The Gambling House

Tugeum Hall.¹

The Great Saber Gang ran the gambling house, and before I walked in through its doors there was groundwork to lay.

Money, to start with. That I squeezed out of Duho. I knew he’d built up a fair pile one way and another while he was tidying up the territory.

“You take all of this and what are my boys supposed to live on?”
“Don’t fret. I’ll win it back and pay you straight off.”
“That’s what men who’ve gone mad for gambling always say. I’ve never once seen one of them pay it back.”
“Well, then, you’re about to.”
“Ah, hell.”

He didn’t want to give it up, so I took it off him by force. With a fat war chest laid in, it was time to turn myself into a young master snivelling over goods the bandits had plundered. I picked up the bottle I’d made ready and poured it down my clothes, and in a moment the reek of drink was coming off me in waves. I mussed my hair too, and let my eyes hang half open, playing the drunk.

“Ohh… You look exactly like a young master who’s lost his wits. I’d be taken in even knowing better.”
“You mind you don’t get caught out either.”
“Would I ever, young master?”

Duho bent at the waist, all loose and jaunty. His own face had changed a good deal too. A mustache had sprouted where there’d been none, his cheeks had filled out plump, and those few alterations had made him another man entirely. Even I, who saw him often enough, was thrown by it.

He really is good at every kind of trick.

In my past life too, Duho’s tricks did me a great deal of good. Several times they carried me past a death, and they came in handy whenever we felt like making fools of people.

“If you’re ready, let’s go.”

Duho and I left the empty street behind us. Staggering the whole way, I made for the Great Saber Gang’s gambling house, Tugeum Hall.

“Uuugh…”
“Young master, are you all right? You’ve had far too much. Let’s turn back now.”

Duho coaxed me.

“Quiet! Do you know how I feel right now? Because of those bandit bastards the contract with the Shandong Escort Bureau’s fallen through! Have you any idea what that’s cost me?”
“Even so, what good does coming to a gambling house do!”
“I’ve got to make the loss back, haven’t I!”

I bellowed it at him and went in through the doors of Tugeum Hall, Duho trailing after me and wringing his hands. I got past the doorman and set foot inside. The stink of sweat and cheap liquor and acrid tobacco smoke all mixed together and stung my nostrils, and the foul air pulled my face into a frown before I could stop it.

“Aaargh! Another dud!”
“I’ve won! I’ve won! Hahahaha!”
“Ah, to hell with it! What kind of hand is that to draw!”

Screams and cheers and foul language burst out all over and tangled together until my ears rang. Every table had its own gambling gear laid out on it. At one they were drawing sticks and matching hands, at another they had a shell game running, and at another still they were settling it with bamboo tiles marked with pictures and numbers.

Out of all these games, the one we were after was dice. Finding it took no effort at all, since the crowd was thickest there. I shouldered my way in among them and dropped into an empty seat. A single line was gouged into the worn table, with the word for Odd carved on the left and Even on the right.

— Clack!

“Odd or even! From here on, put your money wherever you like!”

The house’s own dealer slammed the cup with the dice in it down on the table and raised his voice.

“Odd! It’s odd this time!”
“Don’t make me laugh! It came up even three times running just now! It’s even!”
“O-o-o-odd! Please!”

People shouted and slapped silver and banknotes down hard, and the money went on piling up in heaps across the tabletop.

There was a reason I’d picked this dice table out of all the gambling on offer.

Duho’s a god at gambling.

Honestly, I had no gift for this sort of thing. I gambled now and then at Blood Sand Plain and lost far more often than I won. Duho was another matter. I could count on my fingers the times I’d seen him lose at a table, and at dice in particular he had never once lost. I was curious about the secret of it and asked him once, and his answer was no help at all.

It’s a feel for it. I hear the dice rattle and it just comes to me, all right?

Even now it makes no sense to me. Whether he simply didn’t want to tell me or whether he really does call it by feel, I couldn’t say. What is certain is that Duho picks the right answer.

When I glanced sideways at him, he touched my shoulder with a finger.

— Tap. Tap.

Twice.

Even.

— Slap.

I pulled every last piece of silver and every note out of my purse and put it all on ‘Even’.

“All right, all right! Betting’s closed! Now, what have the dice given us…!”

The dealer bellowed it out so it rang, and lifted the cup. The three dice read three, three, four. Ten in all, and even.

“E-e-e-even!”

At the dealer’s shout the mood in the hall split clean in two. Cheers and screams burst out all over, tangled together. The gambling house’s men ran to the table, swept up the money staked on ‘Odd’, and paid everyone who’d backed ‘Even’ their stake over again. Silver and banknotes stacked up thick in front of me too.

“Heh heh — there it is!”

I grinned foolishly like a drunk and gathered the silver in. Straight after, the dealer put the dice back in the cup and shook it hard.

— Rattle, rattle! Clack!

The dealer drove the cup down onto the table and called out.

“Odd! Even! Put it wherever the feeling takes you!”

Without fail, Duho’s finger touched my shoulder.

— Tap.

Once.

Odd this time.

I shoved all the money on the table over onto ‘Odd’. There was no need to watch for the result.

The dealer lifted the cup and shouted.

“It’s odd!”

Naturally, I won. The next round, and the one after that, I went on winning without fail. The money snowballed, and before I knew it there were banknotes heaped up in front of me; the silver had long since overflowed and been changed for paper.

“…”

One of the gambling house’s men went to hand me my money and checked himself. He took in the sum piled on the table, and a flicker went through his eyes.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to pay?”

