Chapter 92: I’m Afraid I’ll Accidentally k*ll You All
After Lu Yibei took out five gold bars, she saw the eyes of the mahjong parlor owner gleaming with a hungry, wild wolf-like green light, and she suddenly felt a bit regretful.
Her performance was too exaggerated; if it was detected that something was off, she would be forced to fight them.
Once she fought them, in order not to leak any information, she could only stuff them into the God Realm Prototype.
To be honest, she didn’t like grabbing people and stuffing them into the God Realm Prototype at the slightest disagreement, making it look like she was some sort of trafficker.
Although the Calamity didn’t mind cheating, abduction was another story.
Too lowly, not dignified!
However…
Once she sat at the mahjong table and listened to the rules, she realized she had been overthinking.
A round was a thousand, with no upper limit.
If she was determined to run a “pig-killing” scheme, a starting capital of fifty thousand might not be enough to lose a round; five gold bars would barely be enough to lose a circle.
So, saying she lacked money with five gold bars was not a problem at all.
Lacking money can mean different things, just as there are differences between people.
————
In Shancheng, Nancheng District, due to relatively lagging transportation facilities, it is often joked that “being in the main city feels like being in the suburbs.” The location of the Shining Star Mahjong Parlor is also in an old building on an old street, making it even more desolate.
Perhaps because it is engaged in illegal activities like organized gambling, the entrance to the Shining Star Mahjong Parlor is through a staircase from the street, where one can only see a cold and old mahjong parlor, making it hard to imagine that there is something more hidden inside.
Walking through a deliberately hidden small door, past a dim corridor, and lifting the soundproof curtain at the end of the corridor, the real Shining Star Mahjong Parlor presented itself.
In a hall of about two hundred square meters, several card tables were set up, crowded with many people, the smell of sweat and smoke blending together, making the air particularly murky.
Some were loudly cursing, some were smoking non-stop, and some were whispering about something… noisy, crowded, and smoky.
It was completely unlike a place where beautiful girls would come.
The hall was filled with people playing poker and dice, while mahjong was played in a few separate small rooms located in the southeast corner of the hall.
And Lu Yibei was in one of those small rooms.
The people playing cards with her were all found by the mahjong parlor owner, besides the owner himself, there was also a slightly plump middle-aged woman and a middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses, who almost triggered her PTSD, looking very much like a corporate slave.
She could feel the spirit energy fluctuations from all three of them; although the levels were not high, if an ordinary person encountered them, they would at least end up losing everything, if not worse.
The saying “nine out of ten gamblers cheat” was absolutely no joke.
This place was simply a super simplified version of Dream Come True Entertainment City, and what they were about to face was the “Wang Buliu,” enhanced several times.
Technique cannot surpass divine arts.
From the start of the game until now, two rounds had already been completed.
Perhaps in order to keep Lu Yibei the little piggy tightly tied, during these two rounds of play, her three “playing friends” didn’t pull any tricks, even deliberately letting her win a little.
That was a bit awkward…
If you don’t pull tricks, how can I dare to pull big ones?
But what was bound to come would eventually come.
As the third round began and she was about to draw cards, a predictive thought flashed through Lu Yibei’s mind.
[The middle-aged woman switched three cards from the eastern pile.]
[The corporate slave guy hid two cards of nine thousand up his sleeve.]
[The middle-aged woman exchanged eye contact with the mahjong parlor owner.]
Finally starting? I’ve waited for you for a long time! Lu Yibei narrowed her eyes, feeling very pleased.
And so…
The predictive thought activated, her alluring ability and dream-infiltration ability were ready.
The slaughter began!
“One bamboo!”
The middle-aged woman played a card, and immediately Lu Yibei lost the right to draw cards.
“Pung!” said the corporate slave, “Nine dots.”
The mahjong parlor owner gave Lu Yibei a sly glance, seeing she had no reaction, smiled as he picked up the nine dots from the table, “Sorry, I’ll pungs, one thousand.”
“Pung!”
Predictably, the mahjong parlor owner also punged, and the middle-aged woman smoothly completed the “passing the baton.”
The three entered a continuous pung mode, as if they were not playing mahjong but rather a connect-the-dots game, in a span of five whole minutes, Lu Yibei only drew twice.
After five minutes, only one card remained in front of each of the three, a single discard, and the winning tiles were all identical.
And the tile they needed to win was precisely the one Lu Yibei was about to draw.
