Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 2(21)

Just as he was about to give up and expose himself on this last shake, Hua Cheng stopped him.

“Wait.”

Xie Lian could feel the hands covering his pressing down a little harder, so he stopped moving altogether. “What’s wrong?”

Hua Cheng asked, half-jokingly, “I don’t believe this gege has mentioned what will happen should he lose?”

Hearing him call Xie Lian “gege,” Shi Qingxuan and Lang Qianqiu both wore complicated expressions on their faces. The crowd of ghosts also felt massive shivers run down their spines, and there were even a few who were so shocked that their heads dropped to the ground.

It was a little embarrassing to say, but because he was in such a hurry before, Xie Lian hadn’t considered his side of the bet.

“Um…”

At first, he considered also betting ten years of his life, but a heavenly official’s life span was quite long, so ten years probably wasn’t worth very much. Money or treasure? He didn’t have any. Spiritual power? He didn’t have much of that either. Xie Lian surprisingly couldn’t think of anything he could bet with at the moment, so he could only ask advice from the owner of the Gambler’s Den.

“Do you think there’s anything on me that’s worth betting with?”

Hua Cheng chuckled at his question. “Anything’s fine. What have you got on you?”

Xie Lian pondered briefly, then lightly coughed and told the truth: “I…only have a half-eaten bun with me.”

Hua Cheng burst out laughing. Even though he laughed, no one else dared to do the same, even if they wanted to.

When he finally settled down, Hua Cheng nodded. “That’s fine. The bun will do.”

The moment he spoke those words, they not only shocked the crowd of ghosts but the croupiers at the gambling table as well.

Since the opening of this Gambler’s Den, there had been countless inconceivable bets made: organs, life span, emotions, abilities…but none were as inconceivable as the one today, a half-eaten bun.

Even Lang Qianqiu couldn’t contain his surprise, and he sputtered, dumbfounded, “What…what’s the meaning of this? Are you saying that I…that I’m only worth a half-eaten bun?!”

The crowd snickered and laughed. Someone called out, “What’s wrong with a bun? You’re getting off easy, so shut up!”

Xie Lian could tell that despairing voice belonged to Shi Qingxuan, who was hiding among the crowd of ghosts. Just as he was caught between laughing or crying, Hua Cheng coaxed him to continue.

“Come. It’s the last round. Don’t be nervous.”

“I’m not nervous,” Xie Lian argued.

The two stayed like that, hands still touching, and shook a few times. Even though Xie Lian was truly not nervous, there was still a light sheen of sweat on the hand sandwiched between the cup and Hua Cheng’s palm. Finally, the movement came to a stop. It was time for the reveal. He drew a small breath, then opened the lid—

The dice were two sixes!

Xie Lian let out a sigh of relief, aware of what had transpired, and he gazed up at Hua Cheng. Hua Cheng arched his brows.

“Oh, I lost.”

Even though he acted serious when admitting his loss, he didn’t sound the least bit sincere. The crowd below was engulfed in silence.

There’d been people grumbling earlier, “If this round doesn’t count, then when will it count?” Now, the answer was clear: it counts when this guy wins.

That level of generosity was almost insane!

Even so, no one dared to comment. The croupier from before took the black wooden gambling cup and raised it up high.

“Congratulations to this gongzi. You have won this round.”

Everyone generously gave face and cheered.

“Chengzhu showed us a perfect loss! Beautiful!”

“Wasn’t the winner personally taught by Chengzhu? He won because Chengzhu taught him well!”

“That’s right! Learning the correct dice rolling posture today really opened my eyes! So much benefit gained! So much that it’d take more than ten years to reap it all!”

Listening to the voices of the swarming devils from all around, Xie Lian couldn’t help but smile. Seeing his mirth, Hua Cheng also chuckled and gave the red curtains a flick.

At that point, Lang Qianqiu called out from above, “Since you lost, you should be letting me down!”

Hua Cheng continued to stare at Xie Lian, his smile unchanging and his gaze not moving from Xie Lian’s own. He simply lifted his hand and gave an easy wave, and Lang Qianqiu came crashing heavily down. Xie Lian winced at the loud crash. Shi Qingxuan couldn’t risk exposing himself, so he couldn’t rush forward. Instead, Xie Lian turned and bent down to check up on the god.

“Are you okay?”

Lang Qianqiu crawled to his feet and dusted himself off. “I’m good, thank you. He probably wanted you to go up there so that he could cheat and make you lose—but thank goodness you won!”

Xie Lian thought, You’re completely mistaken. If he didn’t go easy on me, even if the whole world turned to ash, I would still never be able to win you back…

Just as he was thinking that, there was suddenly a crisp tinkling of bells, and the sound was followed by gasps of shock from all around. Xie Lian turned his head to look, and it turned out that Hua Cheng had finally emerged from behind the red silk curtains.