On the surface, Wisteria House is an ordinary, unpopular two-story izakaya.
After entering the first floor of Wisteria House, Oofang saw that there were very few people drinking in Wisteria House.
There were only 4 tables with guests, and the total number of guests was less than 10.
With few guests, the atmosphere naturally seemed a little deserted.
A middle-aged man was leaning over the counter, fiddling with an abacus, probably doing some accounting.
Ogata and Fuma followed the method that Yinxin told them this morning to enter the casino, walked quickly to the counter, and whispered to the middle-aged man who was lying behind the counter to count the money:
"Ten thousand Buddhas pay homage to the Buddha."
As soon as Ogata finished speaking, the middle-aged man's hand that was fiddling with the abacus immediately stopped.
Then he raised his head, glanced at Ogata and Fuma, and shouted towards the backstage of the izakaya:
"Meiichiro!"
Boom, boom, boom…
As soon as the middle-aged man finished speaking, the sound of footsteps approaching Ogata and his group with great momentum was heard.
In the blink of an eye, a very strong young man came up to Ogata and his friends.
"Mei Yilang," the middle-aged man said to the sturdy young man in a calm tone, "these two guests want to buy our wine. Take them to the wine cellar to have a look."
"Yes!" Meiichiro responded loudly, then politely bowed to Ogata and the other man, and then made a "please" gesture, "You two, please follow me."
Meiichiro led Ogata and Fuma towards the stairs leading to the second floor.
The guests who were drinking on the first floor didn't even look at Ogata and his friends the whole time, as if they were used to it.
The second floor of Wisteria House is composed of a series of enclosed rooms.
With the staircase as the center, these enclosed rooms are arranged in a tight "口" shape.
After going up to the second floor, Meiichiro casually opened the door of one of the rooms.
The moment the door was opened, suffocating heat, the smell of sweat, and some other strange breaths and smells poured out through the open door and rushed towards Ogata and Fuma.
Behind the door are faces immersed in the world of gambling, excited, agitated and sad because of gambling.
"Please come in, you two," said Meiichiro.
After Omata nodded to Meiichirō, he and Fuma entered the room in front of them one after the other.
After Ogata and the other person entered, Meiichiro was very considerate and helped them close the door.
The world inside the room and the world behind the room... are like two completely different worlds.
After entering the room, Ogata discovered that the walls of all the rooms on the second floor seemed to have been demolished, and all the rooms were connected together, forming a huge casino.
There are various gambling games in the casino.
Ogata knew nothing about gambling, so he couldn't understand most of the gambling games. The only gambling game he recognized was "shaking the dice and betting on odds and evens."
The atmosphere in the casino was quite quiet.
The most frequently heard sound is the "staff" asking gamblers to place their bets.
From time to time, you could hear some excited roars from people who had won money, or some painful wails from people who had lost money.
The main reason why the casino is so quiet and everyone tries not to make any noise is to keep a low profile.
As early as the Heian period several hundred years ago, the Japanese government had cracked down on gambling.
In the Edo period, the Edo Shogunate also adopted a strict prevention attitude towards gambling.
According to the regulations of the Edo Shogunate, any samurai who went to a casino to gamble would have his samurai status stripped and demoted to a commoner.
If they were so harsh on samurai, it goes without saying that they would be even more harsh on civilians.
However, casinos are something that cannot be stopped even in modern times when the government has strong control, let alone in ancient times.
Although the Edo Shogunate has been cracking down on gambling, casinos are still springing up all over Japan. If the government closes an old casino today, ten new casinos will pop up tomorrow.
Recent years happen to be the best time to develop casinos.
It has only been three years since the "Tenmei Great Famine". During these three years, both the shogunate and the local feudal states have focused their main energy on recovering from a series of traumas caused by the "Tenmei Great Famine" and have had no time to pay attention to the impact on casinos. Therefore, in recent years, casinos across Japan can be said to have ushered in a rare period of development.
But even though the government is now too busy to crack down on casinos, you can't be too arrogant.
