CLS-Chapter 76

Chapter 76

The one-armed gambler Do-su quietly looked at Wei Yan-ho, then turned his head to shift his gaze toward Gang Cheon-rip.

“Your words are different.”

Gang Cheon-rip remained composed.

“What’s different?”

“Didn’t you say you’d let me have a proper match? But now you’re telling me to compete against that brat?”

“Brat?”

Gang Cheon-rip pointed to the silver coins piled in front of Wei Yan-ho.

“Someone who won that much money at the Golden Flower House in less than a shijin is a brat? Could you do that?”

Dokbi’s gaze turned toward the silver coins stacked in front of Wei Yan-ho. Seeing the mountain of silver coins piled higher than a person’s height, Dokbi’s eyebrows twitched.

“You’re saying he won all of that?”

“That’s right. He won ten consecutive games at yin-yang.”

“Ten consecutive wins?”

Dokbi looked at Wei Yan-ho with fresh eyes.

‘I can’t sense it.’

Gamblers are people who live in the world of competition. In a single moment, they can gain everything, and in a single moment, they can lose everything. Those who live and die by such blade-edge competitions inevitably possess something different from ordinary people—a subtle toxicity.

But Wei Yan-ho showed none of that.

There was no desperate craving for competition, no characteristic desperation felt from those who live their lives balancing on a knife’s edge.

“Really?”

“Everyone here saw it.”

“Strange.”

Dokbi quietly observed Wei Yan-ho, then frowned.

“He doesn’t seem like a gambler…”

“Do gamblers walk around with ‘gambler’ written on their foreheads? If you gamble well, you’re a gambler.”

Dokbi pressed his lips together.

Gang Cheon-rip was the owner of the Golden Flower House, but he was a merchant, not a gambler. Explaining the world of gambling to a merchant was a difficult task.

“He’s not a con artist?”

“Is there a way to win ten consecutive games at yin-yang?”

“Hmm…”

Dokbi simply couldn’t understand Wei Yan-ho.

Winning ten consecutive games at yin-yang wasn’t easy even for him. Other gambling games might be different, but yin-yang was truly a game where luck was everything.

That’s why it was even more incomprehensible.

In terms of skill, he should naturally be a master, but he couldn’t sense any aura of mastery at all.

Setting everything else aside, looking at those hazy, vacant eyes, Dokbi couldn’t imagine that this youth could excel in gambling or any other field.

Gambling is half skill and half reading your opponent’s psychology. In Dokbi’s view, having devoted his entire life to analyzing the humans sitting across from him at gambling tables, Wei Yan-ho didn’t seem to have any talent for gambling whatsoever.

“Truly strange.”

While Dokbi was pondering, Wei Yan-ho yawned and opened his mouth.

“…Are we far from done?”

Gang Cheon-rip waved his hand.

“It’ll be ready soon, so please wait just a little longer.”

“Yaaawn…”

Wei Yan-ho seemed ready to fall asleep entirely.

After pacifying Wei Yan-ho, Gang Cheon-rip quietly snapped at Dokbi.

“So! Can you face him or not?”

“You’re asking me?”

“Of course…”

“Me?”

Gang Cheon-rip realized his mistake and shut his mouth tight.

Who was standing before him now? A person who was like a legend in Hubei Province’s gambling scene.

Born in gambling houses and having lived in gambling houses, Dokbi was someone who had achieved everything there was to achieve in gambling. Even the renowned gamblers of Hubei would defer to him—his skill was beyond question.

Asking such a person if he could handle some brat who appeared today for the first time was a grave mistake.

“I was too hasty and committed a discourtesy.”

“Hmm…”

Dokbi stared intently at Gang Cheon-rip and let out a low hum.

In other circumstances, he wouldn’t have tolerated such treatment, but now he could understand Gang Cheon-rip’s state of mind.

If you saw ten nyang of gold flying away before your eyes, who could maintain their composure?

Moreover, if all of this happened within half a shijin, even Dokbi couldn’t help but be shaken.

No matter how much you try to be courteous and calm, gambling houses are places where that becomes difficult. That’s why they’re called places where you can see the limits of human nature.

Of course, having lived his entire life in gambling houses, Dokbi had seen far worse, so he could understand Gang Cheon-rip’s feelings.

“I understand.”

“Thank you for understanding. So what’s your answer?”

“There’s no way I’d refuse gambling.”

“I’ll compensate you handsomely.”

Gang Cheon-rip looked back at Wei Yan-ho with a triumphant expression. Now that Dokbi had agreed to step in, the match was as good as over. Even in Luoyang, the center of gambling, Dokbi was known as the supreme gambler. There was no way such a Dokbi couldn’t handle a brat like that.

“Young master.”

Wei Yan-ho was sitting in his chair, nodding off like a sick chicken.

It seemed he had fallen asleep, unable to wait any longer.

“Young master!”

“Mmm.”

Awakened by the call, Wei Yan-ho looked around with half-closed eyes.

“Is it ready?”

“Yes, it is!”

“Yaaawn.”

Wei Yan-ho stretched both arms wide, yawned languidly, patted his mouth, then twisted his neck left and right.

Crack, crack.

‘How can a person’s neck make such sounds?’

If someone with a large build had made such threatening sounds, it would have been spine-chilling, but with Wei Yan-ho making such sounds while sitting in a chair like a sick chicken, even those sounds seemed pitiful.

