The old hand who swapped cards with his left and right hands was a middle-aged man with a face full of acne scars. As soon as he sat down, he swapped a stack of cards.
As everyone knows, a stack of mahjong tiles consists of four tiles.
Calculating by proportion, swapping out four tiles from thirteen mahjong tiles means gaining a 30% advantage in advance. With the "three-for-one" strategy later, there's no need to swap cards again; you just wait for your teammates to feed you tiles.
One had to admit, these old hands had calculated their moves with precision!
The moment the middle-aged man with acne scars finished swapping cards and withdrew his hand…
"Don't move!!!"
As the roar fell, I quickly reached out and grabbed the pile of tiles in front of him, then immediately called Zhang Chengxiang over.
"Sorry, buddy! You probably can't play these tiles anymore!"
With that, before the middle-aged man with acne scars could react, I swiftly flipped over all thirteen tiles in front of him, as well as the stack that had been swapped. To be honest, the moment the tiles were revealed, my eyelids twitched uncontrollably.
This scoundrel was truly wicked! He had already prepared a Nine-Lotus Lantern hand.
[PS: I won't go into detail about what a Nine-Lotus Lantern hand is. If you're interested, you can search it on Baidu.]
The middle-aged man with acne scars had already laid out the path for a Nine-Lotus Lantern hand and the single tiles that could be replaced, just waiting to swap in the crucial tiles during the next three draws.
Finally, on the fourth draw, he would self-draw and win.
The national standard mahjong we were playing was for fifty yuan a hand, which was considered quite high stakes in the common folk.
The payout for a Nine-Lotus Lantern in national standard mahjong is calculated as eighty-eight fan, or eighty-eight times the stake.
Some places call fan "tai," because true fan involves multiplying the base stake multiple times.
Forget eighty-eight fan; even sixteen fan can be ruinous!
If this hand had continued, regardless of anything else, as soon as the man with acne scars won, I would have had to pay out four thousand four hundred.
Following this trend, by the end of about two rounds, the three thousand yuan in chips I had on the table would have been completely lost.
It seemed they had calculated the time and planned everything, playing with a steady rhythm.
………………
The moment the not-yet-fully-formed Nine-Lotus Lantern was revealed, the gazes of the three old hands towards me instantly changed.
From the initial dismissive contempt, it turned into complex, profound shock and fear.
No one could have imagined that I would suddenly make a move when the game was officially underway and then jump out to bite them hard!
To be able to form a Nine-Lotus Lantern hand with tiles not yet fully drawn, to put it bluntly… if this wasn't intentional human intervention, you might as well go buy a lottery ticket!
Therefore, it was difficult for them to renege on the deal.
In an instant, the faces of the three old hands all fell, cold sweat instantly beaded on their brows, and their expressions were as panicked as could be.
"Brother, there's no need to call for backup! It was just a joke! This hand doesn't count, let's start over!"
As soon as the man with the slicked-back hair finished speaking, his hand reached out towards the acne-scarred man's tiles, intending to push aside my hands holding the Nine-Lotus Lantern and mess up the tiles.
This series of fluid movements clearly indicated he was an old hand.
Compared to poker, a characteristic of cheating in mahjong is that it's not easy to catch someone red-handed.
When cheating at mahjong, no one is foolish enough to pre-replicate the mahjong tiles used in the game and then steal and swap important tiles onto the table.
A neat stack of mahjong tiles, with even one extra or one missing, can be noticed.
Therefore, cheating can only be done through skillful swapping.
To catch someone red-handed, the most important thing is not to seize the right moment, but to protect the thirteen tiles and the tile stack in front of the person who is swapping.
Once they are disturbed, unless there are surveillance cameras in the room, you really have no recourse against those people!
That's why I called Zhang Chengxiang over immediately after making my move, to prevent those three old hands from reneging.
During the few seconds it took for Zhang Chengxiang to bring his men over, the three old hands divided their tasks clearly.
One was responsible for talking me down, another offered cigarettes and tried to appease me, and the third kept observing, looking for an angle to disrupt the tiles…
Unfortunately, my fingers were fully spread.
My two thumbs pressed down on the four tiles the acne-scarred man had swapped into the stack, while the remaining eight fingers, based on flexibility, force, and coverage, tightly held down the other thirteen tiles, giving no opportunity whatsoever.
They didn't succeed even until Zhang Chengxiang and his men were in position.
"What's going on, guys?"
Although Zhang Chengxiang had a weary look on his face when he arrived, I still caught a fleeting smile at the corner of his mouth.
Was he that happy?
It seemed he must have been heavily cheated by these three old hands last night.
Without any hesitation, I quickly recounted everything that had just happened, leaving no room for the three old hands.
The three of them were in it together, sharing in each other's fortunes and misfortunes.
Even if the other two didn't have cheating skills, and hadn't openly started cheating, I had no reason to show mercy!
Because I knew well that being merciful to enemies is being cruel to oneself.
If I were just an ordinary gambler without cheating skills, then after encountering these old hands tonight, the thirty thousand yuan in my pocket would have been completely lost!
"Boss, boss, don't listen to this young brother's nonsense. We were just joking with him earlier!"
After being accused of cheating and swapping tiles, the acne-scarred man, as the person involved, immediately put on a smiling face and proactively offered Zhang Chengxiang a cigarette, trying to persuade him to turn a blind eye.
Little did he know, I was the one Zhang Chengxiang had invited to deal with them.
Unmoved by the acne-scarred man's words, Zhang Chengxiang pointed at the table where the nearly completed Nine-Lotus Lantern hand was, and said with a cold face, "An eighty-eight fan Nine-Lotus Lantern, and you're telling me it was a joke?"
Before the acne-scarred man could explain, Zhang Chengxiang immediately gestured behind him, and a subordinate handed him a cleaver.
*Bang!*
Slamming the cleaver onto the table, Zhang Chengxiang looked at the acne-scarred man and said, "The rule here is that cheating means chopping off hands!"
"Your left or your right, you choose!"
Upon hearing this, the acne-scarred man immediately panicked and quickly said in submission, "No, no, no~ Boss, it's not that serious, really not that serious!"
"I'll pay money, settle it with money! Pay money for my hands!"
His attitude of admitting fault was so sincere and decisive that I couldn't help but suspect if this was a team that operated in various card rooms, specializing in the "pig-hustling" scam…
Seeing the other party so easily back down, Zhang Chengxiang, though somewhat surprised, put up two fingers as if in a gesture and said, "One hundred thousand!"
"One hundred thousand yuan to buy your own hands!"
Unexpectedly, upon hearing the figure of one hundred thousand yuan, the acne-scarred man suddenly changed his tune and said, "Why!?"
"I have to pay a hundred thousand yuan for a hand that hasn't even won yet? Isn't this ripping people off?"
Pointing at me, the acne-scarred man said quickly, "At most, ten thousand yuan! Five thousand for this young brother, and five thousand as a token of respect for you, boss. Not a cent more!"
"If you think that's not acceptable, boss, then call the police to handle it!"
I never expected that at such a critical moment, the acne-scarred man would adopt such a tough stance.