Chapter 346: Leaving You Behind Again

“Sorry, Miss Ah-Hua, Miss Ah-Li said she doesn’t know you…”

Upon hearing the bunny girl say this, Ah-Hua’s face turned pale, as if her heart had been fiercely squeezed, missing a beat.

“How is that possible? Did you really confirm with her properly? Could it be that you found the wrong person? Or maybe, maybe…”

Ah-Hua had many questions she wanted to ask, but perhaps there were too many thoughts rushing through her mind, getting stuck in her throat, unable to form a complete sentence.

How could this be? What happened to the miss during her disappearance? Is she okay now? Ah-Hua wondered.

Facing Ah-Hua’s barrage of questions, the bunny girl smiled politely and replied, “I’m very sorry, dear guest. I’ve repeatedly confirmed with Miss Ah-Li, and she indeed says she doesn’t know you.”

Ah-Hua stepped forward, grabbing the bunny girl’s shoulders anxiously, “Impossible, impossible! How could the miss not recognize me? Please, help me…”

Seeing Ah-Hua’s fingers dig slightly into the bunny girl’s flesh, Lu Yibei frowned slightly and pulled her back, “Ah-Hua, don’t trouble others; this has nothing to do with her.”

“I…” Ah-Hua turned to look at Lu Yibei, her eyes slightly red, hesitating to speak.

Although she was anxious, eager to rush upstairs to find Jiang Li, she knew well that this Entertainment City was not a place to act recklessly.

Otherwise, her miss would have already requested the Midnight Watchers Society to send Centaurs to turn this place upside down, rather than trying to win against the Big Boss through gambling repeatedly.

“Don’t worry, calm down first. We’ll think of a way together later, okay?” Lu Yibei added.

According to Black Peony, the owner of Dream Come True Entertainment City was an Eldritch Destroyer even older than her. Acting rashly would only create trouble without solving any issues.

At Lanruo Inn Customs Shop, although Lu Yibei felt a constant sense of unease, she didn’t perceive Black Peony’s strength through her psychic sense. However, she did sense Hydrangea’s psychic energy fluctuation, which was not weaker than Ms. Rabbit’s.

As the master of Hydrangea, Black Peony could only have grown more formidable.

In fact, if she weren’t worried about being unable to defeat Black Peony and facing trouble from Celestian later, she wouldn’t have obediently paid the fine.

The greatest sorrow in this world is when a person dies, and their money remains unspent.

Spending money to avoid disaster and befriending a big shot seemed like a worthwhile deal to Lu Yibei.

Now, although she didn’t know why Jiang Li claimed not to know Ah-Hua, to prevent the situation from escalating, calming down and slowly understanding the situation was the right path.

“…”

Ah-Hua nodded silently, lowering her hands in resignation.

The bunny girl, having worked at Dream Come True Entertainment City for a long time, had seen many similar scenes and didn’t show any unusual reaction, maintaining her professional smile throughout.

Once Ah-Hua released her grip, the bunny girl slightly bowed, “Dear guest, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you. Would you like to continue playing today? If not, I can assist you with hotel arrangements.”

“Play! Of course, we’ll play!” Before Ah-Hua could respond, Lu Yibei chimed in.

“If we don’t play, how can we win enough chips to go upstairs and settle accounts with that ungrateful old hag?”

Without finding Jiang Li, how could she contact the Entertainment City’s Big Boss to discuss canceling the Hua City station issue?

Charging up there wasn’t an option.

I’ve long passed the age for hot-blooded adventures, and I don’t have the protagonist’s ability to talk my way through killing. Lu Yibei thought.

After hearing Lu Yibei’s words, Ah-Hua glanced at her, frowning slightly.

Though she didn’t like Lu Yibei’s term for her miss, it seemed that winning enough chips and gaining access upstairs was the only way to meet Jiang Li.

The bunny girl smiled at Lu Yibei, “This guest is very confident! Let me wish you good luck in advance! Please follow me, I’ll lead the way.”

With that, the bunny girl gestured for Lu Yibei and Ah-Hua to follow her, leading them towards the lower three floors of the Entertainment City.

Following the bunny girl, Ah-Hua remained silent for a while, worriedly asking Lu Yibei, “Wang Buliuxing, you said you plan to win enough chips to find the miss upstairs, but do you really know how to gamble?”

