“…”
“That’s enough about that now, tell me how you ended up collapsing. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I don’t know, me neither.”
Kang Siwon lowered his feet below the bed. Ray Jun, who had sat up along with him, approached him.
“Won’t you get dizzy if you move like that?”
“I’m fine. More importantly, Ray Jun, the investigation is over now, right? Nothing happened?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you do there?”
“Nothing much. I’m just a witness after all. They only asked if there were any unusual points when I played games with Zhang Weiren yesterday. I answered honestly that he looked a bit tired but there was nothing particularly strange otherwise.”
“The cause of death was a heart attack… they said.”
Kang Siwon gripped the sheets. Perhaps because he’d just realized he might have contributed to Zhang Weiren’s death, saying the words ‘heart attack’ aloud made him feel chilled. In contrast, Ray Jun replied nonchalantly.
“I was a bit surprised too. He didn’t seem like someone with such a weak constitution. If I’d known it would turn out like this, maybe I should have gone easier on him when we played yesterday.”
“…”
No matter how playful Ray Jun’s temperament was, that wasn’t a joke to make about the deceased. However, he didn’t have the energy to point it out.
His head was completely dizzy. Kang Siwon pressed his temple hard with one hand and fell into thought.
So, what on earth was the Baeksa Faction’s scheme in ordering him to steal exchange records? What use could information about one person exchanging 10,000-denomination chips more than 100 times have, and why did Zhang Weiren, one of those people, suddenly pass away?
The doubts he’d been suppressing kept surfacing. He could no longer ignore them. His thoughts extended beyond his own control.
‘Could it be that the Baeksa Faction…’
He thought that far but Kang Siwon soon shook his head. Before fainting, the thought that Zhang Weiren’s death was the Baeksa Faction’s doing, and furthermore that he might have contributed to it, had left him breathless. But thinking calmly, it was virtually impossible. An attack might be one thing, but how could even the Baeksa Faction induce a heart attack? Whatever else, this seemed to be nothing more than a coincidence.
So even setting aside Zhang Weiren’s matter, the task the Baeksa Faction had assigned him was still suspicious. Ignoring that uneasiness was reaching its limit now.
“Ray Jun.”
“Mm?”
“By any chance…”
Ray Jun, who could be called the flower of the casino and had outstanding performance even among employees hired at the same time, might know something. However, he belatedly realized this wasn’t an appropriate topic to discuss within Sovereign.
“…I should go to the dormitory. I want to rest.”
Kang Siwon glossed over what he was about to say. Ray Jun, who noticed this, was silent for a moment, but soon obediently replied.
“Alright then. I’ll call the emergency staff. Let’s check your vitals once more and if you’re okay, we’ll head back. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
At the gentle tone as if soothing a child, Kang Siwon nodded with a strange feeling.
* * *
After going through a light check-up procedure with the emergency staff, Kang Siwon left the first aid room with Ray Jun.
“Are you okay, Xie Wei? Can you walk on your own? Should I support you if it’s hard?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Don’t be shy and feel free to say so. I can even carry you on my back.”
“Carry who on your back. Do you think I’m some kind of patient?”
Kang Siwon retorted, utterly baffled. As if that slender body could carry him, a sturdy adult.
“You are a patient. You collapsed.”
“I was just dizzy for a moment.”
“People commonly call that being a patient.”
“Didn’t you hear the emergency staff say I’m fine?”
Kang Siwon protested. Nevertheless, Ray Jun’s overprotectiveness didn’t cease even after returning to the dormitory. He pushed Kang Siwon into the bedroom and said,
“I’ll make you some porridge. Just wait a moment.”
“No, I don’t need to eat dinner.”
“No matter how sick you are, you have to eat your meals.”
“I told you I’m not sick.”
He just didn’t have an appetite. Kang Siwon stopped Ray Jun, who seemed ready to dash to the kitchen to make porridge at any moment—though it seemed like he was half teasing him.
“Just let me rest, please.”
“If you say so… Alright.”
Only then, perhaps realizing he was quite exhausted, Ray Jun backed down.
Left alone in the bedroom, Kang Siwon lay down on the bed. Though he’d been lying down in the first aid room too, his own bed in the dormitory was definitely more comfortable. It was amusing that he felt at ease here when it wasn’t particularly his own space either.
