After wandering around the State Medical Bureau for a while, Zhou Xuan felt bored and wanted to take a look at the scenery of Jiangzhou. His purpose for coming to the State Medical Bureau had already been achieved, and his brilliant appearance earlier would spread throughout the streets and alleys of Jiangzhou in less than an hour. He was destined to be the son-in-law of the Qin family, but this was just superficial work. Next, he needed to think of a way to win Miss Qins heart, which was very difficult.

  Dr. Qin ordered his servant, Lai Fu, to accompany Zhou Xuan on a stroll around the block, instructing him to take good care of his brother-in-law and then return directly to the mansion. Dr. Qin himself did not return home for lunch because he had to go with some officials from Jiangzhou to welcome the imperial envoy who was coming to select beauties at Lake Mouth.

  Zhou Xuan fanned himself with a folding fan and strolled along the streets of Jiangzhou, seeing rows of shops standing tall, the bustling market, and the prosperous world.

  Li Yu lightly taxed the people, and Jiangnan was originally a rich and prosperous land. In these thirty years, there has been no war, GDP has increased several times, and the standard of living of the people has improved significantly. The fourteen states in Huainan that were previously occupied by the Song Dynasty have returned to Southern Tang one after another. The territory of Southern Tang now includes the entire province of Jiangxi and most of Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, and Fujian provinces, with a vast territory and a population of tens of millions, vaguely becoming a superpower. However, Li Yu had no ambition to dominate, as long as other countries did not invade, he was content with the status quo, and it was enough for him to protect his territory and ensure the safety of his people.

  Zhou Xuan asked: "Lai Fu, are there any fun places around here?"

  Lai Fu said, "Brother-in-law, if we take this road and turn over there, not far from the Nengren Temple, there is a Pingkangfang, which is the Jinqu of Jiangzhou City, commonly known as the Qinglou Street. Its very fun there."

  Zhou Xuans eyes widened, and he folded the fan to hit Lai Fus head, scolding: "You dead house slave, wanting to harm me, your master, is not possible! Although I am a rake, I am not debauched. What kind of reason is there for getting married yesterday and going to a brothel today? When we return to the mansion, I will tell my mother-in-law that you tempted me to visit prostitutes, trying to corrupt the young and promising new master!"

  Lai Fu was frightened and begged for mercy.

  Zhou Xuan said: "I can let your uncle spare you, but you must answer my questions truthfully. Remember, leniency for those who confess, severity for those who resist."

  Lai Fu nodded generally: "Yes yes yes."

  "Lai Fu, dont you often go to Pingkangfang?"

  "No, I dont go often, just occasionally."

  "How expensive is it there? Can a family like yours afford it?"

  "As for what Old Man He said, the girls there are divided into three six nine grades. Lai Fu can only find the cheapest ones, and every time he goes, its always at a 50% discount, just two hundred coins is enough."

  "Wow." Zhou Xuan shouted: "Give you a discount again, are you handsome?"

  The shopkeeper smiled and said: "Lai Fu is a regular customer, of course theres a discount."

  "Smack", Lai Fus head was slapped again, "Fool, you just said it was occasional visit, now you say youre a regular customer, cant even lie properly."

  Lai Fu was tongue-tied and looked silly.

  "How much money do you have on you now?"

  Lai Fu hastily pulled out a small handful of coins and said: "Exactly two hundred cents."

  Zhou Xuan put the two hundred yuan in his hand and weighed it, this one hundred yuan was quite heavy, and threw it back to Lai Fu, thinking: "Brother is now penniless and more particular about dignity, of course, he doesnt want to ask his father-in-law for money, otherwise, he will be looked down upon by Miss Qin even more. I have to think of a way to make some extra money."

  "Lai Fu, how developed is the gaming industry in Jiangzhou City? I dont like gambling, playing cards or dice, its too uncouth. Are there any Go players here, I mean Weiqi?"

  Zhou Xuan was expelled from Nanchang Universitys Chinese Department because of losing a bet on chess.

  Lai Fu said: "Wow, Master Gugu, you are a Go chess master?"

  Zhou Xuan smiled and didnt respond, appearing mysterious and unfathomable. He thought to himself: "I have a certificate of amateur 4th dan issued by the Provincial Chess Association, Ive won third place in a municipal-level tournament, so-so considered an amateur strong player, but Im not sure what level this Nantang Weiqi is at? However, when it comes to experience with betting on chess games, Im quite rich, my mental quality is good, and I have many tricks up my sleeve. Even if hes an amateur 6th dan, Id dare to compete with him."

  Lai Fu said: "The governor Lin and the prefect Xu are both fond of Go, and they each have dozens of guests who play Go in their mansions. The betting on Go is everywhere."

  "Come on, lets go. Im going to the gambling den to play chess. If I win some money, Ill give you 200 coins as a reward, and you can visit Pingkangfang again."

  Lai Fu stole a glance at his brother-in-laws face, and since he didnt seem to be ridiculing him, he excitedly led the way and said: "Lai Fu knows that there is a large chess club on the side of Pipa Pavilion called Fangyuan Club."

  One uncle and one servant, two people walked east along the south bank of Xiao Yuanyang River, walking and walking, Zhou Xuan suddenly stopped his footsteps.

  "Lai Fu, did you hear anything?"

  Lai Fu looked around and saw that on the left was the gentle flow of the Xiao Yang River, and on the right were rows of wooden buildings along the shore. There were sounds, but nothing special.

  He listened attentively for a while, and then heard another quick and short insect call. He suddenly became excited: "Haha, its a cricket! There are fighting crickets here."

  Lai Fu looked at the new son-in-laws gestures and said, "Fighting crickets, this is very common. After the heat passes, crickets have already come out. In our Tang Dynasty, from the emperor to the common people, no one doesnt fight crickets. Its even more popular than Go, and there are also fighting chickens, fighting geese, and fighting quails. As long as it can be divided into winners and losers, anything can be fought."

