Chapter 66

Chapter 66: The Gambler Wang You Cai
Yu Zhao was discovered by Master Qing Yan when she was six years old and brought back to the Five Elements Dao Sect. From then on, she cut off her mortal ties and stepped onto the Path of Seeking Immortality.

Before that, she had been an unknown beggar child in a small border city. Every day, she followed a group of half-starved beggars, begging along the streets.

If she was lucky, she could get one full meal. If she was unlucky, she would go hungry for several days in a row.

The thing Yu Zhao remembered the most was meeting a little girl around her age while begging. The girl wore fine silks and satins and was surrounded by servant women wherever she went. The tips of her shoes were decorated with shining Eastern Sea pearls. The sweets she tossed away at random were flavors that six-year-old Yu Zhao had never even imagined.

Now Yu Zhao could no longer clearly recall the taste of those pastries, but she was sure they had been one of the few bright spots in her dark life.

“Freshly baked pastries~ Fragrant and sweet pastries~”

A loud, drawn-out hawker’s cry broke Yu Zhao’s thoughts. She looked up and realized that, without noticing, she had walked to the door of a pastry shop.

The pastry shop’s waiter was a clever-looking young man. When he saw Yu Zhao pause at the door, he called out even more energetically.

Yu Zhao breathed in the thick sweet smell filling her nose. Her heart stirred and she walked forward.

“Customer, these are all freshly baked, steaming hot pastries. Why not try a piece and see how they taste? If you like them, you can buy more.”

The young waiter smiled warmly.

“Give me one of each.” Yu Zhao glanced over the dazzling array of pastries and suddenly had the urge to find that taste she had eaten back then.

“All right.”

The young waiter brightened. He quickly packed a portion of every pastry in the shop for Yu Zhao and quoted the price: “That will be seventy-two spirit beads in total.”

The spirit beads used in the mortal realm were actually a kind of spirit stone. A single low-grade spirit stone could be split into nearly ten thousand spirit beads.

Doing this did not cost much spirit power. Even a beginner Qi Refinement disciple could break a spirit stone apart into many pieces.

Yu Zhao directly turned a spirit stone in her storage bracelet into spirit beads, then took out seventy-two and handed them to the waiter.

Spirit beads were also ranked by quality. Their value did not differ much, but the better the quality, the more people liked them.

The spirit beads Yu Zhao took out were plump, round, and glossy. Their quality was rarely seen, and the waiter thanked her again and again in delight.

Carrying the packed pastries, Yu Zhao thought for a moment, then walked into a restaurant next to the pastry shop.

It was not mealtime, but there were still quite a few customers inside, chatting. Each table had a pot of tea and three or four kinds of snacks.

When Yu Zhao entered the restaurant, everyone looked over at the same time.

The town was small. The commoners living here might not all know each other, but after seeing each other often, every face looked familiar.

As soon as they saw Yu Zhao, they could tell she was not a local. When they saw her come in carrying several bags of pastries, a warm-hearted customer already shouted loudly for the restaurant waiter to come out and greet the guest.

The restaurant waiter was boiling water in the backyard. When he heard the shout, he hurried out and greeted her warmly. Yu Zhao sat down at an empty table.

On his recommendation, Yu Zhao ordered two of their signature dishes and a pot of their homemade rice wine.

While she waited for the dishes, Yu Zhao unwrapped the pastries she had just bought.

At once, a wave of hot air mixed with pastry fragrance rushed toward her.

She picked up a flower-shaped pastry with her chopsticks and took a gentle bite. A rich floral taste lingered on her tongue.

After she finished the whole pastry, Yu Zhao put down her chopsticks.

The taste was good, but it was not the flavor she was looking for.

Just then, the restaurant waiter came out carrying the two signature dishes. Seeing the unwrapped pastries on the table, he laughed and said: “The pastry shop next door has been an old brand for decades. Everyone who has tried it praises it. Look, our restaurant even uses their pastries to treat customers.”

After saying that, he set the two dishes on the table, then turned back to the counter to fetch a pot of rice wine: “Customer, all your dishes are here. Please enjoy.”

Yu Zhao picked up her chopsticks again and tasted the two dishes she had ordered.

To be fair, the restaurant’s head chef’s skills were average, and his dishes were not as tasty as the pastries from next door.

No wonder the restaurant owner chose to use pastries from that shop to attract customers.

However, the small pot of rice wine was rich and mellow, with a special flavor.

So, Yu Zhao sipped the rice wine and ate the pastries bite by bite. She looked no different from any other customer at the tables.

The customers in the small restaurant had only looked at her a bit more when she first came in. Once their curiosity passed, they stopped paying attention to her and went back to talking about the latest happenings in town.

“Stop, don’t run!”

“Wang Da Shan, if you keep running, I’ll break both your legs later!”

“Chase him! Hurry!”

“…”

The sudden noise from the street caught everyone’s attention.

Yu Zhao’s seat was by the window. She looked out and saw a man with a panicked face running wildly down the street.

Behind him were a dozen burly men holding wooden clubs and other things, chasing him while cursing angrily.

“Oh! It’s Wang You Cai. Has he gone gambling again?”

“The Wang Clan is completely ruined now.”

“If Squire Wang knew that most of the family property he worked so hard to save had been lost by this unfilial descendant, he would probably jump right out of his coffin in anger.”

“Squire Wang was a good man. It’s a pity his descendants are no good.”

“…”

The watching customers chatted back and forth and soon revealed all of Wang You Cai’s background.

“Ah!”

With a group of fierce thugs chasing him, Wang You Cai was on edge. In a moment of carelessness, his left foot caught his right and he tripped himself.

As he fell, the thugs behind him caught up.

The tall, strong man in the lead stepped on Wang You Cai’s back, pressing him flat just as he tried to get up.

Wang You Cai screamed in pain.

The tall man sneered: “Run! Keep running! You owe our casino so many spirit beads and think you can just pat your backside and pretend it never happened? There’s no such good thing in this world! Pay up!”

Tears and snot covered Wang You Cai’s face. “Third Master! Third Master! Please give me a little more time! I really have no money! Once I have money, I will pay back the casino first… Ah! Stop stepping on me! You’ll crush me to death!”

Third Master lowered his body and braced one hand on the leg he was stepping on. “Wang You Cai, I have a way to help you pay off your debt. Want to hear it?”

Wang You Cai nodded quickly like a pecking chicken.

Third Master said: “It’s actually very simple. Look, you owe our casino so much money. This is all my brothers’ hard-earned money. How about this: let each of the brothers here step on you once. After we have had our fun, you won’t have to pay back what you owe. Isn’t that a good deal?”