As a loyal longtime customer of Happy Forest, Young Master Sun had barely arrived when someone went to announce him. Boss Liu of Drunken Moon Pavilion came out personally to welcome him.
"Hahaha, Young Master Sun, you haven't been here for a month. The girls at Drunken Moon Pavilion have been pining for you! I've specially saved two of our top girls for you today." Boss Liu said with a beaming smile.
"Old Liu, you sure know how to treat a man."
Young Master Sun patted Boss Liu on the shoulder and rubbed his hands together. "I haven't placed a bet in a whole month. With a month's worth of luck saved up, I'll have to sweep the tables a few times to get my fill. Take me to the casino first, and have the girls wash up and wait for me."
With that, Young Master Sun headed toward Shunde Casino.
Boss Liu hurriedly stopped him. "Shunde Casino closed down ages ago. I've got a newly opened casino of my own. The interior's all brand-new, and I even poached the staff from Shunde Casino."
Young Master Sun looked surprised. "Old Huang's Shunde Casino was raking in gold every day. Did he lose his mind? Why'd he suddenly quit?"
Boss Liu's expression immediately turned awkward, but he covered it up in an instant and vaguely changed the subject.
On one side of Drunken Moon Pavilion, Su Xin had turned Shunde Casino into one of his bases. On the other stood the newly opened Longqing Casino.
As it turned out, the owner of Longqing Casino was a man of considerable insight.
After seeing Boss Huang crippled by Su Xin, then watching Su Xin use one stratagem after another to seize Boss Huang's property without suffering so much as a scratch himself, he knew that his group of merchants had no chance of beating Su Xin.
If they couldn't beat him, there was only one option: work with him and maximize their profits.
Drunken Moon Pavilion was the biggest brothel in all of Happy Forest. Opening a casino beside it was bound to bring in even more business.
So he decisively took out a thousand taels of silver and went to see Su Xin, trading it for the plot of land next to Drunken Moon Pavilion.
"Huh? Why have all the girls from Drunken Moon Pavilion come over to the casino?"
Seeing a row of Drunken Moon Pavilion's most popular girls standing at the entrance of Longqing Casino, Young Master Sun was stunned.
"This is the new service we offer in Happy Forest. Young Master Sun, pick a few." Boss Liu said with a grin.
"Tsk, not bad at all." Young Master Sun waved a hand, picked two girls he knew, and walked into the casino.
Only after entering did Young Master Sun notice just how many things had changed.
All around the casino, nimble young attendants bustled about carrying drinks and snacks. Anyone who wanted something to eat or drink could simply take it.
If they wanted a proper meal, there were menus on the trays the attendants carried. Once they placed their orders, someone would bring the food over from the restaurant across the street, prepared as quickly as possible.
Even the dealers who had once shaken the dice had been replaced by girls from Drunken Moon Pavilion. They weren't quite as deft, but watching them was a pleasure in itself.
Young Master Sun's eyes lit up. He grabbed a jug of wine from a passing attendant, then slapped a wad of banknotes onto the gaming table.
"Five hundred taels! Bet it all on big! I've been holding back for a month. Today, I'm going to go all out!"
"Young Master Sun, you're so generous!" The two girls at his side chimed in with delighted exclamations, sending Young Master Sun into a fit of laughter.
Just then, the dice cup opened to reveal a five, a four, and another four—thirteen, big.
"Hahaha! Looks like today's the day I sweep the tables!"
Young Master Sun laughed arrogantly and swept the heap of silver and banknotes over to himself. He casually tucked a couple of notes into the girls' bodices, then let his hands wander.
The moment they saw the banknotes, the two girls' eyes lit up.
Each note was worth a hundred taels. Before, they'd only ever received such a generous tip after thoroughly pleasing their guest. Now, they'd already pocketed a hundred taels apiece without doing a thing.
The onlookers watched with burning envy and shouted, "Get me two girls as well! I want big-chested ones! I'm betting on big today too!"
At the entrance, Boss Liu and Boss Chen of Longqing Casino exchanged glances, both breaking into smiles.
At noon the next day, Young Master Sun crawled out of the soft embrace of the beauties. Smacking his lips as he savored the previous night's pleasures, he couldn't help chuckling.