Drawing and playing, it was a simultaneous explosion.
How exaggerated! Only someone foolish like a silly girl with more money than brains would be deceived by this.
Do I really look that easy to deceive?
Lu Yibei thought to herself, drawing a card from the pile, under the greedy gazes of the three, she covered her own cards and expressionlessly said, “I’ll go for a trip!”
Then, reaching out, she drew a card.
“Oh? Three self-draws for all three, thank you.”
If you want to show off, go ahead, I’ll win the hand anyway, I only need one card!
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the three at the table became wonderfully vivid; the corporate slave frowned tightly, the mahjong parlor owner wore a dark expression, while the middle-aged woman “kindly” reminded her, “Little girl, you should know that three raises involve compensation for three families.”
“I know clearly!” Lu Yibei tried to imitate Gu Qiqi’s silly demeanor, blankly saying, “This combination with this, and this, should allow me to win, right?”
The three took a look at the mahjong tiles Lu Yibei pushed down; indeed, they could win, and the tile they needed to win was right there among them.
Luck, it was definitely luck!
Under their “surround and suppress” strategy, this silly girl only drew twice but was able to listen for her win—was this not luck?
This kind of probability was simply like standing unscathed in the open central area of a battleground, managing to endure for half an hour like a live target without a scratch.
However, relying on luck won’t get you far!
So the game continued, accompanied by the “swish” sound of shuffling tiles; another predictive thought flashed through Lu Yibei’s mind.
[The corporate slave marked the back of a mahjong tile with his sweaty hand.]
[The mahjong parlor owner exchanged glances with the middle-aged woman, suggesting to increase the intensity.]
[The middle-aged woman switched six cards.]
Increase the intensity? Okay, got it! Lu Yibei silently adjusted the arrangement of her mahjong tiles, then looked up at the three at the table and weakly asked, “Uncle and Aunties, may I ask, does our rule allow for a heavenly win?”
That demeanor inexplicably resembled a little lamb suddenly exposing its four-meter-long tusks, ready to eat people, causing the three sitting at the table to freeze for a moment. The corporate slave even dropped a tile on the ground due to shock during the switch.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lu Yibei caught sight of the mahjong tile on the ground, pretending she was completely oblivious to the corporate slave’s tile switch, expressionless she plunged her kn*fe into their hearts, “Um, I think I just achieved a heavenly win!”
“Snap!”
The tiles were pushed down, heavenly win with seven pairs, 192 points.
The three, “……”
They were utterly shocked, looking at Lu Yibei as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
Before it even started, the “little piggy” had already ended the game; what the hell was there to play?!
Could someone’s luck really be this good? She can’t be a member of the Miracle Cult who specifically came to stir up trouble, right?
However, even if she were a member of the Miracle Cult, it wouldn’t matter!
There’s a saying that you can only rely on luck a few times; at most, she could win two rounds!
In the next round, let her draw a terrible hand and let’s see how she wins then!
The game continued, money was pulled, tiles were shuffled, stacks were arranged, and then the three heard a horrifying voice.
“Um, um, I think I just achieved a heavenly win again, aren’t we supposed to have a saying about thirteen not connected?”
Without the use of card marking, this game was actually quite fair; every participant needed to reasonably apply their intelligence, skills, and a bit of luck.
And luck was a mystical thing, sometimes good, sometimes bad, hard to grasp. Therefore, for fairness, in some mahjong rules, a little compensation was given to those with exceedingly poor luck.
The so-called thirteen not connected means a hand of thirteen tiles that don’t connect at all, a completely terrible hand, yet one of the largest hands possible as well.
Legend has it that when this hand appears, even onlookers must give the winning player a sum of money to show their sympathy for this exceptionally unlucky individual.
In fact, Lu Yibei had already made plans to use her extraordinary ability to switch hands should she end up with such a hand.
Being able to obtain such a hand was entirely due to the underhanded tactics of her three adorable “card friends,” combined with her choice to lay low, and a bit of unfortunate luck.
Just pretty coincidental, you know?
“Bang!” The dull sound of a hand slapping the table abruptly rang out.
The corporate slave was the first to lose his composure, slapping the table and standing up, pointing at the mahjong parlor owner, completely shedding his elegant facade, and murmured angrily, “d*mn it, didn’t you ask me to come help you k*ll pigs? What’s happening now? How can a simple card switch turn into this? Are we killing her or killing me?”