“So…”

Wei Yan-ho looked around and spotted Jin So-ah, then said:

“Hey, you! Go fetch a bowl of cold water!”

“Yes, yes sir.”

Jin So-ah responded with a trembling voice and a respectful tone. Then he hurried off with quick steps, brought water, and offered it to Wei Yan-ho.

“Hmm.”

After taking a sip of water, Wei Yan-ho grimaced and handed the bowl back to Jin So-ah.

“Bring something cold! Something cold!”

“Nnngh!”

Vowing that he would definitely strangle that neck once he got out of this place, Jin So-ah took the bowl again and went to fetch water.

Having thoroughly tormented Jin So-ah, Wei Yan-ho grinned and looked at Dokbi.

“So you’re my opponent?”

“That’s right.”

“You have a really fierce-looking face.”

Dokbi chuckled.

Whether he understood the situation or not, he liked that boldness. Gambling in front of all these watching people was something most people wouldn’t dare attempt due to nervousness.

Yet speaking so boldly meant that, contrary to Dokbi’s first impression, this youth was more courageous than expected.

‘Did I misjudge him?’

It was slightly puzzling, but it didn’t matter either way. Even if this youth in front of him had been honing his gambling skills since his mother’s womb, it wouldn’t amount to even half the years Dokbi had devoted to gambling.

“But why are you missing an arm?”

Dokbi’s brow furrowed.

“…Lost it gambling.”

“Oh my.”

Wei Yan-ho shook his head.

“That’s why they say gambling is the direct path to ruin. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Dokbi answered as if it were nothing.

“The guy who took my arm paid with his life in return, so it wasn’t a losing deal.”

“Whoa.”

Wei Yan-ho shuddered.

“You bet lives in gambling too?”

“It’s common.”

“I don’t understand why people gamble with their lives over gambling.”

“When the stakes keep rising, there comes a moment when human lives seem trivial. Do you think your life is worth ten nyang of gold?”

“Hmm…”

Wei Yan-ho scratched his cheek and answered:

“I think it would probably be worth more than that.”

“You really think so?”

“Hard to believe, but yes.”

Wei Yan-ho smiled broadly.

No one would pay ten nyang of gold to buy Wei Yan-ho. But there were already people who had put up the enormous sum of one hundred nyang of gold to find Wei Yan-ho.

‘I suddenly miss them.’

To think of family from such an unrelated conversation—Wei Yan-ho felt his heart growing restless.

What might they be doing now?

The letter should have arrived in Guangdong by now. Then, knowing their second son was alive, they’d all be rejoicing.

His older brother would probably be raging about catching and beating him up, and Wei Su-ryeon might be whimpering. Mother would naturally be overjoyed.

‘Father, well, what would he care.’

Even if they met again, Wei Jeong-han would undoubtedly start lecturing Wei Yan-ho within days.

It was obvious without seeing it!

So it would be better to meet as late as possible, but…

‘I miss them.’

Wei Yan-ho’s eyes grew distant.

Still, they were people who, despite calling him their lazy son, prepared meals for him every day, took care of him, and comforted him…

Before meeting the demon, he hadn’t known their preciousness, but the five years spent in the cave had taught Wei Yan-ho the value of family.

‘When I return home this time, I should try to be less lazy.’

He wouldn’t dream the absurd dream of living like an ordinary person, but he thought he should at least live a bit more diligently.

“Would they be happy then?”

“What are you muttering about by yourself!”

Jin So-ah had returned with water and was offering it to Wei Yan-ho. Wei Yan-ho looked at Jin So-ah with a blank expression.

“Just straight up…”

“It’s cold water!”

Jin So-ah interrupted Wei Yan-ho’s words and offered the cold water.

Wei Yan-ho took the cold water without a word and drank it down.

“Ahh!”

As the cold water went down, all thoughts of family and everything else vanished instantly.

“So…”

Thud!

Wei Yan-ho placed the water bowl on the table and looked at Gang Cheon-rip and Dokbi.

“What do I need to do?”

Gang Cheon-rip stepped back. From now on, it was Dokbi’s domain.

“That’s not for me to decide. You should decide, shouldn’t you?”

Dokbi opened his mouth with a confident attitude.

“Any gambling game is fine. Choose the type.”

“Ooooh.”

The watching crowd all admired Dokbi’s boldness.

How many types of gambling exist in the world? Dozens, hundreds of gambling games are happening right now. Yet he was telling his opponent to choose the type.

It was an attitude that radiated confidence in his mastery of whatever gambling game might come up.

“Me?”

“That’s right.”

Wei Yan-ho tilted his head.

As if pondering something, Wei Yan-ho slowly scratched his chin, and only after a long while did he finally speak.

“But I don’t know any gambling games.”

“You… you don’t know gambling?”

“No. This is my first time coming here today too…”

Dokbi’s eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck.

First time at a gambling house today?

So he came to a gambling house for the first time, gambled, won ten consecutive games at yin-yang, and was now sitting across from him?

‘Is he a gambling god?’

Unless a gambling deity had descended, such a thing couldn’t be possible.

“Don’t lie! Do you think I’ll let my guard down because of that?”

“Why would I lie? If you don’t want to believe it, then don’t.”

Dokbi examined Wei Yan-ho’s expression with a sour face.

‘It doesn’t seem like a lie…’

Anxiety was slowly beginning to creep over Dokbi.