Silent Crown

Chapter 233 To Not Lose

"Which one do you want?"

"Really? Why don't you give me the little joker?"

Before Charles finished his words, Ye Qingxuan had directly drawn one card from the deck and thrown it at Charles without even looking. The card turned over in the air, and it was indeed the little joker.

After staring at the card for a long time, he looked up and said, "Give me the big joker!"

The youth popped another card out from the deck and flipped it on the table. It was exactly the big joker that Charles asked for. The two jokers together looked particularly bizarre.

Bai Xi raised her hand. "I want a king."

"Well, I'll give you all four." Ye Qingxuan quickly popped up four cards. The kings from four different suites flipped in the air, reversed, and finally landed on the table in a row before Bai Xi. Ye Qingxuan’s fingers did not stop. He kept popping up a few cards, dazzling their eyes. "Let me give you a flush."

In his hands, that pack of cards was like a living thing which continued to fly out and stack on the table in different suits, finally becoming four neat stacks. In the end, there was only the queen of spades in his hand. As his fingertips reversed, the card revealed its figure hidden in the mist.

That hideous and dignified figure stood with a cane, politely standing in the dark as if he was looking at you through the card—It was the vengeful spirit, Sherlock Holmes.

"Well, I like this one." Ye Qingxuan looked at the card, laughed involuntarily, and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Yezi, let’s discuss something!" Charles was simply too happy to function. "Tomorrow, I’ll take you to a good place..."

"Ha, I won’t go to the casino." Ye Qingxuan curled his lip. "Senior, don't expect to make a fortune through this. This is only a small trick brought on by the sublimation ritual. You can use it for fun, but if you really meet a casino expert, you’ll still lose. You’ll lose no matter how much money you bring."

"Oh, fine." Charles became dispirited immediately. "Then at least tell me how you did it."

"It’s very easy. You just shuffle, like this..." As he spoke, the young man rearranged the cards randomly and shuffled it with his ten fingers. After a few actions, the deck was placed on the table and spread again. Within just two seconds, the disarranged deck had been sorted out, arranged orderly according to its suits and numbers. It was practically like a new deck.

It was so simple and casual, so easy. If Charles and Bai Xi did not know that Ye Qingxuan had never played a card before, they would think that Ye Qingxuan was possessed by an old gambler, a dead cheater, or a dealer.

"Everything has its source." Facing their startled eyes, Ye Qingxuan shrugged and smiled. "No matter how chaotic a deck is, it was in order at the beginning, just like now. All I have to do is reorganize the order so that they can recover their original position."

"Oh?" Abraham, who had been on the sidelines, suddenly chuckled. "It’s an interesting idea, Yezi." Then he picked up the poker on the table and waved it at the youth. "Play a round?"

Now, not only was Ye Qingxuan stunned, but also Charles. Abraham had never played poker before; he did not even know the rules and still needed Charles to explain it for him.

Ye Qingxuan also rarely played poker, but with his own super memory and calculation ability, Ye Qingxuan still covered Bai Xi, the gambling queen, with white strips of paper.

There was some disparity as to who would win!

"Professor, since you are interested, I’ll definitely play with you. But if you can't beat me, don't you think it'll be embarrassing?"

"It’s just a game, no need to be pressured." Abraham recognized the cards under the Charles’ guidance and said with a serious face, "I’ll try not to lose too."

-

Ten minutes later, it was a draw.

Ye Qingxuan looked blankly at the scattered cards on the table. He was dazed. Before him, Abraham still had a dull and emotionless face, but he made Ye Qingxuan feel ridiculous. Abraham did not even know the rules and still needed Charles to guide him.

Ye Qingxuan did not understand why it was a draw. He was holding a good hand that he had not been able to put down yet. He just felt that there was something wrong.

"Play again?" He asked.

Abraham nodded.

This time, he persisted for fifteen minutes, but still, it was a draw.

This time, Bai Xi, who had been standing on the same side as him, discovered that Ye Qingxuan had bad luck and was not able to do something. This hand was extremely painful to play and Ye Qingxuan was like a completely novice who did not know the rules at all. Abraham was holding an average hand, but Ye Qingxuan was still forced to welcome a draw.

"Play again?" asked Ye Qingxuan, and Abraham nodded.

Twenty minutes later, a draw; again, a draw; again, a draw...

One hour later, Ye Qingxuan was already covered in sweat, breathing heavily, and a little bit dizzy...For the first time, he felt his brain power was limited. This was even more exhausting than when he went to Revelations to play the Joker game last time. He felt restricted and had completely lost his confidence in defeating the enemy in the end. He was holding a good hand, but he did not even have the opportunity to play it.

This time, it was still a draw.

