Legend of Great Tang’s Twin Dragons

Xu Ziling sat down and asked, “Does Zha Hai know who I am?”

Yun Yuzhen sat down on his left, and then said, “Naturally I would never tell him you are Xu Ziling; I just told him that you and I knew each other, and that we have a little friendly relation between us. I always have a wide circle of friends, so he will never be suspicious. Nobody has ever thought that Ziling’s gambling skill is this formidable.”

Heaving a deep sigh, Xu Ziling said with a wry smile, “Is there anything good to say between us?”

Yun Yuzhen was silent for half a day. Finally she asked in soft voice, “Is Kou Zhong coming with you?”

Xu Ziling sensed that he could not trust her anymore; shaking his head, he said, “I came with a friend, but not Kou Zhong.”

Yun Yuzhen stared at him; biting her lower lip, she said, “That night at Baling, why did you not kill Xiang Yushan and me?”

The load in Xu Ziling’s mind was evoked, his tiger-eyes shot grieved expression; shaking his head, he said, “I don’t know! I really don’t know! If I could not harden my heart toward Xiang Yushan, I could not make my move against you even more. Ay! Even until now, I still don’t understand why you want to help Xiang Yushan to harm us?”

Yun Yuzhen hung her head low and spoke in distress, “If you believe me, that’s good, if you don’t, that’s all right too, but I never expected that things would go this far. Plus I, Yun Yuzhen, also suffer the retribution; I found myself utterly isolated [lit. people rebelling and friends deserting (idiom)]. Jukun Bang’s name remains, but the reality is gone; day in and day out I am living my life like a walking corpse, so much so that I hate myself. I am thinking that rather than passing the rest of my life in pain like this, death would be much better. I have been completely defeated.”

Frowning, Xu Ziling said, “But on the surface you still appear to be well-off!”

Shaken, Yun Yuzhen said, “To Xiang Yushan, I am just a plaything which value lies in the usefulness that he could exploit. And now my usefulness has decreased substantially, and by his side there are beauties surrounding him like a cloud, and his riches can overturn a nation; why would he still want me, Yun Yuzhen? My only regret is that it was only today that realize it. Xiang Yushan’s martial art skill is nothing to be talked about, but speaking about crafty plots and machinations, he is an expert among the experts. Your firsthand experience on this regard ought to be more profound than mine.”

Xu Ziling mused inwardly that it was indeed too profound. He spoke heavily, “How’s Xiang Yushan’s recent development?”

He was deliberately pretending that he knew nothing about Xiang Yushan’s situation, to see if Yun Yuzhen was still defending him.

Yun Yuzhen replied, “Since the Great Liang’s army’s grand plan of advancing to the north has been crushed by you and Xiao Zhong, Xiang Yushan no longer thinks highly of Xiao Xian; he retired with the pretext of being sick. The fact is that he wanted to separate himself from Baling Bang, and wanted to establish his own business empire by relying on his Xiang Family’s more than twenty years of hard work in operating their business. Because he is afraid of your revenge, even I do not know where he is.”

Xu Ziling mused that this was probably the real reason you woke up. He said, “Xiao Xian is not a lay practitioner of Buddhism [i.e. good person]; how could the Xiang Family, father and son, say they are going to leave and simply leave?”

Yun Yuzhen replied, “This is a big puzzle for me. My guess is that there is some kind of mutually beneficial agreement between the two sides; in case the troops are defeated, Xiao Xian could still enjoy the Xiang Family’s riches and honor without any harm. Ay! If you have never had a chance to pass your days in riches and honor and power, it is still all right, but after tasting riches and honor and power, it is hard to return to ordinary life! The feeling of losing what one has just obtained is the most difficult feeling to endure!”

Xu Ziling began to understand her current desperate mood and wretched state. Sighing lightly, he asked, “So what are you going to do?”

With tears gushing out of her eyes, Yun Yuzhen hung her head low, shook it, and said, “I don’t know; I already do not have anything at all. I don’t want to think, or even talk about it. Thinking about it seems to drain all the strength from my body. Ay! Please just kill me!”