So there is an unwritten rule: try to keep quiet when gambling in a casino.
Of course, if you open a casino in an area that is absolutely difficult for the government to control - such as in a remote rural area, then you don't need to follow this unspoken rule and can do whatever you want.
Today, both Ogata and Fuma saw the portrait of Daibutsu Kaoru from Inshin - Daibutsu Kaoru's appearance is quite recognizable.
He was a very fat man with a fat head and big ears. Even without lowering his head, he had three chins.
The two pretended to be choosing their favorite gambling games while walking around the casino, searching for Daibutsu Kaoru.
However, after walking around - I didn't find anyone with the same facial features.
Ogata and the others had already anticipated that this situation would most likely happen.
They didn't expect to find Daibutsu Xun gambling there as soon as they entered the casino.
For this situation, Ogata and his friends had already prepared a corresponding response plan before entering the casino - that is to wait.
Wait for a while and see if the big Buddha can be smoked out.
If Dafo Xun doesn't show up for a long time, it means that Dafo Xun should have gone to another casino to gamble tonight. At that time, I can only blame myself for my bad luck.
While waiting, of course you can't just stand there stupidly. Doing so would be like sticking a piece of paper with "I am suspicious" written on it on your body.
If you want to make yourself look harmless, the best way is to blend in with the gamblers around you and do what a gambler should do.
"Brother." Fuma lowered his voice and said to Ogata, "What can you play?"
Ogata shook his head: "The only game I know how to play is guessing odd and even numbers."
"What a coincidence, me too. I only know how to play the game of guessing odds and evens. There just happens to be a place over there where you can play 'guessing odds and evens'. Let's go there and kill some time."
Just a few steps away from Ogata and his friends, there was a stall where they could play "Guess Odds and Evens," and there happened to be a few empty seats.
There are stands throughout the casino where you can exchange chips.
The chips of this casino are wooden sticks. There are three types of wooden sticks in total - brown wooden sticks representing 100 wen, black wooden sticks representing one yuan, and yellow wooden sticks representing one tael of gold.
Neither of them had any interest in gambling. They only decided to participate in the gambling in order to avoid suspicion from others, so they only exchanged some brown chips of the lowest value.
When the two of them took the chips they had just exchanged and sat down side by side in the empty seats at the "Guess Odd or Even" booth nearest to them, a new gambling game just happened to begin.
Hu Zhen, who had just finished shaking the dice, spread his hands and asked the gamblers to place their bets.
Between Hu Zhen and the gamblers were large pieces of paper with "Odd" or "Even" written on them. The gamblers placed their chips on the large pieces of paper with "Odd" or "Even" written on them.
"Brother." Feng Mo asked, "Do you think it's single or double?"
"Just put one at random." Ogata shrugged.
Ogata has always been averse to gambling.
In his eyes, “ten out of ten gambling gambling activities are scams” ​​is an eternal truth.
These casino owners are best at using various illusions to make you feel that the game is fair.
Trying to get rich by gambling is pure wishful thinking.
Because he has no fondness for gambling, Ogata doesn't want to spend any energy on it.
Fengmo happened to be a person who had no interest in gambling, and he had no intention of playing "Guessing Odds and Evens" seriously.
After hearing Ogata say "Just put one in there", Fuma casually placed a chip on the large piece of paper with the word "单" written on it that was closest to them.
…
…
At this moment——
In a hotel diagonally opposite the Wisteria House——
"Here, drink some water."
Yamauchi, who was hiding by the window and carefully monitoring the Wisteria House, looked at Hasegawa with a touched look on his face as he handed him a glass of water.
"Thank you, thank you!" Yamauchi was flattered and took the water handed to him by Hasegawa.
"How is it?" Hasegawa handed the cup to Yamauchi and asked, "Did you see anyone who looked like Daibutsu Kaoru or Shirakawa Shuichiro?"
"Not yet." Yamauchi shook his head.
"Then continue monitoring," Hasegawa said, "Report immediately if you have any news."
"yes!"
