Chapter 151 Thousand Family Village
"Boss, are we just leaving like this?"

Yingying didn't quite understand.

Her relationship with Zhou Ze was such that she didn't need to flatter him like Lao Dao and Lawyer An. She could ask whatever she wanted and directly bring up anything she didn't understand.

Of course,

this natural and pure feeling from the heart was something Lawyer An and Lao Dao could never learn.

Just thinking about those two acting cute and saying "yinyinyin," it was eye-searing, so eye-searing.

"Yeah, we're leaving."

Zhou Ze seemed very calm.

"But this road might not be the way back, ah."

Yingying moved a little closer to Zhou Ze. She knew that continuing forward might be dangerous, so she wanted to be close to protect the boss.

"Mm."

Zhou Ze responded and continued:

"Can't be helped, who told me I was the guarantor?"

Although he hadn't known about it beforehand, and now had to take responsibility, even if that Lord Fǔjūn (Lord of the Underworld) of who-knows-what-generation wasn't being very considerate, when it came down to it,

he, Zhou Ze,

did owe the Fǔjūn lineage a huge favor.

If he hadn't had this ghost servant certificate early on,

he, Zhou Ze, would have died countless times already, and wouldn't have this kind of carefree life, isolated from the world's prying eyes.

Even if it was to help them repay a debt because of this, Zhou Boss could accept it.

Of course, asking him to contribute his lifespan or vitality was impossible. In fact, Zhou Ze could see that the woman, or rather, the being that looked like a woman, didn't really want his lifespan. Going through so much trouble, and at such a great cost, to invite him over was more like finding an outside helper.

Alright, then,

no matter what tricks she was playing,

whether it was using a knife to kill or setting wolves against tigers,

he would just accept it.

The one inside Zhou Boss didn't believe in fate and was a standard, deeply afflicted chuunibyou (middle-school syndrome patient);

but Zhou Boss was different. If believing in fate could let him be a comfortable salted fish, he wouldn't mind giving it a try.

That's why

Zhou Boss had Lao Dao take people on a Tong City day trip and kept Lao Zhang by his side, constantly emitting the radiance of a justice incarnate while enduring its blinding light.

Since he had written his name as the guarantor,

then let's see.

If it was just a joke, then he'd treat it as a joke, but what if it wasn't?

Life, ah, even if you have no expectations, you have to create one for yourself, otherwise, how boring would life be?

As for how Zhou Boss saw that there was something off about that woman, it was simple. There was always a man more beautiful than a woman at home.

You've been looking at him for two years already,

if you still can't see through that drag act, then you've really wasted those two years.

Pausing, stopping,

Zhou Ze raised his head and looked up. There was a huge bronze mirror above, covered in a layer of frost. Zhou Ze remembered that there hadn't been this mirror on the way he came.

Yingying reached out and wiped the mirror surface.

The mirror reflected a bird's-eye view of a village.

In the snowy ground was a desolate village, seemingly with few inhabitants. The only thing clearly visible seemed to be an old man sitting at the entrance of the village, juggling three wooden cups.

"Rattle... rattle... rattle..."

The dice were constantly being turned in the wooden cup, making crisp sounds.

The sound was very, very close.

Looking down,

Zhou Ze saw that he was now standing at the village entrance.

Under his feet

was the white snow.

And just ten meters in front of him,

the old man was sitting under a big tree, with three wooden cups placed on a small wooden table.

In the mirror, outside the mirror, the reversal was completed in an instant.

"This is an illusion?" Yingying said, spreading her arms, wanting to forcibly tear through this place.

But Zhou Ze raised his hand,

signaling Yingying to stop,

and said:

"This is the real Qianjia Village, right?" (Qianjia Village: literally Thousand Family Village)

He took a few steps forward and arrived in front of the old man.

The old man was wearing a tattered cotton-padded coat, with two glistening snot bubbles hanging from his nostrils. His cheeks were frozen blue, but he looked particularly energetic.

He didn't seem dirty, because rain and snow seemed to be the best things in the world for covering up filth.

"It's been a long time since outsiders have come."

The old man raised his head, looked at Zhou Ze and Yingying, and a hint of excitement appeared in his eyes.

"We were walking and ended up here. Is there any explanation for this?"

Zhou Ze stood in front of the wooden table.

Yingying walked to the side and grabbed a big tree with both hands.

"Boom!"

The tree was uprooted, and then turned horizontally. Yingying used her palm to shave the bark off the tree, revealing the clean wood inside. Only then did she place the tree horizontally behind her boss.

Zhou Ze sat down, following the momentum.

Yingying clapped her hands and stood beside her boss.

"There's not much to say. Here, we just play this trick."

The old man pointed to the top of his head.

Above, a plaque that seemed like it could fall off at any moment was hanging askew from a wooden stake—Qianjia Village.

In fact, you can change the name to something more popular and easy to understand - Old Swindler's Home.

