Chapter 4

A One-Sided Mirror, The Gamble (3)

Her brother was too reliable—she had wronged him. She looked at the photo a few more times, finding it endlessly captivating. The man had delicate and handsome features, but his expressionless face gave off an illusion of a faintly furrowed brow. Just from his aloof, kingly aura, she decided—she would marry him.

The butler noticed her satisfaction and smiled faintly. “It seems Miss Xie is quite pleased with Mr. He.”

“His last name is He?” Xie Xinqi straightened her back.

“Yes, Miss. Didn’t you even look at his name?”

Seeing the butler make a flipping motion, Xie Xinqi turned the photo over. On the back, there was a single, stark English word:  

King  

Her hand trembled, and she nearly dropped the photo. “...Oh my god.”  

This man was King.  

Why had she never thought to look up King’s photo before? He actually looked like this?! Her brother’s words were true—he really had found her the “highest-quality man.”  

Everyone in Gongzhou knew that in the city’s elite circles, the most romantic man was Mr. Xie, and the most ruthless man was King. Mr. Xie could make any woman fantasize, while King could make any woman do nothing but fantasize.  

“King” was a special title. Ever since Gongzhou’s gambling industry had risen to prominence, there had been a Zhenji King Castle, whose ruler—the chairman—was referred to as “King.” Last year, Zhenji King Castle changed ownership. The new King, reportedly under 30 years old, was said to be no less ruthless than the former one. He had initially made his fortune in diamonds and later shifted his focus to jewelry and antiques, crushing competitors and monopolizing the industry. His influence could be likened to the metaphor in Atlas Shrugged—when the Titan Atlas shrugged, the whole world trembled.  

Under this sweeping upheaval, job interviews for fresh graduates had become disastrous—failure was as common as breathing. This was also the main reason why Luo Wei had been indefinitely unemployed.  

On yet another idle sunny day, she and Xiao Lajiao sipped cold drinks. Luo Wei couldn’t help but sigh, “Sigh, it’s really tough in the jewelry industry now. It’s all Xiao Ying’s fault for being so ungrateful and leaving us. Otherwise, I could’ve been his rhinestone designer by now.”  

Xiao Ying had grown up as a childhood friend of Luo Wei, Xiao Lajiao, and Su Jianian. They had all lived in the same neighborhood. The Su siblings lived in a villa, while she and Xiao Ying lived in the adjacent working-class apartment complex. Their buildings faced each other, so she and Xiao Ying were also neighbors. Luo Wei had always loved shiny things and, as a child, often played with her mother’s rhinestone jewelry. She even remembered once telling Xiao Ying, “When you grow up, you should become a rhinestone merchant,” and he had agreed.  

Mentioning him was meant to be a joke to make her unemployment seem less embarrassing, but unexpectedly, Xiao Lajiao grew serious, her face somber as she looked at Luo Wei. “Actually, Weiwei, do you know about the new King?”  

“I do.”  

“So you know. We all thought you didn’t. Sigh, it’s really such a pity. We’ve lost contact with Xiao Ying too. But I know the general area he operates in, so tomorrow, I’ll take you to look for him.”  

“Really? That’d be great.”  

For some reason, whenever Xiao Ying was mentioned, Luo Wei felt a mix of excitement and awkwardness that made her unable to act straightforwardly.  

Xiao Lajiao had always been a doer. She quickly went home, brought out her SUV, and with a roaring engine, picked up Luo Wei. She drove to a high-end custom clothing store and stuffed two large bags into Luo Wei’s arms through the car window. Opening them, Luo Wei found two evening gowns. Puzzled, she asked, “Are we attending some formal event?”  

Xiao Lajiao nodded solemnly. “Once we get there, just remember to speak as little as possible and follow my lead.”  

“Okay.”  

“These years, my brother and I have met Xiao Ying privately a few times, but maybe the new environment has put too much pressure on him—he’s kept us at arm’s length. I just hope that seeing you might bring out some of his old self.”  

“He’s spent more time with you guys than with me. If even you two couldn’t talk to him, I doubt I’ll be of any use.”  

“No, you will.” Xiao Lajiao thought for a moment before saying, “Even though things turned so sour between you two later on, I’ve always felt that you were very special to him.”  

This sentence made Luo Wei think for a long time.

An hour later, as the night deepened, the magical lights illuminated the world outside the car window. Xiao Lajiao put on a silver clown mask and handed Luo Wei a gilded queen’s white feather mask. The building before them stood on the side of Gongzhou Bridge, covering most of the waterfront avenue. More than twenty small doors were studded with artificial jewels, shimmering brightly under the rotating lights. The main building was 45 stories high, resembling a deep-sea iceberg, with a huge hollow red heart embedded at the center, housing a fully transparent afternoon tea restaurant. Above, helicopters with the “HersonGroup” logo hovered around the building, occasionally catching the light. Below, yachts and speedboats darted in and out, bringing billionaires from all over the world.

