I'm bad, but players love me

"Oh, come on. She hasn't caught the assassin yet. She's no better than her father."

Overly arrogant sarcasm always attracts attention. Her friend, who was somewhat more cautious than her, grabbed the guy who was talking too much and said, "You should keep your voice down."

The person who was being held back also realized his gaffe, so he could only vent all his suppressed anger on Yun Shuo, "Let's go, let's get to know each other."

"I know you've been pissed off about ELO messing up your area lately, but he's not from ELO, so why would you go there? And how can you expect him to pay you back for your losses?"

"Why not?" Mina's languid eyes suddenly lit up, as if reminded by her friend. "He's a man, and he's just inherited the inheritance. He has no confidence, no foundation, and if he doesn't make friends, his life will be miserable."

There are also distinctions between high and low among the nobles, similar to how female nobles are always more confident than male nobles, and it is always better to have someone blessed by the God of Machinery in the family than not.

Of course, nobles are nobles after all. Even the lowest-ranking nobles can have enough food and drink for their entire lives, and they will never lack servants to serve them.

However, where there are people, there will be jealousy. People always want to compare whether you are better or I am worse, and the more serious the comparison, the more difficult it is to stay out of it.

Therefore, most nobles would choose to unite together through marriage, alliances, etc., which also made it easier for them to occupy the bulk of the benefits. In order to gain greater benefits, latecomers would naturally try their best to squeeze in.

Money is one of the most straightforward “entrance tickets”.

But whether or not one could get in was ultimately determined by someone else's opinion. Even if all efforts were in vain, one had no choice but to swallow the bitter pill and not dare to say a word.

Mina just wanted to use this opportunity to vent her anger on Yun Shuo.

"Hello, Mina." The brief opening remarks were accompanied by a frivolous enough tone, which was completely different from the nobles' formal and lengthy greetings, which did show equal respect.

Mina was deliberately using this stark difference to oppress Yun Shuo, as if telling him that you are different from us. Even if you are a noble, you are no different from a commoner in my eyes.

If Yun Shuo was really a noble, or if he felt a little bit inferior about his identity, this sentence would be a complete provocation to him, no less than a powerful slap in the face in front of everyone.

But he is not.

He simply put down his cup calmly, without even moving his face, only turning his eyes to the strange yet inexplicably arrogant woman in front of him, "Yun Shuo."

His reply was half as short as her question.

Mina thought this guy was quite good at pretending. She had seen many people who appeared calm on the surface but were secretly furious, and she believed Yun Shuo wouldn't be surprised either.

Only now did she begin to take the man in front of her in the eye.

She has a good-looking face, and the fabric of her clothes is luxurious enough. Her conservative style, which is different from that of ordinary people, can be considered a little clever idea.

His gaze slowly shifted downward, finally landing on the fingers tapping lightly on the table. Though slender and fair, they were covered in calluses at the joints.

Mina had never done hard labor in her life, and she didn't know if the calluses of people who did hard labor were like this, but she knew that these were definitely not calluses left by reading, writing, or playing certain musical instruments.

Nails that are trimmed too neatly are definitely not what aristocrats do. Proper nails can make fingers look longer and more slender. Many male nobles will also take great pains to create more designs on their nails.

Looking at it now, the conclusion is obvious.

A handsome man who was once an illegitimate child and had done hard labor, and was also an unknown minor nobleman, wearing clothes that were obviously beyond his affordability - he came to find someone who could support his family.

He must have begged hard in private to be able to attend Lord Setash's banquet.

Mina's face was full of mockery.

What a dirty and despicable guy. If she hadn't been thinking about asking him to bring her some wealth to make up for her recent losses, she would have felt disgusted just by looking at him.

"How about we make a bet?" Mina asked with a very proud attitude.

This is an old rule. Nobles always like to use unspoken rules unknown to ordinary people to show their difference from ordinary people, thus making themselves look superior.

This rule must also be followed in this kind of surrender drama.

None of the small nobles would refuse when they heard the great noble tell them about the "bet". They just accepted the bet with many thanks, and then pretended to be ignorant and lost the bet, naturally handing over the money. What happened next depended on the conscience of the great noble.

Of course, most of the nobles were kind-hearted. After eating up all the "meat", they were not stingy in giving these poor people some "soup".

The so-called "gambling money" is actually the "admission ticket" purchased by the small nobles from the big nobles.

But what Mina didn't know was that Yun Shuo knew nothing about these unspoken rules.

He just replied calmly: "Okay."

Chapter 24: A Winning Gamble

"Mina!" Her friend, who was more rational and cautious than her, hurried forward and grabbed her when she heard the two were about to gamble. "Mina, don't mess around. This is Lord Setash's party, not a place for you to mess around."

The party at Setash was just a cover-up for what she really wanted to say. After all, this sentence might hurt Mina's self-esteem too much.

