Strange Arguments

Seeing that Chen Nan possessed such a skill, coupled with his words, Jiang Lili had nothing left to refute. Still, she felt that making money this way was not exactly clean. Thinking of that, she shot Feng Wu a glance, the meaning obvious without words.

But fortunately, when it came to gambling, women could more or less tolerate it when it was men doing it.

This was unlike an extramarital affair. If that got exposed, it was basically unforgivable. Besides, now that Chen Nan had such ability, he was clearly different from ordinary gamblers. He probably would not end up with their miserable fate.

With the woman's problem resolved, the rear lines were stable. For a man, that was of utmost importance.

At this moment, Chen Nan said casually, "Feng Wu, I advise you to stop doing that line of work too. The forces threatening you have disappeared. Wouldn't it be better to find a proper livelihood?"

Chen Nan was truly acting like a dog catching mice—meddling in other people's business.

Sure enough, Feng Wu sneered. "You really are naïve. Once a woman opens that gap, how can it be so easy to close again? At the Orphanage, all we learned was how to please men in bed. We had no other means of making a living.

"And this sort of thing... it's like drugs... You don't understand. It's not that easy."

The mention of drugs provoked Jiang Lili. She snorted coldly. "Cheap is cheap. What excuses are you looking for? Drug addicts can quit too. You just want the fast money and can't control yourself, so you do this filthy work!"

Feng Wu immediately bristled. "My work isn't filthy. It's an open and aboveboard service industry. Without women like us, how are all those men in society who can't get wives supposed to solve their physical needs?

"And this is human nature. If there isn't a proper channel to guide it out, people become psychologically twisted. There are perverts because of it, dark and twisted people because of it, and it causes extreme instability in society.

"We make enormous contributions to the stability of the nation and society.

"I'm not bragging, but with my water-like tenderness, how many men's inner miseries have I soothed? Some have cried in my arms, some have howled, some have acted cute like children...

"We are the highest good, like water. We wash away those men's suffering and darkness. They toss down their money, then become sunny and full of drive again, leaving all the filth to us, making us bear moral condemnation and the spittle of ten thousand people.

"But—this world, how many fucking people are actually clean? What are you all pretending to be, waving your tails like big bad wolves?

"You—"

Pointing at Jiang Lili, she said excitedly, "You have property and land, and you don't have a miserable fate like mine. Of course you can look down on me and curse me with your head held high. But put your hand on your heart and ask yourself: without a man, when you were stifled and lonely, have you really kept yourself pure as jade all along?

"No man has ever touched you? Do you dare swear that oath?

"Good gracious, we sell ourselves openly, yet we're somehow less clean than you people who do it in secret, right?

"What kind of world is this? Rich men have one woman at home, then hold mistresses number three, four, five, and six outside. Yet nobody sees society or the law condemning or punishing them.

"People like us, who solve society's problems, pay with our bodies and souls, yet we still have to be constantly humiliated and cursed by hypocrites like you—upright gentlemen on the surface, male thieves and female whores underneath. Why? What face do you have to lecture me?"

After saying all that, Feng Wu's face looked as though it had been splashed with blood. Her swelling chest heaved unsteadily, a perfect display of raging waves upon a human body. After all, it was said that natural phenomena corresponded with the human body.

Those words left Chen Nan and Jiang Lili completely stunned, unable to react for a while.

Even more infuriating—what did she mean by "male thieves and female whores"?

Chen Nan thought that he really had stolen before. Jiang Lili thought that she had also had one-night stands online. Was it really that perfectly matched?

Jiang Lili wanted to rise up and fight back, at least reclaim the dignity she had lost. But Feng Wu had stabbed directly into the fatal weak point in her heart. Just like a liar facing the person they had lied to, she had already lost several layers of the battle in her mind, leaving her speechless.

Chen Nan, on the other hand, could still speak freely. That just showed men were more shameless than women. Smiling weakly, he said, "You don't need to get so worked up. Whether what you said makes sense or not, your kind of... work can't possibly be done until you die of old age, can it?

"When your beauty has completely faded, what will you do then?

"Since you've already made so many contributions to society and the nation, and society and the nation won't give you any way out, you have to think about your own future, right?"

Those words struck directly at Feng Wu's soft spot. She slumped limply onto the sofa and said through tears, "What future do I have? Fuck it, I'll squeeze myself dry, then jump into a river and end it. Someone like me—what hope or future could I possibly have?

"I make it sound nice, but that's just defensive arguing. If they weren't driven into a corner, who would willingly throw themselves into this field?

"What I've endured is simply beyond the imagination of you people who live in the sunlight!"

