When the six people returned to the round table with their respective chips, Earth-Monkey noticed something unusual about Qi Xia.

“What’s wrong? Is your physical condition that poor now?” Earth-Monkey asked with a cigarette in his mouth, his eyelids constantly drooping, making him look even less energetic than Qi Xia.

“‘Now’…?” Qi Xia struggled to open his eyes to look at him. “Was I better before than I am now?”

“Ha…” Earth-Monkey shook his head. “I have to say… your changes are really quite significant, to the point where I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“Changes?” Qi Xia found this statement somewhat interesting.

He had met quite a few people in the “Land of the End,” but no one had ever discussed his “changes.”

“Exactly where have I changed?” Qi Xia asked.

“Hard to say.” Earth-Monkey reached up to scratch his face. “Is it your ‘state of mind’? Your ‘attitude’? Your ‘thoughts’?”

“Each one more mystical than the last.” Qi Xia let out a light snort. “Let’s begin.”

Earth-Monkey nodded and reached out to pick up the deck of cards. Just as he was about to deal, Qiao Jiajin stopped him.

“Hold on.”

Qiao Jiajin reached out and grabbed Earth-Monkey’s wrist, saying softly, “Chubby monkey, what’s the rush?”

Earth-Monkey slowly frowned. “What? Aren’t we starting?”

“Shuffle the cards first.” Qiao Jiajin said. “How can anyone just pick up the deck and start dealing?”

“I already shuffled.” Earth-Monkey shook off Qiao Jiajin’s hand. “But I don’t mind shuffling again.”

Earth-Monkey picked up the deck and performed a few quick shuffling motions, then placed the deck back on the table and looked at Qiao Jiajin.

“Is this acceptable now?”

Qiao Jiajin stared at the cards and slowly broke into a smile. He had seen countless card-cutting techniques, and the man before him wasn’t a master at it—just passable.

“We need to shuffle too.”

“Oh?”

“Casino rules—everyone shuffles once.” Qiao Jiajin said. “Chubby monkey, you run a casino, so you should understand this rule better than me.”

Only then did Earth-Monkey feel that the man before him had some real skill. He seemed to understand casinos even better than himself.

After hearing this, Qi Xia understood Qiao Jiajin’s intention. He decisively picked up the deck from the table, quickly manipulated it a few times in his hands, then turned the deck face-up and divided it into two piles. While mixing them together, he took the opportunity to look at the card faces. As expected, this deck contained both the Twenty-Four Solar Terms and traditional festivals.

But what exactly did “Lunar Phases” mean?

After everyone had taken turns shuffling, when the deck returned to Earth-Monkey’s hands, he merely pursed his lips slightly, then placed the cards on the table.

“We can begin now.” Qiao Jiajin said.

“Now, everyone please hand over one ‘Dao’ as the starting stake for this round.”

Everyone placed one of their “Dao” on the table.

After everyone had placed their chips down, Earth-Monkey reached out and picked up a card, revealing its face on the table.

“Zhongyuan.”

“Zhongyuan…?” Chen Junnan was stunned. “What the hell is Zhongyuan?”

“The Ghost Festival.” Qi Xia said in a deep voice. “What people commonly call the ‘Ghost Festival.'”

“Oh… if you say ‘Ghost Festival’ I understand.” Chen Junnan thought for a moment. “July fifteenth!”

“Mm.”

Earth-Monkey ignored everyone and just pointed at this “Zhongyuan” card, saying, “This is the ‘community card’ for this round.”

Then Earth-Monkey drew a card and placed it in front of himself, revealing its face.

“Summer Solstice.”

“Next, I will deal cards clockwise in rotation. These are the ‘face-up cards’ for this round.” Earth-Monkey said again.

Following clockwise order, to Earth-Monkey’s left was Zheng Yingxiong. Earth-Monkey drew a card, flipped it over, and handed it to him.

“Frost’s Descent.”

Next was Tiantian, who received a “Major Snow” card from Earth-Monkey.

Then it was Xiao Cheng’s turn. Earth-Monkey dealt him a “Pure Brightness” card.

Chen Junnan got “Start of Spring.”

Qiao Jiajin received “Major Heat.”

Finally, it was Qi Xia’s turn.

Earth-Monkey picked up Qi Xia’s card, then threw it to him with a smile on his face.

Qi Xia caught it and looked—the card read “Qixi Festival.”

Although everyone had successfully received their cards, the situation was beginning to get complicated. If nothing unexpected happened, “betting” would begin soon, but how could these cards in hand be ranked in terms of size?

“Next, the person with the largest date begins speaking.” Earth-Monkey slapped the table with his hand. “Major Snow.”

Tiantian looked at the “Major Snow” card in her hand, now completely at a loss.

Although she couldn’t remember the exact date of “Major Snow,” she knew the date number for “Major Snow” must be quite large, since it was already in deep winter. Compared to the “Summer Solstice” in Earth-Monkey’s hand, she naturally couldn’t lose. So after thinking for a while, she said, “I bet one.”

After hearing this, Xiao Cheng stared at the “Pure Brightness” in his hand and slowly frowned.

If he remembered correctly, the date for “Pure Brightness” was mostly in March or April. If they were comparing dates, it seemed a bit too small.

Since Earth-Monkey had said that each round would begin with betting from the person with the “largest date,” this almost implied that the “size comparison” in this game was definitely related to dates. No matter how he thought about it, this round wasn’t suitable for “betting.”

“I’m dropping out this round.” Xiao Cheng said. “I fold.”

He pushed both the “Pure Brightness” card and the “Dao” in front of him back, then sat up straight and leaned against the back of his chair. The rest of this first round of the game no longer concerned him.

Qi Xia glanced at Xiao Cheng, then nodded.

Since the date was so small, losing one “Dao” and dropping out was naturally a good thing. The situation wasn’t clear right now—continuing to follow would only result in greater losses.

Next, it was Chen Junnan’s turn to choose. He had been keeping his head down under the table, busy with something unknown.

“Junnan boy, it’s your turn.” Qiao Jiajin reminded him.

“Coming, coming.”

Chen Junnan looked at the card in his hand, and after a few seconds, showed an extremely awkward smile.

“What the hell is there for this young master to even play…?”

Everyone turned to look and saw he was holding “Start of Spring.”

“If this young master remembers correctly… ‘Start of Spring’ is the very first of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms, right? This thing is either in January or February, right?” He kept waving the card in his hand and shouting. “Monkey Brother, do you even know how to deal cards? Are you not giving us any game experience anymore?”

“It’s gambling after all.” Earth-Monkey nodded and said. “Willing to bet means accepting the loss. Besides, you won’t necessarily lose.”

“Alright! Just based on that statement of yours!” Chen Junnan nodded. “To be honest, Monkey Brother, when Old Pig first laid eyes on you, I felt a strong connection, like we knew each other in a past life.”

“Oh? So you’re Bajie then?” Earth-Monkey smiled.

“As long as I can be your little brother, I’m willing to be either Bajie or Old Sandy.” Chen Junnan also smiled. “Since my Monkey Brother says I won’t necessarily lose, I’m going all-in this round.”

“What…?” Earth-Monkey frowned upon hearing this. “You’re going all-in with a ‘Start of Spring’ card?”

“I’m all about trusting Monkey Brother!” Chen Junnan said. “This young master will make a fool of himself—I’m pushing in my entire fortune!”

“You…”

Before Earth-Monkey could respond, there was a “smack” sound as two dark objects were thrown onto the table.

Everyone looked closely and saw they were actually two dirty, grimy socks.