Chapter 48: Cheating

Wang Hao frowned and tried to stop him, saying, "No way, Mr. Jiang!"

Lin Zhou said weakly, "That's right! Mr. Jiang, you don't need to worry about me. We were just hired to do a job, and we do whatever our employer tells us to do! You don't need to blame yourself!"

Jiang Cheng smiled and said, "You guys don't need to say anymore. This is my affair. You and Lin Zhou stay out of it! Rest assured, I will bring you both back safely."

This whole matter had indeed started because of him, and Lin Zhou had merely been helping him out a favor.

If he had understood the situation of the Bee Sect beforehand, he would have turned a blind eye to Xu Fei's retaliation. Sometimes, playing dumb and swallowing an unjust loss can save oneself a lot of trouble.

Yet, as fate would have it, Lin Zhou and Wang Hao had witnessed Xu Fei's retaliation with their own eyes, and he himself had intentionally or unintentionally verified Xu Fei's identity.

Everyone has a temper. When someone slaps you in the face, the natural urge is to slap back.

Jiang Cheng was no exception.

That was why he had asked Lin Zhou for help. Little did he expect that while they successfully found Xu Fei, he himself would end up trapped by the Bee Sect with both of his arms dislocated.

Life really was full of twists and turns.

However, once the bow is drawn, there is no turning back. Since things had already happened, evasion was no longer useful.

Jiang Cheng did not go looking for trouble, but he was certainly not afraid of it either.

Especially since this involved his younger sister, he was even less inclined to back down.

Since this Brother Dong wanted to gamble, he would simply play along and take the gamble with him!

Naturally, he knew that this Brother Dong ran a gambling den, and the methods of cheating in casinos were myriad; playing games of chance against such a person was practically seeking death.

Yet Jiang Cheng had no choice. If this matter was not resolved today, even bigger troubles would follow.

Still, he was not overly worried about this particular gamble.

With the perspective of his special vision, as long as gambling was involved, he was essentially operating with cheats enabled.

Even if Brother Dong might resort to cheating, he did not believe for a second that he would lose.

Observing Jiang Cheng's reaction, Brother Dong nodded in satisfaction.

Immediately after, he asked, "Kid, how do you want to play? Mahjong, Pai Gow, poker, or dice—name whatever you know, and I, Cheng Dong, will accompany you at any time!"

Jiang Cheng calmly replied, "Let's go with poker then! I don't know how to play the others."

Saying this naturally had a strategy behind it. Of course he knew how to play mahjong and roll dice.

But when it came to dice and mahjong, to put it mildly, running into a master whose sleight of hand alone could easily make Jiang Cheng suffer immensely.

In contrast, the ways to cheat in poker were far fewer!

Besides, he possessed perspective vision, and he was confident that not a single trick of Cheng Dong's would escape his eyes.

Cheng Dong then gestured to Xu Fei. Understanding the hint instantly, Xu Fei walked out of the room and returned shortly after with a brand-new deck of playing cards.

Cheng Dong offered a seductive, sinister smile. "Kid, how do you want to play this?"

Jiang Cheng pondered for a moment and said, "Brother Dong, I don't know any fancy games, so let's keep it simple without dragging things out. We'll each draw a single card and compare values! If I win, I take Lin Zhou with me and our accounts are settled completely. If I lose, one million dragon coins plus this arm of mine will belong to you, Brother Dong!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Cheng Dong and Xu Fei exchanged glances, their expressions turning extremely colorful.

Comparing high and low with a single card draw?

The cards Xu Fei had just brought out were magic trick cards.

The back of every single card bore specific secret markings, and a mere glance was enough to know what the card was.

For Jiang Cheng to challenge him to a single-card comparison of values was pure suicide!

He wanted the one million, and he wanted Jiang Cheng's arm as well!

And most importantly, he needed to win back the dignity of the Bee Sect!

A single draw would decide the victory, and he wanted to make Jiang Cheng lose so thoroughly that he would submit without a single grievance!

Cheng Dong pulled out the deck of cards and handed them directly to Jiang Cheng. "Kid, don't say that I, Cheng Dong, played any tricks. You shuffle the cards yourself!"

Jiang Cheng smiled and waved his hand. "No need, Brother Dong, you shuffle them. I trust you!"

Tricks played with poker cards basically boiled down to just a few methods.

Either cheating by stealing cards and switching them out.

Or using a specific shuffling technique to arrange the deck into the desired order.

Or relying on an extraordinary memory to recall the exact position of every single card's face.

Of course, there was another kind—using trick props, such as marked cards.

Jiang Cheng had already used his perspective vision to inspect the deck the moment Xu Fei brought it over earlier.

There was indeed something wrong with this deck.

However, this was well within Jiang Cheng's expectations and was no big deal to him.

He would have found it strange if Cheng Dong had not played any dirty tricks!

Without standing on ceremony, Cheng Dong took the magic playing cards and casually shuffled them a few times.

He removed the two jokers, placed the deck flat on the table, and with a light sweep of his hand, instantly fanned the cards out into an arc across the surface.

The technique looked rather flashy.

Jiang Cheng stared intently at Cheng Dong's hands, pushing his visual acuity to its absolute limit.

He did not dare miss a single movement.

Yet Jiang Cheng discovered that this Cheng Dong did not seem to be performing any covert operations.

His shuffling technique appeared ordinary, even mediocre to the point of clumsiness.

Throughout the process, Cheng Dong's eyes were not particularly fixed on the cards, which ruled out the possibility of memorizing the positions of the card faces.

Looking at it this way, the only thing Cheng Dong was relying on was this deck of magic trick cards.

