Chapter 1

Prologue: A Sudden Appearance

Macau.

Babylon Casino.

The atmosphere in the casino tonight seemed somewhat unusual, with the staff members all looking tense yet excited, whispering to each other in every corner. The content was largely the same, and could be summed up in one sentence:

"A master gambler is here to clean the house!"

As one of the largest casinos in Macau, Babylon Casino has extensive experience with such events. Every year, many people who consider themselves skilled gamblers come here to challenge the house, hoping to become rich overnight and live a life of luxury.

Privately, the casino admits that indeed, some skilled gamblers have taken away large sums of cash and fled, but that is a rare occurrence. Most of the time, these gamblers are defeated by the casino's own skilled players.

Tonight, however, seems to be different.

In the VIP room, the dealer's position is occupied by Chen Changqing, the casino's senior technical advisor—according to the name tag on his black suit.

Chen Changqing, 37 years old, has worked for Babylon Casino for four years and has defeated 26 challengers. Four years ago, he sat at the same table and defeated three senior casino managers, after which he joined Babylon.

Being a professional gambler sounds very romantic, but the reality is not as pleasant as it seems. Indeed, few casinos would go so far as to seek revenge, but often, their identities are blacklisted, and they are banned from entering most casinos around the world.

Therefore, many professional gamblers are eventually recruited by casinos to serve as technical advisors, using their skills to contribute to their former opponents and extend their gambling careers. Chen Changqing has heard that the general manager of Babylon was once a legendary gambler who swept through 39 casinos worldwide.

However, today, history seems to be repeating itself, but he is no longer the victor. It has been over three hours since he entered the room, and his chips are dwindling. The young man sitting across from him is calmly sipping a glass of red wine, his eyes fixed on Chen Changqing.

As a well-trained gambler, Chen Changqing does not have a single bead of sweat on his forehead, but his palms are starting to sweat, and his pauses are getting longer. He notices that his body language is showing signs of weakness, and perhaps the young man is becoming complacent because of it... perhaps this gives him a chance to turn the tide.

He can only hope so, because on the table, he is already in a dire situation.

"Looks like your luck isn't very good. Want to reshuffle the deck?" the person sitting across the table asked gently. The two people beside him also chuckled lightly.

Generally, the casino uses eight decks of cards for blackjack, totaling 416 cards. To reduce the possibility of card counting, the deck is reshuffled after one-third of the cards have been dealt. Currently, only 55 cards have been used in five rounds.

At the table, there are four players in total. Besides the young man with god-like luck and his middle-aged companion, there is a well-built middle-aged man, a wealthy businessman from Shanghai, and a regular customer, a lady whom Chen Changqing knows. Now, the Shanghai businessman and the lady have almost given up on the game, placing only a polite bet of 10,000 yuan each time, with everyone focusing on the mysterious young man.

In the past five rounds, the young man has bet 200,000 yuan each time, winning four and losing one, for a total win of 600,000 yuan.

To be honest, for Chen Changqing, who has participated in high-stakes games with billions of yuan, 600,000 yuan is not a significant amount. But the key is that the young man has been gambling with him for three hours, and he has been losing almost the entire time.

Chen Changqing has been observing this young man for two days. The surveillance system, which tracks and analyzes the flow of chips, has shown that the young man's win rate is problematic. Chen Changqing checked the historical records and found that the young man had visited twice, winning 3.6 million yuan on the first night and 5.2 million yuan on the second night.

Based on years of experience, he can be 100% certain that there is something wrong with this young man.

In the registration records, the young man's name is:

Su Jing.

The "Su" from "awake" and the "Jing" from "thorn."

