Days in Hong Kong variety shows

"Oh, 'Baiyi' hasn't appeared in a long time, but look how energetic it is, holding its head so high, it has an air of dominance over the world." Director Huang still insisted on his opinion.

"I think number 9, 'Treading Snow and Soaring Clouds,' will make a splash this time." After carefully observing the nine horses waiting in the arena, Cao Tai gave his answer.

At first glance, horse number 9, "Treading Snow and Soaring Clouds," doesn't seem to have much of an advantage among the nine horses waiting in the arena. Its physique is even slightly thinner than its competitors. However, the untamed spirit in its eyes and the high-spirited fighting spirit that it occasionally displays in a provocative manner towards its opponents are remarkable.

Most importantly, although it was slightly thinner than the other contestants, its body had much smoother muscle lines. In Cao Tai's eyes, its muscles were moving in a gentle rhythm, which suggested that it would unleash a powerful force when it exploded.

The first race is a 1000-meter sprint, which mainly tests explosive power. Cao Tai himself is extremely optimistic about this horse number 9.

Of course, it's not that the other horses were bad, but this horse stood out a bit in Mr. Cao's eyes.

"Number 9 looks thinner than the other horses; he's obviously a malnourished little guy," Old Huang said dismissively, shaking his head.

"Don't let its slender frame fool you; it's incredibly powerful! Look at its flowing muscle lines, relaxed and not tense. Comparing it to an opponent is like comparing Bruce Lee to a gym muscleman. At first glance, the gym muscleman looks big and muscular, but in terms of explosive power, it's Bruce Lee's kind of person—calm as a lake, erupting like a volcano!"

"Is it really that amazing? Brother Yao, why don't we buy a few more tickets for number 9 to win?" Uncle Da added with a glint of wisdom in his eyes, "Anyway, if an underdog wins, the prize money will at least double."

Winning at horse racing doesn't mean receiving a fixed prize. The Hong Kong Jockey Club puts the betting amount for each race into a pool of funds. After deducting management fees, charity funds, and other expenses, the remaining funds are put into the prize pool for payouts.

The prize money is distributed equally among the number of winning bets. If there are many winning bets, the winnings for a single bet may only amount to a few hundred dollars per bet; however, if there are few winning bets, it is common for the winnings for a single bet to amount to tens of thousands of dollars per bet.

However, the game doesn't only offer single-win options; there are also position betting, consecutive wins, double, triple, and quadruple betting, and pass-through betting methods, among others. The game is incredibly diverse, with varying odds that constantly change based on the amount wagered. Therefore, even if you win, the prize money is distributed based on the number of winning bets.

If there are many winning bets, then everyone can have some clear soup; if there are few winning bets, then it's possible that several people will each get a bowl of meat soup with plenty of oil and meat.

The triple and quadruple jackpots are more extreme, requiring players to correctly guess the top four numbers in a row. Therefore, it is difficult to see a winner in such a long time. Once a winner is selected, the prize money is usually in the hundreds of thousands, and it is not impossible for the prize money to exceed one million.

There are now nearly 100 Jockey Club betting stations throughout Hong Kong Island, and betting stations are also located inside the two racecourses, Happy Valley and Sha Tin. The betting amount for a single race is tens of millions, and the betting amount for 10-11 races on a race day is at least several hundred million.

Although the Hong Kong Jockey Club is ostensibly a non-profit charitable organization, it is actually like a large conglomerate with an annual turnover of over 10 billion yuan. Moreover, it is a large conglomerate that never suffers losses. It would be considered good if its annual tax revenue, charitable donations, and bonus payouts could reach half of its annual betting amount.

It is common practice for billions of dollars in management expenses to flow into funds under the names of relatives of powerful figures under various pretexts. Among these powerful figures, only a portion are senior executives or core members of large corporations in Hong Kong Island. Others are influential figures with connections and influence who are not based in Hong Kong.

