Chapter Eleven: The Beginning of a Career

  The villagers opened a gambling house and were caught soon, it was known that Dongzi did it, because the village committee's duty officer Old Zhao personally heard him calling the criminal police team, he couldn't shirk responsibility.

  The next day, Dongzi was surrounded by people as soon as he went out. No matter how he explained, it didn't work. After a beating, someone told him that he had to pay the fine to the traffic police team, or they would break his legs.

  Dongzi was just beaten and returned home, another group came again. After his parents knew the situation, they scolded him for being stupid and asked him to go out and apologize to people. Dongzi had just gone out and was beaten again.

  Dongzi had just returned home with great difficulty and was about to rest when someone else blocked their way. Dongzi's parents saw that something big was going to happen, and if they didn't escape, they would be beaten to death by the villagers. They gave Dongzi dozens of yuan and sent him jumping over the wall to run away, telling him to go to a relative's house to avoid trouble for the time being, and then come back after this wave passed.

  As soon as Dongzi left, his brother began to add insult to injury and exaggeratedly told the criminal police team about the matter, with everyone blaming and attacking each other, saying that the other was in cahoots with Dongzi.

  He saw them like this and his heart completely cooled down. Those who normally called each other brothers were now scattered like sand, and he began to distance himself from these people.

  Dongzi walked away, and Heizi was safe. After this incident, Heizi realized that to stand firm in the village, he had to cultivate his own people in the village. He reviewed several familiar thugs, about 20% of whom had some potential.

  Brave and generous, kind-hearted, doing things with a sense of justice, worth befriending.

  The next afternoon, Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei arrived at Er Cheng's home.

  Ergou Zheng was sitting in the yard sunbathing, and when he saw Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei coming in, he almost jumped over the wall to run away. Just as he stood up, Heizi shouted: "Ergou Zheng, don't be afraid, it's nothing."

  Two Cheng looked at them with a mixture of trust and doubt. Hei Zi said he wanted to chat with him, so Two Cheng moved two chairs over for the three of them to sit in the sun together.

  Late autumn, the sun shone on his body in the afternoon, warm and comfortable. Hei Zi picked up the tea that Er Cheng had just brewed for them and took a sip, saying: "Er Cheng, did you participate in Dong Zi's game in the past?"

  Er Cheng didn't know why Hei Zi asked this, he hesitated for a moment and said: "I often go there, sometimes I play a few rounds, most of the time I'm just helping him keep an eye on things."

  Hei Zi nodded and said: "That's good, you're familiar with the opening, I want to let you work with me, are you willing?"

  "Two successes didn't think Hei Zi was inviting him to do it together, happily said: "Hei Ge, of course I'm willing, after graduating from junior high school, I haven't done anything, farming is so annoying, too tiring, and no other income, ah."

  "Two successes, and one rule when working with me is to quit gambling. We only open the game, we can't gamble ourselves, or else no matter how much money we make, it's not enough to cover our losses." Hei Zi explained.

  "Black brother, don't worry, I can handle this."

  Hei Zi chatted with Er Cheng for a while and said, "Alright, we should go now. You can come over tomorrow night, there are some things I'll tell you then."

  Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei expressed their own thoughts in the farmhouse courtyard, now they only have more than 10,000 yuan in hand, nothing can be done, this gambling den still has to open, at least it has to open for a winter, in order to avoid being caught, he wants to rent two more rooms in the village, and then the gambling den will not be opened in this room, but temporarily decided to open there.

  Xiao Fei admired Heizi's meticulous arrangement and nodded, saying: "This is good too. I suggest that you don't participate in future gambling sessions. You can direct us, and we brothers will do the job."

  "Xiao Fei, not only can't I participate, but you also can't. Our money is in your hands, so you'll be the one lending it out. At the beginning of the game, you have to stay outside, and if someone wants to borrow money, let Da Kui run errands or give him a little less money, lest we all get taken down together."

  According to Hei Zi's arrangement, he and Zhu Xiao Fei turned to the backstage. From then on, Er Cheng was in charge of this situation, Da Kui was responsible for lending money, collecting debts, buying cigarettes and other things, and Yin Le led people to be responsible for safety.

  Yesterday evening the village was caught gambling, tonight no one came to play, they happened to go find a few mixed villagers who had a good relationship with the village, and asked them to bring them around to listen for renting houses.

  They didn't run in vain at midnight, they rented a yard by the sandy river in the north of the village. The yard was further north and there were no more houses, it was a dry riverbed. This river only had water when it rained, otherwise it was dry.

  Hei Zi was very satisfied with the courtyard. After obtaining the landlord's consent, he decided to open a door on the north wall the next day, which would be used for escape when someone caught gambling.

  Two days later, Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei, Er Cheng, and Da Kui worked together to clean up the rented house, bought some tables, chairs, and benches, and had two tons of coal delivered. Winter was approaching, and winters in the north were very cold.

  After everything was ready, the casino reopened. After more than 20 days, Hei Zi and his gang made another seven or eight thousand yuan. Hei Zi distributed some of the money to everyone and started renting a third house.

  After collecting the third house, the casino is open every day, but it's uncertain which house it will be in.

  In the eyes of the insiders, Hei Zi is making a big fuss over nothing. Normally, no one would crack down on gambling dens unless there are orders from above or someone reports it, or they need money urgently. They know the surrounding villages very well and the gambling dens operate every day. If they were to crack down every day, the dens would have been shut down long ago and no one would dare open them again. Where would they get their money from? The police are not fools.

  Hei Zi actually knew that even if they were caught, it would only be a fine and nothing more could be done to them. He was doing this just to give the gamblers a sense of security, so as to attract big-time gamblers to his place.

  Hei Zi has been in business for a month now, he hasn't seen any big gamblers, the most money anyone carries is just over 1,000 yuan, and most people only have a few hundred yuan. Some gamblers come several times a month, and even if they come every day, they don't have much money on them.

  The casino has opened and is generating income every day, but the income is not much. After deducting necessary expenses and money given to their brothers, Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei have less than 10,000 yuan left after a month.

  The only good thing now is that Hei Zi can withdraw, and no other way to make money has been found yet. If there's a way to make money, Hei Zi can immediately take people to do it.

  Wish Little Fly a good rest at night and have fun drinking with Hei Zi after resting during the day.

  Hei Zi thought about it and decided that mining was still a good idea. As the saying goes, "rely on the mountain to eat from the mountain, rely on the water to eat from the water". The specialty of this place is iron ore. Although the price of ore can't be raised now, if the national economy grows rapidly one day and the demand for steel increases, the ore will skyrocket immediately. It's necessary to get your own mine before the ore skyrockets, only then can you make a big profit when the ore skyrockets.

  Hei Zi's idea surprised Zhu Xiao Fei, who nodded repeatedly after hearing Hei Zi's analysis. If Hei Zi's prediction was correct, the price of steel would rise within three years, and the price of ore would follow suit. The more he listened, the more excited he became, now eager to make enough money to buy several mines as soon as possible to feel at ease.