Chapter 13 The Psychology of a Scam

"Think carefully… when challenging Mr. Jing, he chose the table himself, but dealing with that third-rate… he shouldn't need to cheat." Jin Mianchou thought to himself, "And when I challenged him, I didn't consider changing tables… But looking at it now, including this match… he's already had three duels at the same table."

He glanced at the referee's meticulously stern, almost expressionless face, half-hidden behind sunglasses, then looked at Brother Jue.

"When he issued the initial challenge, although he seemed to casually choose the closest table, 'where he stood' was ultimately his own decision, wasn't it? In other words… the actual situation might be—he found the referee he'd bribed among the many, then deliberately strolled to the vicinity of that referee's table before issuing the challenge." The more Jin Mianchou thought, the more reliable his reasoning seemed. "His dramatic method of choosing challengers with the 'spinning straw' was also to conceal this fact; under the circumstances where no one wanted to step forward to duel, his actions would undoubtedly amaze those around him at how he 'could even randomly choose opponents,' thereby overlooking the points that 'he also chose the table' and 'this table was likely not casually chosen by him.'"

Di-di-di—

Just as Jin Mianchou was pondering, a series of urgent beeps interrupted his thoughts.

"The feedback time limit has been reached, sir." The referee's cold voice followed immediately. "The penalty for overtime is 1% of the initial gold limit. In addition, the next thirty-second timer starts immediately…" As he spoke, he looked at Jin Mianchou and pointed to the timer, "The next penalty will be 2%, please be aware."

"This…" Only then did Jin Mianchou belatedly realize that he had wasted too much time thinking this and that. For the first time in his life, he felt… that there wasn't enough time to think.

This was a situation he had never encountered before…

Jin Mianchou was an outstanding person, a true "elite."

His family background wasn't particularly wealthy, but it was quite solid. Having never attended public school, he was an exceptional presence in any group.

Top grades, top athletic ability, and even innate advantages in appearance.

During his student days, he was always associated with words like cadre, representative, and talented student. Or, to put it more directly, he was the legendary "other people's child."

Before graduating from university, he had already received an offer from a well-known company and became the youngest senior manager in the company's history in his sixth year.

He was a standard winner in life, he hardly knew what setbacks were, because he never failed.

Receiving praise, winning victories… was a matter of course for him; he also enjoyed basking in the envious and admiring gazes of others.

In his eyes, the mediocre people who appeared in his life were insignificant "extras," while he… was like the "protagonist" of this world.

Until… this year, when he was thirty-two years old…

A month ago, Jin Mianchou had a disagreement with his superior on a certain project. So conceited that he was self-opinionated… he chose to ignore the other party's advice and forcibly execute his own choice.

As a result… he suffered a complete defeat, causing a huge loss.

This gap couldn't be filled by himself… even if he went bankrupt; however, if he could get a sum of eight-figure circulating funds, then he would still have a way to mediate and remedy the situation, at least for a long time, no one would discover his behavior.

So, he appeared on this ship today…

Today, he still believed, as always, that he was the "protagonist" here.

However… the nightmarish reality gradually awakened this person who had not experienced much ups and downs in life.

And that "reality's" name was—Feng Bujue.

…………

"Hurry up and write." Seeing that the other party was still hesitating, Brother Jue smiled and put pressure on him. "What? Don't you think sending me $1000 is enough? If you run overtime again, it'll be 2000."

"I… I protest!" Jin Mianchou suddenly turned around and shouted at the organizer on the second-floor railing.

His howl not only attracted the organizer's attention but also made many people in the main hall look towards him.

"Ha…" The organizer opened his mouth, exhaled a breath, then stood up and looked at the other party, "What are you protesting?"

"Your people have been bribed by him! They're colluding to cheat!" Jin Mianchou shouted at the organizer while raising his hand to point at the man in the suit and sunglasses and Brother Jue beside him.

Hearing him say this, the referee was also stunned, not knowing how to react.

