Dai Li smiled as he walked out of the VIP betting room. He looked to be in a good mood. He spent 100,000 dollars placing his bets, and according to the odds, he would win two million dollars if Taylor won in the first round. If Taylor won in the second round, Dai Li would still receive 1.75 million dollars.
What made Dai Li even happier was the fact that James King had increased his bet after Dai Li placed his bets.
James King was already more than 60 years old, but he still had a temper. Perhaps because Dai Li had opposed and embarrassed him, James King increased his bet by one million dollars. However, a hundred million dollars was nothing to him; after all, he had conned many millions from Taylor back in the day, which was a lot more.
The joyous Dai Li couldn’t help but take a stroll around the casino of the MGM Grand Hotel. After a few minutes passed, and he had already lost a couple hundred dollars at the slot machine.
“I sure lost money fast. I guess I really don’t have the knack for a life like this. I should just stick with being a coach.” Dai Li laughed in a self-mocking manner. He looked around. The environment was shrouded with all kinds of noises. There were all sorts of different expressions woven throughout the crowd, from the dancing and joyous faces of those who won, to the dejected and sad expressions of those who lost.
“Although it is said that one would lose nine times out of ten, there should still be several professional gamblers doing this as their main job.” Dai Li stood up and headed towards the guest room.
Should I tell Taylor about the incident with James King? This might affect his mood, but telling him earlier should be better. Dai Li dialed Taylor’s number as he thought.
“I’m upstairs. On the observation deck,” Taylor answered.
“Alright, I’ll find you immediately.” As Dai Li finished speaking, he stepped into the elevator.
…
On the observation deck, Taylor sat alone in front of a glass window. He looked like he was contemplating something, yet at the same time, he also seemed to be reminiscing about the past.
Dai Li down sat beside him and ordered a cup of coffee for himself, and later another glass of water for Taylor. Taylor had a match coming up, so it would be best for him to drink water at that moment.
“Did you know, I used to be a regular here,” Taylor suddenly spoke, he pointing below his feet. “Las Vegas has a lot of boxing matches, and after I became famous, almost all my matches were held here. After every match, I would go down to the casino and gamble all day. By night, I would visit the nightclub and bring a few ladies back to my presidential suite…”
“Do you miss that kind of life?” Dai Li interrupted Taylor.
“No.” Taylor shook his head. “That life was exciting, filled with passion, and I guess a lot of people would want to live a life surrounded by beautiful women. I spent money like water. But after experiencing so many things, when I am seated here once again, looking down at these familiar sights from high above, those things seem ultimately meaningless.”
“Enjoying life. How is that meaningless? You have no idea how many people’s life goal is to simply just enjoy life,” Dai Li said.
“That’s more like a fulfillment of personal desires. After the desire is fulfilled, what comes next is a sense of emptiness. If you’ve never experienced that feeling before, you wouldn’t understand what I mean. It’s like you are faced with a beautiful woman you like, and when you can’t have her, you would do anything to get her in bed. But after getting her in bed, you feel like she wasn’t all that different from other girls,” Taylor said very slowly, revealing a sense of vicissitude.
“Ugh…” Dai Li was suddenly speechless. He didn’t know how to continue the conversation.
“These days, I’ve been thinking. Me, boxing all these years, what was it for? When I was a kid, Angie brought me out of the juvenile detention center and trained me in boxing. He told me that I had talent for boxing, so I trained hard. I didn’t have any dreams, I only did it for Angie. Later, after becoming a professional boxer, becoming a boxing champion, I made money, made a lot of money. I knew that being a boxer could earn me a lot of money, but living a life that indulged in beautiful women, luxurious cars, big mansions, and even raising Sweetie… Those were things that I didn’t even dare imagine when I was a kid.”
Taylor shook his head as he spoke. “But now, I don’t even know what’s the meaning of everything that I did. I’m lost, and I don’t know why I am boxing.”
“For the money, duh, you owe the bank over 20 million dollars,” Dai Li said.
“What about after I’ve fully settled my debts? By then, I will be old, no longer able to box, and perhaps I’ll be able to save enough to last till retirement. After that, will I return to what I was a few months back? Numbing myself with booze and weed?” Taylor asked with a self-mocking expression. “That’s not what I want. I’ve earned a lot of money through boxing, but I’ve spent even more. As a result, I have a huge debt, a debt that I pay by continuing to box. Now that I think about it, it’s like I haven’t done anything in this decade. I really am an as*hole!”
Dai Li, however, found that after being in contact with Taylor for so many days, his opinion of Taylor was changing. Dai Li had always thought that Taylor was a big, simple-minded, and impulsive guy; he had never thought that Taylor would have a different side of him.
Wasn’t he the kind of guy who counted money for the people who took advantage of him? When did he learn to contemplate life like everyone else! When Dai Li looked at Taylor, he felt that the current Taylor was very much like a loser who was completely defeated. Sorrow, weakness, self-doubt, and loss of confidence. Those were the reasons for the emergence of his melancholic thoughts.
