Returning to '97, creating a new life

"Your machine is faulty! Damn, how can you be so greedy? Four double-count sticks have been used more than ten times and this is still a small amount. Isn't this a rip-off?"

After taking Yunshang home, with the New Year approaching, Xu Kai would visit the arcade whenever he had time. When he pushed open the door and entered the arcade, a strong smell of smoke hit him. Even with several ventilation shafts drawing out the smoke from the warehouse, it couldn't stop the continuous burning of cigarettes and the creation of new smoke.

"Don't cause trouble here, buddy, this isn't good for anyone." The guy selling game tokens also has a responsibility to keep the place in check.

"Get the hell out of here! What, is there something wrong with the machine? You won't let us talk about it. You only allow losing money, not winning. Who would want to play here?"

Xu Kai stood silently behind the other person. After not seeing him for a while, he looked much more disheveled. He used to wear a neat leather jacket, but now his hair was messy, his beard was unshaven, and the cuffs and collar of his thick cotton-padded coat were shiny with oil.

"Brother Song, what's wrong? Bad luck today? Did you pay out too little?" Xu Kai put his hand on Song Jun's shoulder and waved with his other hand to signal everyone to keep playing, there wasn't much excitement to watch.

Song Jun rolled his eyes. To be honest, he didn't want to see Xu Kai.

Firstly, he's doing much better than the other guy now. Secondly, he himself did some shameful things behind the scenes at the video arcade.

The two parted ways amicably and stopped working together. Song Jun still felt a little grateful; after all, Xu Kai had led him to wealth and success. If it weren't for him…

Taking the cigarette Xu Kai offered, Song Jun sat down. Xu Kai gestured for the girl holding the key to the gambling machine to come over. She then gave Song Jun another 500 yuan worth of credits: "Brother Song, come and support us. This is a gift from your brother."

Seeing the score, Song Jun smiled. Recently, he had lost far too much money. The income from the video arcade could not cover his losses. He had also borrowed a lot of money from some relatives and friends who were unaware of his situation and thought the video arcade was making a lot of money.

Xu Dalong wanted to design one of him; it was very easy.

If you go astray, it's not because someone else drags you down, but because you walk down that path willingly.

In card and mahjong parlors and underground gambling dens, the more you lose, the more addicted you become, and it's not all losses; there are wins interspersed throughout.

Of all the religions, D is the one that most devastates a person's will.

A video arcade can usually earn two or three hundred or even more a day, but once the wins and losses reach four figures, there's no motivation to work or do business. You're exhausted, but is the stakes as high as in poker or dominoes?

The same applies to slot machines. They offer a more direct "big win, small loss" scenario, but many people don't realize that when playing against a machine, that so-called "big win, small loss" is simply a bottomless probability. Just like the future five million jackpot, when it first came out, countless people flocked to it, frantically trying to change their fate, only to find the probability was unknown, down to who-knows-how-many decimal places.

If you get a straight flush, the arcade will reward you with ten yuan as a bonus.

Now, Song Jun is no longer just jealous of losing; he wants to win big every time he goes down this path.

He didn't have enough money in his pocket to continue ranking up, so he threw the money to the girl who was helping him rank up, signaling her to raise his current score to a level where he could double down on a small win. He was going to double down on the score and finish the dozen or so small hands in one go, and it was time for a big win.

Seeing the young woman's troubled expression, Song Jun looked at Xu Kai beside him and asked, "Xu Kai, would I ever owe you money?"

Xu Kai nodded, signaling the girl to help him gain points.

Double the size, pat the 'big'.

It's small again.

Song Jun's face turned green, and he slammed his fist on the machine, yelling, "Damn it, what the hell is this?"

As the music started, the AAAKK connection machine was activated. After the other machines reached their total score, the five playing cards revealed AAAKK, resulting in a connection score of over 20,000.

The music made Song Jun even angrier; he was diligently filling in the marks while others were stealing points.

"Brother Song, bad luck. Take a break and come back another day."

"Xu Kai, give me another rank boost, I refuse to believe I can't turn things around."

They both spoke at the same time, and then fell silent at the same time.

Song Jun stared at Xu Kai, and seeing that the other party didn't react, said, "Xu Kai, you're not going to give me any face at all, are you? Do you think I'd be shortchanged by your paltry sums?"

Xu Kai got up and took a thousand yuan from Yang Yu, Wang Jianshe's sister-in-law, who was on duty that night.

He walked up to Song Jun, put his arm around his shoulder and led him outside: "Brother Song, bad luck. Come back another day. Take this with you for your ride."

"What do you mean?"

Seeing that Xu Kai didn't say anything more, Song Jun narrowed his eyes and fell silent as well. He left the arcade, took a deep breath as a cold wind blew, turned around and silently looked at the arcade, his hand reaching for his lower back, gritting his teeth inwardly.

Today, he didn't come to play; he only spent a few hundred yuan, but lost too quickly and ended up throwing in just over three thousand yuan.

Whether Xu Kai gives him a thousand yuan for travel expenses or not won't make much of a difference. A gust of cold wind sobered him up, and he realized his true purpose for coming here.

From around 5 p.m. until now, the arcade has collected at least 10,000 to 20,000 yuan.

I'm sorry, brother, if I had any other choice, I wouldn't have gone down this path.

Touching the thousand yuan in his pocket, Song Jun's anger and ruthlessness were overshadowed by a little guilt. In his heart, he was still grateful to Xu Kai. It was his own fault for being so weak, but he had already lost so much and there was no turning back.

Xu Kai received Ma Xin's call the following afternoon at the roller skating rink in the Commercial Building.

