Chapter 44: Gambling Skill’s Breakthrough
“Grandmaster Jia, please!” Tang Xiu smiled at Jia Ruidao and made a gesture to invite the fight again.
Tang Xiu was truly grateful of Jia Ruidao.
If it were not for Jia Ruidao deliberately slowing down his speed in shaking the dices a moment ago, as well as exposing a lot of key things, Tang Xiu certainly wouldn’t be this fast in mastering the real technique in shaking the dices.
Jia Ruidao threw him a peach and Tang Xiu casted a plum.
The 2 people’s eyes locked a brief flash of a moment. Outsiders simply couldn’t see that the relationship between the two already had a subtle change.
Jia Ruidao was after all the expert that was invited by Zhang Deqin with a sky-high price to deal with the Long’s Dining Hall. So it was natural that he couldn’t exchange pleasant and affectionate words with Tang Xiu. Had Jia Ruidao won, everything would be alright. But if it was the reverse, this matter would be an absolute misunderstanding, and people could say that the gamble had been manipulated.
Jia Ruidao nodded his head to Tang Xiu and then picked up the dice cup again as he began the third gambling session between the two of them.
This time, Jia Ruidao put 5 dices into the dice cup.
As the dice cup shook, a trace of brilliant light flashed on Jia Ruidao’s eyes as his wrist vibrated with an orderly rhythm.
A burst of clear brushing sounds could be heard as muffled and dull thumping sounds followed, along with a burst of sharp sounds.
5 dices were colliding with each other in the dice cup. One sound was the sound of the dice ramming inside the dice cup in rhythmic order, as the others scattered and flew around. The other 6 or 7 sounds blended together as the sounds unexpectedly composed a rhythmically cheerful and bright sonata.
“Ah! Originally, gambling also could be played like this?” Tang Xiu could feel an intense fighting spirit that was being exuded from Jia Ruidao. His eyes turned bright as he saw Jia Ruidao’s eyes also turned burning hot.
Tang Xiu also could feel that Jia Ruidao acting like this was neither because he was not appreciative of his ability nor because he wanted to reverse the current, but it was his decision to go all out.
This was also the situation Tang Xiu was hoping to happen. It was true that Jia Ruidao’s fighting spirit certainly sparked and became excited because he met his match in Tang Xiu, after being lonely at the peak for so long. Since Tang Xiu unexpectedly had challenged his own limits, he finally could feel the true pleasure of gambling, rather than becoming a winner in a gamble through others who modestly accepted defeat.
Jia Ruidao’s wrist shook as the dice cup was like a butterfly dancing in the air. Naked eyes were unable to trace anything as everyone could only see a beautiful arc path, whilst a confident and calm smile emerged on Jia Ruidao’s face.
Everyone in the room apparently had never thought that Jia Ruidao would be this unique. They were all stunned as the music from the dice cup suddenly reverberated in the room.
The music was giving off a very wonderful feeling. Never even once had anyone ever imagined that the full rhythmic melody sounds from shaking dices would be this wonderful and pleasant to hear.
Almost everyone stared at Jia Ruidao. Along with each and every jitter and movement his wrist made, they involuntarily nodded with an enthralled expression on their faces.
For fear of disturbing Jia Ruidao’s rhythm and tempo, nobody even dared to breathe heavily in the room. They only watched with eyes opened wide and holding their breath, as they motionlessly immersed themselves in the wonderful journey brought by Jia Ruidao.
The time passed without anyone noticing, as everyone finally woke up from the dream by dull thumping sounds. They looked up and saw that Jia Ruidao had stopped his movements as he buckled up and put down the dice cup on the table.
“Grandmaster Jia is really great.”
“Holy Lord! This is real gambling skills. The other Gambling Masters we have seen before were simply are too pale in comparison.”
“The King of Gamble is the King of Gamble. Even shaking dices can give such a pleasant feeling to people.”
****
The moment when Jia Ruidao’s movement was about to stop, the room was fully filled with praises that came and left in succession. Even Long Zhengyu and Long Zhenglin gave extravagant appreciation.
