THE CARDS OF FORTUNE: THE REVENGE OF THE SCORNED SON-IN-LAW

Chapter 5: The Second Card Of Fortune

Ethan's heart began racing, his gaze fixed on the remaining cards scattered across the table. 

Only a few minutes ago, he had wanted nothing more than money. He had been desperate enough to gamble his future on a mysterious deck of cards because he had nothing left to lose.

Now he wasn't so sure.

The first card had been real. The money in his accounts was real. The billions sitting behind his name were real. Which meant everything the old man had told him was real too.

The cards could grant fortunes.

They could change lives.

They could bring sickness.

They could bring death.

And if the old man was telling the truth, there was no guarantee that the next card would be kind to him.

Ethan stared at the pile of cards, wondering which one he should choose. He let out a quiet breath as his fingers slowly moved toward one of them.

Then he stopped.

Hesitation filled his mind, and he quickly pulled his hand back.

What if this card took away everything the first card had given him?

What if wealth was the only good fortune he would ever receive?

Ethan clenched his jaw and kept his eyes fixed on the cards. He had already stepped into this strange new world. There was no point pretending he could return to the man he had been before tonight.

He took a slow breath and forced himself to push away every fear and doubt.

Whatever happened next, he would face it.

His fingers finally reached forward and touched one of the cards. The moment he did, a sudden chill rushed through his hand.

Slowly, he picked up the card and turned it over.

The moment Ethan saw the words written across the card, his eyes widened.

DIVINE WISDOM

He stared at the card, waiting for something to happen.

Nothing happened.

Ethan blinked.

Still nothing.

For a brief moment, doubt entered his mind.

Had the fortune failed?

Before he could think any further, a violent pressure suddenly exploded inside his skull.

“Ah!” Ethan screamed as he grabbed both sides of his head and stumbled backward.

The pain came without warning. It was so intense that his knees gave out beneath him.

He fell forward and caught himself against the table with one hand. The card slipped from his fingers and landed on the floor.

Ethan gritted his teeth as another wave of pain tore through his head.

Then the knowledge came.

It flooded into his mind like a dam had suddenly broken.

The first thing that appeared was mathematics.

Thousands of formulas rushed through his mind.

Numbers, equations, theories, and calculations he had never studied suddenly became clear. Advanced mathematics felt as simple as basic addition.

Then came physics.

Chemistry.

Engineering.

Computer science.

Economics.

Finance.

Law.

The knowledge kept pouring in.

Ethan had never studied most of these subjects. He had never spent years in university learning them. He had never even opened many of the books sitting on the old man's shelves.

Yet somehow, he understood everything.

Not just the basics.

Everything.

Every formula, theory, principle and every concept.

Then languages came.

English.

French.

Spanish.

Mandarin.

Japanese.

Arabic.

Russian.

And countless others.

The languages rushed into his mind so quickly that Ethan could barely tell one from another. He understood their grammar, sentence structure, pronunciation, and meaning as naturally as his own language.

Before he could process the information, another wave hit him.

Medicine.

Ethan suddenly understood the human body with terrifying clarity. He could picture how the different parts of the body worked together. He could understand how diseases developed and what caused them.

If someone described a set of symptoms to him, he could almost see what was happening inside the person's body. It was as if the human body had become a simple machine that he could understand at a glance.

Then came finance.

Investment strategies.

Stock markets.

Corporate structures.

Mergers.

Acquisitions.

Taxes.

Asset management.

Business models.

Risk assessment.

All of it flooded into his mind.

Ethan suddenly understood how money moved through the world. He could see why some companies became successful while others failed.

Then the knowledge changed again.

Combat.

Ethan's mind filled with the mechanics of human movement. He understood boxing, wrestling, martial arts, close-quarters combat, weapon handling, and countless other fighting techniques.

It felt as though he had spent decades training in each of them.

But he had never done that.

He had never learned any of it.

The knowledge simply existed inside his mind.

And it kept coming.

There seemed to be no end.

Ethan remained bent over the table as his mind raced through knowledge that should have taken several lifetimes to learn.

His fingers dug into the edge of the table.

His breathing became rough and uneven.

Sweat rolled down the side of his face.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the pain disappeared.

Ethan froze.

Silence returned to the room.

For several seconds, he remained bent over the table, breathing heavily.

Slowly, he raised his head.

Sweat covered his forehead, and his chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to understand what had just happened.

He looked at the old man.

“I...” Ethan began, but the word died in his throat.

Something about his own voice sounded strange.

His voice had not changed.

He could simply hear it differently now.