With Yunshang's help, the girls who frequented the roller skating rink didn't mind getting to know another guy. Wang Lei's acne had lessened, and he wasn't so ugly that people would resist him. He was also thick-skinned and, after his experience at the restaurant, he was quick-witted and eloquent. Soon, he grabbed the girl's hand and they were skating like crazy on the rink, having a great time.

Just as Ma Xin hung up the phone, Wang Jianshe called.

They're all talking about the same thing.

Xu Kai greeted Yunshang without changing his expression. He said he had something urgent to attend to. Yunshang didn't make a fuss and simply told him to go and take care of his business. She told him not to pick her up and that she would take a taxi home herself, so he could focus on his business.

The arcade's revenue was stolen.

In the afternoon, Yang Yu and Xu Meilan, two finance staff members, took the money collected from the arcade to the bank at the entrance of the wholesale market to deposit it.

This contains the earnings from yesterday night and this morning. It's always been this pattern. In the afternoon, the earnings from the previous 24 hours are set aside, along with some spare change and a couple thousand yuan for refunds. The rest is deposited into a separate account opened by Xu Kai.

The market is crowded with people all day long. Once you exit the market, there's a bank on your left. The total distance is less than 200 meters.

At first, young people like Ma Xin would have someone accompany them to deposit money. But as time went on, they didn't slack off. They deposited money every day in such a close proximity. The arcade was busy, and sometimes they didn't have enough staff. The two of them would carry a bag and have acquaintances along the way to the market entrance. Once they left the market, they could enter the bank in a minute or two.

Everything was fine until today.

It got robbed.

Yang Yu was robbed while carrying a bag of money, and her arm was also slashed. Fortunately, she was wearing a cotton coat in winter, so she wasn't seriously injured, only her clothes were torn.

There was 40,000 yuan in the bag.

The person who did it was wearing a black cotton-padded coat, trousers, and shoes, with a cotton hat on his head and a woolen neck warmer covering most of his face, only revealing his eyes.

Xu Kai's second aunt, Xu Meilan, immediately shouted, and someone in the market notified the arcade. Ma Xin and others immediately chased after them.

When Xu Kai arrived, Wang Jianshe and Xu Dalong were also there. They had received the report and also received Ma Xin's suspected suspicions.

When he chased after him, the other person had run far away. He could only see a figure from afar. If it were a business meeting, he wouldn't make things up, but now he was facing his own boss. Ma Xin felt that the figure looked a lot like Song Jun because the other person had a very serious outward-pointing gait and even had a similar body posture when running.

Ma Xin and Song Jun were very close, having hung out together for a long time. They also worked at the video arcade for a while. For the past six months, Ma Xin had been working at the arcade, and Xu Kai had taken good care of him. Song Jun was no longer on either side of Ma Xin's mind, and his first thought when faced with a problem was to help the arcade solve it.

He already felt guilty for not catching up with the person earlier. When he saw that several bosses had arrived, he immediately proposed a plan to continue the investigation.

Xu Kai and Xu Dalong exchanged a glance. The latter frowned and nodded slightly. That guy had lost a lot of money recently. I never expected that he would choose such a path of no return.

This is no small crime. It's far more serious than D-dog losing a lot of money, borrowing from all his relatives and friends, and becoming a piece of rotten meat.

They drove towards the Tie Er Zhong Market to catch up.

Xu Dalong got into Xu Kai's Jetta: "Damn it, this bastard's desperate. Don't worry, if it really is him, he can't escape. Once we catch him, see how I deal with him."

Xu Kai wasn't worried about losing money, but if this person really was Song Jun, it would be a very troublesome matter. Who knew if that bastard would talk nonsense once he caught him?

After his initial resentment subsided, Xu Dalong realized the problem. He looked at Xu Kai with a hesitant expression, then finally took a deep breath and said, "If it really is him, let him get away."

"Hmm." Xu Kai responded softly. He ran away, lost some money, and this guy wouldn't dare to set foot on his hometown for at least a few years. He would be on the run.

More than an hour later, Xu Kai was speechless.

The saying "It's terrible to be uncultured" was embodied in him.

Surprisingly, Song Jun didn't run away; instead, he returned to the video arcade and sat there calmly.

Did he think that this matter would be forgotten just because no one saw his face?

If you really want to investigate him, can his level of expertise compare to that of a professional?

Wang Jianshe approached Xu Dalong and Xu Kai, his wrinkles crinkling at the corners of his eyes, a ruthless glint in them: "If he had run away, that would have been fine; we could have considered it a loss to avoid further trouble. But this guy thinks he's safe and is still staying here. What do you suggest we do?"

Xu Dalong also looked frustrated, his anger now overshadowed by his frustration.

You son of a bitch, you ran away and we couldn't find you, but you didn't run away? Do you really think we're all useless?

Taking a deep drag on his cigarette, Xu Dalong gritted his teeth and said, "This money is on me."

Wang Jianshe and Xu Kai both understood that he meant to stop investigating, accept their bad luck this time, and then find a way to deal with Song Jun quietly later.

Wang Jianshe wasn't involved in the video arcade incident, so he wasn't as nervous as Xu Dalong. He hadn't received any money, nor had he had any dealings with Song Jun. The idiot's final nonsense wouldn't affect him.

As long as I don't lose money, Wang Jianshe doesn't mind stepping back and letting Xu Dalong handle this matter.

Xu Kai was also quite frustrated. Who could have predicted that a fool would accidentally hit Xu Dalong's weak spot? Now, no matter how he handled it, it seemed inappropriate.