The beautiful woman lifted the dice cup. Sure enough, it was four, five, six-big.
Trembling, the woman took all the silver dollars from the chest beside her feet and paid the gamblers.
Then a refined, middle-aged man came to the gambling table with two greeters in short red jackets.
He waved a hand, and the two greeters hauled the trembling female dealer up and took her away.
Then he came before Cui Jiuyang and said, "I heard that my subordinates failed to recognize your eminence earlier and prevented our two honored guests from going upstairs."
As he spoke, he took out two silvery-white tickets and gave one each to Master Tiger and Cui Jiuyang.
The tickets were covered in silver winter jasmine flowers. Apart from the three characters "First Moonlight," there was no other information on them.
"These two gambling tickets represent a stake of one thousand silver dollars, as a token of my apology. The stairs to the second floor are now open to you both."
Cui Jiuyang flicked his sleeves and headed upstairs.
Master Tiger, however, stared at the man for a while before leaving.
As they climbed the stairs, Master Tiger said quietly to Cui Jiuyang ahead of him, "That man... is very dangerous."
Cui Jiuyang lacked Master Tiger's keen intuition. He had merely thought the man looked like a pretentious prick who deserved a beating. He asked, "How dangerous?"
Master Tiger fell silent for a moment before answering, "More dangerous than Old Daoist Sun."
Cui Jiuyang smiled. "That's not too bad, then."
The two reached the top of the stairs. Just as in the first-floor hall, a large screen stood here, blocking newcomers' view.
The imagery on the screen was largely the same as downstairs, except the celestial maidens' ribbons had become clouds and mist, still