I Play for Thrills at the Gambling Table, While You Play with the Power Switch in the Electrical Room?

The door to the top-floor VIP gambling hall was a heavy ebony door, with four security guards standing outside, their waists conspicuously bulging.

Jian Ning held Huo Si's arm and could clearly feel the man's muscles tensed in alertness. Behind them, Jian Xiu had also wiped that displeased look off his face. His gaze turned hawk-sharp, and his right hand rested inconspicuously at his waist, where he had hidden the self-defense weapon he had taken from a bodyguard.

"Please, gentlemen."

The security guards pushed open the doors.

A strong stench of cigars mixed with blood rushed at them.

The hall was dimly lit, with only a ghastly white spotlight shining over the gambling table in the center.

The man in the silver mask—Old Ghost—sat in the dealer's seat, idly playing with an exquisite revolver. In the shadows behind him, a gray-haired old woman covered in injuries was tied to a chair, a wad of cloth stuffed into her mouth. The moment she saw Jian Ning enter, tears welled up in her cloudy eyes, and she struggled desperately, making muffled whimpering sounds.

Aunt Zhang!

Jian Ning's heart clenched. In the original owner's memories, when he was little, this nanny had been the only one who secretly slipped him candy.

"President Huo, Young Master Jian, and... our newly crowned Gambling God's wife."

Old Ghost's voice had been distorted by a voice changer, making it sound as grating as metal scraping together. He tapped the thick black ledger on the table with the barrel of his gun.

"You want the person and the item? Fine. By Golden Shark's rules, beat me and take them away. Lose..."

Old Ghost's gaze fell on Huo Si's long, powerful right hand, and he gave a sinister grin.

"Leave that hand behind."

Expressionless, Huo Si pulled out a chair for Jian Ning before sitting beside him. His long legs crossed, his presence even more overbearing than Old Ghost's.

"One hand? Old Ghost, isn't your appetite a little too small?"

Old Ghost froze.

Huo Si undid his cufflinks and rolled his sleeves to his elbows, exposing smoothly defined forearms. Then he took a black card from his jacket, held it between two fingers, and casually flicked it onto the table.

"I'm betting thirty percent of Huo Group's shares, plus all of my private overseas assets."

"The stake is—your life."

The entire room fell silent.

Even Old Ghost's hand holding the gun stiffened.

Was this the pressure of a top-tier lunatic? Going all-in right from the start?

Sitting beside him, Jian Ning's heart pounded wildly.

Huo Si, are you insane?!

<Thirty percent of the shares? How much money is that?! I can't even calculate it!>

<If we lose, won't we end up begging on the streets?>

Huo Si tilted his head, squeezed Jian Ning's icy palm, and replied inwardly.

"Don't worry. With you by my side, I can't lose."

"Good! President Huo, you're straightforward!" A greedy red gleam flashed in Old Ghost's eyes. "Then we'll play the simplest game—roll the dice, high versus low! One round decides everything!"

The dealer brought over the dice cup.

"Please."

Jian Ning took a deep breath, focused his mind, and called for the System at this critical moment.

<System! Time to work! Give me x-ray vision! Let me see what's inside the dice cup!>

But—

Instead of the familiar System interface appearing in his mind, there came a shrill burst of static.

[Bzzz... Warning! Warning!]

[High-intensity electromagnetic interference signal detected!]

[System connection interrupted... X-ray vision function disabled... Gossip Radar disabled...]

[System attempting reboot... ten-minute countdown...]

Jian Ning's face instantly turned deathly pale.

It... it failed?!

<Damn it! There's a jammer installed beneath the table?!>

<We're finished! Huo Si bet his entire fortune! I'm blind now?!>

Cold sweat slid down Jian Ning's forehead.

He instinctively looked at Huo Si, his eyes full of panic and pleading.

Huo Si keenly sensed that something was wrong with Jian Ning. He tightened his grip on Jian Ning's hand, his gaze asking, What is it?

Huo Si still believed Jian Ning's System would have a way to win this gamble!

But Jian Ning trembled as he wrote a single word in Huo Si's palm: Blind.

