OFR – Chapter 286 What is cold, what is king! (Part 3)

Lone Island Star.

Texas Hold’em.

This is the most popular card competition in the world.

Legend has it that the largest Texas Hold’em game in history took place at a casino in Las Vegas, featuring a head-to-head gamble between five top tycoons from American financial consortiums.

They gambled a staggering $20 billion in a single night.

At the time, the news spread like a plague, quickly reaching all corners of the Americas and even the globe.

It instantly became the most explosive headline.

Because back then, even Bill Gates—then the world’s richest man—was worth just barely around $20 billion.

It could be said that on that day, the five financial giants had laid down wealth on the table equal to the entire net worth of the world’s richest man.

And today, the crowd below could faintly sense that this storm surrounding the Zijin Pavilion might not fall far behind that Las Vegas storm in grandeur and intensity—if it fell short at all.

Right from the start, the chips on the table had already totaled over 30 billion RMB.

Who could imagine how much money would flow into this game by the end?

50 billion? 100 billion?

No one dared to guess—and even if they tried, they wouldn’t be able to.

But they all knew: in all of China, this was definitely the most majestic and high-profile gamble ever seen in public.

And what’s more, heavyweights like Yu Youxiong and Li Shaofeng had not yet personally entered the game, out of respect for the Nalan family’s prestige.

Once the elite tycoons of Nanjing arrived—those at the very pinnacle of wealth—the tension and spectacle of this game would surely reach an entirely new level.

That would be the true tidal wave.

At this moment, the person in charge of the Zijin Pavilion held the bank cards that had just been handed over by the players, feeling as if they weighed a thousand pounds.

Because these weren’t just a few plastic cards—they represented over 30 billion RMB in liquid funds!

30 billion!

Even for him, a southern China representative in the world of Bitcoin, this was a market-moving level of money—enough to shake the entire Chinese cryptocurrency scene!

And now, this terrifying amount of money was being wagered just as a bet at a dinner game.

“Please wait, everyone. I’ll fetch your chips right away.”

Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, the manager was about to leave to prepare the chips.

His heart was still pounding wildly.

He didn’t quite understand why. After all, as a Bitcoin agent in southern China, the funds he managed were far greater than this.

But now, it all felt unreal.

After spacing out for a few seconds, he realized—maybe it was because he merely managed wealth, while these people were truly squandering it.

And they were squandering it on a scale that was jaw-dropping.

Starting at 30 billion—in China, who has ever seen this? Who has ever heard of this?

He had spent years mingling among China’s wealthy, from the old-money elites to the new-money upstarts.

But a scene like this—so public, so full of drama, so brazen in its power play—was truly a first.

So it was only natural that he was shaken to his core.

Just as he steadied himself and was about to leave—

He noticed the man seated in the first spot on the left—Young Master Nalan Yun—had motioned toward him.

He immediately walked over in a hurry.

Though he didn’t know what Nalan Yun wanted, he understood one thing clearly:

As long as he was still operating in Nanjing, or even the broader Jianghai Province, this young man was not someone he could afford to offend.

The Nalan family’s grip over southern China was no exaggeration.

Within seconds, he respectfully arrived beside Nalan Yun, bowing slightly.

“Young Master Yun, is there something you need?”

“Mm, just a small matter,” Nalan Yun nodded calmly.

“No matter how big or small, just say the word. I’ll do my utmost,” the manager replied respectfully.

But what Nalan Yun said next stunned him.

“Put the 5 billion chips that Cold Young Master just asked for on my tab.”

The words were simple, with a faint hoarseness, but they left the manager dazed.

Only after twenty or thirty seconds did he fully register what had been said.

Five billion!

This aristocratic youth from the Nalan family, exuding a royal arrogance, was actually paying 5 billion RMB for someone else!

He had thought that the rich guests who came to support Nalan Yun today were only here out of obligation, trying not to offend the Nalan family.

But this one moment completely overturned that assumption.

Because 5 billion RMB in liquid funds—that’s an amount that even a billionaire would need to liquidate all assets to gather.

Even for Nalan Yun, that’s no pocket change.

But now, not only did Nalan Yun ask for 5 billion in chips for himself, he also covered the same amount for the youngest boy in the distance.

The manager opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, remained silent.

Being a man of experience and social awareness, he keenly sensed something.

Perhaps he hadn’t misjudged everything—he had only misjudged that boy named “Cold.”

Cold!

This boy was clearly not coerced or lured by the Nalan family to join them.

And if that’s the case, it meant that this boy was someone so far beyond the Nalan family’s control, that even under immense pressure, Nalan Yun wouldn’t dare force or threaten him.

The manager never imagined that this gentle and handsome boy might actually be the strongest ally on Nalan Yun’s side, possibly even stronger than Chen Yunzhi, the richest man himself.

As this realization took hold, his surprise turned to sheer disbelief.

“Alright, go ahead,” Nalan Yun finally said, snapping him back to reality.

He quickly nodded and backed away.

But just before leaving completely, he paused, turning to look back at the boy seated on the pavilion.

Bathed in the slanting winter sunlight, the boy’s face looked gentle and refined.

Staring at him a moment longer, the manager suddenly noticed a small detail most others would miss:

That peaceful and calm expression on the boy’s face—hadn’t changed one bit from when he first arrived.

There was not the slightest reaction to the monumental game about to unfold.

That tiny detail made the manager absolutely certain of his earlier guess.