"Heh…" Feng Bujue spread his hands and laughed, "Look at that 'tattling to the teacher' attitude of yours… tsk, tsk~"

This ridicule didn't have any practical meaning, but… he just liked it…

"My people… bribed by him?" After two seconds, the organizer also responded with a smile, "Why do you say that? Do you have any evidence?"

"The evidence is this!" Jin Mianchou shouted confidently and raised the paper in his hand.

"What's wrong with this paper?" the organizer asked.

"He guessed 1A5B in the first round!" Jin Mianchou replied.

"Oh…" The organizer responded weakly, "So?"

"So?" Jin Mianchou's tone changed. "So they must be colluding to cheat!"

"Heh… hehe…" Hearing this, the organizer shook his head and laughed dryly.

Almost at the same moment, Feng Bujue also laughed in the same way.

"What are you laughing at?" Jin Mianchou already sensed that the atmosphere was wrong, and his voice lowered.

"Who says… you can't guess 1A5B in the first round?" the organizer asked.

"And who decided… that guessing 1A5B in the first round is definitely cheating?" Feng Bujue also asked.

"Absurd!" Jin Mianchou shouted, "If it's not cheating, how is it possible to guess all six numbers in the first round?"

"Then… have you seen or exposed his methods?" the organizer asked.

"I…" Jin Mianchou didn't answer the question directly. "The method is to cooperate with the referee! The referee must have told that crow-man the numbers in a place I can't see… like some blind spot… through gestures or signals!"

Hearing this, the referee instinctively wanted to defend himself, but after looking up at the organizer, he ultimately swallowed the words back.

He knew… in front of the organizer, defending himself was unnecessary; the act of "defending" was itself a kind of questioning of the organizer.

"No, he didn't." As the organizer spoke, he operated on the tablet in his hand, pulled out the surveillance footage of Feng Bujue and Jin Mianchou's table from the past few minutes, and displayed it in fast forward. "From the footage taken by this camera, it can be seen that he hardly made any movements, his hands, feet, shoulders… were very steady, and even actions like trembling his lips or fingers were absent."

"This…" Seeing this, Jin Mianchou said again, "Then that crow-man cheated through other methods! The referee either didn't see it, or he was bribed… and pretended not to see it!"

"Hoo—" The organizer breathed out again, picked up the mysterious beverage at hand, took a light sip, and then continued, "Let me sort out my thoughts…" He paused, "You accuse my subordinate of helping others cheat, but you can't produce any evidence at all, nor can you say the exact method; and your only basis is… the answer given by the other party in the first round."

Even Jin Mianchou himself could hear that he was at a disadvantage from these words, and he quickly added, "No! There are many other signs…" He pointed to Feng Bujue again, "He… he said 'I see, it's these numbers' just after I finished writing the answer! And he only declared seven rounds! These are all signs of cheating!"

"Signs…" The organizer sneered, "Hmph… that's an interesting way of putting it." He looked at Brother Jue and asked, "Mr. Crow, how do you explain?"

"Psychological warfare." Feng Bujue replied succinctly.

"Did you hear that?" The organizer said to Jin Mianchou again.

"He… this…" Jin Mianchou didn't know what else to say, after all, the lack of evidence was a fatal flaw.

However, Jin Mianchou didn't want the duel to continue… because he had already determined in his heart that Brother Jue was cheating; even if Brother Jue wasn't cheating, he had already guessed 1A5B in one round, so the possibility of guessing the answer within seven rounds was extremely high, which meant… that Jin Mianchou couldn't hold out until the eighth round to surrender; and once the ten thousand stake was lost, he would be directly eliminated.

"Then… this game doesn't count!" Jin Mianchou continued, "I demand a restart! And change the referee." He said to the organizer, "Heh… what do you say? To prove the fairness of the duel, I don't think you'll re…"

"Okay~ okay~ I got it." The organizer interrupted the other party and said to the bodyguard B beside him, "Do it."

"Yes, young master." Bodyguard B responded.

