Chapter 198
Chapter 198
Cheng Miao turned to look at Qiudong. King producing the kind of total Cheng Miao had only ever seen in movies was shocking enough.
But Qiudong actually said she had lost.
King clearly had not expected it either. She hurried around the table, and Qiudong steadily lifted the dice cup.
In an instant, every spectator in the casino fell silent.
Qiudong’s cup was filled entirely with fragments. He had shattered each die from the center, turning it into six numbered pieces.
At the same time, to prevent the mass of fragments from spilling out of the cup, he had stacked the fragments together as he applied force.
When King asked him to reveal the cup, he used another burst of carefully controlled force so that as the fragments slid apart, every numbered face still landed upward.
In other words, Qiudong had rolled a total of 105 points with five dice.
Cheng Miao and Lin Zhu stared with eyes wide. Was that something a human being could possibly roll?
“Hahahahahaha!”
King, who had stood frozen beside them for a long time, abruptly burst into laughter. She wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and looked thoroughly delighted.
“I lost.”
King conceded without hesitation, which surprised Cheng Miao too.
Qiudong rose and gave a slight gentlemanly bow. “Thank you for the game. We’ll be leaving now.”
King leaned against the card table and watched Qiudong lead the still-stunned Cheng Miao away, her smile seductive and captivating.
“Boss, that Item only lasts four hours. Why did you say half a day?” Only after the group had vanished from sight did one of the bodyguards poke his head out and ask.
King had enjoyed a thoroughly satisfying round of gambling and was in an excellent mood. She stretched, then sauntered farther inside. “Because it was a prank, of course.”
Meanwhile, Cheng Miao and Lin Zhu crowded around Qiudong, chattering nonstop as they demanded to know how he had done it.
Qiudong pressed his fingers to his brow and looked at Qin Musong and Qi Jiajia, who stood to the side enjoying the show.
Neither had any intention of helping him escape. They were curious too.
Qiudong sighed and looked around at where the group had unconsciously wandered.
It was a park. Great expanses of well-maintained grass shone green beneath the deep-blue sky, and a lake lay nearby. It was an ideal place for an outing.
Unfortunately, most Survival Inn players had little interest in such things.
Qiudong rented camping equipment from a roadside shop and set up the grill with Qin Musong. Qi Jiajia and Cheng Miao spread out the picnic blanket.
Lin Zhu carefully brushed oil onto the barbecue ingredients, threaded them onto skewers, and placed them over the fire.
Qiudong took a metal skewer as well, threaded with Cheng Miao’s favorite chicken wings. His long fingers pinched up some cumin and slowly sprinkled it over them.
Cheng Miao sat beside him holding a bottle of peach soda. “Come on, tell me. How do you know how to do that?”
Qiudong cut into a chicken wing, decided it was almost done, and handed it to Cheng Miao. “I studied it a little in the past.”
Cheng Miao blew on the wing, took a bite, then stuck out her tongue when it burned her. “In the past? Why?”
Qiudong lowered his eyes and continued grilling with complete focus. “I once went on a mission whose target loved gambling, so I found a specialist and trained under him.”
“King is a dealer with beautiful flourishes, but she primarily plays to earn money, so she uses legitimate methods. I gambled with lives at stake, so naturally, I learned more unorthodox tricks.”
Hearing Qiudong speak so casually about life and death left Cheng Miao feeling uncomfortable.
She bit into a chicken wing fragrant with chili and cumin, then tilted her head. “Do you want to tell me what you used to do?”
Qiudong paused while sprinkling the cumin, then resumed with perfect composure.
Keeping his expression perfectly composed, he covertly studied Cheng Miao’s face. “Illegal work.”
Cheng Miao held the bare skewer between her teeth. “Like an assassin?”
Qiudong took the skewer from her and frowned. “Don’t bite that. You might hurt yourself.”
He had not denied it, which meant the answer was yes.
Cheng Miao had grown up in an ordinary, happy family. She knew little about professions like assassins, which she had only ever seen on television.
But she knew the land of Huaxia held many deeds hidden in darkness, and many people who lived there.
None of them had easy lives.
Cheng Miao displayed not a trace of curiosity or surprise. As naturally as if she had heard nothing, she called to the others, “I want another drumstick.”
“We’re brushing it with oil!” Lin Zhu watched Qi Jiajia clumsily brush oil onto the food and tried to take the brush and do it himself, only for Qi Jiajia to smack his hand away.
“I can do it.”
“Fine, fine, you do it… I was only worried you’d get tired.”
“Busybody.”
“Hey, you missed a spot!”
“Shut up!”
…
Cheng Miao waited seriously to be fed. Qiudong calculated how much time the Item had left, deliberately hoping to talk with her in this form a little longer.
When Cheng Miao caught Qiudong looking at her for the third time, her deep understanding of feline pride made everything clear. She took the initiative. “Why don’t we talk?”
“Mm.” The formidable man, who did not know how to break the ice, secretly breathed a sigh of relief while remaining outwardly immovable.
“I’m actually very curious. Why did you decide to join us?” Cheng Miao had asked this before, but his answer last time had not been very clear.
Perhaps inspiration had struck today, because she felt Qiudong would tell her now.
Sure enough, Qiudong considered it seriously for a moment, then spoke with some discomfort. “I’ve never had friends. Everyone was afraid of me.”
“You weren’t.”
His life had always been filled with blood and darkness. Even clearing Survival Inn had changed nothing for him.
He casually found a job as a Hotel receptionist, one that did not require him to appear often.
He kept to himself and rarely interacted with the other receptionists.
Until the day he went to sunbathe on the pile of grain at Brother Parrot’s place, and a pretty girl with bright, limpid eyes saw him and offered him a can of food.
…
“That’s all?” Cheng Miao was surprised.
She certainly liked cats, but she did not believe she was the only person in the Game who did.
Emerging from his memories, Qiudong smiled. “Your journey to a high-level inn went smoothly. You rarely saw newcomers who had broken down.”
“Your love of cats wasn’t the only reason you dared approach me. Many players become too frightened to form a coherent sentence after I speak.”
“Your most valuable trait is the respect and understanding you show the Game and the NPCs within it. Maybe you didn’t initially understand why we existed or whether we were good or evil, but you could accept us without viewing anyone through a lens of prejudice.”
“That’s very rare, especially after witnessing the worst in human nature. I’ve seen many players who were tricked by veterans, then turned around and deceived other newcomers.”
“Human nature has never borne close scrutiny, especially not in a Game like this.”
Qiudong did not say much about himself. He had yet to decide how to explain it.
He had been immersed in darkness for too long and witnessed too much evil. He knew how to kill, but not how to express affection.
Just as he finally organized his thoughts and cleared his throat, he said, “Cheng Miao…”
Pop!
An explosion interrupted Qiudong.