Yang Kai walked through the crowded streets of Black Plum Village, and the pouch of silver at his waist felt heavier than it should.
One hundred and twenty silver taels. It was a pitiful amount by any cultivator's standard, but for a former Earth dweller who once stretched a paycheck across two weeks of ramen and canned soup, it was a small fortune.
He had already decided what to do with it.
Buy rice first, and then gamble the rest.
It was reckless. He knew that. But recklessness backed by calculation was just called strategy.
Halfway down the main street, past the weapon stalls and herb vendors, he spotted the building he was looking for.
A two-story wooden structure with faded red lanterns hanging from its eaves, and the faint sound of dice clattering against wooden bowls drifted out from behind its cloth curtains.
The Spring Breeze Drizzle Building.
Despite the poetic name, it was just a gambling hall with a tea counter on the side. Merchants, off-duty disciples, and local toughs all mingled here, and the air inside smelled of cheap tobacco and spilled wine.
Yang Kai pushed through the entrance curtain, and a wave of noise hit him.
The hall was packed. Several round tables filled the center of the room, and each one had a small crowd gathered around it.
The games were simple and old. Dice in a bowl, high or low, odd or even. A few tables ran a tile-matching game, but the real money was at the dice tables.
He scanned the room.
In his past life, he had never been a gambler. He didn't have the money for it, and he wasn't the type to chase thrills.
But he understood numbers, and more importantly, he understood people. Years in a warehouse taught you to read a coworker's face when they lied about finishing their shift, or when a manager was building a case to fire you. The tells were always there, and most people never learned to hide them.
The same principle applied here.
Yang Kai found an empty seat at one of the smaller dice tables in the corner, away from the louder crowds.
Four other men sat around the table. Two were local merchants with sun-weathered faces, and one was a young man in Windy Rain Sect robes who kept fidgeting with the coin stack in front of him. The fourth was the dealer, a skinny old man with yellowed fingers and a permanent squint.
"Minimum bet is five silver," the dealer rasped without looking up.
Yang Kai placed five silver on the table.
The dealer shook the bowl, and it rattled for three seconds before he slammed it down.
"High or low?"
Yang Kai watched the other players place their bets. Both merchants went high. The Windy Rain disciple hesitated, then went low.
Yang Kai listened.
Three dice in the bowl. The rattle had been sharp at the start, then dull near the end. Heavy landing. He wasn't sure if his newly refined senses from the Golden Skeleton were helping him or if he was imagining it, but the sound pattern felt familiar.
"Low," he said, and placed his bet.
The dealer lifted the bowl.
Three, two, one. Total of six. Low.
The merchants groaned. The Windy Rain disciple grinned and scooped his winnings. Yang Kai quietly collected ten silver.
He didn't celebrate. He didn't even smile.
Rule one: never let them see you thinking.
The next three rounds, he lost twice on purpose and won once. A net gain of only five silver, but that wasn't the point. The point was to establish himself as an ordinary player, unremarkable and slightly unlucky.
By the fifth round, he had mapped out the dealer's habits. The old man shook the bowl in a consistent rhythm, three short shakes and one long.
When the total was high, the final shake was heavier, because the dice settled near the rim. When it was low, the sound was hollow, as the dice clustered at the bottom of the bowl.
It wasn't cheating.
Yang Kai began to bet with precision.
Win. Win. Lose. Win. Win. Lose.
He deliberately broke up his streak, mixing in calculated losses to avoid suspicion. Every three wins, he would throw one round, and it cost him a bit each time, but the pattern kept the table calm.
After half an hour, his original one hundred and twenty silver had grown to three hundred.
He switched tables.
The second table was louder, and the bets were bigger. Minimum of ten silver, and the dealer here was sharper.
A middle-aged woman with cold eyes, and she watched her players like a hawk. Yang Kai adjusted his approach, and bet conservatively for the first few rounds, letting himself blend in with the crowd.
Then he noticed something interesting.
A heavyset merchant at the table was losing badly. Round after round, he kept doubling his bets, and his face grew redder with each loss. The desperation in his eyes was unmistakable.
Yang Kai recognized the type. Back on Earth, he had seen it at the break room poker games. The guy who kept chasing his losses, throwing good money after bad, convinced that the next hand would turn it all around.
It never did.
The merchant eventually threw his entire remaining stack onto the table. "All in! High!"
The dealer shook the bowl and lifted it.
Low.
The merchant slammed his fist on the table, cursed loudly, and stormed out. The crowd murmured, but nobody cared for long. This was a gambling hall, and such scenes played out daily.
