The Kuaihuo Building seemed to contain all the worldly pleasures one could imagine. Pai Gow, cockfighting, cricket fighting, dice games, arrow-throwing… whatever gambling games existed in the market, Kuaihuo Building had them all.

Those who came to gamble here were all gambling addicts. There was no trace of the outside world’s cold and rain here, only gamblers at the card tables either wild with excitement or worn with exhaustion. Whether poor or wealthy, from noble households or humble families, once they sat at the gambling table, they were like monkeys stripped of their human skin, their eyes filled only with greed and madness.

In a corner under the lamplight, a crowd gathered around a table where two men sat facing each other. One was a young man in blue clothes, thin and delicate in appearance. Across from him sat a man in a brown jacket who seemed to be caught up in the excitement of gambling. Though his face showed fatigue, his eyes gleamed brightly.

Wan Quan was feeling extremely pleased.

He had only learned to gamble recently and was still caught up in the excitement when some gossip reached his father Wan Fu’s ears. His father had given him a thorough beating and confined him at home for several days. Today, he happened to overhear people talking outside his door, saying that the gambling houses in the alley were nothing compared to the Kuaihuo Building on Qinghe Street, which was the premier gambling house in the capital.

The speaker described the Kuaihuo Building as if it were heaven on earth, making Wan Quan’s heart itch with desire. Taking advantage of the fact that Lady Ke’s birthday was approaching and both his parents would be busy with the birthday banquet preparations at the Ke mansion, Wan Quan finally found an opportunity to sneak out.

As soon as he left, he headed straight for the Kuaihuo Building. Upon entering, he indeed found every type of gambling game available. The place was crowded and lively, with house servants frequently bringing yellow wine to the gamblers.

The more they drank, the more excited they became, and the bigger their bets grew.

Wan Quan was having good luck today. Since arriving at the Kuaihuo Building, he hadn’t lost a single game. The young man surnamed Zheng sitting across from him had brought twenty taels of silver, and it looked like he was about to lose it all to Wan Quan.

This “Young Master Zheng” seemed to realize his luck wasn’t good, and after gritting his teeth, he pulled out several more silver ingots and placed them on the table. “Pfft, gambling like this is no fun. Let’s bet something bigger!”

Wan Quan laughed inwardly, thinking this person must have lost his head to anger. But why not slaughter a fat sheep that had delivered itself to his door? So he smiled and said, “Let’s gamble then!”

“Then let’s start with one tael of silver as the base, doubling to two taels the next round, then four taels the round after that, then…” Before “Young Master Zheng” could finish speaking, the crowd erupted in excitement.

The atmosphere was electric, and Wan Quan had no reason to refuse. He rolled up his sleeves, drained the hot wine brought by the servant, and placed the dice on the table. “Let’s do it!”

The atmosphere grew even more heated than before, but it seemed Wan Quan’s good luck had run out.

In the following games, he lost several rounds in succession, losing all his previous winnings, which made him sweat with anxiety. Looking across at Young Master Zheng, his previous dejection had vanished, replaced by smug satisfaction.

“Still want to gamble?” Young Master Zheng asked him, his eyes seeming to hold mockery.

Wan Quan hesitated.

He had lost all his silver, but… he still had some banknotes in his pocket.

The new first lady of the Ke family, Madam Qin, was strict with household management, and Master Ke was short on funds. Behind Madam Qin’s back, he had several private properties that brought in considerable silver each year. Master Ke feared his wife would discover this, so when he collected several years’ worth of rent the previous month, he had Wan Fu keep it safe. Those banknotes added up to nearly two thousand taels.

Before coming to the Kuaihuo Building tonight, Wan Quan had heard that, unlike ordinary gambling houses, this place wouldn’t admit shabby people – one needed a thousand taels of silver just to enter. He had broken into the strongbox and brought these banknotes with him just to keep up appearances, not expecting that once inside, no one would check.

Now, having lost all his gambling tokens, he only had these banknotes left.