Moreover, the thousands of horses kept by celebrities and tycoons in the city at the Jockey Club generate nearly 10 billion yuan in revenue annually, with each horse incurring management fees ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of yuan. This eliminates the need for charitable expenditures, and after accounting for costs and paying taxes, it becomes pure profit.

Even wealthy Chinese with connections like Niu Buluo might only be allowed to sit at the table and "eat" at the Hong Kong Jockey Club under certain conditions, but they don't have the right to distribute the "food." They can only eat whatever is distributed, and sometimes they even have to provide some "ingredients."

Back at the scene, based on his observations, Cao Tai bought several hundred Hong Kong dollars worth of lottery tickets, each with a bet of 10 yuan. He had dozens of printed betting slips in his hand, and he had bought more than a dozen of them for the four-fold lottery game.

It was almost 12:30, and the first race was about to begin. The horses were already entering the gate.

The stands were filled with smoke, and the atmosphere was electric. Some people clutched their betting slips tightly, their eyes fixed on their favorite horses.

Some people stare intently at their betting slips, as if the odds would inflate if they stared at them any longer.

With a buzzing electronic sound, the gate opened, and the horses shot out like arrows, filling the stands with a deafening roar.

All sorts of desperate shouts and hysteria were displayed to the fullest extent.

Old Huang and Uncle Da were also infected by the passion, leaning forward. Although Old Huang could only stick his upper body out of the railing due to his height, he still waved his fist and shouted loudly: "Go, Baiyi! Go, charge!"

However, Baiyi faltered. In this 1000-meter straight race, only about 300 meters into the first half, Baiyi, which was in first place when it started, had already fallen to sixth, which was a fitting reflection of its bib number for the day.

Cao Tai's horse, number 9 "Treading Snow and Soaring Clouds", was only in eighth place when it left the gate, which may have meant that its start was not good enough. However, after the start, it has entered a steady acceleration phase and has now squeezed into fourth place, and it looks like it is about to catch up with number 5, which is in third place.

"Number 9, hurry up, hurry up, keep going!" When Uncle Da saw that Number 9 had the potential to win and had climbed to a tie for third place after speeding up, he decisively changed his support. After all, he had also listened to advice and bought 30 bets on Number 9's "Treading Snow and Soaring Clouds" to win.

His excited expression, with his eyebrows and beard flailing wildly, drew attention.

With about 200 meters left in the race, Cao Tai's judgment was proven correct. Horse number 9, "Treading Snow and Soaring Clouds," displayed tremendous explosive power, suddenly accelerating in the final stages of the race and sprinting to within 100 meters of the finish line, where it was already neck and neck with the lead horse.

In the final 50 meters, "Treading on Snow and Soaring Through the Clouds" maintained almost no speed reduction, crossing the finish line with a half-body-length lead over the second-place runner.

The already bustling public stands grew even louder as the horses crossed the finish line one after another. The loudest sounds were curses and shouts of regret, interspersed with occasional cheers, indicating that someone had won a bet.

"I got it! I got it!" Uncle Da excitedly hugged Lao Huang tightly, jumping up and down with his legs pushing off the ground. His face was beaming so wide that his eyebrows disappeared from his eyes, and his tongue was sticking out of his mouth.

"Damn it, let me go..." Old Huang was furious that his face was pressed against the smelly man's chest and smelled his sweat. He forcefully broke free from the arms that were holding his neck.

I straightened my glasses and was about to take a deep breath of fresh air, but the air I inhaled still had a sour smell.

Old Huang, who almost choked, fanned himself in front of his nostrils twice before saying irritably, "Damn it, what are you jumping around for with so much chicken gizzard? Believe me or not, I'll fly through the air..."

"Brother Yao, thirty! Thirty bets!" Old Huang was interrupted by Uncle Da, who was still jumping for joy, before he could finish speaking.

"Thirty? You won thirty dollars? That's not enough for anything, maybe a char siu rice?" Old Huang was completely baffled.