After learning that the "Big Buddha Clan" and the "Blood Mist Clan" were very likely to cooperate, Hasegawa began his investigation at an astonishing speed.
He identified the "Big Buddha Clan" as the breakthrough point, and following the vine of the "Big Buddha Clan", he touched the melon of the "Blood Mist Clan".
As early as last night, Hasegawa got all the information related to the "Big Buddha Clan" from Shenshan.
Shenshan has long been eyeing the "Big Buddha Clan".
Since the Tenmei Fire three years ago, many places in Kyoto have been burned to ruins and have not yet been rebuilt.
Kamiyama was already busy enough in order to rebuild Kyoto, but half a year ago , a group of lunatics led by Junroku Kunieda who planned to destroy Kyoto caused a lot of trouble again. In order to clean up these troubles, Kamiyama is now even busier.
Originally, Kamiyama, who was so busy that he wished he could split himself in half, had no extra energy to care about the Yakuza in Kyoto. As long as they didn't do anything too extreme, Kamiyama would adopt the attitude of "pretending not to see it for now."
However, the "Big Buddha Clan" had been acting more and more arrogantly since three months ago, and Shenshan could no longer tolerate it.
Therefore, he secretly transferred some personnel long time ago to prepare for the future disposal of the "Big Buddha Clan".
The results are quite encouraging.
Not only did he collect a large amount of intelligence about the "Dafo Clan", he also bribed a high-ranking member of the "Dafo Clan" who held a lot of real power and had a close relationship with Dafo Kaoru.
This afternoon, with the help of Kamiyama, Hasegawa secretly met with the bribed senior member of the "Big Buddha Clan".
Although this person knew very little about the "Blood Mist Clan", he revealed a very useful piece of information to Hasegawa - Dafo Xun, who was addicted to gambling and went to the major casinos managed by their "Dafo Clan" to gamble almost every night, would go to their largest casino: Wisteria House tonight.
The reason why he knew this information was because he received an invitation from their boss this morning: to go to Wisteria House to play a few games tonight.
Based on this information, Hasegawa quickly prepared an action plan - to conduct emergency surveillance on the Wisteria House where Dabutsu Kaoru would appear tonight.
If members of the "Blood Mist" headed by Shirakawa are found, capture them immediately.
If no members of the "Blood Mist Clan" are found, capture Daibutsu Kaoru and "invite" him back to the magistrate's office to extract some information from him.
Because the Wisteria House might be very "lively" tonight, Hasegawa kindly reminded the insider of the "Dabutsu clan" who provided information about the whereabouts of Dabutsu Kaoru - don't go to the Wisteria House tonight, just stay at home.
Hasegawa has now deployed heavy troops around the Wisteria House .
The subordinates in charge of surveillance were dressed in plain clothes and scattered around, closely monitoring Wisteria House.
The subordinates responsible for rushing into the Wisteria House to arrest people were all gathered in the hotel where Hasegawa was currently located, diagonally opposite the Wisteria House, ready to rush into the Wisteria House to arrest people at any time.
After handing the water to Yamauchi who was in charge of surveillance, Hasegawa did not leave immediately.
Instead, he stood by the window, looking at the Wisteria House not far away with a strange look.
Then he smiled faintly and whispered in a voice that only he could hear:
"My hands are itching... I really want to play a few rounds..."
After saying that, Hasegawa scratched his right palm vigorously - the way he scratched it hard looked as if his right palm had unfortunately been bitten by mosquitoes with a dozen big lumps.
…
…
Ogata and Fuma, who had been gambling in a Buddhist manner, had already played more than ten rounds in a row.
I don’t know if it’s because they were just gambling randomly, but their winning rate remained at around 50%.
Every time you lose a chip, you can usually win it back quickly.
Because the number of chips lost was roughly equal to the number of chips won, after more than a dozen rounds of gambling, the number of chips in Ogata's hands remained basically unchanged.
Crash...
Tsubasa, who was sitting diagonally opposite Ogata, shook the barnacle containing two dice with great skill, and then threw the barnacle to the ground.
