38: A one-hour gamble, the price of greed.

Jiang Ming’s words, "Are you finished?" were light, yet they caused the clamor in the entire private room to instantly freeze.

Everyone's expressions froze on their faces.

The smile on Eldest Aunt Zhang Huifang's face hadn't faded yet, but a trace of shock and displeasure had already surfaced in her eyes.

"Xiao Ming, what kind of talk is that? Everyone is just concerned about you; we're all family..."

"Five hundred thousand."

Jiang Ming interrupted her, turning his gaze toward Uncle Li Jian and the heavily made-up woman.

"It's to sponsor my cousin's wedding house, right?"

Uncle Li Jian was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly nodded and bowed.

"Yes, yes, yes, a sponsorship, a sponsorship."

...Jiang Ming repeated everyone's requests once.

"I can."

"I agree to all of them."

Jiang Ming leaned back against the chair, a curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

"I knew it! Xiao Ming is the most successful one in our family!"

"Good boy! You really are our family's living bodhisattva!"

"Thank you, Xiao Ming! Thank you, dear nephew!"

Zhang Huifang was so excited her face turned bright red, as if that five hundred thousand had already landed in her bank account.

Cousin Li Hao's fiancée's eyes shone even brighter, and she immediately took out her phone to start searching for real estate in the city center.

For a time, the waves of flattery and praise once again submerged the entire private room.

Jiang Lijun and Zhang Huilan were completely stunned.

They couldn't believe their son would so easily agree to these unreasonable demands.

Zhang Huilan was so anxious she wanted to stand up, but she was stopped by Jiang Ming's gaze.

"But."

Jiang Ming's voice rang out again, not loud, but clearly overpowering all the noise.

"I have one condition."

Zhang Huifang waved her hand and said with grand generosity.

"Never mind one, your aunt will agree to a hundred conditions!"

Jiang Ming held up one finger.

"It's very simple."

"Starting from now, for one hour."

"Everyone present must stay in this private room and cannot leave."

"After one hour, for those still sitting here, I will fulfill all your requests."

As soon as these words were spoken, the relatives looked at each other and then burst into hearty laughter.

"That's it?"

"I thought it would be some difficult condition! Sitting for an hour? I could sit here until tomorrow morning!"

"Xiao Ming, you're too funny. What kind of condition is that!"

They felt Jiang Ming was making a harmless joke, a way to show off his generosity.

This was simply a windfall from the heavens, and a golden one at that.

Zhang Huifang laughed so hard she trembled. She walked over to Zhang Huilan and affectionately patted her shoulder.

"Huilan, look how well your son handles things! Alright, alright, you and your husband go back first; we've got things covered here."

She urged Jiang Ming's parents to leave, fearing they might soften their hearts and ruin the good thing later.

Jiang Lijun and Zhang Huilan looked at their son, their eyes full of confusion and anxiety.

Jiang Ming gave them a slight nod.

That gaze was calm and firm.

The couple looked at each other and ultimately chose to trust their son.

Without saying another word, they turned and left the private room amidst the hypocritical pleasantries of the relatives saying, "Take care, we won't see you out."

The moment the door closed, the atmosphere in the private room became even more unrestrained.

Under everyone's gaze, Jiang Ming slowly took out his phone.

He first set a one-hour countdown on the screen and then turned the phone horizontally.

Familiar opening music played.

Jiang Ming actually opened a game called Honor of Kings and began picking a hero as if no one else were there.

Watching this, the relatives were somewhat impatient, but thinking of the benefits they would get in an hour, they all suppressed their tempers and waited excitedly.

Time began to slip away, second by second.

Jiang Ming thought to himself.

The ability of the Child of Weather activated silently.

His target was only this Emperors Pavilion private room.

Ten minutes later.

Although the central air conditioning in the private room clearly showed a constant temperature of 26 degrees Celsius, a chill began to permeate the air.

"Hey, what's wrong with this hotel? Is the AC broken? It's a bit cold."

The cousin's fiancée was the first to complain; she was only wearing a thin slip dress and instinctively hugged her arms.

Uncle Li Jian immediately took off his suit jacket and considerately draped it over her.