Wan Quan hesitated, as this wasn’t his money after all, and in a few days, Master Ke would ask his father for it.

Across the table, Young Master Zheng seemed to grow impatient. He poured his winnings into his bag with a loud clinking that irritated everyone’s nerves. Young Master Zheng smiled and said, “Brother Wan, are you still gambling or not? If not, this little brother needs to go home and sleep—”

His smiling face was particularly grating, and Wan Quan’s head grew hot as alcohol rushed to his temples. He shouted, “Come on, one more round!”

Upstairs, Lu Tong stood at the railing, watching Wan Quan gambling against Yin Zheng, and smiled slightly.

The fish had taken the bait.

This son of Ke Chengxing’s trusted servant had none of his father’s caution. Approaching him was much simpler than approaching Wan Fu.

She had merely had someone casually mention the Kuaihuo Building outside Wan Quan’s door, and he had eagerly come to the gambling house at night to experience its grandeur.

Yin Zheng had fallen into hardship in her youth and had mastered dice games to perfection. Drawing out Wan Quan’s gambling addiction was truly effortless.

Yun Niang had once smiled and told her: “Little Seventeen, let me tell you something – if you hate someone, poison them until their internal organs rot away. That’s how you get your revenge.”

A gambling addiction…

That too was an incurable poison.

Lu Tong’s eyes grew dark as she quietly observed the people below.

Under the lamplight, Wan Quan had begun to tremble.

His good luck had run out, but his bad luck seemed bottomless.

The opponent’s doubling stakes seemed insignificant at first, but each round grew larger than the last, and the banknotes flowed out like water. Each time he thought, next round, surely I’ll win it back next round. But in the next round, the God of Wealth still seemed to have abandoned him.

The alcohol gradually went to his head, his face flushed red, his eyes bloodshot. He had lost count of how much he’d lost, and when he reached into his pocket again, it was empty.

Gone?

How was that possible?

That was two thousand taels of silver!

Wan Quan’s mind went blank. The wind blew open the outside window, and a splash of cold night rain hit his face, dispersing his excited drunkenness and sobering him somewhat.

“How- how much did I lose?” he asked hazily.

The counting servant beside him smiled and said, “You lost a total of five thousand taels of silver.”

“Five thousand taels?” Wan Quan looked at him blankly. “Where would I get five thousand taels?”

He had only brought two thousand taels of silver in total, where would five thousand come from?

“When you ran out of money, you wrote an IOU in the name of the Ke mansion in the South City,” the young servant said, still smiling warmly. “You’re drunk, don’t you remember?”

Wan Quan was thunderstruck.

Did he write an IOU?

When did he write an IOU?

He had just been gambling with Young Master Zheng, and though he had lost a lot, how could he have lost five thousand taels of silver in such a short time?

Young Master Zheng… right, where was Young Master Zheng?

Wan Quan looked up to see the crowd surging at the opposite side of the gambling table, faces full of mockery staring at him, but Young Master Zheng was nowhere to be seen.

Something wasn’t right… this wasn’t right…

He had been tricked!

The young servant smiled and asked, “Young master, would you like to play more?”

Wan Quan shoved the table forward: “Play what? Your gambling house cheats and swindles people!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the smile vanished from the young servant’s face, and his voice turned grim: “So the young master intends to renege on his debt.”

“Who’s reneging on their debt?” Another voice rang out as a large man walked down from the depths of the gambling house. This man had a fierce face full of menace, his very appearance inspiring fear.

Wan Quan shrank back slightly, noticing that behind this man followed someone in gray clothes. The person in gray was thin and partly hidden behind the man in front, their face unclear, though they seemed quite young.

The young person spoke in a cold voice that instantly made Wan Quan’s scalp tingle.

They said: “Master Cao since the debtor wants to renege, let’s follow the Kuaihuo Building’s rules – one hundred taels of silver per finger.”

The servant beside them hesitated: “But he owes three thousand taels.”

That person spoke calmly: “Then take both fingers and toes.”