What Did You Say? (3)
Above there is heaven; below there are Suzhou and Hangzhou. So the saying goes.
Among the cities praised as heaven on earth for their beauty, Hangzhou stood foremost. Yet the true splendor of Hangzhou only revealed itself after the sun, which had bathed its scenery in light, slipped behind the western mountains.
The City That Never Sleeps.
When the multicolored lanterns hung along every street lit the darkness, the glittering nights of Hangzhou began — nights said to gather every pleasure the world had to offer.
The boisterous voices spilling from taverns packed with patrons.
The laughter of people crowding around the street stalls.
And, mingled with it all, the sound of a qin played by courtesans somewhere in the distance, together with beautiful singing.
That was Hangzhou.
But the world was never content to show only what lay on the surface.
The moment one slipped into a narrow alley beside a splendid main avenue, the bright, daytime world quietly vanished, and only dim, sinister lanes remained to welcome those who entered.
It was, in truth, a completely different world from the one just a few steps away. Even those who had spent their lives in Hangzhou — even the city’s constables — would not dare set foot there lightly without some measure of resolve.
The first thing one saw upon entering that alley was a cluster of dangerous-looking men, gathered in twos and threes, puffing away at something in their hands.
For every bright light, there was always a deeper shadow.
And so the brightest night streets in all of Hangzhou held a darkness darker than any other city.
Go deeper along that alley, and small doors would appear — doors that could never be seen from outside.
Passing the guards and stepping through those doors, one would find a room filled with people and wrapped in a thick, unidentifiable haze of smoke.
The room stank so badly it made the head pound and the face twist in disgust, while a strangely oppressive heat hung in the air. It was a place where shouts steeped in rage and despair coexisted with cheers that exploded like fireworks filled with all the world’s delight.
This was one of Hangzhou’s gambling dens.
And in the very center of Huanxiyuan, the gambling house where the stakes ran highest among all of Hangzhou’s dens, five men sat around a round table.
Thack!
The man who threw down the bone tiles wore a smug smile.
“I’ve won.”
“Damn it.”
“He’s taking everything.”
The man reached out and swept every silver coin piled on the table toward himself.
“Looks like I’m lucky today.”
“...Enjoy it while you can. You’ll be leaving here with nothing.”
“You’d be lucky to leave with your neck still attached, wouldn’t you?”
The threats came pouring in, but the man didn’t so much as blink. No one was allowed to use violence inside the gambling hall. That was the rule of Black Ghost Fort, which ran Huanxiyuan.
Notorious masters of the orthodox and unorthodox paths, high officials visiting in disguise, even wealthy merchants draped in long robes for a bit of amusement — none of them dared break that rule.
Anyone who did would be chased to the ends of hell, stripped of their skin, and killed. That was Black Ghost Fort.
Looking at the mountain of silver coins piled so high he couldn’t even be bothered to sort them, the corners of the man’s mouth twitched of their own accord.
Those who loitered around gambling halls understood the nature of gambling better than anyone. There was no such thing as an eternal winner at the tables. Every one of these silver coins could disappear from his hands in a single round.
And yet, knowing that, there were still those who could not forget the thrill of a single win, and who, the moment their purse became heavy, rushed here to wager everything they had.
But…
“Heh-heh-heh-heh.”
That same greasy laugh slipped again from the man’s lips.
Even in a place like this, there were times when victory was all but guaranteed. When some rich little fool who knew nothing about gambling had blundered into the table, that was exactly such a time.
The man lifted his eyes and looked across the table.
A blood-red long robe that looked ominous at first glance. Hair that seemed as though it had never once been properly combed, left to hang in a wild, disheveled mess. And beneath the curtain of hair covering half his face, the lips he could see were so dry they looked cracked and split.
He had a disturbingly eerie air about him, but the man felt no threat from the one seated across from him at all.
What an idiot.
It was obvious enough that this was some wandering ruffian who had come gambling with the money he’d scraped together somewhere. Judging by how calm he looked, he might actually have some skill for a drifter, but even that was nothing.
Whether he was an able wanderer or a famed master known throughout the land, he would not dare make a scene in this Huanxiyuan under Black Ghost Fort’s management. If he did, he would become a corpse before he could even raise his voice, left to rot somewhere in Hangzhou’s back alleys.
No, even without Black Ghost Fort’s protection, it would be the same.
After all, he was not the sort of man who needed anyone’s help.
Because he was none other than Cai Gui, Third Overseer of Black Ghost Fort’s Hangzhou Branch — the Black Heart King of Hell.
“Come now, come now. If you want to win back what you lost, let’s hurry and begin the next round.”
“Tsk.”
The men tossed five silver pieces each into the center of the round table. Cai Gui, having won, gathered up the bone tiles and began shuffling them.
“Hey, Third Overseer.”
One of the men at his side asked lazily,
“What are the higher-ups planning to do?”
“About what?”
“The Yangtze River. I’m talking about the Yangtze River.”
Instead of answering, the man bit down on a long bamboo pipe with a sullen expression. White smoke poured steadily from his mouth.
“The Alliance Leader... no, that Jang Il-so bastard is doing all that, and they still mean to just sit there watching?”
“Why ask me that? What would an ordinary overseer like me know?”
“Still, you’d know more than I would.”
“Quit your nonsense. Since when do you drag outside matters into a sacred bone-tile table?”
“Tsk.”
The man leaned back in his chair, clearly dissatisfied. Smoke drifted white and hazy from the long pipe he puffed on so vigorously.
