What Is Gambling?

"Haha..." Seeing that Chang Lao Si did not know how to answer, Ren Jie suddenly burst out laughing and stood up. Walking over, he patted Chang Lao Si on the shoulder. "Honestly, you are far worse than those people in the Imperial Court or the Five Great Families. The people in court could swear to the heavens at this moment, singing praises before the Emperor, but which one of them did not harbor other thoughts? Yet who would dare say it aloud? If the Emperor asked, 'Really?' they would surely come up with a hundred, a thousand reasons to tell him it was truer than true. Hahaha..."

Sweat! Chang Lao Si was completely dumbfounded. But hearing Ren Jie speak of the Emperor like that made his heart leap into his throat. Isn't this far too bold? Though they sometimes said other things in private, no one in Jade Capital City dared openly discuss His Majesty so casually, especially with the meaning behind Ren Jie's words...

"These are the house deed and land deed for your Chang Le Gambling House..." Ren Jie raised a hand, pulled the box from the fatty's arms, and handed it to Chang Lao Si. "Take them. This Family Head treated the Fang Family's eldest miss, and I had to use an extremely precious medicine worth at least five million Jade Coins. They put up some businesses and Jade Coins as collateral, including your Chang Le Gambling House. But the more I thought about it afterward, the more something felt wrong. This Family Head may not be as peerlessly heroic as my old man, but the dignified Ren Family Head would not stoop so low as to extort another family's property. That is why I came specifically to verify things. If there is a problem here, all of this will be returned to you."

What? The fatty, Gao Ren, nearly jumped up when he heard that.

What nonsense is this? You were the one who demanded it. Besides, you were never a good person to begin with. What are you pretending to be so generous for now?!

"Don't get worked up. Fang Yan wants me to take the blame for this. News of it will definitely spread. Just wait and watch—they are destined to carry this black pot." Ren Jie knew the fatty would react, so he sent him a reminder through his divine sense.

Hm? Hearing that, Gao Ren immediately knew there had to be more to come. But in the next instant, he abruptly realized something was wrong. Ren Jie had spoken to him through divine sense.

Fuck, didn't that mean he had already reached the True Qi Realm? And they were several meters apart right now. He would need to be at least around the True Qi Realm Sixth Layer to do that. How was that possible?

The fatty was bewildered by Ren Jie's unexpected move and startled by his divine sense, while Chang Lao Si, who had just come in, was equally confused.

What was going on? He had come to return his things? How could that be?

Because Fang Yan had told him that Ren Jie had forcibly demanded them. Since the Fang Family was the Chang Le Gang's backer, if he did not hand them over now, they would have no way to protect the Chang Le Gang anymore, and the Ren Family would take action directly.

Chang Lao Si did not know how he had offended Ren Jie. No matter how he pleaded with Fang Yan at the time, it had been useless. Over the years, aside from the tributes he gave the Fang Family, he had given Fang Yan as much as fifty thousand Jade Coins every year. Yet this was what he got now.

In the end, with no other choice, he had compromised. Only afterward had exhaustion washed over him, leaving him listless and making him want to leave Jade Capital City.

But now that Ren Jie said this, why had the matter suddenly taken on a different flavor? Could it be that the Fang Family had sold him out?

Still, he was no fool. Ren Jie was Jade Capital City's famous Hedonistic Young Master. Even if he knew the Fang Family had done this, would he really return these things to him? That was even harder to believe.

"Take a look at these..." As Ren Jie spoke, he took out the Fang Family's one-million-Jade-Coin Jade Note, the Middle-Grade Spirit Tool, and the other shop contracts for Chang Lao Si to inspect. Let's see whether you believe it now. And the real show is still to come. If Chang Lao Si truly was the sort of man rumored to spare no cost for gambling skill, Ren Jie would soon have him utterly enthralled and draw him completely into the fold.

As for this, it was merely laying the groundwork in advance, making Chang Lao Si less resistant so that he would accept what came later more easily.

"Th-this..." Chang Lao Si looked and saw that it was indeed Fang Yan's shop. When Fang Yan had opened it, he himself had even given five thousand Jade Coins as a congratulatory gift. One million Jade Coins, a Middle-Grade Spirit Tool—were these not precisely the things the Fang Family had offered a reward for some time ago? And Fang Qi's Silk Shop was there as well. There was no mistake.

Chang Lao Si's expression grew uglier and uglier. Fang Yan, Fang Family—you were too black-hearted! Over these years, I gave you several million Jade Coins in tribute and never asked anything of you. I only asked that when some great power gave me trouble, you would step out and block it for me.

And now you actually sold me out, then wanted me to be grateful to you. You fucking bastards.

You even had me withdraw everyone, thoroughly offend the Ren Family, and reopen the gambling house in cooperation with your Fang Family. You would hold the major share, yet you made it sound as though you were thinking of me.

The more Chang Lao Si thought about it, the angrier he became. This was even more infuriating than being directly extorted or oppressed. He had been played like a monkey behind a screen. People of the martial world could bleed and fight to the death, but nothing was more humiliating than this.

He and the entire Chang Le Gang had been sold out by Fang Yan and the Fang Family, and they still wanted him to make money for them. So the Fang Family had long wanted to swallow up the Chang Le Gang, but had never found a suitable excuse. To think they would do it at a time like this...

