I am the Holy Poisoner, the Empress advised me to calm down

After the creditors left, the yard returned to silence. The old man sat on the rattan chair, his face still pale, but a trace of relief flashed in his eyes.

"Thank you so much, young man." The old man held my hand, his voice trembling slightly.

I shook my head. "It's just a piece of cake. But this isn't over yet. Those people clearly planned this."

The old man's son, Wang Jianguo, came out of the house with a pot of tea in his hand: "Come, have some tea first. Those people just now were too much. Fortunately, you are here."

I took the teacup and looked at Wang Jianguo: "Uncle Wang, I think there's something fishy about this. Those people worked together so well, it's like they had discussed this all along."

Wang Jianguo was stunned for a moment, then waved his hands. "Impossible! Lao Zhang and the others are my old friends. We've played cards together for years. How could they possibly cheat me?"

"It's because we're old friends that it's easier for people to let down their guard." I put down my teacup and looked at him seriously. "Think carefully, have you always been the one losing money lately?"

Wang Jianguo frowned, as if recalling something. "Well...it's true that I haven't been very lucky lately. But who can ever win at cards?"

"Have you noticed that at every critical moment, someone always happens to get a good hand?"

"This... isn't this normal?" Wang Jianguo's tone began to become less certain.

The old man was listening and suddenly said, "Jianguo, tell me honestly, how much money have you lost recently?"

Wang Jianguo hesitated, "Not much, just 20,000 yuan."

"Twenty thousand?" The old man's voice rose eight degrees. "Where did you get twenty thousand yuan?"

"I...I took out all the money from my passbook."

The old man was so angry that he slammed the table and said, "You bastard! That's your wife's medical expenses!"

As I watched the father and son argue, I became more certain of my judgment. I'd seen this tactic too many times: first, let the target win a few small games to build trust, then slowly increase the stakes and finally catch them all.

"Uncle Wang, trust me and take me to meet your friends this afternoon." I stood up. "If I'm really being overly suspicious, I apologize. But if there really is a problem, you'd better be mentally prepared."

Wang Jianguo looked at his father, then at me, and finally nodded. "Okay, they asked me to play cards this afternoon anyway. You can go along and see for yourself."

At two o'clock in the afternoon, I followed Wang Jianguo to a chess and card room in a residential complex. I immediately saw the trick in this place - the decoration was ordinary, but the tables and chairs were new, and there were several cameras installed in the room.

"Old Wang is here!" a bald man greeted enthusiastically, "How's your luck today?"

Wang Jianguo smiled bitterly: "Don't mention it, I lost another thousand yesterday."

"It's okay, it's okay. We'll definitely win today." Another man wearing glasses patted Wang Jianguo's shoulder and asked, "Who is this little brother?"

"My cousin, he came to see the fun." Wang Jianguo introduced casually.

I nodded, said nothing more, and found a corner to sit down.

The four of us started playing cards, and I carefully observed everyone's actions. In the first few rounds, Wang Jianguo did win a few small ones, and a smile appeared on his face.

"See, I told you I'd be lucky today." Wang Jianguo collected the money excitedly.

But I noticed that the bald man had a peculiar way of shuffling the cards: his movements were quick, but he paused several times, as if he were trying to remember something.

By the fifth round, the real action began. The bald man suggested raising the stakes: "Since Lao Wang is so lucky today, how about we go big?"

"How big?" Wang Jianguo asked.

"How about 500 per round?"

I sneered in my heart, and sure enough, he came. Wang Jianguo hesitated for a moment, but finally agreed.

This time, I watched more carefully. During the dealing process, the man with glasses took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention and secretly glanced at the bottom of the cards through the reflection of his glasses, then winked at the bald man.

What's even more outrageous is that when the third person was drawing cards in the middle of the game, he actually slipped a card out of his sleeve. His action was extremely covert. If I hadn't been watching closely, I wouldn't have noticed it at all.

Wang Jianguo lost five hundred in this round and his face began to turn pale.

"One more round, I won't believe it." Wang Jianguo slammed the table.

"Old Wang, why don't you just forget it?" the bald man said hypocritically, "Today may not be your day."

"No, let's play another round. This time, one thousand per round!"

I knew the time had come, so I stood up and walked over to the table. "Uncles, can I have a look too? I've loved mahjong since I was a kid."

"Of course." The man with glasses smiled kindly. "You have good taste, young man. This is a battle between masters."

I smiled and stood behind the bald man. When he was about to change his cards, I suddenly reached out and pressed his wrist.

"and many more."

"What's wrong?" The bald man's face changed slightly.

Without saying anything, I simply lifted his sleeve. A red middle card fell out and spun around on the table.

The room suddenly became quiet.

Wang Jianguo's eyes widened as he stared at the card in disbelief: "What...what's going on?"

The bald man's face turned pale, but he quickly calmed down and even revealed a hint of a sneer: "Young man, you have sharp eyes."

The man with glasses also put down the cards in his hand and pushed up his glasses: "Now that I've been discovered, there's nothing to pretend about."

The third person, a tall and thin man, also stood up and stretched his neck. "Lao Wang, don't blame us. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being too honest."

Wang Jianguo hadn't reacted yet, his voice trembling: "You...you are really lying to me? Why? Aren't we friends?"

The bald man laughed heartily. "Friends? Old Wang, you're too naive. From the first day we met you, we came here just for that thousand-year-old ginseng in your house."

"Ginseng?" Wang Jianguo was even more confused. "How did you know..."

"Remember three months ago, when you drank too much at the table?" the bespectacled man reminded him. "You said it yourself. Your father has a family heirloom, a thousand-year-old wild ginseng, worth hundreds of thousands."

Wang Jianguo's face turned pale as he recalled the events of that night. He had been having dinner with a few coworkers, and after drinking too much, they had indeed talked a lot about family matters.

"So, these past few months, you've been trying to cheat me out of my money and force my dad to hand over the ginseng?"

"Smart." The tall and thin man clapped his hands. "But now that this kid has ruined our plans, we have no choice but to resort to force."

I sneered, "You want ginseng? You have to get past me first."

"Hey, you're quite brave, young man." The bald man took out his cell phone. "But you may not know that we've been prepared for this."

He dialed a number, and soon, footsteps were heard outside. The door was pushed open, and three more men came in, all of them burly and strong.