Chapter 162: The Trap

"Ha, my friend is indeed a man of discernment, a truly wealthy person! Consider yourself smart!" The scarred man laughed wildly upon hearing Hua Tianyu's words.

"However, I'd like to have a few words with Wang Ming first, how about that?" Hua Tianyu asked, pointing at Wang Ming.

"Go ahead, as long as the debt is paid, you can say whatever you want! I am just that reasonable of a man!" The scarred man agreed readily. To him, as long as someone was willing to pay back the money, nothing else mattered.

"Wang Ming, get over here! Get inside the room!" Hua Tianyu said.

"Alright, Brother Tian!"

Wang Ming acknowledged and followed Hua Tianyu into the inner room, while the scarred man and his companions each lit a cigarette at the doorway, puffing away in clouds of smoke.

Wang Hong and her mother were reluctant to stay outside with the scarred man and his gang, so they followed them into the inner room as well.

"Tell me from the beginning, what on earth is going on?" Hua Tianyu pulled over a random stool, sat down, and asked.

"Well... they forcefully dragged me into gambling..." Wang Ming evasive and stuttering.

"Heh!" Hua Tianyu stood straight up from his seat and said sternly, "If I hear one more falsehood, I'll turn around and walk out right now. Whether you get beaten to death by them or not, I won't care!"

"Don't, please don't!" Wang Ming said with a mournful expression, quickly stopping him. "Brother Tian, I'll talk... I'll tell the truth, I beg you not to be angry!"

Hua Tianyu secretly shook his head, sighed, and sat back down.

"Wang Ming, if you still refuse to tell the truth, do you believe Mom and I will kick you out of this family?" Wang Hong chimed in from the side, furious to see that her younger brother was still unwilling to be honest at a time like this.

"Wang Ming, tell your brother-in-law what really happened. We can't let your brother-in-law throw his money away for nothing!" Hu Dongmei's tone wasn't as severe. In her eyes, her son was still much more important than her daughter, even though her son was completely good-for-nothing.

Moreover, she seemed to have already convinced herself that Hua Tianyu would definitely pay off this high-interest loan for her son today, and she certainly didn't call him son-in-law for nothing!

Hua Tianyu glanced at Hu Dongmei with a sense of helplessness. For Wang Hong's sake, he didn't say anything, but he couldn't help thinking that Wang Hong's mother was quite a piece of work!

"Speak! I want the truth!" Hua Tianyu said to Wang Ming, who was standing right in front of him.

"Brother Tian, it was like this. Remember last time when we were eating at the Regal Hotel and ran into Meng Yaowu from the Yaowu Hall of the Juyi Martial Arts Club?" Wang Ming began.

"Mm, I remember. I made him get acquainted with each of you. What does that have to do with your debt?" Hua Tianyu asked.

"After that incident, didn't those people from Yaowu Hall always go out of their way to avoid us folks from the Star Language Bar? Well, among them, there was a guy named Zhang Yue—the one with the buzzcut who came here that day—he sought me out and said he admired me a lot, wanting to make friends."

"Zhang Yue?" The image of the guy he had beaten up during his first job interview immediately popped into Hua Tianyu's mind.

"I thought that kid seemed sensible enough, so I agreed. At first, we just drank tea and played cards together with a few of his friends... Then he had a friend, a super wealthy kind of guy, who hung out all day, drove a BMW, hung out with chicks, and wore a Rolex..."

Mentioning Zhang Yue's friend, Wang Ming's face was filled with envy. "During that time when I played cards with them, my luck was pretty good, and I basically won every time. Then Zhang Yue told me I had a gambler's luck, and that someone with gambler's luck could go to a casino and easily win a couple of million in a single night!"

"Heh... go on!" Without even asking, Hua Tianyu could already smell the heavy stench of a conspiracy through Wang Ming's words.

"At first I didn't believe it either, but his rich friend told me he was just that kind of person. He never worked, and his family didn't run a business; he just relied on his gambling luck, often going to the casino to make a million or eight hundred thousand, and then coming out to buy BMWs and pick up chicks..."

"So you got tempted? You followed him to the casino?" Hua Tianyu asked.

"Yeah, once I heard that and thought about it, it really made sense. Usually when playing cards, it was just me and him winning the most, and besides, I was winning even more than him. So if he could make a million or eight hundred thousand, why couldn't I?" Wang Ming replied.

"Ha, didn't you win a lot of money when you first went to the casino?" Hua Tianyu sneered.

"Brother Tian, how did you know?" Wang Ming was extremely surprised, as if Brother Tian had been standing right beside him the whole time. "When I first stepped into the casino, it was like the God of Gamblers had possessed me. For the first hour, I only won and never lost! Ten thousand in just one hour! A solid ten thousand..."

When Wang Ming spoke of that ten thousand, his face still carried a look of yearning.

Hua Tianyu was utterly speechless; the guy was an absolute idiot.

"The first night, I played the whole night and won a total of three hundred thousand. I had never seen so much money in my life. That night when I went out with Zhang Yue and the others, I paid for everything. For the first time, I could act like a big shot. Money was earned so easily that I didn't even have to use my brain when spending it!"

"Yeah, you really didn't use your brain!" Hua Tianyu said.

"Brother Tian, I..."

"Cut the crap, keep talking about what happened!"

"Then the second night, I followed Zhang Yue and the others back to the casino. At first, I won a lot of money again, but later I wanted to play a big hand, and of course, that big hand was the one I lost... Afterward, I just wanted to win back the money I had lost and then quit, but not only did I fail to win it back, I lost every single cent I had!"

At this point, Wang Ming's face collapsed into an expression of profound regret. "If I had just stopped playing after the first night, everything would have been fine. I could have gone and bought a BMW by now!"

Listening to him, Hua Tianyu could only chuckle inwardly: People who fall into the gambling abyss generally fall into two categories. The first kind are those who, after winning some money, start believing the God of Gamblers has possessed them, never suspecting it's a trap carefully set for them to walk into.

The second kind are those who lose money and constantly want to win back what they lost on the previous hand, only to sink deeper and deeper until, waking up in a shock, they realize all their money is gone!

These two types of people are practically the cash cows of any casino; without them, casinos wouldn't be able to stay in business for a single day.

And Wang Ming had managed to embody the traits of both types of people all by himself. It would be a miracle if he didn't fall into the pit!

"After I lost all my money, Zhang Yue lent me ten thousand yuan, saying it was to help me make a comeback. But I lost it all in just two hands! When I asked Zhang Yue to lend me more, he was out of money too. However, he told me that casinos usually allowed people to borrow money, and that once I won, I could just pay them back. He said if my luck was good and I won quickly, it would only take a moment, and the interest was super, super low..."