"Maybe the vent is pointing right at you. Just bear with it; it'll be over soon."

Twenty minutes later.

The indoor temperature had quietly dropped to 5 degrees Celsius.

The dishes on the table that were still steaming were now all covered in a layer of white vapor, cooling rapidly.

Several thinly-dressed relatives had already begun rubbing their arms incessantly.

"No, no, my old legs can't take this cold."

An elderly distant great-aunt's teeth began to chatter. She glanced hesitantly at Jiang Ming, who was focused on his game in the main seat, then at the greedily waiting crowd around her, and finally stood up.

"I... I'd better leave first."

Abandoning her unrealistic idea of borrowing money, she shiveringly pulled open the door and fled the increasingly eerie private room.

Her departure was like a minor interlude and didn't attract much attention.

Those remaining continued to endure for the sake of the coming wealth.

Forty minutes later.

The temperature inside the private room had dropped to minus 5 degrees Celsius.

This was no longer something an AC malfunction could explain.

On the table, the unfinished fruit platter had a thin layer of white frost condensed on its surface.

Even the crystal pendants hanging from the luxurious chandelier overhead were now adorned with glistening icicles.

Every breath exhaled turned into a clearly visible white mist.

"What... what on earth is going on?"

A relative's voice began to tremble, not from the cold, but from fear.

Everyone's eyes were focused on Jiang Ming.

They saw Jiang Ming still wearing only a thin T-shirt, sitting there with a composed expression.

The severe cold seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.

His fingers danced rapidly across the cold phone screen, controlling his character in an intense team fight. His superhuman hand speed appeared incredibly eerie in everyone's eyes.

Eldest Aunt Zhang Huifang's forehead had broken out in a cold sweat, which quickly froze into ice beads in the bitter cold.

Looking at Jiang Ming's unfazed face, a fear born of the unknown began to overpower her greed for money.

Fifty minutes later.

The thermometer reading had dropped below minus 15 degrees Celsius.

The bone-chilling cold had turned the private room into an ice cellar.

"Ah—!"

A scream pierced the dead silence.

Cousin Li Hao's fiancée, who was only wearing a dress, finally broke down.

Her lips were frozen purple, her face was bloodless, and she no longer cared about decorum or money as she rushed toward the private room door like a madwoman.

"I can't take it anymore! I don't want any house! I want out!"

She yanked open the heavy door and fled, scrambling away.

Her breakdown became the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Eldest Aunt Zhang Huifang and Uncle Li Jian looked at each other, both seeing extreme fear and struggle in the other's eyes.

The temptation of five hundred thousand was right before them.

But the young man sitting on the frost throne, calmly playing his game, made them shudder from the depths of their souls.

A few seconds later, the instinct for survival triumphed over everything.

"Xiao Ming... no, Mr. Jiang... we don't want it, we don't want anything anymore!"

The Zhang Huifang couple also screamed and scrambled out of the private room.

Seeing this, the rest of the people dared not harbor any more fantasies and scrambled to flee the hellish room as if avoiding a plague.

Ding.

A crisp notification sound rang out.

Two giant golden characters popped up on the phone screen.

Victory.

Jiang Ming finished this round of the game.

The one-hour countdown had also just ended.

He slowly stood up and looked around.

In the huge private room, the table was a mess, everything was frozen over, and he was the only one left.

Jiang Ming casually restored the indoor temperature to normal.

He calmly straightened his collar and then stepped out of the private room, as if he had just attended a perfectly ordinary banquet.

In an inconspicuous black business van several hundred meters outside the hotel.

Several plainclothes personnel from the Ninth Bureau were staring intently at the surveillance screens in front of them.

On one of the screens, the thermal imaging clearly showed that the temperature of the Emperors Pavilion private room had once dropped to an unbelievable deep blue, then returned to a normal red within a few short seconds.

On another screen was the footage of Jiang Ming's relatives fleeing from the hotel entrance in panic and disarray.

The Operations Team Leader picked up the walkie-talkie and issued an order in a steady voice.

"Back up all video materials, encryption level S."

"Send the report to Director Chen immediately."