Chapter Eighteen Who Bit Whom

  The fifth sister has a talent for gambling, she understands it at a glance, and learns it quickly. After watching for more than an hour, she had an urge to try her luck, and casually touched the pocket of her jacket, only to remember that she didn't bring much money when she came out.

  Hei Zi looked around for a while and saw that today's scene was not bad, there were quite a few people, he was very happy. Since Wu Mei was with him, he couldn't leave, nor was he very interested in watching others gamble. He moved a stool by himself and sat on the ground smoking.

  "Hei ge, I want to play a couple of rounds, but I don't have much money on me. Can you lend me some first?"

  "Heizi didn't think Wu Mei would also want to play: 'Wu Mei, they're all big men, you'd better not join in.'"

  "What's wrong, looking down on women?" asked Wu Mei with a glare.

  Hei Zi now regrets coming to Er Jie's restaurant for dinner today, getting stuck with this annoying girl is really troublesome, just look at her, what are you doing playing around like a little girl.

  Hei Zi thought so but didn't dare say it, he was afraid of upsetting Wu Mei. Er Jie had been good to his brothers over the years, and her sister deserved to be treated well too.

  "Wu Mei, I don't have much money on me either, so stop playing around." Hei Zi said as he stood up.

  The fifth sister turned her face with an unhappy expression and said: "A big man like you doesn't even have money but still hangs out in the casino."

  The fifth sister turned and went into another room, Hei Zi didn't notice either.

  After a while, Hei Zi looked at his watch and saw that it was getting late. He stood up and said to Da Kui: "Da Kui, you and Le Er keep an eye on things here, I'll take Xiao Fei to send Wu Mei back."

  "Relax, Hei Ge," said Da Gui with a nod.

  Hei Zi went into another room to find Wu Mei, but unexpectedly saw Wu Mei playing Pai Gow and she was the banker.

  Hei Zi looked at Yin Le and Zhu Xiao Fei standing on the ground: "How did she get involved, whose money are you using to pay her?"

  Xiao Fei looked at the fifth sister who was playing happily on the kang and said, "Old Fifth, I had no choice, she was persistent, so I gave her 300 yuan to play with."

  "Three hundred, three hundred can be a banker, no way, they are not playing small either." Hei Zi looked at the two of them in disbelief.

  "Hei Ge, Wu Mei really has talent. First, she took 300 to fish, then stared at the door. Now, she's in charge." Yin Le smiled and pointed at Wu Mei, who was having a great time.

  After hearing what they said, Hei Zi couldn't help but laugh. He didn't expect things to turn out this way. It's getting late now, and if he doesn't send her back, Er Jie will get anxious: "Wu Mei, it's time to go, if you're late going back, Er Jie will get worried."

  "What's there to be afraid of? I'll play for a while longer." Fifth Sister said without even turning her head.

  He and Wu Mei played with several miners who had been swindled out of over a thousand yuan by Wu Mei.

  The little guy with the surname Lu, sitting opposite to Wu Mei, had poor eyesight and wore a pair of high myopia glasses. People called him Lu Xiaozi. He heard Hei Zi shouting and said unhappily: "Hei Ge, let Wu Mei play for a while longer. Once she leaves, this table will have no one to support it, and everyone's money will be taken away by her soon."

  "Hei Zi heard the fire and said: 'She's just a girl, it's late at night, what are you still playing? Alright, let her go, you guys play a little less, I won't charge you for tonight's expenses.'"

  A few people saw Hei Zi and were a bit unhappy, so they didn't dare play with Wu Mei anymore.

  This round is over and Wu Mei won 1,500 yuan. She picked up five 100-yuan bills and handed them to Zhu Xiaofei, saying "Return yours."

  Xiao Fei handed over three checks and said: "Fifth sister, forget about the interest, I'll just collect the principal."

  Wu Mei patted Zhu Xiao Fei's shoulder and said: "Xiao Fei Ge, today sister wins, this is a red envelope as a reward for you."

  On the way back, Hei Zi said to Zhu Xiao Fei: "Xiao Fei, you can't let Wu Mei come and play again in the future. She comes every day, sooner or later something will happen."

  Two days passed and Wu Mei didn't show up, so Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei finally felt at ease.

  The casino didn't need the two of them to go there every day, so Hei Zi made things easier for himself by having Zhuo Xiaofei give Da Kui 5,000 yuan every day and hand over the small notebook to Da Kui. From then on, all the borrowing and collecting were left to Da Kui to handle, which freed up their hands to do other things.

  The opening is taken care of by Da Kui and Yin Le, while Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei start looking for Village Chief Zhao Yongqing to handle the water reservoir contract.

  Zhao Yongqing took Heizi's money and handled the matter quickly. Heizi went to the hospital and found Er Cheng's father, telling him about the fish pond contract. Er Cheng's father agreed readily, and in just a few days, Heizi brought Er Cheng and his father to sign the contract.

  The benefits of contracting a fish pond are great, generally with a 10-year contract period. Those who contracted the fish pond very early on became rich households in the village. Now they still want to continue contracting. When they learned that the reservoir was contracted by Er Chengjia, they found trouble for Zhao Yongqing once and were driven out of the village committee by Zhao Yongqing. Later, they boasted that the reservoir is their family's, whoever dares to move it will fight with them to the death.

  Winter is approaching, and all the fish in the reservoir have been caught. Now there's no one to take care of it, so Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei went to take a look at the reservoir.

  There is a small bungalow on the edge of the reservoir, which is for the people who take care of the reservoir to live in. The house has some fishing gear inside and a small boat moored in front of it.

  The two of them finished preparing and were about to take over the reservoir immediately, with more than 20 days left before the water froze. They wanted to use the remaining twenty-odd days to build three houses by the reservoir, so that in winter they could open a restaurant there.

  Winter is the golden season for opening casinos, people who work outside have returned, local contractors have also stopped working, workers have earned a summer of money, tired of a summer, people who love to play want to relax in winter, many people as soon as they enter winter, they lose all the money they earned in summer, even losing everything.

  In the village, only small gambling dens are opened, and there is not much profit to be made. Moreover, in winter, people in the village have nothing to do, so they like to gather at the homes of those who are good at gambling to play together. The person providing the venue also joins in, usually without charging any fees. As a result, during winter, no one goes to Heizi's den to play, and business is definitely slow, or even non-existent.

  Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei were both anxious, as soon as they returned from the reservoir, they went directly to the home of the family who used to contract the reservoir.

  The two men were very polite when they entered, wanting to discuss with the family and see how much money they would give for that house and fishing gear, but unexpectedly the family was unreasonable and prepared to drive them out.

  Almost every household in the village raised dogs, and this family had three wolfhounds to guard the reservoir at that time, plus one at home, making a total of four. They were all tied up in the yard during winter, and when Hei Zi and others entered the yard, the dogs barked for a while.

  They didn't come to an agreement, so Hei Zi and the other two were driven out of the house and stood in the yard, feeling very displeased. Hei Zi looked at the dogs in the yard and said: "Xiao Fei, these four dogs can feed us for several days."

  "Hei Ge, always eating dog meat and getting a fever, see if his family has chicken or not." Zhu Xiao Fei looked around left and right.

  The woman of the house saw the two men and hastily said, "You'd better leave quickly, my dog is very fierce and won't care who it bites."

  "Hei Zi sneered and said: 'Still don't know who bites whom.'"