Thanks to his mother, Yu Guang learned how to play cards when he was six years old.

Mahjong or poker was no problem—of course, as long as it was somewhere his parents couldn’t see.

Among them, Yu Guang was most familiar with playing cards.

The reason was simple: playing cards were cheaper, easier to buy, and easier to hide than mahjong.

The man wearing the gold-plated mask extinguished the cigarette between his fingertips and raised his chin in a dignified manner.

Understanding his gesture, Yu Guang bent down and took an unopened new deck of cards, opening it deftly.

The new cards were very hard, so shuffling them was a bit rough on the hands, but Yu Guang still played it cool with a fancy shuffle.

His fingers were slender and fair, occasionally illuminated by the flashlights, casting exceptionally beautiful shadows. The playing cards, with a pure black background and golden edges, fluttered in his hand like butterflies dancing on his fingertips.

After opening the fan with one hand, Yu Guang deliberately selected a flower card and made a shot.

The chosen card flew through a perfect parabolic arc and was about to be caught by Yu Guang when it was suddenly intercepted by another hand that intruded into his line of sight.

It should be noted that the speed at which the cardist shoots the cards is extremely fast, so it’s not easy to catch them out of thin air; it requires concentration, proficiency, and speed.

The man wearing the gold-plated mask flipped the flower card, his movements skilled, indicating that he was also a master at playing cards.

Yu Guang paused for a moment, admiring the beauty of those hands while also realizing that cheating in the upcoming game might not be possible.

Although it was regrettable, he didn’t show it on his face. He smiled obediently at the man and looked into the only exposed eyes under the mask—

But he found that the man’s gaze seemed to be… focused on his left knee.

Was there something wrong?

Yu Guang hesitated for a moment, then followed the man’s gaze and looked down at his left knee—

He remembered the injury he got from climbing over the wall when he left school. At that time, it was too dark to see clearly under the street lamp, and now in the dim light of the bar, it was still unclear.

He reached out and touched it; it didn’t hurt, just felt uneven on the surface, probably where the scab had formed over the bleeding spot.

Before Yu Guang could touch it a second time, his wrist was suddenly grabbed by the man.

“How did you get injured again?” There was a hint of displeasure in his low voice.

But Yu Guang’s attention was caught by the word ‘again’ in the man’s words.

Again? Did he know that Yu Guang had been injured before?

Or was it just a slip of the tongue?

Yu Guang couldn’t tell.

As the man’s fingers rested on his own knee, bending and straightening, amidst the deafening background noise, Yu Guang faintly heard the sound of the man rubbing the fabric of his suit pants with his fingertips.

As if sensing the silent atmosphere, the man changed the subject, “What do you want to play?”

“You choose, whatever you like.”

The rule that customers choose the game was clearly stated in the employee manual.

Yu Guang handed over the initiative to the man, who didn’t hesitate to take it.

“Ten and a half?” He saw the slender eyes under the mask curve slightly. “To be fair, we won’t double the rewards or penalties.”

Although Yu Guang was puzzled why not doubling the rewards or penalties would be considered fair, he still nodded with a smile.

The customer is god, even if they were in a gambling relationship now, the other party was still god.

Ten and a half wasn’t a difficult game.

Players just needed to randomly draw cards from the 54-card deck, including the jokers, and try to get as close to ten and a half points as possible without going over.

Point cards: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, where A is worth 1 point, and the other cards are worth their face value.

Picture cards: J, Q, K, and the jokers are considered “half points.”

There are three special card combinations—

Five People: 5 picture cards, 5 times the base bet;

Five Small: Less than 5 cards, the total points of the cards equal ten and a half, 3 times the base bet;

Exactly Ten and a Half: Less than 5 cards, the total points of the cards exactly equal ten and a half, 2 times the base bet.

The “not doubling the rewards or penalties” mentioned by the man meant that special card combinations wouldn’t be counted during the game, and the win and loss rates would be reduced accordingly.