Before he finished speaking, this strong man, nearly two meters tall, jumped out from the several-meter-high second-floor railing.

His momentum was like a tiger descending from the mountain, a ferocious dragon plunging into the sea.

After landing with a bang, the strong man rushed to the cart where Brother Jue was in five steps, and grabbed Jin Mianchou's shoulder with one hand.

"Ah—" Jin Mianchou cried out in pain.

But before he could shout out the second syllable, he was pressed to the ground by the other party with a set of extremely skilled and powerful grappling skills.

"You… what are you doing!" Jin Mianchou shouted loudly with his mask pressed to the ground. He tried to resist, but found that he was as if he was being trampled on by an elephant, completely unable to move.

"You have already 'completely lost'," Bodyguard B replied, "Leave here with me."

"What! What nonsense are you talking about?" Jin Mianchou shouted even louder, "Organizer! What's going on? Please explain!"

"Are you stupid?" At this time, the organizer had already sat down again and was leisurely playing with his tablet, "Still asking me what's going on? Don't you understand the rules of the gambling table?"

"Wh… what rules?" Jin Mianchou said laboriously.

"The rules are…" At this time, Feng Bujue replaced the organizer and said to Jin Mianchou, "Cheating, at best, results in hands and feet being chopped off, and at worst, you fill the debt with your life."

Hearing this, Jin Mianchou was truly exasperated: "I… I didn't cheat! Clearly it's you…"

"Accusing the other party of cheating without any evidence is the same." The next second, the organizer said again, "You might as well think about it, if what you said is true, what kind of treatment would my subordinates receive?" He raised his finger and pointed at the referee, "The world of gambling is not the kind of place where you can point at someone's nose and shout cheating and be able to stay out of it…" He shook his head, "Without solid evidence, without the ability to catch people in the act, and without the awareness to bear the consequences… you dare to brazenly say that the other party 'must be cheating'…"

Bang—

The organizer immediately slammed the railing in front of him and shouted in a stern tone for the first time, "Do you think this is the game room of a kindergarten? You even dare to demand to restart a game? You still want me to 'prove the fairness of the duel'?" He waved his arm and pointed, "If there weren't ladies present, I would have had someone beat the shit out of you two minutes ago!" He paused for half a second and shouted to Bodyguard B, "He signed a 'protection contract,' right? Drag him out immediately!"

"Yes!" Bodyguard B took the order, moved the knee pressing on Jin Mianchou's spine, picked up this guy and left.

"No… don't!" At this point, Jin Mianchou finally knew that he was afraid, but begging for mercy… was undoubtedly too late.

"Wait a minute." Unexpectedly, at this moment, Feng Bujue suddenly spoke, trying to stop Bodyguard B.

However… Bodyguard B ignored Brother Jue. This guy seemed to have not heard at all, and dragged Jin Mianchou out with his steel-like arms around his neck.

"Wait." After two seconds, the organizer spoke again. This time, Bodyguard B stopped.

"Mr. Crow, do you have any other opinions?" the organizer asked.

"No, no, I just… have a few words I want to say to Jin Mianchou." As Feng Bujue spoke, he had already stepped forward and came to Jin Mianchou.

The latter's expression at the moment was basically the same as the mask he was wearing.

"Mr… Mr. Crow…" Jin Mianchou said to Brother Jue with a crying voice, "Help me plead! I'll give you three… no… five thousand!"

Brother Jue ignored the other party's begging and said to himself, "Do you want to know why I was able to guess 1A5B in the first round?"

Jin Mianchou was stunned by the question and replied mechanically, "Wh… why?"

"It's actually very simple…" Feng Bujue said, "I guessed."

"That's impossible!" Jin Mianchou replied almost instinctively.

"No, it's easy." Brother Jue said, "First of all, you must have written 1, which I 'saw', because the movement of the pen when writing the number 1 is very obvious, and I can be sure that there must be a '1' in the answer.