At this moment, it was as if winning or losing was already worthless. Everyone had been fully conquered by Jia Ruidao’s gambling technique.
Under praises thrown by everyone, Jia Ruidao slowly opened the dice cup and showed the dice numbers.
“Full points! It turned out to be full points. We have won this game!”
“Grandmaster Jia is truly amazing. Such an amazing technique and was he able to control it to get full points, I’m completely subdued.”
“Unfortunately, Grandmaster Jia won’t accept any apprentices again, else I really must become his disciple.”
When the dices’ numbers were revealed, Zhang Yongjin, Xue Renfei, and Hu Wanjun trio couldn’t help but shout again. They were dancing like children with flushing red complexions due to the excitement.
A charming and enchanting smile was revealed on Zhang Deqin’s face as she looked at Long Zhengyu and Long Zhengyu at the opposite side. A trace of compassion and sympathy flashed over her eyes.
Although Long Zhengyu and Long Zhenglin appreciated Jia Ruidao’s gambling skills, but when the dices’ points came out, an uncomfortably lost feeling couldn’t help but burst out from their hearts.
It was especially true for Long Zhengyu. The moment the results had come out, his body shivered as he almost staggered and fell down to the floor.
“Brother Tang, you have tried your best. It’s OK. We have lost.” Upon seeing Tang Xiu’s “apprehensive” expression, Long Zhengyu patted his shoulder and softly comforted him.
“Eh?! What’s with your expression? I didn’t even act yet. Do you think the gambling result has been decided?” Tang Xiu shouted loudly as he felt that the mood in the room was somehow a bit wrong.
Under everyone’s doubts and contemptuous eyes, Tang Xiu picked up the dice cup, put five dices into the dice cup, and then begun shake it up.
Upon hearing Tang Xiu’s words, Zhang Yongjin, Hu Wanjun, and Xue Renfei trio was just about to subconsciously ridicule him, but Tang Xiu’s action was too fast and they basically didn’t have time to mouth him since Tang Xiu already began to shake the dices.
Recalling the rules from the gambling house, they had no choice but to hold back their impulse to make noise and looked at Tang Xiu with disdain.
“Boom-thump”
“Boom-thump”
“Boom-thump”
****
If Jia Ruidao’s dice shaking sounds was a cheerful symphony and a feast for people’s ears, then Tang Xiu’s dice shaking sounds was a heavy drum battle, almost suffocating people.
Upon hearing the sounds from Tang Xiu’s dice cup, brilliant rays of lights flashed in Jia Ruidao’s eyes.
Previously, a trace of regret sprouted inside Jia Ruidao’s heart when he stopped shaking his dices. He was too excited, and then suddenly raised his skill by a level when he shook his dices as he played far better than his usual play. He was afraid that his extraordinary performance would hit Tang Xiu’s mentality and make him depressed, causing him to be unable to recover.
But when he saw that Tang Xiu hadn’t given up and even casted a completely different vibe from his dice shaking unique skills, apart from feeling happy, Jia Ruidao was even more shocked.
The others were completely dumbfounded, they felt like they were being mesmerized. One by one they stared at Tang Xiu and were clueless about what was going to happen.
It was as if 10,000 years had passed in the blink of an eye.
When Tang Xiu suddenly stopped his movements, everyone in the room shook their head at the same time as if they had agreed to do it together, awakening them from the trance.
Under the gazes of the crowd, Tang Xiu slowly lifted up the dice cup.
“WHAT!!! It’s also full points, how could it be possible?!”
“This is not right. I definitely have been mistaken. He was just shaking it a few times. But how could it be possible to get the six numbers this easily?”
“This is only luck, luck …”
After looking at the dice numbers, disbelief and astonishment covered everyone’s faces, especially the Xue Renfei, Hu Wanjun, with Zhang Yongjin trio that were dumbfounded and shouted.
“Grandmaster Jia, shall we continue?” Tang Xiu looked at Jia Ruidao, who was also in a dazed state, as he spoke and sent an invitation to have a fight again.