"Please." Hu Zhen spread his hands.
As soon as Hu Zhengang spread his hands, Feng Mo casually threw a chip in his hand onto the "order" in front of him.
The rest of the gamblers followed suit and placed their bets.
However, at this moment——
"Oh! There are exactly two empty seats here, please make way! Make way!"
A slightly hoarse young male voice sounded behind Ogata and the others.
Looking back -
A young man, holding a very beautiful and charming woman, walked towards Ogata and the others in a swaggering manner.
Behind this young man, there were six warriors with serious faces.
These six warriors kept scanning the surroundings, keeping watch on all sides - these six people were probably the bodyguards of this young man.
Ogata noticed that after this young man appeared, many people present showed fear on their faces: for example, there was a middle-aged bald man with a high hairline sitting to Ogata's right.
"Who is this person?" Ogata asked the bald middle-aged man next to him.
"He is the leader of the 'Dafo Clan' that manages this casino: Dafo Xun's adopted son: Dafo Ryuji." The bald middle-aged man said in a deep voice, "He is a second-generation rich man who is submissive in other places, but arrogant and domineering in his own place. It's really unlucky... I actually ran into him in a place like this..."
——Dabutsu Kaoru’s adopted son?
Ogata and Fuma were in perfect sync at this moment - they turned their heads at the same time to look at Daibutsu Ryuji who was hugging the charming woman.
…
…
Like his adoptive father, Obutsu Kaoru, Obutsu Ryuji is a gambler who goes to the major casinos under their "Obutsu clan" almost every night to play a few rounds.
Tonight, his godfather, Kaoru Daibutsu, invited many people with the same hobbies to come to Wisteria House to play a few games - Longzhi was one of those invited.
He didn't know when his adoptive father would arrive, and Long Zhi, who could no longer suppress his "gambling spirit", decided to enter the venue early with the woman he had just hooked up with and wait.
His favorite gambling game is "Guess Odds and Evens".
As soon as I entered the Wisteria House casino, I saw a "guess odd or even" booth with exactly 2 empty seats.
As he walked towards the stall with his new woman in his arms, he noticed that many people around him were casting various looks at him.
The emotions contained in the vast majority of gazes are fear and envy.
These gazes made Long Zhi secretly happy and gave him a sense of being "superior to others".
Long Zhi, feeling extremely comfortable, subconsciously increased the strength of kneading the new woman in his arms, causing waves of moans to come from her arms.
At this time, Long Zhi discovered that at the stall where he was about to gamble, there was a guy wearing a bamboo hat, a face towel, and a light green feather robe, and a bald old man who were staring at him.
From the eyes of these two people, Long Zhi sensed a hint of passion.
——Hehe! Be envious!
Thinking that these two people were looking at him passionately because they were jealous of him, Long Zhi laughed proudly in his heart.
——In their hearts, they must be very envious of me now! They really want to be able to hug such a good woman like me!
…
…
Ogata: ——We can tie up this big Buddha Ryuji later.
Fengma: ——We can tie up this big Buddha Longzhi later.
The two of them were in sync again and said the same words in their hearts at the same time.
Ogata now feels that all the waiting so far has been worthwhile.
Although Dafoxun didn’t come, Dafoxun’s adopted son did.
Ogata has now made up his mind: if Daibutsu Kaoru does not show up in the Wisteria House tonight, he will kidnap Daibutsu Ryuji and ask him about Daibutsu Kaoru's whereabouts.
This man is the adopted son of Daibutsu Kaoru. If he said that he didn't know where his adoptive father usually lived, Ogata would definitely not believe it.
Tonight's hard work was not in vain, which made Ogata feel a little better.
After playing more than ten rounds of guessing odd and even numbers, Ogata had already become impatient.
One of the most tormenting things in the world is to do something you are not interested in at all - Ogata and Fuma have just been enduring this torment, playing "Guess the Odd or Even" until their scalps are numb.
Although this great Buddha Longzhi is accompanied by 6 bodyguards to protect him - so what?