Smiling ruefully, Xu Ziling said, “If I could do that, I would have done it long ago.”

Wiping her tears, Yun Yuzhen spoke in low voice, “Are you and Xiao Zhong still planning on going to Guanzhong?”

Xu Ziling remained silent.

Yun Yuzhen said, “Xiang Yushan intentionally sent out his people to broadcast this information, so that nobody under the heavens does not know it. If you cannot cancel this trip, you must be extremely careful. Simply because you and Xiao Zhong have body type and bearing that are one in a million; very easy to recognize.”

Deep hatred toward Xiang Yushan welled up in Xu Ziling’s heart; he thought that even though he could not harden his heart toward Xiang Yushan, but if he could expose his Xiang Family’s shady business in human trafficking and harm him until he lost his family fortune and destroy his casino, it might make him suffer, which was more unbearable than simply killing him.

“Ziling, could you make arrangement for me to see Xiao Zhong?” Yun Yuzhen asked.

“It would be best if you don’t see him,” Xu Ziling replied, “He definitely does not have any good thing to say to you.”

Yun Yuzhen forlornly said, “I have nothing else to fear.”

Xu Ziling rose up to his full height and said, “Let me talk to him first! How do I find you?”

Lei Jiuzhi watched as Lai Chaogui put thirty taels of gold on the table; turning his eyes toward Liu An, he said, “Where’s your gold?”

Liu An took out eight taels of gold from his pouch; he said, “If Chen Ye can win my gold, Xiaoren will be immediately out of the game.”

Lei Jiuzhi shook his full-of-white-hair head; his excitement rose up, he shouted, “We take turn rolling the dice and shuffling the tiles!”

Ling Gu pushed the deck to the middle of the table to let the four men shuffle the tiles. Immediately continuous clickety-clack was heard, the atmosphere was blazing hot.

Watching the two men’s hand movement, Lai Chaogui knew that Kou Zhong was obviously a novice, while Lei Jiuzhi was not going anywhere either. Greatly delighted, he said, “Chen Xiong, how do you want to play it? I have a good proposal, which will make gambling even more enjoyable.”

Knitting his brows, Lei Jiuzhi shook his head and said, “Whatever the gambling format is, that is how we are going to play; how could we change it randomly?”

Lai Chaogui signaled Liu An; in turn, Liu An signaled Kou Zhong. Kou Zhong had to struggle not to laugh. He said to Lei Jiuzhi, “Let’s hear what Jia Xiong has to say first, and then Chen Lao [old Chen] can decide. Naturally we will comply with your, the Senior’s opinion.”

Lei Jiuzhi mumbled his response, indicating that there was no harm in listening.

Lai Chaogui struggled hard to suppress the ecstasy in his heart; he said, “This gambling method is extremely popular in Jiujiang. Everybody gets eight cards, which you could make into four pairs any way you want. First, do not let other people see it. And then four players turn the cards over at the same time. Of course, big and small still follow card rule. In order to determine the biggest, count the points of the cards that do not form a pair. If it is more than ten, we only count the remainder. For example, regular five and regular six [orig. ma wu and ma liu, respectively, no idea what it is] make a total of eleven points, but it is only counted as one. If the sum of two cards’ is ten points, then it is a ‘chang shi’ [lit. overcoat ten], a definite lost. This method is simple and easy to understand.”

Under Liu An’s signal, Kou Zhong hastily agreed; he said, “Betting this way is definitely extremely delightful; it should be settled appropriately.”

Lei Jiuzhi watched attentively at Ling Gu’s skillful hands staking the tiles for everybody; albeit reluctantly, he said, “All right! But if anybody can seize total victory with four sets of cards, the win will be doubled. If the banker seizes total victory, the other three players will also pay double. We may even take turn to be the banker.”

Ling Gu laughed tenderly and said, “Chen Laoban indeed has heroic spirit; this kind of gambling is very exciting!”

Lei Jiuzhi took out half an ingot of gold and stuffed it into Ling Gu’s hand, while stroking her cheek in passing. Chuckling, he said, “Niang’er’s [young lady] mouth is really sweet.”

