A Card Shark’s World - C1

Wang Lao Lai from our village was released from prison a few days ago, and has only just returned to the village to commit another crime. In the middle of the night, he went to the window of Widow Li’s house in the next village and peeked out to take a bath, but he was captured as a thief and sent to the police station. The last time he entered the police station because he had gathered people to gamble, but this time he lost to a woman. He could not help but admit that he was extremely unlucky.

Speaking of this Elder Wang, I quite admire him. Even though he was down and out, everyone was shouting for him. A few years ago, he was an incredible figure. Within the radius of a few dozen miles, no one knew who he was. At that time, I was still in primary school, and every time he saw me, he would seriously rub my head and say, “Lil ‘Six, you have to go to school properly. Don’t be like your father who has no future and only knows how to live a peaceful life.”

At first I thought this guy was mocking my dad, but his expression didn’t seem like it. I was puzzled at the time, but I couldn’t figure out why.

However, I always thought that this Elder Wang was not simple. He especially liked staying with him. Even though I was young, I was much more mature than the same year. The main point is that there are two benefits to being with him. Firstly, he will always buy me delicious food. Secondly, I really like to hear stories from him.

The stories he told were so pleasant to listen to that they were even more exciting than seeing the black cat police chief. But I don’t know if what he said was true or not. I don’t know if it was because I was influenced by his stories since I was young, so when I grew up, it really went on just like it was in his stories …

Speaking of which, someone must be asking. What did Elder Wang actually do? As for me, I’m not being suspenseful. He’s just an old man. It was the way civilized people addressed themselves. Perhaps many people did not know this, but if it was another way of calling themselves, everyone would definitely know. Old Zheng is the so-called Qian, what do you want me to ask Qian for? Then I can only say that you’ve grown up on an alien planet, right? Never seen a Hong Kong movie? You don’t even know what a God of Gamble is? Gambler Hua Zi, Gambling Sacred Star …

Come to think of it, this Elder Wang was indeed a thousand years old, and he was an extremely powerful one at that. Don’t look at his usual sloppy attitude. His skills are not sloppy. You can play any card you want. Even if you tie up his hands, he can still play a thousand cards. (Of course, this is just an exaggeration.)

As for me, as his chief disciple, my Thousand Arts Sect disciple, although I’m not as strong as him, I have yet to meet an opponent. It could be that I have seen too little of the world, or that the other experts simply don’t want to bother with me. But who cares, didn’t I learn Thousand Arts just for the sake of money? It’s not like I’m going to participate in some Thousand King Competition.

Speaking of Elder Wang and I learning the Thousand Arts from him, it was truly a series of twists and turns. If I hadn’t been so determined, I might have given up halfway through. It wasn’t that Elder Wang was unwilling to teach me, but that after my old man found out that Elder Wang and I had learned a thousand techniques, he wanted to take revenge on me and give me all sorts of exercises.

That was a bitter time, and I don’t know how I made it. But now that he thought about it, if he did not learn the Thousand Arts at that time, then there might not be so much nonsense …

A week had already passed since Elder Wang had been caught peeping at Widow Li’s shower. That day, I happened to go up the mountain to look for pigweed when I met him. He was sitting on a big rock with half a red plum in his hand.

Seeing him act this way, I felt too embarrassed to pretend that I didn’t see him, so I went over and called him uncle, asking him why he was sitting here?

He weakly raised his head and glanced at me. He narrowed his eyes and said something that I didn’t quite understand. “Memories of the past, lament the present. The spring wind doesn’t stain my white moustache …”

I didn’t understand. I thought that his brain had been stimulated, so I comforted him, “Uncle, who wouldn’t have some bad luck? Didn’t you already say that people are always unhappy when they drink water?” “The sun always shines after a storm …”

After hearing what I said, he forced a smile and sucked on his lips before standing up and dusting off the dust on his buttocks, feeling reluctant to part with it. Then, he slowly walked away.

I was confused, thinking that this once famous person was in no way ordinary.

Things went on like this originally, but I will continue to live my days like this. However, it was too boring to stay home during the summer vacation, so I went to talk to him whenever I had something to do.

I was only 15 or 16 years old at the time. For people of that age group, they would definitely be chasing after wild chickens and mushrooms all day long. It’s just that I don’t like to move, so to put it bluntly, I’m lazy. I like listening to Elder Wang tell me stories. Although he is down and out and doesn’t have much money to buy delicious food for me, but I can’t be an ungrateful person. If you have good food, follow him.