He could hear the vibration of his vocal cords. He could feel the movement of air through his throat. He could even understand how his tongue and mouth shaped every sound.

Ethan's eyes widened.

He slowly looked around the room.

Something had changed.

At first, he could not explain what it was.

Everything simply looked... sharper. 

His eyes moved toward the old clock hanging on the opposite wall.

Tick.

Ethan froze.

Tick.

His brow slowly tightened.

He had always been able to hear the clock.

But this was different.

He could hear every tiny movement inside it.

The gears turning behind the wooden frame.

The faint movement of the pendulum.

Even the tiny vibrations coming from inside the clock.

Then he noticed something even stranger.

He could measure the exact time between each tick.

One tick.

Two seconds.

Another tick.

Exactly two seconds.

Ethan's breathing slowly became calmer.

“There’s no way...” he whispered, his voice filled with disbelief.

His eyes moved toward the wooden table beside him.

The change became even more obvious.

Tiny scratches covered its surface.

Before, Ethan would have seen nothing more than an old, worn-out table.

Now, every scratch stood out clearly.

Some were shallow.

Some were deep.

Some were new.

Others were old and faded beneath a thin layer of dust.

He could even tell which scratches had been made recently.

Ethan slowly turned his head toward the books stacked on the nearby shelf.

The titles became crystal clear.

He could read the smallest words from across the room without squinting.

He slowly raised his hand and stared at his fingers.

His skin looked normal.

But he could see details he had never noticed before.

The tiny lines across his fingertips.

The patterns of his fingerprints.

Even the slight movement of the muscles beneath his skin.

Ethan slowly lowered his hand.

He swallowed hard as thoughts began racing through his head. They came faster than he could remember ever thinking before.

One thought connected to another almost instantly.

Information that would normally take him minutes to understand suddenly became obvious. A problem that once required hours of careful thinking could now be broken down within seconds.

Ethan looked at the table.

Without even trying, he understood how its different pieces had been connected.

He looked at the clock.

He could almost picture the gears moving inside it.

He looked at the bookshelf.

He instinctively understood how much weight each shelf could hold and which part would become weak first.

It was as though his brain had suddenly become a machine capable of processing everything around him.

Ethan’s fingers slowly curled into a fist.

“What happened to me?” he asked, his voice low and uncertain.

The old man watched him quietly.

A faint smile appeared on his weathered face as though Ethan’s reaction was exactly what he had expected.

“The second card has granted you its fortune,” the old man explained calmly, his voice carrying a strange certainty. “Your mind has been opened far  beyond the limits of an ordinary human.”

Ethan turned toward him sharply.

“My mind?” he repeated, his confusion growing.

The old man nodded slowly.

“Your eyes are only showing you the result,” he said, his expression becoming more serious. “The real change happened inside your brain.”

Ethan let out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head as he tried to process everything that had happened.

It was still difficult to believe.

Only a short while ago, he had been an ordinary man struggling to get through life. Now, he had unimaginable wealth sitting in his bank account, and his mind had been transformed into something he could barely understand.

His gaze slowly shifted toward the pile of cards scattered across the table.

There were still several cards remaining.

Ethan’s smile gradually disappeared.

He stared at them in silence.

He had already chosen two cards.

The first had given him unimaginable wealth.

The second had transformed his mind.

Now, he had to choose one more card from the remaining pile.

But for some reason, his hand refused to move.

A strange uneasiness settled over him.

What could the next one possibly give him? 

Power? Immortality? Perfect health?

Or something much more worse?

The thought made him uncomfortable.

He had no idea what these cards were capable of anymore.

The first fortune had already exceeded anything he could have imagined. The second had given him an ability that bordered on the supernatural.

If the fortunes continued to grow in value, what would the next one look like?

Ethan slowly leaned back, his eyes still fixed on the cards. For the first time since he had entered the old man’s house, fear returned to his eyes.

Not because he knew something terrible was waiting for him.

That was precisely the problem.

He did not know what was waiting for him.

Every card looked exactly the same.

There was no mark.

No number.

No clue.

Nothing that could tell him what fortune he would receive if he picked it.

He could only choose.

And suddenly, that simple choice felt much heavier than it had before.

The old man noticed his hesitation.

“Ethan,” he called softly, his voice calm but watchful.

Ethan did not answer.

His eyes remained fixed on the cards.

The old man slowly leaned back in his chair, the relaxed look on his face disappearing as his expression hardened. “You must choose again,” he said firmly, his voice leaving no room for argument.

Ethan stared at him for a moment before finally lifting his eyes. Anxiety tightened his chest as he shook his head. “I want to stop. I can’t continue,” he said, his voice strained with fear and frustration.

