Chapter 14: The First Shot of the Little Godfather of Gambling

  After the basketball hall incident, the relationship between the three became more familiar. Ning Xiaoyi was no longer as cold and distant as when they first met, and sometimes even joked with Xu Yao in front of Wen Qiang. Her beauty shone through her elegant appearance, and her slender figure seemed to radiate a warm glow. It was truly a sight to behold, like a beautiful jade. The days passed by, masking the dullness and boredom of training, and the friendship between the young people quickly deepened. A glance, a smile, and there was always a sense of warmth flowing on the court.

  In this era of fluttering white clothes, 16- or 17-year-old girls have the unique fragrance of adolescence. Their eyes are clear and bright, their waists slender and elegant, and every gesture is gentle yet natural, like a poem that says they are like a water lily, not afraid of the cool breeze; 16- or 17-year-old boys ignore the sweat on their bodies and the mud under their feet, laughing loudly and shouting during exercise, occasionally pausing for a moment, not from fatigue or regret, but just to catch a glimpse of that girl's profile, listen to her wind chime-like sweet voice, and immediately become energetic again.

  This is the most brilliant season, also the most sorrowful era. Countless people in their hearts yearn for someone wearing white clothes, with long hair scattered, walking out of a dreamy illusion under the hazy moonlight, leaning against a white horse as agile as a dragon, gently blowing a vertical flute. The water in the lake, the flying geese, and the fireflies dancing one by one are all intoxicated by the sound of the flute. The shallow grass behind is swaying in the wind between the horse's hooves, and the bright moon above casts her inverted reflection onto the sky. This is a romance that belongs only to youth, also a sorrow that belongs only to youth.

  Men and women who were once young did not cherish it, but they did not know how much they would miss this past after growing up. This is a youth matter that only existed in the 90s, it never had a past, nor did it have a future, it grew up in that era, and disappeared in that era.

  Let's start again, this lingering nostalgia is more precious than wealth and fame, more precious than wine, women, wealth, and breath. Looking at the two lively girls by my side, I understand that this life not only fills the void of youth but also makes it more colorful.

  The days of fighting together are always fleeting, after a day of training, Wen Ze wiped the sweat and asked: "Coach, how big is our chance of winning?" Yesterday, Ning Xiaocong somehow found out the starting lineup on the Mu Shan side, which means that we have the upper hand, and our chances of winning have increased by several percentage points.

  Ning Xiaoyi counted on her fingers, looking very cute: "Mu Shanshan is tall and strong, definitely in the interior line, responsible for rebounds, boards and main attack. Shi Chengcai is slender but agile, with a fast speed, mainly responsible for breakthroughs, dashes and strong attacks. But what we need to pay attention to is Guan You, this person has been in the provincial youth team, and was also admitted to Qingyi Middle School as a basketball special talent. I've heard that he's particularly good at organizing and planning, his defense is watertight, nicknamed 'Iron Wall'!"

  "Coach comrade, the battle is approaching, isn't it bad for morale to be so pessimistic? If we really can't do it, then surrender, anyway my face is thick enough..."

  "Pfft!" Xǔ Yáo spat at him, her eyes wide with anger. "What's the use of a good nickname? I hereby grant you the nickname 'Jīn Gāng Zuān' (Diamond Drill), specializing in drilling through iron walls!"

  "Foolish guy, even if you have a diamond drill, you wouldn't use it to drill into the wall. Drilling elsewhere is actually better..."

  Two women looked bewildered, their faces flushed with sweat, secretly despising themselves in their hearts. Facing this era's pure and innocent girl, the old face that had lived for two lifetimes was also a bit scorched.

  "It doesn't matter, we have our own advantages," Ning Xiaocong clapped her hands, "First of all, the three of us are girls, they will definitely underestimate..."

  "Hey, hey, what's with three girls?"

  Uncle was ignored, Ning Xiaoying continued: "Secondly, I can deal with Shangguan You, maybe not break through but at least can hold him back. Yao's movements are swift and her physique is good, she has the advantage of height, definitely can take care of Shi Chengcai; finally, there's Mu Shanshan, although his skills are a bit rough, he wins in terms of height and physical strength, I and Yao being girls, directly confronting him won't work. So the key to winning or losing is..."