When I snapped at him, the fellow ducked his head.

“…My apologies. Settle up for this gentleman here, would you.”

From behind, another of them came out carrying a stack of banknotes. The sight of that mountain of notes swung every eye in the place to me at once.

— Rattle. Rattle. Clack!

The dealer set the cup with the dice in it down on the table. In that instant the noisy gambling house went dead quiet, and every eye fixed on my hand. It was plain they meant to watch where I put my money and follow me in.

Fair enough.

From the moment I sat down at this table until now I hadn’t lost a single time.

Undefeated.

Anyone in his right mind would follow where I bet. I waited for the signal at my leisure.

— Tap.

Once.

Odd.

I shoved the heap of banknotes onto ‘Odd’. The people who’d been watching for their cue poured their money down after mine.

“It’s odd! Odd!”
“I’m trusting the young hero again this time!”
“Follow Young Master Yang!”

In a moment every stake in the game had swung onto ‘Odd’. There wasn’t one soul with money on ‘Even’.

The dealer swallowed hard. His hand stayed clamped on the cup, trembling ever so slightly, unable to lift it.

“Oi, what are you at! Get it open!”
“Crack it, come on!”
“Open it! Quick!”

The moment he dragged his feet the crowd was up in arms. The dealer screwed his eyes shut against the uproar and lifted the cup. The dice read one, two, two. Five in all.

Odd.

“Waaaaah!”
“We’ve done it!”
“Hurrah! Young Master Yang, hurrah!”

A roar went up fit to take the roof off the gambling house.

In that gambling house full of cheering, there was one man who could not laugh. That was Heo Jutae, the manager of Tugeum Hall. He knitted his brows and asked the man beside him.

“That one. Who is he?”
“He’s Iron Lion Yang Taejun’s son. The rumor was that he had no martial talent to speak of and never set foot outside, but lately he’s made healing pills and wound salve that work well, and his standing has improved.”
“Never mind that. How many times has he won?”

The man scratched at his head with an awkward look.

“That I couldn’t say. But he certainly hasn’t lost once.”
“What? Not once?”

Heo Jutae’s eyes flew open. The stack of banknotes in front of Yang Mujin was heaped up like a mountain by now, and to have won all that money without losing so much as once made no sense at all.

“He’s not pulling something?”
“I’ve been watching him from behind the whole time and there was no sign of anything. It looks as though his luck is simply out of the ordinary.”
“Luck, is it…”

Heo Jutae stroked his chin. The boy was winning far too consistently to write it off as luck. If he alone were lucky the house could have let it pass, but the trouble was that everyone was trailing him and putting their money where he put his. At this rate it was only a matter of time before the gambling house’s strongbox was cleaned out.

“This won’t do. Leave him at it and we’ll be closing our doors.”

Heo Jutae made his decision.

“Shut the table down. And bring that greenhorn over. Tell him I’ll take him on, one to one.”
“Understood.”

The man bowed his head and made for Yang Mujin. Heo Jutae kept his gaze on the boy.

I don’t know how the little greenhorn worked his trick, but this is as far as it goes.

He’d knocked about in this trade his whole life. At the gambling table, at least, he was confident he could beat any master alive. And to think somebody had played games in a gambling house he ran. He meant to make him pay for it in full.

A thin, nasty smile settled at the corner of Heo Jutae’s mouth. His hands were already itching at the thought of watching the greenhorn lose every coin back and snivel over it.

About now would be the time for them to make their move.

I sat there fingering the heap of banknotes. A few more rounds like this and Tugeum Hall would be losing not a day’s takings but a whole month’s, in one go. Unless they were fools, there was no chance of them sitting still for it. The dealer was dawdling without putting the dice in the cup, and that told me plainly enough that they would be moving soon.

Sure enough, a big-framed man came strolling out from behind the dealer, the one who’d been handing me my money earlier. He stepped forward and shouted at the top of his voice.

“All right, all right! Sorry to say it, everyone, but that’s the end of the dice for today! Come and see us again next time!”
“What’s this! It’s going well, why shut it down!”
“Throwing us out because we’re winning? Proper crooks, the lot of you!”
“Do you know how much I’ve lost today! Let’s keep playing!”

The crowd’s blood was up, and the protests turned rough. A few of them went so far as to throw coins.

“Anyone with a complaint, step out here. I’ll teach you exactly what kind of place the Great Saber Gang is.”

The big men came forward at the same moment, with a savage air about them. As the menace spread through the room, every mouth shut at once, and the noisy hall went quiet in a breath.

Once things had settled, one man walked over to me and bowed politely at the waist.

“Good day to you, Young Master Yang. I am Heo Jutae, the manager here at Tugeum Hall.”
“And?”

I swayed on my feet as though drunk and answered him. Heo Jutae wore a faint smile as he spoke.

“I’ve been watching, and Young Master Yang’s skill is quite something.”
“My luck’s in a bit today. Hold on, no. They cleaned me out of every last dose of medicine, so it’s not good luck, it’s shit luck.”

When I rambled on purpose the corner of his mouth went up further.

“Which brings me to it — I’d like to put a proposal to you.”
“What is it?”
“With the table broken up like this, it takes the enjoyment out of it for Young Master Yang as well, does it not?”
“It does.”
“How would it be if you took a wager with me, one to one? With no limit at all on the size of the stakes.”

At the offer I’d been waiting for, the corner of my own mouth crept up.

“Good. I accept.”

I agreed to it readily.

At last the fish had taken the bait.