Proofread by May Zou

Mr. Guo was quite unpleasant as he had lost 200,000 yuan in the game he played with Zhang Jun just now. So he asked Zhang Jun to play mahjong with him, hoping to win back at the mahjong table. But he would never know that Zhang Jun had the ability of X-ray vision.

Mr. Guo had a large circle of acquaintances and knew almost everyone in the Chess Cards room. Soon four people gathered with his call for playing mahjong.

Zhang Jun, Zhuang Wen, Mr. Guo and another man surnamed Ma entered a private room designed for playing mahjong. The room was a large one with complete facilities and two waiters stayed behind to provide special services.

The fact that Zhang Jun hadn't played mahjong for many times was not an obstacle for him. The four people played a kind of local game which had 136 mahjong tiles. The rules were simple but the game itself was rather entertaining.

Mr. Guo stipulated a 1000 RMB yuan ante for per game, and there was no objection. The mahjong game began then.

An important key to the winning of mahjong game is good luck, when your luck is coming, even G.o.ds can't stop. But this time things were obviously different, since Zhang Jun could see not only what tiles other players had, but also what tiles remained on the table.

Therefore, he had designed his own set patterns from the very beginning, just waiting to complete a hand. Of course, sometimes others might chow, pung or kong (meaning to take in tiles discarded by other players to form a set of three identical tiles, or a run of three consecutive numbers, or four of the same tiles) which might disrupt his design partly, but finally it would not affect the overall situation after a slight adjustment.

Both Zhuang Wen and Mr. Guo felt that the game was a little bit weird. After playing ten rounds, they found that Zhang Jun had an obvious characteristic in playing mahjong, that is, he never made mistakes when he discarded a tile, which was simply most exceptional luck.

Zhuang Wen had been intensely curious about Zhang Jun since the latter had showed his wonderful skills on the billiards table. Zhuang Wen had been observing him all the time at the mahjong table. "Lin Xian's friend is really remarkable. He is absolutely a master with such a fantastic billiards skill!" Zhuang Wen said to himself.

Zhang Jun had already won about three hundred thousand yuan after fifteen rounds. Mr. Guo finally realized that the youth in front of him was quite skillful in mahjong and it was impossible for himself to win back.

At that time, another Mr. Ma toppled the tiles on the table and said, "It's too boring. Let's stop it. How about playing five card stud?"

Actually Mr. Guo was about to play poker when he came here, and mahjong was just the prelude to playing poker. He looked at Zhang Jun and said with a smile, "How about you, bro?"

Zhang Jun had been very excited when he first began to win the money. But gradually he calmed down. He kept telling himself secretly, now that he had already had the ability of X-ray vision, sooner or later he would make a great fortune. So such little sum meant nothing to him.

With this mentality, he was in a peaceful mood. He nodded and said, "OK, no problem."

Five card stud was a kind of poker game which was much more exciting. In playing such a game, money would be coming and going very quickly. So of course the players must meet much higher requirements in psychology and technique. However, none of these would restrict Zhang Jun, because by his X-ray vision he could see the other players' cards.

In the following games, Zhang Jun always lost a little but won a lot. And finally he won more than one million yuan just in half an hour, which made Mr. Guo break out in a cold sweat. At the end of the last round, he stopped and said to Zhang Jun, "Bro, you are very good at playing cards. It's really admirable. Let's stop here."

Zhang Jun smiled slightly and said, "Okay, I'm also tired. Let's just stop here."

Zhuang Wen also partic.i.p.ated in these rounds. He lost more than 100,000 yuan. Then he gave the thumbs up to Zhang Jun and said, "Bro, you are really very good at striving for good fortune and staying out of trouble, as if you had known the cards already!"

Zhang Jun felt a bit uneasy, so he said with a forced smile, "You are flattering me, Big Wen. It was just because of good luck."

The other people thought Zhang Jun was so shrewd that it was too difficult to gain money from him. They all wished that he would leave as early as possible. There was no objection to his leaving.

Zhuang Wen followed Zhang Jun and they left together. When they returned to the living room, Lin Xian had already been waiting there for a while. She looked at Zhang Jun with a smile and said, "It's inconceivable that you even went to gamble, Zhang Jun! How much did you lose?"

Zhuang Wen said with an eccentric expression on his face, "Lose? This Brother Zhang won two million yuan in a short while!" Then he smiled bitterly and said, "At first I was afraid that he would lose too much due to inexperience. But later I understood that he was playing the role of a pig but preying on the tiger! And he was actually sweeping every obstruction in front of him."

Lin Xian looked at Zhang Jun surprisingly and asked him in disbelief, "Are you really so good at gambling, Zhang Jun?"

Zhang Jun nodded embarra.s.sedly. After all, he won by gambling, so the money was kind of ill-gotten.

Unexpectedly, Lin Xian looked very happy and said, "That's great! Last time my cousin lost more than eight million yuan here, and you give vent to his anger today!"

Zhuang Wen was speechless for a while and then said, "Say, my dear Miss Lin, why do you still remember such an ancient thing?"

Lin Xian hummed, "Everything in your club is fantastic except opening a casino, which has made my cousin lose all his private savings he had saved secretly."

While the three of them were talking, Zhuang Wen's telephone rang. Soon after the phone was connected, his face changed, and he said seriously, "Have you found Master Sun yet?"

"What? Isn't Master Sun in Donghai? Give you one hour, and in only an hour I must see Master Sun!" Zhuang Wen, who was always gentle and elegant, had a somewhat grim expression on his face at this time.

Hanging up the phone, Zhuang Wen was beside himself for a while, standing in situ like a soulless puppet. How could he boast of the temperament of the First Childe in Donghai in him?

Lin Xian sighed softly and asked, "Is there something wrong with Lele? Hasn't she recovered yet?"

With a long sigh, Zhuang Wen said, "She has had an attack of her old illness again today and has bit Shu Jie."

"Your wife was injured?" Lin Xian stood up surprisingly. "I'll go to see her!"

Zhuang Wen waved his hand and said, "Don't go to see her right now, please. Lele is still under the attack and you'd better go to see her until she recovers." After that, he left thoughtfully even without saying goodbye.

After Zhuang Wen left, Zhang Jun couldn't help asking, "What's the matter, Senior?"

Lin Xian sighed and said, "Zhuang Wen has a 15-year-old sister who suffered from a strange disease at the age of 10. She will fall into a state of insanity at intervals. When she is crazy, her tone of speech and manner of behavior will completely change as if she were another person, which is really frightening."

Zhang Jun felt a jolt, "Couldn't it be possible that she was caught by a ghost, Senior?"

A trace of fear flashed in Lin Xian's eyes. Looking at Zhang Jun, she said, "It's indeed called as 'ghost-catch' in folklore, while in Western medicine it is considered as a kind of mental illness. Over these years, Zhuang Wen's family have brought her to far more than 100 medical inst.i.tutions at home and abroad. However, Lele hasn't been relieved of her disease and she still suffers a lot."

Zhang Jun thought about it and said, "Can I go to Zhuang's residence to see Lele together with you, Senior? After all, I've already got acquainted with Big Wen."

Lin Xian nodded, "It's very kind of you to say so and Zhuang Wen must be very happy to know about this."

The departure of Zhuang Wen made both Zhang Jun and Lin Xian in no mood to remain in the club any longer. Soon after, they left the club and returned to their room in the hotel for rest.

And early in the morning of the next day, the two went together after breakfast to Tianji Jewelry Town in Donghai, the host place of the Stone Gambling Festival.