Chapter Fifty Someone is Following

  In the late afternoon when it was almost dark, Heizi began to gather his men. Since several of them had mobile phones, it was more convenient for him to notify them one by one and ask them to assemble at the farmhouse before 6 pm.

  Winter nights fall early, it's not even six o'clock yet and it's already pitch black. The sky is gloomy and there's not a hint of wind, the chill is quietly spreading. People walking on the street feel the temperature dropping, and pedestrians are gradually becoming fewer.

  It was just past six o'clock and everyone had arrived, but none of these people could drive. Hei Zi had arranged to pick them up at seven o'clock. This Jinbei van couldn't hold many people, so it would definitely take more than one trip. Hei Zi asked everyone to get in the car and he would send them over first.

  They sent off Zhuo Xiaofei and the other three to the reservoir, and Hei Zi returned just in time for 7 o'clock.

  As agreed, Hei Zi drove the car to the gate of '60's home and gave '60 a call. Without entering the house, '06 soon came out with over ten people.

  "Your car can't fit anymore?" Liu Zhenghua looked at Hei Zi's Golden Cup sedan.

  Hei Zi didn't expect there would be so many people. He hadn't informed many, and according to his estimate, including Zhou Xiao Tian and the others, it should have been only seven or eight people at most.

  "Sixth Brother, why are there so many people?" Hei Zi asked Liu Ling who was just about to get on the car.

  "Isn't it better with more people? I heard there's a party at your place tonight, everyone wants to go and have some fun." said 'Sixty'.

  "Six Zero" opened the car door and sat in the front passenger seat. Heizi supported the car door and said, "Six Ge, my car can't hold any more."

  "Hehe, don't worry, Old Liu is just teasing you, he drove here."

  Following the direction of Liu's fingers, Hei Zi saw a modern car parked there, and only then did he feel at ease.

  Two cars left the town one after another. Just as they drove out of the town, a black Jetta quietly followed behind them.

  Xiao Fei and his group started preparing as soon as they arrived at the destination. They had opened twice before New Year's, so this time it was a familiar routine. The mahjong tiles, cards, and other equipment were all laid out, several thermoses of hot water were boiled, and the ingredients for the midnight snack were taken out of the refrigerator.

  After Hei Zi and the others arrived, Er Cheng and Da Kui as well as Zhu Xiao Fei's two younger brothers went to their respective posts by the road. Wu Mei was in charge of entertaining everyone, which didn't require Hei Zi to worry about it. After playing a few times, everyone knew that Wu Mei represented the casino, and her arrangements were completely obeyed by everyone.

  When everyone started playing, Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei had nothing to do, so the two went to another room to prepare a midnight snack.

  Fifth sister appears to be careless on the surface, but her intelligence is rare for anyone to surpass. Her ability to calculate quickly is innate, as soon as she gets the cards, she can quickly judge the size of the cards in others' hands and the probability of winning or losing.

  A dozen people opened two tables, one playing cards and the other playing Pai Gow.

  Zhou Xiaotian is a professional gambler, and in his five or six years of gambling career, he has won more than lost. He has come to the small town several times, each time leaving with a full load, so everyone is very cautious around him. The only one at the gambling table who hasn't dealt with him is Wu Mei, so Zhou Xiaotian pays the most attention to Wu Mei.

  After picking up two cards, Wu Mei saw that Zhou Xiaotian was thinking about her. She knew that the other few people were not to be worried about, and Zhou Xiaotian was her strongest opponent.

  "'60 years' is an active figure in the casino, he looks at the cards while muttering to himself: "The bitter days are almost over, I won't live beyond 60 years old, Old Zhang will also get to eat meat."

  In the casino, it's taboo to talk nonsense, but in '60s, endless chatter was not taken care of, this sentence is his oral habit, because this sentence was said too much and people gave him the nickname "60 years".

  Wu Mei likes to tease "Liu Ling Nian", as soon as she hears his classic lines, Wu Mei says: "Sixth brother, after working hard for half a year, you immediately returned to before liberation."

  "Alright, sister, I know I'm not as good as you. You can take pity on your brother and slip him a little something through the cracks, so he can have a full meal."

  They nag others and don't stop them, the rest of them are all very regular, and they don't say a word that has nothing to do with playing cards.

  Their stakes were huge, with tens of millions in each person's bag. At first, they bet a few chips at a time, but later they started betting in large stacks. Everyone except Wu Mei was very aggressive, and she always bet small amounts. The others thought she was being cautious, but in fact, she only had 500,000 left, which was all her family's savings.

  Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei had both been living independently for a long time, and they were both skilled at cooking. Before long, the two of them had prepared enough food for over a dozen people to eat. Hei Zi put the last chicken into the pot and said: "Xiao Fei, just heat this up for five minutes, I'm going out to get some fresh air."

  Xiao Fei nodded and said: "Alright, you go, I'll take care of this."

  Snowflakes have already begun to fall from the sky, Heizi looked up at the pitch-black sky, and a big snow is about to fall. I don't know if they can hold on today.

  There wasn't much work left for Hei Zi at night, so he decided to go take a look at Er Cheng and the others.

  He is very familiar with the roads here and can move around in the dark night as if it were daytime, very quickly.

  The reservoir is built in a mountain valley, with an earthen road winding and twisting along the mountain slope into the valley. There is also a small path leading down from the mountain slope to enter the valley. Walking on the small path saves half of the distance compared to taking the main road.

  Hei Zi came out and circled around the house along the small path, climbing up the earth slope. Standing on the earth slope, the main road was in full view.

  Hei Zi looked around for a while and saw nothing unusual, so he continued walking along the small path. After a while, he started to leave the path and quietly walked around the embankment.

  After walking out for five or six hundred meters, Hei Zi carefully observed the two sides of the small road. Soon, he found a suitable earth mound to hide people. He went around this earth mound and quietly looked down from above.

  Under the earth mound was a pit dug out by rainwater, and Hei Zi saw a black shadow crouching in the pit, with two hands clasped around something that was smoking, his body swaying constantly, looking very cold.

  Judging from his build, he looked like Da Kui, and judging from his appearance, he seemed to be frozen a bit. Hei Zi felt a sharp pain in his heart.

  These brothers are really good, in the cold winter they squat here for a night, they have been beaten and scolded for several months, suffered and eaten bitterness, but the money they earned is not enough to change their lives. Hei Zi doesn't know if this is fate's trick or his own incompetence, he secretly makes up his mind that he must change this situation as soon as possible, if he can't rise quickly, he has to think of ways to find a few more younger brothers, at least let them not suffer this sin.

  Hei Zi slowly approached Da Gui, stopping about two or three meters away. Da Gui continued to stare at the small road, completely unaware of Hei Zi's approach from behind.

  Hei Zi sat on the mound and watched Da Kui for a while, seeing that he didn't react, so he stood up again to look at the distant dirt road.

  Suddenly a beam of light flashed and disappeared instantly, it was the light from a car headlight. From the flashing situation, the car's direction was towards the reservoir. Hei Zi's heart sank, he worried that something might happen, turned his head to look around, Da Gui smiled and walked towards where the light had flashed.

  His phone rang just two steps away, and the quiet night made the sound seem very loud, scaring both him and Da Gui.

  "Heizi knew and hastily said: 'Don't be afraid, it's me.'"

  Recognizing it was Hei Zi's voice, Da Gui threw away the cigarette butt in his hand and climbed up the mound in a few strides, saying curiously: "Hei Ge, what are you doing here?"

  Hei Zi took out his mobile phone and pressed the answer button, saying to Da Kui: "I'm worried, let's take a look."