Haidu: Top of the Tower

Chapter 5 Agitated Chaos
Teri was a very lucky, very happy type of girl.

She is a beauty fern living under a protective cover, and the wind, rain and pollution of Haidu cannot touch her; if such a young girl happens to know the location of an underground casino, the information will only come from one source.

Her own brother Huai Tuo.

Within 5 minutes after Milady entered the underground casino, she found an opportunity to disappear from Terry and his party.

She hid behind a curtain at the corner of the stairs on the second floor, watched the group of young people wandering around in the lobby on the first floor, looked for her for a while, and then left resentfully.

Thanks for leading the way, thought Milady.

After waiting for a while, when she felt that they would not appear again, she walked down the hall on the first floor.She slowly lingered among various card table tricks, pretending to be looking for the item she wanted to play, and carefully observed the casino.

Although it is an underground casino, its scale is not small.

The second floor is a private gambling room that she can't get into. The lobby on the first floor has no doors, no windows, and is beautifully decorated. There are various organs that she can't even name.Waiters, gamblers, bodyguards, croupiers... All kinds of people come and go in the smoke and alcohol, with the sound of cursing and cheering; On the table... As the clerk of the Family Affairs Office said, this is a paradise of three religions and nine streams.

None of the staff on the bright side of the casino belonged to Gaota's family.

Wandering aimlessly in the hall for a while, Milady couldn't figure out how to connect the casino with the patriarch's family in the high tower—if she wanted to send a letter to the family of the judge, she would at least need some evidence. alright?

Milady bit her lip, staring at a gaming machine in front of her, her mind was at a loss.

She wanted to find the casino wholeheartedly, but now that she came in, she didn't think about what to do next.

The Gaota family can't come forward on their own, so the person in charge of the casino must be related to the patriarch of the Gaota, and they should start with the person in charge... But she doesn't even have a clue who the other party is, whether he is in the venue, let alone how to deal with it. Evidence is found; if nothing else, what is evidence?
She circled around a few times, having no idea, and unwilling to leave, until suddenly she heard a howling almost like a wild animal behind her, startled Milady, who was engrossed in it, and looked back, and found that it was a tall and tall Strong man.

The man was [-] meters tall, and when he stood up from the poker table, it seemed as if a hill of muscles had risen.He slapped his palm on the table and shouted angrily: "It's fucking unlucky, let's go, go to another place to get lucky, come back later!"

The few people behind him didn't look like serious people either, they looked thick and ruthless, reeking of alcohol.What makes people jealous the most is that when the tall and strong man looks at people, he doesn't look at people, but like looking at pieces of meat.

Wherever the group of them went, an unimpeded road was immediately cleared; after a few gamblers avoided, they looked at their backs and whispered: "It's the group of people from the White Shark Boat on the Changteng Road in Beihai, right?" ? That's right...it's terrible, they are here."

Listening to the words of those gamblers, it seems that that group of people are famous for licking blood with knife heads, and it is not known whether they are pirates or private soldiers.

Milady suddenly stopped.

The problem that had been bothering her all this time seemed to be cracked suddenly, revealing a little light.

Can she count on those people to resort to violence immediately when they encounter problems?

Milady weighed the heavy bag in her arms.

It can be said that she knows nothing about how the casino works; but it is common sense to speculate that if the person in charge of the casino is to be forced to take action, there must be a lot of trouble, right?
Milady frowned and thought for a while, her eyes stopped on the card table that the man had just left.

Don't look at the fact that she just won money and key information with poker tonight, but she hasn't actually gambled at all.Just at this time, a middle-aged man wearing a monocle took his place, rushed to the croupier behind the poker table and said, "Blackjack, right? I'll do it."

With that said, he placed two chips on the table.

Blackjack?
Milady felt that the name sounded familiar, and seeing a few spectators standing near the poker table, she picked one who looked good and talked, walked over to ask a few words, and suddenly realized.

