Chapter 13: Profits Overflowing, the Concubine’s Phoenix Hairpin Disappears
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“How is it, Auntie?”
Wang Feifei sat rigidly upright, struggling to maintain the dignity of the lady of the house. Yet her tightly clenched fists and faintly pallid complexion betrayed her anxiety.
Ye Qingyan suddenly smiled. It was an innocent, radiant smile, yet there was a hint of slyness in it that no one else could decipher.
“Auntie,” she called crisply. Her voice was not loud, but everyone present could hear it clearly. “If you refuse, this game won’t be much fun at all.”
Wang Feifei froze, then arched her brows furiously. “Ye Qingyan, what scheme are you plotting now?”
“A scheme? No, no.” Ye Qingyan shook her head, her smile deepening. “I merely think the stakes are too small for a game this thrilling.”
As she spoke, her gaze swept across the mountain of banknotes piled on the table before flicking toward Listening Dice Ghost’s deathly pale yet deliberately composed face.
Listening Dice Ghost’s heart gave a jolt. He had a feeling this girl was about to cause trouble again.
“Then what do you suggest?” Wang Feifei sneered. She believed she had already taken control of the situation and that Ye Qingyan was merely a cornered beast struggling in vain.
Ye Qingyan smiled brightly, but her tone suddenly turned serious.
“I have always been a fair gambler. Since we are wagering, we may as well wager something substantial. Auntie, that phoenix hairpin in your hair—is it the treasured heirloom the Ye family has passed down for generations?”
The moment she said this, the entire room erupted.
The phoenix hairpin!
It was Wang Feifei’s most cherished ornament, the very one Ye Chengzong had specially retrieved from the family treasury and placed in her hair himself to elevate her standing. Not only was it priceless, it was also a symbol of Wang Feifei’s favor.
Ye Qingyan’s demand was, without question, a public humiliation—a deliberate stripping away of Wang Feifei’s dignity.
Wang Feifei’s face instantly turned livid. The veins on her forehead bulged as she shot to her feet and pointed at Ye Qingyan, her voice trembling with rage.
“Ye Qingyan! How dare you!”
“How dare I?” Ye Qingyan blinked innocently, as though she truly could not understand why Wang Feifei was so agitated. “Auntie, are you afraid? Could it be that you and Listening Dice Ghost arranged this game together from the beginning, waiting to take my mother’s shop?”
“You!”
The accusation struck Wang Feifei straight through the heart.
That was exactly what she had intended!
But how could she admit it after Ye Qingyan had exposed her in front of so many people?
The guests around them leaned toward one another, whispering among themselves. Some were simply there for the spectacle; others had long disliked Wang Feifei’s bullying ways. Now, all of them watched with relish.
“Bullshit!” Wang Feifei trembled with fury. She looked around and saw the gleeful expressions surrounding her. Rage and humiliation nearly consumed her.
If she refused now, it would amount to admitting that she had a guilty conscience—and that she had set this game up as a trap.
With all eyes upon her, she was trapped.
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“Fine! I’ll wager!” Wang Feifei ground out the words, forcing them through clenched teeth. There was a desperate, all-or-nothing madness in her voice. “If you lose, I will claim your shop today! And you will kneel before my mother and kowtow as an apology!”
“Wonderful!” Ye Qingyan replied, her eyes curving into bright crescents as though she had just received an extraordinary gift. “Auntie truly is decisive. However, if I win…”
She deliberately drew out the last word, her gaze once again settling on the phoenix hairpin in Wang Feifei’s hair.
Wang Feifei’s body stiffened. But the arrow had already been set to the bowstring; there was no turning back. She drew a deep breath and tried to suppress the frenzy raging within her, forcing out a smile uglier than tears.
“If you win, I will give you this phoenix hairpin.”
“Then it’s settled!” Ye Qingyan immediately sealed the bargain, evidently afraid Wang Feifei might change her mind.
Listening Dice Ghost watched the two women establish their new wager, unease stirring in his heart. Yet when he saw Ye Qingyan’s seemingly unhinged appearance, he decided he was worrying for nothing.
He had Chen Huaian’s secret signals to rely on, as well as Wang Feifei’s promise. He was certain this round would be his.