"Secondly, you must have also written 8 and 9, because you know that my guessing habit is to extend backward from six 0s. If the answer does not contain 8 and 9, it can help me save a round; at least before I made the 'seven-round' declaration, your idea was reasonable.

"And then, it's just guessing…

"Due to work reasons, I have researched many things related to puzzle-solving. I have seen in a document from the 1990s… that when people write numbers randomly, the three most commonly written numbers are 3, 5, and 8; although I am not sure about the reliability of that document, but anyway, it's just guessing, I don't need to 'believe' anything; moreover, in my previous duel with Mr. Jing, the numbers he wrote also included these three numbers, which can also be regarded as a kind of evidence in a sense.

"In short, so far, I have these five numbers: 1, 3, 5, 8, and 9.

"Then… I considered 'repeating numbers'. Adding a repeating number would increase the deceptiveness of the answer, which you know very well, and I don't think you would let it go, and which one would this repeating number be? If you refer to my guessing order… then choosing 9 would be the best, which would ensure that I would not try out all six numbers until the ninth round.

"So, I wrote—135899, which is the origin of this answer."

"No…" Jin Mianchou stammered, "…no! You're lying to me! It's impossible to be so coincidental! The reasons for guessing 1, 8, 9, and 9 are still valid, but 3 and 5…" He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "With your guessing method, the probability of guessing more than four numbers is very high, but if you guess all of them…"

"I didn't plan to guess all of them either." Feng Bujue said, "My original plan was to 'guess four to five numbers in the first round', as long as I could do this, my plan would already be successful."

These words were like a sharp arrow, piercing through Jin Mianchou's heart, causing all the blood flow in his body to stagnate.

"You… you didn't intend to complete this duel at all…" After a few moments of thought, Jin Mianchou murmured.

"You finally understand." Feng Bujue replied calmly, "As I said before, you are a 'second-rate'. The difference between third-rate and second-rate is… the former is too incompetent, while the latter is self-righteous. Therefore, compared with third-rate, second-rate is easier to have 'ideas implanted'." He shrugged, "To tell you the truth, I… never intended to cheat, I just gave you the perception that 'I must have cheated' through 'all kinds of previous performances'. And in a fit of desperation, you made a 'self-destructive' reaction."

Hearing this, Jin Mianchou realized something again: "Could… could it be! When you were playing against Mr. Jing, you were already…"

"Yes." Brother Jue smiled, "At that time, I had already completed the 'layout'; publicly asking the referee about 'cheating' was considering… that in the subsequent duels, I might encounter some opponents who were very good in the 'field of calculation', at this time, the 'as long as you cheat and don't get caught, you can pass safely' shadow that I buried in the opponent's heart became my invincible blade in psychological warfare."

Astonishment, despair, fear, unwillingness…

Feng Bujue's ideas flowed quietly in the air, he allowed Jin Mianchou to experience a complex, indescribable sense of frustration.

After a moment of silence, Jin Mianchou reopened his mouth: "One day, I will come back… whether it's five years or ten years… I will pay off my debts and make a comeback! At that time, I will also be on the gambling table… to take re…"

"Hmph… that's really naive." Feng Bujue sneered and interrupted, "'One day'? 'Make a comeback'? Heh… people who say these words when they fail will probably gradually get used to failure…"

As he spoke, he put his hands in his pockets and took two steps back, "Just like the mentality you had when you came to challenge me… 'because you are not sure whether you can still have an advantage in the next game, so you want to get rid of the potential strong enemy in this game first', which seems to make sense at first glance; but the world of gambling has never been reasonable. People lose everything and even die for inexplicable reasons… that is gambling. Your level of calculation—this kind of plan to 'put yourself in a safe situation as soon as possible'… is not feasible here, not only is it not feasible, but it will also lead you to your own destruction."

Speaking to this point, Feng Bujue had already turned around and walked away slowly: "People who have not really sat on the gambling table are full of confidence and want to win… it's extremely ridiculous. You should go back to your familiar field and pay for the other wrong decisions in your life."