Chapter 9: Chapter 8: The Warmth Technique
The Shen family was very wealthy, not inferior to Jiang Wanzhou's family.
Shen Minglang, as a second-generation rich kid, casually opened a small bar and invested over two million.
When it came to soccer betting, fifty thousand at a time was considered less among his circle.
A little gambling for fun.
Around him, some gambling addicts would bet hundreds of thousands on a single game, even more!
It was all for the thrill!
Cheng Zhu was a friend of his cousin Jiang Wanzhou. Shen Minglang didn't know his background, but from his manner of speaking and his casual demeanor, he instinctively felt that this plainly dressed "new cousin" must have quite the backing at home.
When people interact, their aura is quite clear.
Despite calling him "cousin" all the time, when everyone chatted, it really felt like they were just friends talking.
Children from wealthy families, just graduated from high school and accepted into college, probably received many red envelopes. It wasn't surprising for them to take out over ten thousand yuan to play around.
But spending twelve thousand yuan on a specific score, moreover betting on a score of 0:0, now that was a whole different story!
People like them, if they bet on scores, wouldn't just bet on one result.
After all, with such high odds, betting on several scores meant that hitting any of them would bring in profit!
Betting like Cheng Zhu was too risky.
Buying twelve thousand yuan on Germany to win wouldn't have surprised Shen Minglang at all.
But betting twelve thousand on a score of 0:0, Shen Minglang couldn't help but double-check with this university reservist again.
"Yeah, just twelve thousand," Cheng Zhu said.
Truth be told, he just regretted not having more money on him.
Damn it, he'd spent over a thousand a few days ago buying couple shoes for Li Xinyue.
Were those just a thousand? No! With a rate of 7.5, that expenditure was close to ten thousand!
In Cheng Zhu's memory, the final score of the 2014 World Cup was 1:0.
But Germany scored during the overtime, and the bets were based on the regular time score, which was 0:0.
That meant he couldn't bet on 1:0; he had to bet on 0:0, otherwise, it counted as a loss.
That year, many gamblers ended up broke! Almost everyone who bet on scores lost.
Back then, he hadn't started watching the World Cup yet, but he watched all the games of the subsequent World Cups.
This resulted in him only remembering the scores of two games from 2014.
Both games were frequently mentioned in the commentary of later World Cups.
One of them was the already concluded Germany vs. Brazil.
That game was shocking, ending with a score of 7:1!
That year, a famous news story claimed that a Dutch drunkard, after getting drunk, placed 200 euros on 7:1 with the odds being 6500 times!
Wow, takeoff!
Whether the news was true or not, Cheng Zhu wasn't sure.
Such exaggerated odds wouldn't be possible domestically.
He only knew that he was reborn a few days too late. If he had been reborn before this match, even if his capital was only twelve thousand, even if domestic odds for 7:1 weren't so exaggerated, he could have skyrocketed, instantly becoming a little rich man.
With that initial capital, many things would become much easier in the future!
Unfortunately, now he could only catch the World Cup final.
"There's no rush; plenty of opportunities ahead," Cheng Zhu thought.
For him, the Reborn, he already knew the outcome. It wasn't really gambling anymore; it was more like scooping up accidental wealth.
Actually, he would have liked to have more capital to bet on scores.
But time was too short.
Jiang Wanzhou definitely had a full piggy bank.
But Cheng Zhu knew him well.
He would absolutely lend Cheng Zhu money, but only after making sure what Cheng Zhu needed it for, and would even watch him spend it.
That's related to everyone's personality. Cheng Zhu knew that Jiang Wanzhou's approach was also a form of caring.
The reason he asked Shen Minglang to place the bet while Jiang Wanzhou was in the bathroom was because it was inconvenient to do it in front of him.
Shen Minglang didn't know Cheng Zhu's family situation, but Jiang Wanzhou did.
If he had heard Cheng Zhu spending twelve thousand on a bet, his first reaction would definitely be to scold, "Cheng Zhu, are you crazy!"