The final round began.
Listening Dice Ghost drew a deep breath and, following the secret signal Chen Huaian had conveyed earlier, confidently selected a tile. He looked at Ye Qingyan with a hint of smugness and pity in his eyes, as though he could already see her weeping bitterly, kneeling on the floor, and begging for mercy.
He revealed his hand: an exceptionally powerful Heaven hand—the Heaven Gong.
The surrounding spectators cried out in astonishment.
The Heaven Gong was an extraordinarily rare hand in pai gow, one that was almost certain to win.
Listening Dice Ghost gazed triumphantly at Ye Qingyan, as though Victory herself had already smiled upon him.
“Your turn, Young Miss Ye.” His voice was thick with undisguised mockery.
Ye Qingyan’s face remained expressionless. With trembling fingers, she slowly turned over her tiles.
The spectators drew another collective gasp, louder even than their previous cries.
“Supreme Treasure!” someone shouted.
Supreme Treasure!
She had actually drawn a hand even greater than the Heaven hand—the Supreme Treasure!
Against the Heaven-Earth Gong, only the Supreme Treasure could prevail!
“Impossible… This is impossible…” Listening Dice Ghost’s face turned deathly white. He lurched to his feet, swaying unsteadily as he muttered to himself, as though he had seen a ghost.
He could never have imagined that Ye Qingyan would draw the Supreme Treasure. It was utterly absurd!
“Hmph. How could the gambling tricks of mere mortals possibly stand against the destiny granted to Me?”
The System proclaimed this inside Ye Qingyan’s mind with imperious disdain.
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Ye Qingyan laughed inwardly, but outwardly she wore an innocent expression that seemed to say, I have no idea why I won either.
Golden Abacus looked as though all the blood had drained from his face. He collapsed into his chair, his eyes vacant. Not only had he failed to obtain Ye Qingyan’s mother’s shop, but because of this wager, he had lost one hundred thousand taels of silver—and his capable assistant, Listening Dice Ghost, as well.
More importantly, the reputation he had painstakingly cultivated as a master gambler had been utterly destroyed that day.
Wang Feifei looked just as ashen.
When she saw the victorious smile on Ye Qingyan’s face, a suffocating pressure clutched at her chest, as though something had lodged there and left her unable to breathe.
“Auntie, a wager is a wager.” Ye Qingyan approached her with a beaming smile and extended one hand, palm upward. Her meaning could not have been clearer.
Wang Feifei trembled as countless gazes descended upon her. Those eyes held mockery, schadenfreude, pity, and contempt.
Never had she suffered such humiliation.
In front of all these people, she was expected to hand the phoenix hairpin she treasured most to this madwoman?
But she had no choice.
If she refused, Wang Feifei would become a complete laughingstock within the Ye household—and throughout Qinghe Commandery.
She clenched her teeth, her fingernails nearly biting into her flesh. In the end, her hand shaking, she pulled the phoenix hairpin from her hair and slapped it viciously into Ye Qingyan’s palm.
“Take it, you wretch!” she shouted, her voice hoarse and saturated with hatred.
Ye Qingyan caught the phoenix hairpin lightly. It was cool to the touch, its workmanship exquisite. She toyed with it for a moment, then slipped it into her sleeve.
“Thank you, Auntie.” Her eyes curved into a sweet smile, and her honeyed voice sounded all the more grating to Wang Feifei.
Wang Feifei could endure no more. She sprang to her feet and fled in disarray, leaving behind a scene of ruin and the guests’ hushed whispers.
After this battle, Ye Qingyan had not only protected her mother’s shop and won a fortune, she had also thoroughly stripped Wang Feifei of her dignity.
The “Demon King of Chaos” had gained yet another resounding title: “The Madwoman Possessed by the God of Gambling.”
The game ended. Ye Qingyan gathered up the banknotes and the phoenix hairpin and prepared to leave.
Chen Huaian, however, stopped her.
He stared into her eyes, his voice low and clear.
“The frequency of your finger movements is strikingly similar to the divination method known as Plum Blossom Numerology, which I once read about in an ancient book of metaphysics. Just who… are you?”