Lai Chaogui and Liu An noticed that he still had some gold in his pouch, which he lavishly spent, in a ‘throwing away a thousand gold without hesitation’ style; their hearts were burning like a blazing coal.

Ling Gu’s eyebrows blossomed, her eyes laughed; she leaned close to Lei Jiuzhi and whispered in his ear expressing her thanks in tender voice oozing with flirtation, before rolling the dice on the table to determine who would be the banker first.

The game finally started.

Xu Ziling returned to the gambling hall. Lin Lang came to his side and said in low voice, “Lai Chaogui is inside!”

Xu Ziling asked in low voice, “Is there any place we can hide? Right now we are too exposed.”

Lin Lang gave him an address, saying, “It would be best if Gong Ye can leave one step earlier, Gongliang Ji is there, waiting for our good news.”

Xu Ziling nodded his agreement, and walked in the direction of the main door. Suddenly someone came toward him from the side, followed by a whiff of fragrance. By the time he saw clearly that it was the beautiful and alluring, tender and charming Hu Xiaoxian, this beauty, who was born of gambling influential family, was already on his left, walking alongside him. She laughed and said, “Gong Xiong has a startling-the-world skill, yet Nujia has never heard Gong Xiong’s name; isn’t that very strange? Where did usually Gong Xiong make your fortune?”

“It’s just insignificant talent plus a bit of luck mixed in it, how could it deserve to enter Miss Xiaoxian’s discerning eye?” Xu Ziling modestly replied, “Ol’ Gong has always been moving about Yun Gui region, and rarely came to the Central Plains.”

Hu Xiaoxian lightly pulled his sleeve, steering him toward the corridor leading away from the first hall, toward a fishpond outside. She smiled and said, “Xiaoxian has no hostility at all toward Gong Xiong, I am just curious! Gong Xiong must not take any offense.”

Seeing she was so courteous toward him, Xu Ziling started to have good impression on her; he asked, “Does Miss Xiaoxian want to know which family, which sect I was coming from?”

Hu Xiaoxian shook her head and said, “That is Gong Xiong’s personal secret; even if Xiaoxian wanted to know, it is inconvenient for me to inquire. I just wanted to know if Gong Xiong is going to participate in the Tian Jiu gambling meet tomorrow, because Xiaoxian still could not accept my lost.”

Laughing involuntarily, Xu Ziling replied, “I haven’t made my mind on that yet; in fact, I have quit for many years, it’s just that these past few days my gambling desire suddenly flared up, I could not hold my hands. That’s all.”

Disappointed, Hu Xiaoxian said, “That’s very disappointing. I hope Gong Xiong will not flee. This time Xiaoxian came all the way to Jiujiang, my desire is to meet the so-called ‘Du Xia’ [gambling hero] Lei Jiuzhi. This man’s gambling skill has already reached perfection, it has entered the ‘calling the wind and summoning the rain’ realm. Does Gong Xiong know him?”

Xu Ziling did not want to lie to her; smiling, he said, “Can Zaixia not answer this question?”

Casting a sidelong glance at him, Hu Xiaoxian said, “Gong Xiong always show profound mystery aura everywhere. If not for all your ten fingers are intact, I would think that you are him. That opponent of yours was very beautiful.”

Neither confirming nor denying, Xu Ziling slightly shrugged his shoulders, and spoke calmly, “Thank you, Miss, for your praise. Because Zaixia has an important matter, I have to ask to be excused, I am asking for Miss’s forgiveness.”

Finished speaking, he left without waiting for an answer.

Hu Xiaoxian called out, “I hope to see Gong Xiong tomorrow night!”

Watching Xu Ziling’s back as she followed him getting farther and farther away with her eyes, some kind of hard-to-describe feeling bubbled up in Hu Xiaoxian’s heart.

This man, who was several years her senior, his external form was boorish, tall and straight, although definitely he was not even borderline handsome, his domineering prowess was brimming with masculine charm. Furthermore, his voice was sweet sounding, his speech was cultured and refined, neither haughty nor humble. Not a single one of his movements was not touching, confident and at ease. Plus his gambling skill was outstanding, his conduct brimming with mystery.

