Ma Wu covered the five red marks on his wrist, grinning and not forgetting to say cruel words: "Old man Hou, you wait for me!" Before the words were finished, he escaped from the alley with unsteady steps, and vaguely walked away with a figure.

Xia Qian looked out curiously, but didn't see the person's face clearly. He turned his head to look at Old Man Hou and smiled with a spring breeze on his face. Old man Hou didn't seem very happy, and went to the hut dejectedly. Xia Qian hurriedly followed, and his mouth was still calling for his father. Xia Yu and Xia Lin glanced at each other and remained outside the door.

Old man Hou didn't make a sound, didn't pay attention to him, and sat quietly. Xia Qian had never seen his father so depressed, only when he was injured, he asked, "Dad, what's wrong with you, why don't you speak." ”

Old man Hou is an alcoholic, and the drunken red on his face has not faded for a long time, always making people look half-dreaming and half-drunk. He sighed, snorted some wine, and said slowly, "Why did you come back, only when you won't come back." ”

Xia Qian said strangely: "Why, this is my home, of course I will come back." ”

Old man Hou still hung his head, only two cloudy eyes rolled up, and he looked at him. "Home, this is not your home. Didn't you go back and recognize your ancestors? ”

Xia Qian frowned, quite guilty.

Although Old Man Hou didn't care about himself, he really took care of Xia Qian wholeheartedly. In the past, his family was poor and had no rice to cook, but when he saw the shabby books sold at a low price, he didn't know the words on them, but he still deducted a few copper plates from the little money left to replace the literary masterpieces in the mouth of the bookstall owner. When he got home, he threw the book into Xia Gan's hand and told him to finish reading it in January, otherwise he would be smoked. Xia Qian was embarrassed and afraid of being beaten. I had no choice but to secretly go to the private school and peek at other people's reading and studying through the crack in the door.

After going back and forth, he really finished reading the book in January.

"Filial piety to relatives, what should be done. Xia Qian said as he pulled down the worn-out three-character scripture from the bedside shelf. "No matter what my last name is or where I am, you're my dad and that will never change. ”

Old man Hou blinked, as if tears were flickering, and he rubbed his eyes with his sackcloth sleeves. His voice lit up again, "It's worthy of being my son, and he really learned the skill." ”

Xia Qian scratched his forehead and smiled.

"Oh, that's right. Do you have money on you. Old man Hou suddenly got up and rushed to him and began to touch the cuffs of his shirt.

Xia Qian pushed it away and replied, "I don't have any money." ”

Sure enough, his father is still his father, and his gambling addiction has not changed at all.

Old man Hou lost his spirit all of a sudden, hunched his back, and became a rickety old man.

"What do you want money for, pay back to Na Ma Wu?" Xia Qian asked.

"What can I do if I don't pay back, let him cut off one of my hands. Thinking of Ma Wu's villainous face, I get angry. Not long ago, he licked his face and borrowed money from me, and within two days, he turned his face and didn't recognize anyone. Dog's stuff. Old man Hou put his hands behind his back and scolded angrily at the door, making the rhubarb bark in fright.

Xia Qian heard a hint of mystery and asked, "I heard him say that he opened a gambling house, what's going on?"

Old man Hou explained: "He asked me to borrow money just to open a gambling house, I thought he couldn't make a name for himself, who knew that he really did well." Within a month, the house was bought, and the horses were available. ”

Xia Qian asked again: "The gambling house is so profitable now?"

Old man Hou replied: "Where." When he first opened his gambling house, he kept losing money, and I made a lot of money on the first trip. As a result, I didn't win for two days, and I kept losing, and when I woke up, I owed a lot of money. The more he spoke, the quieter his voice became, and his eyes kept looking at Xia Qian. "Actually, it's not just me, it's a lot of people. ”

"Where's his gambling house?" Xia Qian interrupted.

"The northernmost part of Xiangcheng Long Street. ”

Xia Qian didn't say much, turned around and left.

Old man Hou asked, "Where are you going?" ”

Xia Qian glared at him: "Help you solve this." He rushed out of the door and called Xia Lin and Xia Yu out of the back alley.

Old man Hou stood at the door and looked at the backs of the three of them from a distance, and said something in his mouth: "My son is out, and there is a horse boy." ”

The three of them deviated from their original route, and Xia Lin and Xia Yu had already heard him talking outside, so they didn't ask many questions and followed him to the north.

Long Street is the most prosperous area in Xiangcheng, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and there is a Changqing Bay at the foot. Restaurants and restaurants are located on this street. At this time, the morning market on the road has just ended, and the return trip is crowded. He followed the roof connected on both sides, stepping on the tiles all the way to the end.

In a few moments, it was a smooth arrival. In fact, when it was near the end of the long street, it was already full of doors. But when I arrived at this gambling house, the people kept coming and going, crowded in the small black mud embryo room with ordinary decoration, some people laughed and some were worried.

Xia Qian's eyes were thrown at Xia Lin, and he spread his hands: "Come, give money." ”

Xia Lin looked at him seriously: "Are you going to gamble?"

Xia Qian hurriedly flipped through the cuffs of his shirt, just like his father's movements.

"If you don't enter the tiger's den, you can get the tiger. I didn't go in and see how I knew what medicine was sold in his gourd. ”

"Excuse!" Xia Lin dodged his nonsense and didn't listen to his clever words. "No is nothing. He resolutely refused.

Xia Qian glared at him: "I'll ask you again, do you give it?"

Xia Lin shook his head vigorously.

