Danwu Refining Spirit

Chapter Fifty-Two: Dividing the Spoils

The much-discussed hunting competition has finally come to an end, but its profound impact on Flying Moon City is far from over.

The root cause of this lies in the life-or-death bet that Xiao Chong and Tie Changqing made before the competition.

Apart from a few speculators who became rich overnight from this gamble, most people lost everything. Even worse, some people went bankrupt and had to move out of the southern part of the city overnight to a poor area north of Wuyi Lane.

The worst off was Silver Hook Casino, which, after two years of rapid development, suddenly went out of business overnight.

At first, people were puzzled. It shouldn't have been like this. Although some people had won some money from the gambling den, most people had lost money, so there should have been a considerable amount left over.

But later, some busybodies, after making inquiries from various sources, finally discovered the reason. The reason was simple: a gambler had bet 500 taels of gold and 2,800 taels of silver here, and both bets were on the largest odds. Fortunately, he won.

When a gambler is lucky, the gambling den naturally suffers. As a result, the Silver Hook Gambling Den lost a total of 50,000 taels of gold and 280,000 taels of silver.

What does 50,000 taels of gold mean? At the exchange rate of one tael of gold to one hundred taels of silver, that's five million taels of silver.

Just think, if all that silver were converted into cash, how many rooms would it fill? And how many oxen would have to work themselves to death to haul it all in?

Most of those participating in this gambling game in Feiyue City were from middle-class families. Although their lives were much better than those of the people in Beicheng, they still didn't have much spare money to gamble.

But the truly wealthy and powerful only invest a very small amount of money in it for entertainment purposes.

This way, they wouldn't be ridiculed for being outdated, nor would they be subject to gossip that their family had fallen on hard times and had to resort to such opportunistic means to survive. What they cared about was face and the enjoyment of life; winning or losing was secondary.

With this calculation, it becomes clear that the northern part of Feiyue City can be disregarded. Even if some residents of the northern part place bets, it would mostly be a handful of copper coins, which is negligible and has little effect.

The southern part of the city only has a few thousand households. Even if each household bets one hundred taels of silver, the total amount would only be a few hundred thousand taels. How could such a small amount be enough to cover the losses?

Therefore, it was only natural that Silver Hook Casino closed down. Who told it to offer such a foolish betting odds?

As for who this lucky gambler was, the busybody never found out. He only heard from an unemployed employee of the gambling den that he vaguely remembered that the person who placed the bet was a chubby young man.

What impressed the shopkeeper most were the two sacks of copper coins the young man brought, which took him half a day to count.

While rumors circulated about the identity of the mysterious gambler, in a small courtyard in the northern part of the city, Xiao Chong was hiding in a house, happily dividing the money with Fatty.

"Brother Fei, how about we split the cost 50/50?"

Across the table, Xiao Chong smiled and pushed a pile of silver notes in front of the fat man, his movements graceful and natural, exuding an air of heroic grandeur.

What do you mean by "Brother Fei"? It sounds like "Brother Fat"! Although my real name is Xiao Fei, you've never called me that before. Are you sure you're not mocking my physique?

The fat man was very unhappy and decided to give the other party a piece of his mind: "Young Master Chong, are you sure this way of splitting the stakes is fair? You should know that I'm the one who put up all the bets, and you only put up eight hundred taels."

After saying that, he deliberately stretched out his thumb and forefinger, making the shape of the number eight and waving it in front of Xiao Chong.

Xiao Chong leaned down, craning his neck so far it was almost touching the fat man's face, and said, "Fatty, what do you mean? Are you trying to kick me while I'm down?"

"Hmm, 'Fatty' sounds much better than 'Brother Fei.' But why are you so close to me?"

The fat man compared the two titles in his mind and was quite satisfied with the second one.

But when he felt the hot breath coming from the other person's mouth, he broke out in a cold sweat and quickly backed away in disgust, saying, "Distance, keep your distance. What do you mean by 'crossing the river and then burning the bridge'? Am I lying?"

"Relatives are relatives, and money is money. Even brothers need to keep clear accounts. It seems we need to discuss this carefully."

Xiao Chong secretly made up his mind and smiled, "Fatty, who do you think started this bet?"

"You." That's the truth; the fat man never lies.

"And who told you to place your bet at the Silver Hook Casino?"

"It's you too." The fat man sensed something was off, but still answered honestly.

"Then tell me again, in a life-or-death situation, who contributed more, and who faced more danger?"

"It's you again." The situation was getting out of control, and the fat man unconsciously wiped the sweat from his face.

"At least you have a conscience. I've taken so many risks, so isn't it only right that I share half?" Xiao Chong continued to guide the fat man's thinking.

"That's certainly right." The fat man nodded involuntarily, but something still felt off.

Seeing that the fat man was so cooperative, Xiao Chong was very happy.

To avoid making the fat man feel too wronged, he added, "If I throw the competition, won't you even be able to get your money back?"

Little did he know that this last sentence would have been better left unsaid, as it immediately reminded the fat man of something.

The fat man thought to himself: Wait a minute, you're using a fallacy of semantics. What do you mean by "letting things slide"? How can you say something so shameless? I only came here to joke around with you, how did it turn into such a long talk?

Finally realizing what was happening, the fat man glanced at Xiao Chong disdainfully and sneered, "Stop talking nonsense, just tell me how much capital you actually invested. 'Letting loose'? You dare to try and let loose a little? Believe me, you'll be beaten to a pulp."