Emerging from the hotel and arriving at the parking lot, Yang Jian was about to get into the driver's seat when Dan Wei hurried ahead of him. "Xiao Yang, I, I'll drive."
Yang Jian looked at him strangely. "Uncle Wei, you're still reeking of alcohol, how can you drive?"
"Then, you drive."
Dan Wei's attitude was very humble, completely lacking the boss's demeanor from before.
Leaving the hotel, Yang Jian drove while asking, "Uncle Wei, what's the background of that Buddha? You all seem to be very afraid of him? Today's gambling match, it was obvious he was cheating, didn't you notice?"
"How could we not notice? Knowing he was cheating, we couldn't do anything. Coming to play cards is just sending money to Buddha."
"Why? Knowing he was cheating, you still came to send money?"
"Buddha is from Yuzhou. They have a lot of influence in this area. Our large fruit wholesale market is within Buddha's sphere of influence. All the merchants have to pay them protection fees.
Because they are worried about being cracked down by the police, they dare not openly collect protection fees. So, they gather us merchants to play cards in rotation. Every time, he wins tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. We dare not speak out despite our anger."
Dan Wei sat in the passenger seat with a look of helplessness. Outsiders saw them as merchants making big money, but they didn't know their hardships. Not only did they have to bear the risks of business, but they also had to endure the exploitation of these thugs.
"What would happen if you didn't go to play cards?"
"If we didn't go to play cards, our fruits would either not be able to get in, or they wouldn't be sold. They always have a large group of people loitering in the market. As long as a merchant doesn't show respect to Buddha, they'll prevent the delivery trucks from entering, causing huge losses for the merchants."
Yang Jian was speechless. There were dark forces everywhere. This coastal city seemed more complicated than the inland areas. On the surface, it was a scene of prosperity, but in the unseen places, there were still unspeakable filth.
Seeing that he was silent, Dan Wei cautiously asked, "Xiao Yang, what did you do before? Your martial arts are so impressive."
"Ah, I learned martial arts from my father since I was young, and then I practiced boxing for a few years."
"Oh, no wonder. But I think your aura is even stronger than Buddha's. Have you been involved in the underworld? Those last few words of yours even stunned Buddha."
"I haven't been involved. My personality is just like this. If others don't offend me, I won't offend them. If they provoke me, I'll fight even against the King of Heaven. Because of this personality, I've suffered quite a few losses."
"Aren't you afraid of Buddha causing trouble for you? The people from Yuzhou are very arrogant around here, and Buddha also has the local boss as his backer."
Yang Jian thought for a moment and said, "If Buddha is a gangster with some foresight, he wouldn't be dead set against me. They want money, not lives. I have no conflict of interest with him. He won't gain anything by retaliating against me, and it might even lead to mutual destruction.
As for confronting me today, it's because I've been urging you to go back, and he was a bit displeased. It's just that the situation developed beyond his prediction. Even though he suffered a small loss, he should have taken my last few words to heart. So, I'm not worried about him retaliating against me."
Dan Wei was clearly worried. "How about I talk to Buddha alone? I have to pay him back tomorrow anyway. Let's resolve this matter for you. After all, you injured his people, which is a great loss of face."
"Uncle Wei, really, no need. If you go find him, you might get extorted again. If he really wants to retaliate against me, I'll just leave this place. I'll never cause you trouble."
Yang Jian had no habit of bowing his head to these thugs.
Dan Wei said no more. He decided to meet Buddha alone tomorrow. If Buddha didn't intend to let Yang Jian off, then he would have to dismiss him. This would both protect Yang Jian and prevent Buddha from being dissatisfied with him.
The car drove to the urban village, and only then did Yang Jian hand the keys to Dan Wei. At this hour, there were no traffic police checking for cars, so the little alcohol he had during dinner wouldn't affect his driving.
The next morning at work, Yang Jian didn't feel any change in the business. It was still very busy. After loading the goods with Old Ma, they had breakfast and then delivered the goods. Running two trips in the morning was quite tiring, but fortunately, the afternoon was mostly for rest.
Dan Wei went out in the afternoon. Yang Jian read the newspaper for a while, felt bored, and went next door to watch them play cards. During this time, he had gotten acquainted with the bosses and employees of several neighboring businesses. The benefit was being able to eat various fruits.
These were all large wholesalers, and each one sold different varieties of fruit. They would stock tens of tons at a time. As long as they didn't take them out, the bosses allowed employees to eat them freely, including employees from neighboring businesses.
So, Yang Jian, who didn't interact much with people, also often visited neighboring businesses with Old Ma and the others, the purpose being to taste various fruits. It was free, and if it was free, why not eat it? This treatment was not available elsewhere.
To the right of the northern fruit business was a banana wholesaler. There wasn't much business in the afternoon either. The employees were gathered around playing cards, and Old Ma was also participating.
To Yang Jian's surprise, this time they weren't playing "San Gong" but five cards each. It was his first time seeing this way of playing.
"Uncle Ma, what are you playing?"
"We're playing Dou Niu. Do you want to try?"
Old Ma was a gambler. Besides liking to bet on lottery numbers, he liked to play cards. However, he played for very small stakes. Their wages as employees were not high, and playing cards was just to pass the time, so it was a game of one or two yuan.
Yang Jian naturally had no interest in playing poker. He stood by and watched for a while, basically understanding the rules of Dou Niu.
It was actually similar to San Gong. With five cards, the highest combination was four cards of the same rank, called a "Bomb." Then came five face cards, called "Golden Bull." As for "Bull Bull," it meant that out of five cards, three were used to form a multiple of ten, and if the remaining two cards could also form a multiple of ten, it was Bull Bull.
The rest were ranked from Bull Nine, Bull Eight, and so on, from largest to smallest. Similarly, three cards were used to form a multiple of ten, and the remaining two cards added up to a certain number, which was the Bull number.
Unlike San Gong, Bombs, Golden Bulls, and Bull Bull had multiple payouts.
Bull Seven, Bull Eight, and Bull Nine also had certain multipliers. These were agreed upon by the dealer and the players before the game started, and there were no fixed payout multipliers.
Dou Niu also had one dealer and two to six players competing in size.
Whether it was San Gong or Dou Niu, they were very popular gambling methods in coastal areas. However, unlike the dice gambling in inland areas where hundreds of people could participate simultaneously, they did not attract large-scale crackdowns by the police.
When Yang Jian was wandering in the park, he often saw groups of people playing poker cards, but he never got close to observe. Now that he thought about it, they were probably playing San Gong and Dou Niu, which were seen everywhere and were actually very harmful.
"Xiao Yang, come here, I need to tell you something."
As it was getting close to dinner time, Dan Wei returned and called Yang Jian, who was watching cards, into the office and poured him a cup of tea.
"Uncle Wei, what is it?"
"Xiao Yang, Buddha wants to invite you to work for him. The monthly salary is twenty thousand. Are you willing?"
Dan Wei's opening statement dropped a surprising piece of news.