That's right, playing mahjong. How could they play to two hundred thirty thousand? That was too powerful.

"Yes, just that the stakes were a bit bigger, and he let me multiply my winnings several times." Xiaoyao replied while preparing grilled fish. Since he had promised, he would do it and do it perfectly.

"You're really lucky, winning someone's entire fortune like that!" Cuihua was somewhat moved. This was truly getting rich overnight, while Master Wang had lost everything in one night.

"Can't really call it everything, just most of it." Xiaoyao shook his head.

"That's true. The Wang family is quite wealthy. Just eighty thousand taels, they can still produce that." Cuihua nodded. She had done some investigation on the Wang family too.

"Not eighty thousand, one hundred eighty thousand taels. I already took one hundred thousand from him before." Xiaoyao shook his head again.

"..." Both Cuihua and the other girl fell silent. Had taken another one hundred thousand before? How was this account calculated? They were somewhat confused.

"Yihong Courtyard should be worth one hundred seventy to eighty thousand taels. How did you calculate this account?"

...

"How could it be worth that much? At most eighty thousand taels. I've calculated all the assets, that's the price." Xiaoyao said with a smile.

"That's impossible... wait, did you only calculate the surface assets?" Cuihua suddenly understood, Xiaoyao must have calculated it this way.

"Of course. Why would I calculate things I can't see?" Xiaoyao looked as if this was natural.

"... I understand. Grilled fish, grilled fish..." Cuihua decided not to bother with it and just focused on the grilled fish.

"Got it. I'm already grilling it. Very soon." Xiaoyao replied. He had already started grilling the fish, and the aromatic smell was making Cuihua drool.

This time wasn't like before, previously there weren't many ingredients, but now they had everything. The grilled fish was even more delicious. Not only was Cuihua drooling, but all the other courtesans were too.

Who would have thought young master had this skill...

"Young master, we want some too!"

"Grill it yourselves!" Xiaoyao very straightforwardly refused. One or two he could handle, but this group of women was too numerous, he was willing but unable.

"Then young master, grill one for me?" Mudan looked at Xiaoyao with a pitiful expression.

"I'll grill ten later, you all figure it out yourselves." Xiaoyao frowned and decided to solve it this way. Ten was actually the same as one when grilled together.

"Good! We ten top courtesans will divide them. Everyone else can just watch." Mudan said arrogantly, preparing to use status to pressure others.

The result was naturally various objections—

"Get lost! Who said it had to be you ten top courtesans? This is what young master gave us. We all have a share."

"How about this, everyone cuts a piece and we all taste it!" someone suggested.

"Fine, let's do that..."

Finally, they seemed to reach an agreement. After all, they were all sisters with good relationships.

"Here you go. By the way, I haven't asked the young lady's name yet. It's not the same type as Cuihua's, is it?" Xiaoyao handed the girl a grilled fish and asked with a smile.

If this girl was also that type, then it would be Heart Moon Fox's problem.

"How could it be? My name is much more elegant than hers. I'm called Huang Shishi, the 'shi' from poetry and prose." The girl replied with a smile, gracefully taking the grilled fish. After eating a bite, she looked like "this is too delicious."

"Cuihua, this grilled fish tastes so... good!" Huang Shishi immediately said.

"I know. Don't you see me eating? Also, call me Little Flower." Cuihua looked like "your words are too unnecessary" while continuing to eat the grilled fish, wanting to finish it and have Xiaoyao grill another.

"Aren't they both flowers..."

"Don't disturb my fish eating. I want to eat another one..."

"..."

Xiaoyao didn't grill more fish, but he continued grilling other things like meat, mushrooms, etc. In his hands appeared various barbecue delicacies. At this point, the Yihong Courtyard courtesans didn't feel it was a pity to only eat a little fish, because there were more things now.

"There's grilled meat too! I want to eat..." Cuihua's eyes were a bit glazed. She didn't just love grilled fish, she loved delicious food.

"Didn't you say you wanted to lose weight?" Huang Shishi asked. Recently Cuihua had been eating too much and constantly saying she was fat and needed to diet. But her "fat" was just gaining a pound or half a pound, her figure was still envied by most women.

Cuihua glanced at Huang Shishi sideways and said calmly, "I need to eat my fill to have energy to lose weight..."

"..."

Starry sky, barbecue, drinking, singing and dancing...

At this moment, Xiaoyao and the others lived very comfortably and happily. Perhaps this was the happiest moment in some of their lives, as everyone forgot everything and indulged in eating, drinking, and merrymaking.