“Kevin, you shouldn’t think about something so far away right now. Your first task is to defeat Saunders. After all, I just spent 100,000 dollars betting on you to KO Saunders in the first two rounds. Do your best, I have faith in you!” Dai Li encouraged.
“What are the odds for my match against Saunders?” Taylor asked.
“Of course your odds were better,” Dai Li lied. He wanted to console Taylor.
“You don’t have to console me, I know that our odds were similar. After the fluctuation, his odds became better than mine.” Taylor sighed in resignation.
Betting odds never remained the same. Every bookmaker had their formulas for calculating odds, and whichever side that had more bets would have lower odds. If the odds for both sides were the same at the beginning and then the odds of one side lowered, it meant that more people had placed their bets on that side. So Saunders’ odds getting lower indicated that more people were placing their bets on Saunders to win, favoring Saunders over Taylor.
“You’re worried about the odds of the match, which means that you still care about the match.” Dai Li smiled and continued, “I’ll let you know another piece of information. I met James King when I placed my bet, and he bet over a million dollars on Saunders. You wouldn’t want that as*hole to win money, would you?”
“James King! You’re right, I would never let that degenerate win money!” Taylor’s eyes were filled with anger.
Dai Li let out a long sigh. Taylor was still the impulsive Taylor. A moment ago he actually thoughtful and contemplative, but at the mention of James King, he immediately transformed into an enraged bulldog.
…
Matchday. The boxing arena was long since filled.
The tunnel door opened and Saunders walked out deftly. He punched towards the camera which transmitted his gesture onto the big screen of the arena.
The cheers soared immediately after his gesture, the surrounding audience continuing to wave their arms.
“Saunders, beat down Taylor!”
“Do your best! Kick Taylor’s as*!”
“Saunders, I placed a bet for you to win, go and give Taylor a KO!”
It was easy to see that Saunders had more supporters in the arena.
The voices drifted into Saunders’ ears, and although a lot of the words began with the alphabet “F,” it still made him more excited.
Kevin Taylor. Former ultimate boxing champion, the conqueror of heavyweight boxing. Today, you will crawl beneath my feet! You will become my stepping stone.
Saunders looked excited and ferocious; he knew that the match was vital to him. It was Taylor’s first match in two years, and many people paid attention to the match. If he were to defeat Taylor, his name would be known by boxing fans throughout the world, and he would ascend by stepping on Taylor’s back.
At that moment, the host announced Taylor’s name.
The door of the athlete’s tunnel on the other side opened, and Taylor shook and hyped himself up before entering the arena.
However, booing sounded from all around.
“Go home, rapist!”
“Are you going to eat someone else’s ear today?”
“My ear tastes better than XX, do you want to have a try, bi*ch!”
Profanities and insults echoed all around Taylor. Someone even used a fishing rod to place a piece of rubber ear in front of Taylor. He shouted, “Come and take a bite!”
Faced with this situation, Taylor decided to walk towards the boxing ring with a blank expression; however, his heart had already sunk to its lowest point.
Behind Taylor, Dai Li looked around. He had never seen a scene like that before.
Profanities and insults everywhere, it’s like being surrounded by enemies! This feeling is like being caught in a trap, it brings despair! When I followed Dingtian Football Club to the away match in the Final of the Asian Cup, even it didn’t have this sort of atmosphere.
In the next moment, Dai Li’s mind entered the system and wrote down the number “5” on the age-reduction card, then used the card on Taylor.
Within the system, the number “240” appeared on the bottom of the card. That was how long the age-reduction card would last.
The current Taylor has lost 5 years, and has regained the body condition of when he was 27 years old. Based on what he said earlier, this should be when his body was in peak condition!
Dai Li looked at Taylor as he pondered. He wanted to see if there were any changes on Taylor after he used the age-reduction card.
Taylor still looked the same, and his expression hadn’t changed either. He looked calm, deadly calm, as if all the voices around him were unrelated to him.
No! This isn’t calmness, it’s numbness! Dai Li realized.
The match is starting soon, and Taylor is still numb. This won’t do. He’s lost before the match has even begun, this has to change! Thank goodness I still have the morale-boosting book. With Taylor’s current condition, using the morale-boosting book might not make his morale soar, but at least it will make him a little normal. The first step, praise him before the match.
As Dai Li reached this conclusion, he moved one step forward to be in front of Taylor, and spoke into his ear. “Kevin, you’re the best!”
“What?” Taylor was startled and did not hear Dai Li’s words clearly.
“I said, you are the best!” Dai Li repeated.
“Oh!” Taylor nodded subconsciously, then walked up to the boxing ring, not paying much attention to Dai Li’s words at all.
Clap, clap, clap, clap… The sound of Dai Li clapping was the second step for boosting morale. Encouragement through applause when heading out to the match.
On the front rows of the audience stands, James King, whose outfit was just as outrageous, also saw Dai Li.
It’s that Chinese guy who sang a different tune from me yesterday! So he’s Taylor’s man, is he an assistant? He sure is responsible, not forgetting to applaud Taylor even at a moment like this. Unfortunately, boxing is about strength, and even if he applauds until his hands are broken, his 100,000 dollars is already lost.