  Two girls looked at Wen Qian together, and the uncle-like man with a big belly puffed out his chest and gazed up at the sky at a 45-degree angle: "Little Shan Shan is handed over to me, everything is OK!"

  After the State Council issued a decision to amend the "Regulations on Working Hours of Employees" on March 25, 1995, the country officially implemented the two-day weekend system starting from May Day. As it happened that the first week after school started was also the first time Qingyi Middle School had a two-day holiday, Friday afternoon became a carnival for all students in the school. After barely surviving two classes, finishing the last self-study class meant a big retreat. Having just finished reading Jin Yong's new book "Nine Yin and Nine Yang", Ren Yi nudged Wen Qian with his elbow, making a lewd face and cupping his hands: "Second Brother, please."

  Wen Qian also cupped his hands and said: "Sword Ping brother, please."

  At that time, the TV series "Gan Shi Jiu Mei" was popular, Ren Yi's crazy infatuation with Yang Lu's portrayal of Shi Jiu Mei used crying, making a fuss and hanging herself to force Wen Qian to call him Yin Jianping (I don't know if Zhang Zijian would be moved to tears), then he also gave Wen Qian a role as Hua Er Lang's dragon suit mountain bandit with the shameless reason that one person playing a role-playing game is not good, and let Ji Su play Gan Shi Jiu Mei without notifying the actor.

  "The 19th Sister Gan" is one of the most beautiful memories of that era. Although the plot and scenes are not worth mentioning now, they moved countless young men and women at that time. It's about chivalrous heroes, love, life and death, right and wrong. When faced with family and loved ones, how do you choose? When faced with righteousness and personal desires, how do you make a choice? A simple drama, yet it touched the hearts of many people.

  "I have some intel to share, I heard that Mu Shan went all-in against Liu Zhihe and Old Liu's face turned green..."

  "How much?" Wen Qian became slightly interested, "One hundred or two hundred?"

  "Two hundred?" Ren Yi didn't hide his disdain. "Let your imagination run wild, Hua Erlang comrade, a whole five thousand!"

  He was really scared, it's 1995 after all. He stretched out his right hand and flipped it over twice: "Five thousand RMB?"

  No matter how surprised Wen Ze was, the fact always made him tearful. When he was sure that this wasn't a case of Yin Jianping getting sick from reading pirated books, he subconsciously scratched his pants.

  He's so annoying!

  What a group of annoying people, what an annoying thing, can lead to such an annoying situation! After sighing, Wen Ze asked: "How is the odds calculated now?"

  "Because everyone has a common understanding of your strengths, the betting is not very enthusiastic. A few days ago, Liu Zhi and raised Mu Shanshan's odds from 1.1 to 1.5, if Mu Shanshan wins, he will have to pay out 2,500 yuan!"

  Everyone thinks Mu Shanshan has already won, with a betting odds of 1.1, it's like not making any money at all. Although many people want to burst the cold door Wenhe, but the overall betting volume is not impressive. Liu Zhihe sat in the house and took out the water from the upper household, and then collected the money from the lower household, but the scale was too small, so he could only make a loud shout. The odds were raised to 1.5. Wenhe was speechless, if Mu Shanshan really won, would Liu Zhihe's earnings be enough to pay out?

  Yin Jianping and Hua Erlang, two third-rate actors, sighed together for a long time, expressing strong sympathy for Liu Zhi's first shot at Qingyizhong. This host, who had dominated the Minghua Middle School gambling industry for three years, might go bankrupt in this 5,000 yuan century gamble...

  "Wen suddenly realized a problem and said: 'I forgot to ask you, who won the 50 yuan bet?'"

  Ren Yi's face was thick with embarrassment as he awkwardly said: "Let's just keep personal matters private..."

  "Alright, alright, I get it. I'm telling you, Jianping, can't people be less realistic for once..."

  After school, Ren Yi was forced by Wen Qian to introduce him to the godfather of gambling, Liu Zhihe. Liu Zhihe is not tall, and the biggest impression he gives people is his shaking fat body. When he smiles, his eyes narrow into a small slit, really small!

