Chapter 1235 - 1232

"So, how much did you lose this time? I haven't seen Leopard Head poking his head out—don't tell me you gambled him away?"

On the way toward the Dragon Nest, Ansheng clicked his tongue in mild amazement, eyeing the surrounding buildings as he asked Wang Qiqi beside him with curiosity.

The aboveground buildings of the Dragon Nest were very distinctive, with that "a view with every step" sort of legendary charm. If an outsider broke into the manor, they might never realize there were five or six hundred ax‑wielding thugs hidden in the woods.

"How could I possibly put the Golden Leopard on the table?" Wang Qiqi said, face full of displeasure:

"During the New Year, it was eating and drinking well, got a bit food-drunk, so I left it in Chang'an City as a Defender in case anything unexpected happened....."

Animals might not have the concept of "food coma," but they definitely had the concept of "post‑meal drowsiness."

During the New Year it was all fish and meat, high‑protein meals across the board, not a single veggie on the table. The Golden Leopard was busy digesting all that food, lying around lazily.

"So that's how it is. I thought you'd lost Leopard Head to Annual Leave as a seat cushion!"

Ansheng looked suddenly enlightened and gave Wang Qiqi a big thumbs‑up.

When they arrived at the manor gate, both sides of the road were crammed with all kinds of luxury cars bearing temporary plates. Wang Qiqi's earlier Lincoln Navigator was right there among them, parked by the door.

In order to claw some Spiritual Particle Metal back from Annual Leave to test Active Processing, the Chang'an City Security Bureau had paid a heavy price; this New Year they were broke as hell.

"Annual Leave! We're here for revenge!" Seeing the villa's battered front door, Li Wenkang didn't bother with courtesy. He raised his foot and kicked the patch‑covered door open again with a heavy thud.

"Hmm?"

In the luxurious hall, a four‑ to five‑meter curved, full‑green‑leather sofa lay across the room. Annual Leave, about palm-sized, was sprawled on the sofa. It casually swept a glance at Li Wenkang at the door and said:

"A casino is a battlefield; the more troops the better. But let me make one thing clear up front: I don't do tabs here. If you lose and can't pay cash, even calling me Mommy won't help you!"

"Cut the crap! First we play twelve rounds, then switch to other games for another twelve." Li Wenkang said with absolute confidence, then waved toward the door, signaling the soldiers on guard to bring in a high‑speed camera and set it up in the living room for fairness and transparency.

"Master Fuli——"

The Treasure Tree Ant squatting on the sofa, helping Annual Leave rub its shoulders, saw Mrs. Treasure Tree and Master Fuli coming in. Its eyes filled with tears as it looked at the two and called out.

"Master Fuli?"

The Ba Mountain Mosquito, dressed in a maid outfit, poked her head out from behind the wet bar, looking over with a face full of surprise and delight.

"Hold up... who the hell are you supposed to be?"

Ansheng stared in bafflement at the Ba Mountain Mosquito peeking out from the wet bar.

Originally, the Ba Mountain Mosquito had a curvy figure and long, straight black hair. Since she had drunk Momo's blood, her face had grown to resemble Momo's by about half—they looked like real sisters.

But after not seeing her for a while, the Ba Mountain Mosquito's face had undergone a complete makeover. The long straight black hair had turned into short, iris‑blue wavy curls, and she looked like she wasn't even of age.

"Godfather! It's me, Little Ba....." The Ba Mountain Mosquito panicked when she realized Master Fuli didn't recognize her. She scrambled out from behind the wet bar and dug a phone out of her pocket:

"While you were gone, I've been managing your social accounts for you, trash‑talking landlords at the Mid Gate....."

"I know you're the Ba Mountain Mosquito. I'm asking what happened to you. You look like some kind of hyper little net‑idol now." Ansheng gave her a once‑over and complained.

"Oh, you mean my looks? I ran out of Momo's blood, and she's not in the dorm right now, so I found another good one to use." The Ba Mountain Mosquito let out a breath of relief as she explained:

"My Healing Power's weaker now, but I got this super strong hunger‑resistance trait. I can stay on standby for ages."

The Ba Mountain Mosquito could borrow the dominant genes contained in the blood she drank.

Momo's blood carried Aphro traits, and this new face had given the Ba Mountain Mosquito a super hunger‑resistant trait.

She only needed to consume a hundred milliliters of blood to maintain a full day's energy, without affecting her absorption of Spiritual Particles.

"Hmm?"

Ah Qing stared at the Ba Mountain Mosquito for a moment, as if she'd suddenly remembered something, and asked, "Don't tell me you're the one who's been sneaking up to bite Momo's ear all this time?"

