Chapter 634: The Earth Monkey's Rules

Everyone sat around the table as Di Hou reached out to shuffle the deck, then looked up at the group with a calm expression.

Qi Xia rubbed his forehead and said:"Di Hou, you're really not going to explain the rules of this deck?"

Di Hou carefully placed the cards down and replied:"How about it? With your level, you should be able to figure it out during the game."He then pulled a cigarette from his suit pocket and lit it.

After hearing this, Chen Jun Nan felt it was a bit unreasonable and, after holding back for a while, spoke up:"Ge Hou, isn't this against the rules?"

Di Hou exhaled a smoke ring and asked lightly:"Oh? How so?"

Chen Jun Nan laughed and said:"You're running a game called 'Du Chang,' and as the agent of this 'Du Chang,' you're not letting the gamblers know the rules? That's pretty bold of you. When will this place go under?"

Di Hou took the cigarette from his mouth and held it between his fingers:"Ha. Losing all your 'Dao' because you're unfamiliar with a game's rules is something that happens every day in this Du Chang, so I'm not really breaking any rules."

Qi Xia snorted coldly after hearing this:"But that's just boring."

Di Hou echoed:"Boring?"

Qi Xia touched his chin and said:"You've been looking forward to this for so long, finally getting to use this 'Shuo Wang Yue,' but you're planning to win by information asymmetry? Is that the extent of your strategy? What are you afraid of?"

Di Hou's gaze wandered slightly at these words, as if he was mulling over Qi Xia's comment. After a few seconds, he sighed softly and said:"You're right. To make the game run smoothly, I should explain the basics."

Qi Xia didn't know what Di Hou was thinking, so he just crossed his arms and waited for the explanation.

Di Hou placed the shuffled deck on the table. At first glance, the group saw that it wasn't a full deck—probably fewer than a standard set of playing cards, around thirty or forty cards.

He flipped over the top card and laid it on the table, revealing its face.

It had only two characters in standard script—"Mang Zhong."

Di Hou looked at the card, then flipped over the second one for everyone to see."Zhong Qiu."

Naturally, the group understood what these cards meant. "Mang Zhong" was one of the twenty-four solar terms, and "Zhong Qiu" was a traditional festival. With over thirty cards in total, it was likely that the deck included all the twenty-four solar terms and traditional festivals. But what kind of game would this be?

Di Hou explained:"At the start of the game, a 'public card' is drawn and placed in the center of the table for everyone to see. Then, each player draws two cards—one face up for all to see, and one face down that only you can look at."

Qi Xia nodded after hearing this:"Then what?"

Di Hou smiled mysteriously:"Then, you use your two cards plus the 'public card' in the center to form a three-card hand and compare it against everyone else's. The player with the highest hand wins all the chips on the table."

The group showed confused expressions at these words."Compare hands...?"

These cards only had Chinese characters on them. What did "comparing" mean? Was it about comparing dates?

But if it was dates, why use the face-up card, face-down card, and the public card? Wouldn't it be simpler for each person to just draw one card and compare?

Di Hou continued:"As for winning conditions, you can rest assured. My 'Du Chang' has its standards. If your hand beats mine, I'll acknowledge it—no cheating or denying the loss."

Qi Xia asked:"Then... how do we decide the winner? Is it one round and done?"

Di Hou shook his head:"No... of course not. I wouldn't bring out my 'Shuo Wang Yue' for just one round."

He picked up the two cards from the table, shuffled them back in, and said:"Eight rounds in total. After eight rounds, the game ends, no matter what the chips look like."

Qi Xia frowned and nodded.

Now, they not only had to figure out the rules within eight rounds but also win enough "Dao" in those rounds to redeem the six of them.

Xiao Cheng asked from the side:"Then, how many 'Dao' can you win per round?"

Di Hou replied:"Good question. At the start, everyone puts in one 'Dao.' Then, each person gets a face-up card, which everyone shows. The player with the latest date on their card goes first and decides whether to raise."

Someone interjected:"Raise?"

Di Hou nodded:"That's right. This is a Du Chang, after all, so it has its own rules. After the first person raises, the others go in clockwise order and have three choices: fold, call, or raise. Folding means giving up the 'Dao' already bet and cutting your losses. Calling means matching the first person's bet, and raising means betting more than the first person."

The group nodded after hearing this.

Di Hou went on:"And if someone raises in the middle, the others who haven't folded have to go around clockwise again with those three choices until everyone has folded or called."

He scanned the group and said:"These are the basic table rules. Is that clear enough?"

Everyone looked hesitant. While Di Hou's explanation wasn't hard to follow, they still hadn't grasped the most crucial part.

How do you actually compare the hands?

Once you have your cards, how do you know if they're worth betting on?

And for the group, there was a even bigger issue.

Even if the game was about comparing dates from the twenty-four solar terms and traditional festivals, the festivals were straightforward, but who could accurately recall the dates of the twenty-four solar terms?

Which came later—"Bai Lu," "Gu Yu," or "Mang Zhong"?

They could only hope that the comparison wasn't based on dates but maybe something like the number of strokes in the characters; otherwise, the game would be impossibly difficult.

Di Hou said:"Whether you understand or not... that's all the game can tell you."He looked at the six people sitting in front of him and asked:"Are all of you going to join this gamble?"

Tian Tian and Xiao Cheng both turned to look at Zheng Ying Xiong, while Chen Jun Nan quietly asked Qi Xia:"Lao Qi, do you know the exact dates of the twenty-four solar terms?"

Qi Xia rubbed his forehead again. Though he felt a bit dizzy, he knew that wasn't the real problem.