After Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin finished quietly discussing the rules, they raised their heads to look at Earth Monkey, who was shuffling the cards.

He had already shuffled several times and was now lazily looking at everyone.

“What? Have you figured out the rules?” he asked.

“Pretty much.” Qi Xia said.

“But is the direction you’re discussing really correct?” Earth Monkey asked again.

“Isn’t it?”

Earth Monkey looked into Qi Xia’s eyes and slowly lifted the corner of his mouth: “Then let’s see the truth in victory or defeat.”

Qi Xia nodded, then gave everyone a meaningful look, having them retrieve their chips. The only advantage of this game was that as long as one of the six people besides Earth Monkey won the game, everyone’s chips could return to their own hands, and then the next round would begin. However, this also presented a problem—Qi Xia had won the first round by sheer luck, but had only won four “Dao” from Earth Monkey. Even if the same situation continued eight times, by the end of the entire game, everyone would only obtain thirty-two “Dao”, nearly half short of the goal of sixty.

If Earth Monkey reduced the “chips” he bet in subsequent games, let alone thirty-two, the final reward would probably barely reach twenty.

“If there are no problems, I’ll start dealing.” Earth Monkey said. “Second round, begin!”

Hearing this, Qi Xia’s brow furrowed slightly. Earth Monkey’s state was somewhat strange.

His pronunciation of “second round begins” was standard, powerful, and resonant—completely unlike Earth Monkey’s usual relaxed speaking manner. It was obviously deliberate, as if… he was saying it for someone to hear.

“We need to shuffle the cards.” Qiao Jiajin said, just like in the previous round. “And this round, you can’t be the one dealing. Move clockwise to the next person.”

“What?”

“Not allowed?” Qiao Jiajin smiled. “There’s no dealer here. Are you going to deal all the cards from start to finish by yourself?”

“Whooooo~~~~~”

As soon as Earth Monkey finished speaking, Chen Junnan’s voice had already floated melodiously through the room like a wild goose flying across the sky.

Earth Monkey naturally knew this person was a troublemaker and didn’t want to pay him attention, but Chen Junnan’s voice, like a steel knife scraping bones, resoundingly reached him again.

“You scared the hell out of me!!” He shouted, leaning his body back, then directly placing both legs on the table with an expression of being a guest acting as host. “Did you brothers hear that? I didn’t even think this game could involve ‘cheating’, but he already thought of it! I’ve always said Brother Monkey has been smart since childhood. Why else would he be Earth Monkey?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Qiao Jiajin nodded beside him. “Really quite sharp.”

“We can only be proper people, but he’s different—with a smack, he became a monkey.” Chen Junnan turned his face. “Old Qiao, can you do that?”

“I definitely can’t.”

Chen Junnan turned to look at Xiao Cheng: “Young man, can you?”

“I, I also can’t.”

“It’s fine that he’s more outstanding than us, but his damn brain also works better than ours.” Chen Junnan annoyedly slapped his hand. “Our Brother Monkey has always been worried that the kid would cheat! I didn’t even think of it beforehand!”

Earth Monkey was stunned: “What nonsense are you talking about…?”

“It does make some sense!” Chen Junnan nodded vigorously. “Although his hands are small and he can’t even grab the cards properly, who says a kid who can’t grab cards can’t practice cheating a bit? I’m confused!”

Qiao Jiajin also hurriedly nodded beside him: “Yeah! Junnan! You’re confused!”

Hearing the two of them singing in harmony like a stage performance, Tiantian covered her mouth with her hand, unable to stop the laughter appearing at the corners of her eyes.

Earth Monkey’s face turned ashen, then he slapped the table: “You two, don’t go too far. I’m about to lose my patience.”

“Oh?” Chen Junnan suddenly smiled wickedly. “What happens if you can’t take it anymore? You’re a bit strange—why don’t you just kill me?”

“What?”

“You have concerns?” Chen Junnan removed his legs from the table, then leaned his body forward, his expression becoming increasingly annoying. “Could there be some rule restricting you? Brother Monkey, did your master draw a circle on the ground for you?”

Earth Monkey didn’t speak, only tightly pressed his lips together.

“I get it.” Chen Junnan nodded. “For better management, to let you sleep soundly—could your rules include ‘cannot interfere with gambling through violence’?”

Although Earth Monkey didn’t speak, everyone else read the answer from his expression.

Chen Junnan had guessed correctly.

But at this moment, Qi Xia hesitated—

He was preparing to retract all his previous assessments of Earth Monkey.

Although Earth Monkey had produced such a formidable deck of cards, he himself didn’t seem particularly shrewd. He had been somewhat presumptuous. Because the “Lunar Month” game was taking place in Earth Monkey’s venue, Qi Xia naturally assumed this game was Earth Monkey’s creation, but now it seemed the situation wasn’t quite so.

Earth Monkey wasn’t an extremely intelligent person. Perhaps he had some cleverness that allowed him to deal with ordinary people successfully, but this level of wit wasn’t enough to accomplish great things, nor was it enough to break through his psychological defenses after Qi Xia staked his life.

If he had to compare with the “Zodiacs” he’d encountered, Earth Monkey’s level wasn’t even as good as Earth Mouse.

But why would someone like Earth Monkey… have such great confidence to produce a deck of cards with such complex rules to gamble against him?

Was it simply because in his memory, he wasn’t as smart as now?

No, of course there was another possibility—that Earth Monkey still had a “trump card”. Qi Xia was more willing to believe that Earth Monkey’s current state was pretense.

“Brother Monkey, can you or can’t you?” Chen Junnan smiled. “You can’t kill me, and I don’t want to quit. We’re stuck here. How about just letting that kid deal? Are you really worried he’ll cheat?”

Earth Monkey held up the deck in his hand, squinting as he pondered something.

“Could it be…” Chen Junnan smiled wickedly again, his eyes full of mockery. “Brother Monkey, you’re not worried this kid will cheat, but rather worried that you yourself can’t cheat?”

“Bullshit.” Earth Monkey coldly cursed. “Deal then. I have nothing to fear.”

He threw the cards in his hand at Zheng Yingxiong in one go. Zheng Yingxiong failed to catch them for a moment, and they scattered everywhere. He hurriedly lowered his head with a serious expression to pick up the cards, then stacked them one by one.

He looked like someone who had never even played poker. Combined with his small hands, he could only continuously organize the cards one by one, then shuffle them under Tiantian’s direction.