What she really wanted to say was: "With your brain, you will only be played around by him! Please, what's the difference between your embarrassment and mine, so please don't embarrass me, okay? Give up this bet, idiot!"

To some extent, I became friends with Mina because of her frankness. It is really rare to see someone's mood so easily from their face, but the stupid things they do from time to time are really tiring.

It's like an intuitive feeling.

When she saw Yun Shuo for the first time, her clear and sharp perception ability, which she had cultivated over a long period of time, made her immediately realize that Yun Shuo was unusual.

From the moment Mina went to trouble Yun Shuo, she chatted and smiled with others while warily watching this stranger. She was like a cat, watching him quietly, and like a detective, she tried every possible means to get those unknown private information from him.

At first, she just wanted to see what was going on, more like curiosity was at work, but gradually she found that her gaze and thoughts were being pulled uncontrollably by the other party, as if she came here just to spy on him.

The sounds of other people's conversation flowed in from her left ear and out from her right ear without stopping. She could not hear anything because all her thoughts were driven by Yun Shuo. She was almost completely bewitched by this strange man whom she had met for less than a quarter of an hour.

No self-proclaimed intelligent person would remain unmoved by a puzzle.

Every movement and every change of expression of this conservative yet gorgeously dressed man, whose life was full of contradictions, could not escape her eyes. She kept thinking in her mind what kind of abilities this man had.

Why was he so calm in the face of others' harassment? What kind of person was he? Why was he dressed so respectably, yet behaved so recklessly? What was his purpose in coming here?

She asked herself too many questions, but she couldn't answer any of them. She couldn't help but feel angry and had to keep speculating about them.

Mina pulled her over nonchalantly and whispered, "It's okay. At worst, I'll just lose. According to the rules, I won't suffer any loss. Do you think this guy can force me to pay him? Who gave him the nerve to do that?"

This youthful face was filled with fearless pride. As a noble, she had been trained time and again since childhood on the standards for interacting with others: which people it didn't matter if they died, and which people required careful consideration before speaking in front of them.

Obviously, in Mina's eyes, Yun Shuo is one of those people whose death doesn't matter.

Yun Shuo did not urge them.

As long as there are people, there will be this kind of intimidation and people who initiate it.

Moreover, for Yun Shuo, this was a highly profitable business. He was a poor man with nothing, so Ella would naturally cover the repayment of his bets.

Let the nobles fight with each other, and he, an unknown commoner, can just watch the show quietly.

"What can you play?" Mina handed the initiative to Yun Shuo.

According to common sense, minor nobles would choose the gambling method they are good at. After all, if you know how to win, you will know how to lose even more clearly.

While giving money to the noble, one can also flatter him by saying things like "You are so lucky" or "Your skills are so superb". This will kill two birds with one stone and make both parties happy, which will naturally become part of the unspoken rules.

"Then just flip the cards and guess the number." Compared to Thirteen Card Poker and Stud Poker, this kind of thing, to a certain extent, does not require any cheating skills at all.

For Yun Shuo, who hasn't been to a casino for many years, this will only be his advantage.

After all, in a game, winning is the most enjoyable thing.

Yun Shuo explained, "Take a deck of playing cards, give each person half, then flip over each card and guess at one. The person who guesses correctly gets to flip over another card. There's no upper limit, and that person wins until all their cards are flipped."

Mina said confidently, "Okay, you don't mind taking my playing cards, right?"

"Both parties just need to check it once before doing this. That's the rule." Yun Shuo replied with a smile.

Could it really be that simple? It looked like this game was all about luck! Her friend's heart was lifted. She couldn't help but dissuade him again, "Mina, are you sure?"

"Sure, I'm sure! Are you annoying?" Mina angrily shook off the other person's hand on her shoulder. "It's not a big deal. Just a game."

Mina's servant handed over a brand new deck of playing cards. No, rather than playing cards, this thing was more like a work of art. If it weren't for the familiar poker suits on the cards, just looking at the four unique yet harmonious artworks on the back, it would have been a sacred instrument for divination.

"Check it out." Mina casually handed the playing cards to Yun Shuo. Seeing the other party's obviously astonished eyes, she boasted complacently, "This deck of cards of mine was made entirely by hand by a master. Every card is painted in gold, not to mention the paintings on the back. The master spent a full fourteen months painting for me, so that the paintings on the back of each card are exactly the same..."

But before these endless lines were finished, Yun Shuo pushed the cards back to the other party and interrupted him forcefully, "Alright, let's get started."

At Mina's signal, the servant immediately began to shuffle and cut the cards skillfully, and then distributed the cards to the two of them.

Determined to win, Mina turned over the first card and said, "10 points."

When I opened it, I saw that the number of points was neither too many nor too few.

The second one, “7 o’clock.” Just right again.

Many nobles have gathered around, and they certainly cannot miss this kind of gambling.