During this time, Master Wang delivered bank notes and contracts worth eighty thousand taels. He didn't have that many bank notes at once, but he had some fields and shops. There was even one piece of real estate Xiaoyao hadn't expected, not a very precious place, but this location happened to be in Flowing Stone Kingdom, specifically in the Luo family's location, Flowing Moon City.

Flowing Moon City was the capital of Flowing Stone Kingdom. This was natural, the Luo family almost controlled the entire Flowing Stone Kingdom. Where they were located was naturally the most important place in Flowing Stone Kingdom, the heart of the kingdom. Such places were generally capitals.

Flowing Stone Kingdom's land values weren't very high, but Flowing Moon City was the capital after all, so it still had some value. Plus, Flowing Moon City was right on a regional transportation route, making it even more valuable.

This real estate seemed to be several shops that collected rent annually. The Wang family didn't run businesses themselves, possibly planning future development but not yet developed. That's why the Wang family chose to use it for debt repayment.

Not long after, Xiaoyao bid farewell to everyone, saying he was going to sweep the gambling houses. This time, Xiaoyao's goal was winning money, so he only played big or small, winning money from gambling houses but never too much, fearing attention. He'd win one hundred thousand or so from each gambling house then withdraw.

He was very careful. Even winning so much money, the gambling houses didn't discover it was one person doing it, because Xiaoyao used disguise techniques, changing his appearance almost every time he won, and also when exchanging chips.

In one night, he swept away tens of millions in gambling funds from various houses, almost the total annual income of one to two years from all Silver Heart City gambling houses combined. Overnight, Xiaoyao became one of the wealthiest people in the world.

The gambling house alliance, after verification, discovered someone had swept away a year's income. But they didn't know who it was and thought it was that world's number one gambling god. So the gambling god unluckily took the blame for Xiaoyao.

Xiaoyao wasn't excited about suddenly becoming one of the wealthiest people. He didn't care much about money, enough was sufficient. Otherwise he wouldn't be a servant. Just being a divine doctor or fortune teller could make him rich.

This time was just for backup. There would be many places needing money in the future because he had to support several women and cultivate them into peerless experts. Just the pills they needed would be a huge expense, an astronomical figure. If he relied solely on buying, the required medicinal materials would cost several hundred thousand to around one million taels.

So he needed to get some money for backup. Since it was backup, naturally he should have more, especially this kind of effortless money-winning. Having more wasn't wrong.

The next day, Cuihua woke up and found herself sleeping in the hall with a group of women around her. Like herself, they had all passed out drunk. Last night, eating barbecue and drinking wine, they had unconsciously gotten drunk.

She also discovered Huang Shishi was still drunk. Yesterday Huang Shishi seemed to have drunk more, competing with the brothel courtesans in various talents and having even more fun.

"Too careless, I actually got drunk. If Little Sister knew about this, she'd definitely scold me to death!" Cuihua muttered to herself, somewhat relieved that no one knew about this situation. But she soon discovered it wasn't so.

"I already know. Do you have anything to explain?" A voice reached Cuihua's ears, making her heart feel like it might jump out.

Following the voice, Cuihua saw Heart Moon Fox sitting by a table, drinking wine and eating some grilled meat. This seemed to be leftovers from yesterday, though apparently reheated.

"Ah, Little Sister, how are you here? Didn't you go to Medicine King Valley?" Cuihua was full of confusion. How could Little Sister appear here? Previously they had acted separately, Little Sister went to Medicine King Valley to get pills. Some of those pills were refined using monster salamander and were very important, naturally requiring Little Sister to go personally.

"Medicine King Valley's business is finished. I came to see how your progress was. Didn't expect to discover you here having fun. Looks like this place should be secured. By the way, this grilled meat is good, the chef's skills are excellent." Heart Moon Fox said while eating grilled meat.

Actually, Heart Moon Fox had only just arrived. Originally she wanted to wake up Cuihua and the other, but suddenly felt hungry and went to the table for food. The grilled meat was still fresh. After heating it with internal energy and eating a few bites, she fell in love with the taste.

Heart Moon Fox was originally very casual and wouldn't mind eating such leftovers. She wasn't like those pampered young ladies who were particular about everything.

"That... Little Sister, this grilled meat wasn't made by the chef, but by..." Cuihua said somewhat hesitantly. She originally didn't want to mention Xiaoyao or let Heart Moon Fox know. Now this situation seemed somewhat difficult.

The grilled meat was fine, but the ownership of Yihong Courtyard obviously couldn't be hidden.

"Who grilled it? You? You don't have this skill, you only know how to eat, not cook. Shishi knows some cooking, but only enough for ordinary good taste. This isn't her level either." Heart Moon Fox said, directly excluding her two maids from the possibilities. She understood these two girls too well.

(End of Chapter)