Chang Lao Si was already furious beyond measure, but before Ren Jie, he did not dare curse too much. He truly did not understand the affairs between the great families, and now he was somewhat frightened as well. Still, he believed Ren Jie's words, because the Middle-Grade Spirit Tool bore the Fang Family's seal and mark. Fang Yan had been in such a hurry, and the contracts for Fang Yan's and Fang Qi's shops were all here. There was absolutely no way to fake it.

"Chang Si is already immensely grateful just to have this mystery unraveled. Aside from the Chang Le Gang's people, Chang Si will leave all the regular staff of the Chang Le Gambling House for Ren Family Head. From now on, they will belong to Ren Family Head. And I will not speak of this matter outside..." As Chang Lao Si spoke, he pushed the wooden box in his hands toward Ren Jie.

He did not believe Ren Jie was any good bird who would voluntarily return this to him. He was surely after something else, and Chang Lao Si was incomparably furious inside.

Even if I, Chang Lao Si, never make a name for myself in Jade Capital City again, I cannot let you Fang Family toy with me like this.

"These are all minor matters. I will not stand on ceremony with you—I'll call you Fourth Old. Fourth Old, you know I like eating, drinking, and having fun. Gambling is what I like most of all. I have a few ideas. Listen to them..." Ren Jie pressed the wooden box back down, had Chang Lao Si sit, then sat beside him and began speaking unhurriedly.

In Ren Jie's previous life, the gambling industry had truly developed into an entire profession, one that had undergone modern psychological analysis and research. Those were the things Ren Jie intended to discuss with Chang Lao Si. With the enhancement of his great realm, everything he had seen and heard in his previous life—films and television dramas, even casual remarks from other people's conversations and all sorts of information—could be remembered clearly, categorized, organized, and put to use.

Things Ren Jie had once read online about Macau and Las Vegas now emerged from his mind in clear order. Removing the technological elements and making a few adjustments, he could connect them with the gambling trade in this world.

In Ren Jie's eyes, the current casinos were far too primitive. They were still far from becoming an industry.

Ren Jie first told Chang Lao Si about several new gambling methods. What kind of person was Chang Lao Si? The instant he heard them, he understood their key points, and his eyes shone brightly.

Because these were methods he had never heard before. Moreover, if they worked as Ren Jie described, they would absolutely attract countless people to play, with wealth rolling in like a surging river.

Ren Jie then revealed some ideas about managing gamblers and gambling cities, turning gambling into an industry and attaching other things to it, moving beyond the scale of a simple casino. How should different tiers be distinguished? How could VIP customers be attracted? How could new gambling methods be created...

Ren Jie had only just begun speaking, yet not to mention a man like Chang Lao Si, who lived by gambling—even Gao Ren, who had spent some time around casinos and had once helped the former Ren Jie win money, listened until he cried out in delight.

The way he looked at Ren Jie changed completely. Was this still the Meal Ticket Boss he had latched onto back then? Casinos were legal in Jade Capital City, but in the eyes of powers like the Five Great Families, they were merely a petty path with little room for development. Yet hearing Ren Jie explain it, how was this some petty path? Gambling could actually support an entire city, support an entire industry.

And these were not cruel methods of cheating people, nor were they ways of draining a pond to catch every fish for short-term profit. They could let everyone participate, earn a good name, make real money, and keep people from being driven into ruin...

It was too unbelievable. Gao Ren even had the urge to pry open Ren Jie's head and see what exactly was inside it.

How had his brain grown? How could he come up with such things? It was too miraculous. And every set of ideas was so complete, every aspect considered, like a mature system of cultivation techniques refined over hundreds of years through the study and improvement of countless people.

Could it be that when he had been eating, drinking, and carousing in the past, these were what he had really been thinking about? Even the fatty, Gao Ren, was stunned beyond words. Whenever Chang Lao Si heard something exciting, he clapped his hands from time to time, nodded nonstop like a chick pecking at grain, or grew so emotional that tears could not help but spill down his face.

He had never imagined gambling could develop to such a level, with everyone participating, and with money, reputation, and status all earned at the same time.

It would no longer be merely lending at usurious rates for short-term profit, no longer make everyone think of casino owners as people who ruined families and drove people to death. There were methods for the rich, and the lottery system for the poor was even more wondrous.

At this moment, Chang Lao Si had the urge to kneel in worship, like a novice Miraculous Apothecary encountering a top-tier Spirit Alchemist. He wanted nothing more than to kneel immediately and beg Ren Jie to take him as a disciple.

Because aside from explaining a few specific details, Ren Jie merely touched on most things with a single sentence before moving on once Chang Lao Si had learned a little. It was like one peerless beauty after another appearing before a vigorous adult man, only allowing him a fleeting glance. The more he looked, the deeper he sank, and the hotter the fire burned...

"This is only a very small part of it. Gambling is not as simple as people think. Humans are gambling by nature—it only depends on the angle from which you look at it. Fourth Old, you are a smart man too. I returned these things to you, and you know that is not something I would ordinarily do. But why did I come to give them to you anyway? Because I have confidence that I can persuade you to work with me." Ren Jie had spoken for a full half hour when he suddenly stopped and changed the subject.

Chang Lao Si had been listening as though intoxicated, feeling much as Ren Jie had when listening to the Sage Dao Discussion. Ren Jie's abrupt stop left him stunned for a moment before he understood what Ren Jie meant.

Chang Lao Si slowly rose to his feet, took two steps back, and rolled up the sleeves that usually covered his hands.

He rarely acted in public, and everyone knew he had four fingers. But only now did they discover that both of his little fingers were gone.