Even she, who has always looked for young, good-looking gentlemen as husband material, could not help having her heart moved. Would she see him tomorrow?

The cards moving back and forth, four men had played for more than a dozen rounds; each man has been the banker three times. Following ample instruction from Liu An, Kou Zhong deliberately lost in succession to the two fat sheep, one fake and one real, by acting as if he wanted to recapture his earlier loss. Naturally he could only let the opponent win small, otherwise he would run out of gold really quick.

To him, the real fat sheep was Lai Chaogui, the fake fat sheep was Lei Jiuzhi. But to Liu An and Lai Chaogui, the opposite was true, plus Kou Zhong was the other fat sheep.

The situation was complex and subtle.

It was Lei Jiuzhi’s turn to be the banker. After dealing the cards, Lei Jiuzhi’s hand was, from right to left, ‘regular three’ [(ma san) see my note above], ‘three and three’, ‘five and six’, and ‘four and five’. Other than ‘four and five’, which was of military suit, the rest were good, valuable card of the civil suit. Even the ‘four and five’ was the red nine of military suit, the point was the highest.

‘Ma San’ was even stronger. ‘Three and three’ was commonly referred to ‘Twelve Mount Wu’. ‘Five and six’ was ‘Chu-Han Contention’ [(206-202 BC), power struggle between Liu Bang of Han and Xiang Yu of Chu]. As the cards were laid out, unexpectedly it was the case of ‘banker eats all’.

According to the rules previously agreed, the other three players had to pay double.

Ling Gu uttered a sigh of admiration. While looking at the cards, half of her body was leaning against Lei Jiuzhi’s shoulder.

But Lai Chaogui and Liu An’s faces did not change. Although until this moment they have not played any trick, they only use their hand to feel the number of dots on the card and determine which card to play, but because Kou Zhong was willing to cooperate with them, there has been no problem and they had the situation under control. This time they actually let Lei Jiuzhi scored a big win, playing the ‘throwing a brick to attract jade’ trick.

Lei Jiuzhi reached out to stroke Ling Gu’s cheek again. Assuming an air of considering-himself-unexcelled-in-the-world, he sighed dramatically and said, “The tailwind on my hand is just too strong! Three gentlemen still want to continue?”

Letting out a fake laughter Liu An said, “Is Chen Laoban getting bored just sitting here?”

Lei Jiuzhi laughed and said, “How can winning money be boring? I am just thinking of having a heart-to-heart chat with the beauty, seeking some pleasure!”

Ling Gu giggled tenderly; her attractiveness has just shot through the roof.

Kou Zhong suddenly realized that Ling Gu must be someone from Lai Chaogui’s side, because big casinos like Yin Ru Ge would never allow their staffs to flirt openly with the guests.

Plus Lai Chaogui and Liu An might be afraid that in order to seek reward, Ling Gu might help Lei Jiuzhi.

Lai Chaogui pushed his remaining twenty something taels of gold to the middle of the table and calmly said, “Since Chen Xiong is anxious to seek pleasure, we might as well put big bet. Win or lose will be decided in one hand. Chen Xiong, what do you think?”

Lei Jiuzhi laughed aloud and said, “Even if Jia Xiong wins, you could only win half of the money in my hand. But if you lose, you will be immediately out of the game. Jia Xiong better think clearly.”

Remaining calm and unruffled in the midst of chaos, Lai Chaogui took another ten taels of gold from his pouch, which he added to the pile of gold already on the table. Smiling, he said, “How about this?”

Lei Jiuzhi and Kou Zhong pretended to be greedy; they stared without blinking on the small hill of gold on the table.

After signaling Kou Zhong with his eyes, Liu An also pushed out his remaining six taels of gold, and cried out, “I will also go all out in this hand!”

When the three men’s eyes turned toward him, Kou Zhong showed an uncertain expression first, and then gnashing his teeth he said, “I will join you.”

Lai Chaogui took out his smoking pipe, lit the tobacco, took a deep pull and then said, “Shuffle the cards!”