These two guests seem to be very involved, and the other guest demanded a raise. After discussing it, they decide to seal it and move to the VIP room inside. The gambling table is replaced by another dealer.
I just calm down from shock, Yumi sees me frowning, mistaken that I am not interested here, is about to take me away. But I shake my hand, and then slowly sit down in front of the table, look at the beautiful dealer, slightly say: "Deal."
In the first inning, I casually lose several hundred dollars. In the second inning, I have a very good deck, but unfortunately she doesn't follow. After ten minutes of playing, I've thrown down two chips. There are only seven of the $1,000 chips left in my hand, and a few some small chips in other colors.
I look at the time, stand up, smile and say to Yumi: "Let's go, take me to other tables."
This time I play blackjack on another table, I'm lucky enough to win a thousand dollars, but then I lose them soon. There is no expression on my face, no joy in winning, no regret in losing, as if I am not holding chips for a thousand dollars, but pieces of waste paper.
I have turned a few more tables, tried dice, baccarat, and so on. I consciously stay in front of each table for ten minutes, but I only allow myself to lose a thousand dollars. If I win, I would play longer. If I have lost a thousand dollars, I would stand up and watch until ten minutes later, then leave again.
For more than an hour, I've tried several different kinds of gambling in the casino, and then look in my hand, there are only a few hundred dollars left.
Yumi looks at my expressionless face. She probably thinks I am unhappy about losing money. She whispers: "Mr. Chen, would you like to take more chips for luck changing?"
I shake my head to show that I want to have a rest. Yumi takes me to the lounge on the side of the casino. There is a small bar. I ask for a bottle of beer and look at her, smile and say: "Thank you for staying with me so long." Then I hand her the remained hundreds of dollars chips.
I have seen the rules here just now. Many male guests are accompanied by girls in the casino. If the guest wins the money, he will throw a few chips to these girls as a tip. However, some guests lost too much, so they would drag the girl directly to the back of the casino. Through the introduction of Yumi, I know that there are separate lounges.
Yumi smiles and pushes the chips back in front of me. Looking at my puzzled face, she says: "Mr. Chen, you are a distinguished guest of Juan. It's my honor to accompany you. I dare not ask for your tip." Then she smiles, her face is still very calm, "And I think you probably misunderstood, I'm not… I am not kind of them. I am the chief manager here."
"Oh?" I am stunned, with an embarrass expression on my face.
The chief manager?
No wonder, I was surprised that such an elegant woman would not look like a mummy. Because I know, most of the mummies are from the girl way out, with strong different smells. But Yumi is different, she looks calm, with an unspeakable flavor of indifference, the tone of her voice is always so light. No matter how to look, she looks not like a mummy.
"Sorry." I hide my embarrassment with a smile.
"It doesn't matter." Yumi shakes her head and suddenly says, "If you must thank me, you can buy me a drink."
"OK." I snap, "What do you want to drink?"
She asks the bartender for a glass of tequila, and the bartender takes a small chip away from me.
"Mr. Chen, I've been watching you for an hour. You feel strange." Yumi seems to hesitate for a moment and begins to laugh.
"Oh? How am I strange?"
"You don't seem to like here." She takes the cup from the bartender and take a sip of it, "It seems to be the first time you've ever been on this occasion, as you look… How to say, you seem to feel uncomfortable and out of place about the environment here. I think you are very friendly to people, not like a rich man at all."
"I'm not rich." I speak lightly.
But seems Yumi doesn't believe at all, she smiles and says: "Sorry, I'm not asking about anything, but, you know, doing my job, I need to communicate more with my guests in order to improve my relationships with them."
I smile to show my understanding, then frown, touch my pocket, and ask: "Do you have cigarettes?"
Yumi smiles, takes out a box of cigarettes from a small handbag, hands me a cigarette, takes out a silver Givenchy lighter and lights it for me.
She smokes gracefully, her slender fingers with thin cigarettes, little thumb slightly upward, her delicate lips slowly puffing out blue smoke, and her face has a calm expression.
I have never seen such a mature and elegant woman, who seems to have a calm temperament all over her body.
"Mr. Chen Yang, if I take the liberty, you seem to have no interest in gambling." She smiles, "you seem to spend more time watching others."
I laugh and open my hand: "That's because I'm so poor that I can't afford to lose all my chips. If I lose all my chips, I can't afford to buy any more."
"You are joking again." Yumi shakes her head, and then she seems to approach me a little quietly, with a research look in her eyes which is not aggressive at all. Her eyes are soft, "You're so strange… Few guests of your age refuse to have a young beauty to go with."
I shake my head, and then smile and compliment her: "Who says I don't like beautiful women? Didn't I ask you to accompany me? "
Yumi smiles, her eyes are charming, but it's completely different from the dusty charm I've seen so much in my life. It's sexy from the inside.
There is a kind of woman in the world, no matter how many clothes she wears, even if she wraps her whole body tightly, but still can make people feel very sexy.
No doubt, Yumi is such a woman.
Her facial features are not really superb, but they are very delicate, not the kind of exquisite cosmetics, but natural. And the proportion of matching is very coordinated, belonging to the type of second eye beauty. Such a woman, at first glance, you will feel nothing special, but as time goes on, you will feel more and more taste!
