Not to mention Hou Hongchang—even Han Yue didn’t know Chu Ci could play cards. From his smooth, precise shuffling, however, it was clear that he was actually highly skilled.
There were four people at the table: Chu Ci, Hou Yu, Hou Hongchang, and Cheng Xurong. Hou Yu was essentially just there for company. He was simply curious that someone like Chu Ci would even gamble, and wanted to play a couple of hands with him personally.
After riffling and fully mixing the deck, Chu Ci passed the cards out. Hou Yu, Hou Hongchang, and Cheng Xurong each cut the deck once, then the dealing began by suit order. Each player first received one face-down hole card, and that card would largely determine the outcome of the game.
Hou Yu was just a spectator. Hou Hongchang, though frequently present at gambling tables, had never seriously studied gambling technique. Only Cheng Xurong made her living in nightlife—she was highly skilled in poker, mahjong, and similar games, with a professional gambler’s intuition. The moment she saw Chu Ci’s shuffling technique, she immediately felt something was off.
Could an ordinary player shuffle cards at the level of a casino dealer? Could an ordinary player maintain uninterrupted control over all 52 cards while shuffling, handling them as smoothly as flowing water?
This young engineer named Chu clearly knew his way around gambling tables and playing cards. His level was absolutely not that of a casual amateur.
Chu Ci watched as his carefully shuffled deck was cut by the other three without expression. After receiving his hole card, he glanced at it once, then placed it face-down under his hand and never looked at it again.
Pei Zhi dealt the cards.
On the second round, Chu Ci got an Ace, Hou Yu a 5, Hou Hongchang a 10, and Cheng Xurong a King.
Cheng Xurong’s exquisitely made-up face changed slightly. She smiled and said, “Engineer Chu is really lucky.”
Chu Ci glanced at her without responding and pushed out 100,000 in chips.
Cheng Xurong called the bet. Hou Hongchang also called. Hou Yu looked at his weak hand and, seeing no real chance of building a straight, laughed and folded.
On the next card—first up was Chu Ci again. This time his luck seemed worse; he drew a 3. Cheng Xurong got a 9, Hou Hongchang another 10.
Now Hou Hongchang had the strongest hand: he already held two tens on the table, plus his hole card, giving him three tens total—already strong for either a full house or three of a kind. Chu Ci’s red 3 was extremely weak. Cheng Xurong, however, still had a chance at a straight—but with four tens already in play and Hou Hongchang holding three of them, she would need the final ten to complete her hand. Otherwise her draw was essentially dead.
There was no way such a coincidence—a fourth ten—would appear for her.
Hou Hongchang confidently raised to 500,000 chips. Cheng Xurong glanced at her hole card again, hesitated briefly, and called. Chu Ci remained expressionless and said, “Call.”
Hou Hongchang looked at Chu Ci’s red 3 again and laughed.
“Second Young Master Han, don’t regret this later. It’s your precious lover after all. Spending a few hundred thousand just to make a beauty smile seems worth it, don’t you think?”
Han Yue glanced at the board and also felt Chu Ci had little chance of winning.
“Then he has to actually smile first.”
Chu Ci sat quietly, staring at the table. His eyelashes cast a thin shadow over his eyes, making his expression unreadable.
“Effort pays off,” Pei Zhi said while dealing the third community card. “You can’t always keep whipping people; you have to give them some sugar too.”
The third card came out:
Chu Ci: 2 of hearts
Hou Hongchang: 3
Cheng Xurong: Jack
Cheng Xurong smiled slightly.
At this point she already had a 9, Jack, King, and a Queen in her hole card—she was only missing a 10 to complete a very strong straight. Although Hou Hongchang already held two tens on the table, she wasn’t worried at all.
Because she trusted her manipulation of the deck completely. Unless she deliberately wanted to lose, she would not misread the outcome.
She had been running this nightclub for eight years. In this industry, she was experienced in mahjong, poker, billiards, and betting on horses. From the beginning until now, no game had ever escaped her control.
As long as she made a small adjustment, she could control who won, how much they won or lost, and ensure that every guest left happy enough to return.
It was slightly unfair to Hou Hongchang—but she did not intend to miss this profitable game. After all, taking money from Second Young Master Han was an honor, and opportunities like this were rare.
If calculated properly, she could easily win over a million.
Cheng Xurong’s red lips curved into a smile.
“I call.”
She scanned the table with a faint air of superiority.
But just as her excitement peaked, Chu Ci said calmly:
“I call as well.”
Cheng Xurong’s brow lifted slightly.
You call too? With an Ace, a 3, and a 2—what exactly are you confident about?
Still, seeing how seriously Han Yue treated him, she assumed this was just another way of spending money for face. These princelings often threw hundreds of thousands or even millions just to please someone.
Hou Hongchang also called.
Pei Zhi dealt the final card.
Chu Ci received a 5 of hearts. Hou Hongchang got a 3 of diamonds.
Then Cheng Xurong drew her card—and her entire body suddenly froze.
It wasn’t the ten of diamonds she had stacked into place.
It was a 2 of diamonds.
Impossible.
She had seen it clearly. She had controlled the cut for over a decade without error.
How could she have failed?
She couldn’t believe her eyes.
Chu Ci didn’t even look up. He calmly gathered the four community cards and said:
“All in.”
…He actually went all in?
Cheng Xurong stared at him, trembling slightly.
His gaze was calm, almost indifferent, sweeping past her face like a passing shadow.
For a moment, she thought she had imagined it.