Yu Guang shuffled the cards fancily, coincidentally paused as the flashlight lingered there for a moment.

The shadows depicted his agile appearance, and the cards transformed into various shapes, eliciting cheers from the surrounding onlookers.

Yu Guang had been working at BLUE since his freshman year, and he had heard similar cheers countless times. It had become like an old trick that had been overused, and he had developed a nonchalant attitude towards it.

But for some reason, today was different, strange even. He made a mistake in the Rattlesnake, a move he had practiced countless times.

The slight hesitation in turning his wrist caused a momentary loss of control, and a card flew out from his hand.

The crowd erupted into a wave of exclamations.

Yu Guang also felt a bit stiff—this was his first mistake during a public performance.

To some extent, he still cared about his reputation. Staring at the card that flew out, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret.

But the regret lasted less than half a second, drowned out by the louder cheers in his ears.

Someone caught the card he dropped.

Like a cliché repeated in movies, those slender and articulate hands appeared out of nowhere again.

“Queen of spades, what a good card.”

The Queen of spades, turned face down by the man, was randomly inserted into the deck of cards with smooth and elegant movements.

The onlookers didn’t even realize that it was his mistake; they thought it was an unspoken agreement between the two, and they continued to clap and cheer.

Feeling the force of the neatly stacked cards being rearranged, Yu Guang suddenly lifted his eyelids, following those hands up until his gaze met the eyes under the mask.

Feeling as if he had been burned, he quickly lowered his head.

He couldn’t afford the consequences of cheating. Yu Guang silently thought to himself.

Then he comforted himself: Ten and a half, such a simple game, even if the opponent was a skilled player, he could win a game without cheating.

He didn’t need much, just one game.

He just wanted to see the face under the mask.

Thirty minutes later, the god wearing the Sanskrit mask took away the last button on Yu Guang’s shirt.

The people around were still cheering for the game to continue, but the buttons on his pants also counted.

Yu Guang’s lowered eyelashes trembled, but he didn’t say anything to refute, nor did he look at the man wearing the mask.

As the man undid the buttons on his shirt, his slender fingertips brushed over Yu Guang’s bare chest as if peeling back the skin to reveal the flesh.

Seemingly intentional, the man only used the cold nails to touch him, indicating that the soft pads of his fingers, representing intimacy, didn’t actually touch him.

Treating him as if he were a pretty yet cheap and dispensable item at a street stall, there was only teasing left, without any sense of respect.

Yu Guang sensitively perceived this subtle difference.

But he didn’t mind at all.

He had long accepted the fact that he was a second-rate commodity covered in dust, and he wasn’t ashamed to show it.

Yu Guang didn’t take off his shirt, but he didn’t deliberately close the opened collar, and even slightly straightened his chest – as if he were a “high-end” product placed at the forefront of a stall.

The pale and slender chest was surprisingly eye-catching in the dimly lit booth.

Pink trembled in the slightly chilly air, standing exposed.

Yu Guang stiffened his body without moving, but it was the man who first reached out to help him adjust his collar.

The cool breeze brought back a layer of warmth to his chest.

Actually, it was just his body temperature that had been transferred to the shirt, but the warmth received after feeling cold always seemed hotter than the original temperature.

The man seemed to be a VIP member of BLUE or something else, with a distinguished identity. He even waved his hand to signal the start of clearing the area.

Yu Guang pretended not to care, pinching the buttons and playing with them, but he glanced around with his peripheral vision.

The crowd that had just cheered was all cleared out.

The surroundings suddenly became quiet.

Yu Guang, whose skin was as thick as a city wall in the bar, felt a bit awkward at the moment.

The buttons he was playing with were almost torn off – he didn’t have the right to button them back up without the customer’s order.

According to the bet, his right to button the buttons had been lost along with his losses.

The man seemed unable to bear seeing him mishandle the buttons anymore. He tapped the tabletop crisply with his fingertips, and when he saw him regain his senses, he said:

“I’ll allow you to temporarily button up three.”

