Nightmare Shuttle

Even if he wanted to kill someone, he still had to play. The moment he got close to the corner, the ambiguous smell of rich wine and smoke engulfed him. The environment was dark, only a few square red lanterns faintly penetrated the darkness.

His footsteps paused, their eyes met. Chu Yi recognized the man sitting across from him, the two buttons at his neck had been pulled open, revealing a fair and slender neck. He smiled darkly at them, the only one without a mask, the familiar face was fully displayed before him, Arescio.

He stared deep into his eyes, one hand raised, a familiar red syringe held between slender fingers was plunged directly into the vein at the side of his neck. The crowd cheered. The man gasped and spit out a heated breath, licking his lips faintly. The greedy and maniac gaze made Chu Yi feel like a small prey being stared at by a poisonous snake. 

His pupils darkened into a crimson red, fist clenched.

Ruan Quixi's dark eyes stared in the man's direction and slowly raised a hand to pinch the back of Chu Yi's neck, his lips curled into a bewitching smile. His head leaned closer, the dark tresses of his hair falling onto Chu Yi's shoulder, sniffing lightly at the cold white skin, ink-black eyes never breaking contact. 

Arescio pulled a cigarette from the side, pinched it to his lips, and slowly released a breath of grey fog in their direction, cold eyes intersected in the hazy mist.

The atmosphere was tense with the smell of smoke and gunpowder.

In the silent confrontation, the sound of high heels stepping onto the hard floor was harsh. Arescio was the first to break eye contact, with a light laugh he suddenly lifted his hands and waved at them, "Come in, the game is about to start."

The woman in red kimono handed both of them a glass of wine.

And Chu Yi sat in the dim light, every move soaked with grace.

Not in a prominent position, but he took away all the light in the box as if everything in the background existed to set off him. The oblivious man who had called them over enthusiastically pulled Ruan Quixi over to his side and explained the rules of the game: "I don't know if you have played the royal game. This game requires five players and four decks of cards. It is divided into two camps." The man called Huang Mao pointed to the stack of cards on the table, 

"You play your cards in order and, if you have the King with the special mark and the Queen with the special mark then you become part of the same faction. Everyone else becomes a revolutionary party to fight, two against three."

The game is played in order. According to the general poker game, the big card controls the small card, the big suit controls the small suit, and the outcome is determined according to the order in which the players play all the cards. If the two royalists want to win, one person must be the first player in the game to finish all the cards and occupy the top spot.

"Originally, we had enough players but two of them seem to have gone in shock from taking too much of the booster, you should have seen them. They were foaming at the mouth and shaking like a fish on land." He laughed and so did the others, no one seemed to take their reaction seriously. As if it was commonplace.

"What were you gambling on."

Huang Mao simply shrugged, "Well aren't we having dinner later, just bet on that." 

Chu Yi slowly took a sip of the red wine, the mellow and rusty taste burned like a ball of flames down his throat, setting his nerves on fire. Almost immediately, droplets of sweat condensed on his forehead. Red lips opened unconsciously.

The quiet man shrouded with smoke licked his lips, and the smile at the corner of his mouth suddenly widened, as if a child found a new toy. "Do you want to play a game? Why not add me."

"But–"

"Ok"

The one who answered was Ruan Quixi. He smiled faintly, "Why not make it better? One game." His tone was frivolous, and the slightly long drawl and the smile at the corner of his lips gave the illusion of asking for a beating.

Chu Yi glanced at the two and unexpectedly did not reject, he slowly grabbed the card stack on the side, his eyes drooping lazily, "Then I'll be the courier."

The crowd looked between the three of them and had the illusion of stepping into a Shura field. Except for the players playing, the others consciously moved to the side, leaving only Chu Yi, Ruan Quixi, and Arescio to sit beside the cold table.

The air was quiet, only the sound of shuffling cards and deep puffs of smoke.

The lighter lid was flicked opened, and the blue-orange flame flickered in the dim light, reflecting the other face.

The space around the table is narrow, Chu Yi still holds the glass of bloody wine in one hand, and only used the other hand to cut the cards.

However, that didn't stop him from showing off his skills.

The cards flew in and out of his hands at will, like butterflies fluttering around his fingers.

His long eyelashes drooped down as if he was looking at cards, but he was looking at the burning flame, his pupils were extremely dark and fiery. 

The smoke and haze tangled his senses and everything seemed to be covered with a layer of grey film, but the action of cutting cards suddenly became faster to the point where only flashes of white light could be seen!

Moments later, a card flew out and was caught between his fingers.

He turned the cards over for everyone to see.

