The wager

Things finally turned out not to be heading in the worst possible direction.

A little after one in the afternoon, Xue Mingjie finally packed up and closed his shop, then went to a nearby local bank. Before long, he came out carrying a briefcase.

"It's not a big case, but there should still be three or four hundred thousand in there..."

Knowing what Xue Mingjie was going to do, and seeing him come straight out of a bank, Xia Xu naturally guessed what was inside.

After leaving the bank, Xue Mingjie hailed a taxi. Fortunately, Xia Xu had already considered the possibility that he might take some form of transport, and had stationed himself at a street corner where motorcycle taxis often picked up passengers.

Xue Mingjie had only just flagged down the taxi and hadn't even gotten in yet when Xia Xu climbed straight onto the back of a motorcycle and told its driver to follow that car in a moment.

Once the motorcycle started moving, wind roared past their ears, making conversation practically impossible to hear. The driver wasn't nearly as chatty as a taxi driver, either, and simply followed the car after they agreed on a fare.

After a winding journey, the taxi carrying Xue Mingjie finally stopped at a virtually deserted residential complex.

The developments nearby were either newly completed or still under construction, so hardly anyone lived there. Construction crews were still working at a handful of sites, but everywhere else was quiet and empty, with the ground either full of potholes or covered in yellow dirt and dust.

To avoid drawing attention, Xia Xu had the motorcycle follow at a distance. After watching the taxi enter an unoccupied residential complex, he got off, paid, and continued after it on foot.

As he walked into the complex, he happened to see the taxi heading back out with only its driver inside. Xia Xu followed the direction it had come from and soon found Xue Mingjie, Yao Dawu, and the others.

Yao Dawu's group still consisted of six men in suits and polished shoes. They had boldly set themselves up beneath an open-sided shelter, with a square table inside. Apart from the remote location, it looked no different from an ordinary card game.

"All that talk of a wager. I thought they'd at least set it up like the Macau Casino."

Watching from a distance, Xia Xu curled his lip.

Various gambling movies had clearly influenced him. Hearing about a wager had instinctively made him picture some lavish underground casino. He hadn't expected it to be no different from an ordinary illegal gambling gathering: find somewhere out of the way, put up a shelter, and start playing.

Still, it made sense. According to the synopsis of "The Dying Man," Zhang Jianmin hadn't deliberately sought out a game, but stumbled into one after a night of heavy drinking. That meant the location of Xue Mingjie and Yao Dawu's wager couldn't be too well hidden, and was unlikely to be indoors or in the sort of professional casino shown in gambling movies.

Now the first act's two main supporting characters were in position. All that remained was for the protagonist to take the stage, and the show could officially begin.

Before the protagonist even appeared, Yao Dawu and Xue Mingjie had already sat down to gamble. Of the four players at the table, three were Yao Dawu and his men. Fair play clearly wasn't on their agenda.

Xia Xu could see that the four were playing cards, but he didn't dare get close enough to make out the specific game or how it was going. Nor was his mind on the game; all his attention was on the surrounding intersections.

The card game was only a minor episode in The Dying Man. The real heart of the story was always its protagonist, Zhang Jianmin. Missing the game didn't matter. As long as Xia Xu found the protagonist, there would be other opportunities to gain something.

"Finally."

The surroundings were deserted and open, making anyone walking along the road quite conspicuous.

A little over ten minutes after the card game began, a square-faced middle-aged man with a haggard expression and bloodshot eyes came staggering over. A strong smell of alcohol wafted toward Xia Xu as the man passed him.

[Name]: Zhang Jianmin

[Life level]: 1

[Fate potential]: [Protagonist: "The Dying Man"]

[Talent potential]: Driving (1 star)

[Special]: None

[Obsession]: Get his fill of fun before he dies.

[Affinity]: 0

Xia Xu casually checked Zhang Jianmin's attributes and found them decidedly unremarkable. He had thought the protagonist of a story like this might have some incredible ability or special talent, and felt a little disappointed.

There was no time to dwell on that. Seeing that the "protagonist" had arrived, Xia Xu immediately perked up and devoted his full attention to watching events unfold.

