"Raise 25,000￥," Xu Xiaoyou picked up five chips and placed them on the table.

The gambling table fell silent, even Angelina's eyebrows furrowed slightly as she looked at Xu Xiaoyou, who responded with a smile.

After some thought, Angelina also picked up five chips and chose to call.

"Are you sure you want to raise? If you lose this round, you'll lose 100,000￥," the male manager glanced at Angelina unintentionally.

He was utterly baffled, this person looked like a complete rookie in the casino, clueless not just about Texas Hold'em rules, but even initially unsure about the basics of raising and calling. Why would the BOSS trust this guy with half the chips?

"Oh~"

Xu Xiaoyou's eyebrow raised slightly, as she glanced at the male manager.

"Are you so confident that I'll lose this round?"

The male manager placed his hands in front of his chin, well disguising the fleeting panic in his eyes.

"Just a friendly reminder, everyone makes mistakes," he said as he placed five chips down.

"Call," said Tao Lin.

No one spoke further; as the four revealed their hole cards, the answer gradually became clear.

Angelina and the male manager had high cards with no combinations worth mentioning.

Clubs 3, Spades 4, Hearts 5, Spades 6, Spades 7.

Spades A, Spades 8, Spades 4, Spades 7, Spades 6.

As the two had anticipated, this round Tao Lin would win with a flush in Spades over Xu Xiaoyou's straight.

"You won, Manager Tao," Xu Xiaoyou said, with a downcast look.

"It's my lucky time, my luck usually isn't great, but it always turns around at crucial moments, leading me on the right path," Tao Lin said.

"Pfft, making such a fuss, turns out it's just a show-off,"

The onlookers started to comment.

"I thought she was tough, but she lost 100,000￥ in the first round, what a letdown."

"Will she lose all the money she luckily won in a few more rounds? Then she'd better not slink out pathetically~"

"Still pretending to be calm, she's probably really anxious inside. If I were her, I'd find a reason to sneak away~"

Xu Xiaoyou seemed deaf to the comments, her gaze fixed on Tao Lin:

"Shall we continue?"

Tao Lin met that pair of golden eyes without concealment, smiling slightly.

"Of course."

Meanwhile, from Tang Xin's perspective.

"Alright, stop."

Tang Xin politely smiled and waved to stop a few tone-deaf individuals from howling.

"Mu Yin, Mu Yin, how did we sing?"

"You sang... not bad, compared to others, a bit more practice would be even better. As for the band spots, I still have to think about it, might consider reaching out to you guys again," Tang Xin said, blinking with utmost tact.

"Ah, why like this."

"Mu Yin is so strict!"

"Sob, Mu Yin is rejecting us."

Clearly, even the most naive children could understand the true meaning of her words.

Isn't this just waiting for a notice, implying they're out!

Tang Xin let out a sigh.

It's indeed difficult to find band members within the campus, such scenarios only appear in certain band dramas, it's hard to recreate in reality. What's more, with the physiques of these kids, it remains to be seen if they can even reach the cymbals on the drum set...

The school bell for break rang.

Tang Xin gently hopped down from the bench, shouldered her bag, tugged her cap, and headed towards the exit.

Her upper body was clad in a black hoodie, with a long tie at the neckline, while her lower half sported an irregular dark grey plaid skirt, paired with white sneakers. Despite her young age, she grasped the essence of a cool, sassy style, drawing countless girls' attention and discussion along the way.

"Wow, Tang Muyin's outfit is so cool."

"I heard Muyin knows all kinds of instruments, is she off for practice again?"

"She seems so much more mature than her peers."

Soon, Tang Xin reached outside the school and saw a familiar figure.

"What's with this outfit...?"

Bai Youyou raised an eyebrow, looking her over.

"Trying a different style once in a while," Tang Xin said, "I quite like this style."

"Let's not talk about this now, I just picked up a veil, to prevent Assassin's Creed from directly interfering with team communications, let's add each other on the veil first." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Tang Xin's mouth twitched slightly.

She was quite familiar with Bai Youyou's way of doing things.

Bai Youyou's picking wasn't typically picking up what others left behind, but rather finding some unfortunate soul, knocking them out, and picking up what they dropped.

She didn't expose Bai Youyou's words, silently allowing her to scan her veil account.

"Friend request list is full," Bai Youyou blinked in surprise.

Tang Xin glanced over, finding the friend list filled with girls, going on and on without end.

She swiped her finger casually, pulling out a grid to batch-delete some contacts she rarely communicated with, making Bai Youyou look dumbfounded.

"It should be fine now."

"The character you're playing is really popular," Bai Youyou said.

"A bit?" Tang Xin tilted her head.

"I'll assist with your side quests first," Bai Youyou said, "My side quests aren't urgent."

"With Angelina over there, it should be alright."

"It's exactly because they're together that it's worrying," Tang Xin expressed concern, "I hope they won't do anything dangerous."

Bai Youyou glanced at Tang Xin.

It can be said that after spending so much time together, Tang Xin was always the one overseeing and taking care of the few girls' lives.

She considered herself not exactly mature, but compared to the other three, this immaturity ironically seemed quite mature.

If not for her presence, she couldn't even imagine how chaotic the apartment might become.

...

Several rounds of gambling went by, and the piles of chips on the table visibly shrunk.

"This round you win, Miss Xu," said Tao Lin.

She revealed her hand, which was a pair AAKJ10, smaller than Xu Xiaoyou's QQ334 two pairs.

"If I had bet more this round, it would have been better," Xu Xiaoyou showed no emotional fluctuation on her face. "Only won 20,000￥, what a pity."

The supervisor in the surveillance room sneered coldly.

If Xu Xiaoyou had bet more this round, they certainly wouldn't have let her win.

Through the machines, they had long seen Xu Xiaoyou's hole cards clearly. They only needed to tell the dealer the hand type and let her deal accordingly, and they could control the outcome of the gambling.

Simply put, they could make Xu Xiaoyou win if they wanted her to win, and she would keep losing if they wanted her to lose.

Of course, to stabilize Xu Xiaoyou's emotions, they had to let her win occasionally, gaining more or less chips.

But in the long run, Xu Xiaoyou's chips were being slowly eaten away, in a warm water-boiling-frog manner.

Through this method, they had already controlled Xu Xiaoyou's chips down to 300,000, just need to slowly wear them down, Xu Xiaoyou's chips would eventually be exhausted.

A new round of gambling commenced, with Angelina heading to the restroom, leaving three to start the round.

Two hole cards with three communal cards dealt one after another.

"All in," Xu Xiaoyou suddenly said.

She suddenly pushed all her chips to the center.

The supervisor's eyes flashed with surprise.

"Are you sure you want to bet all your remaining 300,000￥?" A hint of hesitation flickered across Tao Lin's face.

"No." Xu Xiaoyou looked at the veil, her eyes calm, "I suddenly realized my eyes are very valuable, someone has offered a high price for my eyes. Is it you, Manager Tao?"

"No need to be so troublesome, I choose to mortgage my right eye."

"This time, I bet 1,000,000￥."