She has heard of this game before: blackjack is also called blackjack. After the gambler and the dealer get the cards, they can choose to continue to call or not to call according to the points of the cards. Blackjack is a win.

"Oh, the game has begun." The gambler turned his eyes and said.

It was obviously 54 pieces of disjointed pieces of paper, but in the hands of the croupier, it turned into a living creature with a backbone, flying up and down like a dragon. The technology is so good that others can't even see clearly, how to prevent him from cheating?
The first cards that the croupier issues to the gamblers and himself are all hidden cards with their backs up.

The playing cards used in the casino are far more exquisite than the high-end goods outside. On the back is the legendary statue of the goddess who ruled Haidu in ancient times, and there is a long "Arkana" movement beside it.

Of course, today’s Haidu people don’t care about goddesses, music and other semi-myths—it is often said that you can’t find a Haidu person who is obsessed with the past, because they are always exploring and expanding outwards. To the open sky and the sea.

The second cards dealt by the croupier were all face-up cards; the middle-aged gentleman got an iron hook, which was eleven o'clock, and the croupier himself got a 6.The middle-aged gentleman smiled slightly while holding the two cards, and said, "Stop."

"Hey, an iron hook came right away," Milady heard a spectator beside him say, "This old boy is lucky, and he got one of the key cards in the first hand."

After watching the middle-aged gentleman play a few rounds, Milady felt that the idea in her mind was getting clearer; she looked up and found the back of the head of the group on the white shark boat in the far corner.Even if they are far away, they are easy to recognize, because one of them is bald on the back of his head and has a large dragon crocodile tattoo.

The man said just now that he would come back to play Blackjack again later.

This method should be fine... Milady took a deep breath and thought to herself.After all, it was the first time to do such a thing, and her palms were so nervous that sweat rose up.

She first went to exchange all the money she won tonight into chips made of wood chips, then found a corner and took out a charcoal pencil from her bag.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, Milady stretched out her right ring finger, scraped back and forth between the nails with the charcoal part of the pen several times, and the falling charcoal dust painted the nails black; she took out I tried to scratch the paper with my ring finger, and sure enough, a black mark appeared on the paper.Satisfied, she added a little more charcoal.

When they got back to the blackjack table, the round had just ended; Milady went straight to an empty seat and sat down.

As soon as she sat down, not to mention the spectators around, even the croupier couldn't help but look at her twice, and asked, "How old are you? Do your parents know you're here?"

Milady was afraid that if she spoke too much, he would hear her own heartbeat.

She simply shook the money bag full of chips, took out a chip and placed it on the table. "father."

She pressed another one. "mother."

The croupier nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

It was probably the first time for the spectators around to see a young girl appearing alone in an underground casino with a large amount of chips, laughing, persuading and warning; the gambler who explained the rules of the game just now met a newcomer , so I have to repeat: "She doesn't even know how to play Blackjack. I just told her about it a few minutes ago!"

Obviously, she had thought about the plan more than once, but Miledivan did not expect that when she picked up the two cards, her heart suddenly sank with a "thump".

Oops.

Why do the playing cards used in casinos turn out to be made of oily and smooth material, as if covered with a film?

It was the first time for Milady to see such a novel and rare craft; she thought that all playing cards were made of kraft paper... She tried scratching the back of the cards with her nails.

Sure enough, the effect is completely different from the effect of scratching on paper, and the black mark will be wiped off as soon as it is touched.It doesn't work.

What should we do now?
Are you going to give up on the idea you finally came up with?

Milady could almost feel the weight of the croupier's eyes on her body.She glanced down, and the edges of the two cards in her hand were slightly bent into arcs in her palm.

From another point of view... for such a rare card, I am afraid that casinos will not often replace it with new ones, right?
"How?" The croupier urged, "Are you ready?"

She coughed, put her hands holding the cards on her knees, as if hesitating, thought for a while before saying: "Please deal the cards."

The croupier took a look at her and made her heart ache.

Maybe Milady really had the so-called "novice's luck". Her first hidden card was a 10, and her second revealed card was also a 10, so she immediately got [-] points.