After working at Babylon for four years, Chen Changqing has seen his colleagues being defeated by skilled gamblers. When watching the surveillance footage, he felt a bit schadenfreude, but he never imagined that one day he would lose even more惨败地输掉。

“给我一颗水果糖，苹果味的。谢谢。再给我这位朋友来一杯加冰的威士忌。”坐在对面的年轻赌客打了个响指招呼侍者。

根据这几日赌场的监控记录，每天晚上，对面的年轻人总是和那个中年男人结伴前来，而且几乎总是年轻人赌，大汉坐在旁边看，或下一些小注。

作为赌场的镇场角色，陈长青专门训练过相人之术。据他从动作上判断，这个大汉应该是退伍的军人，或者特种兵之类的角色。他一开始猜测那人是年轻男子的手下或者保镖，但是看他们的身体语言，一些细微的动作，又显得这两人并非是从属关系，更像是平等的合作者。

但是这两人绝非出千的搭档。陈长青揉了揉自己的眉心，从拿牌的姿势和一些细微动作来看，这两人并非是娴熟的赌徒，倒不如说完全是外行人。无论是自己近距离观察，还是从监控里仔细一帧一帧慢放记录，都找不到半点出千的迹象。但是，如果不是作弊，那他们这有如神助一般的奇高胜率……完全无法解释。

“来吧，我们再赌一局。”

赌客看了看手表，然后直起身子说。

陈长青眯起眼睛，看了一眼墙上的钟，十一点零八分。

他平均每五分钟就会看一次时间……他是在等待什么？

“请问你要压多少？”

“一千万吧。”

赌客活动了一下他细瘦的腕骨。

半分钟后，陈长青脸色铁青地看着自己面前的牌。九，五，八。

爆庄了。

这个时候，贵宾室的门被打开，一个服务员走进来，递给了对面的年轻人一颗苹果硬糖，年轻人顺手又把托盘上那杯威士忌也接了过来。这人一边把糖丢进嘴里，一边浅酌了一口杯中的碧绿色酒液。还用舌头把糖转得咔咔响。

“啧，好烈的酒，老徐，还是给你吧。”

“你这人什么毛病……连我的酒也要抢……”大汉一边抱怨一边接过了酒杯，喝了一口就放下了，继续专注地盯着桌上的牌局。

陈长青扬了扬眉毛，开始重新审视面前坐着的年轻赌客。

那个年轻赌客看起来大约二十岁左右，长发过肩，面目俊秀，面带微笑，只是眉目间似乎蕴藏着一丝邪气。他穿着一身纯黑色的修身休闲西装，而现在他把外套搭在椅背上，露出里面白色细条纹的衬衫和短领带，把袖子卷起来了两格，正专注地看着手中的牌。

似乎是觉察到了陈长青的目光，那人抬起头来，露出了一个善意的笑容。

“这一局，我押……两千万吧。”

陈长青垂下眼去。

发牌。

姓苏的青年面前摆着一张红桃五，一张红桃七。

陈长青看了一眼自己面前翻开的一张十点，用指甲轻轻挑起盖着的牌，也是一张十点，他不禁露出一个微笑。

“要牌。”

青年用指关节敲敲桌子。

方块三。

“继续。”

梅花二。

“继续。”

黑桃二。

“继续。”

红桃A。

陈长青脸色发白，连着六张牌都没爆，这是什么小概率事件！他到底哪里来的自信！已经二十点了！下一张基本上必爆无疑，他怎么会继续要牌？如果仅仅止步于此，那庄家的自己就赢了……

“继续。”

青年似乎毫不在意，继续敲桌子。

“……您确定？”

“我再说一遍。继续。给我。发牌。”

下一张牌送到了青年的面前，然后翻开。

陈长青十年后依然记得这个场面，以及牌局结束半小时之后发生的风波。但是他有一次在酒桌上把这件事当做谈资的时候，他说，那天晚上令他印象最深刻的，不是那件事的结局，而是那个叫苏荆的青年翻开牌的那一刻。

“他的眼神没在看牌，他好像一直在盯着我。不，不是，我觉得他当时没在看我，而是在看着他对面的，越过我的某种东西，一样非常广阔而深邃的东西。说实话，我当时都忘了看他的牌是什么，只是在那里盯着他的眼睛。我好像有种直觉，明明他赢的概率那么小，我却下意识地就觉得自己已经输了，在开牌之前就已经输了……我赌了那么多年，这种感觉是唯一一次。”

“我赢了。”

那个叫苏荆的人语气中没有一点赢到两千万元的欣喜，只是在单纯地陈述一个事实。

黑桃A。

共计二十一点。

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"Give me a fruit candy, apple flavor. Thanks. And get my friend a whiskey on the rocks," the young gambler snapped his fingers to call the waiter.

