Cheng Shouping was flabbergasted. He had marched off to the counter gleefully to collect his money, excited about how the young master would reward him handsomely for his efforts. However, he had somehow messed everything up.

It was a million taels of silver they were talking about here!

Cheng Shouping’s eyes immediately reddened in agitation. With a despairing cry, he charged forward to brawl with the manager, but was swiftly dragged out by the guards of the Four Seas Casino.

“Where did this lunatic come from? Beat him up real good so that even his mother wouldn’t recognize him!” The manager yelled, pointing an angry finger at Cheng Shouping while covering his swollen eyes with one hand.

“Oh? Is this how the Four Seas Casino treats its customers? Not only do you refuse to pay out your losses, you even try to turn things around to frame your customers, then attempt to beat them to death?” a sharp voice came from the entrance. Zu An cut an imposing figure as he strutted into the casino.

Beside him, Chu Chuyan’s gaze turned cold as she witnessed the pitiful plight Cheng Shouping was in. Even though she wasn’t too fond of him, he was still a member of the Chu clan. She would never allow outsiders to trample all over him like that.

Acknowledging Chu Chuyan’s subtle gesture, the Chu clan’s guards immediately rushed forward to beat down the guards of the Four Seas Casino, saving Cheng Shouping from their clutches.

“Waaa, this woman is really pretty!”

“Are you blind? Don’t you recognize the First Miss of the Chu clan?”

“As expected of Brightmoon City’s number one beauty!”

“But what are they doing here? Doesn’t the Chu clan have strict rules against gambling?”

…

The others in the casino, as well as passers-by, immediately rushed over to watch the commotion.

Cheng Shouping staggered over to Zu An’s side with a swollen face. He hugged the latter’s thigh and cried out indignantly, “Young master, that bastard over there has torn up the betting slip!”

Zu An’s eyelids twitched. “Stop using my clothes as a tissue paper to wipe off your snot.”

Seeing that Chu Chuyan herself was here, the manager from the Four Seas Casino dared not put on airs. He quickly stepped forward to welcome her with a smile, but his bruised eye made him look rather comical. “Young miss Chu, what brings you here today? I’m the manager of this casino, Ol’ Third Du. Pardon me my lack of an appropriate welcome.”

Chu Chuyan sniffed coldly and said, “If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have known how little you thought of the people from our Chu clan.”

“I meant no disrespect!” Ol’ Third Du hurriedly replied with a nervous smile. “I didn’t know he had come under your orders, so please forgive me for my earlier outburst.”

Zu An waved his hand impatiently. “Enough. Don’t waste our time with such pleasantries. Hurry up and pay the million taels of silver you owe us.”

Ol’ Third Du put on a surprised look as he asked, “Young master Zu, I’m afraid I don’t quite understand what you’re saying. The betting slip your servant brought to us is fake, so I’m unable to cash it out for you.”

“If the betting slip were fake, you should have brought it out so that everyone could testify to it. Don’t you think that it was highly inappropriate for you to tear it up just like that? That’s the act of a guilty conscience,” said Zu An coldly.

His words were met with fervent agreement from the crowd. The actions of Ol’ Third Du seemed suspicious to them as well.

However, Ol’ Third Du had already prepared an answer to that. “I was sure this servant was falsifying the betting slip behind your back. It was out of consideration of the reputation of the Chu clan that I tore it up on the spot. It might have led to unsavory gossip otherwise. I didn’t know that he was here under your orders.”

Since the betting slip had been destroyed, there was no way for Zu An to disprove his words anymore. Moreover, his words made perfect sense.

As expected, the doubtful eyes of the crowd immediately fell on Zu An.

“Oh? You’re even trying to turn the tables on me, huh?” Zu An burst into laughter. “It’s fortunate that I made preparations in advance. I knew that you would try to pull something like that, so I kept the real betting slip with me.”

Zu An took out the real slip from his robe and displayed it before everyone. “What a pity that your guilty conscience prevented you from even taking a close look at the betting slip, resulting in such an elementary mistake.”

Ol’ Third Du was struck speechless.

You have successfully trolled Ol’ Third Du for 666 Rage points!

You have successfully trolled Zheng Dan for 666 Rage points!

You have successfully trolled Sang Qian for 666 Rage points!