  Zhou Xuan was overjoyed and couldnt close his mouth, deeply feeling that he had crossed into a good place. He liked playing these things, and now he finally had the opportunity to make a big show of his talents.

  When it comes to fighting crickets, Zhou Xuan had also participated in several cricket fighting competitions before crossing over, but at that time he was just a college student with no funds and no time, more talk than action, never caught any high-ranking good crickets above lieutenant level. It is said that a general-level cricket from Guangdong or Hainan can be exchanged for a small car worth tens of thousands of yuan, and the insect king is even more valuable than a city.

  Zhou Xuan was well-read in various cricket spectra, including Southern Song Dynastys Jia Si Daos "Cuī Zhī Jīng", Ming Dynastys Yuan Hongdaos "Cuī Zhī Zhì", Qing Dynastys Zhu Congyans "Cricket Picture Spectra" and the anonymous "Bug Kings Secret Spectra". These books were not available to people from Southern Tang, so he had a knowledge advantage.

  "Lets go and watch the fighting crickets first, well skip the chess club for now."

  Lai Fu is a native of Jiangzhou, familiar with the place. He led Zhou Xuan to a three-story wooden building nearby called "Mufeng Building". Its strange that there was no door on the first floor, but instead, there were stairs spiraling up to the top floor. The top floor had quite a few people, some standing and some sitting, drinking tea and chatting, looking very leisurely.

  A young man dressed in a suit saw Zhou Xuan and the others come up, came over to greet them and said: "If this young master wants to watch the insect fighting, please go to the second floor."

  Originally, there was another staircase inside the building leading to the second floor. Zhou Xuan and his servant Lai Fu went down to the second floor to take a look, and found that there were also many people here. Two men, one wearing blue and the other green, stood on either side of the stairs, each holding two signboards with ink characters written in Ou Yangs elegant and handsome calligraphy style.

  The blue shirted fellows sign reads: "Dong Wu Gan Ning, seven wins zero losses, ten to five odds."

  The sign on the green shirt reads: "Unknown General, Zero Wins and Zero Losses, Ten Bets Twenty."

  Haha, beetle fighting, and even using Three Kingdoms generals as names, so much fun.

  Zhou Xuan said to Lanyi: "I want to see the insect before I make another bet."

  The man in blue hung the sign on the wall and said, "Young master, please follow me." He pushed open a door to the left, revealing a square room with no decorations. In the center of the room was a round wooden table, on which were placed two celadon ceramic incense holders from Yue Kiln, each with a small yellow paper strip stuck to it, bearing the names of the two crickets that would soon engage in battle - Dong Wus Gan Ning and the nameless fierce general.

  There were seven or eight people gathered around the table looking into that blue porcelain basin.

  The man in blue said in a low voice: "Please, young master, dont speak, and please tread lightly on the road, lest you startle these two generals."

  Zhou Xuan nodded and said, "I know." Before the final battle, if a cricket is startled, it will exhibit avoidance behavior and wont recover for half a day.

  Zhou Xuan let Lai Fu wait outside, he walked in, looking from the shoulders of two onlookers, on the left side of a celadon basin quietly lay a square-headed black-faced cricket, six white and flawless legs, two large pincers dark red, wings light golden, majestic appearance really had some of the Eastern Wu general Gan Nings momentum.

  Zhou Xuan carefully identified the cricket, based on his trained eyes from various cricket spectra, this crickets level was almost that of a senior colonel, and a senior colonel-level cricket was already quite rare, no wonder it could win seven battles in a row and earn its owner a lot of money.

  Look at the other one, dazed, whats going on? The sign says zero wins and zero losses, it should be a new bug that hasnt competed in public before. But the two silk-like antennae on its head are broken, and it looks timid and shrinking. What kind of fierce general is this? Its body shape is not as good as "Dongwu Ganning", but its level seems to be high, also a junior captain-level good bug. However, compared with the senior captain-level "Dongwu Ganning", theres no way to compare, and the momentum is much worse. This is absolutely going to be a one-sided match.

  Zhou Xuan made up his mind, walked out of the small room, and stretched out his hand: "Lai Fu, take out the money."

  Lai Fu handed over the two hundred coins tied together to Zhou Xuan, asking: "Brother-in-law, have you made up your mind which one to bet on?" He was a bit worried in his heart, if he lost the bet, then tonights expenses would be wasted.

  Zhou Xuan smiled silently, walked to the western counter to prepare for betting, and saw that in just five minutes, the odds of "Unknown General" had dropped to 10:30, while "Dongwu Ganning" became 10:3. It seems that the gamblers views are similar, all optimistic about "Dongwu Ganning". As for "Unknown General", although the odds are high, the risk is too great, and its clear that its a losing bet.

  When Zhou Xuan went to place a bet, the attendant at the counter told him that each person had to make at least ten bets, with each bet being one hundred coins. Zhou Xuan only had two hundred coins and was not qualified to place a bet.

  Zhou Xuan scratched the back of his head, too embarrassed. Running out of money while gambling is the most humiliating thing, its simply a loss of face.

  "What? Isnt this Qin Doctors son-in-law? How can you not even take out 1,000 wen? Do you want to borrow some from me?"

  Zhou Xuan didnt think anyone here knew him. He turned his head to look, and it was that oily-faced guy who had been shouting at the gate of the provincial medical office earlier, wanting Miss Qin to diagnose and treat him.

  Zhou Xuan ignored him, pulled out a harmonica from his back pocket and said: "Ill use this foreign treasure - the eight-tone precious harp as collateral." He brought it to his lips and blew, beautiful melodies flowing from the harmonica.