“Good, let’s continue!” Jia Ruidao looked at Tang Xiu for quite a long time before he answered with an intense fighting spirit.
The crowd had yet to fully recover and react from the shock Tang Xiu had given them, but Jia Ruidao and Tang Xiu had started the fourth game session.
This time, Jia Ruidao directly placed 6 dices in the dice cup.
“In regards to our dice playing level, the Dice Gamble before seems to have lost its significance. We probably have to have a match to guess the results in darkness. Then, shall we add a little more difficulty to our game?” Before Jia Ruidao began to shake the dices, his eyes suddenly moved as a smile emerged on his face.
Upon hearing Jia Ruidao’s words, everyone in the room couldn’t help but feel surprised for a moment. With that remark, wasn’t this saying that Jia Ruidao had admitted that Tang Xiu’s shaking dice skills were at the same level as his?
“Then, how should we play according to Grandmaster Jia’s plan?” Having heard that, Tang Xiu’s curiosity was also sparked.
“We’ll both shake the dices and put it down at the same time. And then we’ll guess each other’s dice points in the dice cup. The one who guesses right shall be the winner.” Jia Ruidao pondered for a short while before he answered with a smiling face.
“I’ll follow Grandmaster’s arrangements.” Tang Xiu complied at once while smiling, and didn’t wait for Long Zhengyu and Long Zhenglin to refute him.
“You brat really don’t know the immensity of the heaven and earth. You actually dare to play with Grandmaster Jia to guess the dices point game. Compared to the previous dice gamble before that could rely on luck, there’s no way that you could rely on luck with this one.” When Zhang Yongjin heard Jia Ruidao’s words that seemed to acknowledge Tang Xiu’s dice shaking skill, he was unable from feeling sour and envious. And now, as he saw that Tang Xiu accepted to play a new gambling game from Jia Ruidao, he couldn’t bear to blurt out immediately.
Everyone knew that Zhang Yongjin was a diehard fan of gambling. He even had begged Jia Ruidao to receive him as a disciple.
But ever since Jia Ruidao received an apprentice 3 years ago, he was unwilling to accept any disciples again and refused to accept Zhang Yongjin with an excuse that he was too old. Jia Ruidao also didn’t lack money, so Zhang Yongjin was unable to cast his ‘throwing money’ unique ability to solve problems again. Therefore, he could only feel powerless and look away.
Never once did he ever have the thought that Tang Xiu would actually get acknowledged by Jia Ruidao, which naturally made Zhang Yongjin drown in a bad mood.
“I have just realized that the magnificent of Grandmaster Jia’s strength is not only limited to gambling, but it also excels in cutting short others. Ah, the Longs really have experienced today.” The moment Zhang Yongjin’s words just finished, Long Zhenglin harrumphed and coldly snorted.
Long Zhenglin was worried that Tang Xiu’s gambling skills wouldn’t be as good as Jia Ruidao. And now, since he finally saw that Tang Xiu had a hope of winning in the dice shaking game, he had never thought that Jia Ruidao would change the gambling type, which even Tang Xiu also agreed to.
Long Zhenglin had yet to realize the subtle changes in the relationship between Tang Xiu and Jia Ruidao. In his view, Jia Ruidao was just taunting and goading someone to rashly act. Tang Xiu was still too young, as Jia Ruidao sugar-coated words set traps for Tang Xiu to accept his gambling challenge under impulse. This naturally had made Long Zhenglin anxious.
In fact, Long Zhenglin was not the only one who felt anxious, but it was Long Zhengyu who was more worried instead. However, since Long Zhengyu was a lot calmer in nature and character, he was able to control his emotions better.
On the other side, a few people, led by Zhang Deqin, showed happy expressions.
Although the dice shaking technique Tang Xiu had just shown them made them shocked, they were still confident, since Jia Ruidao also had shown his gambling technique that was even able to suck their soul.
Zhang Deqin and the others were becoming more excited, especially because Jia Ruidao had proposed to change the gambling game.