  Even if Wenhe knew that idols and vomiting were only a turn away, he still heard the sound of dreams shattering. Ren Yi pointed at Wenhe just as he was about to introduce himself, Liu Zhi smiled and said: "We've met before, we've met before, fellow student Wenhe, nice to meet you."

  You can tell a lot from the way a person speaks. Firstly, Liu Zhihe's speech is full of street flavor, just short of having "thug" carved on his left cheek and "hooligan" on his right; secondly, this guy looks very kind, but when he smiles, the fat on his body doesn't move at all, it's obviously a fake smile coming from his throat; lastly, he is still a little brat.

  Perhaps because his dad was from the Public Security Bureau, he had seen too many kinds of people and thought to imitate the cunning of adults, but this kind of cunning appearing on a high school student's face looked ridiculous in Wen Qian's eyes. Wen Qian didn't want to have much to do with him, immediately stating his intention: "I heard that there are very few people who can beat me at Pan Kou Li, isn't it embarrassing if this gets out? Today I'll just bet against myself, everyone will top out at 1,000 yuan, I'll bet 1,000 yuan and those idiots will lose."

  Liu Zhihe narrowed his eyes and sized him up. Wen Chen knew that his family background couldn't be hidden from Liu Zhihe, who must have been suspicious of whether he had so much money. With a wave of his hand, he pretended to be generous and said, "Money is no problem, don't worry." Liu Zhihe thought for a moment with narrowed eyes, then casually pulled out a notebook from his desk drawer and threw it over. This was good news - regardless of who won or lost, with this thousand yuan as a base, the pressure on his finances wouldn't be so great. Wen Chen opened it and took a look - wow, two pages were filled with dense writing, totaling 60-70 people, with Mu Shan Mountain winning more than three times as much as Wen Chen. What was even more amazing was that there were no names, only codes, starting from 1 to 67. Wen Chen received a small piece of paper torn from a math notebook, on which was scribbled the number 68 in crooked handwriting.

  Wow, I thought it was just a small disturbance at home, but if I hadn't heard that Mu Shan was so powerful and lost 5,000 yuan, Wen Qian wouldn't have even bothered to ask about this matter. Unexpectedly, after coming over, my eyes were really opened, worthy of being a senior who started dating in junior high school, with experience in counter-surveillance, everyone knows how to use secret accounts.

  Wen Ze roughly estimated that, excluding his and Mu Shan's bets, the total amount of the others did not exceed 500 yuan. Hmm, this is reasonable, after all, a group of kids playing privately, the amount is too large to be impossible. Now being cleaned up by Mu Shan like this, the amount is enough to constitute gathering crowds for gambling, right?

  "Haha," Wen Jie laughed and gave a thumbs up, praising: "Qian will bring it over tomorrow for you. You can cover such a big plate, your brother is awesome, really awesome!"

  Liu Zhihe wasn't afraid of Wen Ze's threats either, and put away his book with a smile: "The others are just small change, even if the school finds out it won't be a big deal. As for you and Mu Shanshan, will you go out and tell on me?"

  "I won't, but Mu Shan did say something, that they owed 5,000 yuan..."

  "He's definitely trying to show off by spreading some words, but if someone really asks him about it, he'll absolutely never admit it. As for the reasoning behind this, I don't need to teach you, Wen classmate, do I?"

  "Of course, it's natural."

  The contact with Liu Zhihe was purely accidental, if not for Ren Yi providing the information, Wen Qian would have even forgotten about the opening. Five thousand yuan is nothing to Mu Shanshan and others, but since it's been made known to Ren Yi, there can only be one reason, which is to create momentum. Mu Shanshan was afraid of being humiliated by Wen Qian not being up to par, so he took advantage of this opportunity as well. If Wen Qian heard that the opponent had made a big bet and didn't react, he would have implicitly admitted defeat, losing a lot in terms of morale.

  Wen and Liang have always been magnanimous, not one to argue over trivial matters. But since they've started a rivalry with Mu Shan, they'll fight back with all their might, even if it's just a battle of wits. They won't show any weakness. Only by building up their momentum before the competition can they truly savor the thrill of victory!

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