"Her ear? No. I usually crawl into bed and bite her back, or her lower waist." The Ba Mountain Mosquito shook her head. "Her face is so pretty—leaving a big red mark there would totally ruin the vibe....."

"Why not just bite her face? Aim for those spots that are impossible to scratch."

"A mosquito like you, if you showed up in the Lingnan Region, the locals would smoke you to death with mosquito coils."

Ansheng's face went dark as he roasted the Ba Mountain Mosquito.

"I'm not going to Lingnan anyway. Lately all the mosquitoes and cockroaches are talking about heading north, saying the rain's better up there." The Ba Mountain Mosquito said smugly.

Southerners were way too cautious, always slathering some anti‑mosquito stuff on themselves; biting them was a real mouthful of trouble.

These days, all the insect hordes were into heading north to hustle.

"Master Fuli, hurry up....."

Already seated at the mahjong table, Li Wenkang called out, a bit guilty, when he saw Master Fuli still not taking his seat.

Annual Leave's learning ability was off the charts. Without some mystical blessing, a normal human had no chance of beating it.

Even if it couldn't win, it could still force a draw through card‑counting and precise discards. It was firmly in pro‑player territory.

"Coming....."

Ansheng answered, brought Ah Qing along, and sat down at the table.

"We're just here to play, right? Harmony brings wealth. But if I happen to see anything with my own eyes then... when it comes time to settle the bill, there might be both People's Daggers and US dollars involved."

"I don't need to cheat..." Annual Leave smiled, quite interested, and said, "My chips are one jin each. Even if you win hands straight up to heaven, a single round is just over a hundred jin."

"I basically have infinite chips, but your bank cards aren't infinite. From a probability standpoint, the odds of you crying every day are a full hundred percent."

Spiritual Particle Metal had a crazy high density; over a hundred jin was about the size of a basketball.

Annual Leave had come to Xia Country to enjoy life; playing cards for money was just a way to grab some currency to spend in society.

Cheating and stuff, it disdained that. A dignified Dragon Person like itself, cheat? As if.

"Full hand Earth Win, let's warm up..."

Ansheng confidently drew his tiles, then swept the tiles in front of him over with his fluffy fox tail. He looked at Annual Leave and said:

"Same as before—six‑fan cap, plus four bonus tiles. Ah Qing, mark it down for Miss Annual Leave: she's down two thousand jin."

"Ooh..." Ah Qing looked at the table, then at the stunned little thing, her expression odd as she picked up a pen and started tallying on a sticky note.

This mahjong game... was a bit brutal!

"..." Annual Leave's mouth twitched. It glared wide‑eyed at Master Fuli, annoyed. "Next round!"

With a "clatter, clatter," the mahjong table shuffled and dealt again.

Annual Leave personally pressed the dice cup and started taking tiles.

They went through mahjong variants from national standard, to Sichuan styles, then Lingnan rules and Xia Dong rules.

Annual Leave's face got darker with every hand. It was shaking all over, breathing hard as it stared at its across‑the‑table opponent, Master Fuli.

"To hell with this! Fuck——"

Annual Leave slammed a fist onto the mahjong machine. An invisible force rippled out; it yanked out the machine's circuit board, held it up with both hands, and smashed it over its knee.

"Crack——"

The green circuit board snapped clean in two. Annual Leave folded its arms, perched on the mahjong table, and glared with big round eyes at the gold‑draped Master Fuli:

"The underwear I lost to you—once I've washed and dried it tomorrow, I'll mail it to you!"

"Now, get out of my....." Annual Leave paused for a moment, then changed tack: "Fine, fine, I'll leave! The Gloom Mushroom can root in dirt and still live, ptooey——"

Annual Leave's card skills were worthy of a card saint, but even a card saint needed to be able to draw tiles and discard.

Master Fuli would declare a win on any draw, never mind whether the hand was big or small; the whole strategy was "eat first, ask questions later."

"Pfft....." Li Wenkang tried not to laugh, watching Annual Leave prepare to go home empty‑handed.

"How about... we bet a few more rounds of Spiritual Particle Metal?"

After losing six times in a row and over two thousand jin of metal, Annual Leave had faintly sensed something was off; it stopped using Spiritual Particle Metal as stakes and switched to cash assets instead.

"Exactly! Kids can't cry every day, and no gambler loses every single time...."

Ansheng's expression was strange as he looked at the nearly forty car keys in front of him, plus three stacks of property deeds and two boxes of mechanical watches, and then offered this bit of advice.