Xia Qian raised a finger and pointed at Xia Lin and trembled for a long time before he spit out the word "good" in anger. He turned his head to look at Xia Yu on the side, raised his eyebrows and asked with a smile, "Xia Yu, do you have any money?" ”

Xia Yu heard that he clicked on himself, looked up in a daze, and at the same time his hand reached into his cuff, took out a small money bag, and was snatched away by Xia Qiandi as soon as the corner was exposed, and then rushed into the overcrowded gambling house at a speed like a fire on his buttocks, drowning in the crowd.

"Huh. Xia Yu stared at his disappearing back and said innocently: "How can you rob people of money." ”

Xia Lin patted him on the shoulder and sighed deeply.

Xia Qian flipped the small money bag in his hand with a smile on his face, opened it and took a look, oh, there are quite a few.

He looked around, and five or six tables were surrounded by people, and the sound of trumpets was all in his ears. I couldn't see the face clearly, and the little light from the small window illuminated the movement inside.

Before Xia Qian could choose which table to go to, he was squeezed to the nearest table by the people who came in later. He got stuck in a narrow gap at the edge of a table and saw the dice and cups on the table. He looked at the table of gamblers, all of them were happy, their eyes were bloodshot with excitement, and their eyes were full of white silver. On the other hand, the banker's mood is not very high.

The banker beckoned to place a bet, and Xia Qian threw a copper plate and pressed it big. A middle-aged man who looked like a farmer beside him reminded him: "Young man, if you have money, you can press more, and if you win, it will be ten times greater." ”

"Ten times?" Xia Qian was stunned.

The middle-aged man nodded: "And you're lucky, this table today seems to be a Xuan table, and you have won." ”

"Are there any bets?" asked the banker.

Before Xia Qian could come to his senses, the middle-aged man pulled the money bag in his hand and pressed it all on the "big". He said proudly, "Look, young man." ”

I saw that the dice were shaking in the dice cup and hitting the wall with a crisp sound, bang, pressing the table, and opening the cup.

"Four, five, six, big!"

As the banker shouted the result, the gamblers on the table were excited again, and they went crazy to collect money from their arms.

Xia Qian suddenly doubled the silver in his hand, and he was inexplicably happy. However, the people at the table behind him were full of complaints, and they refused to leave after losing a lot. He intended to look elsewhere, but as soon as he turned around, he was stopped by the middle-aged man, who warned, "I advise you not to wander around." The rule here, you can't leave this table until sunset, or you'll ......" he gestured to the thugs in the inner room.

Xia Qian frowned and continued. The gamble continued until sunset. There was a whimpering of crows and the sound of geese fluttering their wings in the countryside, and Xia Qian walked out of the gambling house under the glow.

Xia Yu asked Xia Lin to borrow money to buy a string of sugar gourds, and was licking the sugar coating outside with satisfaction. Seeing Xia Qian's eyebrows lowered and his body swayed in front of him, he suddenly lost the interest of eating candy.

"What's wrong, lost everything?" Xia Yu asked with concern.

Xia Qian let out a long sigh. Xia Lin squinted at him angrily.

"It's okay, there's not much money in it. Xia Yu comforted him instead.

Xia Qian still looked sullen.

Xia Yu scratched his head and brought the sugar gourd in front of him: "Otherwise, I'll give you a hawthorn." Don't be upset. ”

Xia Lin said angrily: "What are you comforting him for, he deserves it." ”

Xia Qian sighed again, "Hand, stretch out." ”

Xia Yu obediently stretched out his right hand and held up a money bag handed over by Xia Gan, which was so heavy that he almost didn't hold it. The smooth sound of silver colliding is always so pleasant.

"Where did you get so much money?" Xia Yu asked.

Xia Qian shook his hand and replied tiredly: "I have never felt that winning money is so hard. ”

"Aren't you happy?" said Xia Lin coldly.

Xia Qian said: "I have gambled dozens of times, but I haven't lost a single one. But......" he lifted his eyelids, his eyes shining with shrewdness. "Except for the one I was in, none of the other six tables had won. ”

The rules of this gambling house are strange, one table of Xuan will win every day, and the other six tables will be red tables, and they will lose. If you enter the gambling house, you must first choose the gambling table, once you choose not to leave the sunset, you will be lucky to get rich overnight, and you will be bankrupt if you are unlucky. As for why so many people have repeatedly lost and fought repeatedly, it is just because the 1 in 7 probability of getting rich is too tempting.

Xia Qian naturally didn't believe that Ma Wu, who was like a frog at the bottom of a well, would think of such a novel way to play. The three of them immediately discovered the strangeness of this, and in the next three days, Xia Qian still went in to gamble, while Xia Lin and Xia Yu hid in the dark to observe.

Finally, on the night of the third day, Ma Wu took a person into the inner room of the gambling house and lit an oil lamp. The two didn't say a word from beginning to end, only two figures were reflected in the bright window.

Xia Qian made a forward gesture, and the three of them tiptoed towards the gambling house. Xia Qian carefully poked a small hole in the window paper in a reluctant voice, and looked in with one eye open.

I saw Ma Wu take out a lot of account books and hand them to the person in front of him, and the person immediately turned them over. Ma Wu pushed the oil lamp in front of his eyes to help him use his eyes, so that Xia Qian could see the face of that person clearly, he was just a young man of the same age as them, but his wooden eyes and demented expression did not look like a normal person.

Ma Wu sat opposite the young man, pretending to be coiled with two lion heads, and looked around the gambling house. In the end, his eyes fell on the young man, showing a mouthful of black teeth, and he smiled from ear to ear: "Yao Xiucai is worthy of being Yao Xiucai, he is so good at settling accounts when he is beaten stupid." Thanks to you, I was able to turn over......" He crossed Erlang's leg and patted the wooden handrail.

The young man known as Yao Xiucai obediently lowered his head and stared at the ledger in his hand without saying a word. For a long time, the light of the fire flickered, and when the light left his face, an undetectable light flashed in his eyes.