The gambling hall was empty. Outside the windows, the night was lavish, while the bright overhead lights were dazzling enough to make his vision swim.
Compared to the mere feeling of being unable to breathe in the exclusive gambling hall downstairs, Fang Ran now felt a physical obstruction to his breathing.
He reached up once more to adjust the collar of his suit shirt, even though the button there had already been undone.
The green felt table, the touch of the cards, the sensation of chips leaving his hand...
His eyes widened, his gaze vacant.
Everything before him seemed to weave together into an inexplicable sense of discomfort that spread through Fang Ran's body and hindered his breathing.
Why?
Just as one had to face fear directly to eliminate it, one first had to understand what the discomfort in one's heart was in order to get rid of it. Drawing on his experience from countless love manga,
as that discomfort grew until it was almost unbearable, Fang Ran questioned the depths of his own heart.
Then, lowering his eyes to look at the colorful little mountain of chips, an answer surfaced in his mind.
Was it because he was somewhere unfamiliar, because he was resistant to gambling?
Like an answer written on the back of an answer sheet with only the result and no explanation, that self-answer remained superficial. The feeling was still like a pebble lodged in his heart.
In the fifth round of betting, he laboriously placed his chips and thought of what Adeline had said while looking at him earlier:
-
".Whether it is your position in Fies Erde or your identity as a participant—
".you should have no need to be so wary of gambling. Even if you lose, it is only money, something you can