Li Wuwei noticed that after Chen Huanzhi came out, he seemed completely revitalized.

How to put it? Chen Huanzhi had always appeared confident, even when he was on a losing streak, he remained composed and didn’t show any signs of defeat. But now, Chen Huanzhi seemed even more self-assured, as if victory was within his grasp.

Could it be that this young man from the Chen family, who seems upright, is actually like those crazy gamblers who believe that praying to the gods will make them rich overnight?

Moreover, his walking seemed a bit stiff.

It appears that he is indeed nervous.

After all, Chen Huanzhi now looked just like those gamblers who believed they could recover their losses by praying to Buddha.

Li Wuwei pondered for a moment, but being a veteran in the gambling world, he maintained a calm façade as he inquired with Chen Huanzhi, appearing genuine. The atmosphere between them suggested a mentor-student relationship.

Of course, this was just an illusion.

In reality, Chen Huanzhi was trying hard to understand Dong Changyang’s mutterings.

Unfortunately, Dong Changyang seemed to be speaking in her hometown dialect, leaving Chen Huanzhi utterly confused.

Finally, they sat down at the mahjong table, and both Dong Changyang and Chen Huanzhi breathed a sigh of relief.

Great, let’s get started.

“So it turns out my dear nephew loves incense so much? You even brought an incense burner with you.” Li Wuwei couldn’t help but inquire after seeing what Chen Huanzhi was holding.

“Exactly.” Chen Huanzhi immediately gave the excuse he had prepared beforehand. “I once encountered a wise sage who told me that if I want everything to go smoothly, I should always have incense with me.”

“Such a peculiar sage?” Li Wuwei became interested. “Where did you find him? I’d like to meet this sage too.”

“If he’s a true sage, he can’t be found easily. Meeting him once was already a stroke of fate.” Chen Huanzhi had never thought he could lie so smoothly and without hesitation.

But he had to admit, it felt quite satisfying to deceive someone so effortlessly.

While the two of them were talking, the Mei lan Zhu Ju sisters had already prepared five hundred taels of silver each.

They called for the servants, who brought up four boxes. Inside, the silver was neatly stacked, shining brightly.

“One jin is 500 grams, and the current price of silver is 4 yuan per gram, so five hundred taels of silver is 100,000 yuan. And there are four people here!” Dong Changyang suddenly felt a desire to redistribute wealth.

Four hundred thousand yuan, for four people, just to play mahjong? And they displayed it so openly?

How extravagant!

Dong Changyang, who once won a few hundred yuan from Mrs. Wang and was happy for days, couldn’t help but question her reality.

Although she knew that Brother Chen was wealthy, this “wealthy” was just a concept to her. Seeing five hundred taels of silver right in front of her was something entirely different.

Four hundred thousand yuan was enough to buy two houses in Dong Changyang’s hometown of Shangnan County, or to cover her education expenses from kindergarten to postdoctoral studies.

“Thank you for your trouble, Uncle. Whether I win or lose, I will write to my family to send the money over. I won’t take advantage of you.” Chen Huanzhi nodded slightly.

“It’s just pocket money. As long as you don’t mind. If I take money from a junior and people find out, they’ll think I’ve fallen so low that I can’t even come up with five hundred taels.” Li Wuwei laughed, rejecting Chen Huanzhi’s polite offer.

“Then thank you, Uncle.” Chen Huanzhi softly reminded Dong Changyang, “Let’s begin.”

“I’m itching to play as well.” Li Wuwei’s expression became a bit more serious. “If you lose, nephew, don’t cry.”

“Whether we win or lose is still unknown.”

—This scene is quite intense.

If they weren’t about to play mahjong.

Dong Changyang also tried hard to get into the right mindset, but seeing four handsome men and beautiful women playing mahjong with such profound expressions, she found it hard to be serious.

While they were shuffling the tiles, Dong Changyang took the opportunity to scoop some leftovers from the pressure cooker, sliced some potatoes and ham, and even splurged on an egg to make herself a bowl of fried rice.

“Excuse me, nephew, using mahjong terms, this is a ‘small three dragons’.” Li Wuwei pushed his tiles forward, smiling at Chen Huanzhi.

Chen Huanzhi’s attention had already been drawn to the fried rice.

There was no suspense in his loss for the first round.

A servant took a few ingots of silver from Chen Huanzhi’s box and placed them in Li Wuwei’s.

“Sorry, Brother Chen. When I focus, I tend to get hungry, and I’m still growing,” Dong Changyang said, quickly taking a few bites. “Come on, let’s play again. I’ll definitely win back the money for you with interest.”

