Chapter 27 - 27: Divine Barbarian
Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Divine Barbarian
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Brother Yin Si was taken aback by Huang Xiaolong’s ready agreement.
Among various gambling games, Brother Yin Si excels in “Mahjong”, “Suo Ha”, and “Zha Jin Hua”, with Mahjong being his ace in the hole.
He wanted to defeat Huang Xiaolong in Mahjong, his forte, but was worried that Huang Xiaolong might prefer Baccarat or dice guessing games. To his surprise, Huang Xiaolong voluntarily stepped into his trap.
‘Is this kid a genius who excels in everything? Hmm! There’s no reason for me to be afraid of him!’ Brother Yin Si smirked, subconsciously touching the willow pendant hanging around his neck.
“Let’s head upstairs then,” Brother Yin Si chuckled coldly.
“Ok.” Huang Xiaolong, with his hands full of chips, followed Brother Yin Si and Brother Hu upstairs.
Su Xiaoman, full of trepidation, stayed close to Huang Xiaolong without a hair’s breadth between them.
They entered a peaceful and quiet room upstairs.
A mahjong table was set in the middle of the room, and a casino staff member brought over a brand new set of mahjong cards, and laid them out on the table.
Brother Yin Si bossily sat beside the mahjong table, “Let’s play three-player mahjong.”
“Alright.” Huang Xiaolong sat down in response.
“Ahu, go downstairs and get a unrelated gambler up here,” commanded Brother Yin Si.
Brother Hu didn’t dare to slack off. He personally ran down to the hall, calling a short and stout bespectacled man upstairs.
“Listen, you’d better play your mahjong well!” Brother Hu glared menacingly at the bespectacled man, “You’re just a foil. Whether you win or lose doesn’t matter to you, got it?”
“I… I understand, I understand.” The bespectacled man nodded hastily.
“Friend, let’s not waste any more time. Let’s bet everything on this round,” Brother Yin Si said in a pompous voice, trying to completely overwhelm Huang Xiaolong. “How many chips do you have? Let’s put them all on this round, regardless of the winning odds. There will only be this one round!”
Only one round to decide win or loss?
You should know, Huang Xiaolong had won 2 to 3 million chips tonight. Betting them all on a round of Mahjong; it was truly a high-stakes bet.
Brother Yin Si was playing psychological warfare; most people faced with this kind of high-stakes gamble would inevitably feel intimidating, probably cowering before the game began, unable to perform normally in the end.
But Huang Xiaolong was undaunted, his mood as clear as a sunny sky, without the slightest fluctuation. He nodded in agreement. “Alright, alright, a single round to decide, to save time.”
“Hmph!” Brother Yin Si huffed coldly, his heart sinking slightly. His psychological warfare had clearly failed against Huang Xiaolong.
Huang Xiaolong gave his tray to a few casino staff members. A few minutes later, the chips were completely counted.
“Brother Yin Si, Brother Hu, he has exactly 2.84 million in chips,” a staff member reported.
Brother Yin Si snapped his fingers, and a staff member immediately brought a tray with neatly stacked chips, amounting exactly to 2.84 million.
“Do you want to check the mahjong cards?” Brother Yin Si asked, crossing his legs and taking a puff of his cigarette arrogantly.
Huang Xiaolong shoved another piece of chocolate into his mouth and shook his head. “No need.”
“OK, let’s begin then.” Brother Yin Si reached out his hands to the table to shuffle the mahjong tiles.
In this kind of gambling game, they would shuffle the mahjong tiles by hand, and did not use automatic mahjong shuffling. After all, it is too easy to do tricks with software-controlled mahjong machines.
Huang Xiaolong also happily shuffled the mahjong tiles with his hands.
Whoosh–Whoosh-
All three of them shuffled the mahjong tiles enthusiastically.
As soon as Huang Xiaolong’s hands touched the mahjong tiles, a strange feeling rushed into his heart, like a long-lost old friend, or lover, suddenly reappearing!
This feeling was too familiar, too intimate.
Everyone in the room, whether it was Brother Hu and Brother Earthworm standing behind Brother Yin Si, or Su Xiaoman standing behind Huang
Xiaolong, was extremely tense; they didn’t even dare to breathe.
This round of Mahjong, involving millions at stake, was literally breathtaking!
They were playing Mahjong with only ‘dots’ and ‘bamboo’ tiles, with no ‘characters’ or ‘honor’ tiles.
There were only 72 mahjong tiles in total.
For a genuine top-level Mahjong player, there was no need to look at the tiles. Just by the feel of each tile during shuffling and their subtle weight difference, they could easily distinguish the type and value of each tile.
Then, according to the way they want to win, they could arrange the mahjong tiles accordingly.
