Chapter 1000 - 979: Coming and Going
Bai Erlang sobbed, "I’m already this messed up and you’re still scolding me!"
Manbao then firmly pressed his palm, causing Bai Erlang to let out a piteous cry, which immediately revitalized him.
Manbao asked, "Who took you to gamble on the games?"
Bai Erlang choked out, "Everyone was going, we just went to watch the polo, and then a lot of people started betting. They asked me, and I thought it was interesting - it’s just guessing which team would win and which would lose, right? I didn’t bet much money, I was just playing for fun."
"Can you win two hundred taels with ’not much money’?" Manbao said irritably, "Does Eldest Master Shi from the county town not have money? He started off just wanting to have some fun too, and what happened? Now his shop is sold, his fields are sold, only his mansion remains, and these days, he can only make a living by doing business elsewhere. And look at Laizi from the village; he even sold his wife and daughter. Isn’t that tragic enough?"
Bai Erlang was stunned, "I, I..."
Bai Shan asked, "Was it Zhang Jinghao who led you to gamble?"
Bai Erlang thought carefully and shook his head, "No, it really wasn’t. We all went to play together, and we all bet together just for fun."
"How did you manage to win so much money?"
"I don’t know either. I just bet on four matches, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, and I won all of them. At first, I only bet the twenty taels I had on me. Then, somehow, I just kept earning more and more." Bai Erlang continued sobbing, "I really didn’t intend to gamble. Everyone said that the whole capital’s population, even the emperor, loves betting on polo. It’s considered elegant."
Standing at the doorway, having listened for a while, Bai Dalang finally understood the cause and, rolling up his sleeves, entered the room with a stern face, "Did you go to gamble on games?"