Chapter 65: Despair

Chapter 65: Despair

Zu An joyfully reaped his share of Rage points as he once again affirmed his wisdom for not agreeing to have a private discussion with Mei Chaofeng.

The triumphant look on Zu An’s face made Mei Chaofeng grit his teeth in anger.

Just a month ago, this trash wasn’t even worthy of standing before me. Even my underling could have him lowering his back respectfully.

Yet, in just a few days' time, he’s actually standing before me as an equal, not to mention, he even dares to threaten me so openly?

Shit! I should have also pimped myself out too while I was younger!

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for +666 Rage!

Mei Chaofeng took in another deep breath to compose himself before beckoning to his subordinates. “Men, bring Plum Blossom Seven over!”

Soon, his subordinates brought an utterly horrified Plum Blossom Seven over. As soon as Plum Blossom Seven saw Mei Chaofeng, he immediately dropped to his knees and hugged Mei Chaofeng with tears and snot flowing down his face as he cried pitifully, “Godfather, I have let you down! I didn’t expect to bring such huge trouble to you!”

However, without bothering to spare a glance at Plum Blossom Seven, he kicked the latter off and remarked coldly to Zu An, “The earlier gamble was conducted under Plum Blossom Seven’s own discretion. It doesn’t represent our casino. If you want money, get it from him. In view that Plum Blossom Seven has flouted the rules of our sect and brought about negative publicity, I hereby declare that he’s permanently expelled from the Plum Blossom Sect!”

“Godfather! Sect master! You can’t treat me like that! I have worked hard for you over the years…” Plum Blossom Seven immediately understood that he was going to be abandoned, and that left him in a fluster. He didn’t even have the ability to fork out 10,000 silver taels, let alone 7,500,000 silver taels! Even if he were to sell himself off as a slave, he wouldn’t be able to raise that much money!

He still wanted to protest against the decision, but those around him had already smashed a fist right onto his chin, hitting his lower jaw out of place. As a result, he was unable to say anything anymore.

Plum Blossom Seven’s pitiful state immediately silenced the commotion in the casino. It was only then that everyone remembered that the Silverhook Casino was run by an underworld organization that had murdered many in cold blood.

Zu An’s eyes narrowed.

It looks like this fellow is quite skilled in cleanups? But still, it’s not that easy to make away with my money!

“Sect Master Mei, aren’t you thinking of everyone here as fools?” Zu An said. “Plum Blossom Seven is your godson as your aide, and this casino is a business of your Plum Blossom Sect too. Yet, you refused to acknowledge it when you lose money. If so, who would dare to visit your casino in the future?”

“That’s right, that’s right~”

The surrounding crowd whispered in agreement amongst themselves. The most important thing to a casino was its credibility, and a casino that lacked credibility was bound to close down.

If the Plum Blossom Sect wouldn’t even honor its agreement to someone who had the backing of the Chu clan, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what would happen to powerless individuals like them when they finally struck it rich.

However, Mei Chaofeng sneered coldly, “I can tell you outright that I’ll be taking your money today! I’ll be paying the other customers whatever they have earned, and of the entire Brightmoon City, you’re the only one whom I won’t even pay a single copper coin to. What can you do about it?”

Hah, a wastrel like you wants to fight with me? No matter how hard a bird tries to fly to a higher branch, it’ll never transform into a phoenix! I have been through all sorts of storms over the years, so what could a mere brat like you possibly do?

Do you think that the world is all reasonable? Very well, I’ll show you the treacherous side of the world then!

“Sect Master Mei, you are being shameless over here!” Chu Chuyan’s face turned cold as she took a step forward, only to be suddenly held back by Zu An.

Zu An looked at Mei Chaofeng with a smile and said, “Sect Master Mei, do you think that there’s nothing I can do to you?”

“What can you possibly do?” Mei Chaofeng harrumphed coldly.

A mere wastrel who had risen to his current position on a woman; what could he possibly be capable of?

Zu An shrugged calmly and said, “It’s fine if you aren’t willing to pay me. From this day onward, I’ll head to every single casino under your name and teach all of these people how to place their bets. I shall make sure that every single one of them wins every single round. What do you all think of that?”

Those words immediately riled up the gamblers and even the spectators outside too.

“Sounds good!”

“Love live young master Zu!”

“Young master Zu, you’re handsome!”

“Young master Zu, you’re like our new parents!”

“Young master Zu, has anyone told you that you’re a fitting pair with Miss Chu?”

“Holy shit, how could you spout such blatant lies?”

“Aren’t you doing the same too?”

…

As the old sages had once said, for 50% of the profits, humans would choose to take risks; for 100% of the profits, humans would be willing to trample all over laws; for 300% of the profits, humans would be willing to commit any crime, including even murder.

The profits that could be earned on the gambling table was massive—Zu An had just exemplified it himself. That was an instantaneous profit of 15,000%!

Who could possibly remain calm before this? A lot of these gamblers were people who were willing to die for money, so no matter how powerful the Plum Blossom Sect was, if it dared to shirk on all of their payment, they would unhesitatingly band together to overthrow the entire Plum Blossom Sect.

Mei Chaofeng understood the threat lying in here, such that his face turned incredibly awful. “You’re really able to win every round?”

Zu An shrugged calmly. “I’ve already won 7,500,000 silver taels from you today. What do you think? Please call me the God of Gambling from this day onward!”

The surrounding crowd began to shamelessly fawn on him upon hearing that he would lead them to great riches.

“God of Gambling~”

…

Zu An closed his eyes as he enjoyed the crowd’s cheerings. All that he lacked right now was a fitting BGM to further accentuate his disposition.

