My cousin-in-law helped me achieve my ambitions.

Bao Yazhong stood at the door, a cigarette dangling from his lips, looking left and right, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Ming-ge, look, isn't that it?"

Su Ming smiled, but his heart was pounding.

Will anyone ever come to this arcade?

As he was thinking, a middle-aged man in work clothes passed by the door, glanced inside, paused for a moment, and then continued walking.

Su Ming's heart jumped with each step.

But the man only glanced at it a couple more times before shaking his head and walking away without looking back.

Su Ming's heart sank again.

A few minutes later, another young man came in, stood at the door and peered around. His eyes lit up for a moment when he saw the slot machines. But after his gaze swept around the store and he saw the group of bright-haired young men with dyed yellow hair and the two heavily made-up women, he hesitated. He stood at the door for a few seconds, then finally turned and left.

Throughout the afternoon, many people came and went, but few actually entered the store. Occasionally, someone would come in, glance at the machine, and leave without even touching it.

The smile on Bao Yazhong's face slowly disappeared.

He stubbed out his cigarette, frowned, and looked puzzled.

"That's not right, Ming. This area has such a high volume of foot traffic, why isn't anyone coming in to play?"

Su Ming didn't say anything, but his heart sank.

He remembered the 12,000 yuan he had invested, which was borrowed. With the IC, he still had 285,000 yuan. Just thinking about it gave him a headache.

If this arcade goes bankrupt, he'll really have to sell himself. But the problem is, even if he sold himself, he wouldn't earn 285,000! Lin Shumei may be generous, but she might not keep giving him money.

Su Ming was also puzzled. He couldn't understand why there were people coming in but no business. This didn't make sense!

Despite being incredibly panicked inside, he forced a calm demeanor and said with a weak smile, "No rush, let's wait a bit longer."

"Alright, wait another half hour. If no one comes, I'm going to take those two sluts, Xiaoli and Xiaomei, to the streets to solicit customers." Bao Yazhong took a drag of his cigarette with a worried look on his face and glanced at the two young women playing video games.

"As soon as he finished speaking, three young men in blue overalls walked towards them, chatting and laughing. Judging from their attire, they were probably workers who had just finished their shift at a nearby hardware factory."

Upon seeing this, Bao Yazhong's eyes, which had previously held a hint of worry, instantly lit up. He stubbed out his cigarette and immediately became fully alert.

He quickly turned around and, in a low voice, called out to the two energetic young women behind him who were idly pressing the arcade machine buttons, "Hey! Xiaomei, Xiaoli! We've got a job! You two hurry up and grab some coins, go play on those two slot machines for a while, shout loudly, see if you can lure a few guys in. Be smart, be ready to exchange coins whenever someone wants!"

Upon hearing this, the two young women with dyed yellow hair and wearing miniskirts exchanged a glance, understanding each other perfectly.

"Okay, Brother Chung!"

"OK!"

The two responded crisply, immediately turned around, grabbed a handful of coins from the cashier, swayed their slender waists to the two most conspicuous slot machines, and started inserting coins with a "ding-ding-ding" sound, while deliberately making exaggerated, coquettish noises as they pressed the buttons.

"Wow, I won two more apples!"

"This machine is giving out really high scores today!"

Sure enough, this tactic of using a "honey trap" and "accomplice" worked every time. Before long, the three young men were attracted by the colorful commotion in the store and walked into the arcade chatting and laughing.

After the three entered, they looked around for a while, their eyes lingering on the two scantily clad young women for a moment before one of them immediately noticed the main attraction in the center—the slot machine.

"Wow! There are even slot machines!" One of the tall workers' eyes widened instantly, like a hungry wolf seeing meat, and he excitedly ran over.

Upon hearing this, the other two also exclaimed with shining eyes.

"Really? Let's go check it out!"

"Walk!"

As he spoke, he quickly moved closer.

When Bao Yazhong saw the fish take the bait, a barely perceptible sly smile appeared on his lips. He calmly sat down at the cashier's table by the door, crossed his legs, and shouted into the room in an extremely enthusiastic yet casual,江湖-like tone: "Hey guys, feel free to look around! You can exchange coins here; we have several thousand yuan worth of coins, enough for you to play as much as you want."

The three men exchanged glances, their eyes gleaming with a greedy desire to gamble. Working hard in the factory, they could only earn thirty or forty yuan a day, but with a bit of luck, they could win several days' wages in one slot on this slot machine.

The three of them quickly walked to the cashier, each took out money from their crumpled pockets, and exchanged it for ten coins.

After receiving the coins, the three quickly returned to their seats and eagerly began placing bets.

"Bang bang bang!" The sound of heavy slamming of buttons echoed in the arcade.

As the aperture on the machine screen spun rapidly, a crisp and pleasant "clattering" sound followed, and a large number of coins were ejected from the coin dispenser, hitting the stainless steel tray with an enticing sound.

"I hit it! Holy crap, a triple crown! I hit it!" the tall guy shouted excitedly, waving his arms and legs.

The other two joined in the excited cheers: "Awesome! This machine really went easy on us today!"

Clearly, they won.

However, Su Ming, who was standing aside and watching all of this, felt an indescribable discomfort and awkwardness in his heart.

He used to occasionally play slot machines in his hometown. Back then, whenever he won money and heard the "clatter" of coins being dispensed, he would be incredibly happy, feeling like he was possessed by a gambling god. But now…

Now, seeing others win money and hearing the crisp clinking of coins, he felt a sharp pain in his own flesh. It felt as if someone were actually robbing him of his money from his pocket.

Each of those falling coins represented his initial investment!

Bao Yazhong seemed to see through Su Ming's dilemma. He turned to Su Ming, gave him a bright and confident smile, and lowered his voice to comfort him, "It's okay, buddy, don't worry. As long as people come to play, we won't have to worry about not making money. What casinos fear isn't others winning money, but rather people stopping coming. As long as people keep coming, the money will be ours sooner or later."

Su Ming remained silent.

Bao Yazhong leaned closer to Su Ming, somewhat smugly imparting his business wisdom: "To be honest, on our first day of business, I deliberately raised the odds on the machine. The current win rate is around 40%. We need to let them win more first, let them taste the sweetness. Once these guys go back and spread the word that our machines are easy to play, and more people join, I'll lower the win rate to 10%, or even lower. Then, they'll have to give me back everything they've won, including their initial investment!"

After listening, Su Ming paused for a moment, then nodded silently.

He thought to himself, if it were before, upon hearing the boss scheming against the players like this, he would have already cursed him as a profiteer and a heartless boss. But now, when it was his turn to be the boss, and every penny he invested was related to whether he could plug the hole of 285,000, he felt that Bao Yazhong's approach was normal, and even thought that his methods were very clever.

People are really strange. Once their position changes, their stance changes, and their attitude changes too.