1. Something is wrong

In May 1990, I was working in Macau.

One day at noon, a very good friend Chen Hongbin called me and said that his brother-in-law gambled on Sangong after having dinner with his friend at noon yesterday, lost more than 30,000 yuan in cash, and owed another 80,000 yuan in arrears, and I don't know if he was slaughtered by others.

"Is your brother-in-law with you now?" I asked Hongbin.

"He's here. Hongbin replied.

"You hand the phone to your brother-in-law, and I'll ask him. I said.

"Yesterday at noon, a friend invited me to dinner, and there were two people I didn't know at the dinner, and after eating, I saw that the three of them were gambling money, so I couldn't help but go up to gamble. It may be that you are too impulsive in drinking, and you lose money in a daze, and it is not very clear how much you lose. This morning, my friend called to ask for money, and slowly recalled that he had indeed lost more than 110,000 yuan yesterday and owed them 80,000 yuan. Ah Bin's brother-in-law gave a general overview of the situation on the phone.

When I asked about something else, Ah Bin's brother-in-law said that he had a vague impression and didn't remember it too clearly.

"Why do you drink so much? You don't even know if you're drunk? I reprimanded.

"Brother Yang, the other party always urges my brother-in-law to give money, what should I do now?" Abin took the phone and said distressedly.

"The money your brother-in-law lost, whether it was lost by smashing iron or slaughtered by others, is not clear now, even if he was slaughtered by others, your brother-in-law did not catch thousands of people on the spot, and if he can't catch the evidence, he can only be willing to gamble and lose. Tell your brother-in-law to give the money to the other party quickly, and then make plans to see how things develop, if the other party has a ghost, see that your brother-in-law gives money happily, and after getting the money, he will definitely set your brother-in-law again. When you tell your brother-in-law to give money, you must pretend that you are fine, and you must not show the slightest suspicion that they are ghosts. I listened to your brother-in-law on the phone, he is eye-catching (eye-catching: smart, here refers to the cleverness of gambling) have limitations, if the other party is a thousand, he chats with the other party for a long time Nine times out of ten will be sniffed out by the other party, you must tell him not to eat with the other party these days, after giving the money the other party will leave immediately. If the other party asks him to eat or gamble, you tell him to tell those people that they have no time for business these days, and they will wait until they are done in four or five days. After your brother-in-law finished giving the money, you immediately called me to tell me about the other party's behavior, and if there were no accidents, I would go back in three days, and we would discuss it later. I confessed.

"Brother Yang, my brother-in-law has already given the money to those people, and after receiving the money, those people told my brother-in-law that they had won the money and invited my brother-in-law to dinner in the evening, and my brother-in-law told them according to my explanation. The men said that in that case, they would invite him in a few days. "After more than three hours, Hongbin called me.

"Did the other party react abnormally?" I asked.

"I don't feel it, my brother-in-law talked to them for eight or nine minutes after giving the money and left. Hongbin replied.

"What did they say during the conversation?" I asked.

"The other party said to my brother-in-law that he won his money, so why should I invite him to dinner, and said okay, when my brother-in-law is busy these days, I will invite him to dinner. Hongbin replied. The other party always invites them to dinner, and I estimate that the dinner is a thousand times.

"In this way, it seems that the other party has not sniffed out anything, you have to keep an eye on your brother-in-law these days, the person who loses money is easy to gamble when the other party calls betting, and explain to your brother-in-law not to take the initiative to call them, if the other party calls your brother-in-law, you explain that he is long and short, and there are many words, and it is easy to leak his mouth. I admonished.

A few days later, I came back from Macau and asked Hongbin out with his brother-in-law. Hongbin's brother-in-law's name is Aji, and he looks very honest, but at a glance you can see that he is a water fish.

"What is the relationship between the person who invited you to dinner and you?" I lit a cigarette and began to ask questions, and after asking them, I could basically tell what was going on.