Afterwards, Mina flipped the cards faster and faster, but never made a mistake in the points. She flipped 20 cards in one breath without making any mistakes.

You should know that a deck of playing cards, excluding the big and small jokers, only has 52 cards. If two people divide it equally, each of them will have 26 cards.

"Yun Shuo, it seems that my luck is much better than yours today." The smile on Mina's face grew wider and wider, and the compliments from the people around her were particularly pleasant and kept ringing in her ears.

Chapter 25: What if you refuse to admit your loss?

Mina almost clapped her hands in admiration at the other person's innocence.

In a gambling game, what kind of idiot would come up with such a stupid idea as letting your opponent prepare playing cards for you?

The deck of playing cards she had carefully designed is more than just a beautiful work of art.

Although gambling is mostly just an entertaining game for the nobles, even if it is just an entertaining game, it is only worth being happy if you win, right?

If you want to win, then apart from the element of luck, cheating will become a stable means of winning.

"Cheating tricks" are too complicated, and she is too lazy to learn them. It is better to keep it simple and straightforward, for example, playing some tricks on the cards.

The gold on the card surface will obviously bring a certain thickness after being repeated over and over again. This subtle perception is something that most people will not notice at first.

Mina yawned pretending to be tired. The corners of her eyes, forced up by her raised eyebrows, looked quite oppressive, and there was a look of disdain in the corners of her eyes.

With his calloused hands, what good would it do even if he noticed my little tricks on the cards? His hands couldn't even detect these tiny changes.

She stopped flipping the cards for a moment, and the 21st card was pressed under her palm. When she opened her eyes and looked at the man in front of her, she was surprised to find that he was still calm.

Could it be that he really had a backup plan? But…so what? Could he really dare to ask me to repay the bet?

He could bring up the point he had deliberately omitted earlier. "We haven't discussed this before, have we? What's your stake?"

"What do you want?" Yun Shuo finally became interested and finally straightened his attitude to look directly into Mina's determined eyes. "I don't care. Since you started the bet, the choice is yours. But..."

Mina looked at the other person's eyes that suddenly narrowed, and felt inexplicably frightened. She felt as if she was being stared at by a python or beast in the wild, and she couldn't help but tremble.

The sudden strange feeling oppressed her spirit, and the fire of anger that suddenly rose in her heart almost burned her out.

Well, you asked for it!

Originally, Mina just wanted to ask the other party for some money to make up for her losses, but Yun Shuo's contemptuous attitude made her want more. To put it bluntly, she wanted to see Yun Shuo kneeling on the ground and begging for mercy with tears streaming down his face.

"If you lose, I want all the property under your name, plus all the taxes you paid this year."

The sources of money for the nobles, apart from the filial piety of those below and the rewards of those above, are only two aspects: taxes and property.

To put it bluntly, Mina wanted to make sure Yun Shuo had nothing to gain this year, which was a huge blow to a small noble.

Not to mention taxes, which are a fixed monthly income, but things like industry are basically passed down from generation to generation in the family.

Mina did this to force Yun Shuo to bow to her. If she hadn't been warned by the city lord if she asked him to pay taxes year after year, she would have wanted to make Yun Shuo lose everything.

She eagerly awaited Yun Shuo's shocked and terrified look. After all, whether it was gambling money or a bribe, the amount was terrifyingly large. She thought to herself that if Yun Shuo was willing to beg her, she might even show some leniency.

But Yun Shuo didn't have any of that. No tears, no begging for mercy. He even managed to smile, "Okay."

Damn it! Mina felt her nose wrinkle uncontrollably, and her teeth clenched tighter and tighter, almost to the point of feeling sore.

Okay, you want to die, right? I’ll help you!

Her fingers brushed against the edges of the card, but felt nothing... How could that be? She repeated the feeling several times, but still only felt a vague sense. She couldn't accurately infer what the card was from this little information.

And because of his previous arrogance, the other nobles have already surrounded him. Lord Setash and Ella are also watching him from a distance. If he doesn't turn the cards...

It was just a gamble. Mina's left hand, hidden under the table, was sweating and greasy.

It doesn’t matter, she comforted herself, she was already 20 cards ahead of the other party, it didn’t matter even if she made a mistake, the worst that could happen was that she would just have to wait for the other party to make the same mistake six times.

But...what if the other party also discovered this? Mina's fear reached its peak. That was all the property!

Although his fingers are rough, what if he rubs them for a longer time will he still be able to find it?

"6." She finally turned over the card, and it was 7.

Just a little bit!

But Mina pretended to be relaxed and said, "I accidentally made a mistake, so please start flipping the cards. But it doesn't matter. After all, the winner of this bet has already been decided, right?"

"Has the winner been decided?" Yun Shuo laughed. "What are you talking about? The gambling has only just begun! A fair and just gamble based on luck and vision is about to begin."

These words were completely hinting to Mina that he had already understood and seen through her cheating.