Chapter 656: Extreme Probe

Di Hou slightly furrowed his brow.

"Are you saying, not looking at the cards and betting directly?" Di Hou asked.

"The casino boss doesn't dare to gamble?" Qi Xia said. "I now have 'ba ba', the 'gonggong pai' is 'yi yi'. Do you think I can beat you?"

Di Hou didn't answer. He just stared at Qi Xia's hand covering the cards for a moment, then said, "Aren't you afraid of losing?"

"Why do you assume I'm the one who's going to lose?" Qi Xia retorted.

Di Hou shook his head helplessly and looked away. "I have a feeling your chances of losing are greater."

As he said this, Zheng Yingxiong kept gripping Tian Tian's arm, his face looking quite unwell.

Tian Tian was affected by his tension and swallowed hard, then turned and called out, "Qi Xia... be careful."

Qi Xia glanced at Tian Tian's serious expression, then looked down at Zheng Yingxiong twitching his nose, and slowly narrowed his eyes.

Although Tian Tian hadn't said anything, her expression along with Zheng Yingxiong's pointed Qi Xia toward an absurd answer. This answer left Qi Xia momentarily stunned for three seconds.

Qi Xia paused to gather his thoughts, picked up the cards on the table, and slowly moved them under the table.

"Oh?" Di Hou found Qi Xia's action quite interesting. The wrinkles on his face relaxed a bit as he chuckled and asked, "What are you doing?"

Qi Xia wasn't sure what was going on, but he felt that Di Hou's state was strange right now—

It was as if he had unlocked something, even his mindset had changed.

"Nothing," Qi Xia replied. "Do you want to bet?"

"Sure." Di Hou nodded, still holding his cards. "Qi Xia, not looking at the cards, I'll raise by one 'Dao'."

Seeing Di Hou's confidence, Qi Xia felt an inexplicable unease in his heart. It seemed like the game had returned to how it was at the beginning.

He didn't know what was behind Di Hou's confidence—was it his 'di pai', or some kind of 'rule'?

As soon as that thought crossed his mind, Qi Xia felt a fog invading his brain. This persistent sensation rolled through his mind.

He quickly pinched his right pinky finger, but his brain seemed numb to the pain and didn't immediately dispel the fog.

Qi Xia gritted his teeth, slowly lowered his head, and then twisted his pinky finger hard.

A strange sound echoed quietly in the room, like shattered bones being broken again.

Qi Xia let out a muffled groan and buried his head deeply, his whole body trembling. The people around him were startled by his appearance.

"Cheater..." Qiao Jiajin quickly leaned in to check on him.

Qi Xia clenched his teeth tightly, waiting quietly for the fog in his brain to clear, but it felt like the fog was coming more frequently and was harder to shake off than before.

"I'm fine..."

Everyone cast worried glances at Qi Xia. He looked increasingly unwell, as if he were sick or injured.

After a while, Qi Xia slowly lifted his head, feeling his mind clear a bit.

His brain told him there was only one way to test Di Hou's level of confidence.

"Di Hou, I'll keep raising the stakes and bet outside the game," Qi Xia said, beads of sweat on his forehead. "I'll bet two 'Dao' separately against your two."

Qiao Jiajin noticed Qi Xia's pale face and furrowed his brow.

"Betting outside the game...?"

"That's right, this bet between you and me won't involve anyone else," Qi Xia nodded. "Just you and me. Dare you?"

Di Hou stared into Qi Xia's eyes for a few seconds, then asked, "One 'Dao' at the start, one in the first round, one in the second, and now you're adding two more. If I'm not mistaken, that makes five, which is all your chips, right?"

"Yes," Qi Xia replied weakly. "I'm betting all my chips against you alone. You can choose to refuse."

"I have no reason to refuse." Di Hou took out two 'Dao' and placed them on the table, his expression still calm.

Although he hadn't looked at his 'an pai' and didn't know what changes had occurred in the rules, Qi Xia felt he should lose.

In a gamble, you often don't need to know the rules or see the hidden cards. Just from Di Hou's expression, Qi Xia could already see the outcome.

Everyone watched as the two chose to bet outside the game. After matching Di Hou's one 'Dao' in this round, they began checking their own hands.

There was no way to continue matching bets in this round, as everyone's chips were nearly depleted, and Qi Xia had already put in all of his.

Qi Xia lowered his head and lightly flipped the cards hidden under the table. It was 'Da Xue'.

"November 8th...?" Qi Xia slowly furrowed his brow.

Wait a minute...

It seemed like 'yun' had arrived.

His previous hand was 'Bai Lu', August 8th.

The 'gonggong pai' was 'Chun Jie', January 1st.

Converting to numbers, his first card was two 'ba', and the center had two 'yi'.

And now he had drawn another 'yi yi ba'.

What incredible luck was this?

Now his hand was four 'yi' and three 'ba'.

What had seemed unrelated—'ba ba' and 'yi yi'—was turned around by this late 'Da Xue'.

If the previous rules held, could anything bigger appear on the table now?

This wasn't just a 'Hu Lu' of three plus two; it was three plus four.

Every one of the seven numbers was used perfectly in the hand.

Qi Xia hadn't expected that his blind bet would result in such a strong hand.

He looked up at Di Hou's expression and saw that Di Hou was controlling his demeanor well, showing no flaws.

From his eyes and movements, Qi Xia could sense an unusual calm within him—whether it was genuine confidence or a masterful disguise, it was hard to tell. After checking his hand, Di Hou simply covered it again with his hand and lifted his head to meet Qi Xia's gaze.

Qi Xia ignored Di Hou and turned to look at his teammates.

Most of them had poor expressions, but Chen Junan and Xiao Cheng were carefully examining their hands, as if calculating their own hands.

Their mental math wasn't as quick as Qi Xia's. It took Xiao Cheng about ten seconds before he nodded contentedly and put his cards away.

Then came Chen Junan. After looking at his hand, he slowly hissed, then covered his cards with both hands and brought his face close to them.

"Oh my god..." Chen Junan seemed to think of something and quickly straightened up to rummage through his pockets. But after searching for a while, his pockets were empty.

"What are you looking for, Jun Nan?" Qiao Jiajin asked from the side.

"Damn it, the property deed!" Chen Junan shouted. "How did I forget to bring the property deed today?!"