"Add cards." She said hoarsely.

The third card is an 8.Some of the spectators have already said with certainty: "It's a blast."

The other two had already stopped bidding at this time, but when the croupier looked at her again, Milady said, "Add the card."

"Also?" A spectator behind laughed, "Did she forget what time it was?"

Although everyone knew that she had burst, but at this moment the revealed cards had not exceeded 21, and theoretically, she could continue to bid.The croupier frowned and let her go, and dealt her another 5—at this time, the total points of the cards had reached 23. Milady automatically lost the game and could no longer bid.

"I lost, let's roll out the chips!" A gambler next to him laughed, "I've never seen anyone who has a grudge against money. What's your hole card?"

When Milady bit her lip and turned over the hole cards, the people nearby were silent for a moment, and then a burst of confusion, laughter and sighs broke out; it was just the comments and guesses of the onlookers, and Milady didn't care at all. Go - she didn't sit down to win money, she was very clear about what her goal was.

Thanks to Taili's boyfriend Wei Lian, Milady has a full wallet tonight, and she has exchanged forty or fifty chips; she only bets two chips at a time, so even if she loses the game, the chips are enough for her to spend a lot of money on the poker table. It's been a long time.

In a place like a casino that attracts money, it is very difficult to win money, but it is easy to keep losing, not to mention that she only has the most superficial understanding of Blackjack, let alone gambling skills.In order not to make the croupier suspicious, Milady couldn't blow up every round; sometimes she had a hit, and sometimes she lost, and twice, without knowing what happened, she actually won five or six chips—it took only an hour. After that, one of her purses was still empty, and she finally touched most of the deck of cards.

Milady knew it was almost time when she saw White Shark's gang heading here from the other side of the Casino.

"I'm not playing anymore," she stood up in frustration, her right hand clenched into a fist. "I'm out of money."

"Hurry up and go home, how can a child come to this kind of place?" Someone next to him immediately laughed and said.

Amidst the chatter of the spectators, Milady quickly left the card table.Looking back, she saw that her position was filled by another gambler, and the croupier also began to shuffle the cards - he didn't notice what he was doing with the cards, and he didn't change a new deck of cards as expected.

Milady looked down at the nail of her ring finger; the original black line in the nail gap was now cleared with a white gap.

No problem... One step away, one step away, and a path will be broken.

Without raising her head, she hugged her bag tightly until she bumped her head against the tall and strong man's arm, and then she stopped abruptly when he yelled and cursed.

"Walk without eyes?"

On that broad face that was flushed red with alcohol, the veins, flesh and hostility were prominent, and it looked more like an unstable volcano than just now - Milady's surprise was indeed genuine.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, looking back at the blackjack table and then at the tall man. "Um...Excuse me, are you going to play Blackjack?"

"What's none of your business?" He didn't seem to expect that a young girl could still look normal when she met him.

"I just got off that table..." She lowered her voice and said, "I lost a lot of money. They seem to be cheating."

The heads of that group of people immediately turned towards her.

"What did you say? Who cheated?" The tall and strong man lowered his head, the corners of his eyes were bloodshot, and his breath smelled strongly of alcohol.

"The casino," said Milady.The croupier was just a stranger who happened to work here, but unfortunately, she had to implicate the croupier once as a last resort. "When the croupier deals the cards, he sometimes draws the cards from the top and sometimes from the bottom. I noticed that the methods are different... Could it be to find the cards they have marked in advance? Not only blackjack, other tables The croupiers on board seem to be doing the same."

"What mark?" asked the tattooed bald head. "The card is smooth and clean. How do you mark it?"

This is also where Milady almost despaired just now.

The cover film on that deck is not only smooth, but also slightly hard, which protects the cards well.If there are scratches or creases on the card surface, it can be seen at a glance; as for the marks such as charcoal pencils, there is no way to keep them, and they will fall off after being wiped.Besides, if the croupier finds that his fingers are dirty when shuffling the cards, wouldn't he immediately know that someone is messing with the table?
She held the cards and sat stiffly for half a minute, hardly believing that she would fail on such a level—until it dawned on her that she didn't actually have to touch the protective filmed surface at all. .