Jiang Cheng relaxed slightly for a moment, though he still dared not let down his guard.

This was a gamble involving an arm.

One million meant little to him—he could always earn it back eventually—but his own arm could not be left behind here.

Jiang Cheng smiled at Cheng Dong. "Brother Dong, how about I make my choice first?"

"Be my guest!"

Cheng Dong had no objections. With the magic cards in his hand, he naturally felt he had Jiang Cheng firmly in the palm of his hand.

Furthermore, Jiang Cheng hadn't even touched the cards the entire time, and the deck itself was provided by him. Even if there were sleight-of-hand card-swapping techniques, it was impossible to swap them for an identical duplicate deck out of thin air.

Unless Jiang Cheng possessed perspective vision, winning was quite literally impossible for him!

Could such a thing as perspective vision really exist in this world?

What a joke!

Wang Hao looked at Jiang Cheng with a complex gaze, wanting to say something but swallowing the words back.

Jiang Cheng put on an exaggerated act of looking left and right, pretending to ask naively, "Brother Dong, how are the card values calculated again?"

Hearing this, Xu Fei at the side burst into laughter, her face filled with utter disdain.

She sneered, "Are you a genuine novice or just pretending? Don't you even know the basic rules of poker? Excluding the jokers, the Ace is the highest, and the 2 is the lowest. As for the suits, from highest to lowest, they go spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs!"

Jiang Cheng merely smiled and chose not to retort!

Hearing this, Wang Hao at the side silently covered his face with his hand. Jiang Cheng was truly hopeless as a rookie!

Daring to gamble against Cheng Dong without knowing anything at all!

He was utterly out of his mind!

Lin Zhou felt a profound sense of internal turmoil. To think that his life had actually been entrusted to such an utter novice—was this truly destined by fate?

The moment that thought crossed his mind, despair fully settled in.

Cheng Dong regarded Jiang Cheng with even greater contempt.

Naturally, he refused to believe that anyone could be lucky enough to randomly pick the absolute highest card on a whim.

Especially when he himself possessed the ability to read the card faces.

Though he couldn't see the suits, it was essentially equivalent to playing with cheats enabled.

If he still couldn't win against Jiang Cheng while using cheats, it could only mean this was simply fate.

Jiang Cheng nodded, putting on a hesitant and indecisive expression!

Lin Zhou and Wang Hao were strained to the absolute limit of tension.

Xu Fei and Cheng Dong sneered inwardly.

Their gazes locked relentlessly onto Jiang Cheng's hands, attempting to see through any minor tricks he might try to pull.

Whether intentional or deliberate, they surprisingly noticed that Jiang Cheng merely held up a single index finger, sliding it gently across the faces of the fanned cards.

They were stunned for a split second, and then their hearts settled completely.

If that could somehow count as cheating, he, Cheng Dong, would live-stream himself eating a five-blade electric fan.

With a playful grin, he said, "Kid, to be honest, I rather admire you. For all these years, no one has ever managed to walk away with money from the hands of the Bee Sect—you're the first."

"To tell the truth, our Bee Sect transformed a long time ago and abandoned those unpresentable scams of the past. If it weren't for that bastard Huang Fuyuan, Fei Fei wouldn't have stooped so low as to swindle a woman. Realistically speaking, Fei Fei was in the wrong on that one."

Jiang Cheng sneered inwardly. Good grief, even swindlers have learned to transform and rebrand nowadays; they really do keep pace with the times!

Then, Brother Dong's tone shifted abruptly, his expression turning icy cold as he eyed Jiang Cheng with a sinister gleam.

"However, since our Bee Sect made a move, we might occasionally slip, but the dignity of the Bee Sect cannot be lost! Originally, one hundred thousand wasn't a big deal to me, Cheng Dong, but Fei Fei felt it harmed the Bee Sect's reputation and wanted to teach you a small lesson. If you had just accepted it honestly, none of this subsequent trouble would have happened. But you just had to push your luck and send someone to stir up trouble! I, Cheng Dong, am compelled to teach you a lesson now—that arm of yours, I'm taking it for sure!"

Jiang Cheng listened quietly. To be frank, this Cheng Dong struck him as quite contradictory.

Clearly a hoodlum, yet he insisted on putting on the airs of a cultured intellectual; clearly a swindler, yet he tried to lecture others on reason and logic.

Although this so-called logic was entirely self-serving, to Jiang Cheng, it was no different from absurd sophistry.

Yet Jiang Cheng had no desire to argue.

What was the point of reasoning with someone whose worldview was completely warped?

Without speaking, Jiang Cheng continued to slide his index finger slowly across each card.

With every half-inch his finger moved, the hearts of Lin Zhou and Wang Hao tightened another notch.

"Let's go with this one!"

At that moment, Jiang Cheng's index finger suddenly halted near two cards.

Everyone widened their eyes, not daring to blink even for a fraction of a second.

Upon seeing the position of Jiang Cheng's finger, Cheng Dong's heart gave a sudden, sharp jerk, his brows instantly knitting together into a tight knot.

Because the spot where Jiang Cheng's finger rested was right in between two cards.

One was a 3, and right beside it was precisely an Ace.

Which one was he going to choose?

Just as Cheng Dong silently prayed for Jiang Cheng to pick that 3, Jiang Cheng's finger shifted half an inch to the right and effortlessly drew out the Ace!

At that very moment, even Cheng Dong, who could see through the hidden markings, lost his composure entirely!

A dense layer of sweat instantly broke out all over his back!

His face plunged into a shade of absolute, icy gloom.

Jiang Cheng had actually chosen the Ace!