Chapter 42: The Golden Chip

Twenty minutes later, He Zhenzhen walked out again, dressed impeccably.

With a placid expression on her face, acting as though nothing had happened, she greeted everyone.

Including Xia An.

Having heard quite a few stories from Lin Jiajia the previous night about Xia An being an utterly kind and innocent little cutie, He Zhenzhen's impression of him had improved significantly.

Yet that impression had just been completely exhausted.

Forcing herself to remain composed while having exposed herself so thoroughly in front of him, He Zhenzhen suppressed the bitterness in her heart and gave Xia An a faint, polite nod.

The three of them naturally resumed playing cards, with no one mentioning the recent episode, treating it all as a mere illusion.

After finishing her lunch, He Zhenzhen leisurely strolled over to freshen up.

When she came back out, she took the initiative to propose:

"There are four of us, let's play mahjong."

Her gaze swept sharply across Xia An as she spoke.

Finally, her eyes locked with Tang Wan's.

"It's been a long time since we sat together at a gaming table."

Tang Wan glanced at Xia An.

The couple exchanged a knowing smile.

How should one describe this?

It played right into their hands.

Xia An could tell that He Zhenzhen wanted to mess with him.

Yet he was not afraid. Out of four people, three were friendly allies—what was there to be afraid of?

He immediately agreed.

He Zhenzhen looked at Lin Jiajia. Having chatted extensively the night before, she was well aware of Lin Jiajia's family background.

However, He Zhenzhen did not judge friendships by wealth; after all, who could possibly be wealthier than her?

"Sister Jiajia, Wan is very skilled. Just in case she loses, your share is on me."

Lin Jiajia, who had originally thought they were just playing a casual game to pass the time and relieve boredom, only now realized they were playing for high stakes.

After a moment of thought, she smiled and shook her head:

"It's fine. Given that I'm the oldest here, how could I take advantage of you younger ones?"

Inwardly, however, she was thinking: judging by her card-playing skills just now, is Tang Wan really that formidable? She seemed pretty ordinary to me.

Lin Jiajia felt a baffling surge of confidence.

At that moment, Xia An pointed at her and said to He Zhenzhen, "Put her share on me, then."

Lin Jiajia felt an inexplicable wave of emotion.

Tang Wan asked He Zhenzhen what stakes they were playing for.

He Zhenzhen stretched her arm out from the sofa to retrieve her handbag.

Opening it, she took out three square, gold-colored plastic chips, each about the size of a cigarette pack.

There were no monetary values marked on them; they only bore three numbers: No. 35, No. 36, and No. 37.

Let alone Lin Jiajia, even Tang Wan had no idea what these items were.

Only Xia An raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself: The truly wealthy always make extraordinary gestures.

He Zhenzhen first noted that illegal gambling in the mainland was against the law.

"How about this: eight rounds of play, keeping score by points. Regardless of the fan values, any win counts as one point, and a self-drawn tile triples it.

"In the end, we look at the net scores.

"If you lose, you clear out your bank accounts and transfer the funds to me after I leave the country.

"If I lose, you take these three gold chips."

Xia An involuntarily let out an "Oh!", thinking to himself that she certainly possessed immense wealth.

Moreover, transferring money after leaving the country—was she not afraid they wouldn't pay up?

Xia An knew this wasn't He Zhenzhen overestimating herself.

Playing with integrity meant making friends and forging bonds.

If they lacked integrity...

Would someone of the He family care about that tiny bit of petty cash?

Of course, this excluded Tang Wan, and even Lin Jiajia was secondary; it was aimed squarely at Xia An.

Noticing Xia An's look of surprise, He Zhenzhen asked if he recognized the chips.

"I don't."

Xia An flipped through the playing cards in his hands one by one, shaking his head with a calm smile as he signaled her to continue.

He Zhenzhen explained in a few sentences.

After hearing the explanation, Tang Wan frowned.

Lin Jiajia was so frightened her legs turned to jelly.

She furtively tugged at the hem of Xia An's trousers.

From Lin Jiajia's bewildered and trembling eyes, Xia An could discern two layers of meaning:

Terrifying.

Thrilling.

Tang Wan asked Xia An, "Shall we play?"

Her implication was: if we win, it would be taking unfair advantage of someone.

Watching the three of them deliberate, He Zhenzhen rested her chin in her hand, shrugged, and indicated that they could do whatever they liked, as it made no difference to her.

Xia An smiled at Tang Wan and said, "How much fortune do we even possess? Winning would be making a massive profit with zero investment. Sister Zhenzhen is clearly trying to rescue us impoverished folks."

He Zhenzhen let out a hum, mocking Xia An: "Quite the gambling spirit."

......

The small living room had a ready-made mahjong table.

Tang Wan and He Zhenzhen were familiar with all variations of the game, while Lin Jiajia only knew the rules of the provincial capital.

The Dongshan style of mahjong dictated: whether winning by self-draw or off another player's discard, you collect from all three opponents; you are not allowed to win without terminal or honor tiles, nor are you allowed to lack any suit.

In both of his lives, the number of times Xia An had touched mahjong tiles could be counted on one hand.