Having not even finished one round, she had already won three hands with a total of nearly five hundred points—who wouldn’t lose their mental composure?!
The corporate slave began to suspect that the mahjong parlor owner’s target was actually him, and that Lu Yibei was the owner’s accomplice.
“Are you doubting me?” The mahjong parlor owner said with a dark face, “We’ve partnered for so long; have I ever deceived you?”
Hearing this, the corporate slave calmed down a little, opening his mouth but then stopping.
Seeing him silent, the mahjong parlor owner stood up, firmly placed his hands on the table, leaned over towards Lu Yibei and said in a deep voice, “Little girl, I admit you have some skills; I underestimated you. But if you think you can take money from us in this way, I fear you’re miscalculating.”
“Being able to accomplish this under our very noses, you must be a spiritual ability user too, right? If so, how about we settle this in the way of spiritual ability users?”
As the words fell, all three unleashed their spirit energies.
The spirit energy fluctuations collided in the confined space of the mahjong room, producing a sound like static electricity sparking.
They were running a casino to cheat people while simultaneously operating a charity foundation; how could they allow anyone to walk away with their money?
In truth, every year, a few ne’er-do-wells would come to the Shining Star Mahjong Parlor looking for trouble, but no one had ever successfully walked away with their winnings.
All had been dealt with by them together.
As for the possibility of troublemakers being high-level spiritual ability users, they had never considered it.
Things like this were akin to professional athletes; barring exceptional circumstances, it was almost impossible for them to go to a middle school court to dominate noobs.
High-level spiritual ability users could easily earn more in various endeavors than coming to this small casino to make trouble, right?
Why would they trouble themselves?
Unless that high-level spiritual ability user had psychological issues…
“What, what does it mean to settle this in the way of a spiritual ability user?” Lu Yibei cautiously glanced at the three, swallowed her saliva, and weakly asked, “Does it mean we have to fight?”
The mahjong parlor owner exchanged glances with the corporate slave and the middle-aged woman, smirking slightly, “If you’re confident, it’s not entirely out of the question; but if you lose, I’ll sell you to the Solar Eclipse Society, and what they do with you won’t be my concern.”
“But, but…” Lu Yibei said timidly, “I’m actually quite powerful, really!”
“Oh? How powerful?” The corporate slave, stifling an anger inside, rolled up his sleeves mockingly.
“Powerful enough… that I’m afraid I might accidentally k*ll you all,” Lu Yibei said expressionlessly.
“……”
After a brief silence, laughter erupted.
“Hahaha!”
The corporate slave laughed so hard he bent over, thumped his chest and mocked, “Come on, hit me here! Let me see how you plan to k*ll me.”
In the silence, Lu Yibei bit her lip, hesitated slightly, and nodded.
The very next moment, a terrifying wave of spirit energy surged forth, causing the entire mahjong room to heat up by dozens of degrees; the yellowed white walls reflected an orange-red glow, as if transformed into an oven.
The corporate slave didn’t even see how Lu Yibei made her move; his eyes lost their light, and his consciousness flickered like an old television shutting down, “Whoosh!” and he fell into darkness.
Moments later, he heard “celestial music” and saw cranes flying among colorful clouds, and where the cranes flew to seemed to be a grand gate, above which were the three large words “Southern Heaven Gate.”
It turned out that even if the probability is low, a psychologically distorted high-level spiritual ability user could be found here.
“……”
Beating up a corporate slave is really refreshing!
Is this considered an alternative way of revenge? Lu Yibei wondered.
————
Not knowing how long had passed, when the corporate slave came to, he opened his eyes to see the petite girl sitting across from him, nearly fainting again in shock.
Panicking, he looked to the left and right and found that his companions didn’t seem to be better off than him.
Lu Yibei was sitting with her legs crossed, arms folded across her chest, leaning back in her chair, shifting her gaze from the utterly stunned corporate slave to the bruised mahjong parlor owner, raising her chin slightly, and expressionlessly said, “So, according to you, every time Dailin comes here, it’s just to play cards, right?”
“Exactly, that guy has a huge habit; he comes whenever he has time! Though sometimes he does buy some intel and alchemical materials from me.”
“Oh?” Lu Yibei narrowed her eyes and pressed further, “What intel and alchemical materials has he bought from you?”
“This…” The mahjong parlor owner hesitated.
