About half a month later, it was a Sunday.
That afternoon, I brought Cheng Minglang and Han Jinlun to the entrance of an arcade called "Baowang."
After agreeing to Yu Shuang's challenge to pick a fight, I took action as soon as Jiang Xiaowan and the others left Tiandu.
Although I didn't want to be led around by Yu Shuang, since she had made it clear that she held clues to the Qian Wang Ling, I had no choice but to go where the tigers were.
And the first person I sought out was Xiang Tianhua.
As the saying goes: "One should always pick on the weak."
Ever since I broke his hand, Xiang Tianhua's status within the Twelve Dark Lights had been on a steady decline.
Although his broken hand had been healed, it was only healed to the point where he could move freely.
For a professional gambler, hands were more important than life itself.
When performing some rather complex gambling techniques, Xiang Tianhua was definitely unable to recover to his previous level of skill with 100% certainty.
As a result, he lost his former glory and prestige, and his status and position plummeted.
After the month-long trial operation of Tiandu concluded, Xiang Tianhua was the only one among the other Dark Lights who was assigned to oversee an arcade.
Of course, this Baowang arcade had many gambling machines.
Therefore, as long as it was managed well, it could still generate a considerable income every day.
...
The Baowang arcade occupied a large area, and the first-floor lobby was filled with all sorts of game machines and gambling machines.
As soon as I walked in, I heard the continuous shouts and curses of the gamblers.
Just as I was pondering how to lure Xiang Tianhua out...
Suddenly, I heard a female attendant beside me say, "Good afternoon, sir!"
Upon hearing this, I turned my head and saw a sweet-looking, curvaceous female attendant smiling at us.
Seeing that none of us spoke, the female attendant said again, "Are you three first-time visitors here?"
Although arcades were not as lucrative as casinos, they had the advantage of high customer retention.
Typically, gamblers addicted to gambling machines would opt for a private machine policy, topping up their credits from morning till night.
Even if there were new customers, they were usually brought by acquaintances.
I have already mentioned how gambling machines are addictive, so I will not elaborate further.
Therefore, as arcade attendants, they could tell at a glance who was a new customer and who was a regular.
When encountering new customers, attendants would usually greet them first, and after the new customers responded, they would provide further guidance based on their responses.
Often, many naive newcomers fell prey to these young and attractive female attendants.
As a professional gambler, I would naturally not be easily fooled.
Therefore, after taking out two hundred-yuan bills and tucking them into the female attendant's chest, I directly asked, "Let's not talk about whether it's your first time here. I just want to know if there are any real tables here?"
The so-called "real tables" were actually gambling tables.
The true meaning of what I said to the female attendant earlier was: I'm not interested in gambling machines; winning money by competing at the gambling tables is the only way!
This world is not black and white.
Because... there are also gray areas that are difficult for ordinary people to touch.
And the Baowang arcade was one of them.
This was due diligence conducted before deciding to make Xiang Tianhua the first target.
If every arcade on the market only had game machines placed inside in an orderly fashion, then please allow me to speak frankly...
After all the arrangements were made, the boss would not be able to earn much money!
That's why gambling machines were developed.
Of course, arcades with real connections would have hidden gambling tables.
...
After discreetly accepting the two hundred-yuan bills, and seeing that no one around was paying attention, the female attendant replied in an extremely rapid tone, "The real tables are on the third floor. I can take you up!"
"However, are you guys from the authorities?"
Anyone who understands the meaning of "public servants" will understand, so I won't explain it further.
"Heh!"
After a dismissive laugh, I pointed to myself and Cheng Minglang and said, "Do we three look like we're from the authorities?"
Upon hearing this, after scrutinizing the three of us repeatedly, the female attendant said to herself, "Uh... it doesn't seem like it!"
"Follow me!"
After saying that, the female attendant gestured for us to follow her upstairs.
About a minute later.
After following the female attendant up to the third floor, all we saw were colorful gambling tables.
As the saying goes: "A starved camel is still bigger than a horse."
No matter how down on his luck Xiang Tianhua was, overseeing an arcade would certainly be much easier than overseeing a casino.
The hidden casino in the Baowang arcade was not large, with less than ten gambling tables.
Even so, the money-making ability of these ten gambling tables was far beyond that of the gambling machines downstairs.
It was a slight pity that it was peak time in the afternoon, but Xiang Tianhua's figure was nowhere to be seen.
After a brief consideration, I decided to exchange some chips first to create a stir.
You must know that arcades are not like casinos.
Arcades, being semi-entertainment venues, do not have professional dealers or dark lights guarding them.
Once a significant commotion occurred, the boss would definitely come out.
After exchanging my chips, I sat down at a Baccarat table.
There were quite a few people playing Baccarat at the arcade.
There were five or six people at the same table as me.
Among them, a girl was particularly eye-catching.
With her non-mainstream fashion sense and extremely heavy smoky eye makeup, she looked like a delinquent who had gone astray.
I didn't need to guess to know that the delinquent girl playing Baccarat was likely influenced by watching too many Hong Kong movies.
As the saying goes: "Men and women working together is not tiring."
Because there was a girl at this table, the male patrons were very enthusiastic about placing their bets.
Seeing this situation, I also took the opportunity to play a few hands, betting hundreds or thousands, with mixed wins and losses.
Unlike other card games, Baccarat has a roadshow chart.
Although it's useless in a real gamble, when the chips on the table are limited, in order to attract more chips and turnover, the dealer will usually deal cards according to the trend of the roadshow chart.
The non-mainstream girl didn't bet much at first, only around two to three hundred or four to five hundred.
But for some reason, after losing to the dealer again in the current round, the non-mainstream girl suddenly chose to increase her bet, placing a full three thousand chips.
Seeing this, I, who had originally planned to lure Xiang Tianhua out by increasing my bets, immediately abandoned that idea.
Since someone had taken the initiative to raise the stakes, there was no need for me to waste any more chips.
Unlike casinos, in irregular venues like arcades, the cards dealt by the Baccarat dealer depend entirely on the chips on the table.
And here, there is no such thing as a "long dragon."