First Steps into the Casino

Chen Nan felt somewhat guilty toward Jiang Lili over this private arrangement between himself and Feng Wu.

It felt like sneaking around behind his own woman's back to fool around with someone else—then dividing that feeling by ten.

It was not all that clear, but he still felt somewhat sorry toward Jiang Lili.

Because of this, Chen Nan behaved himself all day long, and he put exceptional effort into doing the housework.

Jiang Lili, however, was deeply suspicious of Chen Nan's behavior.

A woman's intuition toward the man she had her eye on had always been an unsolvable mystery for humanity across the entire universe for thousands upon thousands of years.

If their intuition about men could be scientifically quantified and turned into an instrument, there probably would not be a single lie left in the universe.

Jiang Lili intuitively sensed that Chen Nan was hiding something from her, but as a smart woman, she would not expose it.

Instead, she also put on an extremely obedient act and went to bed early at Chen Nan's request.

But she did not sleep. She kept watching to see what Chen Nan would do.

By ten-thirty at night, Chen Nan saw that the agreed time was about right and quietly slipped out of the house.

His movements were swift and light, making almost no sound at all, which greatly exceeded his own expectations.

The only imperfection was that he could not avoid making a slight sound when closing the bedroom door.

After the door shut, Chen Nan pressed himself against it and listened. Only after hearing no movement inside did he quietly head downstairs.

The agility of his movements and the suppleness of his limbs left even him in disbelief.

But a moment later, he understood. This was clearly directly connected to his earlier "epileptic fit."

He had chosen a batch of traditional martial arts, and the AI System had thoroughly implanted them into his nervous system. The resulting excessive firing of nerve cells had caused his fake epileptic fit.

That was exactly why his movements were now so light and nimble.

His current physical condition gave Chen Nan immense confidence. At the very least, among ordinary people, this transformation of his could still accomplish something.

He left the residential complex, reached the street, hailed a taxi, and arrived at the place where he was to meet Feng Wu.

Chen Nan wore a pair of children's sunglasses and a baseball cap as cover. Ordinary people would have a hard time recognizing him.

Here, let everyone in on a little piece of knowledge: if you wanted others not to recognize you, what kind of disguise worked best?

Most people probably believed covering the face while leaving the eyes exposed worked best. That was how television dramas always did it, right?

But in fact, the thing that revealed a person's characteristics most clearly was their eyes. In other words, no matter how tightly someone covered their face, as long as their entire eye area was exposed, anyone acquainted with them—even someone who had only met them a few times—could recognize them.

Therefore, if you wore a mask on the street and an acquaintance walked past without acknowledging you, then later said, "Oh, you were wearing a mask, so I didn't recognize you," that was generally a lie.

But conversely, if someone wore sunglasses, they became much harder to identify.

That was also why, in the news, when people were occasionally mosaicked, only their eye area would be covered.

Chen Nan naturally knew this trick very well, so he had long prepared the sunglasses in order to conceal his identity.

After all, he counted as a sensitive figure. He was not merely a name.

When he saw Feng Wu, she looked him up and down, gave a cold laugh, and said, "All right. It's not far from here. Let's walk over."

Chen Nan agreed. Feng Wu walked ahead, and Chen Nan followed.

Feng Wu wore high heels nearly ten centimeters tall. Her hips possessed the full spirit and shape of a rooster; the waves in the sway of her waist were enough to let a dozen men surf upon them, while her catwalk could make even a cat cover its face with its paws.

Taken as a whole, she possessed a rooster's showy magnificence, a cat's seductive posture, and an ocean-wave aura that made men's hearts surge.

Walking behind such a woman, any normal man's little heart would have to bounce along with her waist.

Chen Nan glanced at her a few times, then lowered his head and thought, I'm doing this so people won't recognize me. Then he stared only at Feng Wu's heels as he walked.

Very soon, they arrived at the underground black-market casino. They had to descend a flight of stairs.

Chen Nan followed Feng Wu down. Though it was already midnight, as he descended, his body felt as though it were being dragged step by step into hell.

When his line of sight reached level with the ground, he looked once at the world outside, sighed, and still chose to continue downward.

After passing through the stairway and turning a corner, they reached a fairly spacious area. A large iron gate stood directly opposite the entrance, and the smaller door set into it was open.

Feng Wu looked back at Chen Nan and said, "Wait here. I'll be out in a moment."

Chen Nan nodded and watched her enter through the door, disappearing into smoke and light.

