My happy life in a courtyard house with triplets.

Chapter 523: Technique

Zhang Lei smiled and said, "You're right, how can we give up so easily? But playing like this is too small, it's not fun. How about we set a new rule: each round's bet is 100 million, and each person must bet at least 500 million and no more than 1 billion per round, what do you think?"

Victor and Nikola's expressions darkened as they looked at Sergio.

Sergio nodded slightly, and the two immediately understood.

Victor nodded: "I have no objection."

Sergio also said, "I have no objection either."

Seeing that everyone agreed, Zhang Lei smiled and said, "Let's begin."

After saying that, he pushed 500 million chips onto the table, and the other three followed suit.

The dealer deals all the cards at once, one face-down card and four face-up cards to each player.

Zhang Lei glanced at the cards on the table, raising an eyebrow slightly; the cards were truly peculiar.

Sergio: Faceless card + three Kings + one 10

Victor: Faceless card + three Queens + one 10

Nicola: Faceless card + three Jacks + one 10

Zhang Lei: Faceless card + three Aces + one 10

At this moment, Number 000 reported the cards of everyone he had seen through X-ray vision to Zhang Lei in a very soft voice.

Zhang Lei instantly realized that his opponent had a combination of four identical cards plus a 10, while his own hidden card was just a small 3.

Zhang Lei sneered inwardly. Since that's the case, then let's change their cards.

Without making a sound, he used the Ghostly Shadow Stalking technique to silently switch all the hidden cards of the group.

He himself is still the same small 3, but Sergio, Victor, and Nikola's hidden cards have all been replaced, and he can no longer make four cards of the same rank.

Seeing the three still smugly pleased with themselves, Zhang Lei tapped the table: "Looks like I have the strongest hand at this table, should I speak first?"

The three exchanged a glance, unable to hide their amusement, assuming that Zhang Lei hadn't seen the hidden cards and dared to raise the bet, essentially offering himself up for free.

Sergio smiled and said, "Sure."

Zhang Lei thought for a moment and said, "Ten billion, let's go big."

Victor scoffed, "A billion? You make it sound so easy. Can you even come up with that?"

Zhang Lei looked at him: "What, you don't believe in my abilities?"

Nikola chimed in, "You said one billion, so put up one billion in chips first."

Sergio feigned impartiality and said, "Everyone, please don't be impulsive. We agreed on a maximum of one billion. Since Mr. Zhang has spoken, it naturally stands."

Zhang Lei pretended to be provoked and took out another black card, handing it to Sophia: "Exchange another two billion chips for me."

Sophia stared at the black card, her face full of surprise.

Sergio nodded to her, and she immediately went to handle it.

Zhang Lei looked at Nikolai and Victor: "I've proven my financial strength. What about you? You can't even come up with this much money, can you?"

Both men were sweating profusely, cursing inwardly that billions had been reduced to "trivial sums" in Zhang Lei's mouth.

Seeing this, Sergio spoke up: "Nikolai, Victor, you are my friends. If you don't have enough money, I can lend you some."

The two nodded quickly: "Alright then, we'll have to trouble you."

Zhang Lei chuckled inwardly as he watched the three men's clumsy coordination; their acting skills were so poor that they hadn't even understood the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

With all the chips in place, Zhang Lei's chips had accumulated to 1.5 billion.

Sergio gritted his teeth and said, "I'll go with you."

Victor also pushed in his bet: "I call."

Nikola glared at Zhang Lei resentfully: "It's just a billion, I can afford it."

Zhang Lei looked at him: "You have the lowest hand on the table, and you still dare to call? Is your money made of paper?"

Nikolai retorted, "My hand was weak, but the last card wasn't revealed, so nobody knows the outcome."

Zhang Lei smiled and said, "That makes sense. Then I'll add more, putting all the remaining 1.4 billion into it."

At this point, Zhang Lei's total bets reached 2.9 billion.

The three of them were completely dumbfounded.

Sergio stared at the chips on the table, then down at his own cards, so shocked he didn't even notice the cigar falling from his mouth. He cried out, "Impossible! How can this be? Where's my King?"

Upon hearing this, Victor and Nikolai quickly checked their cards and were shocked to find that all their original cards had been replaced.

Nikola suddenly pointed at Zhang Lei: "You cheated!"

Zhang Lei looked at him coldly: "If you can't play the game, you accuse me of cheating? Show me the evidence."

Nikolai was furious: "Mine was clearly a J, how did it become a Q?"

Zhang Lei said calmly, "How would I know? There are surveillance cameras everywhere here. Why don't you go check the footage? Maybe you're just mistaken and trying to pin it on me."

Victor slammed his fist on the table and shouted at Sergio, "He cheated! What do you say?"

Sergio now understood perfectly well that Zhang Lei was a top-notch cheater.

Although he didn't know how the other party switched the cards, he knew that his group had completely underestimated Zhang Lei.

Zhang Lei watched the three of them in a panic with great interest.

Sergio threw down his cards: "I fold."

Victor, unwilling to give up, shouted, "Fold!"

Zhang Lei looked at Nikola, who was still unconvinced: "What about you? Do you still have 1.4 billion to bet?"

Nikola looked at Sergio: "Lend me the money, I refuse to believe his hand is stronger than mine!"

Sergio looked at this clueless fool and snapped, "Enough! If you don't have money, don't play!"

Nikolai glared at Zhang Lei resentfully: "Don't let me catch you cheating, or I'll chop off your hand!"

Zhang Lei completely disregarded his threat: "In that case, thank you all for the 1.5 billion US dollars. 1.5 billion each for the three of us, that's 4.5 billion in total."

Looking at the chips totaling 7.4 billion on the table, Zhang Lei's lips curled into a wide smile: "Looks like my luck is really pretty good."

No one noticed that Zhang Lei was toying with a thin thread, almost transparent under the light, between his fingertips.

As soon as he entered the private room and walked around the gambling table, he had already secretly laid out the special cheating thread he had exchanged from the system, and completed the card swapping without anyone noticing.

Sergio, looking at the arrogant Zhang Lei, said, "Mr. Zhang Lei, your luck today is truly astonishing, and your methods are impressive as well. Would you be interested in a one-on-one bet between us?"

Zhang Lei looked at Sergio, thinking to himself, "He's finally showing his true colors," but replied casually, "Sure, but I don't know if you have that many chips left."

Sergio smiled and said, "The entire casino is mine. I can afford to pay billions, let alone tens of billions."

Zhang Lei smiled upon hearing this: "Really? That's great. Looks like I can finally have some fun today. In that case, let's see if I can double the 7.47 billion I have."

Sergio looked at him: "Really? As long as you don't cheat, everything is fine."

Zhang Lei smiled innocently: "Cheat? How could that be? Do you think I'm that kind of person? Besides, I'm all alone here, with so many of you watching me, how could I cheat? Unless you're trying to frame me."

Sergio laughed heartily: "Mr. Zhang Lei is really funny."

Zhang Lei laughed and said, "Mr. Sergio is not bad either."

Sergio said, "How about we play blackjack this time?"

Zhang Lei thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay. But I have one condition."

Upon hearing Zhang Lei's conditions, Sergio frowned: "What conditions?"

"I'd like Sofia to deal the cards for us, what do you think?"

Sergio looked at Sofia and smiled: "Okay."