Chapter 648: Supernuclear Computation

Di Hou didn't raise in this round, so Zheng Yingxiong began the second round of dealing.

He dealt the cards face down, giving one to each person, and finally to Di Hou.

As Zheng Yingxiong climbed onto the table and was about to hand the card to Di Hou, he suddenly twitched his nose, and the hand holding the card froze in mid-air.

Di Hou's hand, reaching out to take the card, paused as well.

"What? You don't want to give me the card?"

Zheng Yingxiong looked around with a puzzled expression, then fixed his gaze back on Di Hou and sniffed again.

"What's wrong with you, kid?"

"This... Uncle..." Zheng Yingxiong seemed troubled by something. He paused for a moment, sniffed again, and his face relaxed a bit. "Nothing... It must have been an illusion..."

After handing the "hidden card" to Di Hou, Zheng Yingxiong returned to his seat with a confused look and scratched his head.

A trickle of blood slid from his nostril, but he showed no sign of noticing.

Tiantian, sitting beside him, was startled and quickly wiped the blood from his nose, only to smear it on her hand.

"Zheng Yingxiong, why are you bleeding again?"

Zheng Yingxiong turned his head blankly toward Tiantian, still seeming out of it. His lips moved slightly as he slowly uttered a few words:

"Just now, for that instant, it smelled really bad."

"Really... bad?"

Tiantian quickly sniffed the air. As for "bad smells," the Zhong Yuan Zhi Di was already filled with the heavy stench of decay, which was nothing unusual for everyone.

Besides, this room had just seen a death, with sticky blood everywhere, making the odor even worse than outside.

But Zheng Yingxiong was referring to that specific "instant" as bad, so Tiantian felt the smell he meant must come from his own "Hui Xiang."

He had detected an odor only he could sense.

"What kind of bad smell?" Tiantian leaned in and asked in a voice so soft it was almost a whisper. "Is it the smell of 'Hui Xiang'?"

"It's hard to say..." Zheng Yingxiong shook his head and replied in a quiet voice. "Sister, what you call 'Hui Xiang' mostly smells fresh and fragrant to me. I've only ever smelled a slight bad odor from really powerful 'Hui Xiang'... but what I just smelled was strange..."

"How was it strange?"

"That smell was like 'Tian'..." Zheng Yingxiong's face turned pale. "It was like the foul stench from something far beyond an ordinary Sheng Xiao, but I don't know where it came from..."

"Where else could it come from..."

Tiantian recalled how the person who had given them Di Hou's address had clearly stated, "I want to know if Di Hou has Hui Xiang," and she suspected there was more to it.

"Zheng Yingxiong." Tiantian called softly, "If you smell something like that again, just tap my arm, okay?"

"Okay."

Di Hou didn't notice the strange looks on Tiantian and Zheng Yingxiong's faces. After getting his hidden card, he glanced at it and showed a slightly complex expression, though he hid it well, making it hard to detect. He pondered for a moment, set the card down, and looked at everyone:

"Anyone want to raise?"

Qi Xia caught that subtle expression from Di Hou, but he couldn't quite figure out what it meant. What kind of card would make him react like that?

Currently, the highest visible cards on the table were Di Hou's "Chu Xi" at "one two three zero," and Zheng Yingxiong's "Dong Zhi" at "one one two three."

With the public card being "Li Xia" at "four six," both players had a chance to form a "straight" with "one two three four five six" if they held the right cards.

However, this straight wasn't like the one Qiao Jia Jin described—it required six cards, not five.

If either Zheng Yingxiong or Di Hou drew a card with "five," they could potentially get a full straight of six cards.

Qi Xia had already calculated that forming a straight in this game was rare, with odds much higher than for a "flush," "three of a kind," or "pair," and about on par with "four of a kind." So, a straight should carry significant weight.

Theoretically, he didn't need to continue in this round, but if he stopped thinking, Zheng Yingxiong might lose even with a good hand.

The priority now was to guess what Di Hou's hidden card was.

What card could have made him show that complex expression?

"If no one raises, I'll do it." Di Hou said, "Raise one."

He tossed a "Dao" onto the table and looked up at the others.

At that moment, Tiantian and Zheng Yingxiong both wore slightly complex expressions. They had no chips left, so in this situation, they had to fold.

Seeing this, Qi Xia slowly turned his head:

"A fist."

"Got it."

He exchanged a glance with Chen Jun Nan, and the two slowly stood up. Qiao Jia Jin said:

"Oh, Tiantian, I can return the 'Dao' I borrowed from you earlier."

Chen Jun Nan reached into his pocket: "Kid, I just picked up a bead outside the door. Is it yours?"

The two slapped their chips onto the table and glared fiercely at Di Hou, showing no intention of backing down.

Di Hou knew he couldn't stop their private chip arrangements, so he just turned away with a disdainful look.

Xiao Cheng stared at his "Xia Zhi" card on the table, looking troubled. He only had one chip left. He thought for a moment, about to announce he was out, when Qi Xia spoke up from nearby.

"Stay in. No need to be afraid of him. Your card is good."

"Good...?" Xiao Cheng was stunned. He thought for a while and decided to trust Qi Xia, pushing his last chip forward.

Qi Xia thought carefully and almost overlooked Xiao Cheng's card. In fact, his hand was even stronger than Zheng Yingxiong's or Di Hou's for winning.

His "Xia Zhi" was "five two one," and with the public card "Li Xia" at "four two six," he was just one "three" away from a "one two three four five six" straight.

And that "three" was easier to get than the "five" that Di Hou or Zheng Yingxiong needed.

Because of the lunar calendar, all the Jie Qi in the second half of the year end in "eight twenty-three," meaning at least six Jie Qi dates are "twenty-three." Add to that two from March—"Qing Ming" and "Gu Yu"—plus the festival "Shang Si Jie" from March, and "Chu Xi," that makes a total of ten cards with "three."