“It’s just the first round, no rush,” Chen Huanzhi replied.

“Oh?” Li Wuwei, hearing Chen Huanzhi’s words, mistakenly thought he was bluffing and smiled even more. “Since you are so confident, let’s continue.”

Mei and Lan silently followed along, mixing the tiles.

The master is getting serious now.

I hope this young master of the Chen family doesn’t lose too badly.

In this round, the tiles Chen Huanzhi drew were really not good. Even if he managed to complete a hand, the points would be very low.

“Well, nothing can be done. Brother Chen, your hand this time is too poor. Instead of forcing a win, it’s better to break up their tiles. Besides, they are all making small moves. We should go along with their actions,” Dong Changyang said seriously after examining Chen Huanzhi’s tiles.

Chen Huanzhi tapped his index finger, indicating his agreement with her suggestion.

“Alright, watch me.” Dong Changyang took a big gulp of plain water excitedly. “First, let’s discard the nine of bamboo and see if your next player needs it.”

……….

Mei Lan suddenly found the game becoming difficult.

How to put it?

Chen Huanzhi was her preceding player, and his discarded tiles weren’t too bad. If she wanted to break up her hand, she could still make a call. But if she forced a call, she might end up discarding tiles that Zhu Ju didn’t need.

Zhu Ju kept blinking, not understanding why her sister hadn’t discarded the tiles she needed.

Mei Lan herself was frustrated.

Chen Huanzhi’s discards seemed to target the gaps in her hesitations, making it easy to miss many opportunities.

Sometimes, a tile would be needed by both her sister and Li Wuwei, leading to confusion about who should make the call.

Ideally, Li Wuwei winning would be the best outcome.

But if they use two people’s tiles to help Li Wuwei win, the first to lose all their silver wouldn’t be Chen Huanzhi, but one of the Mei Lan Zhu Ju sisters.

After five rounds like this, Mei Lan alone had lost three hundred taels.

How… how did this happen?

She didn’t think she was playing too poorly.

Although Chen Huanzhi also lost about a hundred taels, it was nothing compared to her three hundred taels and Zhuju’s two hundred taels.

“Uncle, if Mei Lan and Zhu ju run out of silver, we should let the servants on the side help them play. They’ve been watching long enough and should have learned by now,” Chen Huanzhi suggested nonchalantly. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair.”

“Each matter should be handled separately. If they lose all their money first, they’ll go to your Jinjiang Pavilion to work off their debt,” Li Wuwei replied, sensing something was off.

It seemed that Chen Huanzhi had discovered the signals between the three of them and was deliberately playing according to their signals, occasionally slipping in a useless tile.

This way, even though Chen Huanzhi was also losing money, the main losses were falling on Mei Lan and Zhu Ju.

He was only winning the minor amounts from the points.

“Uncle, you’re wise,” Chen Huanzhi offered a small compliment. “But if someone loses, they should be replaced. If the servants on the side haven’t learned, the sisters can guide them a bit. This way, it will be a direct duel between you and me.”

“In that case, let’s do as you say,” Li Wuwei agreed readily, glancing at the nearly full box of silver.

He now had over a thousand taels, while Chen Huanzhi only had four hundred taels left. The advantage was still his.

Another round began.

“Wow, luck is finally here,” Dong Changyang exclaimed, seeing the tiles in Chen Huanzhi’s hand, feeling happy.

When it comes to playing, luck is crucial.

Either you don’t win at all, or you win big.

“Brother Chen, take it easy this round. Listen to me, let’s play dirty,” Dong Changyang’s eyes sparkled with some devious thoughts.

“One Dot.”

“No.”

“No.”

“One Dot.”

“Why this tile again?”

“Did you break the pair?”

“I’ve ponged this Six Dot.” Chen Huanzhi placed the mahjong tile Li Wuwei discarded on his side and then discarded a “Two Dot.”

Mei Lan, sitting next to him, looked at her tiles with tears in her eyes.

She needed Two Dots earlier!

But Chen Huanzhi kept discarding One Dot, so she followed suit and discarded Two Dots.

Regrets!

Mei Lan silently swallowed the frustration, drew a tile, and reluctantly discarded Two Dots.

Zhu Ju’s face turned pale.

Why is sister always discarding bad tiles?

Li Wuwei felt particularly uncomfortable with the tiles in this round.

“I reckon your next player is aiming for a Little Three Dragons,” Dong Changyang counted the tiles on the table, automatically generating relevant data in his mind. “They haven’t discarded many of the tiles you needed earlier, so the likelihood of them being withheld is low. The remaining tiles should be in the draw pile. Let’s aim for a Self-Draw All Pungs this round.”

