Time kept marching on, and two and a half more hours had passed.
At one thirty in the morning, the card table on the far left of the hall was now surrounded by people, all of whom were staring at Luo An and the stack of more than fifty Gold Coins in front of him.
These people looked at Luo An with shock, envy, or disbelief, but when their gazes shifted to the other three players at the table, they all turned to mockery and teasing.
At this point, the bespectacled man only had five Gold Coins left in front of him, the short-haired man had six, and the man with the cigar had the least, with only two Gold Coins remaining.
After glancing at his own hole cards, the man with the cigar took a deep puff and then looked at Luo An with a voice cold enough to scare:
"You reveal your cards first."
Luo An put down the red wine glass in his hand and asked:
"Are you sure?"
According to the rules of the game they were playing this time, if the first person to reveal their cards has a point total of twenty-one, then even if someone else later also has a total of twenty-one points, they would still be considered the loser.
"Yes."
The bespectacled man and the short-haired man exchanged glances, both staring intensely at the hole cards in Luo An's hand, while the man with the cigar said coldly:
"I don't believe your card total this round is exactly twenty-one points!"
Around the card table, everyone turned their attention to Luo An, and even Sweety, standing behind him, pursed her lips and frowned, staring intently at the hole cards in front of Luo An.
Under the myriad of gazes, Luo An chuckled and revealed his cards without hiding anything; adding them up, he had exactly nineteen points, two less than twenty.
"Ha ha ha—"
Seeing this, the man with the cigar burst out laughing:
"As I thought, not twenty-one points!"
Luo An chuckled and slightly lifted his hand forward, saying:
"Your turn."
The man with the cigar raised his eyebrows, uncovered his own hole cards, which totaled up to twenty points.
The bespectacled man followed suit, also with twenty points, and lastly, the short-haired man revealed his cards, hitting exactly twenty-one points, making him the winner of the round.
Luo An calmly tossed out a Gold Coin; the bespectacled man pushed out one Gold Coin, leaving him with four; the man with the cigar pushed out one Gold Coin, leaving him with just one remaining.
The short-haired man successfully retrieved three Gold Coins, increasing his tally to nine, but there wasn't a hint of joy on his face.
Indeed, Luo An had lost this round, but he still had fifty-three Gold Coins in front of him, won from them.
"…"x3
The atmosphere on the scene was quiet, and the laughter from the man with the cigar gradually stiffened.
"Nineteen points, I didn't expect to have the lowest score this round."
Luo An shook his head helplessly, took a sip of wine, and looked at the other three players at the table, smilingly asking:
"Another round?"
"…"
Faced with Luo An's seemingly bewildered but deadly remark, the crowd around the table fell silent; the bespectacled man and the short-haired man were silent for a few seconds, then took a deep breath, stood up from their chairs, and left without any hesitation.
Luo An turned his gaze to the cigar man, who snorted coldly, casually took his time to fix his hair, and then... quickly turned and left the table.
The surrounding crowd burst into laughter, and Luo An chuckled lightly, waved over a waiter, and pointing to the Gold Coins in front of him, said:
"Help me organize these and record them under my account.
Oh, and transfer twelve Gold Coins to Miss Sweety's account. She deserves a share of the credit."
"No problem."
The beautiful waitress gave a smiling response, winked at Luo An before leaving, and cast a mysterious glance.
Luo An selectively ignored the waitress' eyes that were seeking an opportunity to chat with him and turned to look at Sweety, only to find her sitting on a couch in the distance, drawing circles with her head down.
Luo An walked over, picked up a glass of champagne, and handed it to her with a smile:
"How about that, think lending me ten Gold Coins and only getting twelve back feels like a bad deal?"
"It's not that..."
Sweety opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, then stopped. Her original plan was to have Luo An lose all ten Gold Coins, and then owe her twelve favors. She hadn't expected...
Taking the champagne Luo An handed her, Sweety looked perplexed and asked:
"How did you do it?"
She had borrowed 10 Gold Coins from her, and won 53 Gold Coins in just a few hours... Besides shock, incomprehension, and suspicion, feelings of unspeakable envy and jealousy were also swirling in Sweety's heart.
She had been in the club for four years and had only managed to save just over a hundred Gold Coins, yet Luo An, who had just joined the club, won half of what she had saved in a single night.
Luo An picked up a glass of red wine, took the initiative to clink it with the champagne in Sweety's hand, and said with a smile:
"I just got a bit lucky."
Sweety rolled her eyes dramatically. If she still believed Luo An's claim about luck, she'd be a fool.
Sweety took a sip of her champagne and was about to continue her questioning when suddenly, a waiter came over, bowed, and whispered:
"Mr. Greenwood, someone is looking for you."
Luo An raised his eyebrows:
"Who?"
The waiter spoke amiably:
"You'll know when you go."
Luo An nodded as if enlightened, then shook his head:
"Since it's a stranger, I'll pass for now. I'm in the middle of a conversation with my friend."
"..."x2
The waiter froze for a moment, and a look of surprise flashed across Sweety's face. She quickly realized something, wanted to speak but eventually remained silent.
Luo An was very calm, picked up a fork, skewered a piece of fruit, and popped it into his mouth.
He guessed who was looking for him - it must be one of the club's managers. When he had first entered the villa, he had sensed two emotions of interest directed at him.
Luo An had initially thought that the person would come to talk to him, but the person's emotions showed clear interest and yet somehow didn't engage.
Combining these perceptions with the poker tables in the room, a multitude of thoughts flashed through Luo An's mind, and he deduced that there was a certain probability that the person intended to let him lose a few rounds as an opportunity to teach him a lesson.
So, Luo An agreed to borrow some Gold Coins from Sweety, and during the card games, he continuously sensed the fluctuations of those two emotions, eventually confirming his guess that the person indeed wanted to see him lose all his Gold Coins.
Then Luo An won big by using "emotional detection" in his mind to judge the hands of his three card partners.
During this period, those two emotions went from indifference to surprise, then to shock and disbelief, and finally, upon seeing the sixty-plus Gold Coins in front of Luo An, they were utterly numbed and silently had to send a waiter to find him.
Meanwhile, in a room at the back of the villa, an elderly white man with a full head of white hair turned visibly sour upon hearing that Luo An had refused.
Next to him, an elderly white man wearing tea-colored glasses also froze for a moment then started clapping and laughing:
"I like this kid; he's interesting!"
Then he patted the arm of his friend with the white hair, saying:
"Edward, you've been bested twice today! And by someone young enough to be your grandson, no less; it's quite rare!"
Edward, with his white hair, gave his old friend a sidelong glance, took a small sip of his coffee, stood up using his cane, and said:
"Let's go, Morgan. If the lad doesn't want to come, then we shall go and have a talk with him.
The young people these days are too headstrong."
Morgan, wearing the tea-colored glasses, patted his old buddy's shoulder, also stood up, and prepared to leave the room. At that moment, his cellphone in his pocket suddenly rang.
In the hall, as the waiter was persuading Luo An, a white man quickly approached and said in a deep voice:
"Excuse the interruption, Group Leader Greenwood, but an urgent case has come up, and we apologize for the suddenness—we need your help."