CLS-Chapter 84

Chapter 84

“Aigo!”

“Uaaah!”

“So close! So close!”

The last die revealed a ‘five.’ Unfortunately, Wei Yan-ho’s final total became thirty-five instead of thirty-six.

“But even that’s something!”

“Of course! If double-sixes came out every time, who would play dice! That’s a number that’s almost impossible to lose with!”

The gambling house began to stir.

From the moment that young punk suddenly walked in with a massive amount of gold and challenged them, something felt strange, and now he had created an incredible hand of thirty-five.

‘Strange.’

The middle-aged men realized the situation was becoming very odd.

‘This feels suspicious.’

Gamblers who practically lived in gambling houses had experienced this kind of game once or twice before. A game that started with the intention of hooking a sucker.

A game that systematically drives a sucker from beginning to end.

The problem was that the prey in this game was reversed. Normally, it should have been Poison Bee who rolled thirty-five right now. That way, the picture would be complete with that young punk losing all his stakes and getting kicked out broke.

But now, absurdly, it was the young punk who had rolled thirty-five.

‘Could it be that young punk set up this game?’

The middle-aged men thought it was absurd, but they couldn’t completely shake off their suspicions. The game was too strange to dismiss. It was as if it had been planned from the beginning to clean out all of Golden Flower House’s money.

“Thirty-five…”

The middle-aged men’s gazes fixed on the dice.

In a normal game, just rolling thirty-five would be enough to be confident of victory. But the person sitting across from Wei Yan-ho right now was none other than Poison Bee.

If it was Poison Bee, the legend of Hubei’s gambling world, creating double-sixes once more wouldn’t be impossible.

Golden Flower House became so quiet that even the sound of a needle dropping could be heard.

Gulp.

Someone’s swallowing sound could be heard.

Poison Bee quietly looked at the dice, then raised his head to look at Wei Yan-ho.

“Were you hiding your skills?”

“Pardon?”

“It feels like this game was rigged from the beginning.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Poison Bee smiled bitterly.

“It doesn’t matter either way. If you rigged the game, that’s impressive, and even if you didn’t rig it, it’s still impressive. But you underestimated me too much.”

Swoosh!

Poison Bee stretched out his hand like lightning and swept the dice into the dice cup.

Squeeze!

After putting all the dice in the cup, Poison Bee pressed the dice cup firmly against the floor.

“You’ll regret trying to pull tricks on this Poison Bee.”

“I keep telling you I didn’t pull any tricks.”

“It doesn’t matter either way.”

Gang Cheon-rip approached Poison Bee and whispered.

“Can you win?”

“I am Poison Bee.”

“I know. I know, but… if you lose, Golden Flower House will really go bankrupt.”

“That won’t happen.”

Poison Bee looked at Gang Cheon-rip with confident eyes. Seeing Poison Bee’s eyes, Gang Cheon-rip nodded and stepped back.

“I’ll trust you.”

Poison Bee didn’t even respond to Gang Cheon-rip’s words and quietly looked at the dice cup while calming his mind.

‘Has there ever been a game this big?’

He had lived in gambling dens for decades, but it had truly been a long time since he’d faced such a big game.

Feeling the blood of a gambler boiling, Poison Bee bit his lips tightly. Even if his heart was boiling, keeping his head cool was the basic principle of gambling.

“Hup!”

With a short battle cry, Poison Bee lifted the dice cup into the air.

Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!

With clean sounds, it seemed visible that the dice were being arranged in orderly fashion.

“Double-six!”

“Double-six! Double-six must come out!”

With Poison Bee’s movement, shouts began bursting out from all directions.

Watching this kind of game, it was natural for gamblers’ blood to boil.

“Haam!”

Wei Yan-ho yawned but didn’t take his eyes off Poison Bee’s hand.

“Hiyaaah!”

Poison Bee shouted with vigor and threw the dice to the floor.

Clatter!

Six dice began spinning on the board. The dice that spun with fierce momentum and aligned in formation stopped one by one.

“Six!”

The first die to stop showed a six.

“Uaaah! My heart’s going to burst first!”

“Be quiet! Keep it down!”

The second die stopped.

“Six!”

The third.

“Six!”

The fourth.

“Six!”

Excited gamblers began pushing the people around them back and rushing forward.

“Move!”

“Ah! Stop pushing!”

The gamblers’ heads began stretching forward.

“It’s stopping! The fifth one is stopping!”

“Six!”

“It’s a six! Uaaah! It’s a six!”

“All five are sixes!”

The gamblers’ eyes grew wide as if they might pop out.

“Could it be… really double-six?”

“Double-six might actually come out!”

“This is legendary! Legendary!”

Jin So-ah grabbed Wei Yan-ho’s hand tightly.

“Wh-what do we do, Young Master Wei!”

But Wei Yan-ho remained completely calm as always.

“Would another six really come out?”

“It came out before too.”

“Oh, right? Then it could come out again.”

“How can you speak so calmly about this! If we lose here, we’ll become beggars!”

“Not we, but I.”

Wei Yan-ho sank into his chair and looked at the last die with vacant eyes.

“Hmm…”

Roll roll roll.

The last die began to slowly come to a stop.

“Six…”

The middle-aged men’s eyes saw the die slowly showing a six as it stopped.

“Uah…”

Double-six!

It was the moment double-six was about to appear.

But…

Spin.

At that moment, the die spun around as if someone had turned it, then fell on its side.