Selling customer information felt a bit unethical.
“It seems we didn’t dig deep enough in our recent exchange!” Lu Yibei said coldly.
Recalling the previous experience as if falling into an abyss, the mahjong parlor owner suddenly shivered, hurriedly said, “He bought a distribution map of spiritual energy organizations and urban legends around Yumen Pass, and the alchemical materials were common ones like dust-removing sand, hundred-mile roots, and flowing thorny brambles.”
Customer information isn’t as important as one’s life!
Dust-removing sand, hundred-mile roots, flowing thorny brambles… Lu Yibei searched her memory regarding the Great Serpent God’s knowledge of alchemical potions and frowned.
Most of these alchemical materials are typically used to create potions that resist sand and dust.
Adding these alchemical materials along with the distribution maps of spiritual energy organizations and urban legends around Yumen Pass…
Could it be that Dailin is going to Yumen Pass?
What is he going there for? Is there a Solar Eclipse Society stronghold located there?
After pondering briefly, Lu Yibei pulled back her thoughts and asked the mahjong parlor owner, “Is there anything else? Has he visited you recently? When he came, did he mention where he might go?”
“He, the last time he came was three days ago; he didn’t mention where he might go, but he did ask me to help him get an off-road vehicle, and specifically emphasized it needed modifications to handle sandy terrain, preferably with a one-way adhesive on the glass…”
After a pause, he changed his tone, pleading, “Dear lady, that’s all I know. Please let us off?!”
“Shut up!” Lu Yibei glared at the mahjong parlor owner, “I could let you off, but you need to settle the money you lost earlier… However, if you leak anything about what happened today, I’d have to silence you.”
Although she was able to find out what she wanted to know, there was no way she would let the money slip away; even if she didn’t need it for the time being, she could still give it to Jumeng, right?
“I’ll give, I’ll give! How about double?”
“Three times!”
“Okay!”
Shiqi Pigeon
Originating from the Shiqi District of Zhongshan City in Guangdong Province, it is one of the larger and well-known breeds in China. Records indicate that the appearance of the Shiqi pigeon dates back to 1915, when overseas Chinese from the former Xiangshan County neighboring Hong Kong and Macau imported excellent breeding pigeons and crossed them with local meat pigeons, developing a variety shaped like a banana bud with high production performance, tender meat, and remarkable resilience, which has gained a reputation far and wide. After continuous improvements by pigeon enthusiasts and pigeon farms, it has become the famous Chinese Shiqi pigeon.
In early years, Shiqi pigeons had many different feather colors, including deep blue, slate gray, sparrow-colored, black-brown, and white. After the 1980s, due to the high demand in the market for Shiqi pigeons, which leaned towards yellow or white skin colors, people gradually bred white-feathered strains while eliminating mixed colors, so the feather colors of Shiqi pigeons are now mostly white.
The Shiqi pigeon’s body is elongated, resembling a banana bud, similar in size to a king pigeon, and its feather colors vary, predominantly white, with slate gray and speckled patterns often seen, alongside some red and patterned varieties. Shiqi pigeons have strong reproductive capabilities, laying 25 to 28 eggs per year; they adapt well, endure rough feeding, have a gentle temperament, good feather quality, tender meat, soft bones, and great taste, earning them a high reputation both domestically and internationally, and they are well-loved by consumers.
To make pigeon congee, prepare rice first, preferably using fragrant rice or long-grain fragrant rice. Clean the pigeons. Wash the cilantro and cut off the roots. Rinse the rice and place it in a sand pot, adding an appropriate amount of clear water. Boil it over high heat with the lid open, then switch to medium-low heat until cooked; the time will depend on your respective heat and the amount of congee—this pot took about 15 minutes.
Alright, today I’ve also “pigeon-ed” (slacked off), and I’m suffering too. I’ve written over a thousand words since noon; although watering is easy, I could just throw together an update for a chapter, but that wouldn’t mean anything.
To be honest, I believe this volume about the sandy sea should be considered the most important volume in the entire book, as it sets up a lot of things and has much I want to write about. If I can’t present this volume’s content as well as possible, I won’t be able to get past my own standards (truthfully, I feel like the writing regarding Shancheng in the first half of this volume is a bit inadequate, so I added a bit of fluff, causing a slight overshoot in word count).
Well, this can also be considered a brief summary of this half volume, right?
I’ll take a rest today and see you tomorrow.
