Hong Kong variety show: From being bitten by a cockroach to becoming a legend

Chapter 148 You have cheating techniques, I have high technology

It seems that the more Song Zhaowen suffers setbacks, the happier Wan Kuok-koi feels.

Jiang Tiansheng and the Crown Prince also shook their heads, feeling that Song Zhaowen's loss was too unfair.

Chen Jincheng leaned back in his chair, his face practically radiating smug satisfaction and confidence. He picked up his champagne, took a slow sip, and looked at Song Zhaowen with a cat-and-mouse smugness in his eyes: "Mr. Song, how about it?"

"Of the ten thousand ways to die, you've witnessed the first one today, haven't you? A gourd killing a straight is only natural. As for this sixty million coin prize pool, I'll accept it without hesitation."

The dealer, expressionless, began preparing to push the mountain of chips toward Chen Jincheng.

Just as the chips were about to move—

"etc."

A calm yet exceptionally clear voice rang out, not loud, but strangely overwhelming the noise of the entire room.

It was Song Zhaowen.

Everyone was stunned, and their eyes immediately focused on him.

Chen Jincheng frowned, put down the champagne, and his voice turned cold: "Mr. Song, the cards are revealed, the game is over. What else do you have to say? Are you trying to renege on your debt?"

"Reneging on the debt?" Song Zhaowen laughed, a hint of cold mockery in his smile. "You're really joking. Xinghehao is a business that values ​​rules above all else. Winning or losing must be clear and transparent."

"I just think," Song Zhaowen's voice rose a few decibels, carrying clearly throughout the casino, "that hand—was just too coincidental."

"A coincidence?" Chen Jincheng's face darkened. "Song Zhaowen, what do you mean? Explain yourself! The dealer dealt the cards, I flipped over the hole cards myself, and everyone saw the river card, the King of Hearts, being dealt! Where's the coincidence? Do you suspect me of cheating?!"

He slammed his hand on the table, stood up abruptly, pointed at Song Zhaowen, and shouted, "You can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want! I, Chen Jincheng, have been in the gambling world for decades, relying on real skills! You dare to accuse me of cheating, you have to give me an explanation today! Otherwise, even if this is your Star River, I will still demand justice!"

The audience erupted in uproar; no one had expected such a dramatic turn of events in a game that seemed to have already decided the outcome.

On the judges' table, the white-haired gambling king Zhou Shichang also stood up and said in a deep voice, "Mr. Song, Mr. Chen, please calm down. Mr. Song, since you have raised questions, do you have any evidence? On the gambling table, accusing someone of cheating is no small matter."

Faced with Chen Jincheng's rage and Zhou Shichang's questioning, Song Zhaowen remained calm and simply said, "Elder Zhou, judges, since I dare to speak out, I certainly don't speak without evidence."

He looked at Chen Jincheng, his eyes sharp: "With your status as a 'gambling monster,' you might not even care about some ordinary card-stealing or switching."

Chen Jincheng snorted coldly: "It's good that you know!"

Song Zhaowen then changed the subject: "But what if you weren't the one who stole and switched the cards?"

"What do you mean?!" Chen Jincheng's pupils contracted.

Song Zhaowen did not answer him, but instead slowly and firmly turned his gaze to Lisa, the female companion who had been keeping her head down and looking meek, beside Chen Jincheng.

"What I mean is..." Song Zhaowen said slowly and deliberately, his voice like ice beads falling, "It was this Miss Lisa who stole the cards from you. And you, in that instant when you accepted the champagne and slightly tilted your body to block your view, completed the switch."

"Whoa!!!"

The entire audience was in an uproar once again! The accusations had shifted from Chen Jincheng himself to his female companion, and were described in such detail!

Chen Jincheng was stunned at first, then laughed angrily as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world: "Hahahaha! Song Zhaowen, I think you've gone crazy from losing! Lisa has been with me for years and has never participated in gambling! You're saying she stole the cards? And switched them when I was receiving the champagne?"

This is utterly absurd! Do you think all those eyes in the stadium, including the referee and the dealer, are blind?!

He turned to the referee's table, indignant: "Ladies and gentlemen, you all heard that! This kid's gone mad with grief, resorting to baseless accusations! I demand he immediately apologize and pay me an additional 30 million in damages for slandering me and Lisa! Otherwise, this isn't over!"

The judges exchanged bewildered glances, finding Song Zhaowen's accusation somewhat absurd. Zhou Shichang looked at Song Zhaowen, his tone serious: "Mr. Song, your accusation is very serious. Do you have any solid evidence? For example—what did you see?"

"Of course I saw it," Song Zhaowen said calmly, "but not with these eyes of mine."

He raised his hand and gently snapped his fingers towards a hidden corner above the gambling hall.

Instantly, the huge LCD screen in the center of the casino lit up, and the image changed from the card table to a slow-motion playback shot by a high-speed camera that had been specially processed!

The scene focuses on Chen Jincheng and Lisa, precisely at the moment after the dealer deals the river card (King of Hearts) and Chen Jincheng reaches out to take the champagne glass that Lisa hands him.

From a normal perspective, it's just a perfectly natural action. But in high-speed footage slowed down hundreds of times, every detail is magnified and presented with incredible clarity!

In the video:

Lisa had discreetly placed the edge of a playing card between the index and middle fingers of her right hand.

The moment she handed the glass to Chen Jincheng, her wrist twitched slightly, almost imperceptibly to the naked eye. As if given life, the card slid precisely and silently into the palm of Chen Jincheng's slightly open left hand, which was holding the bottom card, following the force and angle of her fingers.