Chen Nan had just wanted to say, Why not marry an honest man? But that would have been too vile and malicious. If some honest man found out about this, wouldn't he curse his own ancestral graves until they melted? Though those ancestral graves stood on Earth, he himself could cross through worlds—couldn't curses cross through too?

For the safety of those ancestral graves, he looked at Jiang Lili instead.

At this point, Jiang Lili no longer had that imposing air. Besides, it was said that women were made of water, so their hearts were very soft.

Of course, they could also turn into ice in winter.

But Jiang Lili was currently in a flowing-water state and could not freeze into ice. She said to Feng Wu, "Chen Nan is right. No matter what, you need to make plans for the future."

Feng Wu said through tears, "Isn't that exactly what I'm doing? If this kid can win some money gambling, I can get some too. Then, while I'm still young, I'll save more money for my retirement. Otherwise, what can I do?"

Jiang Lili said, "How about this? I have a proper job, and collecting rent and such usually gets delayed. You can take full charge of renting out my place and collecting rent. When the time comes, we'll split the rent fifty-fifty. That can keep you free from worries about food and clothing too. How about it?"

Feng Wu looked at Jiang Lili, wiped her tears, and a faint blush of shame appeared on her face. Smiling, she said, "If you can accept me, it would be the honor of my life. I'm just afraid such a good thing might be a dream, and when I wake up, it'll be gone."

Good. Then my going out to gamble shouldn't run into any problems. Chen Nan smiled. "It's already so late. Why don't we sleep, then wake up tomorrow and see whether this is really a dream?"

Jiang Lili checked the time and exclaimed in surprise, "Isn't that so? It's already past two. Let's hurry and rest. I still have work tomorrow."

And so, the three of them went to sleep. Fortunately, Jiang Lili's place had three bedrooms. Chen Nan fled into a small bedroom and was not dragged into bed and cuddled like a doll by the two women.

The next day, the three met in the apartment. There was some awkwardness at first, but soon they grew comfortable.

Feng Wu changed into Jiang Lili's clothes and busied herself learning how to cook from her. After breakfast, Jiang Lili went to work.

That evening, after the three had eaten their fill before battle, Jiang Lili acted as the driver and Feng Wu as the secretary. After ten o'clock, they took Chen Nan straight to the casino.

During the day, Chen Nan had spent nearly half the day at home practicing listening to dice. He estimated that once he reached the casino, winning money should not be a problem.

After entering the casino, Chen Nan bought one hundred yuan in chips and went to the table for guessing big or small.

Before betting, Chen Nan still stared at the dealer's dice cup and then judged the dice values after they landed by distinguishing the sounds. Very quickly, he had the number in mind. This round was 4, 5, 6—fifteen points, big!

When the dice cup was opened, it was indeed exactly as he had judged.

So when the dealer shook the dice again and the gamblers began placing bets on big or small, Chen Nan made his move.

Naturally, Feng Wu placed the chips. After all, she was playing the secretary's role. At this gambling table, only Chen Nan had two beautiful assistants at his side, looking so stylish.

There were three kinds of chips here, representing ten yuan, fifty yuan, and one hundred yuan respectively. Chen Nan had bought ten ten-yuan chips. This time, he placed only one, again on big.

"Place your bets, no more changes!" the dealer shouted. The cup opened beneath the bloodthirsty, greedy gazes of the gamblers. "3, 6, 6—fifteen points, big!"

Curses and cheers mingled together, staging a tragicomedy of human joy and sorrow. But no matter what, life had to begin anew, and these gamblers were no different as they prepared to place their bets again.

Chen Nan listened carefully, distinguishing the sounds of dice striking the cup amid the clamor, separating details such as the frequency, pitch, and timbre of their vibrations, analyzing which sounds came after collisions and which came from friction...

Amid these complex changes in sound, they turned into all kinds of parameters. Under the workings of Chen Nan's nervous system, they formed an XYZ three-axis coordinate system, with those parameters becoming complex sine-wave patterns distributed throughout it.

Combined with Chen Nan's imagination, these changes quickly built up a picture of how the dice rolled inside the cup.

As the gambling continued, Chen Nan discovered that his ability had risen to a terrifying level. He could not only hear the values after the dice settled, but could even hear their state at every moment as they rolled inside the cup.

Combined with Chen Nan's visual analysis—the dealer's speed, force, angle, and so on when shaking the cup—he found that there was even more he could judge.

Before, Chen Nan had needed to wait until the dice settled before he could determine their values. Now, astonishingly, he could determine the values the instant the dealer slammed the dice cup down.

And the reason he found this so terrifying was that he knew that even for a computer, determining dice values in this manner involved an enormous amount of highly complex calculation.