In the Northeast, because the cold lasts for so long, people in the villages—whether men or women—love to huddle together and play mahjong or poker whenever they have nothing to do.
And whether it's mahjong or poker, there is always a bit of a stake involved. But as long as there are stakes, it is honest-to-god gambling.
Most importantly, a little gambling is for leisure, but heavy gambling is fucking ruinous to the body. Not only does it ruin the body, it ruins the home and can even cost you your life!
As for Mu Xueli, he originally thought he was just accompanying them for fun. When he first started, the stakes were very low, and Mu Xueli kept winning.
Even though the stakes were small, winning constantly adds up. Little by little, he won several hundred yuan.
Once Mu Xueli had won several hundred, the other party said they wanted to win it back. But winning it back bit by bit was too slow, so they suggested raising the stakes.
Mu Xueli's intention was simply to kill time and play casually; he never thought about winning much money from them. Mainly, Mu Xueli wasn't short on cash, so he didn't actually care about the small amount won from gambling.
Consequently, Mu Xueli thought about it and casually agreed. At that moment, his only thought was to lose the winnings back as quickly as possible.
They all lived in the same village and their houses weren't far apart. Mu Xueli felt it wasn't worth winning a bit of money from them, since that amount wouldn't make him rich anyway.
Mu Xueli thought this way, but the other party did not. Then, as the other party lost more and more, they kept raising the stakes.
Unconsciously, Mu Xueli began to lose more than he won, but he didn't notice it.
It is worth noting that in a game like Golden Flower, "losing more than you win" means that while you might win ten rounds, they are all small wins, while the one round you lose is a massive loss.
The money won from ten victories combined might not even equal half of what was lost in that one single defeat.
This pattern—winning frequently but winning small amounts—creates the illusion that the person is constantly winning.
In this way, the other party used the "boiling frog" method to lead Mu Xueli completely into the trap without him even realizing it.
The biggest advantage of this method is that even if you suddenly wake up one day, you can't find a single thing to blame the other party for.
This kind of setup primarily targets acquaintances, relatives, or friends; they win your money while leaving you unable to say a word.
The only reason Mu Xueli was able to pull himself out of the trap was that he had lost all the money he had at his own disposal, leaving him with only the pile of small change and crumpled bills he had won at the very beginning.
After listening to Mu Xueli, Wang An's face showed neither joy, nor sorrow, nor anger. His expression remained largely the same as before, without even a ripple of emotion.
He couldn't help it. In Wang An's previous life, he had experienced far too many different ways of setting up gambling traps to swindle people; he had long since become numb to it.
Something like this, in Wang An's eyes, was low-rent and completely amateur.
After a long silence, Wang An suddenly asked with a hint of bewilderment
"So, what's the point of you coming to me? Do you want me to help you rob the money back? Or do you want to beat them up, but you can't beat them yourself?"
The reason Wang An asked this was that he didn't want to care, didn't want to ask more, and especially didn't want to get involved in this matter.
Mu Xueli was a man in his twenties. He was careless and stupid enough to walk right into the trap himself; what the hell could anyone else do about that?
Furthermore, this wasn't a case of Mu Xueli being bullied, like when the two Ma Laizi brothers robbed a wild boar from him.
If he had been bullied, it would be no exaggeration to say that Wang An would have charged over without a second word. Anything short of breaking their arms and legs would be considered mercy on Wang An's part.
But for this kind of bullshit, it was exactly as Mu Xueqing had said: he "deserved it." To put it more bluntly, he "fucking deserved it." Who else is to blame but his own stupidity?
After Wang An finished speaking, Mu Xueli looked at Wang An's expression and then stammered
"I just... I just can't swallow this grudge. We live in the same village, and taking such a silent loss makes me feel so stifled."
Hearing this, Wang An immediately laughed and said with a face full of mockery
"Why don't you just let it stifle you to death? You're still feeling stifled? If you had a fucking shred of a brain, you wouldn't have lost over 5,000 yuan in one go."
Pausing for a moment, Wang An continued to mock him with a smile
"Over 5,000 yuan! Holy shit! You can't even spend 5,000 yuan to buy a quad bike, and you just went and lost it. Hehehe, you're really rich, aren't you? Fucking loaded."
As he spoke, Wang An gave Mu Xueli a thumbs-up.
This merciless mockery caused Mu Xueli's face to flush crimson instantly. He covered his face with both hands and rubbed them up and down incessantly, as if he wanted to scrub his entire face off.
Of course, there was nothing wrong with him abusing his own face; after all, this matter was too embarrassing, and he felt he had no face left to show anyone.
After speaking, Wang An ignored Mu Xueli and went back to eating pine nuts on his own.
After a long while, Mu Xueli, still red-faced, said in a pleading tone
"Brother-in-law, you can't just ignore me. You have to help me get this grudge out."
Hearing this, Mu Xueqing gave Mu Xueli a fierce glare and then shifted her gaze toward her man.
Clearly, although the words Mu Xueqing had used to scold Mu Xueli were harsh and left him no dignity, they were spoken in anger.
When it came to actually facing the problem, Mu Xueqing, as the eldest sister, was still very concerned.
Wang An naturally noticed his wife's earnest gaze, but he didn't look at her. Instead, he glanced up at Mu Xueli and said with a smile while keeping his head down to eat pine nuts
"So how do you want to get this grudge out? Specifically, how do you want me to help you? Beat them up? Or start a fire and burn down their houses and firewood piles?"
Mu Xueli said with a conflicted expression
"Doing... doing that... isn't it a bit... a bit too much? Isn't there some better way?"
Wang An replied without hesitation
"No. You can't even think of a way, so you want me to think of one for you? Do I owe you?"
At this moment, Mu Xueqing suddenly said sharply
"Xiao An, why don't you go find Big Sister and have her send people to arrest them all for setting up traps to harm people?"
Hearing this, Wang An burst out laughing and said
"Arresting them is easy; I just have to make a phone call. But what happens if they rat out Xueli? Xueli participated in gambling too. Do you want Xueli to go sit behind bars with them?"
One must realize that as long as someone participated in gambling, the public security officers wouldn't care if you lost money or won money—even those just standing by staring blankly wouldn't be spared; everyone was treated the same.
Furthermore, because the gambling stakes were so high, Mu Xueli might even face a heavy fine and a severe sentence.
These were the facts. (End of Chapter)