Before long, two vicious-looking men dragged out someone who had been beaten until he was covered in blood, his body twisted as though he had been thrown back into the furnace to be remade. They cursed, "You dared to cheat here? You're courting death!"

They threw him at Chen Nan's feet. The two fierce men stared at Chen Nan for a while, then turned and went back inside.

Chen Nan saw that the man's limbs had all been twisted into ugly shapes, while the middle three fingers of his right hand had vanished without a trace.

It was impossible to tell whether the man was still breathing, but blood was still flowing, like tear-streaks of repentance—yet it seemed he had already completely lost the chance to repent—

A pitiful person must have something hateful about him!

Chen Nan did not bother with him and kept far away. Feng Wu had already come back out. She ignored the person on the ground as well and said directly, "I've already spoken to the people inside. Let's go in."

However, Chen Nan hesitated.

Feng Wu had already reached the doorway and called to Chen Nan, "What are you waiting for? I've got everything arranged. Get in here!"

When she saw Chen Nan still not moving, she came over and grabbed him. "Do I have to lead you in by the hand? You really are just a child. You saw some blood and got scared like this?"

Chen Nan suddenly asked, "After I go in, can I just watch at first? Is that okay?"

Feng Wu smiled. "You come in to play. What fun is there in just watching without doing anything? Don't let this scare you. As long as you follow the rules, you'll be fine."

Chen Nan took a deep breath and still allowed Feng Wu to lead him inside.

In stark contrast to the bloodied man the fierce men had dragged out, this place did not resemble hell at all. It was more like an extremely upscale gathering place.

Everyone inside, whether by the clothes they wore or the expressions on their faces, projected the image of social elites and celebrities.

Quite a few elegantly mannered women in revealing outfits moved nimbly through the room carrying drinks, serving these high-class guests.

Feng Wu pulled Chen Nan farther inside. Chen Nan watched as they went, seeing all kinds of gambling equipment laid out on table after table.

Pai gow, poker, dice, lottery, fish-hunting...

Feng Wu pointed at them and asked, "What are you good at?"

Chen Nan smiled. "I've never played any of these. But I want to watch first."

Feng Wu did not get angry and followed Chen Nan as he looked around.

They first went to the poker tables, where they were playing Bull Bull. A tableful of people looked at their cards and placed bets, and no one paid any particular attention to Chen Nan.

As for Chen Nan, he began to activate his ability. The function of his eyes had already been switched on.

Wherever his gaze fell, the AI System rapidly reported information to Chen Nan: who had made small movements, the tricks of shuffling cards, the tricks of dealing them, and subtle differences in the patterns on the backs of the cards that ordinary people found difficult to see.

After observing for more than ten minutes, Chen Nan realized that this was not a place where he could show his abilities. There were simply too many variables.

These people played cards like performing magic. Though his Eye of AI could see through all those little tricks, it did him no good at all. It was rather like a eunuch being able to see a beautiful woman.

Shaking his head, he knew this place was not suitable for him.

Likewise, it seemed that any card game was destined to have nothing to do with him.

At the same time, he understood that gambling on cards relied on luck and techniques of thought. It was completely a low-level way of playing.

When playing cards here, if one lacked the means to cheat, then no matter how clever one's mind was or how good one's luck was, it would be of no use whatsoever.

What a brutally realistic thing that was.

He left that area and wandered over to the section with young people, where there were basically electronic gambling machines. Chen Nan had never touched this kind of thing, where the machines could be rigged from behind the scenes.

After wandering around, he arrived at the lowest-end area.

That area was roughly divided just like society's class hierarchy. Once he reached this low-end section, people's clothing was no longer so upscale, and even their behavior carried a rough, uncouth quality.

What they played was also the simplest game: dice. The tools were simple, and the gameplay was relatively simple as well—just guessing big or small.

The dealer sat in the middle of the gambling table, with gamblers on either side. The table had marked areas for betting big or small. This was an everyday sight, so there was no need to describe it in detail.

It need only be said that after Chen Nan stopped here, he began to observe carefully. Naturally, his targets were only the dealer and the dice cup in his hand.

The dealer shook the cup up and down as if he were a bartender, the dice inside clattering loudly. Chen Nan then put his hearing to use.

At first, he could not make out anything. Gradually, he sensed subtle differences in the sounds. But extracting useful information from those complicated differences was still not easy.

Even so, Chen Nan knew that as long as he observed for long enough, he would definitely be able to use the differences in sound to determine the dice points after they landed.

If he could reach that level, wouldn't that mean he could win however he wanted?