Huo Si's pupils contracted slightly.

Their cheat had failed.

The situation now was—the enemy held the knife, while they were the fish on the chopping block. Since Old Ghost dared set up this game, there had to be a trick inside that dice cup. If they relied on luck alone, they would undoubtedly lose.

"What's wrong? The boss's wife doesn't dare place a bet?" Old Ghost seemed to have spotted the problem and sneered. "Weren't you quite impressive downstairs? What, you're useless without luck?"

Jian Ning bit his lip and forced himself to calm down.

He could not panic.

The more panicked he was, the easier it would be to expose himself.

He had to stall for time!

"Who... who says I'm useless?" Jian Ning forced a smile, his palms drenched in sweat. "I just think... deciding everything in one round is too boring. How about... we talk about life first?"

Old Ghost snorted coldly. "Enough nonsense! Open the cup!"

At that critical moment, Jian Xiu, who had been standing behind them like a background prop the whole time, suddenly moved.

He glanced at the Patek Philippe on his wrist, the corner of his mouth lifting into an almost imperceptible smirk.

"Wait."

Jian Xiu suddenly spoke, his voice steady and forceful.

He took a cigar from his jacket, leisurely clipped it, and lit it.

"Since we're gambling with our lives, how can there be no audience?"

"Old Ghost, your VIP hall is too stuffy. Why not... open a window and let in some air?"

Old Ghost frowned. "Young Master Jian, what do you mean? This place is sealed. Where would there be a window?"

Jian Xiu exhaled a ring of smoke, his eyes drifting to the ventilation duct in the ceiling.

"If there are no windows, then... we'll create an accident."

The moment he finished speaking—

"Bzzzz—"

The lights in the entire VIP hall suddenly flickered.

Immediately after, a tremendous roar came from the overhead ventilation duct, as if some heavy machinery were operating beyond capacity.

Old Ghost's expression changed. "What's going on?!"

The next second—

"Snap!"

The entire VIP hall—no, the entire Golden Shark—instantly plunged into silent darkness.

The power was out!

Perfect chance!

Huo Si reacted with astonishing speed.

The instant the lights went out, he violently flipped over the heavy gambling table in front of him!

"Crash!"

The solid wood table, weighing several hundred pounds, smashed directly toward Old Ghost.

"Ah—!"

Old Ghost let out a scream. Before he could fire, the table had crushed his leg.

" Ning Ning! Get down!"

Huo Si roared, yanking Jian Ning into his arms and rolling behind the sofa.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Muzzle flashes flickered in the darkness.

Old Ghost's men began firing blindly.

"Jian Xiu! Get them out!" Huo Si shouted into the darkness while returning fire, having snatched a bodyguard's gun.

"Got it!" Jian Xiu's voice came from the other side. "I've untied Aunt Zhang! Cover me!"

It turned out that Jian Xiu had stayed quiet earlier because he had been using the miniature communicator hidden in his sleeve to command the technical team he had planted aboard the ship long ago, directly hacking the entire vessel's power system!

This was how top capitalists fought—they did not play card tricks with you. They simply flipped your whole table over!

Amid the chaos, Jian Ning hid in Huo Si's arms, listening to the gunfire and screams around him as adrenaline surged through his veins.

The System might not have been able to see through the dice cup, but in this blackout, the jammer had failed too!

[Ding! System reboot successful!]

[Night Vision Mode activated!]

Jian Ning's vision instantly brightened.

In the green night-vision view, he clearly saw Old Ghost crawling out from beneath the table, raising his gun and aiming at Jian Xiu's back as he ran out carrying Aunt Zhang!

"Brother! Watch out behind you!"

Without a second thought, Jian Ning grabbed the ashtray beside him and hurled it with all his strength.

Take this!

"Bang!"

The ashtray struck Old Ghost squarely on the forehead.

Old Ghost's hand jerked aside, and the bullet hit the ceiling.

"Nice one!" Jian Xiu shouted over his shoulder, carrying Aunt Zhang as he rushed out the doors.

"Retreat!"