At this time, Takashi was holding the woman in his arms and sitting cross-legged in an empty seat three bodies away from Ogata and Fuma.
As soon as his butt landed on the ground, he grinned: "Oh! The kettle hasn't been opened yet? That's perfect! Just in time to make a bet!"
After that, he lowered his head and asked the woman in his arms:
"A Chang, do you think the number of dots in this pot is odd or even?"
The woman lying in Takashi's arms... Although Ogata didn't want to use this word to describe a woman, after thinking about it, he still felt that apart from "slutty", there was no other word that could perfectly describe the appearance of this woman.
Her face was covered in heavy makeup that gave off an eerie vibe, but one could still vaguely tell that her facial features were delicate and beautiful.
The hair is combed into the most popular Shimada bun, with various decorations inserted in the hair.
She was wearing a bright red kimono that seemed to be deliberately loose.
The hem is split wide open, revealing white calves and feet.
The collar of his shirt was also wide open, revealing a conspicuous "big scar".
To put it bluntly... Ogata felt that a strong gust of wind might be enough to blow off the loose kimono on this woman.
I don’t know if it’s because of her makeup, but this woman always exudes a seductive aura.
After hearing Takashi's question, the charming woman whom Takashi called "Chang" tilted her head as if thinking, and then said in a delicate voice:
"I think it's a double~~"
"Okay! Then roll double!"
Long Zhi waved his hand generously and threw the two most valuable chips - yellow chips representing 1 tael of gold - onto the big paper with the word "double" written on it.
After Longzhi threw out the two yellow chips, there were immediate gasps from all around.
Listening to the gasps around him, Long Zhi's mouth corners, which had just relaxed, curled up again in pride.
"Mr. Long Zhijun, you bet two taels of gold?" Ah Chang raised his hand to cover his mouth, showing a somewhat artificial expression of surprise.
"Hahaha!" Long Zhi squeezed the beauty in his arms a few times, "It's just a small amount of money! Hu Zhen! Open the pot!"
Hu Zhen obviously knew Long Zhi. When Long Zhi asked him to open the barnacles, he took away the barnacles one by one - 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock, a pair.
"Mr. Long, we won~~"
The man and woman who suddenly appeared naturally became the focus of the whole audience without a doubt.
Almost everyone, even those who hated Long Zhi, had a hint of envy hidden deep in their eyes when they looked at Long Zhi.
Who doesn’t want to be like Longzhi, holding a beautiful woman in his arms, and then easily taking out two taels of silver as gambling money?
When Long Zhi was about to start the second gambling game, he suddenly heard a familiar voice:
"Oh? Long Zhi, you're already here."
Takashi: "Oh! Kijiro! You're here!"
The man who greeted Takashi warmly was named Kijiro, one of the top leaders of their "Great Buddha Clan".
Behind Kijiro was a huge group of people, many of whom were cadres of the "Big Buddha Clan".
They were all invited by Dafo Xun to come to Wisteria House tonight to play a few games together.
"Kijiro! Come on! Let's gamble together! "
After saying that, Long Zhi turned his head to look at the other gamblers sitting next to him, waved his hands as if he was shooing away some flies, and then said in a very impolite tone:
"Hey! Get out of here, all of you! Make room for me!"
After Long Zhi came to sit in their booth, most of the gamblers in this booth were already feeling very uneasy - after all, who knew if they would encounter any accidents when gambling with the adopted son of the leader of the famous "Big Buddha Clan"?
But they didn't dare to just walk away - because doing so might get them into trouble.
Why are you leaving? Don't you want to gamble with me? If Long Zhi asked me this, I really didn't know how to answer.
Now hearing Long Zhi telling them to get out, they all felt as if they had been pardoned and quickly left with their bargaining chips.
But not everyone left.
For example, there were two people who did not leave and were still sitting there.
"Hey!" Long Zhi frowned and shouted at the two people with an unhappy look on his face, "The guy wearing the disgusting light green feather cloth, and the old man with a bald head, are you deaf? Didn't you hear me telling you to make room?"