“The previous players at this table have left, leaving two spots open.”

The woman placed her cards face-down on the table, her expression languid.

“It’s just simple Texas Hold’em, half luck and half courage. You two should know how to play, right? The auction hasn’t started yet anyway, and just waiting around is boring.”

Lin Han and Shen Qingshu exchanged a glance before walking over to the table and sitting down.

Shen Qingshu swept her gaze over the cards on the table and spoke in a tone of statement rather than inquiry:

“There are formulas on the cards.”

“You have keen eyes, Miss. However, there’s nothing wrong with the cards; the formulas only serve a simple anti-cheating function.”

After the woman finished speaking, the other people at the table nodded in agreement.

Thus, Shen Qingshu said nothing more.

Seeing that the two of them seemed to have accepted her invitation, the woman inquired:

“Have you exchanged your chips yet?”

A waiter nearby quickly stepped forward and respectfully explained the rules.

The chips used at the tables here were exchanged using the funds in the accounts bound to the invitation letters. Guests could exchange for chips directly, and once the game ended, the winnings or losses would be automatically deducted from or transferred into the bound account.

Shen Qingshu didn’t care much for these details.

She remembered that on the way there, Uncle Bai seemed to have mentioned that the invitation was linked to one of the family’s cards.

In other words, she could spend as much as she liked.

Since the family was footing the bill for tonight’s expenses anyway, Shen Qingshu had no intention of being polite with that crowd.

While Shen Qingshu was exchanging her currency for chips with the waiter, Lin Han took the opportunity to observe the others at the table.

Aside from the woman in the wine-red dress, there were two other people.

One was a slightly portly middle-aged man who didn’t seem at all sleazy; instead, he possessed a sense of relaxed ease that came from being steeped in wealth and status for a long time. Judging by certain subtle movements, Lin Han figured he was likely a businessman.

The other was a woman in a dark trench coat, her long hair tied back and her expression casual, making her look quite out of place among the elegantly dressed men and women around her.

Before long, a waiter arrived pushing a trolley. Piled upon it was a small mountain of chips.

The woman in the red dress raised an eyebrow.

“It seems this young lady is very confident in her skills.”

Shen Qingshu shook her head and casually split the mountain of chips on the trolley into two stacks, pushing one half toward Lin Han and keeping the other for herself.

Lin Han looked at the pile of chips in front of him and clicked his tongue in silence.

With that casual swipe of her hand, Shen Qingshu had pushed over an amount of money that would have taken him twenty years of living without food or drink to save up.

Although he already knew that Shen Qingshu’s family background was deep—perhaps even deeper than he had imagined—seeing this scene with his own eyes still made his scalp tingle.

What was even more frightening was that Lin Han knew perfectly well that Shen Qingshu truly didn’t care about this money at all.

Even if Lin Han lost every cent of it in the upcoming game, she probably wouldn’t have the slightest reaction.

The thought had only just surfaced in his mind when Lin Han felt Shen Qingshu stomp on his foot.

“Don’t think about anything rude.”

“…”

Sometimes, Lin Han truly wondered if Shen Qingshu had some kind of mind-reading ability.

Seeing that everyone was ready to start, the dealer quickly took their place and first announced the blinds.

The small blind was 10,000, and the big blind was 20,000. In the first round, the woman in the red dress was in the small blind, the wealthy businessman was in the big blind, and the woman in the long trench coat was under the gun, while Lin Han and Shen Qingshu sat in the late positions.

The dealer dealt two hole cards to everyone.

Lin Han glanced at his: the Jack of Hearts and the 10 of Clubs.

Not bad, but not particularly good either.

Although he was just playing casually while seeing if he could gather some intelligence, Lin Han had no intention of losing money to Shen Qingshu.

When the woman in the red dress had invited the two of them to join the game just now, she said that Texas Hold’em was half luck and half courage, but Lin Han didn’t quite agree with that view.

In his eyes, this game was more about mathematics and psychology.

Skilled players could maintain a win rate of over 20% in the long run; if these people participated in ordinary recreational games, their short-term win rate could even reach a staggering 50% or more.

Lin Han didn’t think he was some “God of Gamblers,” but he believed he was relatively good at these types of games, after all, his math and psychology skills were both quite decent.

The first round began with the woman in the trench coat at the Under the Gun position. She merely glanced at her hand and calmly folded.

When it was Lin Han’s turn, he chose to “Call.”