On top of super memory, the position of every card, who should receive which card, everything was under his control!
It is said that, for top players, the shuffling is particularly crucial.
Huang Xiaolong was just like that. While shuffling, he had arranged the mahjong tiles onto specific positions. No matter how the others drew, they got nothing but junk. All the good cards were drawn by Huang Xiaolong, the cards needed by others to thwart him were not even available.
Both Huang Xiaolong and Brother Yin Si were very fast at shuffling. Their speed at setting the tiles left people dazzled. Having quickly arranged their own tiles, they quickly tidied up the respective tiles in front of the bespectacled man. The bespectacled man did not even have a chance to arrange his own tiles and was left dumbfounded.
The setting of tiles was finished.
At this time, Huang Xiaolong had already positioned the tiles he needed at a specific spot. As soon as he could get his hands on these tiles, he would win outright.
Obviously, Brother Yin Si did not reach Huang Xiaolong’s level.
His forte in mahjong tricks was a kind of cheat called “Draw 2 Discard 2”.
As the name suggests, during the game, it’s his turn to draw, he would instantly draw 2 cards, and then discard 2 unwanted cards when it’s his turn to play.
As we all know, if one can always draw 2 cards each time, there will be many options to organize one’s cards! The probability of drawing good cards, has almost increased several times exponentially!
However, this type of cheating requires a very fast hand speed!
To be able to draw 2 cards and play 2 cards without being noticed by the other players at the table, the hand speed absolutely must be faster than other’s eye speed!
Brother Yin Si has been deeply immersed in this technique over a decade. He has mastered the “Draw 2 Discard 2” technique. He has played thousands or tens of thousands of Mahjong games without ever being discovered by others!
In addition, he has raised a little ghost to peek at others’ cards. We can say that on the mahjong table, he is a winning general who is invincible!
Now, they are at a stage that is even more crucial than shuffling and laying out the tiles – rolling the dice!
Only when you roll out the points you want, you can smoothly get the tiles you’ve set up.
The three took turns rolling the dice to see who had the highest points, and that person would be the dealer.
“You first.” Brother Yin Si glanced at the bespectacled man.
The bespectacled man was under immense pressure, nervously grabbed the two dice from the table, his hand trembling before he threw the dice onto the table. One die showed 3 points, the other 4 points. Their total, 7 points, was quite an average figure.
“You are the guest, please.” Brother Yin Si looked at Huang Xiaolong playfully.
He didn’t mind if he was the dealer or not, he could freely steal cards regardless. Therefore, who was the dealer didn’t matter to him.
Huang Xiaolong smiled, grabbed the dice, casually tossed them, and rolled two sixes—this was the highest score!
“Huh?” Brother Yin Sit s eye twitched with surprise as he looked at Huang Xiaolong with disbelief—’Did he just blindly roll a twelve, or…bloody hell, that’s weird, seriously weird!’
Finally, it was Brother Yin Si’s turn to roll the dice. He merely rolled a four and a five, which only totaled 9 points.
Huang Xiaolong was the dealer.
“Hehe, I’m the dealer! I’ll draw first!” Huang Xiaolong laughed joyfully, rolled the dice, a four and a three, exactly the points he needed. According to this point’s position to draw, Huang Xiaolong was already set to get the winning hand and didn’t even need to play any further.
The three started drawing cards.
Brother Yin Si secretly smirked, then subtly rubbed the talisman wooden plate hanging from his neck.
The next moment, the bluish-purple ghost crouched on Brother Yin Si’s shoulder, like a wisp of smoke, floated towards Huang Xiaolong, sat on his shoulder, and tried to peek at his tiles.
Huang Xiaolong chuckled, looked sideways at the little ghost on his shoulder, then his lips moved silently as he muttered some sort of incantation.
Huang Xiaolong was reciting the “Rebirth Mantra”, a prayer dedicated to the salvation of ghosts and spirits. Whether they died prematurely, tragically, or committed suicide, all kinds of disgruntled spirits could be purified.
As the prayer began, countless golden lights invisible to the human eye gushed out of Huang Xiaolong’s mouth. They took shape into what appeared to be ancient Sanskrit words, dignified, upright, and enveloped the little ghost.
Zi zi– zi zi-
The body of the little ghost, much like ice and snow under the sun, started melting away.
It cried out in pain, both its hands and feet thrashing around, but it availed to nothing. A few seconds later, the ghostly body dissipated into thin air, ceasing to exist.
Brother Yin Si’s body shook abruptly, all of a sudden he felt the bond that connected him to the wooden talisman, rather like blood veins, was suddenly severed!
By then, the three had already drawn their tiles.
“Sorry, I have a winning hand.” Huang Xiaolong gave a slight smile, and directly pushed his tiles forward.