My dad works in the town’s steel mill. Although his family isn’t rich, it’s not a problem to get food and drink. Normally, my dad would smoke at the front door. Although it couldn’t compare to the red plum tree, it wasn’t bad either. I couldn’t go empty-handed when I went to Elder Wang, so I took the opportunity to get a few bags of the big front door for him.

Our village isn’t very big, and we’ve only been at Elder Wang’s house for a few minutes. As soon as I entered his house, I smelled a terrible stench. If it wasn’t for the fact that I used to come to his house so often, I would have thought I was in the wrong place. When I entered the room, I saw Elder Wang lying motionless on the ground. The stench was coming from him.

I was startled and thought he was dead. With a loud shout, he turned around and was about to run away when he suddenly sat up like a swindler and called out to me.

He asked me why I was so surprised, and I said I thought you were in the wrong. He got up from the floor, walked over to a chair, sat down, and asked me why I was looking for him.

I took the big front door out of my pocket and handed it to him, saying, “As the saying goes, if you add wings to a tiger, you can give it to me in the middle of the snow. I’m not an ungrateful person. No matter what, Uncle, you have taken care of me in the past, and now that you have a bad luck, I can’t not care less. ”

He first stared at the big front door in my hand with his two shining eyes before looking at me thoughtfully. “You brat, you have some conscience. It seems like I wasn’t in vain when I treated you well back then.”

I waved my hand and said, “Uncle, look at how you’re acting now. It’s just going to the police station, what’s the big deal, you have to pull yourself together. ”

He ignored me, just opened my front door, took out a cigarette, and handed it to me. I didn’t smoke at that time, but seeing him like that, I had an indescribable feeling, so I took the cigarette and wanted to smoke with him.

While smoking, he started telling me stories again. He said how difficult it had been for him to be in the Bureau for the past few years, and then what happened, that he was going to be a cripple for the rest of his life.

I couldn’t help but feel sad when I saw that expression. So I went to talk to him if I had anything to do. This went on for about half a month. The Heavenly King Old Lai carried a canvas bag on his back and said that he was going out to find something to do before he left.

It was already the end of the year when they saw him again. It was so cold in the northeast during the winter. You have to take a stick with you when you’re peeing, and knock on the ice while you pee. My dad lost his job during that time, so it was really hard for him to buy a coat for the new year.

I stayed on the kang all day and didn’t dare to go out. Elder Wang came back and directly ran to my house. My father is a very inflexible person, and he doesn’t like him very much, but it’s not good to turn him away because we’re all from the same village.

In fact, Elder Wang had been gone for half a year. When he came back, things had really changed. He was dressed like Xu Wenqiang, who was on the beach. He wore a black windbreaker and his hair was combed extremely bright. He carried a large bag of cigarettes and some wine, and he also brought me some clothes.

When my mother saw the cola, she said some polite words, but her hand had already unconsciously brought those things over. My dad just sat there with a straight face and didn’t say anything. Elder Wang took out a pack of cigarettes that I had never seen before and passed it over to my dad. After chatting for a while, my dad’s complexion improved.

As he smoked Elder Wang’s cigarette, he scolded him on what he had said about people who had to stand firmly and not make things useless in a day. Elder Wang actually didn’t talk back, smiling as he nodded his head, saying that his father’s words were reasonable.

Just like that, a few days later, Elder Wang became my distinguished guest. Every day when you have something to do, you come to my house and visit. Every time you come, you always bring some food to eat. Those things that I collected made my mother feel embarrassed. I knew that Elder Wang must have made a fortune this time, so my mouth was especially sweet as I called him Uncle.

He didn’t treat me unfairly either. Not only did he send me a big red packet, he also brought me to town to buy a pair of Red Star Nail Shoes. At that time, I really loved him to death. He was even closer to me than my own father, and I didn’t call him uncle for nothing after so many years.

Elder Wang had been much more honest since his return. Normally, he wouldn’t cause any trouble, but when he had nothing to do, he would stay home and do nothing. Drinking and drinking all day was very relaxing. Because he was close to my home, there were several times when my mother said that she would find him a wife, but Elder Wang refused.

At that time, I couldn’t understand why this guy would reject Widow Li’s bath after finding him a wife. Could it be that he had changed his mind? But that’s not right. He’s not young anymore. Don’t tell me he doesn’t want to get married? It wasn’t until later when I grew up that I found out that this seemingly sloppy Elder Wang was actually a kind of love child …