Appreciation

"Then I'll thank you in advance." Xue Chen flashed Old Xu a set of neat white teeth and said with a grin.

"All right. Since you're mostly recovered, I can rest easy. As for what happened to your parents, don't keep making things hard on yourself." Before leaving, Old Xu patted Xue Chen on the head. He cared so much about this student because Xue Chen was truly promising. He did not want such a major blow to turn the boy bitter and extreme. That would be a terrible waste.

Old Xu had been through so much and seen many gifted youths perish after being thrown through great ups and downs by one thing or another. He had been unable to stop those people, but Xue Chen was his student. He had an obligation to set him straight.

Xue Chen clearly understood what Old Xu meant. He said nothing more, merely watched him leave with a smile.

"Xiao Chen, are you all right?" Seeing that Xue Chen's complexion had returned to normal, Mother Lin finally relaxed and walked over to ask him.

"Aunt Lin, I'm fine now. I asked Doctor Zhang just now, and he said I can be discharged." Xue Chen answered with a cheerful smile, though he knew his own condition very well. Other than excessive blood loss, there was no serious problem. But the earlier cut had been a little too deep, nearly severing a tendon, so Father Lin and Mother Lin had insisted that he stay in the hospital for a few more days. Even Aunt Yu from before would occasionally make soup and bring it to him. It made him feel incomparably warm. People of this era were simply sincere in their feelings.

"Woo—!" Holding the Hong Kong and Macau travel permit Old Xu had helped him obtain, Xue Chen boarded a ship bound for Macau. He had not gone to Hong Kong because his current funds were simply not enough to support his next plan.

What did Macau have in abundance? Casinos!

Though gambling truly harmed people, there was no denying that at the time, there were only two ways to get rich overnight: betting on horse races, or gambling.

As for why he was so confident that he could secure his starting capital, it was because he had a secret of his own. He did not have some legendary system, but he had discovered that his hearing and eyesight were astonishingly sharp. His mind also worked a step faster than others, and his memory was exceptional. The last time he had beaten Fan Tianwen so easily, he had relied partly on those abilities.

With the three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars he had exchanged tucked away, Xue Chen set foot on this land. The first thing he did after arriving in Macau was get himself a proper outfit: a white shirt, black trousers, a layer of hair gel, and a pair of plain glasses. He forcibly raised his apparent age to twenty-six or twenty-seven. Combined with his handsome, aristocratic face, he looked every bit like a young master from a wealthy family.

Dragging his suitcase, he headed first to the Lisboa Hotel at the southern end of Avenida da Amizade in Macau. He booked a luxury suite and prepaid more than fifty thousand dollars in lodging fees. Watching them take his money, Xue Chen's heart ached a little, but for the sake of his next plan, this was money he had to spend.

This Lisboa Hotel had been established in 1970 by the renowned He Household. It was a diversified hotel combining a casino, accommodations, and other entertainment facilities. He had chosen to stay here because of the He Household's reputation and influence in Macau. No one dared cause trouble in the He Household's casino. If you truly dared to, well, sorry—you might become fish food in the South China Sea the next day.

After checking in, Xue Chen did not rush straight to the casino. Instead, he ate a good meal, took a bath, relaxed completely, and slept soundly in bed for the night. When he woke the next morning, he wandered around the area for a while and only returned to his room when the sky was just beginning to brighten.

Once he had everything in order, Xue Chen took fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars into the inner hall and exchanged them for chips. Before him were all kinds of gaming tables spread across a space as large as a football field. Along one wall stood rows of slot machines resembling arcade games, all crowded with people.

After making a round of the room, Xue Chen arrived at a roulette table just as the croupier spun the wheel. He found a seat and casually placed ten thousand dollars' worth of chips on number 27. At odds of thirty-five to one, this drew the attention of the onlookers. They all privately mocked him as some greenhorn who had wandered in from nowhere, but seeing how he was dressed, none of them dared say much. The people who came here came from all walks of life. For all they knew, one careless offense could bring trouble from someone they could never afford to cross.

Soon, the roulette wheel stopped. The white ball bounced along with it before finally dropping into the slot for number 27. The crowd erupted. He had only wagered ten thousand, but thirty-five times that was three hundred and fifty thousand! Some people even regretted not following his bet earlier.

The corner of Xue Chen's lips curled up. "I didn't expect my luck to be this good today. Then I'll press my advantage." As he spoke, he pulled out fifty thousand dollars' worth of chips and tossed them onto number 4. This time, however, his luck was clearly not so good.

"Looks like the last round really was just luck." The people nearby laughed, failing to notice the calm in Xue Chen's eyes.

Appreciation

"How are things on this side?" In a lavish, luxurious office, a middle-aged man sat behind his desk, flipping through the accounts in his hands while glancing at his son standing nearby.

The young man sitting on the sofa raised his head, looked at his father, and replied mildly, "Not bad. The hotel's income has remained within a respectable range these past two days, and the casino is the same." He smiled after speaking.

Hearing this, the middle-aged man smiled as well. "That's good. I've looked through these accounts, and the profits over the past few months have reached around twenty-five percent of the expected figure. It seems you've put a lot of thought into this."

A smile appeared at the corner of the young man's lips upon hearing his father's praise. "Father, you flatter me. I merely did as you instructed."

"Hehe, I believe that. But don't become too proud just yet. The road ahead is still long," the middle-aged man continued.

"Yes, I'll remember that." The young man nodded with great seriousness.

"All right, no need to stay in the office with your father all day. Go out and take a walk." After checking the accounts and finding no problems, the middle-aged man said this.