Zhang Jianmin probably hadn't completely sobered up after his night of heavy drinking. On top of that, his incurable illness had left him with only a month to live. At this point, he had absolutely nothing holding him back.

This was undoubtedly the most hysterical and dangerous period of his life, when he would do anything without restraint.

As Zhang Jianmin passed the shelter where Yao Dawu, Xue Mingjie, and the others were gambling, he presumably felt the urge to give it a try. Without caring whether he knew them, he steeled himself and walked over. When one of Yao Dawu's men stopped him, he stated his intentions outright and slapped his bank card onto the table.

Both Xue Mingjie and Yao Dawu were seasoned gamblers. Faced with a fat sheep delivering himself to their door in a fit of madness, Yao Dawu naturally had no reason to turn him away.

Xue Mingjie kindly tried to dissuade him, but was already trapped in the situation himself. Besides, Zhang Jianmin was determined to experience gambling and wouldn't listen to anyone's advice. In the end, he joined them, with one of Yao Dawu's men giving up his seat.

"The real show begins."

Seeing everything fall into place, Xia Xu smiled.

If the plot followed the usual pattern, Zhang Jianmin would play with absolutely no idea what he was doing, yet win money left and right through sheer luck, creating comedy through the contrast.

If Xia Xu went over now and placed side bets on Zhang Jianmin, he should be able to make quite a bit himself.

But...

"Hello, is this Uncle Policeman? I'd like to report something. I've found a group of people gambling..."

Xia Xu quietly dialed a certain three-digit number.

Go over and join the gambling like Zhang Jianmin?

What a joke. I'm a thoroughly law-abiding citizen, a flower nurtured beneath the red flag, a red-scarf Young Pioneer with impeccable roots.

All right... the truth was that he'd looked into it beforehand, and Star City happened to be cracking down on illegal gambling gatherings lately.

Under Star City's rewards policy for reporting gambling, informants could receive a percentage of the gambling funds seized. If the amount exceeded five hundred thousand, the reward was six percent.

Xue Mingjie and Yao Dawu's wager clearly wasn't some little game involving a few hundred or a few thousand. With Zhang Jianmin recklessly throwing his savings into it as well, there were sure to be several hundred thousand in gambling funds. The reward alone would be a substantial sum.

As for joining in himself, Xia Xu had never considered it from beginning to end. Any notion of winning more money by joining them, or even cleaning them out, was pure wishful thinking.

When Yao Dawu had approached Xue Mingjie earlier, his obsession field had plainly read, "Make Xue Mingjie taste losing everything, too."

That "too" was the key. That single word was enough to make a fairly accurate guess about the reason for this wager. Clearly, Xue Mingjie had won money from Yao Dawu before.

Yao Dawu, meanwhile, was obviously involved in shady dealings. He had come to force Xue Mingjie-who had most likely already washed his hands of gambling and wanted to "live a decent life"-into this wager to get revenge.

If Xia Xu joined in and won Yao Dawu's money, he would probably end up being harassed relentlessly just like Xue Mingjie. Not only would he get tangled up in a mess, but Yao Dawu might well resort to more extreme measures.

If Yao Dawu could force Xue Mingjie to gamble with him this time, he could force Xia Xu next time. He might even simply rob him.

A mere high school student like Xia Xu had no way of resisting people with underworld connections. With his special Attribute Viewing ability, he would have plenty of opportunities to make money in the future. There was no need to take such a huge risk over a little greed. The risk and reward simply didn't match.

Besides, to be honest, even if he were reckless and enjoyed taking risks, it wouldn't help. In his current circumstances, he wasn't qualified to join the game at all.

Was he supposed to go over with his youthful high schooler's face and less than four thousand in his bank account, and announce that he wanted in?

They were gambling with entire cases of cash. There was no way they'd care about his three or four thousand. With that obviously immature high schooler's face, he'd only be treated as some little brat.

And what could he do even if he joined? Gamble against the protagonist, Zhang Jianmin? Knowing that the man's luck was currently off the charts, wouldn't he lose even his underwear?

As for placing side bets, that was even more ridiculous. He was a little brat who didn't even qualify as a supporting character in the story. What standing did he have to make them agree to let him place side bets all by himself? The three thousand in his account?