On the other hand, Mei Chaofeng’s cheeks began twitching uncontrollably. He had no idea how Zu An managed to do it, but based on the other party’s tone, it would appear that he hadn’t been winning by coincidence thus far.

And in truth, it couldn’t possibly have been a coincidence either. Or else, how could he possibly be so lucky?

If this fellow were to lead the gamblers to wreak havoc in his other casinos, his business would be completely overthrown. However, paying up here wasn’t an option either. One must know that this was 7,500,000 silver taels, not 75,000!

All of a sudden, he found himself being placed in a quandary.

It was then that a commotion broke out by the doorway.

“Stand aside, stand aside!”

An army of soldiers barged in, and the one leading them was a young man wearing golden armor. This young man had a slender frame and a decent face, and the shining armor he donned made him even more so eye-catching.

“Waaaa, how handsome!” The girls in the vicinity whispered to themselves.

Zu An harrumphed indignantly to those responses. Isn’t it just the seduction of uniforms here? These women really haven’t seen much of the world before.

He secretly shot a glance at Chu Chuyan, and upon seeing that the latter was completely unfazed, he heaved a sigh of relief.

“Who are the ones causing trouble here?” The young commander scanned the surroundings before finally laying his eyes upon Zu An.

“What are you looking at me for? Are you envious that I’m better looking than you?” Zu An responded impatiently. The fact that this man turned his gaze toward him from the moment he entered showed that he carried ill intention in mind. Since that was the case, there was no need to hold back against him at all.

You have successfully trolled Sang Qian for +100 Rage!

A Sang surname? What a rare surname, Zu An thought to himself.

The young commander was just about to interrogate Zu An when the abrupt jab threw his plans completely off course, leaving him not knowing how to handle this.

Fortunately for him, Mei Chaofeng quickly rushed over to rely on his new backing. “Commander Sang, you came just on time. This fellow has conducted fraud in our casino. When I confronted him about it, he even threatened me that he would lead the other gamblers to mess around in my casino so as to spoil my business.”

The crowd was completely dumbstruck. We know that you are from the underworld, but surely you don’t need to be so blatantly corrupt, right? Do you take all of us to be dead?

That being said, not a single person stood forward to speak up on Zu An. They knew just how unreasonable the world could be, so until it was made clear in whose favor the odds were leaning toward, it was best for them not to get involved.

Zu An’s promised money was enticing, but it would be all for naught if they were killed before he could even earn or spend it.

The young commander named Sang Qian immediately stepped forward and bellowed, “Do you know what’s the crime of committing fraud? Ah right, how much did he scam you?”

“7,500,000 silver taels,” Mei Chaofeng replied with a bitter smile.

“7,500,000 silver taels?” Sang Qian jolted in shock upon hearing that sum.

Do you all play with such high stakes here? My father was once the Minister of Finance, but that’s still an astronomical sum of money to the royal treasury!

With such thoughts in mind, his face lit up in excitement. “The crime of committing fraud involving a huge sum of money warrants a sentence of at least 3 to 10 years in prison. In the case where the incident is particularly severe, it’s possible to sentence to over 10 years as well. For daring to scam the Silverhook Casino for over 7,500,000 silver taels, you should resolve yourself to spending your entire life in prison!"

Zu An rolled his eyes, not bothering to respond to Sang Qian at all. Instead, he turned to Chu Chuyan and asked, “Honey, who is this fellow? Why is he deciding on my crime right after hearing that Mei fellow’s words? It looks like he has been accepting quite a bit of money form the Plum Blossom Sect, huh?”

Those words sparked a commotion in the crowd.

Chu Chuyan’s lips crept up a little as she explained, “Commander Sang is the son of the ex-Minister of Finance. Lord Sang has become the new governor of our Linchuan Commandery, so you shouldn’t take him lightly.”

Sang Qian quickly bowed a little as he said, “Miss Chu, you’re too polite. I’ll be needing the Chu clan’s help for our work here in the future.”

There was no man who could resist a beauty on the level of Chu Chuyan. Even though this father-son pair was obviously sent here to deal with the Chu clan, he still couldn’t help but want to show his best side to her.

But just as Sang Qiang was feeling good about his impeccable etiquette, a disharmonious voice sounded in the air, “Tsk~ I was still wondering how capable of a person you are, but it turns out that you’re someone relying on connections just like me.”

And there stood Zu An, casually picking his ears.

Sang Qian nearly choked on his own breath. He might have never met Zu An before, but there was no way he wouldn’t have heard of the renowned drafted son-in-law of the Chu clan. This wastrel was a laughingstock in their circle, and yet, he was actually being associated with the other party now?

He felt that this was an utter humiliation!

You have successfully trolled Sang Qian for +300 Rage!

Mei Chaofeng also widened his eyes in astonishment. One must know that Sang Qian had a very prestigious background. His father was an illustrious official from the royal court, holding power over huge swathes of land.

On the other hand, Zu An was nothing more than a hoodlum who was just lucky to have gotten involved with the Chu clan.

Is that even considered your backing at all? How shameless must you be to say such words? How shameless!

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for +300 Rage!

Zu An was a little confused. He was insulting Sang Qian here, yet the one who got angry turned out to be Mei Chaofeng instead. It looked like the two of them had some kind of illicit, underground relationship with one another.

Meanwhile, Chu Chuyan looked at Sang Qian’s raging eyes and chuckled quietly to herself. The world finally gets to see Zu An’s shamelessness too. She cleared her throat and said, “Young master Sang, if I’m not mistaken, you’re just the commander of the River Patrol Team. You don’t have any rights to interfere in such civil cases. It doesn’t seem appropriate for you to pass a judgment on this matter here.”

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