“Hey! Are you underestimating me?” Lu Yibei raised an eyebrow.

“Back in the day, I was gambling in Macau(gambling hub) at three, entered Grand Lisboa(casino) at four, became a gambling prodigy at five, learned bad habits at six, and lost everything by seven. Now at twenty-seven, I’m still carefree.”

“Hey! That’s a movie line, isn’t it?” Ah-Hua rolled her eyes at Lu Yibei, “Can you be serious at a time like this?”

“Uh…” Lu Yibei scratched her head, “Alright, I’m actually not very good at this! I’m quite skilled at Gomoku and Beast Chess, though. I wonder if they have those games here?”

Ah-Hua’s mouth twitched, pressing further, “How’s your math?”

“Not bad, probably at a master level in arithmetic, just a beginner in mathematics.” Lu Yibei replied expressionlessly.

“After all, I’m just a student from the College of Liberal Arts; you can’t expect too much, right?”

“Then why did you act so ambitious earlier?”

Lu Yibei shrugged, “Wasn’t it to cheer you up when you were feeling down?”

Ah-Hua, “…”

She suddenly felt that if Lu Yibei could manage not to lose everything tonight, tomorrow, or even in the foreseeable future, it would be quite an achievement.

“Then later, why don’t you give me the chips and let me handle it?”

Though Jiang Li usually participated in the gambling games at the Entertainment City, and Ah-Hua had never directly engaged, she had learned quite a bit from being around Jiang Li for so long and felt confident in winning enough chips to reach the middle three floors.

As for the upper three floors…

Thinking of the various “monsters and demons” showcasing their skills in the middle three floors, Ah-Hua couldn’t help but sigh silently.

Whether she could win enough chips to reach the upper three floors and find Jiang Li was uncertain; it would depend on luck.

Following the bunny girl through a corridor filled with “anti-gambling slogans,” the moment the heavy redwood door at the end of the hallway opened, the vast space of the lower three floors of the Entertainment City unfolded before them.

The entire hall was circular, with a large courtyard in the center.

Under the bright lights, the first floor was filled with slot machines, coin pushers, fishing machines, and other gambling devices. The sound of small steel balls and coins pouring out of the machines filled the air.

The second floor was lined with various gambling tables-Russian roulette spinning, beautiful dealers expertly arranging tiles at the tile-gaming tables, dealing poker, and shaking dice in cups.

They wore red bunny girl outfits, different from the waitstaff, with a black and white pinstripe vest over them. If you walked around to the back of the gambling table, you could see their long legs wrapped in black fishnet stockings and the hollow design revealing most of their smooth backs.

On the third floor, there were individual private rooms, and through the doors, the crisp sound of Mahjong tiles clashing could be faintly heard.

In various corners of the hall’s ceiling, semi-transparent and semi-solid ghostly blue eyes floated, scanning around, faintly emitting weak psychic energy fluctuations.

Presumably, they were used as surveillance systems to prevent guests from cheating, a little Haunting.

Having never seen such a “big scene,” Lu Yibei looked around for a moment and couldn’t help but comment, “How insidious!”

“What?” Ah-Hua was taken aback by the remark, tilting her head.

Lu Yibei pointed to a beautiful dealer on the second floor, “I mean they’re so insidious, hiring so many beautiful older sisters as dealers. Kids can’t resist; they’ll be too busy looking at the beauties and end up losing everything.”

Ah-Hua gave Lu Yibei a look, patted his shoulder, and said, “Which is exactly why, kid, hand the chips over first, will you? I’m heading upstairs.”

“…” Lu Yibei was silent for a while, reluctantly taking out a small bag of chips from her guitar case. After grabbing a small handful, she handed the rest to Ah-Hua.

“I’ll keep a little to play downstairs myself. You can find me once you’re done,” Lu Yibei said.

Although she was genuinely reluctant to hand over the chips to Ah-Hua.

But as an excellent successor of socialism, she was clueless about gambling. If she went in herself, she’d probably just end up giving away chips.

Moreover, she had some confidence in her luck. Even if her luck wasn’t at the level of a jinx, it was close to having the aura of misfortune.

Taking the small bag of chips, Ah-Hua advised, “Hmm, I suggest you just play the fishing machine; it loses a bit slower.”

