Time Travel: I'm a Flower Thief

In less than half an hour, Xie Xiaoyi carried Li Qiaoyun through the city gate of Jieshi City.

Following Li Qiaoyun's lead, after walking for a short while, they saw a magnificent pavilion standing at the street corner not far away.

The gilded bronze door was open, and a gilded plaque hung above the door, with a small and exquisite character "乐" (meaning "joy") carved in the lower corner of the three large characters "千金阁" (Qianjin Pavilion).

Xie Xiaoyi's heart skipped a beat—

This "乐" (Le) character mark is clearly the symbol of the Paramount Ballroom!

Paramount and their Heaven on Earth were despised by people in the martial arts world and were collectively referred to as the "lower three sects".

Unexpectedly, the Qianjin Pavilion in Jieshi City is actually the territory of the Paramount.

The two stepped into the room, the clinking of dice, the shouts of gamblers, and the tinkling of coins mingling together.

The commotion was overwhelming, but Xie Xiaoyi only glanced at it before ignoring it and followed Li Qiaoyun straight into the inner hall.

In the inner hall, a man with two mustaches and wearing a short shirt and mandarin jacket was working on an abacus. He was Hu Bazi, the manager of the Paramount Ballroom in this area.

He glanced up and saw the two men enter, then asked with a forced smile, "What brings you two here?"

Li Qiaoyun rushed forward, her voice trembling with tears: "Manager Hu, please have mercy! My daughter... I've come to ransom my daughter!"

Hubazi put down his abacus and tapped his fingers on the table: "So it was you? Trying to redeem your daughter? Too late!"

"What did you say?" Li Qiaoyun froze, her face turning deathly pale.

Hubazi slowly sipped his tea, his tone tinged with disdain:

"Your daughter takes after you; she's pretty and pleasing to the eye. She was taken in by our boss as soon as she was brought in, and now she's his woman. You can't redeem her."

"It's all about money," Xie Xiaoyi stepped forward, "I want to talk to your boss in person."

Hubazi, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world, suddenly slammed his fist on the table and burst into laughter:

"Kid, who do you think you are? Do you think you can just see our boss whenever you want?"

"If you know what's good for you, get out of here with this woman right now, or don't blame me for making sure you come in upright and leave horizontally!"

Li Qiaoyun trembled all over, remembering her kidnapped daughter, and her knees buckled, causing her to kneel down.

"Manager Hu! Please have mercy! My daughter is still so young, she can't be ruined here!"

Please, just let me see the boss. I'll do anything for you!

Hu Bazi stared at her trembling body, a lewd smile flashing in his eyes.

Why not take advantage of this deal?

Although she's a bit older, there are advantages to being older; with just a glance,

She knew exactly what to do next; younger people wouldn't do, and she even needed someone to teach her.

"Seeing the boss isn't impossible," Hubazi said slowly.

"Spend the night with me tonight, make me feel comfortable, and I'll pass on a message to you so you can meet the boss."

As for redeeming them? Hmph, that depends on how well you serve them.

Li Qiaoyun trembled, humiliation overwhelming her, but thinking of her daughter, she bit her lip and said in a hoarse voice, "I...I agree."

Hu Bazi chuckled and his fingers reached towards the curves of Li Qiaoyun's chest.

"Stop!" Xie Xiaoyi stepped forward, grabbed Hu Bazi by the collar, and pulled him up.

"Whether the boss allows it or not, I have to see him today!"

Hubazi was pulled off the ground by his feet, his face turned a purplish-red, and his throat made a hoarse sound.

Seeing this, several henchmen outside the side hall grabbed short sticks and charged forward, yelling, "You little brat, you're asking for it! Let go of our manager!"

Without turning his head, Xie Xiaoyi used his other hand to chop and slap across the air, before the thugs could even get close.

He was thrown to the ground by the strong wind, crashing into tables and chairs with a loud bang, clutching his chest and crying out in pain.

Hubazi struggled to pry Xie Xiaoyi's hand away and said with difficulty:

"You think you can intimidate me? Kid, you're too green!"

"Our Thousand Machine Pavilion, under the Paramount, has been able to establish itself in Jieshi City for so many years; we have our own ways of survival. Why would we be afraid of your brute force?"

Xie Xiaoyi grinned smugly: "Not bad! The Paramount actually produced such a tough nut to crack?"

Hubazi was panting heavily, his legs kicking wildly in the air, but a sinister, calculating look appeared on his face:

"It's easy to see our boss. Our Qianji Pavilion has always made a living from gambling, and we follow the rules of gambling in everything we do."

If you're brave enough, go to the front hall and gamble a few rounds. Once you've won enough chips, someone will naturally take you to see the boss.

If we lose, hmph—"

He deliberately dragged out his words, "Either I leave this woman here for me to play with for a few days, or you stay here to be my rabbit."

Li Qiaoyun was already terrified by this scene, and now, with tears welling up in her eyes, she looked tremblingly at Xie Xiaoyi:

"My benefactor... what should we do? My... my poor daughter..."

Xie Xiaoyi thought to himself:

The Paramount Ballroom had deep roots and a large workforce in the underworld.

Although I can force my way in, I can't save anyone, and even if I demolish this Thousand Gold Pavilion, it won't make a difference...

Thinking of this, he flipped his wrist to loosen Hu Bazi's collar, and then pulled Li Qiaoyun up from the ground:

"What's there to be afraid of? It's just a few bets, let's play along."

Li Qiaoyun wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes: "Then... what if we lose, my benefactor?"

"What else can we do? Either you serve him, or I become his servant!"

Hu Bazi grinned sinisterly, flicking his sleeve to signal his men to lead the way: "Take this kid to gamble. I want to see if he's got the skills!"

Xie Xiaoyi and Li Qiaoyun walked through the noisy gambling hall and chose a gambling table surrounded by people.

A man standing near the gambling table caught sight of Li Qiaoyun and immediately let out a sneer:

"Isn't this Yang Xiong's wife? What's wrong? Your husband gambled away the family fortune, and you're here to recoup your losses?"

"What a pity! Even if you win all the silver in this Thousand Gold Pavilion, your dead husband won't come back to life!"

Li Qiaoyun was preoccupied with her daughter and had no interest in paying attention to him. She just bit her lip and looked at Xie Xiaoyi.

Xie Xiaoyi's gaze was fixed on the dice cup in the center of the gambling table. He tilted his ears slightly and listened intently to the soft sounds of the dice hitting the bottom of the cup.

He was young, but he was a veteran who had worked his way up from the bottom of the underworld and knew the tricks of gambling: nine out of ten times you lose.

Some casino dice are either filled with lead or soaked with mercury; nine times out of ten, there's something fishy going on.

After listening intently for a moment and confirming that there was nothing unusual about the dice in the cup, I felt relieved.

Xie Xiaoyi is now at the seventh rank of cultivation, and his hearing is already extraordinary. Even if a hidden weapon comes flying through the air,

He could also accurately pinpoint the location, so the sound of dice hitting the ground was naturally no challenge for him.

It's important to know that each of the six sides of a die has a different number of dots, and each side has a slightly different weight.

Although the difference in the sound of their landing was extremely subtle, it was easy for someone with his seventh-grade cultivation level to distinguish it.

After several rolls of the dice, Xie Xiaoyi noticed every subtle difference in weight and the trajectory of their impact.

He can now reliably distinguish the size of the number when the die lands.