Huo Si pulled Jian Ning up and followed close behind under the cover of darkness.

On the deck, the sea wind howled.

The three of them, along with Aunt Zhang, raced all the way to the backup speedboat.

Their pursuers had already caught up, bullets striking the railings and sending sparks flying.

"Get on!"

Huo Si shoved Jian Ning into the speedboat, untied the rope himself, and jumped aboard.

Jian Xiu took the helm. The engine roared, and the speedboat shot into the vast sea like an arrow loosed from a bow.

"Don't let them get away!!"

Old Ghost rushed onto the deck, clutching his bleeding forehead as he shouted furiously.

Yet the only answer he received was the spray growing farther and farther away, along with Jian Ning's mocking voice over a loudspeaker.

"Old Ghost! Thanks for the ledger! And... your casino security system is terrible! Next time, I suggest you spend some money and hire my brother as a consultant! Hahahaha!"

In safe waters, aboard the speedboat.

Having narrowly escaped death, all four of them looked somewhat bedraggled.

Jian Ning sprawled on the deck, gasping for breath. His hands were still shaking, but his face was lit with the excitement of surviving disaster.

"That was too thrilling..."

"That was way more exciting than a movie..."

Huo Si sat beside him, took off his coat, and draped it over him. His eyes were full of lingering fear.

"If you dare be that reckless again, I'll lock you up at home."

Jian Ning's ashtray throw had saved Jian Xiu, but it had also exposed Jian Ning himself to gunfire.

As Jian Xiu steered the boat, he looked back, his eyes slightly red.

"Ning Ning, just now... thank you."

"If it hadn't been for that ashtray, your brother's life would've ended there."

Jian Ning chuckled and reached into Huo Si's pocket, pulling out the black ledger he had casually taken amid the chaos.

"Why thank me? We're family. No need for formalities."

"What matters is, we got the goods."

He opened the ledger.

By moonlight, Jian Ning saw the name on the first page.

The name of the mastermind who had paid heavily to hire Old Ghost to create the car accident that killed Jian Family's parents all those years ago.

It was not Huo Zhen.

Nor was it any of the people they had suspected before.

That name was—Qin Xiaotian.

Qin Yu's father, Old Master Huo's close friend, and the head of the Qin Household, one of the capital's four great families.

Jian Ning's fingers tightened abruptly.

The Qin Household?

It was actually the Qin Household?!

When Huo Si saw that name, his expression darkened at once.

"Qin Xiaotian..."

"No wonder Huo Zhen was able to clean things up so thoroughly back then. The Qin Household had been using official connections behind the scenes to handle the aftermath."

Jian Xiu was steering the boat. Upon hearing that name, the veins on the back of his hand bulged as he gripped the wheel.

"The Qin Household... what a Qin Household!"

"To seize the Jian Family's overseas market, they actually resorted to something this vicious!"

Just then, Aunt Zhang, who had been cowering in the corner and trembling, finally broke into tears.

"Young Master... Second Young Master... Besides the Qin Household, there was... there was someone else..."

Jian Ning whirled around. "Who?"

Aunt Zhang trembled as she pulled a bloodstained pocket watch from her clothes.

She had torn it from the killer amid the chaos at the scene of the car accident all those years ago.

The pocket watch opened to reveal a miniature photograph inside.

The photograph showed a young woman with a sweet, radiant smile.

And that woman...

Looked eighty percent like Jian Ning's agent—Su Mo!

Jian Ning: "???"

Huo Si: "???"

The system notification sounded faintly.

[Ding! A shocking high-society family scandal has been unlocked!]

[The person in the photograph is not Su Mo, but Su Mo's biological mother—also Old Master Huo's illegitimate daughter.]

[The Qin Household acted back then because Jian Family's parents discovered the true cause of Su Mo's mother's death (she was killed by the Qin Household). The Qin Household silenced them to keep it secret...]

Jian Ning felt like his brain was no longer enough to process this.

How did this end up involving Sister Su too?

Doesn't that make Sister Su... Huo Si's... aunt? (Or cousin?)

This family hierarchy is a complete mess!