At the same time, Chen Jincheng's left hand made a very subtle "covering" and "switching" motion with his very natural left hand, taking advantage of the slight tilt of his body and the cover of his arm when he took the wine glass. He pressed the card that Lisa slid over onto his original bottom card, and then cleverly flicked one of the original bottom cards into the special hidden pocket in the cuff of his suit sleeve with his finger.

The entire process was lightning fast, smooth and seamless, and so precise that even in high-speed slow motion, it was only a subtle change in one or two frames that would be impossible to detect without careful observation and the aid of technology.

The image freezes here, with the key moment of the card exchange and the trajectory of the cards highlighted in red.

Dead!

The casino was deathly silent!

Everyone stared wide-eyed and gaped, looking incredulously at the crystal-clear "ironclad evidence" on the big screen! Those who had just been speaking up for Chen Jincheng were now speechless, as if they had been choked.

Song Zhaowen sneered: "This is the original footage captured simultaneously by multiple hidden high-speed cameras inside the gambling hall, and analyzed and reconstructed using top-notch computers. There has been no editing or compositing. I invite all the media friends present to use their professional equipment to verify it."

The media reporters present had already been frantically taking photos and videos of the big screen, and upon hearing this, they nodded repeatedly. The professionals among them could tell at a glance that the image was highly authentic.

Song Zhaowen turned to face the entire audience, his voice ringing out: "Distinguished guests, friends! In the world of gambling, one can test one's wits and courage, one can compete in luck and skill! But there is one thing that must never be touched—that is cheating!"

Chen Jincheng's face went from flushed with anger to frozen in shock upon seeing the image, and finally turned completely ashen! His hand holding the champagne glass trembled violently, spilling most of the wine.

"This—this—" Chen Jincheng's lips trembled as he tried to argue, "This—this is a forgery! It's your Star River ship's doing! They're deliberately framing me!"

"Framed you? Dare I have my men search your girlfriend?"

Chen Jincheng's expression changed drastically, and he shouted angrily, "You bastards! Do you really think you're the police? That you can search people at will? Song Zhaowen, don't go too far!"

"Excessive? If Miss Lisa is innocent, I, Song Zhaowen, am willing to apologize to her publicly and compensate her for the thirty million yuan in emotional distress damages you just mentioned, not a penny less!"

Seeing that Chen Jincheng was still stubbornly refusing to admit it, Song Zhaowen was too lazy to argue with him. He gave a signal, and several female security guards rushed onto the stage. Before Chen Jincheng could react, they had already pinned Lisa down and found a playing card under her skirt: the 2 of Hearts.

This time, they've caught them red-handed.

Zhou Shichang sighed: "The evidence is conclusive. Contestant Chen Jincheng and his accomplice Lisa cheated by swapping cards during the game, which is a serious violation of the rules. The result of this round is void! All the chips in the pot are returned to the plaintiff, Mr. Song Zhaowen! Chen Jincheng is immediately disqualified from the competition."

Nothing is more humiliating than being caught cheating on the spot.

Chen Jincheng froze, like a stone statue instantly weathered away. Everything was over.

The reputation and prestige he had built up over decades in the gambling world collapsed completely at this moment, with the exposure of that two of hearts.

Shattered. From this day forward, "Gambling Demon" Chen Jincheng will no longer be an awe-inspiring legend, but a cheater exposed in public, disgraced and ruined, a complete joke.

He opened his mouth, making a strange hoarse sound in his throat, but couldn't utter a single word.

Song Zhaowen walked up to the two men expressionlessly: "Dare to cheat in my establishment? According to the rules of the underworld, if there are 30 million chips on the table, you have to pay me ten times that amount!"

Chen Jincheng's face turned pale: "Three hundred million?"

"Did your math teacher teach you Chinese? Considering my 30 million, the total jackpot is 60 million, you owe me 600 million!"

"Don't even mention 600 million, I can't even come up with 300 million."

Song Zhaowen looked at the stubborn Chen Jincheng and sneered, "No money? Simple! I'll make you and your girl work for me from now on. You can go only when we've earned 600 million!"

Chen Jincheng trembled all over, the muscles on his face twitched violently, and the last trace of pride he had been holding onto in his eyes was completely replaced by fear and despair.

Six hundred million! And he still wants to work for him to pay off the debt, and he's not allowed to leave until it's all paid off?

Chen Jincheng knew that Song Zhaowen was not joking. This was international waters, the "Star River," and Song Zhaowen's territory. Given the methods and power Song Zhaowen had displayed today, dealing with him, who was already disgraced, would be a piece of cake.

"You—you can't do this! The rules of the underworld—if someone is caught catching a thousand people, you chop off their hand. I'll accept that, but if you cut off one of my hands or one of my legs, we'll call it even!"

Song Zhaowen scoffed, "Is your hand worth 600 million? Or do you think I, Song Zhaowen, am some kind of philanthropist, playing those old-fashioned tricks with you?"

He leaned down, close to Chen Jincheng's ear, and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Don't even think about running away. If you dare to run, I'll sell you and your girl to prostitutes in South Africa. Be a good girl and work for me for a few years, and maybe you'll still have a way to survive, or even—a chance to pay off your debts and regain your freedom."

A failed gambling cheat is certainly not worth 600 million, but the countless secrets and connections he has accumulated in Hong Kong and Macau over the past few decades are what Song Zhaowen truly wants, and are more valuable than 600 million in cash.

Chen Jincheng's pupils contracted sharply, and his whole body went cold.