Yu Guang was about to make a move, but his fingertips touched the cold button and suddenly withdrew.

He grinned at the man, showing his white teeth, “I won’t button up these three. Can I exchange them for you to unbutton three?”

“Nice try. Sit here and wait for me, don’t run away.”

---

The tall figure of the man disappeared into the distance of the bar amidst the flashing lights. Yu Guang originally wanted to slip away directly, but after hesitating for half a second, he sat back down.

He picked up the cards and practiced the Rattlesnake move that he had just made a mistake with several times.

Smooth and flawless, without any flaws.

He silently thought about this matter in his mind. In a flash of inspiration, he suddenly understood why the man said it was fair even without doubling the rewards and penalties – it was indeed “fair” to Yu Guang.

Perhaps out of teasing, or perhaps out of modesty, the man was going easy on him.

If the rewards and penalties were doubled for playing special card combinations, Yu Guang would have lost all the buttons on his shirt in just one round – but the man, like a cat playing with a mouse, had played with him for five rounds.

What frustrated him even more was that in all five rounds, the man had the highest multiplier combination of “Five Small.”

He lost thoroughly.

The opportunity to make a wish for the man to take off his mask was gone.

Yu Guang felt a cold chill in his heart, but at the same time, he had some unspeakable dirty thoughts.

He must use some means to see the man’s true face, or it would be too unfair.

“You actually obediently waited for me here?” Yu Guang was startled by the sudden voice, and then felt a bit ridiculed by the tone that was coaxing a child.

The waiter behind the man placed a tray of tall glasses containing blue liquid steadily on the table.

“Have a drink, it’s a gift for getting to know each other, and also… as compensation.” The man pushed one of the glasses towards him.

Yu Guang immediately realized that the man’s “compensation” referred to compensating him for losing five rounds to him.

His obedient smile stiffened for a moment, then curved up even more beautifully. He proactively raised his glass and clinked it against the edge of the man’s glass.

A crisp sound echoed.

“I still prefer the gift of getting to know each other, sir.”

A series of events had left him unguarded, and Yu Guang took a sip of the drink without any suspicion.

The refreshing taste with a hint of spiciness, like a slight sting against his tongue as if pressed by sharp fangs, suited his preferences. Yu Guang tilted his head back and took a few more sips.

“Do you like this drink?” The man’s eyes under the shadow had been watching him all along. After a moment, he asked with a low, magnetic voice that seemed somewhat distant and vague, as if separated by a soft film.

Yu Guang shook his head, saying, “Yes, I do. What’s wrong?”

“I just made it myself, decided to call it Rattlesnake.”

“Huh?” Yu Guang suddenly became a bit clearer, somewhat shocked. “You’re so thoughtful to make it as a gift for our friendship?”

“But I still hope that the gift of getting to know each other is you taking off your mask…” His words became increasingly unclear towards the end.

His head suddenly became dizzy, and the world in his sight began to blur, similar to the symptoms of being “drunk” the last time.

Yu Guang finally realized his foolishness and abruptly lifted his head to look at the man in front of him.

But it was a done deal.

Before falling into the chaotic abyss, Yu Guang saw the man’s bony hand grasp the edge of the gold-plated mask and slowly lift it off.

He tried hard to open his eyes wider to see the face under the mask, but his vision was covered with a thick mist.

In the hazy shadows, Yu Guang suddenly felt a pain in his left knee.

The scab on the wound was scraped off forcefully, and it seemed that fresh blood was oozing out.

The brief pain briefly sobered him up, but before he could raise his eyes, the man swiftly pulled down his tie to cover his eyes.

The darkness that swallowed everything rushed in, and the drug in the alcohol in his bloodstream seemed to start taking effect again.

Before falling into unconsciousness, Yu Guang felt the man support his shoulder and lift his limp body up horizontally…

^[1]Author’s notes: *Opening the fan: A move to display cards. *Shot: A card flower-cutting move. *Rattlesnake: A card flower-cutting move. *Ten and a Half: A card game, for detailed … Continue reading