Tiantian was shuffling the cards. She imitated Earth Monkey’s method from earlier, dividing the cards into two piles.

Then she interlaced the two piles together. Just as she was about to shuffle them again, whether due to nervousness or unfamiliarity, her hands trembled and all the cards instantly scattered across the table.

Everyone turned to look at once, only to see the cards all face-up, clearly visible to all.

Seeing things had gone wrong, Tiantian hurriedly gathered all the cards together again, then turned them face-down on the table and was about to deal.

“Wait.” Qiao Jiajin frowned and extended his hand.

“What…?” Earth Monkey questioned. “Your person is shuffling—don’t you even trust your own people?”

“Whether I trust her or not doesn’t matter.” Qiao Jiajin replied. “But you saw the cards. I need to shuffle again.”

“What kind of rule is that…?” Earth Monkey said. “We specifically found a ‘dealer’ this time precisely to avoid us shuffling the cards ourselves, didn’t we?”

“But these are six lives, Fat Monkey.” Qiao Jiajin didn’t back down an inch. “Six lives are hanging in the balance here. Don’t we even have the qualification to shuffle the cards?”

“Fine, then after you finish shuffling, I’ll also shuffle.” Earth Monkey said.

“So that’s how we’re playing? Fine, Monkey Brother, after you finish shuffling, I’ll shuffle too.” Chen Junnan continued. “Let’s see if I can’t shuffle you to death.”

Earth Monkey shrugged, showing no objection.

Qiao Jiajin took the cards and shuffled them in his hands. He felt that Earth Monkey had been staring at the cards in his hands the entire time.

“Fat Monkey… in movies from our side, there’s often this kind of plot where people skilled in gambling techniques can figure out where the card they want is just by watching their opponent shuffle.”

“Oh?” Earth Monkey nodded. “But do you think such gambling techniques exist in reality?”

“I don’t know.” Qiao Jiajin said. “But I know that even if there is such a technique, you won’t be able to use it.”

After saying this, he placed the deck of cards under the table and began shuffling randomly.

Earth Monkey took the deck in his hands, turned it sideways to look at the edges, and after confirming that the other party hadn’t made any creases, shuffled it symbolically before handing it to Chen Junnan.

Chen Junnan also imitated Qiao Jiajin’s method, placing the deck under the table and shuffling casually. Just as he was about to hand the deck to Tiantian, Earth Monkey called out to him again.

He picked up the deck again and examined it for a long time. After confirming that the other party really hadn’t tampered with it, he shuffled it several more times before finally letting Tiantian begin dealing.

No matter what those two were trying to do, the only people participating in this gamble were himself and Qi Xia. No matter how much the others did, it was merely one smokescreen after another.

But perhaps Chen Junnan’s earlier pressure on Earth Monkey had been too great—now, just looking at Chen Junnan’s cynical expression made Earth Monkey somewhat angry, to the point where he couldn’t calm his mind at all.

Tiantian took a deep breath and flipped over a card from the top of the deck, gently placing it in front of herself.

“Light Snow.”

“Tenth Month, Twenty-Third Day.”

“One-zero-two-three…” Chen Junnan silently recited in his mind, then withdrew his gaze.

Everyone around naturally knew this wasn’t a good omen. The card that was flipped was somewhat too large.

Just this one card’s numerical sum had already reached “six” points. The sum of Qi Xia and Earth Monkey’s two cards couldn’t exceed “ten” points from now on.

Tiantian lightly covered her lips. She had clearly heard Qi Xia and Earth Monkey establish a new rule earlier—that a “draw” would count as Qi Xia’s loss.

But if the first card was this large… wouldn’t Qi Xia’s probability of losing have increased substantially?

Qi Xia sat in his place swaying unsteadily, completely ignoring the cards on the table, looking as if he was about to faint at any moment.

Tiantian picked up a card and hesitated for a while, not knowing whom to give it to.

Chen Junnan supported Qi Xia with his hand and gave Tiantian a meaningful look. “Although Old Qi isn’t feeling well, give it to Monkey Brother first. Let’s respect our elders.”

After hearing this, Tiantian nodded and dealt the card to Earth Monkey.

Earth Monkey slowly turned over the card, revealing the text on it.

“Rain Water.”

“First Month, Twenty-First Day.”

“One-two-one totals four points…” Chen Junnan shook Qi Xia. “Old Qi, wake up, the cards are being dealt.”

Qi Xia barely opened his eyes and took a card from Tiantian’s hand.

He took a deep breath and flipped over the card face, his expression instantly becoming heavy.

“New Year’s Eve”!

“Fuck…” Chen Junnan was about to stand up in shock, but then thought of something.

Although this card looked very large, carefully thinking about it, the numbers composing it were merely “one-two-three-zero,” with a total of only “six.”

“O-Old Qi, pull yourself together, we haven’t lost yet.” Chen Junnan shook Qi Xia again. “If you’re going to faint, at least wait until after we’re dead.”

Qi Xia nodded symbolically.

Since the bets for both sides had already been placed before this round began, there was no need for mid-round betting. Tiantian was about to deal the “hidden cards” to both players.

Just like in the previous round, she handed the first card to Earth Monkey, then gently picked up another and passed it to Qi Xia.

Qi Xia looked at the card face and frowned slightly. Just as he placed this card on the table, his entire person seemed to lose consciousness and collapsed forward, landing right on top of his “hidden card.”

“Damn!”

“Old Qi!”

The two men beside him hurriedly supported Qi Xia, discovering that his eyes had almost completely lost their light.

And the wound on his forehead, after this impact, began bleeding again, imprinting a fierce red flower on the back of this “hidden card.”

Seeing this was bad, Chen Junnan quickly took that “hidden card” in his hand and placed it under the table, vigorously wiping the blood from the back. Unfortunately, this deck of cards was made of matte material and wasn’t waterproof. Small blood spots could still be handled, but such a large area of blood had already seeped into the card and couldn’t be wiped clean at all.

He hurriedly shoved the card into Qi Xia’s hand from under the table, then reached out to pat Qi Xia again. “Old Qi! Wake up! Look at this card!”

Qi Xia looked down at this card, his expression like dead ash.

Yet he seemed to be constantly pondering something, consistently refusing to place this card on the table.

“Qi Xia, what’s wrong?” After Earth Monkey looked at his hidden card, he slowly placed it on the table, then said, “Will that card of yours let you win?”

Looking at the card clutched in his hand, Qi Xia’s head remained lowered throughout. The flamboyant calligraphy on the card face seemed like a strange smiling face, making him unable to speak.

“You said you knew my two trump cards, but why haven’t you done anything?” Earth Monkey laughed. “Is this the extent of your ability?”

Upon hearing Earth Monkey’s words, Qi Xia slowly shook his head.

Seeing Qi Xia’s expression, Earth Monkey’s demeanor became even more arrogant. “You’re holding a ‘Double Ninth’—how exactly are you going to beat me?!”

Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin on the side, upon hearing Earth Monkey speak, simultaneously looked down at the “hidden card” that Qi Xia had hidden under the table.

It was indeed “Double Ninth.”