Yu Weiwei pulled Hua Zhi over to make introductions. The others simply waved their hands to acknowledge the greetings. "Hurry up and join in. You'll get familiar after a few rounds. Why bother with all this unnecessary talk?"
This made perfect sense. Yu Weiwei rolled up her sleeves and jumped right in. "Hua Ling, watch me play a few rounds first. Join in whenever you feel like it."
Hua Ling sat behind Yu Weiwei, watching them play dice and guess the outcomes. Fortunately, these women all had proper upbringing and didn't display the frantic expressions of desperate gamblers. Even when tense, they merely widened their eyes; when losing, they covered their faces, and when winning, they jumped excitedly. Freed from societal restraints here, everyone was completely relaxed.
Even the Zhu Family young lady was far from her initial quiet demeanor, her emotions fluctuating with each win and loss.
After watching for a while, Hua Zhi started placing bets herself. She had both wins and losses, yet showed no particular reaction to losing, which made others perceive her as quite self-assured.
With this group of women playing for amusement, there were no underhanded tricks involved - wins and losses depended entirely on luck. Hua Zhi didn't hold back, placing bets quite generously. By the end of the day, she had won quite a bit of goodwill. When they left at dusk, the others even invited her to come again tomorrow.
On the way back, Yu Weiwei's excitement hadn't subsided yet. Considering herself quite familiar with Hua Ling by now, she naturally linked arms with her and began coaxing. "Let's go again tomorrow! We'll play different games tomorrow, alright? Please?"
Hua Zhi leaned against the carriage wall and tilted her head to look at her. "So happy?"
"Of course! I won this much." Yu Weiwei made an eight-shaped gesture with her fingers. "It's been so long since I last won - today I finally turned my luck around! By the way, Hua Ling, did you win or lose?"
"I didn't keep count."
Yu Weiwei stared at her. "You don't even care whether you win or lose? Quick, count it now."
Hua Zhi indifferently pulled out all her banknotes. Compared to the few she had brought initially, there were now considerably more.
Yu Weiwei enthusiastically helped count. "Three thousand eight hundred eighty taels. How much did you bring?"
"Exactly five thousand taels." Hua Zhi smiled. "Looks like all your winnings came from my losses."
Losing over a thousand taels yet remaining so composed made Yu Weiwei increasingly convinced of this person's substantial resources. Still, she felt the need to explain: "We weren't conspiring to take your money..."
"I never thought that. Not to look down on you all, but among today's players, I really didn't notice anyone skilled enough to control the dice outcomes."
"...Save some face." Yu Weiwei shot her an embarrassed glare. "We're just playing for fun. Why would we learn those dirty tricks? We still have to maintain our dignity."
Hua Zhi laughed. "Does your family approve of you playing this every day?"
"Not every day. We only play like this occasionally when we're having fun. Normally, I only come once every seven or eight days, sometimes ten days. The others are similar. Otherwise, even with Jin Yang's tolerant atmosphere, this wouldn't be permitted."
Hua Zhi nodded understandingly. "That makes sense. Then take me to play again tomorrow."
"No problem!"
The next day, Hua Zhi followed Yu Weiwei back and played some different games, losing some money as usual. Although no one controlled the games, it wasn't difficult to lose some money - just follow whoever had bad luck when placing bets.
The loser was always more popular than the winner. By the third day, when Yu Weiwei couldn't accompany her anymore, Hua Zhi had already gained permission to go by herself.
Over several consecutive days, she experienced both wins and losses, though losses were more frequent overall. The silver she had lost accumulated to seven thousand taels, and she had become the most popular person recently at this gambling house reserved for women.So when she said she needed to rest for a few days, everyone was quite disappointed, yet they couldn't press her further, only repeatedly urging her to return after a few days.
"Miss, please have some soup." Early in the morning, Nian Qiu brought over a steaming bowl of soup. Despite having consumed plenty of nourishing broths these past few days, her young mistress had visibly lost weight, which left Nian Qiu feeling deeply troubled.
After forcing down half the bowl, Hua Zhi languidly collapsed onto the daybed, too listless to move. For someone who disliked gambling, spending every day in that place was pure torment—more exhausting than closing a major business deal.
"This servant just saw Young Master Little Six outside. Would you like to see him?"
Of course she would. These past few days they'd both been going out separately, and with Little Six returning late, they'd had few opportunities to talk.
Stepping outside, she found the young man already seated in the courtyard.
"Sister Hua." Little Six hurried over. Noticing her worn-out appearance, he knew it was due to recent events and felt a pang of heartache—she shouldn't have had to endure such hardship.
"Why sit out here? Aren't you cold?" Hua Zhi felt his clothing—rather thin for late November's chill. Snow would likely fall soon.
"We'll need to wait here for Yan Xi's arrival, probably for several more days. Nian Qiu, later please buy us some heavy winter clothes, and get some for everyone else too."
"Yes."
Little Six seized the opportunity to interject, "Let's continue this inside."
The inn they rented was Jin Yang's finest, with heated floors making the rooms much warmer than outside. After drinking a cup of hot tea, warmth gradually returned to their bodies.
"They've created a special venue for Jin Yang's ladies and madams to amuse themselves. Surely they wouldn't neglect the menfolk of Jin Yang."
"Indeed. Like the horse racing track, that place requires an introduction to enter. Zeng Xiangyan probably considers me young and harmless, plus I've been spending liberally, so he's been taking me along these days. It's been quite an education." Little Six smiled wryly. "I never knew silver could vanish so quickly."
"Are the stakes very high?"
"What we play for isn't even the highest tier. Wins and losses hover around four thousand taels. I overheard them mention their fathers' games involve tens of thousands in single transactions."
With gambling that massive, final pots reaching hundreds of thousands wouldn't be surprising. However, the women's gambling house didn't charge commissions—he didn't know about the men's establishment.
"Five percent commission—not low at all."
Indeed not insignificant. Just this would earn the behind-the-scenes boss substantial profits.
"Sister Hua, can Jin Yang's situation... be changed?"
Hua Zhi didn't mince words. "It's very difficult. Jin Yang's gambling culture is already established, and locals take pride in it. They don't see their gambling as equivalent to elsewhere. The mastermind behind it is too clever."
"Then what should we do? We can't just let this continue!"
What could be done? When something becomes deeply ingrained in society, change becomes tremendously difficult. She certainly couldn't think of any solutions. Hua Zhi sighed. "Let's wait for Yan Xi."
"Shouldn't we inform Father Emperor?"
"Even if we did, what could he do? Ban it? How? If they shut down the gambling houses, people would just gather friends to play in private homes. Can you forbid households from entertaining themselves?""I just wanted him to see these things, to tell him there is no era of peace and prosperity, to make him feel some sense of crisis so he wouldn't act recklessly." Especially not torment you! Little Six gritted his teeth secretly. This was clearly a matter that could shake the foundations of the state, yet the burden fell entirely on Sister Hua. She gained no benefits from it but kept getting reprimanded from time to time—he felt indignant on Sister Hua's behalf!
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