The old man held his gaze in silence. After several long seconds, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ethan, but you can’t,” he replied calmly, his tone almost unsettlingly composed.

Ethan’s brows drew together. “Why?” he demanded, confusion flashing across his face. “I thought you said I could back out whenever I wanted.”

“Yes, I did,” the old man admitted without hesitation. “But that condition only applied after you picked the first card. That was your one chance to walk away.”

Ethan’s expression tightened as he listened.

“You could have stopped then,” the old man continued, his voice steady. “At that moment, the choice was still yours. Once you decided to continue, however, the rules changed.”

Ethan swallowed hard. “So I can’t stop now?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

“No,” the old man replied simply, his voice firm and absolute.

The single word settled over the room like a weight.

Ethan slowly turned his attention toward the remaining cards.

His enhanced mind immediately went to work.

His eyes moved from one card to another, examining every possible detail. He studied their positions, the angle of each card, the condition of their edges, the tiny differences in their surfaces, and even the way the light reflected off them.

Nothing.

He analyzed their spacing.

Nothing.

He compared their orientation.

Still nothing.

His mind processed the information at a speed that would have been impossible for an ordinary human being, yet the result remained the same.

They were identical.

There was no hidden mark.

No damaged corner.

No subtle difference in texture.

Nothing that could reveal which card was safe.

For the first time since his mind had been enhanced, Ethan found himself staring at a problem he could not solve.

His stomach sank.

He slowly clenched his hands beneath the table.

“This doesn't make sense,” he muttered, his voice barely audible.

The old man said nothing.

Ethan stared at the cards for another few seconds before raising his eyes. “What happens if I refuse to continue?” he asked quietly, his voice carrying a trace of caution.

The old man remained silent.

He simply watched Ethan.

The silence stretched.

One second.

Then another.

Ethan's heartbeat gradually grew louder in his ears.

The old man's expression gave away nothing, but somehow that made the silence even more frightening.

Finally, the old man leaned forward slightly and met Ethan's eyes.

“You will discover the consequence of refusing,” he said calmly, his voice so quiet that it sent a chill through Ethan.

A question suddenly surfaced in Ethan’s mind.

He could not possibly be the first person to sit in this chair.

The old man had spoken about the rules with too much certainty. He had explained the first choice, the chance to walk away, and what happened after someone decided to continue.

That meant others had played this game before him.

Others had sat exactly where he was sitting now.

Others had faced these same cards.

And if that was true, then there had to be someone who had reached this point before him.

Ethan slowly raised his head.

“What about the others?” he asked, his voice cautious.

The old man’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What about them?”

Ethan glanced at the three cards again before looking back at him. “People who played this game before me. Did any of them get something good on the third pick?”

For several seconds, the old man said nothing.

His fingers slowly tightened around the armrest of his chair.

That tiny movement caught Ethan’s attention.

The old man looked down at the table, and something almost resembling regret passed through his eyes.

Then he shook his head.

“No.”

Ethan’s stomach tightened. “None of them?” he asked, his voice rising slightly.

The old man shook his head again. “Not a single one.”

Ethan stared at him.

The old man let out a slow breath before continuing, his expression growing heavier. “Every person who played this game before you received a great fortune during their first two picks,” he explained, his voice calm but grim. “Some received wealth. Some received knowledge. Some received opportunities that completely changed their lives. A few received things far more valuable than money.”

Ethan listened without blinking.

“But the third pick...” The old man paused, his eyes settling on the three cards. “The third pick has always been different.”

Ethan felt a chill crawl across his skin.

“What do you mean?”

The old man looked at him again. “Every single person who reached the third choice believed they could still win something good. They had already received two great fortunes, so they assumed the third would be even better.”

His voice became quieter.

“They were wrong.”

Ethan’s throat went dry.

“What happened to them?”

The old man did not answer immediately.

His gaze remained fixed on the cards.

When he finally spoke, there was a faint bitterness in his voice.

“Not one of them received a good fortune during the third pick.”

Ethan’s heart sank.

Not one.

After everything he had already gained, the thought of losing it all suddenly became very real.

He slowly turned his attention back to the cards, the old man words still ringing in his head.

The room fell silent as neither man said a word.

“Well,” Ethan finally broke the silence, a sad smile appearing on his face. “Since there is no going back now, I guess I should just pick and get this over with.”

Taking a deep breath, he extended his hand and touched one of the cards. His heart began pounding as he closed his fingers around the card and lifted it from the table.

He didn't look at it immediately. He simply held it there, his grip tightening as his pulse continued to rise.