Yet since Tang Wan had dared to boast at school about making a big score, he placed unconditional trust in her.

This sum of money might not even equal one of He Zhenzhen's casual rounds.

The automatic mahjong table was extremely convenient.

As the tiles were dealt, Xia An found himself in a difficult spot, taking several full minutes to figure out the winning combinations.

"Little chick."

He slowly flicked out a tile, posing with great flair while his aim was way off, clearly a novice clumsily imitating a veteran.

He didn't pull off the act at all.

"You're so sluggish."

His downstream opponent, He Zhenzhen, muttered under her breath, then drew a tile and discarded one: "Eight dots."

The other three froze, exchanged glances, and suppressed their laughter.

Yet He Zhenzhen seemed to recall something, and suddenly burst into a laugh herself.

"Sister Jiajia gave me cupping therapy last night, and right now I have a mark shaped like an eight of dots on my back."

At that, the others could no longer hold back.

Laughter filled the room.

Xia An suddenly realized that the younger version of "He Zhen" had already developed a genuine and unpretentious character.

The first round concluded swiftly.

He Zhenzhen won three basic hands, two resulting from Lin Jiajia's discards and one from Xia An's.

Tang Wan won one hand by self-draw.

Both of them recorded three points.

Xia An stood at minus two points.

Lin Jiajia, sitting at minus three points, felt her composure crumbling.

She had no desire to break her word, but the thought of emptying her bank account... she didn't even dare to imagine it.

As the second round began, whenever Tang Wan found herself with a poor hand, she proactively fed tiles to Xia An.

If he failed to catch them, Tang Wan would switch tiles and feed Lin Jiajia instead.

After several repetitions, Xia An, absolute novice though he was, began to grasp the underlying patterns.

He inwardly marveled at what an eye-opener this was.

Tang Wan and He Zhenzhen, both high-IQ players, seemed capable of perfectly calculating every single tile remaining in everyone's hands and what each person needed.

Whenever Tang Wan discarded a tile, either he or Lin Jiajia was guaranteed to claim or chow it.

Whenever He Zhenzhen discarded a tile, no one wanted it. It was clear she understood that her only viable strategy, under the absolute condition of avoiding any discards that allowed others to win, was to quickly self-draw her own tiles in order to emerge victorious.

Looking back at himself and the intensely nervous Lin Jiajia sitting opposite him, Xia An felt like a bronze-tier noob who had mistakenly wandered into a high-tier championship match.

The second round ended.

Tang Wan had dealt four winning hands to others, Xia An had served as dealer for three rounds, and even Lin Jiajia had managed a self-drawn win.

He Zhenzhen's score had returned to zero, while Tang Wan sat at minus two at the bottom.

Knowing full well she had been fighting a three-against-one battle, He Zhenzhen nudged Tang Wan with her foot.

"I expected you guys to pull something like this, but I never imagined you would feed tiles so blatantly. Hey, where did your usual card-table ethics go?"

Seeing He Zhenzhen employ sarcasm against his girlfriend, Xia An grew displeased.

Just as he was about to retort, He Zhenzhen immediately snapped at him: "Shut your mouth, you don't understand mahjong at all."

Tang Wan and Lin Jiajia both burst into laughter upon hearing this.

Indeed, Xia An's lack of familiarity with the game was so glaringly obvious that anyone could tell at a glance.

However, once Tang Wan finished laughing, she immediately raised her chin at He Zhenzhen.

Retorting with: "You don't understand love at all."

Stung in the heart, He Zhenzhen spat out an exclamation, waved her hand, and said: "Continue, continue."

In the third round, Tang Wan continued feeding Xia An and Lin Jiajia, striving to get both of them into ready-hand positions as quickly as possible.

Xia An, sitting directly downstream from her, never failed to chime in whenever he claimed or chowed a tile:

"Ah, yes, right there. Food fed by my wife tastes amazing."

After repeating this several times, He Zhenzhen could no longer take it.

She said to Tang Wan: "How on earth did you fall for such a glib little man?"

Then she turned to Lin Jiajia, who was currently sitting in first place with a radiant smile: "Last night you explicitly told me he was a motivated and outstanding young man."

Tang Wan shrugged and discarded a six of bamboo, prompting Lin Jiajia to exclaim in pleasant surprise: "Pong!"

Looking at He Zhenzhen, whose face was darkened with annoyance, Xia An asked: "Do I have an issue with that statement?"

He Zhenzhen was on the verge of exploding with frustration. With a dark expression, she retorted: "Which part is incorrect? I witnessed it with my own eyes; what issue could you possibly have?"

Xia An drew a tile and replied: "I have issues with the words 'little', 'glib', and 'motivated'."

He tapped the table and added: "And now you've added 'witnessed with my own eyes'. Well, look at that, I self-drew the winning tile."

Pushing his tiles forward, Xia An casually jotted down his score on the hotel's notepad.

He Zhenzhen, having been rebuffed, was rather slow to react.

As the third round drew to a close, she finally glared at Xia An through clenched teeth, spat out the word "vulgar", and answered her phone, which had been ringing for ages.

