A perfect life begins with changing the timeline.

Chapter 57 The Dealer

When Li Mu started his internship at the newspaper, he was required to fill out personnel information.

He wrote very frankly about his family background, even though he hadn't dreamed of such things yet.

My parents are farmers, and I have two older sisters.

Bie Yan had naturally seen Li Mu's information, so he expected that a kid from a rural area in Henan Province would inevitably show some emotions after becoming a full-fledged employee.

But as it turned out, he was wrong.

When he mentioned being promoted to a permanent position, Li Mu was mainly stunned, but not overly joyful.

Or rather... he didn't show much joy outwardly.

Well, I must say, this kid is really good at keeping his composure.

He thought to himself.

But Zhou Jian was somewhat surprised:

"Didn't they only start recruiting at the end of July?"

"Yeah. But this kid caught a headline right after starting his internship, which immediately met the criteria."

"Oh~"

Zhou Jian didn't ask about any headlines.

To be honest, newspapers have headlines every day, and as someone who also works in the entertainment industry, he's long been unsurprised by them.

Instead, it was Sister Zhang, the second to fold, who asked curiously:

"What's the headline?"

Bie Yan shrugged as he collected the cards:

"Take that lucky guy from our province who won 50 million in the lottery a while ago. So many people wanted to interview him, but they couldn't find him. But somehow, they found him and made it into an entertainment headline."

But to everyone's surprise, Sister Zhang suddenly showed a look of astonishment:

"Is it that... 'The world is so big, I want to go see it'?"

This surprised Bie Yan as well:

"You saw it?"

"That article is quite famous. Did he write it?"

"right."

"Wow, Li is pretty good."

Sister Zhang's eyes lit up immediately, and she looked at Li Mu and said:

"Life is more than just the present hardships; there is also poetry and distant fields. Xiao Li, did you write that?"

"Uh...yes, Sister Zhang."

"Wow, I never knew you were so talented."

Her words successfully piqued the curiosity of the others:

"What do you mean by 'shameless'?"

"Huh? I've heard that phrase before. It seems to have just become popular. Did Xiao Li write it?"

"And then there's that... reason for resigning: The world is so big, I want to see it. There's a kid in our workplace who used that reason to resign this month, saying he's going to chase his dreams."

A group of people started chatting animatedly.

The croupier chuckled:

"Hehe, if I didn't have some talent, how could I have been assigned here? Alright, alright, hurry up, Sister Lin is going to start, what about you guys...?"

The older brother abruptly threw the topic at Li Mu, then expertly steered it back.

But... it's clear that Li Mu is no longer an "anonymous" person, at least in this private room.

……

As the saying goes, a person's character is revealed through their card playing.

The betting continued, and after more than an hour, Li Mu began to understand some of the tricks of the trade.

Putting everything else aside, this Ms. Zhang must have a pretty quick temper.

Putting aside the wins and losses of the first few rounds, as the game progressed, when she lost seven rounds in a row, she blurted out a phrase from the national quintessence.

"What the hell is this...?"

From Li Mu's perspective, she shouldn't be short of money, after all, the watch on her wrist that glittered brilliantly under the lights must be quite valuable.

But they have a strong competitive spirit.

But as a con artist, Li Mu thought these gamblers were too easy to manipulate.

Especially in a game like Texas Hold'em, which requires a high degree of self-control and maintaining emotional calm and a clear mind.

She was clearly getting anxious.

She might not care about the money, but she was very unhappy about constantly losing.

But it was precisely through her emotional fluctuations that Li Mu was able to clearly distinguish the hierarchy of the table in the following half hour.

First of all, it seems that Brother Bie, the dealer, and Sister Zhang have a pretty good relationship.

But there is always a formality, or rather, a sense of caution, in his words, and even his jokes are pleasant to listen to.

As for the newcomers Zhou Jian and Chen Lixin... their status should be the lowest among the people at this table.

Even though one was the deputy director of a powerful department and the other was the team leader in charge of script coordination, production, and review, their styles immediately became cautious and timid after Sister Zhang started to become increasingly irritable.

Try to avoid direct conflict with the other party. Even if you are at odds with them, try to use clever methods to avoid confrontation, fold, and cut your losses in time.

As for the other three, Sister Lin didn't say much, and it was hard to tell how deep she was.

Brother Sun and Brother Liu must be very familiar with this Sister Zhang, as they dare to criticize, joke, and ridicule her.

Li Mu already knew the hierarchy and importance of the people at this table.

only……

Li Mu had to admit that this Sister Zhang was indeed not suited to playing Texas Hold'em.

The technique is quite poor.

In Texas Hold'em, you don't necessarily need a good hand to win money. On the contrary, bluffing can increase your chances of winning.

But with her, it was the other way around.

This guy is... very serious. Even if he gets a bad hand, once he calls, he absolutely has to see the other person's hole cards.

But unfortunately, she had terrible luck and poor skills, so she lost all her chips in no time, like a money-spending machine.

"Xiao Li, have them bring me another box of chips."

"Okay, Sister Zhang."

Li Mu responded, went out the door, and gave an instruction to the waiter.

Even without using a credit card, the waiter simply took his leave.

But her luck was truly terrible, and under the influence of her increasingly irritable emotions, she lost all her chips in the second round, which amounted to several hundred thousand.

The game had been going on for almost three hours.

Just then, the phone in Bie Yan's pocket rang.

After taking it out and glancing at it, he suddenly looked up:

"Xiao Li, can you cover for me for a bit? I need to take this call."

"……what?"

Li Mu was taken aback, exchanged a glance with his older brother, and upon seeing the look in his eyes, Li Mu seemed to instantly understand what he meant. A thought flashed through his mind, and he said:

"Brother, I don't know how..."

"It's okay, you just deal the cards. Give each of them two cards, then flip three... You guys teach Xiao Li, I'm going to take this call."

"Go on, come on, Xiao Li, come here quickly and give me some good luck, let's change my fortune."

To everyone's surprise, Sister Zhang also said something like that.

So, Bie Yan quickly left the private room with the phone in hand, while Li Mu took the croupier's seat.

"Sister Zhang, I'm not very good at this."

"It's alright, you just shuffle and deal the cards. Deal them to him first, then go around the deck once, two cards each..."

"Okay, sure."

Li Mu grabbed the cards and began shuffling them, his technique unremarkable, shuffling them three times.

The cards were then dealt in sequence.

After several people placed their ante on the table, they each looked at their cards.

Sister Zhang was stunned when she saw her cards...