How can I justify myself as a Magnate if I don't indulge myself?

"Hengzi, you gotta admit, a luxury car is just fucking luxury; sitting in this thing is a pure joy!"

Leaning in the passenger seat, enjoying the massage function of the chair, Li Feng squinted his eyes contentedly.

Hearing his words, Gu Heng had a faint smile on his lips and didn't respond.

"Ding dong."

Right as Li Feng was enjoying his bliss, the message notification sound from his phone went off, making him reluctantly open his eyes and pull out his phone...

After reading the message, Li Feng turned his head towards Gu Heng and said, "Let's not go to Haibin's place, just head to the mahjong parlor near their house, both of them are there."

"What are they doing there?"

Hearing Gu Heng's question, Li Feng glanced at him and replied, "Have you not been back in a few years and forgotten about the New Year's activities back home? They're playing poker over there."

Only then did it dawn on Gu Heng...

The card games in the countryside are quite a feature...

There's a saying: on the first day of the New Year, being the house gives you fame; by the second, early morning, you're leaving with belongings lame; on the third, at dawn, you're to the worksite, just the same...

Working hard to earn some damn money, not willing to spend a dime on oneself, then giving it all away at the card table to someone else...

Gu Heng's family wasn't well off, and he was quite restrained, hardly ever joining in the games. After all, for others, losing a few thousand might just sting for a while and they'd move on, but if he lost that much, his entire year would be tough...

But regardless, having grown up amid such an environment, Gu Heng was quite familiar with this card-playing culture. Nodding his head, he directly drove towards the mahjong parlor near Haibin's house, as he remembered it.

.....

.....

Minutes later, following Li Feng's "This is the place," Gu Heng parked the car by the roadside in front of a yard.

Unlike the city, where you might find lines painted for parking or open-air parking lots for convenience, rural parking has no rules, and you just park anywhere you like. As long as you're not blocking someone's doorway, usually no one would say anything.

As soon as the car stopped, it attracted quite a few stares.

Times had changed, and villagers had become more worldly. Most recognized the Bentley logo, and even those who didn't could guess from the car's appearance that it was valuable...

The two of them got out of the car under the gaze of the onlookers...

Gu Heng was fine; his vanity had already been satisfied quite enough, so he appeared rather nonchalant...

But the first thing Li Feng did after getting out was to fix his hair in the reflection of the car window before walking proudly towards the mahjong parlor, giving off the impression that the Bentley was his, and Gu Heng was just his driver...

Side by side, they entered the mahjong parlor, filled with swirling secondhand smoke as if it were some heavenly realm...

However, the occasional cursing promptly pulled Gu Heng back to reality...

"The poker players are all over here."

Li Feng tugged at his arm and headed towards a table crowded with people.

As they approached, they saw piles of red and green bills tossed chaotically on the table like scrap paper. Roughly estimating, there were at least a couple thousand dollars. A few thousand per hand was already quite a big deal for a poker game...

On any normal day, a single phone call would have the big-hats over for a visit right away.

But during the holidays, everyone turns a blind eye. No one would make a big deal out of it, and it's possible some big-hat uncle might be sitting at a poker table somewhere at the same time...

"Keep stewing! I refuse to believe that no good cards will come out through stewing," someone bellowed.

Hearing this voice, Gu Heng and Li Feng exchanged a look, then simultaneously turned their gaze in the direction of the voice...

The two were all too familiar with this rough tone, and without thinking further, Gu Heng walked up behind Haibin and patted him on the head.

Li Haibin irritably swatted Gu Heng's hand away, not even turning to look, a picture-perfect image of a gambler in desperation, fixated on the last two players at the table...

Seeing Li Haibin's neck flushed red, Gu Heng could roughly guess the state of the game...

Clearly, Li Haibin was losing, and judging by the looks of it, quite a bit, nearly seeing red in frustration...

In the face of Li Haibin's reckless play, the other two who had already seen their cards were not the least bit flustered; one of them even pretended to be kindhearted and said, "Haibin, play for fun, no need to get so worked up. Look at your cards and then continue betting."

"Cut the crap, I'm down six thousand to two thousand.

It's been more than a dozen hands without a win. This time, it's got to change; luck goes in turns, it should be heading my way, right?

If I'm truly jinxed and still can't get a good hand, I'll burn through these two thousand and just leave," he said as he pulled out a hundred from the remaining two thousand plus dollars in front of him and tossed it towards the center of the table: "I'm stewing again."

The other two who had seen their cards must have had significant hands, as they didn't hesitate to throw in 200 each.

In poker, betting doubles when you've seen the cards.

Li Haibin was like a gambler who had nothing to lose, continuously drawing cash and throwing it onto the table...

In a short while, there was over ten thousand dollars in cash on the table...

The onlookers also started murmuring among themselves...

"This hand's getting big, must be at least ten thousand on it, right?"

"More than that, it must be over ten thousand."

"Damn, whoever wins this hand is going to have a fat New Year..."

A ten-thousand-plus dollar hand in poker, while nothing in places like Ao Island or gambling cities where chips worth tens or hundreds of thousands are the norm, was considered a very high-stakes game in an ordinary countryside setting...