Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 432 Kuroko

Xiao Wei turned to the sales clerk with a smile and said, "You're really too dedicated! Weren't you just making your last trip? Aren't you going to sleep?"

The saleswoman twirled the hat in her hand, leaned against the berth, and said, "I can't sleep right now, and I can't get along with the other passengers. The train conductors are annoyed with me, saying I make the carriage incredibly dirty selling melon seeds and fruit. What the hell does that have to do with me?"

Xiao Hong burst out laughing again, and Xiao Wei reached out and slapped her, saying, "Stop laughing! What's gotten into you today? If you laugh again, I'll throw you out."

Xiao Hong reached out and punched Xiao Wei, saying, "You're so annoying! You're scaring the kid!"

Geng Hui shook her head, glanced at the two of them, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Xiao Hong said, "He won't let me laugh."

Chen Hui leaned against the headboard and said, "Old Xia, wanna get two bottles?"

Xia Maosheng glanced at Geng Hui and said, "Let's do it. It's just two bottles. It's troublesome to go to the toilet if we drink too much."

Geng Hui said to the sales clerk, "Go get these: five bottles of beer, a few of those red sausages, garlic flavored. And some peanuts too. Xiao Hong, do you want some fruit?"

Xiao Hong said, "Do you have any oranges? Take some oranges, but nothing else. The apples on the bus aren't good; they're all unripe."

The saleswoman put the hat on her head and said, "Wait a minute, I'll go get the cart."

……

A thousand miles away. Dragon City.

Jingou is located seven kilometers from the city center.

The moon hung low in the sky. A small courtyard, its gate locked from the inside. From the outside, it looked no different from the houses next door. At this hour, most people had turned off their lights and gone to bed; rural people go to bed early and wake up early.

Inside the room, the windows on both sides were tightly blocked by two quilts, completely shutting out the light.

The room was filled with smoke, and everyone was squinting. If someone were to suddenly walk in from outside at that moment, they would definitely be choked unconscious.

In the middle of the room, there was a table set up against the side, where seven or eight people were smoking and looking at the playing cards in their hands.

In 91, although mahjong had become popular in Northeast China, the real gambling game was still poker, which was convenient, not easy to cheat, and fast.

This will be popular for playing Pai Gow with poker. Remove the 10JQK, each person gets four cards, and the cards are paired up to determine the top and bottom hands and then compared.

Hei Zi, his shirt open, irritably tugged at his vest, squinting as he slowly twirled the four playing cards in his hand: "Gang, Gang, Gang." He unfolded the cards: 2 of Clubs, 3 of Clubs, 7 of Diamonds, 8 of Hearts. He had indeed made a Gang. Unfortunately, if he were to make a Gang, the first card would be a Penniless Ten, the lowest possible value, but also the safest, with the highest probability of breaking even. Then there were 1 and 9, and 5 and 5. He didn't consider 1 and 9; if he paired them with 5 and 5, it would be either a win or a loss, there was no third possibility.

Hei Zi slapped his thigh, looked at the others, but still couldn't figure it out. He chewed on his cigarette butt and gave a crestfallen look.

The dealer dealt their cards and called for the winning hand. The players then revealed their cards one by one. The dealer's hand was 6385 (three nines), meaning Black had indeed broken even this round. They watched enviously as others collected their winnings.

"Hey Heizi, you seem to have run out of energy these past few days. Didn't you make a fortune? Have you spent it all?"

Hei Zi frowned and said, "It's not time yet. Shuffle the cards, shuffle the cards. Who's the dealer this round?"

"Hey, you keep saying 'it's the end of the month' all the time. What end? Let me tell you, you said you'd pay me back that three thousand yuan by the end of the month. If you don't pay me back by then, don't even think about me going to your house to ask for it. It'll look bad for everyone."

Hei Zi glanced at the other person and said, "Three thousand yuan is nothing, right? That's a lot, isn't it? I've thrown away thirty thousand here in the last two months, did I say anything? It's just money, isn't it?"

