Setting a Trap

They really were rolling dice to see who got the higher score.

The girl was clearly a little luckier than the boy, winning the round by a single point. She was waving for someone to collect her chips when the boy slammed a fist on the table in anger and glared at her across it, unwilling to accept his loss.

The girl curled a finger at him provocatively. "What? Still want to play with me?"

She looked the boy up and down several times. "Bring me some chips, and we'll keep playing."

The boy was getting worked up.

Almost without thinking, he called out to the spectators around him, "Anyone got spare chips? Lend me some."

Standing among them, Shen Yu distinctly felt several excited gazes land on the boy. He narrowed his eyes and looked over. A few people turned their heads slightly and conferred for a while before pushing a young man forward. Clutching a box of chips, he set it in front of the boy. "There's a hundred thousand here..."

Before the young man could finish, the boy raised a hand to interrupt him. "I'll pay you back double."

He reached for the box, but the young man stopped him. A pair of greedy eyes stared out from beneath the silver mask. He licked his lips. "Five times."

The boy had money, but he couldn't throw it away like that, could he? He frowned in displeasure at the young man treating him like a sucker. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing much. If you don't want to play, you can leave now." The young man spread his hands. "That's the going rate here."

The girl toyed with her manicure, seemingly unconcerned. Seeing the boy's predicament, she said, "If you can't afford to play, leave. Don't come looking for thrills here."

Shen Yu understood now.

They were setting a trap?

Another person appeared beside the boy, seemingly a friend of his. Acting close, he draped an arm around the boy's shoulders and all but pulled him into an embrace. But he made no particular effort to lower his voice, and his words carried. "Don't you know what your family's situation is? Those chips were a gift to begin with. You had your fun and lost them, so leave it at that. Do you really want to spend money here to keep going? When you get home, breaking your legs and beating your ass raw will be getting off lightly!"

Something in those words must have struck a nerve. The boy shoved him away and took the box from the young man. "Five times it is!"

He looked at the girl across the table and demanded, "Another round!"

Naturally, he missed the delight in the eyes of the person beside him and the young man as they exchanged a glance.

The corners of Shen Yu's lips curved upward.

Here was his chance.

As he had expected, the boy lost miserably again. Whenever he wanted to back out, someone would provoke him with a few words, and he would get worked up and accept another box from the young man.

In just a few minutes.

He had already taken six boxes.

Three million.

It was no small sum. The boy's family couldn't possibly come up with it on short notice. He seemed to have finally realized something was wrong, but he had come so close every time, and there had even been ties. He couldn't turn back now.

His eyes were red-rimmed beneath the silver mask. He stared fixedly at the dice cup in front of him and the contracts he had signed starting with the second time he borrowed chips. His sluggish brain finally stirred.

These people came prepared.

He had been played.

"One last round. I'll stake all the chips in front of me." The girl's voice was full of temptation. "As long as you win, everything from before will be wiped out."

Then her tone changed.

"But... you need to qualify for a seat at the table."

The boy's eyes moved, following the direction of her finger to another box of chips in the young man's hands. This one, however, was three times as big as the previous ones.

"There's five hundred thousand here."

"How you choose is up to you."

The person who had been advising the boy all along appeared to be holding him back, but every word he said danced on the boy's sore spots. Rather than trying to dissuade him, he was fanning the flames.

Just as the boy lost his senses and shakily reached for the box that would be enough to doom him beyond redemption.

A slender hand caught his wrist, then took the box in his place.

The boy turned and found himself gazing into an ocean. His heart skipped a beat. The mask did nothing to conceal Shen Yu's cool, aloof air. His sapphire-blue eyes swept over the boy before settling on the girl across the table. The mask covered only the upper half of his face, leaving the lower half exposed. Shen Yu's lips curved upward. "Isn't it boring playing with him all the time? How about a round with me?"

"You?" The girl was dazzled by his blue hair, but she searched her memory and couldn't recall anyone like him in their circle. She couldn't figure him out or see through him, but the pair of starry-sky watches he wore made her pupils contract.

She had seen that model before.

Lu Changfeng, the Lu Family's designated heir, had one just like it.

Could he be... the eldest young master they had found again?

But the person across from her was too young.

The girl sucked in a breath. Could he be that eldest young master's child?

Seeing that she hadn't spoken for a long time, Shen Yu frowned. "Can't we?"

The girl came back to her senses and suppressed the turmoil in her heart. "Of course we can."

"Would you like to start a separate game with me, or..." Her gaze fell on the boy standing in a daze behind Shen Yu.

"Count it as his." Shen Yu stepped up to the table.

The young man and the others exchanged glances, unwilling to let their plan be disrupted like this, but the girl threatened them into leaving the crowd.

Once again, the round table was piled high with chips.

Only the person on the other side had changed. The pale yellow light cast a golden sheen over his blue hair, making him look aloof and sacred. Shen Yu picked up the dice cup, gave it two seemingly casual shakes, and set it down. Before anyone could react, he lifted it, revealing three unmistakable sixes to everyone.

Shen Yu tilted his head slightly. "Still want to compete?"

The girl gripped her dice cup and shook it beside her ear, listening. She took several times longer than Shen Yu, but when she lifted it, the result still fell short.

—5, 6, 6.

Just a little short.

The boy excitedly stepped forward and looked again and again. When he turned to Shen Yu, his gaze was so fervent it was as if he wanted to devour him. He tore up the unfair contracts he had just signed, then grasped Shen Yu's hand. "Please take me as your disciple!"

The girl showed little reaction to losing, as though she had already known this would happen. Her skills truly were inferior, and she accepted her defeat wholeheartedly.

She stared at Shen Yu for a long while, then walked up to him, her beautiful eyes fixed on him without blinking. "Would you like to get to know each other?"

Shen Yu glanced down at the hand she held out and refused. "No."

He then took the boy behind him by the hand and led him toward a corner.

The young man stepped forward. "Sister Ting, are we just letting them go?"

Sister Ting withdrew her hand, recalling Shen Yu's indifferent blue eyes. "Find out whether the Lu Family has taken back any other children besides that eldest young master."

The young man didn't understand, but he did as he was told.

"Yes."

The boy, who had been pulled into the corner, was still a little dazed. He looked at Shen Yu, his eyes practically sparkling with stars and full of admiration.

Neither of them noticed that, across the crowd, someone had set a wineglass on a server's tray and was pointing at them while giving the server instructions.