A deathly silence filled the gambling house.

Those watching, Poison Bee, and even Wei Yan-ho himself… everyone could only stare blankly at the die for a while, unable to say anything.

“Ah…”

“Th-three!”

“Three came out!”

“Thirty-three!”

“The young punk won!”

“Uaaaah! A hundred nyang! He won a hundred nyang!”

The gambling house fell into madness.

The cheers of gamblers screaming and struggling as if they had won themselves were enough to shake the roof tiles.

“To see such a game in this world!”

“Amazing! This will become a legend!”

“Someone actually won a hundred nyang from Golden Flower House!”

Jin So-ah burst into tears and clung to Wei Yan-ho.

“Young Master Weeei!”

“You’re heavy.”

“Young Master Wei! We won! We won! We won a hundred nyang!”

“So we did.”

Wei Yan-ho scratched his cheek.

Unlike Wei Yan-ho and his companion who were sharing joy, Gang Cheon-rip was looking at the dice with a soul-lost expression.

“We… lost?”

Gang Cheon-rip muttered something to himself, then looked at Poison Bee and shouted.

“You said you could win!”

Poison Bee remained silent.

“You said you could win! You said you could win! But what is this situation! What is this!”

“Please calm down!”

“Calm down? Do I look like I can calm down right now!”

Gang Cheon-rip would rather have fainted.

A hundred nyang!

A hundred gold nyang had just flown away before his eyes.

In silver, that was a full ten thousand nyang.

With that money, he could live luxuriously for a lifetime anywhere he went. And it was also several years’ worth of Golden Flower House’s profits.

All that money had vanished in a single moment.

“N-no. Without that money…”

The moment Gang Cheon-rip reached for the stakes, Ha Dae-bung stepped forward and blocked him.

“Ah?”

“Since the match has already been decided, we’ll redistribute the money.”

When Ha Dae-bung clapped his hands, those who had followed him rushed forward and collected the money piled beside the board.

“Here it is.”

Then Ha Dae-bung held out a twenty gold nyang promissory note to Gang Cheon-rip. Wei Yan-ho’s debts had been completely repaid.

“With this, all financial relationships between Golden Flower House and Young Master Wei Yan-ho are settled. Those who watched and I, Ha Dae-bung, will be witnesses. Isn’t that right?”

“Correct!”

“I saw it!”

Ha Dae-bung smiled and placed a box full of coins on the board.

“Let’s all enjoy today together with those who livened up the atmosphere. Everyone, please take some silver coins!”

“The best!”

“Hahaha! This is why I can’t quit gambling houses!”

Ha Dae-bung approached Wei Yan-ho and extended his hand.

“Congratulations.”

“…Isn’t that my money?”

“Pardon?”

“Why are you taking credit with my money?”

Sweat began to form on Ha Dae-bung’s back.

“I’ll pay it back.”

“Please do.”

“…Yes.”

Ha Dae-bung turned his head and clicked his tongue.

Someone who just won eighty nyang can’t even share a little! People should have some consideration for living together!

“I-I’m ruined.”

Gang Cheon-rip simply sat down on the spot.

His soul-lost appearance was pitiful enough to naturally evoke sympathy. Poison Bee’s complexion had paled slightly, but he surprisingly maintained a calm expression.

“It was a good match.”

When Poison Bee bowed his head, Wei Yan-ho suddenly stood up from his seat.

Then he cupped his hands and bowed.

“It was a good match.”

Jin So-ah looked at the scene with curiosity. In all the time she had observed him, she had never seen Wei Yan-ho treat an opponent so politely.

“Well then.”

As Poison Bee turned and walked away desolately, Wei Yan-ho quietly watched his retreating figure before sitting down.

“Haam!”

Wei Yan-ho yawned and stretched, then turned to Ha Dae-bung.

“For now, please deposit this money in the money house.”

“Of course.”

“Then I can go back now, right?”

“What about the Imperial Inspector’s Golden Sword? It makes me nervous to keep it. Please retrieve it quickly.”

“Then bring that too.”

“Understood.”

Wei Yan-ho struggled to get up from his seat again.

“Aigo, time to go.”

“Young Master Wei, my legs are shaking so much I can’t possibly walk.”

“What did you even do?”

“Just watching drained all my energy. Are you okay, Young Master Wei?”

“I’m always tired.”

Wei Yan-ho grinned and turned around.

“Manager Ha will take care of the remaining money, so let’s go home for now. Let’s go home, eat, and get a good long sleep.”

“I’ll go pull up the foundation pillars of Songjeong Pavilion!”

“I can’t eat that much.”

Just as Wei Yan-ho and Jin So-ah were giggling and about to go outside, the door curtain was swept aside left and right, and a group of people rushed inside.

“Huh?”

Wei Yan-ho tilted his head.

He hadn’t called anyone else, so who were all these people?

Men dressed in dark black robes blocked the entrance.

“Eh…”

Wei Yan-ho looked at the scene, then turned to look at Ha Dae-bung.

“Do you know who they are?”

Ha Dae-bung’s face began to harden rapidly.

“Judging by the black spider emblem on their black robes, they appear to be from the Black Spider Web.”

“Black Spider Web?”

Wei Yan-ho tried to extract the faintly emerging name “Black Spider Web” from his memory.

At that moment, the men split left and right, and a well-built middle-aged man walked in between them and shouted.

“Who is Wei Yan-ho?”