"The haters have really been on a roll lately, peeing without even blinking. They've definitely struck it rich."

"Come on, come on, skip the cards, skip the cards! Come on, let's go for a kong this round, a total win! Bah!" The dealer shouted as he dealt the cards.

In Pai Gow, the dealer deals the cards first, then the players are dealt cards clockwise. The dealer can deal the cards in pairs or all four at once, depending on their mood.

Hei Zi threw his cigarette butt on the ground, rubbed his face, picked up a deck of cards, and, holding his breath, slowly unfolded them with all his might. 7, 2, he thought with a surge of joy: "2, 8, 2, 8, 2, 8." 5, he cursed inwardly, 3. Damn. At least it wasn't a small hand. This hand was purely based on luck. He looked up at the dealer and began to pray in his heart that the dealer would lose, even though he knew it was impossible.

The dealer dealt the cards and slammed them on the table: "Open the cards, open the cards, let's go for it, let's win this round, hurry up and open them, whatever you do, you're doomed."

The player to his left slammed his cards on the table: "Eight of a kind, take it and eat it, damn it. You're losing money." The dealer, cursing, threw two hundred coins at him and said, "Open the table, next player, make it quick."

Black was the last player to play, and the dealer flipped his cards over and threw them on the table, saying, "Show your cards! You think you can hide them and get two kongs?"

Hei Zi slammed his playing cards on the table and cursed, then threw two hundred yuan at the dealer. The dealer also had eight or nine, but Hei Zi had a red nine.

The dealer started shuffling the cards, checked the time, and said, "No all-nighters tonight, I'm a bit tired from the day. How about 500? We can finish early and go home for a nap. I haven't seen my wife's butt in half a month, I've almost forgotten what it looks like."

A few people started making a fuss, and Hei Zi chuckled a few times. He unconsciously squeezed his pocket, where he still had seven hundred yuan.

Hei Zi only met these people a few months ago. They weren't close. He just met one of them once while playing poker and gradually got involved in this circle. At first, the stakes weren't high, just ten or twenty yuan. Later, he didn't know when, but the stakes started to increase to one hundred, two hundred, or five hundred yuan.

Hei Zi had won before, once winning as much as seven thousand in one night. He treated a few people to a bath and drinks, and then found a woman in the village and slept with her for two hundred all night, feeling incredibly satisfied. After that, he felt that this was how a man should live, drinking heavily, gambling away money, and relentlessly pursuing women.

Then he got completely hooked, and kept losing. He lost all his money, all the money he borrowed from Huang Laowu and Lao Hou, and owed three thousand yuan to several other people. He only had seven hundred yuan left in his pocket. For a moment, he felt a little regretful, but he quickly suppressed it. "Gang! Gang! Gang! Gang! Gang! Gang!" he shouted as he picked up the cards dealt to him.

"Nothing much, it's just money, damn it. I make six or seven thousand a month now, how much can these poor bastards make? Who makes more than me? What are they trying to show off in front of me? Damn, it's just playing around, I have plenty of money." Thinking this, he felt better, glanced at the group of people, lit a cigarette and shouted, "What are you babbling about? Let's open the cards."

……

"Geng Hui, you sleep on the lower bunk. Xiao Hong, you sleep on the middle bunk over here. Lao Xia and I will go up to the top. Hurry up and get some sleep, it's already 11:30." Xiao Wei helped Xiao Hong to the middle bunk, then climbed up to the top bunk himself. When he got to the top, he realized he hadn't taken off his shoes, so he had to climb down again to take them off before climbing back up. Just as he lay down, Xiao Hong reached out and tugged at him.

Xiao Wei bent down to look and asked, "What's wrong?"

Xiao Hong said, "I need to go to the toilet."

Xiao Wei rolled his eyes, climbed down again, put on his shoes, found Xiao Hong's shoes, helped her put them on, and accompanied her to the toilet.

The train rattled along in the night.

(End of this chapter)