Shen Qingshu glanced at Lin Han and also called. The woman in the red dress then completed the small blind.

It was the wealthy businessman’s turn. He looked at his cards, a thick smile appearing on his face:

“It looks like my luck isn’t bad tonight. Bet, one hundred thousand.”

The wealthy businessman raised his hand and pushed several chips forward, choosing to raise.

Seeing this, the woman in the red dress shook her head and softly said, “Fold.” She then picked up a pink chip with her fingers, letting it tumble between them like fish scales.

Lin Han didn’t intend to play too aggressively in the first round; he wanted to observe the others’ playing styles first, so he also chose to fold.

But just as he folded, he saw Shen Qingshu silently push a stack of chips out.

“Raise.”

Lin Han’s eyelid twitched as a sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

—Shen Qingshu couldn’t possibly… not know how to play this game, right?

The businessman was clearly taken aback for a moment, but then his smile grew even wider as he chose to call.

“The lady has quite the spirit.”

The dealer flipped over the first three community cards, the King of Diamonds, the Nine of Spades, and the Three of Hearts.

The businessman rubbed his chin.

“Continue.”

Shen Qingshu remained expressionless.

“Raise.”

“Call.”

The turn card was flipped, the King of Spades.

Sitting next to her, Lin Han was already starting to feel a stomachache, there were already two Kings on the table. Judging by the businessman’s expression, his hand was definitely significant; if he had even one King, it would be three of a kind.

The wealthy businessman’s smile became noticeably more genuine.

“Continue.”

“Raise.”

Shen Qingshu kept raising, the businessman kept calling, and the pot continued to grow.

The next card flipped over was the Five of Hearts.

The atmosphere around the table finally shifted. The woman in the red dress asked a waiter for a cocktail and looked at Shen Qingshu with great interest.

She hadn’t expected this striking young woman to be such a frantic gambler.

The businessman’s eyes flickered; his interest had been piqued as well. Regardless of the outcome, he was prepared to follow through to the end to see just how good Shen Qingshu’s hand really was.

Only Lin Han closed his eyes, as if he had realized something.

“Raise.”

“Call.”

The mechanical words were repeated one last time. The businessman turned over his cards, a King and a Queen.

As expected, it was three of a kind with Kings, a very strong hand.

Then Shen Qingshu turned over her cards.

The Seven of Diamonds and… the Two of Clubs. King-high, and it was the King from the community cards at that.

It was, without a doubt, a hand of pure trash.

Silence fell over the table for a second.

Lin Han sighed helplessly, and the woman in the red dress’s intrigued smile turned into something more subtle.

The wealthy merchant froze for a moment, then burst into a hearty laugh.

“Hahaha, young people truly are interesting.”

Shen Qingshu watched as the large pile of chips was swept away from the table, her expression still unchanged.

However, Lin Han inexplicably felt that the atmospheric pressure around her had dropped slightly.

The woman in the wine-red dress also felt a sense of doubt rising in her heart.

When she had said before the game started, “This young lady seems very confident in her skills,” and the girl shook her head, could it be that she wasn’t actually being modest?

But could this also be some kind of tactic to play the long game and catch a big fish?

The game soon moved into a new round, then another, and another…

And during this time, everyone finally realized one thing—

This black-haired girl probably really didn’t know how to play.

Her style was extremely wild: if she liked the look of it, she followed; if she felt annoyed, she raised; in any case, she never missed an opportunity to reveal the cards.

She had an aura that suggested she was ready to bet her entire family fortune against you.

Sometimes her hand was so appallingly bad that it was staggering, yet she would still push her chips forward expressionlessly, as if she weren’t betting money, but rather pebbles picked up from the side of the road.

As a result, after only a few rounds, the small mountain in front of her had nearly collapsed.

Lin Han found it physically painful to watch, even if it wasn’t his money being lost.

He even felt that if Monica were the one sitting there, she might play better than Shen Qingshu; at least Monica knew when to back down.

In comparison, Shen Qingshu was rather stubborn, clearly she looked like an impeccable Eldest Young Lady on the outside, so how could she be such a terrible yet addicted player on the inside?

Lin Han finally couldn’t take it anymore and gave Shen Qingshu a light nudge with his knee.

Shen Qingshu turned to look at him.

“What is it?”

“Don’t let it get to your head.”

“I am very calm.”

She said this even though her expression was as dark as the bottom of a pot.