“Tsk! You talk as if I’m bound to lose.” Lu Yibei rolled her eyes, pointing at the small bag, “But you, take it easy later, don’t go losing everything later!”

“Don’t worry, most people on the lower three floors don’t have any impressive skills. I’ll quickly win enough chips.”

Probably…

Although Ah-Hua had seen Jiang Li participate in many gambling games, when it was her turn, she still felt a bit unsure.

Lu Yibei watched as Ah-Hua walked upstairs, feeling that her silhouette was as heavy as a warrior generously heading to the battlefield.

Perhaps, this was the weight of money?

Once Ah-Hua disappeared from view, Lu Yibei withdrew her gaze and looked at the dazzling array of gambling machines in the first-floor hall, rubbing her small hands.

So, where should I start?

No, with my luck, jumping right in might lead to losing everything quickly.

Maybe I should look around, observe, and learn a bit first.

Thinking this, Lu Yibei searched around with her eyes, locking onto a seemingly friendly-looking uncle playing a slot machine, and stepped forward to stand beside him.

Feeling someone approach, the uncle instinctively turned his head and saw Lu Yibei staring at him with big, watery eyes, looking very serious.

Stare-!

“Little girl, do you need something?”

“No, you play your game, just pretend I’m not here,” Lu Yibei said expressionlessly.

Stare-!

Uncle, “…”

Damn, what’s wrong with this girl?!

Can a person play properly or not?

While Ah-Hua joined a Mahjong game on the lower three floors, and Lu Yibei stared at the slot machine, making the unknown uncle feel uneasy, a high-stakes gamble was taking place in a luxurious private room on the upper three floors of Entertainment City.

On the large gambling table, chips with a face value of “10000” were piled high, and three guests sat in different directions.

One was a haunting with a pale face and sickle-shaped horns on its forehead, another was a watermelon-headed boy of about fourteen or fifteen, wearing thick glasses, and the last was the silver-haired girl in a black dress.

They were playing Blackjack, a common card game, which was Jiang Li’s second most skilled card game after Mahjong.

The reason was simple: Blackjack was easy to count cards!

Jiang Li looked at the cards on the table again, pondered for a few seconds, and pushed out more than half of the chips in front of her with a “swish.”

Based on her calculations, the next card dealt to her would either be the Ace of Hearts or the Jack of Diamonds. If she got the Ace of Hearts, she would win 100%, and with the Jack of Diamonds, she had over a 60% chance of winning.

“Swish-swish-!” Two more soft sounds of chips scattering followed, as the demon type haunting and the psychic energy boy were clearly not ones to admit defeat.

“Call!”

“I’ll call too!”

Thus, the beautiful dealer smiled and dealt a card to each of the three.

Jiang Li picked up her card and glanced at it. When the Ace of Hearts appeared in her view, her eyebrows slightly raised, and she flipped the card over, gently placing it on the table.

“Sorry, 20 points.”

Upon seeing Jiang Li’s card, the demon type haunting, who had almost lost all his chips, froze for a few seconds before slamming the table and pointing at her angrily, “Damn it! Are you counting cards?!”

Jiang Li looked at the demon type haunting with a cold expression, “It seems there’s no rule against counting cards in this Entertainment City’s rules, right?”

“You also used your innate ability, but unfortunately, your ability was within my calculations.”

“You…” The demon type haunting hesitated, noticing the black-clad security personnel stepping forward from behind him, he frowned.

“Hmph! You’re good, but just wait!” He said fiercely, gathering the remaining dozen chips and storming off.

Shortly after the demon type haunting left, a bunny girl entered from outside, came to Jiang Li’s side, knelt beside her, and whispered in her ear, “Miss Ah-Li, I’ve told Miss Ah-Hua as you instructed that you don’t know her.”

“However, she seems unwilling to give up and borrowed chips from her companions to join a Mahjong game on the third floor.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Li frowned slightly, took a chip from the table and placed it in the bunny girl’s hand, saying lightly, “Thank you. If she loses everything, please exchange some small denomination chips and help her buy a ticket home.”

“Understood!” The bunny girl replied, her hands trembling slightly as she accepted the “10000” denomination chip.

Watching the bunny girl leave, Jiang Li sighed silently and murmured in a voice only she could hear, “I’m sorry, Ah-Hua, this time I have to leave you again…”