"It's a colleague from my former company, named Ah Sheng, I used to have a good relationship with him in the company, and after I quit my job to start a food wholesale business, we rarely saw each other. He called me the other day and said that we hadn't seen each other for a long time, and asked me to have dinner and catch up. I thought it was just two of us or one or two more colleagues from the previous company, but when I arrived, I found out that there were two new people who had never met. Ah Sheng said that the two people were in the hardware business. Since everyone's business is different, I didn't ask them about their business. Azi replied.

"How did you gamble after eating?" I asked.

"I haven't finished eating, the two who do hardware business have finished eating, and then sit on the coffee table to drink tea and chat, drink and chat, and then ask the waiter to come in with a pair of pokers, and the two of them gambled, how did the two of them gamble, I was still eating and chatting with Ah Sheng, I don't know. Later, Ah Sheng walked over to gamble after eating, and I sat down at the coffee table to watch them gamble. Azi replied.

"Did they tell you to gamble?" I asked.

"I don't remember exactly, it doesn't seem to be called. Azi thought for a moment and replied.

"Are you the banker or are they bankers when you gamble?" I asked.

"The top half is a fat man who is the banker, and the bottom half is me the banker. Azi replied.

"Did you lose in the first half, or did you lose in the second half?" I continued.

"I can't remember. Azi paused.

"You don't know when you gamble and when you lose, what kind of money are you betting!" I was a little angry when I heard it.

"I knew I was losing money at the time, but I didn't know how much I lost at that stage. Azi replied.

"Do you usually gamble?" I asked.

"I usually bet very small, usually 100 to 300 yuan, and rarely more than 300 yuan. ”

"You usually bet so little, how could you lose more than 110,000 yuan that day, and how long did you gamble that day?" I asked with some confusion.

"I don't know what's wrong, that day I gambled, three thousand, five thousand dared to bet, maybe I was too excited after drinking, and the gambling time was not very long, more than two hours. Azi replied.

"Ah Sheng called you to dinner that day, did he talk about gambling on the phone?" I continued.

"He didn't mention gambling, he just told me to come over for dinner. Azi replied soberly.

"You usually gamble for 100 to 300, and Ah Sheng didn't say that you would gamble after eating, why did you bring so much money over that day?" I asked.

"I happened to have a payment to settle with a customer that day, so I took the money with me and planned to go to the customer to settle after eating with Ah Sheng. Azi replied.

I didn't ask for a long time and didn't ask many famous people, and I felt that Aji answered the question Oolong Dragon (Oolong Dragon: vague), and he didn't even know what he had done, which was a bit weird. But my gut told me that he should have been slaughtered by the other party.

"If the other party calls you again to ask you to eat or gamble, you say that you don't have time today, ask them to noon or evening the next day, remember not to promise the same day, you call me as soon as you receive the call, remember, you must not call them for dinner!" I confessed to Aji.

"Brother Yang, Ah Sheng just called me and asked me if I had time to eat together at noon, I set the time at noon tomorrow according to what you taught, and the other party agreed, what should I do now?"

"You give him a call, Hongbin and ask him to come out for lunch. Let's talk about what to do tomorrow. "I said to Azi.

After covering the phone, I called the pager and asked the pager lady to give me the pager of the tide.

At twelve o'clock, everyone gathered, and I said to Aji: "Tomorrow when you go to dinner, bring 30,000 yuan, you remember! You must not call betting, wait for them to call betting, they call you to gamble, you can excuse that you have very bad luck in gambling during this time, and you dare not gamble, and you will wait until they call you a few more times before you gamble." Give me a call in the bathroom before you get off the field, and after you connect the phone, you can just whisper two times on the phone. Remember, keep your voice low to prevent them from eavesdropping outside the door. After the end of the game, he said that he lost a lot of money a few days ago and must be a banker today, if they don't give you a banker, you will say that you don't gamble, if they don't want you to be a banker and call you to gamble, you have to rub your mouth with them and then gamble, after hearing our knock on the door, you should immediately open the door to us. In addition, when playing cards, you should behave the same as the last time you played, and you can't be abnormal and too shrewd, do you understand?"

"Got it. Azi nodded after hearing this.