Chapter 9

The old man saw that Lu Hang had agreed to his three conditions, and he waved his hand, signaling that he could leave. So, Lu Hang took the bottle and slowly walked back. As he walked, he looked at the bottle and thought, "Can this really help me win back the money I lost before?" As he thought about it, he suddenly remembered something important: he had forgotten to ask the old man how to use the so-called "windfall ghost." Should he pray to it before every gambling session, or should he carry it with him like a Pi Xiu (a Chinese mythical creature) during the whole gambling process? "I can't forget to ask the old man!" Lu Hang said, immediately turning around and running back. When he arrived, panting, back at the place, he was surprised to find that the old man had disappeared, and even the stall on the ground was gone. "What's going on?" Lu Hang said in shock. "I just left less than ten minutes ago, how could the old man be gone already?" Not far away, an old lady was sitting in the shade, so Lu Hang rushed over to ask, "Excuse me, do you know where the old man who was selling fortune-telling at that spot went?" "The old man selling fortune-telling? Young man, what nonsense are you talking about!" The old lady said unhappily. "I've been sitting here for almost three hours and never saw any old man selling fortune-telling." "You didn't see an old man there?" After hearing the old lady’s words, Lu Hang immediately felt that something wasn’t right. "Why didn’t I see him?" he said to himself. "Besides," the old lady continued, "who would want to set up a stall in such a remote place?" "Why was I the only one who saw that old man?" On his way back to the casino, Lu Hang kept asking himself this question. He originally wanted to convince himself that the whole encounter was just a hallucination brought on by his frustration, but the bottle of "windfall ghost" in his hand clearly told him that everything he had experienced was real. "Forget it, I won't worry about whether that old man really existed," Lu Hang said to himself. "I’ll just take this bottle and go back to the casino to see if it can help me win money. If it works, then the old man must have been real." Thinking of this, Lu Hang quickened his pace back to the casino. Upon arriving, he exchanged all the remaining money he had into chips, then walked to a baccarat table and sat down. As the game began, he was about to place some chips on the banker when a little boy's voice suddenly came into his ear: "Don’t bet on the banker, bet on the player!" Startled by the voice, Lu Hang thought, "Who’s talking to me?" He glanced at the glass bottle he had placed in his pocket and wondered if the "windfall ghost" was telling him to bet on the player. Lacking confidence in the "windfall ghost," he decided to watch the game and neither bet on the player nor the banker. The result of the first round came out, and just as the little boy had said, the player won. At this point, Lu Hang understood how the "windfall ghost" was helping him win money. When the second round started, he intentionally prepared to place his chips on the player, but again he heard the little boy’s voice: "This time, don’t bet on the player, bet on the banker!" "Bet on the banker, huh! Now I know what to do!" Lu Hang said confidently. He placed all his chips on the banker and proudly declared, "I’m betting everything on the banker!" "Are you crazy?" The gamblers sitting next to him mocked, seeing him place his entire bet on the banker. "If you lose this, you’ll be wiped out!" "Don’t worry about me!" Lu Hang said nonchalantly. "If I didn’t have confidence, I wouldn’t be doing this!" Seeing Lu Hang so determined, the gamblers stopped advising him and waited for the outcome. Soon, the second round ended, and to everyone’s surprise, just as Lu Hang had predicted, the banker won. The gamblers couldn’t help but exclaim in astonishment. "See!" Lu Hang said triumphantly. He took all the chips he had won and moved to another casino. That night, with the help of the "windfall ghost" in his pocket, Lu Hang won every bet. Not only did he win back all the money he had previously lost, but he also made a lot more. There’s a saying that fits perfectly: "Enjoyment makes one forget the past." With each win, Lu Hang grew more and more excited, and when he remembered that the old man had asked him to return the "windfall ghost" in time, he realized it was already 3 a.m. "This is bad!" Lu Hang looked at his phone and saw it was already 3:05. "What should I do now?" The "windfall ghost" had been so effective, helping him win so much in one night, which proved that the old man must have some kind of power. So if he didn’t return the "windfall ghost" to the old man in time, he wasn’t sure what consequences he would face. "Forget it, I’ll deal with that later. The most important thing right now is to get back to that remote place and return the bottle," Lu Hang thought. He exchanged all his winnings for money, then took a taxi back to the remote area. When he got there, the old man wasn’t around. He waited for over an hour, but the old man still didn’t show up. "Forget it, since the old man isn’t here, I’ll just return it tomorrow." Lu Hang carefully placed the "windfall ghost" in a safe place. Feeling a little hungry, he decided to go to Macau's night market for a late-night snack. Since he had a lot of money in his pocket, Lu Hang didn’t want to settle for just any ordinary restaurant. He thought, if he was going to eat, he might as well enjoy the best and most expensive. As he walked through the night market, he started feeling something strange. It seemed like someone was following him, but when he turned around, no one was there. To get rid of the unsettling feeling, he abandoned his earlier plan and walked into a small eatery by the street, ordering a bowl of wonton noodles. The wonton noodles were quickly finished, but Lu Hang didn’t feel satisfied. He thought for a moment and decided to go to a sauna for some fun. After leaving the eatery, he hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the best sauna in Macau. As the taxi driver responded positively, Lu Hang thought about closing his eyes for a nap. However, he suddenly felt that there was a man sitting next to the taxi driver. He looked up to check, but found that no one was there. "Maybe I was mistaken," Lu Hang said to himself with a helpless smile.