“Here. Take your tiles.”
Clatter.
Cai Gui, having dealt the tiles, flipped over one of the bone pairs in the center.
“A reversal.”
The men seated around the table exchanged tiles. A suitable round of bluffing and gauging began, and a faint tension settled over the table. Cai Gui picked up a fistful of silver coins from in front of him and tossed them into the center.
“Ten nyang.”
“Damn... He’s coming in hard. I’m done for.”
“I’ll follow.”
Only then did Cai Gui’s gaze move to the wandering ruffian seated across from him. The man, who seemed to be debating his hand, gave a barely perceptible nod and pushed all the silver coins before him forward.
Rattle-rattle-rattle.
Cai Gui’s eyes, fixed on the pile of silver growing in the center, turned greedily bright. Just the stakes gathered here alone amounted to a full year’s salary for him.
“All right, show your hand.”
“I’ve got three.”
The man to Cai Gui’s left opened his hand with a slightly trembling motion. Across from him, the wandering ruffian slowly turned over his own tiles as well.
“Four.”
As the ruffian’s hand reached toward the pile of silver in the center, Cai Gui stretched out a hand and seized his wrist.
“...”
“You’re rather eager, aren’t you?”
With his other hand, Cai Gui tapped one last tile. The tile that flipped over with a crisp sound was a five. Cai Gui’s victory.
“Hahaha! Oh, now I feel terrible about this, brother.”
Cai Gui swept every silver coin before him into his own hands.
“You seemed to be doing quite well at first.”
“That’s gambling for you.”
“And then one good hit can take everything away. That’s gambling, too.”
The men seated to the left and right spoke with lazy indifference. Cai Gui quickly tidied the bone tiles and once again tossed five nyang into the center.
Clack. Clack.
Silver coins flew in from both sides, but the wandering ruffian across from him did not move.
“...What’s this, brother? You’ve run out of money already?”
“Then you should get up. There are plenty of people waiting for your seat.”
The ruffian’s chin moved ever so slightly. Through the veil of hair, Cai Gui could almost make out the twisted eyes beneath.
After a brief silence, the ruffian slowly slipped a hand into his robe. At that sight, Cai Gui’s eyes narrowed to slits.
This bastard?
Just as he was thinking the man meant to cause trouble, and was about to draw up his energy in response—
Thud!
Suddenly, a bundle of papers the ruffian had taken from inside his robe dropped squarely onto the center of the table.
“...What is this?”
“Looks like a voucher?”
“A voucher? Damn thing’s so yellow. It looks like it’s been sitting around for decades...”
“How much is all that? What in the world?”
As Cai Gui stared in confusion, the ruffian’s dark, weathered lips slowly parted.
“Can this be used as stakes?”
“...Wait a moment.”
Cai Gui asked for a brief indulgence and raised his voice.
“Hey, you rat!”
The moment those words rang out, the man in rat-colored clothes who had been wandering around and overseeing the tables hurried over to Cai Gui.
“What is it, sir?”
“Take a look at that. Can those vouchers be exchanged?”
“Vouchers? Let me see...”
The rat-clothed man quickly checked the vouchers laid on the table, then lifted his narrow eyes slightly.
“They’re vouchers from the Continent Gold Vault. But the issue date is... over a hundred years ago.”
“Can it be done or not?”
“Of course it can. Though we can’t possibly value them at face price. We’d have to put in the work ourselves, you see... We’ll give you fifty percent.”
Cai Gui jerked his chin toward the ruffian.
“He says that’s fine.”
The ruffian gave a faint nod, as if it made no difference whatsoever.
For some reason, Cai Gui found that unreadable response vaguely irritating, but he forced himself to ignore it.
“Then we’ll exchange them for silver. Though there seems to be quite a lot here.”
“No.”
That was the first negative word to leave the ruffian’s mouth.
“What? Is there some problem...?”
“Let’s use silver ingots.”
“S-silver ingots, you say?”
The man slowly nodded. Then he lifted his head and looked at Cai Gui.
“Raise the stakes.”
“...With one silver ingot?”
“Yes.”
One silver ingot was worth fifty silver nyang. In an instant, this bastard had multiplied the stakes fiftyfold. Normally, even Cai Gui would not have been able to wedge himself into a game at that level.
But right then, greed he could not hide seeped plainly into Cai Gui’s eyes.
This wandering bastard must have looted somewhere. He’s wandered in here like some easy prey.
This was a place where only the sharpest players in Hangzhou gathered. Stripping a rookie who didn’t even know how to play bone tiles was child’s play. If this were a gamble based on luck, it might be dangerous, but this was a table where luck had nowhere to enter.
“Well, you’ve got quite the grand temperament. Fine! I’ll change everything I’ve won into silver ingots as well.”
“...The stakes are getting too high. I don’t have enough money.”
“I’ll lend you some, so don’t even think about running.”
“Damn it. It’s one thing to strip me down to my underclothes, but this is starting to look like they’ll have my life mortgaged too.”
The men to either side of him, putting on exaggerated complaints, subtly matched his tone. Who would refuse a chance to win so much money?
The greed-struck men dragged their chairs closer. As the stakes changed to silver ingots, the eyes of the men around the table quickly turned fierce, and they began shuffling the tiles again.
In that bleak gambling hall, only the wandering ruffian in the red robe watched everyone with indifferent eyes, unchanged from before.
At the edge of a mortal world where despair and joy, fear and delight all swirled together in a single storm.