According to the casino's surveillance records over the past few days, the young man always comes with the middle-aged man every night, and it is usually the young man who gambles while the big man watches or places small bets.

As the casino's main dealer, Chen Changqing has been specially trained in reading people. From the man's movements, he deduced that the big man is likely a retired soldier or a special forces operative. Initially, he guessed that the big man was the young man's subordinate or bodyguard, but their body language and subtle actions suggest that they are more like equal partners.

However, these two are definitely not a cheating team. Chen Changqing rubbed his temples, and from the way they handle the cards and their subtle movements, he concluded that they are not skilled gamblers but rather complete novices. Whether he observed them up close or reviewed the surveillance footage frame by frame, he found no signs of cheating. But if they are not cheating, their god-like win rate is completely inexplicable.

"Let's play another round."

The gambler glanced at his watch and straightened up.

Chen Changqing squinted and looked at the clock on the wall, 11:08 PM.

He checks the time every five minutes on average... what is he waiting for?

"May I ask how much you want to bet?"

"Ten million."

The gambler flexed his slender wrist.

Half a minute later, Chen Changqing's face turned pale as he looked at the cards in front of him: 9, 5, 8.

He busted.

At this moment, the door to the VIP room opened, and a waiter walked in, handing the young man an apple hard candy. The young man also took the whiskey on the tray, put the candy in his mouth, and took a sip of the greenish liquid, making the candy crack with his tongue.

"Tsk, this is a strong drink, Lao Xu, you can have it."

"You are such a troublemaker... even taking my drink..." The big man grumbled, took the glass, took a sip, and put it down, continuing to focus on the game.

Chen Changqing raised an eyebrow and began to re-evaluate the young gambler in front of him.

The young gambler, who looked to be around 20 years old, had long hair that reached his shoulders, a handsome face, and a smile, but there was a hint of mischief in his eyes. He was dressed in a pure black, slim-fit casual suit, and now he had his jacket draped over the back of the chair, revealing a white fine-striped shirt and a short tie, with his sleeves rolled up. He was intently looking at the cards in his hand.

Seemingly aware of Chen Changqing's gaze, the young man looked up and gave a friendly smile.

"In this round, I'll bet... twenty million."

Chen Changqing lowered his eyes.

Dealing the cards.

The young man named Su had a 5 of Hearts and a 7 of Hearts.

Chen Changqing glanced at the 10 he had already revealed, and with his fingernail, he lifted the covered card, which was also a 10. He couldn't help but smile.

"Hit me."

The young man tapped the table with his knuckles.

3 of Diamonds.

"Hit me."

2 of Clubs.

"Hit me."

2 of Spades.

"Hit me."

A of Hearts.

Chen Changqing's face turned white. Six cards in a row without busting, what a low-probability event! Where does he get such confidence! He already has 20 points! The next card is almost certain to bust him. Why would he continue to ask for cards? If he had stopped here, the dealer would have won...

"Hit me."

The young man seemed unconcerned, continuing to tap the table.

"Are you sure?"

"I'll say it again. Hit me. Deal the card."

The next card was dealt to the young man and revealed.

Chen Changqing still remembers this scene ten years later, as well as the commotion that followed half an hour after the game ended. But when he once mentioned this as a topic at a dinner party, he said that the most memorable part of that night was not the outcome of the event, but the moment the young man named Su Jing revealed his card.

"His eyes weren't on the cards; he seemed to be staring at me. No, not at me, but at something vast and profound beyond me. To be honest, I forgot to look at his cards and just stared into his eyes. I had a gut feeling that, despite the low probability of him winning, I had already lost, even before the cards were revealed... I've been gambling for so many years, and this was the only time I had that feeling."

"I win."

The young man named Su Jing's tone lacked any excitement about winning twenty million yuan; he was simply stating a fact.

A of Spades.

A total of 21 points.

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