Zu An subconsciously glanced at the tightly shut doors behind the counter.

Zheng Dan and Sang Qian are indeed hiding inside. It looks like this is one of the Zheng clan’s businesses. It seems that Zheng Dan truly has ulterior motives in trying so hard to get close to me. Most likely, she was aiming for the promissory note I have from the Silverhook Casino for seven-and-a-half million taels of silver. With that in her hands, it would be easy to devour the Plum Blossom Sect’s businesses.

Still, I must say that Sang Qian really went all out for this. He even had his fiancée lay a honey trap for me, letting her casually hug and touch me like that.

Hey, that fellow doesn’t have some sort of weird fantasies surrounding cuckolding, does he? Oh my! If that’s the case, I really should… make a friend out of him!

In any case, that shows they are unaware that the seven-and-a-half million taels of silver are no longer on me anymore. I should tell Jiang Luofu to keep this matter hidden for the moment. It’ll be interesting to see the two of them struggling desperately, only to realize that it was all in vain.

Chu Chuyan weighed in on the matter. “It’s very easy to determine the authenticity of a betting slip. Casinos would pay careful heed to the material of the paper, the quality of the ink, and the handwriting on it so as to prevent forgery, and records of it will be kept in the magistrate’s office so as to avoid contention. On top of that, every casino keeps a spare copy of the betting slip for documentation purposes. I shall invite the vice magistrate over to look through your accounting books and judge this matter fairly.”

As one of the decision-makers in the Chu clan, she had to be well-versed with how businesses operated, as well as the laws that governed them.

“Young miss Chu, please wait a moment!” Someone came running out from the back. “I am the owner of the Four Seas Casino, Zheng Guanxi. It’s an honor to have Chu First Miss and young master Zu visiting our premises.”

There was no way the Zheng clan would allow them to go to the vice magistrate for this. They were clearly in the wrong, and it would take the simplest of investigations to lay the truth bare. On top of that, if the vice magistrate really ran through their accounting books, they could stand to lose far more than just one million taels of silver.

“You’re the owner of the Four Seas Casino?” Zu An peered at the inner rooms of the casino as he spoke.

It looks like Zheng Dan and Sang Qian aren’t intending to come out. Then again, they could lose some of their lofty standing if they were to openly intervene in the matters relating to the casino. Finding someone else to take care of such matters is not unexpected.

“Yes, I am!” replied Zheng Guanxi with an amicable smile.

“Zheng? Are you from the Zheng clan?” asked Zu An.

Zheng Guanxi denied it right away. “No no no, of course not. I have nothing to do with the Zheng clan at all. How could someone as humble as me possibly be related to the great Zheng clan?”

Should I have used another name instead? It’s so easy for others to deduce my background when I use my real name. Then again, it’s much easier for me to settle problems when I use the Zheng clan name to pressure others. Ah, this is really a dilemma.

“I don’t care which clan you’re from. Just tell me, how are you intending to resolve this matter?” asked Zu An.

“Yes, of course.” Zheng Guanxi took out a handkerchief and dabbed away the small beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “It was Ol’ Third Du acting on his own accord earlier. Our casino was unaware of the matter. He’s probably coveting your huge wealth.”

Ol’ Third Du’s eyes widened in genuine puzzlement.

Zheng Guanxi wasn’t about to give Ol’ Third Du a chance to explain himself. “Men, drag him down to the vice magistrate!”

Ol’ Third Du immediately panicked. “You can’t do this to me! I was just following the young miss’…”

*Kacha!*

The guards were already prepared for this. With a single punch, one of them dislocated Ol’ Third Du’s lower jaw, turning his words into unintelligible mumbles.

“There’s no need for you to put up a pretense before me. Give me a straight answer, are you planning to pay up or not?” Zu An said in a huff.

“It goes without saying that we’ll pay you whatever you have earned!” There was still a smile on Zheng Guanxi’s face, but his hands were trembling. This was a million taels of silver they were talking about! The Four Seas Casino hadn’t even earned that much money since its establishment. “It’s just that the sum is too big for us to raise right away. Could we write down a debt note for you first?”

“Sure, but I’ll be expecting an annual interest rate of forty percent,” replied Zu An with a nod.

Zheng Guanxi was shocked. “But you only demanded ten percent from the Silverhook Casino!”