As she spun the mahjong tile in his hand, Xia An heard He Zhenzhen walk over to the window and say into the phone: "Alright, understood, Aunt Qiong. Mm-hmm, I'll head downstairs in twenty minutes."

Upon returning, He Zhenzhen immediately announced that she was done playing, then cast a sideways, disgruntled glance at Tang Wan:

"My skills still fall short of yours. There's no point in continuing; if you casually self-draw a couple of hands, I'll definitely end up at the bottom.

"Whatever, these things are just gifts borrowed to offer Buddha anyway. Let me know in advance whenever you guys go play."

He Zhenzhen tossed the gold chips onto the table and breezily went to pack her bag.

Tang Wan followed her with a smile, and after offering a couple of soothing remarks, He Zhenzhen turned back with a scoff, pointed at Xia An, and warned:

"Don't let me find out you're bullying Wan, or else—humph!"

Xia An smiled without a word.

Lin Jiajia sat there in a daze, cradling the rare, limited-edition MGM gold chips in her hands.

After a long while, she quietly asked Xia An if this item was truly worth one million US dollars.

Xia An first nodded, then shook his head.

MGM was scheduled to officially open in December of the following year.

Prior to opening, they had minted security gold chips numbered 1 through 200, intended for internal gifting.

Their validity period was restricted to just one month after the opening.

Presenting this gold chip granted VIP status upon entry, providing free food and lodging, alongside a single opportunity to place a bet on any chosen game within the casino.

The monetary equivalent: one million US dollars.

If one won, play could continue, and further winnings could be cashed out; if one lost, the chip was gone.

However, during that one-month period, the gold chips could not be directly exchanged for cash to take away.

Even so, after the one-month expiration, the casino would buy back the gold chips at a price of two hundred thousand US dollars.

Therefore, factoring in food and lodging expenses, its actual value should be around 1.5 million RMB.

That 1.5 million was its value to Lin Jiajia.

To Xia An, however, this gold chip served as a sort of pass.

Holding it, he believed he would eventually convert it into an amount far exceeding one million US dollars.

Only today did he learn that He Zhenzhen happened to have such an excellent relationship with that deeply infatuated female billionaire.

Lin Jiajia collapsed limply into her chair, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling as she sighed.

"1.5 million...

"I merely won a few basic hands, and I just made 1.5 million?

"This world is terrifying."

Muttering continuously, she offered only a feeble wave when He Zhenzhen grabbed her bag and bid her farewell: "Bye-bye, princess."

Tang Wan accompanied He Zhenzhen downstairs, returning only after seeing her off.

Xia An asked for details and learned that this "Aunt Qiong" was attending a conference in Binhai, and He Zhenzhen had simply accompanied her there.

Having just filed the flight plan for her private jet, they were leaving together once more.

Tang Wan urged Xia An not to hold a grudge against He Zhenzhen's sharp tongue.

"Zhenzhen said you're very shrewd, and at the very least, you won't let me get taken advantage of."

"Hold a grudge? If she threw a few million at me every time we met, I'd even be willing to learn cupping."

......

Overwhelmed by her massive earnings, Lin Jiajia declared she needed to sleep for a bit longer.

Xia An therefore took Tang Wan out for a casual stroll along the streets.

Tang Wan remarked that He Zhenzhen had actually sensed she was experiencing family friction and financial distress.

Playing mahjong?

She had simply been intentionally feeding money to Tang Wan under various pretexts.

Xia An said he could tell. "You two have a very good bond."

Tang Wan asked him when he would return to Dongshan.

"Tomorrow, I suppose. I'll keep you company for one more night," Xia An replied.

Tang Wan had her reports to write, and he had plenty to occupy him back home as well.

First off, he needed to clearly explain the stock market situation to his father.

Following a week of consecutive daily limit-up sessions, those seventy thousand yuan had already ballooned to over one hundred thousand.

Tang Wan instructed him:

"Don't put too much stock in the gold chip; if you have time next year, go check it out as a trip.

"But you are forbidden from taking up gambling. In the eyes of us probability students, there's no such thing as a guaranteed winning bet in this world."

Xia An especially adored this trait of hers, where she could accurately gauge boundaries and proportions.

He nodded and said: "With morality rooted within, one is not seduced by material things. I understand."

Across the plaza was a newly opened McDonald's.

Tang Wan mentioned she wanted some ice cream, so Xia An led her through the pedestrian underpass to queue up.

As he looked at the milky white smudge at the corner of Tang Wan's lips, before he could utter any flirtatious remark, his phone rang.

It was a call from Xia An's mother, Wei Xiaofang.

The moment he heard her first sentence, Xia An's heart skipped a beat.

"What? Mom, what did you say? What numbers was Dad muttering?"

Wei Xiaofang was frantic; otherwise, she wouldn't have called Xia An.

For reasons unknown, Xia康宁 (Xia Kangning) had suddenly come down with a fever as well.

"It's identical to your episode that night, he's talking deliriously.

"Back then you kept rambling about pomelos and whatnot, but your dad is saying things like birthday, birthday, 0804...

"Get back here quickly, son!

"I asked a shaman, and they said our household has attracted an evil spirit—we need to perform an exorcism!"