Through the slightly open door gap, he could hear signs of Ray Jun moving. The sound of the shower was followed by hair dryer noise, and then the sound of a kettle boiling water. Those everyday living sounds were strangely comforting.
A while later, Ray Jun returned to the bedroom. Holding a teapot and teacup in both hands.
“Have some warm tea at least, Wei. You’ll feel much more comfortable.”
“…Thanks.”
There was no need to refuse this too. Kang Siwon drowsily sat up and gladly accepted the tea Ray Jun poured for him.
Ray Jun, who had also poured tea into his own cup, sat on the opposite bed. Thanks to this, Kang Siwon faced Ray Jun directly.
Kang Siwon fiddled with the teacup that had a slightly rough texture. This was practically a sign from his more considerate-than-he-seemed roommate Ray Jun that if he had worries, he could speak freely. Given his circumstances, revealing his inner thoughts wouldn’t be beneficial, but Kang Siwon couldn’t hold back.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course. What is it?”
“Working at the cage room, sometimes unusual customers come. I don’t mean troublemakers, but literally unusual customers.”
“Casinos are places where all kinds of unusual people come and go originally. How were the customers you saw unusual?”
“I mentioned it once before, but they only exchange for small-denomination chips. For example, say they’re exchanging 100,000 patacas. They could exchange for 10,000-denomination chips, but they purposely exchange for twenty 5,000-denomination chips instead.”
“Their pockets would be full of chips.”
“That’s what I’m saying. Why on earth would they do that? Having lots of chips just makes things cumbersome. If they’re going to play games in the High Limit Zone, they’ll have to bet with high-denomination chips anyway, so wouldn’t it be better to exchange for those from the start?”
“Well. Maybe they’re not there to enjoy the games.”
“Then why exchange for chips at all?”
Chips were only as valuable as gold within the casino; the moment they left, they became no different from plastic scraps. That was the first thing Kang Siwon learned when receiving cage staff training.
However, Ray Jun denied that obvious fact with a subtle expression.
“Hmm… You’re more innocent than you look, Xie Wei.”
“Me, what?”
Kang Siwon couldn’t quite understand. Where in the flow of that conversation did the conclusion ‘innocent’ pop out from?
For Kang Siwon, who couldn’t get a grasp at all, Ray Jun explained gently.
“Think about it. Exchange records remain, but game records aren’t kept in detail, right? In other words, nobody knows exactly how much money anyone spent within the casino.”
“That’s true, but… there’s CCTV, and employees like you and me?”
“But you know too. It’s virtually impossible to track every single customer’s chips without gaps.”
Kang Siwon had to agree. This was Sovereign Casino where tens of thousands of people came and went daily. In a place where gamblers and tourists were mixed together, it was difficult to follow customers one by one. There would be no reason for Sovereign to bother doing so in the first place.
“If you still don’t understand, let me give you an example. You have a poor neighbor. But one day, that person suddenly appears driving a supercar and wearing a luxury watch. Curious about what happened, you ask and they say they earned the money themselves. Can you believe that?”
“Well. Honestly, I’d wonder if they did something shady somewhere.”
“But what if that person says a jackpot hit at the casino?”
“That’s also very suspicious, but… the jackpot would be more plausible. At any rate, it’s not an impossible thing.”
“Now, let’s think in reverse. You have a wealthy neighbor. So rich that all of Macau knows about it. If they’re such an amazing rich person, they’d naturally pay a lot of taxes too, right?”
“Right.”
“But one day, they suddenly lost all that fortune. What would you think when you hear this news?”
“Well…”
Did their business fail? Or did they become a guarantor for someone?
He trailed off after thinking of extremely common-sense answers. If it were just such obvious reasons, Ray Jun wouldn’t have bothered asking. Moreover, there must have been a clear reason for mentioning ‘taxes.’
In an instant, Kang Siwon swallowed. The first day of training in the High Limit Zone—a certain story he’d heard then flashed like lightning.
‘And there’s one more important thing. You must absolutely prevent customers from taking chips out.’
‘There might be people who steal chips to counterfeit them or misuse them.’
The existence of such a rule would be because someone had actually misused chips. Connecting how they might have misused them with Ray Jun’s story, there was only one conclusion.
“…You’re saying casino chips are used for tax evasion?”
