, to be written into the textbook related to the actual combat.
It did not occur to most of the audience that the female player would win. Perhaps her boss was also included. The staff in the boxing field had a general knowledge of the players’ strength, more or less. After all, they had done the survey in advance. Otherwise, how could they have figured out the gambling odds? If the compet.i.tion was one-sided, or when some players would lose the game on purpose—making the whole game become less exciting—happened, they would definitely ruin their own reputation.
At that moment, the whole boxing filed was pretty noisy. Some of the audience applauded for the female player’s amazing performance, while some others cursed her. After all, due to the male fighter’s loss, they had lost money. However, that quick turnaround was amazing enough. Whether the staffs in the boxing field or the audience, they all liked that kind of scene and atmosphere.
“What the h.e.l.l? Brother Qin, my amazing brother. You have such a piercing insight. You could even foresee the result. How coul I f**king not believe in you? At that moment, Ma Chao already regretted his a.s.s off. Previously, he had been waiting to have a good a laugh at both Qin Sheng and Yang Deng’s expense. At last, the final result acted like a slap in his face at that moment.
Smiling, Yang Deng cursed and said sourly, “As the saying goes, it is easy to be wise after the event. Back when I asked you to place your bet on her, you were stubborn, more than anyone else. Now, you finally understand my point, right?”
Ma Chao, who had been losing all the time, said somewhat enviously, “From my perspective, you are an authentic expert. I am doing this for the fun of it. However, Lao Yang, since you’ve already won two consecutive bets, the way I see it, your gain should be at about six hundred thousand or seven hundred thousand dollars. You need to treat us to a drink tonight.”
Qin Sheng let out a sigh as he said, “Though the Lin Family in Ningbo won the game and I felt unhappy about it, after all, the gap between their strengths was too obvious. The woman was just here to have fun. If she had intended to act quickly and decisively, the man would still have lost.”
Yang Deng, who obviously had figured out Qin Sheng’s point, questioned closely, “Well, what is going on? It seems that you and the Lin family bear some grudge against each other. However, I was told that they had led quite an unpeaceful life in the past half a year. They met with many mishaps. It seems that they had displeased someone that they should have never offended.”
Qin Sheng shook his head as he said, “What’s done is done. Let’s not talk about it.”
However, Yang Deng came to his senses instantly and said with interest, “I almost forget one thing. Your girlfriend is the daughter of the Lin Family’s Big Boss in Ningbo. No wonder you resent the Lin Family so much.”
The expression on Qin Sheng’s face slightly changed. The look in his eyes was thoughtful. Apparently, Yang Deng already had a pretty good knowledge of what he had experienced in Shanghai. Obviously, he knew Qin Sheng and the Qin family had quarreled openly and Lin Su had made a clean break with her family.
Feeling that there was something wrong with Qin Sheng, Yang Deng hurriedly replied, “I didn’t mean that.”
Qin Sheng did not take it seriously and said, “It’s no big deal.”
At that time, the fourth match had already kicked off. The host was making the stage announcement. According to the host, there were two contenders. One was a master of the internal school boxing, whose boss came from Xiamen. The other was an acquaintance whom both Qin Sheng and Yang Deng knew; namely, a player who was under the charge of Brother Luo, a local tyrant in Hangzhou, and who was said to be a master in Eight Poles Boxing.
Frowning, Qin Sheng asked, “Does Brother Luo also like this game?”
Yang Deng said happily, “He taught me how to play. He even gets some share of this underground boxing field and will attend almost every compet.i.tion. Speaking which, the last highlight tonight is where his fighter will go against one of Yuan Ke’s. Hahaha. It’s interesting, isn’t it?”
Qin Sheng felt pretty astonished as he asked, “Is Yuan Ke also here?”
Yang Deng explained slowly, “Tonight, several tyc.o.o.ns on our side all sent their fighters out. As for the players on Yuan Ke’s side, they come here in a group and will play against our fighters. So that is where the most interesting part of the compet.i.tion tonight lies in. Let’s see who can try to make a good showing today. This is also the most important reason why I brought you here tonight.”
Qin Sheng squinted his eyes as he said, “If I’d known this beforehand, I would have lent two persons to you so that you could have tried to make a good showing.”
