The Kuaihuo Tower seemed to contain all the worldly pleasures one could imagine.

Pai gow, cockfighting, cricket fighting, dice, pitch-pot… whatever gambling games existed in the market, Kuaihuo Tower had them all.

Those who came to this tower for entertainment were all gambling addicts. Here there was no wind, rain, or cold from outside—only gamblers calling out at the gaming tables, either wildly elated or utterly exhausted. Whether poor or wealthy, whether from noble households or humble families, once they sat at the gambling table, they became like monkeys stripped of human skin, with only greed and madness in their eyes.

At a table in the corner under the lamplight, a crowd had gathered around two men sitting opposite each other. One was a young man in blue robes, thin and delicate in appearance. Across from him sat a man in a brown jacket who seemed to be on a winning streak. Though his face showed fatigue, his eyes sparkled with excitement.

Wan Quan’s heart was filled with joy.

He had only learned to gamble money a few days ago and was still caught up in the excitement. Unfortunately, some loose-tongued person had told his father, Wan Fu. His father had given him a thorough beating and locked him at home for several days to calm down. Today, while standing by the door, he had overheard people chatting, saying that the gambling houses in the alleys were nothing compared to Kuaihuo Tower on Qinghe Street—the premier gambling establishment in the capital.

The speaker described Kuaihuo Tower as something that existed in heaven but not on earth, making Wan Quan’s heart itch with desire. Taking advantage of the fact that Old Madam Ke’s birthday was approaching and both his mother and father 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 got out, he headed straight for Kuaihuo Tower. Upon entering, he indeed found every type of gambling game available. The place was crowded and lively, with gambling house attendants constantly serving yellow wine to the gamblers.

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

Wan Quan was having quite good luck today. Since arriving at Kuaihuo Tower, he hadn’t lost a single game. The fellow 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.

The “Young Master Zheng” seemed to realize his luck was poor. Gritting his teeth, he pulled out several more silver ingots and placed them on the table: “Bah, gambling like this is boring. How about we bet something bigger!”

Wan Quan laughed inwardly—this man had probably lost his mind in frustration. But there was no reason not to fleece a fat sheep that had delivered itself to his door, so he smiled and said: “Let’s bet!”

“Then let’s use one tael of silver as the base. The next round doubles to two taels, then the next round four taels, then…”

“Good!” Before “Young Master Zheng” could finish speaking, the crowd around them began to cheer and make noise.

The atmosphere was like a rising tide, and Wan Quan had even less reason to refuse. He rolled up his sleeves, drained the hot wine the attendant had brought him, and slammed the dice on the table: “Let’s do it!”

The atmosphere became even more heated than before, but Wan Quan’s good fortune seemed to end there.

In the following rounds, he lost several games in a row, completely losing all the money he had previously won, making him so angry that sweat beaded on his nose. Looking at Young Master Zheng across from him, he had completely shed his earlier dejection and was now full of spring-like satisfaction.

“Still gambling?” Young Master Zheng asked him, with what seemed like mockery in his eyes.

Wan Quan hesitated somewhat.

His own silver was completely gone, but… he still had some bank notes in his chest.

The new eldest daughter-in-law of the Ke family, Qin Shi, managed the household strictly. Master Ke was short on funds, but behind Qin Shi’s back, he had several private properties that still generated considerable income each year. Fearing his wife would discover this, Master Ke had collected several years’ worth of rent last month and had Wan Fu manage it for him. Those bank notes added up to nearly two thousand taels.

Before coming to Kuaihuo Tower tonight, Wan Quan had heard people say that Kuaihuo Tower was unlike ordinary gambling houses—it wouldn’t allow poor people to enter, requiring a thousand taels of silver to gain admission. So he had pried open the chest and brought this money with him as a front, not expecting that once inside, no one would actually check.

Now that he had lost all his gambling stakes, only these bank notes remained.

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

Young Master Zheng across from him seemed to be getting impatient. He swept his winnings into his bundle with a “clatter” that sounded irritating, then smiled and said: “Brother Wan, are you still gambling or not? If not, this younger brother is going home to sleep—”

His smile was particularly galling. Wan Quan’s head grew hot, alcohol rushing to his brain, and he shouted: “Come on, one more round!”

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

The fish had taken the bait.

The son of Ke Chengxing’s trusted servant was not as cautious in nature as his father. Approaching him was much simpler than approaching Wan Fu.

She had merely had someone casually mention news about Kuaihuo Tower near Wan Quan’s door, and Wan Quan had impatiently come to the gambling house that very night to experience its splendor.

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

Yunniang had once smiled and told her: Little Seventeen, let me tell you—if you hate someone, poison them so their internal organs rot away. Only then can you vent your hatred.

Gambling addiction…

That too was a difficult poison to cure.

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

Under the lamplight, Wan Quan began to tremble.

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

The opponent’s doubling seemed insignificant at first glance, but each round grew larger than the last, with bank notes flowing out like water. Each time he thought: the next round, the next round he would definitely win it all back. But in the next round, the god of fortune still seemed unwilling to favor him.

The alcohol gradually went to his head. His face flushed red, his eyes also turned red, and he didn’t know how much he had lost. When he reached into his chest again, it was completely empty.

Gone?

How was that possible?

That was probably two thousand taels of silver!

Wan Quan’s mind went blank. The wind blew open the window outside, and a bit of cold night rain hit his face, causing his earlier excited drunkenness to dissipate and clearing his head somewhat.

“How… how much did I lose?” he asked in a daze.

The attendant keeping count beside him smiled: “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 total—where would five thousand taels come from?

“Your money wasn’t enough, so you wrote an IOU using the Ke family mansion in the southern part of the city as collateral,” the young attendant smiled with continued enthusiasm. “You must be drunk and don’t remember.”

Wan Quan was thunderstruck.

He had written an IOU?

When had he written an IOU!

He had just been gambling with Young Master Zheng. He had lost a lot, but how could five thousand taels of silver be lost in such a short time?

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

Wan Quan looked up. The crowd was bustling on the other side of the gambling table, with mocking faces looking at him, but Young Master Zheng was nowhere to be seen.

Something was wrong… something was wrong…

He had been tricked!

The young attendant smiled and asked: “Will you continue playing, young master?”

Wan Quan pushed the table forward: “Play what? Your gambling house is crooked—you’re cheating people!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the smile disappeared from the attendant’s face, and his voice became sinister: “Young master wants to welch on his debt.”

“Who wants to welch?” Another voice rang out as a tall, powerfully built man walked down from the depths of the gambling house. This man had a face full of flesh and looked fierce and intimidating, immediately inspiring fear in anyone who saw him.

Wan Quan shrank back, seeing that behind this man followed a person in gray clothes. The gray-clothed person was thin and partially blocked by the person in front, making it difficult to see their face clearly, though they appeared quite young.

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

They said: “Manager Cao, since the other party wants to welch on their debt, follow Kuaihuo Tower’s rules—one finger per hundred taels of silver.”

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

The person said flatly: “Then remove both fingers and toes together.”