Yang Kai used the distraction to place a larger bet. Thirty silver on low.
He won.
Two more rounds. Careful, measured. Win, then deliberate loss, then win again.
By the time an hour had passed, his pouch was fat with silver. He counted it under the table. Just over a thousand.
Enough.
He stood up, pocketed his winnings, and walked toward the exit without a word.
"Leaving already?" the female dealer called out, her voice sharp. "Your luck was running hot, young man."
Yang Kai waved his hand over his shoulder. "Quit while you're ahead. My grandfather taught me that."
He had no grandfather. The old man in his past life had died before he was born, but nobody here needed to know that.
Outside, the afternoon sun was still warm, and the street was just as crowded as before. Yang Kai ducked into a side alley, leaned against the wall, and let out a long breath.
His hands were steady, but his heart was beating fast. Not from fear, but from excitement.
One thousand silver.
In mortal terms, it was a small fortune. Enough to buy rice for over a year, and still have leftover silver to purchase low-grade medicinal herbs from the market stalls.
The real cultivation resources were locked behind Contribution Points, but herbs for basic body strengthening could still be found in Black Plum Village if you knew where to look.
He wouldn't come back here again. Not for a while, at least. Winning too often at the same hall would draw attention, and attention was something he couldn't afford.
He tucked the heavy pouch securely inside his robes, close to his chest, and stepped back onto the main street.
Now, to buy that rice.
------xXx---------
Yang Kai didn't think much of the alley encounter from earlier. Black Plum Village was close to High Heaven Pavilion, and seeing other disciples around was perfectly common.
A little while later, he arrived at the rice shop. The line was quite long, stretching the length of two stalls. Business was booming as usual, but only one waiter scurried around trying to serve the customers. Boss He was calculating figures on an abacus at the counter, while Madame He greeted the guests at the door.
As more people finished ordering, the line gradually shortened, and Yang Kai joined the back of it.
"Madame," Yang Kai called out. A woman appearing to be in her forties looked up, and when she saw it was Yang Kai, she immediately smiled. "Ah, young man, you came to buy rice again."
"Yes." He walked up to the front of the counter and pointed at a bag sitting behind it. "Give me one bag, please."
While the lady was tying the bag shut with a length of rough string, she said, "Young man, you buy just one bag a month. Is this really enough for you?"
Yang Kai replied, "It's enough."
"Liar!" The lady huffed, eyeing him up and down. "Look at you, skinny as a twig! If you were eating well, would you look like this?"
Yang Kai smiled sheepishly. "I also go to the mountains to hunt, so even with just one bag, I won't go hungry."
While Boss He concentrated on calculating the bill, he leaned over and whispered to his wife, "Go fetch the old rice from the back and give it to this child."
"We'll listen to the boss," Madame He replied with a warm smile.
"How is this right? You are also trying to make a living here," Yang Kai said out loud, his voice firmer than usual.
The lady immediately frowned. "What use is old rice? Leaving it there will only provide a place for insects to grow. Anyways, people won't eat it. But the owner said that this rice still has some nutrients, although less. You wait here, and I will go get some for you to take home."
As she was saying this, she had already started walking toward the back room.
Yang Kai's chest tightened with emotion. Every time he came here, the couple always found some excuse to give him extra rice. They claimed that insects would grow in old rice, but in fact, it was always perfectly good rice they gave him. Their quiet generosity gave Yang Kai a small, fragile hope in this otherwise cold and brutal world.
"Thank you, Uncle He." Yang Kai's voice had a slight trembling to it.
Boss He smiled and looked up from his abacus. "When living alone, don't you have household problems? In the future, whenever you're hungry, just come to our shop. We may not have much, but we still have enough rice for you to eat."
"Okay." Yang Kai nodded his head. This world still had good people in it.
Suddenly, two men barged into the rice store, roughly shoving aside customers waiting in line.
"Ahhhh!" A young shop hand fell hard, landed on his rear, and flipped over. He hit the ground so awkwardly that he couldn't get back up.
"What is going on!" Boss He shouted toward the men as he scrambled out from behind the counter. Yang Kai quickly helped the fallen boy to his feet, all while intently glaring at the two intruders.
One of the men looked pale and sickly, clutching his stomach, while the other was built like a bear and supported the pale one with his thick arm. These two were the ones who had kicked the boy aside.
"Who's in charge here?" the burly man barked.
