Chapter 82: The First Time Using the Superpower to Gamble
If a gaze could kill a person, then Wang Zhitao would have killed Yang Ming! Wang Zhitao didn’t understand. Yang Ming was just a minor character. Not a whole lot happened to Yang Ming the other time when he attempted to frame Yang Ming. Why would the police keep this case open for so long?
After the policemen went to Tavern Heaven on Earth multiple times to investigate the case, Wang Zhitao finally began to be afraid. He told his father, Wang Yunlong, all the things he did. Naturally, Wang Yulong gave him a terrible scolding!
Nevertheless, Wang Yunlong still cared for his own son. Therefore, he used a large amount of money to bribe a waiter to be the scapegoat for his son. With his connections in society, he pressured the police station to wrap up the case quickly.
Even though Wang Zhitao didn’t really lose much, he felt like he had taken a rock to smash his leg. Not only did Yang Ming get to “enjoy” and come out free, Wang Zhitao now had to find someone else to be a scapegoat.
Especially after the exam results came out, Wang Zhitao lost another one of his competitive strengths in front of Chen Mengyan. Right now, nothing else was comparable to Yang Ming aside from his background.
What really ticked Wang Zhitao’s nerves was that Chen Mengyan wasn’t interested in his family background at all! In his opinion, with the exception of Chen Mengyan, most women were gold diggers. Wang Zhitao attempted to give a few gifts to her but all were rejected. He really had run out of ideas!
In the afternoon, as usual, Yang Ming went back home to have his lunch before heading back to school. At the school entrance, he met Li Dagang. This guy was gambling on a game of “guess the bowl” by the side of the street [1].
The game “guess the bowl” was played with three bowls turned upside down on a table. The operator would put a coin under one of the bowls and use his hands to randomly shuffle the bowls. When everyone’s vision got all blurry, he would then invite everyone to guess which bowl the coin was in! Each guess cost one yuan, and a correct guess gave a return of ten yuan. An incorrect answer would be a waste of the one yuan!
Li Dagang was playing this game delightfully!
“Dagang, are you playing this game?” Yang Ming frowned as he tapped on Li Dagang’s back. This kind of game was pretty similar to gambling. With Li Dagang’s modest family background, if he got addicted to gambling it would be a huge negative influence on his life.
“Heh, I am just giving it a few tries to test my luck!” Li Dagang said indifferently when he realized it was Yang Ming.
“Don’t you know that most of the games out here are cons? Have you ever won once?” Yang Ming took a look at the person in front of the gambling stall. His gut instinct told him that this thievish-looking person wouldn’t be any good.
“Not really, I guessed three times already. I didn’t even win once. Now that you mentioned it, I am now a bit doubtful!” Li Dagang looked at the stall owner. “Hey, you are not cheating me, are you?”
Yang Ming felt really amused listening to Li Dagang’s words. Who would ask like that? The person wouldn’t admit it even though he could be cheating you!
Of course, the stall owner was unhappy listening to it. His expression turned gloomy and he said, “You step aside and observe then! Alright, place your bets!”
Li Dagang wanted to place his bets but Yang Ming stopped him. Yang Ming felt that it was suspicious just now. He used his X-ray vision to take a look at the bowls and he realized that none of the bowls contained a coin!
“Why?” Li Dagang looked at Yang Ming, confused.
“Nothing. You place your bet.” Yang Ming had thought of a solution.
“I guess… erm…. the bowl on the right side!” Li Dagang said after hesitating for a while.
“You picked your guess?” asked the stall owner. “If you have picked then we will have to open the bowl… now! Hehe, I am sorry. The coin isn’t in here! Now, do you want to continue?”
“Wait!” Yang Ming said suddenly, “Could you be cheating us with all of them being empty bowls?”
However, the stall owner wasn’t as nervous as Yang Ming imagined him to be. Even Li Dagang who was beside him shook his head and smiled bitterly, “It can’t be Yang Ming. I asked him!”
“Yup, you wanted to know where the coin was?” The stall owner pointed at an empty bowl and said, “It’s right here!”
As the stall owner said it, he flipped open the bowl. A coin was actually lying down there!
Yang Ming was shocked. How could this be possible? I really saw that all three bowls were empty!
However, as Yang Ming took a breath and gave it some thought, he understood that he had met an expert! This brat’s moves were really quick. He most likely would have placed the coin into the bowl as he flipped it open to deceive everyone!
As he thought about this, Yang Ming said, “One more round!” Yang Ming took out one yuan from his pocket and passed it over.