Jiang Wanzhou would definitely try to stop him, then hit him with a few Bone-softening Palms.
Thus, Cheng Zhu needed to wrap everything up while Jiang Wanzhou was in the restroom.
"Speaking of which, it's only because Shen Minglang has high betting odds and he's currently the best betting choice. Otherwise, there was no need to come to the bar together," Cheng Zhu thought to himself.
As for Jiang Wanzhou's reaction after finding out, he had already made plans to deal with it, and had his lies ready.
Deceiving a brother, he was quite confident in that!
At this moment, Shen Minglang was quick with operations and soon finished placing the bet for Cheng Zhu.
During this process, he even advised Cheng Zhu to diversify the bets and not put all on one score, but Cheng Zhu didn't listen.
Shen Qingning sat quietly on the side, not saying a word the whole time.
She looked at the young man in front of her, whose eyebrows naturally arched upwards, wondering if he was doing this all because of the provocation from the boy at the next table.
He bets two thousand on a win or loss, and you bet twelve thousand on a specific score?
"Childish," Shen Qingning thought to herself.
But being naturally cold, if it had been Jiang Wanzhou acting like this, she might have said a few words. But since it was Cheng Zhu, she would just watch and her impression of him was not particularly good.
Prone to gambling and unwise, the approach also childish.
Indeed, young men of this age are all about love and jealousy.
In her view, her brother Shen Minglang was the same. She heard that if Shen Minglang encountered a love rival in a nightclub, and the other party ordered a set of spades A, he would directly order three sets.
Shen Qingning glanced at Cheng Zhu once again and felt even more that today's trip to the bar was rather boring.
…
…
At Jiuyin, Shen Minglang's voice was quite loud. After all, this was his bar, so every word he said could be clearly heard by Li Xinyue's group.
Cheng Zhu, on the other hand, spoke at a normal volume, making it harder for their side to hear clearly.
Thus, Li Xinyue and others only understood that Shen Minglang had placed a twelve-thousand yuan bet for Cheng Zhu, but they weren't clear on the details.
However, just the figure of twelve thousand was enough.
This made Li Rui suddenly feel his own two thousand yuan seemed embarrassing.
"Cheng Zhu's just boasting, right? Really betting twelve thousand?" Chen Rongrong whispered.
"He's nuts, where did he get that much money?" Li Xinyue frowned.
Based on her understanding of Cheng Zhu, he was unlikely to do such a thing.
She thought she must have misheard something and missed some information.
On the other hand, upon hearing this, Li Rui felt the urge to show off his own financial power again. Cheng Zhu couldn't, but he could.
He immediately sent a WeChat message to his cousin, asking him to place a bet for him.
After that, he said, "I just analyzed it with my cousin and felt Argentina will definitely win, so I placed another ten thousand."
"Oh?" Chen Rongrong was surprised, and Li Xinyue also looked up at Li Rui.
Li Rui actually didn't understand soccer. He hardly followed it.
And actually, whether you understand it or not isn't always important.
Which World Cup didn't have upsets?
For the game between Germany and Brazil, who could have thought of an unbelievable 7:1?
Li Rui declared solemnly, "Argentina has Messi, it's a sure thing."
To be precise, he really only knew Messi.
"You guys want to bet something for fun?" Li Rui said.
Chen Rongrong was quite interested and decided to bet five hundred, urging Li Xinyue to join in.
Li Xinyue had no interest in soccer, but she couldn't ignore her friend's chattering. Combined with not knowing what was happening with Cheng Zhu, she ended up betting five hundred on Argentina to win.
Li Rui had already thought it through—if Argentina won, he would transfer the money to Li Xinyue; if Argentina lost, he would claim there was a communication error with his cousin and the bet never went through.
"No way I will let Xinyue lose money and spoil her mood for hanging out."
Even dogs would bark a few times hearing this: "Warm, he's really warm!"