"We have three rules here. The first rule: accept your losses."

Zhou Ze nodded.

"The second rule: if you lose, you have to stay here for ten years per cycle. You can't come out within ten years."

"Ten years?"

"That's right, ten years. There are seven people in our village now. Including me, there are seven of us. We've lived here for almost eighty years.

The bones outside might have already been ground away. Alas, after so many years, no outsider has been able to come in.

That woman comes here once every ten years, wins over all of us, and then, using the terrain and feng shui (geomancy) here, thrives outside."

Zhou Ze heard the resentment in the old man's words and roughly guessed why that "woman" had asked him to come.

There were seven beings like this old man in this village. Once that old woman really left, no one would be able to win against them and suppress them. When they came out, it would be hard to say who this village, this gambling den, would ultimately belong to.

However,

Zhou Boss really wasn't good at gambling.

In his previous life, after coming out of the orphanage, he had worked diligently, worked hard to earn money, and worked hard to buy a house. He had truly lived a very positive life. How would he have come into contact with this?

At that time, he had no capital to play with, nor the qualification to seek leisure.

"Let's increase the stakes first."

As he spoke, the old man took out a stack of curled underworld banknotes from his cotton-padded coat and placed them on the wooden table.

Zhou Ze was a little surprised and said:

"Didn't you say that whoever loses will be locked up here in place of the other person?"

"That's the big rule. We have to get our own prize, right?" The old man licked his lips.

This was the look of a gambler, not uncommon.

But it was indeed not easy to maintain this original, pure gambler's look after being imprisoned for decades.

"Yingying, get the money."

"Okay, boss."

Yingying reached into her pocket.

"Don't, I've already taken out the money here. If you take out the money too, it'll seem too boring." The old man stretched and said: "I've been locked up here for too long. Besides some money, I don't have any other interesting things.

You're different, you just came in. Get some interesting things to add to the stakes."

"What do you mean by interesting things?" Zhou Ze asked.

"I smell the scent of an official servant on you, although it's very faint, but at least I can confirm your identity.

How about this, put your symbol of identity on the table?"

Zhou Ze hesitated for a moment,

but still took out his Head Constable's token.

When the golden token was placed on the wooden table by Zhou Ze,

the old man's eyes lit up.

"Tsk tsk, this token with such a high gold content is very rare. Head Constable, tsk tsk, Head Constable, hehe."

"What's wrong, is it not okay?"

"It's okay, of course, it's okay, of course, it's okay."

The old man clapped his hands, took away the remaining dice, leaving only one, then crossed his hands, picked up the wooden cup, turned it upside down, and began to shake and switch positions.

The speed was so fast that shadows appeared.

Zhou Ze sat on the wood, watching quietly.

Yingying was also trying hard to watch, but soon found that her eye speed couldn't keep up with the old man's hand speed at all.

About a few minutes later,

the old man put the three wooden cups on the wooden table with a "pah!" sound.

He took his hands away

and pointed to the small wooden table in front of him, saying:

"Guess one out of three, you open the cup."

Zhou Ze supported his chin with his hand, not in a hurry to choose which one first.

Although the stakes had been placed, Zhou Boss still felt that playing this game here, no matter how he calculated it, he would be at a loss.

The old man had been studying how to cheat in this ghost village for decades. Could he win by luck? Was that possible?

However,

the old man also imitated Zhou Ze, reaching out and stroking his own chin, as if he was also pondering something.

"Actually, the word 'gamble' still depends on one word: luck!

No matter how clever the off-field tricks, no matter how good the cheating, it's all just an auxiliary. Since you're gambling, you can't have absolute certainty."

"Oh, what is absolute certainty?"

Zhou Ze moved his gaze to the old man and asked.

"Hehe, I said two rules earlier, there's still one rule I haven't said."

The old man smiled,

reached out,

first took the Head Constable token that Zhou Ze had just placed on the wooden table in his hand,

and continued with a smile:

"It's just a Head Constable."

Next to him,

Yingying blinked.

Zhou Boss remained noncommittal.

"Hehe, it's just a Head Constable."

The old man repeated it again.

Yingying was a little excited, but restrained herself from showing it.

Zhou Boss scratched his head.

"Hahaha, it's just a Head Constable."

Yingying's chest began to rise and fall.

Zhou Boss lowered his head.

"Only those with comparable status can get on the gambling table and have the qualifications to sit down and gamble. Otherwise, if you get on the table naively, you can only be regarded as leeks to be cut."

The old man stood up,

"This absolute certainty is simply overturning the table.

Once the table is overturned,

no matter what's on the gambling table,

no matter what the stakes are, what the wins and losses are,

children make multiple choice questions,

I'll just directly..."

The old man clenched his fist,

"I'll just directly... take everything!"

"Pfft..."

Yingying laughed out loud.

Zhou Boss also raised his head and reached out to wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes that he had just held back from laughing:

"Look at how nervous I was just now. You should have said so earlier."