This was a masterpiece combining classical and modern art, integrating leisure, entertainment, casinos, hotels, restaurants, and clubs into one. Every night after eight o’clock, the fountain at the main entrance would be replaced by a volcano model, erupting every ten minutes and turning the ice-blue building into red. Here, the dancers were as numerous as the migrating birds of the South, heavily made up, stepping in and out on the marble steps. This was the first entertainment center anyone would think of when mentioning Gongzhou—the Zhenji King Castle.

Luo Wei’s dress was a water-blue gown that reached the floor, with a delicate flower on the chest. Xiao Lajiao wore a white suit, giving off a Hollywood-lesbian diva vibe. Upon entering Zhenji King Castle, they stored their coats and bags. Xiao Lajiao pinched five banknotes between her fingers and handed them to the coat-check girl as a tip.

Seeing that the five bills were all hundred-dollar notes, Luo Wei maintained a calm exterior, but inside, she had fainted a hundred times. She knew Xiao Lajiao was from a wealthy family, but spending money like this—was she planning to send a delivery to Abu Dhabi?

However, what surprised her even more was that Xiao Lajiao’s cryptic expression when mentioning Xiao Ying was because he had fallen into ruin at the casino.

The Xiao Ying in her memories was a beautiful boy with a beauty mark. Before elementary school, she had always thought he was a girl and even assumed that the “Ying” in his name was written as “樱” (cherry blossom), so she called him “Xiao Ying.” Even Xiao Lajiao called him “Xiao Ying Ge.” After they started school, she found out that both the “school heartthrob” and “school bully” were Xiao Ying, and she couldn’t quite understand it—Xiao Ying should have been the “school beauty,” right? But now, the “school bully” had really turned out to be, just like all the bad students at school, a gambling-addicted thug…

Luo Wei imagined the image of a gangster with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, exhaling smoke, his face oily, pushing mahjong tiles and shouting “Hu!” (win), then compared it to the image of the young Xiao Ying, who once had skin as white as snow. She felt completely thrown off.

The transparent elevator in the center of Zhenji King Castle ascended, and as they looked inside, they saw scenes from every floor: besides the abundant baccarat, slot machines, and other gambling facilities, there were cocktail parties, art exhibition halls, and live-streamed boxing matches from around the world... She even saw live sharks and tigers at one of the entrances, but before she could take a closer look, the elevator passed by them.

Finally, the elevator stopped on the 45th floor. This floor housed a rotating restaurant with a transparent ceiling, where the starlight cascaded down, making it seem as if they were walking through the galaxy.

After stepping out of the elevator, however, Xiao Lajiao led Luo Wei to swipe a card to enter another door. They walked up a staircase, and Xiao Lajiao whispered, “Zhenji King Castle actually has 46 floors. The top of the 45th floor uses the most advanced technology to reflect the starlight of the 46th floor, so it can only be seen from there.”

On the 46th floor, after passing through security, the doorman in a tailcoat checked Xiao Lajiao’s invitation letter and opened a leather door for them. Inside was a gambling hall, the sound of cards being shuffled filled the air. The floor was made of black-and-white checkered marble, resembling a chessboard. In the corners were large bouquets of red and white roses, flourishing like the women passing by.

A white clock hung on the wall, so large it took up half of it, its black hands curved in a way that seemed to twist time and space. Around the central baccarat table, elegantly dressed gamblers gathered, while the accountant used a long black spoon to move the chips on the table. Luo Wei also noticed a curious detail: on the opposite side of the baccarat table was a cage. Inside the cage was a giant tortoise, its shell arched high like the back of an old man with a hunch.

She felt as though she had stepped into Wonderland: “Xiao Lajiao, what exactly is this place?”

“A secret trading casino, only people with special invitations can enter.”

It turned out that this was a special casino: each guest bought chips with a large sum of money and could choose to participate in an elimination-style competition. The winner could exchange all their chips for cash, or they could exchange them for a rare item—currently, the item on offer was the tortoise in the cage. The cage had a label with its name:

Pinta Island Giant Tortoise (Geochelone nigra abingdoni)

It had been reported in the news that this species of tortoise once lived on Pinta Island off the west coast of Ecuador in the Galapagos Archipelago. The last known individual, named “Lonesome George,” died in 2012, and since then, no purebred individuals had been found. So... was this an extinct species?

They had been waiting for a long time, watching as they sold the extinct tortoise, followed by the sale of military secrets from the Indian Ocean’s Aisenhai Island, the eggs of the late megastar Mei Bo Lian, and the unpublished oil painting of the Holy Son by Titian... These items opened Luo Wei’s eyes, but she was more concerned about what Xiao Ying was doing here.

Just then, someone patted her on the shoulder and whispered, “How did you end up here?”

Author’s Note:

When I first conceived Roses in the Mirror, I originally planned for Xin Qi to be the first female lead. However, after thinking about how in Moon Over the Fire, the more intense of the two sisters ended up as the main lead, I decided to make Luo Wei, a gentler girl, the protagonist instead.

My mother always favored children with personality flaws, such as Pei Shi, Sen Chuan Guang, Loki, and Zi Xiao, so writing about how Xin Qi, the wealthy young lady, gets into trouble due to her self-destructive personality actually hit a bit of my “萌点” (a term that means things that make me feel emotional or fond of a character). By the way, what kind of weird “萌点” is this...