“That’s a different story. They owe me seven-and-a-half million taels of silver, and were unable to raise the money within a short period of time. However, the sum you owe me is much lower. Are you trying to tell me that your casino accepted a bet that it couldn’t cover?” Zu An said angrily.

It was fortunate that he had only bet ten thousand taels of silver back then. He might not be able to get his money back otherwise.

“That’s right! Why the heck are you operating a casino when you can’t even fork out your own customers’ winnings?”

“I think that Ol’ Third Du’s actions were simply a sign of the Four Seas Casino dodging their payment!”

“Wow, it looks like the drafted son-in-law of the Chu clan is the nemesis of all casinos.”

“We should follow his lead the next time. He’s our lighthouse toward prosperity!”

…

Faced with the crowd’s accusatory fingers and their criticisms, Zheng Guanxi was becoming increasingly flustered. All of a sudden, his body gave a slight jerk, as if someone had suddenly whispered in his ears. When he recovered, he turned to Zu An and said, “How about this? We’ll first pay you half of your winnings first. As for the rest, we’ll write it down as a debt at twenty percent interest. How does that sound?”

Zu An finally nodded in satisfaction. “You should have done that right from the start! Bring the money out!”

He hadn’t expected to be able to collect the full sum of money right away, so receiving five hundred thousand taels of silver was already a pretty good deal. After all, he had only managed to squeeze one hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver out of the Silverhook Casino the previous time.

In the casino’s secret room, Sang Qian gritted his teeth as he muttered furiously, “I really want to smash my fist into that man’s face.”

Zheng Dan shook her head helplessly and said, “He has Chu First Miss by his side. You won’t be able to touch him.”

Sang Qian eyed Zheng Dan suspiciously as he asked, “Why don’t you seem angry at all?”

“What’s there to get angry about? Our plan is to get close to him to steal the promissory note anyway,” replied Zheng Dan as she looked at Zu An intently through a crack in the doorway. “We’re just parking our money with him for the time being. It won’t be long before we reclaim what we have lost and even more.”

Sang Qian nodded in agreement, “We’re counting on you then. You must make sure to protect yourself well. Remember, you mustn’t allow him to take advantage of you.”

“I know,” replied Zheng Dan.

“Also, we should make some adjustments to the rules of the casino. We shouldn’t offer such a high payout rate, and we should also put a cap on the high-payout bets. Otherwise, we might just be bankrupted by such freak accidents,” said Sang Qian.

He couldn’t let his wife clean up after him every single time. In the last few days, for some reason, he had been feeling jittery inside, as if he was going to get cuckolded.

…

After collecting their money and their promissory note, Zu An and the others prepared to return back to the estate. Zu An casually entrusted his banknotes over to Cheng Shouping, which made the latter so excited that his hands wouldn’t stop trembling.

Zu An distributed some of the notes to the guards as well. They were hesitant to accept it at first, but seeing that Chu Chuyan voiced no objections, they finally accepted them joyously. All of them had families to raise, so any additional money was naturally welcome.

“Young master Zu, you look dashing today!”

“For some reason, he’s looking more and more compatible with our first miss.”

“On account of this banknote, I’ll reluctantly agree with that statement just this once.”

…

Zu An tried to stuff a stack of banknotes into Chu Chuyan’s hands as well. “Here, your share.”

However, Chu Chuyan brushed him aside. “I don’t need it.”

“There’s no need to act so graciously! You played a huge part in collecting the debt too.” Zu An laughed heartily. “Now that I’m rich, it’s my turn to provide for you!”

Chu Chuyan wanted very much to roll her eyes.

If he continues acting so haughtily, I think I really might give this fellow a good beating.

Even after returning to the Chu Estate, Zu An remained so overjoyed that he couldn’t sleep a wink. When the following day rolled around, he felt completely refreshed. The blue sky, filled with white clouds, looked more beautiful than ever, and even the air felt more refreshing than usual.

He was just about to set off to the academy to embark on another fruitful day when a bunch of constables suddenly charged into his residence and bellowed, “Zu An! You’re to follow us back to the yamen to be tried for your crimes!” [1]

1. The yamen in ancient China acts as a courthouse, where trials are held under the supervision of an official, often the vice magistrate or magistrate himself.