As soon as Dong Changyang finished speaking, Chen Huanzhi drew the tile he needed.

“Self-draw.”

Li Wuwei stared fixedly at the tiles in Chen Huanzhi’s hand, seemingly unable to believe it.

How could this be?

He never expected him to win with a All Pungs of a single suit!

The servant hesitated to look at his master’s expression, stiffly retrieving silver from Li Wuwei’s money box and placing it into Chen Huanzhi’s.

“Uncle, it seems my luck with tiles is starting to improve,” Chen Huanzhi remarked casually.

“You’ve only won one round; don’t get too pleased with yourself,” Li Wuwei replied sternly, refusing to believe it was anything other than luck.

“Whether it’s luck or skill will be clear soon,” Dong Changyang smirked. “Brother Chen, these tiles of yours seem artificially polished. Sorry, I’ve already memorized the irregular patterns in them.”

Unlike modern craftsmanship, artificially made items cannot achieve perfect uniformity and may also lack in material quality.

Upon hearing this, Chen Huanzhi smiled brightly.

“Self-draw.”

Mei Lan and Zhu Ju, the sisters, had already lost all their five hundred taels and graciously stepped aside.

They obediently stood by, guiding the servants, but noticed that their master hadn’t given them any instructions for a while.

Master was truly serious.

In this focused state, Li Wuwei had completely immersed himself in the mahjong game, with no attention left for any other distractions.

Contrary to Chen Huanzhi, he seemed increasingly relaxed as the game progressed, showing no signs of getting too engrossed.

Oddly enough, this young master from the Chen family was quite peculiar.

Without being fully absorbed, how could he play such strategic moves?

“Hu.”

“Pung.”

Chen Huanzhi calmly drew and won with his tiles, and Lady Luck was unequivocally favoring him.

Dong Changyang had memorized half of the tiles and, combined with those already discarded, could almost predict Li Wuwei’s remaining tiles with near certainty.

In such circumstances, losing seemed almost impossible.

The amount of silver in Chen Huanzhi’s money box now matched Li Wuwei’s.

Li Wuwei’s forehead began to sweat, and Mei Lan quietly wiped it for him several times.

No, there was no need to rush.

His current hand was quite good, and he might not lose after all.

Li Wuwei cleared his throat and glanced at Mei Lan and Zhu Ju, who were instructing the servants on how to play.

It was time.

Just now, directing the servants to play was still somewhat unfamiliar, but after several rounds, they could almost start “pairing tiles” again.

Li Wuwei glanced at his own tiles, then at the difference in silver between him and Chen Huanzhi. He knew he had to win big this time.

The current hand didn’t have enough scoring combinations, so he needed to discard a few tiles and aim for a Thirteen Orphans hand!

Mei Lan and Zhu Ju immediately reshuffled their tiles, disrupting the previously arranged order, prioritizing everything to let Master win.

“Self-drawn!”

Mei Lan and Zhu Ju, the sisters, had already lost all their five hundred taels and graciously stepped aside.

They obediently stood by, guiding the servants, but noticed that their master hadn’t given them any instructions for a while.

Master was truly serious.

In this focused state, Li Wuwei had completely immersed himself in the mahjong game, with no attention left for any other distractions.Contrary to Chen Huanzhi, he seemed increasingly relaxed as the game progressed, showing no signs of getting too engrossed.

Oddly enough, this young master from the Chen family was quite peculiar.

Without being fully absorbed, how could he play such strategic moves?

“Hu.”

“Pung.”

Chen Huanzhi calmly drew and won with his tiles, and Lady Luck was unequivocally favoring him.

Dong Changyang had memorized half of the tiles and, combined with those already discarded, could almost predict Li Wuwei’s remaining tiles with near certainty.

In such circumstances, losing seemed almost impossible.

The amount of silver in Chen Huanzhi’s money box now matched Li Wuwei’s.

Li Wuwei’s forehead began to sweat, and Mei Lan quietly wiped it for him several times.

No, there was no need to rush.

His current hand was quite good, and he might not lose after all.

Li Wuwei cleared his throat and glanced at Mei Lan and Zhu Ju, who were instructing the servants on how to play.

It was time.

Just now, directing the servants to play was still somewhat unfamiliar, but after several rounds, they could almost start “pairing tiles” again.

Li Wuwei glanced at his own tiles, then at the difference in silver between him and Chen Huanzhi. He knew he had to win big this time.

The current hand didn’t have enough scoring combinations, so he needed to discard a few tiles and aim for a Thirteen Orphans hand!

