Chapter 6 - His First Pot of Gold

Mr. Guo was quite displeased as he had lost 200,000 yuan in the game he played with Zhang Jun just now. So he asked Zhang Jun to play mahjong with him, hoping to win money back at the mahjong table. But he would never know that Zhang Jun had X-ray vision.

Mr. Guo had a large circle of acquaintances and knew almost everyone in the Chess & Cards room. Soon four people answered his call for playing mahjong.

Zhang Jun, Zhuang Wen, Mr. Guo and a Mr. Ma entered a private room for mahjong. It was a large room with complete facilities and two waiters to provide special services.

The fact that Zhang Jun hadn’t played mahjong much was not an obstacle. The four people played a local game which had 136 mahjong tiles. The rules were simple but the game itself was rather entertaining.

Mr. Guo proposed a 1000 RMB yuan ante for per game, and there was no objection. The mahjong game began.

An important key to the winning of mahjong game is good luck, when you were on on a hot streak, even the gods couldn’t stop you. But this time things were obviously different, since Zhang Jun could see not only what tiles other players had, but also what tiles remained on the table.

Therefore, he had designed his own set patterns from the very beginning, just waiting to complete a hand. Of course, sometimes others might chi, peng or gang (Chi: To take in tiles discarded by other players to form a set of three identical tiles. Peng: a run of three consecutive numbers. Gang: four of the same tiles.) which might disrupt his design occasionally, but in the end it would not affect the overall situation after a slight adjustment.

Both Zhuang Wen and Mr. Guo felt that the game was a little bit weird. After ten rounds, they found that Zhang Jun had an obvious pattern in playing mahjong, that is, he never made mistakes when he discarded a tile, which was simply most exceptional luck.

Zhuang Wen had been very curious about Zhang Jun since the latter had showed his wonderful skills on the billiards table. Zhuang Wen had been observing him the whole time at the mahjong table. “Lin Xian’s friend is really remarkable. He is absolutely a master with such a fantastic billiards skill!” Zhuang Wen said to himself.

Zhang Jun had already won about three hundred thousand yuan after fifteen rounds. Mr. Guo finally realized that the youth in front of him was quite skillful in mahjong and it was impossible for him to win back any money.

Mr. Ma toppled the tiles on the table and said, “It’s too boring. Let’s stop it. How about some five-card stud?”

Mr. Guo was going to play poker in the first place, and mahjong was just a prelude to playing poker. He looked at Zhang Jun and said with a smile, “How about you, young man?”

Zhang Jun had been very excited when he started winning money. But gradually he calmed down. He kept telling himself secretly, now that he had already had X-ray vision, sooner or later he would make a great fortune. So such little sum would mean nothing to him.

With this in mind, he was in a calm mood. He nodded and said, “Okay, no problem.”

Five-card stud was much more exciting. In playing such a game, money would be coming and going very quickly. So of course the players need better psychology and technical skills. However, none of these would restrict Zhang Jun, because with his X-ray vision he could see the other players’ cards.

In the following games, Zhang Jun always lost a little but won a lot. And finally, he won more than one million yuan just in half an hour, which made Mr. Guo break out in a cold sweat. At the end of the last round, he stopped and said to Zhang Jun, “Young man you are very good at playing cards. It’s really admirable. Let’s stop here.”

Zhang Jun smiled slightly and said, “Okay, I’m also tired. Let’s just stop here.”

Zhuang Wen also participated in these rounds. He lost more than 100,000 yuan. Then he gave the thumbs-up to Zhang Jun and said, “Man, you are really very good at knowing when to raise and when to fold, as if you had known the cards already!”

Zhang Jun felt a bit uneasy, so he said with a forced smile, “You are flattering me,  Mr. Zhuang. It was just because of good luck.”

The other people thought Zhang Jun was so shrewd that it was too difficult to win money from him. They all wished that he would leave as soon as possible. There was no objection to his leaving.

Zhuang Wen followed Zhang Jun and they left together. When they returned to the lobby, Lin Xian had already been waiting for a while. She looked at Zhang Jun with a smile and said, “It’s inconceivable that you even went to gamble, Zhang Jun! How much did you lose?”

Zhuang Wen said with an eccentric expression on his face, “Lose? This Mr. Zhang won two million yuan in a short while!” Then he smiled bitterly and said, “At first I was afraid that he would lose too much due to inexperience. But later I understood that he was acting like a pig to prey on the tiger! And he was actually sweeping every obstruction in front of him.”

Lin Xian looked at Zhang Jun surprisingly and asked him in disbelief, “Are you really so good at gambling, Zhang Jun?”

Zhang Jun nodded embarrassedly. After all, he won by gambling, so the money was kind of ill-gotten.

Unexpectedly, Lin Xian looked very happy and said, “That’s great! Last time my cousin lost more than eight million yuan here, and now you’re avenging him today!”

Zhuang Wen was speechless for a while and then said, “Say, my dear Miss Lin, why do you still remember such an ancient thing?”

Lin Xian scoffed, “Everything in your club is fantastic except the casino, which has made my cousin lose all his private savings.”

While the three of them were talking, Zhuang Wen’s telephone rang. Soon after the phone was connected, his face changed, and he said gravely, “Have you found Master Sun yet?”

“What? Isn’t Master Sun in Donghai? You have one hour, and after an hour I must see Master Sun!” Zhuang Wen, who was always gentle and elegant, had a somewhat grim expression on his face at this time.

Hanging up the phone, Zhuang Wen was beside himself for a while, standing still like a soulless puppet. He no longer looked like the First Childe in Donghai.

Lin Xian sighed softly and asked, “Is there something wrong with Lele? Did she recover yet?”

With a long sigh, Zhuang Wen said, “Her chronic illness struck again today and she bit Shu Jie.”

“Your wife was injured?” Lin Xian stood up in surprise. “I need to go see her!”

Zhuang Wen waved his hand and said, “Don’t go right now, please. Lele is still unwell and you’d better see her when she recovers.” After that, he left without saying goodbye.

After Zhuang Wen left, Zhang Jun couldn’t help asking, “What’s the matter?”

Lin Xian sighed and said, “Zhuang Wen has a 15-year-old sister who suffered from a strange disease at the age of 10. She will fall into a state of insanity at intervals. When she is crazy, her speech and manner will completely change as if she were another person, which is really frightening.”

Zhang Jun felt a jolt, “Couldn’t it be possible that she was possessed by a ghost?”

Fear flashed in Lin Xian’s eyes. Looking at Zhang Jun, she said, “It’s indeed called ‘possession’ in folklore, while in Western medicine it is considered as a kind of mental illness. Over these years, Zhuang Wen’s family had brought her to more than 100 hospitals at home and abroad. However, Lele hasn’t been relieved of her disease and she still suffers a lot.”

Zhang Jun thought about it and said, “Can I go to Zhuang’s residence to see Lele together with you? After all, I’ve already got acquainted with Mr. Zhuang Wen.”

Lin Xian nodded, “It’s very kind of you to say so and Zhuang Wen must be very happy to know about this.”

The departure of Zhuang Wen left both Zhang Jun and Lin Xian in no mood to remain in the club any longer. Soon after, they left the club and returned to their room in the hotel.

Early morning next day the two went together after breakfast to Tianji Jewelry Town in Donghai, the venue of the Gamble Stone Festival.