Ye Qingxuan did not win and Abraham did not lose, but the frustration of not knowing the opponent was more painful than a bloody defeat.

"I don’t want to play anymore." Ye Qingxuan gave it up with a bitter expression. "How did you do that, sir?"

"The rules decided it, didn’t they?" Abraham's awkwardly put away his scattered cards with his steel prosthetic arm and said, "Don't be upset, I'm not a very smart player compared to you, and my calculations aren’t accurate either. But if winning requires the right time and place, then it's easy to be not to lose. Just follow the rules."

"The rules?" Ye Qingxuan smiled wryly. "What rules? Poker rules?"

"Everything runs from life to death; the sun and moon rise from east and set to the west; the ocean brings tides; a year is divided into four seasons; fruits will mature after sowing and the ripe fruit will fall to the ground...these are all rules, Yezi. Or, a term that you’ll understand better, it’s called music theory."

Abraham's words stunned Ye Qingxuan, like blow to the forehead by a big ax. There was enlightenment in the moment of pain.

The professor's voice sounded in his ear, "The core of the Abstinence is to know the rules and music theory and apply your strength to it...What we are concerned with is not the object outside the body, but the music theory followed by the aether. Thus, we can remain undefeatable." He paused, clinked his beer with Yezi’s, and let out a relieved chuckle.

"Now do you understand? This is the first step in the field of the Abstinence and the deeper core of the interpretation method." He murmured, "Congratulations, Yezi, you have stepped into enlightenment through your own understanding, even if I have not taught you anything. You're a genius, and moved faster than I’d ever expected."

Immediately after the enlightenment, Ye Qingxuan finally grasped the inexplicable sentiment brought by the sublimation ritual, but when he finally thoroughly digested this understanding, he could not help but become a little frustrated. "Sir, you shouldn’t teach me Abstinence, right?"

"You thought it up yourself, didn’t you?"

Like an illusion, Abraham's smile seemed vaguely sneaky. "After all, I haven't taught you anything about it. What you’ve learned has nothing to do with me."

After a long silence, Ye Qingxuan suddenly laughed. It was a rare burst of laughter. He practically slid over on the table.

Who told him that his professor was an honest man? Mr. Abraham had been honest for so many years, but the rare time he played tricks, he passed the oath of the military and musicians.

All these years, he had been regarded as a fool or a dull man, but compared to the achievement of his musical theory, the academy's mediocre and struggling people were absolutely the idiots.

"I told you so." Charles blocked his shoulder and clinked glasses with him. "Our professor is the best teacher in the world, the best."

"Yes, the best." Ye Qingxuan smiled, toasted him, and drank the beer in the cup in a gulp.

-

"Right, there’s another good news. Yezi, you were late today, so you probably still don't know this." After another large cup of malt beer, Charles looked at Ye Qingxuan with sleepy eyes and began retelling the story of today's meeting animatedly.

At the school review that day, Abraham submitted his interpretation process and related documents, and vaguely faint grasped Ingmar’s Achille’s heel—the guy had interpreted the final part in his own way, but the result was in a completely wrong direction and there was a clear break in logic.

Ingmar seemed to realize this, so his arrogance was far less rampant than at the beginning.

Speaking of this, Charles whistled. "Tomorrow we’ll publish the correct interpretation and process in the school review meeting, and if Ingmar doesn’t withdraw his manuscript before the news is announced to the world, then he’ll be done."

Ye Qingxuan did not expect the progress to be so unexpectedly fast. He could not help but feel happy too. "Cheers!"

Everyone raised the cups and looked at the professor who was a little shy.

"To Mr. Abraham, who’s about to become a famous master of the ancient studies!"

-

The office came with a fierce broken sound.

"B*stard! B*stard! B*stard!" Ingmar furiously swept everything on the desk and crushed it into pieces. "They're all a bunch of b*stards who want to see me embarrassed!" he shouted angrily, raising his bloodshot eyes and looking at Bart. "Did you see?"

"Yes, sir." Bart stood in the corner, responding cautiously, "Not only the School of Royalty stood on their side, but also Modifications and Summoning. I saw it with my own eyes this morning. Cullen quietly handed the information to Ye Qingxuan. If they cross-reference that information with your manuscript, the contradiction in the last part of your interpretation might…"

"No wonder." Ingmar was so angry that he laughed. "No wonder they were so arrogant at the meeting today. They thought they had found my weakness just by those things?"

He punched the table, forming a faint dent in the solid table. A crack even appeared in his hand. Blood dripped from his fingertips dripped and flowed into the cracks in the table like a grinning face.

Ingmar squeezed his crazed voice from between his teeth, "In their dreams!"

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