"No way, Brother Yao, I won all thirty bets!" Uncle Da said cheerfully, instantly drawing envious glances from everyone around him.

Wong Bing-Yiu seemed to freeze, and after a few seconds he exclaimed in disbelief, "What?! You've been betting on horse races for decades and haven't even won a consolation prize, yet you actually won the sole prize?"

Uncle Da, with an arrogant expression, unfolded three single 10-yuan betting slips in his hand and waved them in front of Lao Huang.

When Huang Bingyao reached out and grabbed Uncle Da's hand that was clutching the lottery ticket, and saw that it really did contain information that he had bought number 9 for a sure win, his eyes lit up with joy: "Ah Da, let me tell you, I received news that a batch of Eastern European girls have recently arrived at 'Welcoming the Sea Finnish Bath' on Portland Street. I think we should go and check them out tonight. It's on you!"

"Eastern European stuff? Then it's time for revenge! Back in the Eight-Nation Alliance... there must have been Eastern Europeans, right?" He then tossed his head and said with a righteous expression, "I'm telling you! Eastern Europe still has 'Europe' in it. The mistakes that old hag made back then, today I, the iron-blooded man Cao Dahua, will stand up and avenge them."

His shamelessness was so convincing that even Old Huang couldn't help but give him a thumbs up.

Those who overheard this couldn't help but turn their heads, including Cao Tai and his two companions. Uncle Da's shameless appearance was truly speechless.

"Yes, I don't know how much the payout is for the single-winner. Let's go to the betting station on the first floor and ask." Wong Bing-yiu couldn't wait to drag Uncle Tat to claim the prize.

"Don't catch Qing Jie like this, let's watch the second game first!"

"Why would we watch a second show? We didn't buy tickets for this one!"

"No way! I bought twenty dollars worth of horses! Just now, Xiao Cao happened to watch the second race as a warm-up, and he said that horses number 3 and 6 might win, so I bought ten dollars worth of each of them!"

"Then it's even more tempting to buy more than one hundred and eighty bets."

After finishing his sentence, Old Huang turned to Cao Tai and continued, "Ha, Tai, I knew I hadn't misjudged you. You really have an eye for talent; you managed to pick a gold nugget from a pile of sand!"

"Just luck!" Cao Tai replied calmly with a smile. He had won 100 single-win bets, 10 triple bets, and the quadruple bet was wrong because he chose the fourth horse. Gang Sheng and Xiao Fu each won 20 single-win bets on their respective betting slips.

Those few people alone won 170 bets. I wonder how much each bet paid out in this game!

"Look, young people shouldn't be so modest. Of course, you should be energetic and arrogant at a young age. If you don't keep up with me, I'll be too old to show my support," Wong Bing-yiu sighed, with a touch of melancholy for a hero in his twilight years.

Cao Tai was a little dazed when he saw that the man, who was at most in his late forties or fifties, was making such a fuss about a man in his sixties or seventies. This was something that Chief Superintendent Huang, who was known for his explosive temper and ability to crush people's heads, could say.

Although Fifty-year-old Inspector Wong may not have reached the rank of Chief Superintendent yet, he must have served as Chief Superintendent for many years before retiring, so his current rank should be at the level of a member of the Constitutional Commissioner. It's just unclear whether he is a Superintendent or a Senior Superintendent.

However, whether he is a superintendent or a senior superintendent, he should be among the top Chinese police officers at this time, and it seems that he is not pro-British.

Because Yu Suqiu, the successor he chose before his retirement (the fact that Chief Superintendent Huang could hand over Cao Dahua to her meant that Yu Suqiu was definitely Huang's confidante), dared to confront the Special Branch. Although the Special Branch was also close to being disbanded at the time, it was precisely because it was close to being disbanded that the Special Branch acted more recklessly. If someone with the rank of senior superintendent dared to confront the Special Branch's commander of the same rank, then they must be a core figure of the local faction or pro-China faction within the police force, with a big shot protecting them.