She looks at me: "Mr. Chen Yang, may I take your words as a compliment?"
I smile: "Of course not! It's not flattery. I'm just telling the truth." After a while, I say in a sincere voice, "Yumi, you are the most elegant woman I have ever seen."
She inhales her cigarette and then slowly spurts out. She shakes her head and seems to sigh: "I am getting old."
"Old?" I smile, "But I've been here for more than an hour. You're the most attractive woman."
She smiles and her eyes are flashing with a hint of cunning, "Do you know how old I am?"
"How old are you?"
Yumi smiles: "Mr. Chen Yang, it's not polite to ask a lady about her age."
But then she whispers: "Thank you for your praise. I can see from your eyes that your words are from the heart."
Then she pauses, and says with a lower voice: "I am thirty-three years old."
I'm amazed!
I look at her carefully again.
From the outside, she looks almost the same as a girl of twenties. Her skin is delicate and smooth, not the white complexion, but a light wheat colour that looks like ivory.
And there is no any trace of her figure of more than 30 years. She's plump, but it's the symmetrical plump, and the waist is particularly thin. I've just observed that when she walks, the waist twists slightly. That's not what women usually do deliberately to show off their manners, but it's a completely habitual walking gesture, with a subtle rhythm, very natural.
Of course, what attracts me most is her calf.
To tell the truth, I've never seen a woman's leg so beautiful. Her calves are plump, but not bloat at all. Her legs are slender and straight, and the fine lines of her calves are completely outlined by the thin strap. The jade feet below are more delicate, the ankles are round, the toes expose under the high sandals are delicate, as if carved out of ivory.
Yumi notices that I'm observing her. She doesn't care, just smiles and sipping her wine. Then she says: "Mr. Chen Yang, Juan's man has come to pick you now."
I look back and find Jim is coming towards me.
I sigh and smile to Yumi: "Well, it seems I'm about leaving. I'm glad to meet you."
"Me too."Yumi stands up. I am hesitating whether to shake her hand. She has already reached out her hand.
I hold her hand. Her fingers are slender, but her palms are soft and cold, as if they have no heat.
Before I leave, I approach her a little, and say in a low voice: "Yumi, I'm really not a rich man."
After that, I turn to Jim and leave quietly.
Across the casino, I follow Jim into the corridor, and through an hour of Yumi's introduction, I know that there are VIP rooms on both sides of the corridor. It not only provid the best environment and services, but also, crucially, the amount of gambling in the VIP room is unlimited!
At the entrance of the corridor stand several black-clad security guards, and there are handles at the doorway of each VIP room. I follow Jim to the end of the corridor and turn again. Then we go into the innermost room. Pushing the door in, I see Juan sitting behind a square table with a cigar in his mouth and a pair of cards in his hand. Watching me come in, he throws the cards and shakes his head at a guest sitting opposite him. "I'm out of luck tonight. If I keep playing, it equals to give you money directly."
Then he looks at me: "How are you feeling about here, Little 5?"
I see the guest sitting opposites Juan is a woman, wearing a black suit on her upper body and a short skirt on the lower side. Unfortunately, she has her back to me. I can't see her face.
I take a breath and think: "I feel good. I am not lucky tonight and have lost all my ten thousand dollars."
Juan smiles, his eyes are calm, and he doesn't look surprised at all.
"It's great that you took so much time to lose 10,000 dollars for the first time in the casino. It's been a long time. I thought you would lose quickly."
I shake my head: "Actually, I didn't play much. I spent most of my time watching others playing."
"Oh?" Juan looks at me with a hint of smile in his eyes.
I take a deep breath and try to calm myself down, then slowly say.
"I've observed that there are thirteen casinos in the lobby. They are slot machines, baccarat, Russian roulette, BLACK JACK…" I call out all the names, and then go on, "There are forty-nine casinos tables except slot machines, and I've seen every kind of game, like BLACK JACK. I've played for ten minutes and lost a thousand dollars. And in ten minutes, someone at the table has lost about four thousand dollars. Someone wins about two thousand dollars, that is to say, within ten minutes, this table brings a profit of two thousand dollars to the casino. There are four BLACK JACK tables in the casino. On average, four tables can make at least $40,000 an hour for the casino. Others, like roulette, baccarat, and every other kind of casino, I've watched carefully, and by my calculations, by the total number of casinos, the lobby outside has earned nearly $200,000 or more for the casino in the hour I've been playing.
When I am saying these words, I try my best to keep calm, but my heart is still beating.
One hour, two hundred thousand dollars!
So how much can this casino earn in one night?
How much in a week?
And a month?
What about a year?
And don't forget… My calculation has not included these VIP rooms yet.
After listening to me, Juan's eyes show a satisfied look, and he smiles a little. He nods: "Very good, Little 5. You do know how to observe, and you understand my intention to keep you outside. Very good!"
Then he smiles and says: "Okay, come here and meet Miss Young, who is an important partner in my business."
Then the woman who has been back to me, oh no, she is a girl, turns around and looks at me with a smile.
I must say, until many, many years later, her first smile has been always deeply engraved in my heart when I first saw her tonight.
At the moment, she smiles gently at me, and gently nods her soft, curved chin.
Looking at the woman in front of me, I just feel a bang in my brain. It seems that the soul has already come out, and all my eyes and hearts are left for her smile.