“Could it be that you intend to play the game on your own? If the answer is positive, it would depend on the last highlight show. At that time, let’s see who will be the winner and who will be the loser. If we win, there will be no issues at all. If we lose, it will be you who will try to make a good showing today,” Yang Deng said quite excitedly. In that case, the scene tonight would be much more lively.
Qin Sheng was pretty curious about the rules. As a result, he asked, “If we lose, how should we try to make a good showing?”
“In the end, if the last player wins, he can accept the challenge from anyone in the audience, or any fighter who he has beaten before. The gambling odds will be decided by the boxing field and the duration for making a bet would be at half an hour,” Yang Deng explained once again.
After Qin Sheng heard him out, he said merrily, “The rules this boxing filed has set up are pretty interesting. It never fails to present the wildest compet.i.tion.”
“In that case, what’s your own opinion? Are you interested or not?” Yang Deng questioned closely.
Qin Sheng found it funny and said, “Are you sure that we are gonna lose?”
Yang Deng found it pretty funny as he said, “It depends. I am just trying to say that once we lose the game, are you interested in standing up for us or not?”
After Qin Sheng pondered on it for a while, he said, “We will talk about it at that time.”
At the moment, the two boxers on the scene had already begun fighting. They both launched attacks in a probing manner and struck out without any substantive progress. Feeling bored out of the idleness, Qin Sheng began to eye the audience on the scene up and down. He started from the resting section, which was closest to the ring. That night, all the contenders and all the bosses would show up there. As expected, he saw both Yuan Ke and Brother Luo. However, there were other men sitting by their side, who did not seem ordinary. They were supposed to be the tyc.o.o.ns from different camps on two sides, who had been mentioned by Yang Deng a moment ago.
Qin Sheng went on observing the people there. He also saw an acquaintance, who he had met in Shanghai. It was actually Boss Li, who had treated him for dinner at the Sinan Mansion and intended to hook him into serving him. Unfortunately, Qin Sheng refused him in a polite manner in the end. It did not occur to Qin Sheng that Boss Li would show up that night.
He continued glimpsing at the audience sitting at the front row and found several more acquaintances, who were all the friends Cao Da had introduced to him previously. Surprisingly, those magnates were actually so rich that they had so many ways to have fun. They actually liked that kind of exciting scene.
Feeling itching for a try, Ma Chao asked, “Brother Qin, in your opinion, who will win the compet.i.tion this time? Will it be the guy from Xiamen or the one from Master Luo, the local tyrant?” After all, he had been amazed at Qin Sheng’s a.n.a.lysis a moment ago. Of course, he would not let go of such a chance to make money.
Qin Sheng did not turn his head as he replied, “We don’t need to rush first. Let’s talk about it again when they have fought for a while. Since I don’t know their strengths, of course, I have no choice but to observe their fighting skills first, so that I can make a judgment.”
“Alright. I will not act hurriedly. You observe them first,” Ma Chao said pretty respectfully. To be honest, that lad was pretty cynical. His family could be counted as an influential and powerful one in Zhejiang, whose business was pretty flourishing. As for his linear and collateral relatives, they all were doing good in the official circle and their official career journey was smooth. However, when it came to himself, he was not engaged in honest work at all. He only liked those unorthodox amus.e.m.e.nts.
Several minutes later, Qin Sheng finally saw the clue. Though it seemed that the two players were matched in strength, the player on Brother Luo’s side was much more powerful. Consequently, Qin Sheng said confidently, “It is almost set. Brother Luo will definitely win.”
“Are you so confident about that?” Ma Chao said pretty happily since he had already placed his bet on the player on Brother Luo’s side.
Qin Sheng said half-jokingly, “I am just saying it randomly. As for the gambling odds, it is filled with too many variables. It is not technical at all. Sometimes, a seemingly random mistake will possibly result in a big mistake.”
“Hahaha. Why do I need to care about that much? For this compet.i.tion, I’ve placed a three hundred thousand dollars bet on Brother Luo’s man. Thank you for your kind words. It seems that I am going to enjoy a small victory and earn some profits. If I do win, I will invite you to hang out with me another day,” Ma Chao said happily.
Qin Sheng did not say anything at all. He continued to closely observe the situation of the compet.i.tion going on in the ring. Since he had practiced martial arts before and he also liked that kind of compet.i.tion, though he did not gamble, he could learn a lot of knacks from it, which would be useful for his practical combat in the future.