The stall owner did what he did before and placed the coin underneath one of the bowls. But Yang Ming saw it. The coin was passed into his sleeves in that split moment when the bowl was flipped over!
“Make a guess?” The stall owner asked Yang Ming after he finished shuffling the bowls.
“I am guessing that all three bowls are empty!” Yang Ming said one word at a time.
“Yang Ming, what are you doing? Wouldn’t you obviously lose with this guess?” Li Dagang asked as he got even more confused.
“Yeah, who would guess like you did? Give a proper guess. Stop messing around!” The stall owner said impatiently.
“Why? I am guessing that all three bowls are empty! If I was wrong, you would take away my one yuan. Isn’t that the agreed deal? How could you say I was messing around?” As he said this, he gave a look to Li Dagang signaling him not to worry.
Li Dagang misunderstood. He thought that Yang Ming was asking for his help! But his help actually helped Yang Ming a lot!
“Yeah, are you feeling guilty? We are guessing that the coin is not in any of the three bowls!” Li Dagang said as he stared at the stall owner.
“Alright, alright. Whatever you guys want!” The stall owner no longer wanted to argue with them. “Take a careful look. The coin is right underneath this bowl!” As he finished his sentence, he went to flip open the bowl with his hand!
“Don’t move!” Yang Ming held onto the stall owner’s hand. “I will open it myself!”
“You open it yourself? How will that work? You could break my bowl! Alright, stop messing around. I know what you meant. Let go of me. Let me convince you with what I have!” Even though the stall owner appeared calm, his eyes betrayed his anxiousness.
“If I break your bowl, I will reimburse you! What’s the difference between me opening it and you opening it?” Yang Ming sneered. “Unless you are guilty of something?”
“Me? Guilty? Why would I be guilty?” The stall owner said calmly. He swung his hand in an attempt to get out of Yang Ming’s grasp but it felt like his hand was locked down in a vise and he couldn’t draw it out!
“Li Dagang, flip the bowls open!” Yang Ming held onto the stall owner’s other hand and instructed Li Dagang.
“Alright!” Li Dagang flipped open the few bowls once he heard Yang Ming’s instruction. It was indeed as Yang Ming claimed. It was empty underneath all three bowls!
Yang Ming hummed and released the stall owner. “What else do you want to say? Don’t tell me that your coin grew some wings and flew into your sleeves!”
“You… you saw through it earlier?” The stall owner asked in shock.
“Piece of cake!” said Yang Ming indifferently. “Now, how should we settle this?”
“I… I will give you ten yuan. Is that alright?” The stall owner thought that he could get over it easily because Yang Ming was just a student.
“Give me ten yuan and you continue to cheat on others? Li Dagang, report to the police and state that we have found a conman in front of No.4 high school’s entrance.” Yang Ming said plainly.
“Don’t… don’t do that! Brother, let’s talk about it. Don’t report to the police!” The stall owner was scared by Yang Ming and begged for his forgiveness. Cheating people through gambling in front of a school was a big taboo in society. If he was caught by the police, he would be severely punished!
“Then, what do you think we should do? My friend here lost many bets!” Yang Ming wasn’t really intending to report to the police. He just wanted to threaten this person.
“I will return all his money to him! Right now!” The stall owner nodded his head vigorously as he said it.
“Return? He was gambling here. If you weren’t cheating, he could have won a few times!” Yang Ming said sternly.
“Okay, he played four rounds. I would return to him forty yuan! Is that fine?” The stall owner asked as he bit his lips.
“Forty?” Yang Ming questioned, “Are you nuts? You look smart but you don’t really know how to do math, do you? Haven’t you heard of compound interest? If you haven’t heard of it, let me explain to you! My friend here would have won ten yuan, and he would have spent ten yuan to win a hundred yuan, and a hundred yuan would have gotten him a thousand yuan…”
“Ah?” The stall owner didn’t know that today he would meet someone who was more cunning than him. He frowned as he said, “Brother, I know I made a mistake. With your calculations, I won’t be able to pay you back even if my family owned a bank!”
If you often walk by the river, how can you not wet your shoes? This saying was totally right. The stall owner got his lesson today!
“I have about two hundred yuan inside my pocket here. Brother, please let go of me!” The stall owner dug in his pocket and took out about two hundred yuan.
Yang Ming used his x-ray vision, scanned through the stall owner’s clothes and realized that there were two additional hundred yuan bills inside his jacket pocket. Yang Ming said with a tinge of disgust, “I hate people who lie to me!”
“I am not lying!” The stall owner said with a bitter face. “I have already fallen to your hand. How would I dare lie?”