"Have you checked?" Milady asked: "Not only the face of the cards, but also the sides of the cards can be marked, such as the four corners of the cards... There are not many marks, as long as the corners of a few key cards are painted black. That's enough. However, I, I dare not examine it carefully, for fear of getting into trouble."

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she knew it had worked: they were suspicious.

Several people looked at each other, with a cloud covering their faces.

"Damn it, no wonder you keep losing money," a shorter man spat on the ground. "Let's go look again. If there is even a grain of dust sticking to it, I will have that kid's head ripped off."

Milady was afraid that they would catch her too, so she pretended to be surprised when she heard this, and turned and ran away before they could react; her speed and reaction were always so fast that even grown men couldn't catch up She, in a few breaths, she passed through most of the casinos.

Watching the group of people striding towards the blackjack table from a distance, Milady hurried to a bodyguard in the corner.

The group had a hint, and it would not be long before they discovered that the upper right corners of several key playing cards were indeed painted with black corners; by then, they should at least make a fuss, right?

Of course, they would not know that it was the charcoal stain that Milady got on when she secretly pressed the edge of the card under her nails.

The reason why she sat at the blackjack table for half an hour was not because she wanted to lose money, but because she had to wait patiently until she got the key card before making a mark.The more cards she bid, the more likely she was to get a key card, so she had to bite the bullet and deliberately blow up points again and again.

Even if she doesn't have a gambling habit, she knows the basics: For a cheater, marking is only half the battle.The other half has to get the cards, otherwise there is no point in marking them.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this that the croupier didn't have any doubts - Milady had no right to decide when the cards fell into her hands. If it was just to win the cards, who would mark them in such a situation? Woolen cloth?
Her goal tonight is not to win.

"Go to Black Jack's place to have a look." She ran to the bodyguard and said, "The White Shark crew seems to be going to trouble the croupier. I just saw that they have something stuck around their waist. I don't know. What kind of weapon is it?"

Weapons and force organs are not allowed in the casino; but as long as it is a rule, there will be times when it will be broken.The bodyguard's eyes fell on the group of people from afar, and his face was really shocked. Before he had time to ask more questions, he shouted at his colleagues not far away, and they hurried over together.

Milady rushed up the stairs in a few steps, clutching the handrail tightly, waiting with bated breath.

Just as the group of people pushed away the croupier, grabbed the playing cards and looked at them one by one, the bodyguards also arrived.At first, it was just a quarrel and a small disturbance between the two sides; but after they discovered the black-painted corners, it was like a splash in hot oil, and the situation suddenly got out of control, and after a while, a The organ was knocked sideways by the bodyguard flying out.

The table was overturned amid screams and cursing, and someone was punched heavily while pushing, and almost in a blink of an eye, blood was splashed in the air.

Many footsteps passed through the casino, some fled, some chased, some blocked... The group of people was like the center of a whirlpool that was getting more and more urgent, anyone who touched it would be sucked in, and the buzzing chaos echoed under the casino ceiling , Seeing that the chaos is getting bigger and bigger.

Can such a mess make her wish come true?

Out of the chaos, Milady waited almost tormented; at last, amidst the mingled terrified cries, she heard someone shouting: "Go and call Mr. Hanrui!"

That should be the person in charge, right?

The waitress who answered "yes" turned around and hurried towards the other side of the casino.

Milady's heart trembled, as if she finally caught her breath again—she knew that this was her only chance, so she immediately turned down the stairs, quickly avoided the chaotic collision along the way, and followed the waitress. In front of a locked door that is not open to gamblers at the rear.

The waitress frantically produced a key and opened the door.She was anxious, and got in as soon as the door opened, without realizing that the door that was closing slowly behind her was being held by a hand.

(End of this chapter)