Chapter 140: Domino 'Tiger Head'

Chapter 140: Pai Gow 'Tiger Head'

"You're Leopard Bro?!"

Leopard Bro looked up in astonishment, just happening to see a face delicate and pretty as a woman's.

Those eyes, set beneath his brows, cold and clear as a deep pool, made him feel an inexplicable palpitation; goosebumps rose densely all over his body in an instant.

It was a feeling like prey sighting its natural enemy, his subconscious screaming a frantic warning at him.

This man was a Sequencer!

"I'm not any Leopard Bro, you've got the wrong person." Leopard Bro shook his head, denying it repeatedly.

"Then perhaps I mistook you."

The man smiled indifferently, walked over to a gambler, "Brother, mind making some room for me?"

"You sit, you sit." The gambler scrambled to his feet.

He sat down leisurely, raising a hand toward Leopard Bro, "Care for a round?"

"No need, I've won enough today."

Leopard Bro, anxious and uneasy at heart, spoke to refuse, grabbing the treasure notes on the table and preparing to stand.

"Is there ever a time when winning money is enough?"

The man smiled, "Ten thousand a hand, draw cards to compare high and low. I see your luck's running hot today, too much of a pity not to gamble."

However much money, you still need the life to take it.

Leopard Bro's heart was pounding like a drum at this point; a Sequencer coming to a dive like this to play cards was rare enough, let alone the fact the other party had called his name outright just now.

Nine times out of ten, the visitor came with ill intent.

"No need. Just now Master Dai sent someone to call me over. My greed for gambling has already delayed me plenty, I have to hurry over."

Leopard Bro feigned composure, blurting out a title.

Master Dai, full name Dai Xitu, one of the three great factions under the Chuan-Yu Gambling Association — 'Tiles, Sparrows, Dice' — the 'One Dot' of the 'Dice' faction, a bona fide Sequence Eight expert!

It was precisely because he had Dai Yulou backing him as a patron that he dared to swagger about so brazenly under the Chuan-Yu Gambling Association's banner, swindling everywhere.

"Not giving face like this, not very nice, is it?"

The man propped his feet on the table, hands clasped behind his head.

"Brother, if I give you face, then Master Dai loses face, no?"

Leopard Bro stiffened the corners of his mouth, "That wouldn't be right either, would it?"

"The time it takes to draw a card, Dai Xitu can wait."

Seeing the other party call his backer's full name directly, Leopard Bro's face involuntarily turned bitter; he cut straight to the chase.

"Big Boss, just where did I offend you? Lay out the terms directly."

"Sure," the man's thin, lightly pursed lips curved slightly, "Then let me ask again, are you Leopard Bro?"

"Just call me Little Leopard."

"Then why didn't you dare admit it just now?"

Leopard Bro nodded and bowed, face piled with smiles, "Walking the rivers and lakes, caution comes first."

The man raised his chin in approval, then put his feet down and straightened his body.

"Can tell you're a cautious man too."

Before Leopard Bro could respond, the man's face suddenly darkened, "Then how did you dare provoke the Grand Duke this time?"

"I—"

Leopard Bro hadn't gotten the words out when a sudden pain shot through the back of his neck, his cheek slamming onto the card table with a bang, blood instantly spreading everywhere.

His eyeballs rolled to the corners of his eyes, straining with all his might to glance back.

Only to see a burly man, who knew when he had appeared behind him, pinching his neck with a webbed grip like an iron hoop.

"Big Boss, just where did I offend you?"

"Playing innocent?"

The man leaped onto the card table, crouching atop Leopard Bro's head, his lowered eyes full of a bone-piercing, seeping cold.

"In the Chuan-Yu Gambling Association, who doesn't know Chaotianmen Wharf is my, He Zangjia's, turf for scraping a living? You set up a game there, did you ask me?"

It really was because of that Southwest Canal Transport Group business!

Leopard Bro wanted to cry but had no tears; when he took this job, Master Dai had clearly promised him personally that everything was arranged, there would be absolutely no problems.

How come now another principal party jumped out to make trouble, and one of their own Chuan-Yu Gambling Association people at that?

"Master He, it's a misunderstanding. If I'd known that place had an owner, even if you gave me ten guts I wouldn't dare go."

"Knowing now isn't too late, at least you'll die understanding."

Cold sweat streamed down Leopard Bro's face, he cried urgently: "It was Master Dai who sent me to handle it, I'm just a runner! Spare the rod for the sake of the master, please let me go!"

"Quite the 'beat the dog, look at the master'."

He Zangjia reached out and patted Leopard Bro's face, asking: "How much did Dai Xitu tell you to skim this time?"

"Thirty percent."

The smile at the corner of He Zangjia's mouth deepened, "Then how much did you actually skim?"

Leopard Bro only felt a chill rush from the soles of his feet straight to his forehead, his voice halting: "Sixty... sixty."

"He told you to skim thirty, you took sixty, and you still dare claim it was the boss's meaning."

He Zangjia said lowly: "Those labor slaves' lives may be cheap, but they can't work on drinking the northwest wind alone. Now the boss is furious, sent people to find me, what do you say I should do?"

"I understand, I understand! I'll cough up all the money!"

Leopard Bro screamed miserably: "You're a magnanimous adult, spare me this once."

"The money, you definitely won't be swallowing this time. As for your life..."

He Zangjia fell back, sitting cross-legged, watching those eyes trembling incessantly with fear.

"If I let even a small fry like you who hasn't entered the Sequence go, wouldn't any sort of trash dare step foot on my turf in the future?"

Upon hearing this, Leopard Bro suddenly mustered all his strength to struggle, but no matter how he exerted himself, the iron hoop behind his head remained utterly motionless.

Bang!

Amidst the dull thud, Leopard Bro's head suddenly caved into the tabletop, his forehead even emerging from under the table.

The back of his neck bent at a grotesque angle, the burly man shattering his spine with a single punch.

After the kill, the big man's face didn't change in the slightest, calm as if he'd just crushed an ant.

The surrounding gambling tables likewise ignored the commotion here, gamblers playing their tiles, winning their money.

The big man hauled up Leopard Bro's corpse, searching up and down, meticulously patting down every part of the body.

A moment later, he handed the stack of treasure notes he'd found to He Zangjia.

“He-ge, this son of a bitch has got nothing but pocket change. Looks like the bulk of his take got kicked up to Dai Xitu.”

He Zangjia riffled the bills with his thumb, each note grazing past his nose.

He drew a deep breath of their scent, then flicked the cash back onto the table.

“Found that fight-fixing punk yet?”

The man answered in a low rumble: “Not yet. But we’ve pinned him to the Eighteen Stairs slum. Not many augmented bodies in those renovated warrens—ferreting him out won’t be hard.”

“Then find him fast. And take the measure of his stones while you’re at it—cheating under the Sichuan-Chongqing Gambling Association’s banner takes some serious balls.”

“Understood.”

The man grunted, then asked: “And what about the ‘One Point’ situation?”

“I gave my word to the proprietor of the Southwest Canal Transport Group—every cent goes back. Since the dog can’t cover the debt, we collect from the master.”

He Zangjia vaulted off the table, hands buried in the pockets of those ambiguously shaded wide-legged riding breeches, shoulders rolling as he strode out.

“If I don’t crush this die right here—kill the chicken to warn the monkeys—how’s this Pai Gow ‘Tiger Head’ supposed to keep operating in Chaotianmen?”