Preparations are complete; all that's left is to make the arrest.
"Prefect Li, Zhang Xuehou has gambled away all the deposit I gave him at the casino. He's probably lost most of it by now. Once the casino is shut down, will I be able to get my money back?"
"sure!"
Li Haoyun smiled and thought to himself, "You've helped me so much, it's no big deal to get some money back for you."
"President Jing, it's three thousand taels of silver in total, right?"
He remembered that Jing Zhe had told him when he went to the government office that he had bet 1,000 taels yesterday and was going to bet 2,000 taels today, which would make a total of 3,000 taels.
"No, Prefect Li is mistaken."
"No?"
Li Haoyun was stunned for a moment, then understood.
He had already bet a thousand taels yesterday, so he probably thought about it today and decided not to bet that much, so he changed his mind at the last minute.
"It's alright, a thousand taels of silver is not a small amount. After the casino is shut down, it will be returned to President Jing in full!"
Li Haoyun said magnanimously.
Jing Zhe waved his hand, "Prefect Li, you've got it wrong. What I meant was more than three thousand taels!"
As he spoke, he turned around and reached out to Xiong San, who immediately handed over two deposit slips. Jing Zhe didn't even look at them before handing them directly to Li Haoyun.
More than three thousand taels?
Li Haoyun was completely bewildered. When he took the deposit slip and looked at it, his face turned almost green.
Seeing that his expression was off, Jing Zhe asked, "Prefect Li, although five thousand taels is a bit much, there's a deposit slip here, so it can't be fake, right? What's with that expression of yours? It's like I'm cheating."
Li Haoyun didn't want to say anything and simply handed the deposit slip back.
"President Jing, take a look for yourself."
"oh."
With some doubt, Jing Zhe took the deposit slip.
The most similar thing between Anguo and his era is that the characters here are also simplified characters. So Jing Zhe can always use calligraphy to show off without any problems. Although he can also use traditional characters, he can never use them as smoothly as simplified characters.
The reason he changed the deposit slips of one thousand taels and two thousand taels to two thousand taels and three thousand taels was to make it easier to write. He could simply add two horizontal lines on top, and no outsider would notice.
Upon picking up the deposit slip, I saw that it did indeed have "two" and "three" on it, but instead of changing the original characters, they crossed out "one" and "two" and wrote "two three" separately!
No wonder Li Haoyun had that expression!
The forgery is so clumsy!
Since things have come to this point, even if it's fake, Jing Zhe has no choice but to bite the bullet and make it real!
"Prefect Li, as you know, it's inevitable to get nervous when writing, and it's normal to make a mistake or two when you're nervous, right?"
"..."
Li Haoyun thought about it. Anyway, the money confiscated from the casino wasn't under his control, so he might as well take as much as he wanted—after all, both the Crown Prince and Grand Tutor Hao thought highly of him, and the casino had even helped him out this time.
Consider it doing him a favor; he'll definitely take care of me in the future!
Thinking of this, Li Haoyun laughed and said, "President Jing is absolutely right. After we catch those gamblers and confiscate their ill-gotten gains, the five thousand taels of silver will definitely be returned in full! As for this deposit slip, I've already seen it; there's no need to show it to anyone else!"
As he spoke, Li Haoyun put the deposit slip away and tucked it into his pocket. Jing Zhe couldn't help but look at him with new respect. He was openly protecting himself!
He cupped his hands in a respectful gesture, said nothing more, and resolved to take good care of him from now on!
Li Haoyun then went to arrange troop deployment. Xiong San came up to him with admiration and said, "President Jing is indeed amazing, I admire you!"
"I admire you so much, you idiot!"
Jing Zhe got angry when he heard him speak and kicked him in the butt. "I told you to change one and two to two and three, what did you change it to?"
"It's been changed, hasn't Prefect Li seen it too?"
Xiong San said, feeling wronged.
"What the hell did you change?!"
Enraged, Jing Zhe cursed again: "Would it kill you to add two more horizontal lines above? Do you have to cross out those two characters and write a new one?"
"I was a little excited when I got the pen... I really wanted to write a few more words..."
"..."
Jing Zhe politely kicked him, telling him to get lost.
...
Seeing Li Haoyun giving instructions to the constables, Jing Zhe leaned over and asked curiously, "Prefect Li, now that all the constables are in position, let's move out of here! Kick open the door and trap them like turtles in a jar!"
Li Haoyun shook his head and pointed to several houses next to this one, saying, "President Jing, if I'm not mistaken, these houses are connected to this casino. Nobody knows what's inside. Since it's a casino, the door will be hard to break down in one go. If we alert them, the people inside might be prepared, and a few might slip away from somewhere else!"
As expected, those in positions of power think things through thoroughly.
"Prefect Li, how about this? I'll go knock on the door and lure the gatekeeper out. You all hide to the side and seize him while we're at it. Then we'll sneak into the courtyard. What do you say?"
Li Haoyun glanced at Jing Zhe, who was dressed in fine clothes and looked exactly like a rich young master who loved gambling. It was a natural performance, and the other party should not suspect anything.
"Alright, then I'll have to trouble President Jing!"
"Of course!"
Jing Zhe cupped his hands in greeting, thinking to himself, "I'm only after the money!"
Therefore, Li Haoyun ordered two teams of skilled constables to stand guard at the corner of the wall outside the door, ready to make their move at any opportunity.
The others also hid behind, and they wouldn't be discovered unless the people inside opened the door and came out.
Having arranged everything, Jing Zhe went to the door alone, raised his hand to knock, but before his hand could even fall, the door opened.
Then a series of curses and shouts came from inside.
Jing Zhe was stunned, and so were the others.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Xuehou, disheveled and dirty, was pushed out of the door. Several dusty footprints were clearly imprinted on his plain white brocade robe, making him look extremely disheveled.
"Manager Zhang, what's going on here...?"
Zhang Xuehou looked up and saw Jing Zhe. Without thinking about how he ended up there, he pointed inside and said, "Young Master Jing, these people are cheating! They've swindled the two thousand taels you just gave me! I discovered they were cheating and tried to get them back, but they not only refused but also beat me up. Young Master Jing, please help me get your two thousand taels back!"
The gatekeeper pushed Zhang Xuehou out without rushing back. Seeing that Jing Zhe was dressed in a brocade robe and was young, and that Zhang Xuehou's money was given by him and that he had even found this place, he subconsciously felt that this was a potential big customer.
So he glared fiercely at Zhang Xuehou: "Why didn't you accuse us of cheating when you won? You make excuses when you lose. I think you're just not good enough and can't accept defeat!"
He then smiled at Jing Zhe and said, "This young master was introduced by him? Don't listen to him. You'll know once you come in and have a few drinks!"
"..."
————
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