"Happy Forest's new setup is downright brilliant! I've got to bring Old Li and those bumpkins over to see it. Compared to Happy Forest, what the hell is Changde Ward?"
On its very first day after reopening, Happy Forest had already made a deep impression on old regulars like Young Master Sun.
Changning Prefecture wasn't that big. Any new gossip could spread across the whole city in a single day.
Within three days, everyone in Changning Prefecture knew that Happy Forest had come up with something new. Anyone who tried it had nothing but praise.
Before long, Happy Forest's customer traffic began to surge, and by the time the brothels and casinos in Changde Ward reacted, it was already too late.
They didn't have the means to make changes, nor the time.
Only a handful of deep-pocketed owners managed to buy up several shops in a row and renovate them to match Happy Forest's model. But their operations were nowhere near as large as Happy Forest.
A month later, the owners of Happy Forest's various businesses tallied up their profits. Their net income for the month had more than doubled—at the very least!
The most profitable among them, like Boss Liu of Drunken Moon Pavilion, had made an astonishing five times as much.
Before, the most profitable business in Happy Forest had been the casinos. Now, it was the brothels.
After Su Xin's changes, those young masters who gambled recklessly in Happy Forest were incredibly generous. As soon as they won a hand, they'd stuff silver into the girls' bodices like there was no tomorrow.
The owners were rolling in money, so naturally, they paid Su Xin his share.
Su Xin had never trusted any of the business owners in Happy Forest, not even Boss Liu of Drunken Moon Pavilion, who acted the most obedient.
So when it came time to pay out the profits, Su Xin had Huang Bingcheng bring several accountants to the various businesses to check their books and see if anyone had hidden profits.
The inspection uncovered a few fools who'd dared to underreport their earnings.
Su Xin said nothing. He simply had several gang members break the hands of the accountants who'd falsified the books on the spot.
The owners turned deathly pale and didn't dare try any more tricks. They obediently paid up the full amount they owed.
Huang Bingcheng brought his men to Su Xin's home carrying two large chests. His face was alight with excitement. "Boss, take a guess—how much did we bring in this month?"
"Oh? How much?"
Huang Bingcheng lifted the lids of the two chests. A dazzling sea of silver gleamed inside.
"A full eighty thousand taels! And this is only the first month. By next month, Happy Forest will be even better known, and business is bound to keep booming. We'll definitely make more than we did this month!" Huang Bingcheng's face flushed with excitement, as if he'd been pumped full of chicken blood.
"That much?" Su Xin was startled too.
By his original estimate, his share for the first month would have come to around thirty thousand taels. He hadn't expected eighty thousand—nearly three times as much.
Changning Prefecture was clearly full of rich people. After all, it had once been the capital of Great Zhou, so it still had plenty of wealth to spare.
Su Xin rubbed his chin. "Set aside thirty thousand taels and give them to Third Master Hu. Then tell the brothers to gather at our base."
"Th-thirty thousand taels!" Huang Bingcheng stared at Su Xin, dumbfounded.
Earlier, they'd handed the property of Shunde Casino over to Third Master Hu, but that was because they needed to use his name to take control of the casino.
But this thirty thousand taels from the profits was practically a gift.
"We can't swallow this money on our own. If we force it down, we'll only choke on it."
A faint smile played at the corner of Su Xin's mouth. "As the saying goes, it's better to share joy than enjoy it alone. This money is just a little token of respect for my 'adoptive father.'"
As an old hand in the Flying Eagle Gang, Huang Bingcheng immediately understood what Su Xin meant. This money was really just protection money.
It stung a little, but they still had to pay what was owed.
Huang Bingcheng led his men out. A system voice rang out in Su Xin's mind: "Congratulations, host. You have completed the main quest: Posture of an Overlord (I). Reward: 200 Villain Points and one intermediate draw."
Entering the system, Su Xin asked, "How many draws do I have now?"
The system replied, "The host currently has 33 basic draws and one intermediate draw. Would you like to use them now?"
Su Xin thought it over, then shook his head. "Never mind. Another time."
He'd saved up enough basic draws over the past month to exchange for three intermediate draws. With the intermediate draw from this main quest, he now had four in total.
Intermediate draws were still a gamble. Su Xin decided to save up a little longer and use several at once to see if he could get anything good.
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