Xiaojin said helplessly, "Master, if there were good stuff, do you think I'd let these gambling stones stay in the gambling - stone shop?"
Feng Yuqin thought it made sense. So she calmly sipped her tea and watched the show.
Ran Xiucheng was indeed quite skilled at gambling on stones. After taking a look around, he was very disdainful of the gambling stones in the shop. "Is this all you've got in your gambling - stone shop? There's hardly any good material in them."
Cai Heng wasn't hearing this for the first time. Some customers just said this on purpose to stop others from buying gambling stones in their shop. So Cai Heng was used to it and responded officially, "Our gambling - stone shop has been in business for many years. If there were no good material, we'd have gone bankrupt long ago. So Young Master Ran can pick with confidence."
Someone nearby chimed in, "The Divine Doctor Feng once unearthed green crystal here." The implication was that since green crystal could be found here, there must be good material in the shop.
Ran Xiucheng's face darkened. But there was nothing that really tempted him to buy.
"Don't you have any new stock?" Ran Xiucheng frowned. "Feng Yuqin has already made her selection first. If you don't have new stock, this competition won't be fair."
Originally, Ran Xiucheng had planned to carefully pick a batch of gambling stones to take back to his family. But after looking around, he didn't find any that he thought were great.
"I'll immediately transfer some stones from other branches." Cai Heng knew that if he didn't satisfy someone like Ran Xiucheng, the shop would be in for a rough day.
The other gambling - stone shops nearby were all branches. After contacting a few of them, Cai Heng had a new batch of gambling stones delivered within the time it took to burn an incense stick.
Ran Xiucheng looked at Feng Yuqin and said, "I've seen the previous batch. There's hardly any good material. So the previous round is void. Now, let's pick together and see who can pick better gambling stones. That's fair."
With more gambling stones to choose from and no need to visit other shops one by one, Feng Yuqin had no reason to refuse.
"Tell me how you want to compete. There must be a time limit," Feng Yuqin said calmly. "You've already wasted a lot of time. I don't have all day to waste with you."
"One hour," Ran Xiucheng pointed at the newly - delivered batch of gambling stones. "In one hour, we'll pick from these stones. Whoever's stones yield higher - value items wins."
"Fine," Feng Yuqin replied calmly. "Who will keep time?"
"Each of us can find someone of our own," Ran Xiucheng said. Naturally, Ran Xiuzhe would keep time for him.
Feng Yuqin didn't want Chu Xiaomian to do it, so she asked Cai Heng to help keep time. Cai Heng immediately fetched a sand - timer.
After everything was ready, Cai Heng and Ran Xiuzhe glanced at each other and said in unison, "The timer starts."
Ran Xiucheng rushed to the two gambling stones he had his eye on and quickly put them into the bamboo basket prepared beside him.
Xiaojin, who had been keeping an eye on Ran Xiucheng from the space, saw that the two stones he had picked precisely were not white stones.
"Master, this Ran Xiucheng is indeed quite capable," Xiaojin said.
"Do you think you can win?" Feng Yuqin asked.
Xiaojin laughed confidently. "Master, if he's got some skills, I've got ten times as many. I'll be perfect."
Hearing this, Feng Yuqin felt a bit more at ease. If it weren't for the bet, she could take her time to choose. But now she didn't have that luxury. She had to rely on Xiaojin.
However, Xiaojin didn't start right away. Instead, he observed Ran Xiucheng.
As Feng Yuqin stood still, the onlookers started whispering as time passed.
"What's wrong with the Divine Doctor Feng? She could pick stones before. Why isn't she moving now?"
"Could she be intimidated by Ran Xiucheng's momentum?"
"Ran Xiucheng is picking stones quite fast. Do you think there's really something in the stones he's picked?"
"Ran Xiucheng has been confident from the start. There must be something in them, right?"
The onlookers were not very sure.
After observing Ran Xiucheng for a while, Xiaojin thought that Ran Xiucheng had some ability, but it was limited.
"Master, we're sure to win," Xiaojin said. Then he started listing stones like a customer ordering food, "The third one from the right in the bottom - most row on the right, the sixth one..."
Since they had wasted a bit of time, Xiaojin spoke quickly, and Feng Yuqin picked quickly too. At first, when Xiaojin spoke slowly, Feng Yuqin would take a look because she wanted to see if she could pick accurately on her own. But later, as Xiaojin's speech sped up, so did Feng Yuqin's actions.
At first, the onlookers in the shop thought it was normal for Feng Yuqin to take a look, just like she did before. But later, they saw that Feng Yuqin was just picking up a stone and throwing it into the bamboo basket without really examining it.
"Brother, can the stones she picks like this really be good?" Ran Ziling was stunned to see how Feng Yuqin was picking.
Ran Xiuzhe also didn't expect Feng Yuqin to pick stones like this. He thought she was doomed to lose.
"Have you ever seen anyone from a hidden family pick stones like this?" Ran Xiuzhe asked.
Ran Ziling shook her head. "No. Second brother is already quite fast at picking stones, but the way Feng Yuqin is doing it seems like she's just randomly grabbing one. This is not how you pick stones. It's like she's closing her eyes and picking blindly."
A faint smile played on Ran Xiuzhe's lips. "So the Star - Fall Palace will be ours. By the time the other hidden families show up, it will already be in our hands."
Hearing this, Ran Ziling thought it was great that Feng Yuqin was picking stones randomly. As long as her second brother won, the Star - Fall Palace would belong to the Ran family.
Thinking that the Star - Fall Palace was one of the four major forces in the Xuan Yu Realm and must be filled with countless treasures, Ran Ziling planned to ask her brothers for some before they were confiscated. With this in mind, she was full of anticipation for the bet.
"Oh no! The Divine Doctor Feng is doomed to lose," said some people who had a good impression of Feng Yuqin or had received her favors. They felt extremely disappointed seeing how she was picking stones.
"I really hoped the Divine Doctor Feng could beat these people from the hidden families, but it seems hopeless now."
"If the Divine Doctor Feng loses, the Star - Fall Palace will slip through her fingers just when she's about to get it?"