I really miscalculated—she thought, slumping back into her chair, drained.
There is a saying in gambling: beginners fear intermediates, intermediates fear experts, experts fear cheaters, cheaters fear mistakes, and mistakes cost hands.
What she had just used was a cheating technique.
And yet she had failed.
Her voice, when she finally spoke, was weak.
“…I fold.”
Chu Ci’s expression remained as calm as still water, as if Cheng Xurong folding had been entirely expected. There was not the slightest hint of surprise.
Hou Hongchang, however, lit up and shouted, “I call! All in!”
For some reason, a very strong thought suddenly flashed through Cheng Xurong’s mind: Hou Hongchang must not call. If he calls, he loses for sure. That engineer is absolutely not bluffing—he really has a strong hand.
This thought was less rational analysis and more like a woman’s intuition. It was so intense that Cheng Xurong froze in place, her mouth opening slightly, but no words came out.
Hou Hongchang excitedly declared, “This hand of stud is mine! Three of a kind—three tens!”
As he spoke, he flipped his hole card. It was indeed the ten of hearts.
Chu Ci raised his head and looked at Hou Hongchang, a faint, indifferent smile slowly appearing on his face.
Then he slowly pulled out the hole card he had kept pressed under his palm and placed it gently on the table.
—It was the four of hearts.
Together with the four community cards, the sequence formed: ace, two, three, four, five, six of hearts.
A straight flush in hearts.
The second-highest possible hand in Asian stud, only below a royal straight flush.
Hou Hongchang’s expression froze as if petrified. He sat there motionless, mouth hanging open.
“May I collect these chips now?” Chu Ci asked softly.
After a stiff pause, Hou Hongchang could only nod weakly.
Chu Ci gave a faint smile—though there was no warmth in it. He casually swept the cards into the discard pile, pushed the chips toward Han Yue, and said without turning back, “Returning your 100,000. The rest is mine.”
Han Yue said nothing. His expression shifted unpredictably.
Watching Chu Ci’s calm profile, Cheng Xurong suddenly felt a chilling thought rise in her mind.
She abruptly stood up, reached across the table, and grabbed Chu Ci’s right hand. Smiling, she said, “Engineer Chu made quite a profit today. Shouldn’t you thank me as the host?”
As she spoke, her fingers quickly brushed across Chu Ci’s fingertips. In an instant, she confirmed her suspicion, and her expression changed drastically.
Chu Ci did not resist at all. He let her touch his hand. When she finally let go, he said flatly, “Just a small win. Mr. Hou has always been generous; I’m sure he won’t mind a small loss.”
Only then did Hou Hongchang fully react. His expression complicated, he sighed.
“It’s fine. Money is nothing. I just haven’t lost this badly in a long time. Didn’t expect Engineer Chu to be such a stud expert—I’ll have to learn from you sometime.”
Chu Ci replied indifferently, “I’m not worthy of teaching. Just luck.”
Pei Zhi and the others quickly instructed staff to clear the table, while casually shifting the conversation to lighten the mood so Hou Hongchang would not escalate things further. Everyone tacitly avoided mentioning the game again, and the room soon returned to its earlier atmosphere of noise and laughter.
Chu Ci sat alone on the sofa near Han Yue, head lowered as he drank water. Hou Hongchang, having lost, was in a foul mood and was drinking and fooling around with Cheng Xurong and the others.
Cheng Xurong unconsciously rubbed the fingers she had just used to touch Chu Ci’s hand, recalling the texture. It was not smooth skin—it carried countless fine, old injuries, healed long ago but still faintly traceable under touch.
That was a pair of hands trained in something very specific.
She stared at Chu Ci in silence.
Then, as if sensing her gaze, Chu Ci looked up.
Across the crowd, he met her eyes and gave a faint smile.
He lifted his hand, slipped it into his right sleeve, and slowly pulled out a hidden playing card.
He turned it face-up toward her.
In that instant, Cheng Xurong’s mind went completely blank.
Even from this distance, she could clearly recognize it.
The ten of diamonds.
When she had finished cutting the deck, she had handed it directly to Chu Ci. Under everyone’s eyes, Chu Ci then passed it to Pei Zhi for dealing. In that single second, he had already swapped the card—storing the real ten in his sleeve, while slipping a fake card into the deck.
No wonder she had failed to draw the winning ten.
She had not made a mistake at all. The card had simply never been in the deck from the very beginning.
Chu Ci lowered his gaze with a faint smile. With a slight flick of his hand, the ten of diamonds disappeared back into his sleeve.
Cheng Xurong clenched her teeth, her face turning extremely ugly.
She had always believed her gambling skills were at least top-tier. But today, seeing this young engineer, she finally understood what truly refined cheating technique looked like.
Some people who train cheating techniques to the absolute extreme begin by playing with thin blades between their fingers. Once they become accustomed to it, they gradually increase the number of blades. It is said that some can manipulate more than ten sharp blades in both hands at the same time, their fingers remaining incredibly agile, never once cut by the edges.
This kind of skill is built on a price paid in blood and flesh, with fingers “connected to the heart.” When they play cards, it becomes effortless—the fifty-two playing cards and their physical body seem to merge into one. Anyone who plays against them is essentially doomed.
People like this are usually also extremely skilled with knives, especially small blades. Cheng Xurong had indeed heard of such uncanny techniques in the martial world, but she had always assumed they were exaggerated rumors.
—Until today, she had finally witnessed what true cheating technique was, and what real gambling truly looked like.