This is a King card.

The cigarette was ignited.

Arescio simply pressed the cigarette in his hand on the table until the cigarette butt was completely extinguished.

Chu Yi flicked his wrist and two cards fell into the center of the table. Slender fingers leaned over, stained with bright red wine, and drew a mark on the center of the royal cards.

Like a spot of blood had been dripped onto it.

The two marked cards were shown to the player again. Chu Yi held a corner of the card, shook it slightly, put the card back into the pile, and started shuffling the deck again. 

The cards flashed with a dazzling light, the black mask he wore reflected the red light of the lantern, and only the sultry curled lips could be seen.

Finally, his wrist stopped, he tapped his finger on the table and the crisp sound of his nail hitting the cold wood echoed in the suffocating silence.

"What numbers do you want to be removed."

It was as if they had woken up from a deep trance, Arescio smiled and waved a hand, " I trust your choice, you decide."

No one objected.

"Then numbers 3, 4, and 5 are removed."

There are 16 3's, 16 4's, and 16 5's

With a shift of his hand, the cards flew up from the deck and landed precisely on top of each other on the table. There was a low exclamation from the side that was quickly suppressed.

After removing 48 cards, there are a total of 168 left in the deck, two of which are the King and Queen cards. Chu Yi did the math and divided it into everyone's hands, there were still three cards left,

According to the rules, the extra cards were taken over by the King who decided to ascend the throne. If you get the emperor card when the cards are dealt but do not want to be enthroned, you can only hand over the emperor card to the next player to see if the next player is willing to take the throne.

Everyone picked up the cards and checked their hands. Arescio looked at the expression of the man on the opposite side of him. He couldn't tell if had gotten good cards or bad because there was only tye ever-present smile on his face.

Chu Yi slowly dealt the last card, placed the remaining three in the middle of the table and took a sip of wine, and leaned casually on the edge of the table. "The game starts."

Huang Mao, who is diagonally opposite, held the cards in his hand, arranged them into a row of fans, picked them, drew and inserted cards, and adjusted the order. Although he tried to hide it, the estactic expression in his eyes betrayed him. Either he had gotten a royal card or he had high numbers.

He looked at the others, a slightly fat middle-aged man who was already wiping the sweat off his forehead, bad cards. A thin man whose expression was calm but from the slightly tapping feet, it could be seen that he wasn't as calm as he pretended to be. His hands were neither good nor bad.

Red eyes turned to the fourth person, Ruan Quixi rested his cheek with his left hand, as if he was about to fall asleep, but he felt Chu Yi's gaze finally stop on him, so he also turned his face and smiled at him."You only know how to look at me now."

He refrained from rolling his eyes and turned to the man person. The poisonous pupils stared straight back at him as if he had been waiting. "Is the wine good?"

Chu Yi paused and raised the corner of his lips, "Very good."

He didn't wait for a response, "Does anyone want to exchange cards?"

The atmosphere instantly became tense.

"Counting down to 3. If there is no exchange of cards, then this game will be set."

The heartbeat accelerated and a hesitant look appeared on the fat man's face, his heart was entangled with indecisiveness.

What if he exchanged and got an even worse hand.

"3–"

The thin man shuffled his cards nervously.

"2–"

Arecsio raised the outed cigarette to his lips, tasting the astringent and bitter butt.

"1"

"Please publicize the identity of the person holding the Royal Cards."

"Wait!"

Arescio raised his brow and turned to the side. Ruan Quixi curled his lips and shook his hands, "You play rock, paper, scissors wait for me."

Arescio felt a bit inexplicable but still held out his hands and played. "Rock"

"Paper"

"Scissors."

"Shoot."

"Bang–"

A card was dropped on the table.

The card was faced up and it clearly showed the picture of a majestic King with a drop of bloody wine.

"Player Ruan Quixi do you intend to ascend the throne as King or give way."

He smiled playfully, 

Red eyes stared into black eyes, "Player Ruan Quixi has ascended the throne."

"All hail the King." 

In the next second, there was a loud scream in the room, all eyes shifted.

The corpse of the black shirtless man had his eyes wide open, a large circle of white foam on his blue-purple lips, and a layer of goose bumps on his exposed neck, which could not go away on the gray and wrinkled skin. In his hands he held an empty syringe. It wasn't know when but large pool of water had seeped under the corpse, which looked like blood at first glance.

Chu Yi recognized the corpse. It was the man who been injected by the cigarette lady.

At this moment, the was the sound of a bell ringing, before a servant came walking in respectfully, "Guest, it's time for dinner."