Mei Lan and Zhu Ju immediately reshuffled their tiles, disrupting the previously arranged order, prioritizing everything to let Master win.

“Self-drawn!”

Chen Huanzhi pushed his tiles forward. “Sorry about this, Uncle Shi.”

“No worries, carry on!” Li Wuwei didn’t even look at his own tiles, immediately starting to shuffle again, his eyes sparkling.

Li Wuwei felt like he had returned to his early days in the gambling house ten years ago, when he would gamble for two days and nights straight with others.

The same thrill.

The same irresistible allure.

These mahjong tiles seemed to possess a magical quality, making him exert all his effort to strategize how to discard, how to complete sets, how to calculate scores, leaving him with little mental space for anything else.

Unaware that his silver was gradually diminishing, even the servants were beginning to keep their distance from him bit by bit.

…………

The sun had already set.

Servants carried lanterns, illuminating the small courtyard brightly.

The advantage on the field was already very clear.It was now down to the final round.

The consequences of the two sisters’ efforts to discard their tiles to let Li Wuwei win resulted in an increasing likelihood of a drawn game, while the silver on the field quickly flowed into the boxes of Li Wuwei and Chen Huanzhi.

Mei Lan and Zhu Ju, the sisters, could hardly believe that Chen Huanzhi had managed to compete with them to this extent.Chen Huanzhi’s luck was now unstoppable.

Running a gambling den, encountering cheats and swindlers was common, and they didn’t find it particularly difficult to handle.

What troubled them was someone who, while not particularly skillful at playing, suddenly had extraordinarily good luck.

Such people, unless they were cheating, were impossible to beat.

But the current master had no intention to cheat.

He was completely immersed in this game.

This was the end.

Night had fallen.

According to their previous agreement, after this round they would directly settle the silver.

Currently, Li Wuwei had a greater chance of winning, with eighty taels more than in Chen Huanzhi’s box.

The strategy of the two sisters risking their own losses to ensure Li Wuwei’s win undoubtedly gave him the upper hand on the field.

Now, both Li Wuwei and Chen Huanzhi had entered the final phase of waiting for a winning hand.

Who would win and who would lose was still uncertain.

“Wait, Chen Huanzhi, something feels off. Let’s discard this tile first and aim for a better hand.”

“With such a big tile, the chances of winning…”

Chen Huanzhi leaned towards playing it safe and steady.

Now, winning a small hand could almost certainly allow them to regain a slight advantage.

“No, if we’re going to win, let’s win big, let’s gamble!” Dong Changyang clenched his fist. “Trust me!”

Chen Huanzhi pondered for a moment and decided to follow Dong Changyang’s advice.

Without him, he would have lost everything long ago.

Mei Lan saw Li Wuwei’s posture and knew which tile she needed to discard.

Red Dragon.

The master should be aiming for this tile.

Zhu Ju should also be aiming for this tile, but she’s aiming for a hand with Chicken Hand (a specific set of criteria for scoring).

As for Chen Huanzhi, he should be aiming for a self-drawn win this round.

If my judgment is correct, it should be a simultaneous win. First, Zhu Ju will win the hand, collecting the winnings. The master and Li Wuwei will both lose.

But in the final tally of coins, the master should still have more.

If the master wins with this tile, then there’s no problem at all.

Just like that!

“Red Dragon.”

“Hu.”

“Hu, simultaneous win.”

Zhu Ju and Li Wuwei both pushed their tiles forward simultaneously, ready to declare a win.

Sure enough.

A smile was just about to appear on Mei Lan’s face.

“Wait.”

Chen Huanzhi reached out, blocking them, and then pushed his own tiles forward.

“I win this hand.”

“Big Four Winds, All Honors with a Single Suit, and Four Kongs!”

One shot.

Triple win!

How is this possible?

Chen Huanzhi’s incense burner had been replenished twice already, and now the third refill had burned out completely. He stood up from his chair, calmly closed the lid of the silver chest beside him, and respectfully bowed towards Li Wuwei. His demeanor remained composed and refined, embodying the demeanor of a young nobleman, as if the afternoon and late evening duel hadn’t affected him in the slightest.

On the other hand, Li Wuwei, though spirited, showed signs of weariness around his eyes.

“Hahaha! How could I possibly lose to these rookies in mahjong? Chen, did you see that? I’m truly the Little Mahjong God!”

Oh God, it’s her first time winning such a big hand.

Though there’s a bit of luck involved.

But winning is winning, losing is losing.

On this point, Li Wuwei couldn’t argue.

“Sir, I’ll be waiting for you at the Jinjiang Pavilion. I look forward to your esteemed visit,” Chen Huanzhi said respectfully.