The compet.i.tion was in the second half phase. Both players at each side began to exercise their true strengths eventually. After the fighter on Brother Luo’s side suffered from a number of small losses, he finally showed his true strength forcibly. He directly broke his opponent’s rib apart with a heavy blow while using his elbows. Following that, he loosened his shoulders powerfully and directly knocked his opponent off. Blood spat from his opponent’s mouth endlessly. His opponent lost all his combat power.
The referee announced that Brother Luo’s contender was the winner. The whole crowd became pretty excited again. That match had been much more violent than the one a moment ago. The more violent the game was, the more the audience would like it.
Ma Chao clapped hands with Yang Deng and Qin Sheng happily, celebrating his victory. Speaking of that fight, he had also placed a two hundred thousand dollars bet on Brother Luo’s fighter. The bets he had already made that night made a total of three million dollars, excluding those he had just added provisionally. To him, that money was not of large amount. Plus, he rarely lost, winning most of the time.
Ma Chao yelled at Brother Luo sitting downstairs as he said, “Master Luo, you are amazing!”
Obviously, Brother Luo had already figured out that the voice came from Ma Chao. He turned his head and looked toward Ma Chao’s position subconsciously. He had known that Ma Chao and Yang Deng had shown up that night; after all, they had chatted for a while in the VIP room. However, when he saw Qin Sheng, he was somewhat surprised. Consequently, he nodded slightly and greeted Qin Sheng. Qin Sheng also responded to him smilingly.
The fifth round compet.i.tion went on. The scene became more and more lively and violent. After all, it was a game held after three months. If it had not been amazing enough, the boxing field would not have gotten the compet.i.tion started. After all, the people in the audience were all rich. They did not give a d.a.m.n about small scale fights at all.
The players engaged in the compet.i.tion mostly came from the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai regions. As for the bosses, who could afford to take care of those fighters, they were not ordinary ones at all. Basically, they were all the local tyrants of each place. After all, the salary of the boxing players in each game could be as high as several million dollars or above. If the bosses were not rich, they could not afford a compet.i.tion like that.
What surprised Qin Sheng was that Boss Li, who represented the power of Shanhai, took part in both the latter sixth and seventh-round compet.i.tion. Though he lost one match and won another one, Qin Sheng was greatly amazed. Especially in the seventh round, it was unknown where Boss Li had successfully found a master in Thai Boxing, whose endurance was the most impressive. Qin Sheng was more amazed at that master’s performance. He was too tough to be beaten. Every time he was brought down, he stood up eventually. In the end, he surprisingly succeeded at exhausting his opponent to death. Blood flew from the two fighters’ faces continuously. Both of them were unrecognizable. Scars were spread all over their bodies. However, both of them stuck to the end, which made the atmosphere of that night’s compet.i.tion to reach the climax. Every time they stood up, all the audience applauded for them enthusiastically.
In the end, the master in Thai Boxing won the fight at the cost of harming both himself and his opponent, achieving a fabulous feat for Boss Li.
The group of people, including Qin Sheng and Yang Deng, said unanimously, “That man is not ordinary. He should have gone through countless practical combats. His eyes had murder and toughness in them. Ordinary ones could not be comparable to him. According to my estimation, he has killed people before and was often driven to the edge.”
As for Ma Chao, who was a layman, after he finished watching the compet.i.tion, he said excitedly, “Amazing. Exciting. If I had that kind of fighting skill, how f**king amazing would I become?”
“Since the seventh round is already that amazing, I think, the last highlight show won’t disappoint us at all,” Qin Sheng was expectant as he spoke.
That time, Yang Deng asked, “In this game, it is said that the fighter Brother Luo has recruited is a direct lineal disciple of some master. The appearance fee Brother Luo paid was at five million dollars. The way you see it, will he win?”
“Since Brother Luo is willing to pay for the cost, of course, those ones, including Yuan Ke won’t be sn.o.bbish. Sometimes, dignity matters more than money,” Qin Sheng said half-jokingly.
Yang De chuckled as he said, “What you said makes sense. It is becoming interesting.”
At that time, the ring was already cleaned up. The host walked up to the stage slowly. Consequently, the most antic.i.p.ated show also began.