The fourth, fifth, and sixth marbles fell one by one, continuously filling the empty holes.
"Well, yet another who thinks they can try their luck."
"Why is she using 10G marbles when others can't even get in with 5G?"
"What is she doing? This position is far from the center hole, isn't it?"
"You! Are you playing with our money?" a thug shouted at Xu Xiaoyou in a low voice.
Xu Xiaoyou couldn't be bothered by the people's comnts around her. With calm eyes, she grabbed a handful of marbles and simultaneously put them in the machine.
Golden light refracted off the surface of the marbles, each worth ¥1000, as they rolled through the pipe, slid into the spring compartnt, and shot out under everyone's gaze.
"No, haven't you noticed sothing?"
Initially, people watched the spectacle with amusent until the twenty-seventh marble was ejected. They noticed the upper part of the board being gradually filled, even the slowest among them realized sothing was amiss.
"This girl, she's not ssing around. Look at the board of the marble machine!"
Under everyone's shocked gaze, the upper half of the marble machine's board was gradually filled with marbles. The third layer was filled first, and after the upper part was mostly filled, the second layer, and finally the first layer.
Chen Chou slowly opened his eyes wide.
He saw it.
With the entire building slightly tilted, the whole board was also subtly slanted, making it almost impossible for a marble to enter a hole. She was filling the upper board to forcibly flatten the tilted board.
Each 10G marble weighed ten grams, filled with pure gold. At this mont, the board had already filled roughly forty holes, totaling about four hundred grams. Though not heavy, one must consider the distribution of marbles and other variables, approximately equivalent to an invisible hand lightly pressing the board.
But it was precisely the weight of that hand that, upon closer inspection, made the originally slightly tilted board almost unnoticeably tilted.
Chen Chou's breath gradually quickened.
Once he had thought to taunt the girl after her failure by exploiting her flaws in speech.
She had said then, if she won the prize pool, totaling three hundred thousand, they would split it halfway.
But the newly entered marble fell into the bottom prize pool, which would also be included in the total prize pool calculation. He had thought she hadn't considered this point.
Never did he imagine that she could achieve having not a single marble fall through, with each filling the board.
Chen Chou recalled her act of taking his watch before the ga began.
She didn't forget; she had absolute confidence.
None of her marbles would fall through.
"Creating a rule isn't enough," Xu Xiaoyou said.
"You also need to make sure everyone at the gambling table follows your rule."
Before she finished speaking, the forty-eighth marble fell.
"It'll fall in the first board, the third position from left in the first row."
Just as Xu Xiaoyou said, the marble rolled onto the board, its trajectory from inside to out, rotating around the board's edge before steadily stopping at the reported position.
The forty-ninth marble fell.
"Second board, the only vacant spot at the upper right corner."
The outco repeated her prediction.
Rather than saying it fulfilled it, it might as well be said these marbles followed the destined path!
"The fiftieth marble will fall to the fifth position counting left in the fourth row of the first board."
This ti, Xu Xiaoyou didn't go for another 10G marble but instead swapped for a 5G marble worth ¥500.
The marble fell with a sound.
The crowd held their breath, even the thugs who had previously mocked Xu Xiaoyou fixed their gaze on the marble, watching its descent, rolling, then rolling, accurately angling toward its predetermined spot.
Finally, with an almost imperceptible angle, it just slightly brushed past, along the edge of the board and glass, falling into the prize pool.
Chen Chou stared blankly.
"I'm not always so lucky," Xu Xiaoyou said with a shrug.
"Only the last marble is left, if it doesn't roll in, my heart will belong to others."
"Just kidding."
All of a sudden, Xu Xiaoyou placed the last marble in. The crowd hadn't yet recovered from their previous shock when the marble swiftly rolled into the second board, precisely bypassing all marbles on the second board, quickly dropping into the third board!
This marble didn't roll straight toward the center hole on the third board, but it fell exactly from above, heading directly for the marble straight atop the hole.
With a 'bang,' two marbles collided, the 5G marble arced through the air, golden light refracted and jumped, countless eyes following it closely.
In the near-frenzied gaze of the crowd, the marble landed precisely in the hole, like a basketball dropped into a basket, even shaken by the magnetic influence around the hole but finally settled into the fourth layer.
A glow circled around, fireworks erupted, "Grand prize!" appeared on the screen. A pixel-style girl dressed as a cheerleader raised a pom-pom, announcing the ultimate prize in a playful tone.
Until the prize pool was opened and marbles fell down like a waterfall, piling before everyone's eyes, they finally recovered from shock, imnsely thrilled by what had transpired.
"Didn't I see correctly?"
"That marble was thrown in!"
"Perfect shot!"
"She really won the prize pool!"
"Quite a lot of money." Xu Xiaoyou bent over, pulling out a small basket from sowhere, loading marbles into it one by one.
Finally, a waiter hurried over, wiping his sweat, respectfully greeting her, claiming he'd handle it for her.
"Here, you wagered with , you win and just take your principal away." Xu Xiaoyou approached, handing the small basket containing forty-one 10G marbles to Chen Chou.
"One extra to cover your interest. Tsk, what a pity, you had a chance to earn big, but losing is losing."
"Boss!" The underlings around were a bit anxious, hurriedly stepping forward to surround Chen Chou.
"That's a lot of money!"
"Sure is, over ten grand, enough for us guys to party for a while, can't just let her go like that."
"Without our money, she wouldn't have won the final prize anyway, those funds should be partly ours no matter what!"
"Shut up!"
Chen Chou shouted in a low voice.
"Boss, you..."
The subordinate saw real anger appear on Chen Chou's face, silently lowered his head without speaking.
"Do spoken words get taken back, have I taught you guys any differently?"
"If she had lost just now, would you have gloated instead? Following her request, if she lost, would you bla for agreeing to her condition?"
"But wasn't it you who insisted we co here, saying we could earn big bucks, yet couldn't pass this broken marble machine." The subordinate grumbled. "That's money we worked hard for."
"What nonsense are you babbling!" Another subordinate angrily lurched forward, grabbed the grumbler's collar, ready to strike. "When the boss shields you from the Gale Gang's bullying, then how co you don't utter this nonsense?"
"Don't say it." Suppressing the turmoil within, Chen Chou turned with his underlings to leave. "Let's go."
"Do you wanna do sothing big with ?"
Approaching the door, the golden-haired girl's voice called from behind.
Chen Chou turned his head, finding Xu Xiaoyou looking at him with a faint smile.
"What would we do with them?" he blurted out instinctively.
"I'll naturally find you when the ti cos."
"Oh, a word of advice." Xu Xiaoyou pinched up a 5G marble, shaking it.
"Don't try to guess my thoughts."
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