Chapter 645: Prohibition of Force

After Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin finished their whispered discussion about the rules, they looked up at Di Hou, who was shuffling the cards. He had shuffled them back and forth several times and was now gazing lazily at the group.

"How about it? Have you figured out the rules?" he asked.

"More or less," Qi Xia replied.

"But is your discussion even on the right track?" Di Hou asked again.

"Isn't it?"

Di Hou looked into Qi Xia's eyes and slowly curled the corners of his mouth. "Then let's see the truth in the win or loss."

Qi Xia nodded, then signaled to the others with his eyes, telling them to take back their chips.

The only advantage in this game was that, aside from Di Hou, if any one of the six players won, everyone's chips would return to their hands, and they could start the next round. But this also came with a problem: In the first round, Qi Xia had luckily won, but he only gained four Dao from Di Hou. Even if the same situation happened eight times until the game ended, they would only get thirty-two Dao in total, which was nearly half short of their goal of sixty.

If Di Hou reduced his bets in the subsequent rounds, forget about thirty-two; the final reward might barely reach twenty Dao.

"If there are no issues, I'll start dealing," Di Hou said. "Second round, begin!"

Upon hearing this, Qi Xia furrowed his brow slightly. Di Hou's demeanor was a bit off.

The way he said "Second round, begin!" was crisp and forceful, completely unlike his usual relaxed speech. It was clearly deliberate, as if he were saying it for...

Someone else's benefit.

"We need to shuffle the cards," Qiao Jiajin said, just like in the previous round. "And for this round, you can't deal. We'll go clockwise to the next person."

"What?"

"Is that not allowed?" Qiao Jiajin smiled. "There's no dealer here, so are you going to deal every single time?"

"What's wrong with me dealing?" Di Hou narrowed his eyes. "You're all a team. I can hardly trust you won't cheat."

"Oh~~~~~~"

No sooner had Di Hou finished speaking than Chen Junnan's voice rang out, as melodious as a goose flying across the sky.

Di Hou knew this guy was a troublemaker and didn't want to engage, but Chen Junnan's voice cut through like a bone-scraping knife.

"You scared the hell out of me!!" he shouted, leaning back and propping his legs up on the table, taking on a cocky, overbearing pose. "Did you all hear that, folks? I never even thought this game could involve 'cheating,' but he thought of it right away. I always said Monkey Bro has been clever since he was a kid—that's why he's Di Hou!"

"Yeah, yeah," Qiao Jiajin nodded beside him. "Really sharp, isn't he?"

"We're just trying to play it straight, and here he goes, turning into a monkey just like that." Chen Junnan turned his face. "Old Qiao, can you do that?"

"I definitely can't."

Chen Junnan turned his head to look at Xiao Cheng. "What about you, kid?"

"I—I can't either."

"He's not only better than us, but his brain works way faster too." Chen Junnan slapped his hand in frustration. "Our Monkey Bro has been worried about that kid cheating all along! I didn't even think of it ahead of time!"

"What the hell are you talking about...?" Di Hou said, stunned.

"It's got some truth to it!" Chen Junnan nodded vigorously. "Even though his hands are small and he can barely hold the cards, who says a kid who can't grip cards can't learn to cheat? I'm such an idiot!"

"Yeah! Junnan, you're an idiot!" Qiao Jiajin quickly nodded along.

As the two bantered back and forth like they were performing on stage, Tian Tian covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes crinkling with unstoppable laughter.

Di Hou's face turned iron gray, and he slammed his hand on the table. "You two are going too far. I'm about to lose my patience."

"Oh?" Chen Junnan suddenly smirked mischievously. "What if you can't hold back? You're acting weird, aren't you? Why not just kill me right now?"

"What?"

"Do you have some restrictions?" Chen Junnan lowered his legs from the table and leaned forward, his expression growing more provocative. "Is there a rule holding you back, Monkey Bro? Did your master draw a circle around you on the ground?"

Di Hou said nothing, just pressed his lips tightly together.

"I get it." Chen Junnan nodded. "To manage things better and let you sleep easy, does your rule include 'no violent interference in gambling'?"

Although Di Hou didn't speak, the others could read the answer in his expression.

Chen Junnan was right.

But at that moment, Qi Xia hesitated—

He was ready to retract his previous assumptions about Di Hou.

Even though Di Hou had brought out such an impressive set of cards, he himself didn't seem all that shrewd. Qi Xia had been biased from the start. Since they were playing Shuo Wang Yue in Di Hou's territory, Qi Xia naturally thought Di Hou had created the game. But now, it seemed otherwise.

Di Hou wasn't particularly clever. He might be a bit cunning, enough to handle ordinary people without trouble, but that level of smarts wasn't enough for big schemes or to break through Qi Xia's psychological defenses after betting his life.

If Qi Xia had to compare him to the Zodiac figures he'd encountered, Di Hou's level was even below that of Di Shu.

So why would someone like Di Hou have such confidence to pull out a card game with such complex rules and gamble against him?

Was it just because, in Di Hou's memory, Qi Xia wasn't as sharp as he was now?

No, there was another possibility: Di Hou had some "hidden card" up his sleeve. Qi Xia was more inclined to believe that Di Hou's current state was an act.

"Monkey Bro, is it okay or not?" Chen Junnan laughed. "You can't kill me, and I don't want to quit, so we're stuck. How about letting that kid deal? Are you really worried he'll cheat?"

Di Hou held up the deck in his hand, narrowing his eyes as he thought.

"Or maybe..." Chen Junnan smirked again, his eyes full of mockery, "Monkey Bro, you're not worried about him cheating—you're worried you can't cheat yourself?"

"Bullshit." Di Hou glared coldly. "Fine, deal away. I have nothing to fear."

He tossed the cards straight to Zheng Yingxiong, who fumbled and let them scatter everywhere. Zheng Yingxiong quickly bent down with a serious expression to pick them up, one by one, and stack them neatly.

He probably hadn't even played poker before, and with his small hands, he had to sort the cards one at a time. Then, under Tian Tian's guidance, he shuffled them.