"I am, I am," Boss He quickly replied. He was only an ordinary rice merchant, but these two men had fierce-looking faces, and the short swords at their waists made it clear they were not easily trifled with. Boss He's brow furrowed as he wondered what had happened.
"Well, well. So you are the black-hearted boss! You even dared to sell poisonous rice to my brother. Look at him! Originally he was a strong man, but after eating your rice he became this sickly. Normally he is as strong as a bear, but he can hardly stand now! You black-hearted person, worrying only about money and going as far as to take lives!"
At this outburst, Boss He worriedly stammered, "Ah, how could this be? How could it?"
The man continued, "How would I know? This morning my brother bought some rice from you and made porridge, and then he became like this after eating it. I was lucky I didn't eat any, otherwise I also would've ended up the same."
Boss He's forehead began to sweat. He took his sleeve and kept wiping at his brow. "Respected customer, I fear there might be a misunderstanding."
"Misunderstanding? Misunderstanding your mother! If it wasn't your rice, then what caused him to become like this?" The burly man roared, and several customers flinched.
Yang Kai leaned back against the counter, watching the chaos unfold like a predictable script.
Boss He was such a genuinely kind person. Yang Kai couldn't believe that the man who freely gave him rice every month would ever put poison in it.
Not to mention the obvious. A black-hearted businessman wouldn't be stupid enough to poison his own merchandise. If this kind of news spread, how would he do business in the future? Who in their right mind would dare come and buy his rice?
Their excuse was laughable. Had they even considered another cause for the man's sickness?
Therefore, these two were definitely here to ruin the shop. But this move was especially vile, for they implied that Boss He needed someone to die just to earn a few coins.
Even though Yang Kai's body was still relatively weak, he was a practitioner, and through three years of the original Yang Kai's accumulated memories, he had seen countless types of people. He felt he could accurately judge Boss He's character. The man was also someone he owed a great debt of kindness to, and witnessing this injustice caused his face to darken. He stood up and said, "These two...."
"What?" One of the men threw him a vicious glare, his anger evident.
Yang Kai didn't get to speak, because Boss He immediately sprang in front of him and slowly shook his head for Yang Kai to stop.
"Uncle He....." Yang Kai was stunned.
"Even in bankruptcy, avoid misfortunes!" Boss He whispered, his voice barely audible.
Yang Kai just sighed helplessly. The fact that the boss said this signaled that he already knew what the two men were truly after.
But in order to do business, one must have a good name.
The earlier commotion had already attracted a large crowd of onlookers, and if this continued, then the rice shop's reputation would be dragged through the mud.
Even if one knew what the men said was false, one could only comply with them and hurriedly hope to end the whole fiasco before too much damage was done.
In desperation, Boss He faced the burly man. "Regarding your brother's illness, I can say that it has nothing to do with me...."
After the two men heard this, one of them cried out in anger, "Even if it's not related, I have already come to this rice shop! If I don't make the truth clear, then my brother's suffering would be in vain. He should be sent to the doctor immediately! But of course, if you are willing to shoulder the medical bills, then we are willing to drop the subject."
After this statement, it was clear that Boss He really would need to go bankrupt to avoid misfortune.
But if people truly wanted to extort money, they would do it slowly, over a long period of time. The demands these two men were making were far too short-sighted.
Even if Boss He agreed to pay them off now, his rice shop's reputation would still suffer. For nothing in this world stayed watertight, and news of him selling poisoned rice would spread like wildfire.
This told Yang Kai that the men were either not interested in squeezing Boss He for more money, or they had some other goal entirely.
Who would have imagined that these two men had no intention of compromising at all. "You black-hearted boss! Who do you think we two brothers are, to be exploited by you so freely? We two brothers were really unlucky to have bought poisoned rice from you! Where is your guilty conscience?"
That statement resonated quite deeply with Yang Kai. He curled his lip while sitting back down, thinking to himself, then are you two the virtuous ones? Living life with a clear conscience?
Boss He was also completely stupefied. What? These two men truly weren't here to extort money?
While everyone stood stunned and unsure what to do, more and more people had started to gather outside the shop. And then, a handsome boy around Yang Kai's age appeared from the crowd. From his clothing and bearing, he was clearly far better off than Yang Kai.
That young man casually walked up to the two men and circled around them with visible interest, clicking his tongue repeatedly and shaking his head as though examining a pair of particularly fascinating circus animals.
Others may have not noticed, but with a single glance, Yang Kai recognized those three as the exact same people he had spotted earlier in the alley.
The crowd just stared at the boy who had appeared so conveniently.
These three were working together. A classic scam. How predictable.