Chapter 2429 — The Gambler's Call
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Yes, Brother Goodhand. Thank you for the grace period — my money is all ready…" As Gambler Bro said this, his heart was bleeding. After all, it had taken him most of a lifetime to claw his way up from a street thug to a casino owner. He had taken enormous risks and earned money for so long, and had only accumulated assets worth around a hundred million — and of course those assets were not cash, but properties and stocks he had invested in here and there.
Now Wei Zhao had demanded another twenty million all at once. Gambler Bro naturally could not produce that much cash on the spot; with no other choice, he had sold off several properties and, scraping and borrowing, cobbled together enough to transfer that hefty sum into Wei Zhao's account.
He did not dare welch on the debt. Among that group there was a Heaven Rank expert, and they did not even flinch at the name of the hidden Zhao family — these people were clearly not to be trifled with, so Gambler Bro gritted his teeth and paid.
"Mm, not bad — you keep your word." Wei Zhao had not expected Gambler Bro to be so proper about it, handing over the money as promised. Wei Zhao had many outstanding debts out there, but none of them had been collected — the hidden Zhao family's, for instance, and the Yu family's. Those people clearly meant to stall forever, and they had been his enemies all along; Wei Zhao knew he would never get the money back, so whenever he had the chance he would strike at them.
Just as a few days ago, Old Man Bi had been crippled. If they had paid up readily and pushed Zhao Qilei onto the position of family head, perhaps Wei Zhao would have let them off — after all, the hidden Pi family and the mundane Wu family, who had once opposed him, had both been spared once they submitted to him.
In that light, Wei Zhao was still a rather reasonable man.
"Heh…" Gambler Bro gave a helpless laugh.
"By the way, after we left, did Leader Zhu of the Zhao family come looking for you?" Wei Zhao asked.
"He did… why do you ask?" Gambler Bro was slightly startled, not understanding why Wei Zhao had suddenly brought this up.
"Seeing as you paid up so readily, I'll give you a warning." Wei Zhao said, "Get your casino sold off as quickly as you can, before it brings down some undeserved disaster on you."
"Oh?" Gambler Bro was taken aback, but he felt Wei Zhao was not one to shoot at random — there must be grounds for those words. So he asked cautiously, "Brother Goodhand, what do you mean?"
"The hidden Zhao family has lost a man, and they dare not make trouble for me — but I'm afraid your side…" Wei Zhao did not spell it out too plainly, since it was only his guess. "Work it out for yourself."
"Hiss— thank you!" A cold sweat broke out across Gambler Bro's back with a rush. He had not thought that far before, but now, mulling over Wei Zhao's words, was that not exactly how it was?
Earlier, Leader Zhu had come here, asked him some questions and given him some instructions. At the time Gambler Bro had not thought much of it, but now, following Wei Zhao's line of reasoning, he instantly sensed something was wrong — no matter how he looked at it, Leader Zhu had seemed to be steering him into taking the blame onto the casino!
"Think nothing of it." Wei Zhao had not expected Gambler Bro to be quite so clever, grasping the point at a single touch. But naturally he did not know that Gambler Bro had only reached his decision so quickly because of the connection he had drawn to Leader Zhu's words. (To be continued..)
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