The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 1525 Borrowing Money

Melissa couldn't help but cheer out loud. Putting her fingers beside her mouth, she tried to hide her satisfaction, but everyone still saw how widely she was beaming.

Winning the first round brought Melissa a lot of confidence. She was convinced that she got all her lucky stars in place.

Without any hesitation, Melissa added a lot of chips in the next stake, and then the next stake. At last, she added so many that she had to pull them with both her hands to the middle of the table.

At that time, Melissa was just like any other gamblers at the casino, unwary of anything in her surroundings. She was lost in her own crazy dream, imagining a luxurious life afterwards. She didn't realize how fast time flew, since she was too busy placing her bets.

When she finally caught sense of what she was doing, it was too late. She already lost a fortune. Thinking back on the past few hours, she felt stunned and got weak at the knees. It took a few seconds for her to calm down and face the cruel reality.

She now lost all her money before she had enough fun of it. Melissa felt so uncomfortable. The eager to keep on betting stroke her from time to time. She couldn't help throwing glances at the gambling table when she walked away.

She was unable to think rationally. The mess in her head made her suffer, not only from the eagerness to gamble but also from the lack of money.

Trying her best to calm herself down, Melissa turned to leave the bathroom when a well-dressed woman appeared in front of her. She looked rich and elegant, clearly from a rich family.

Melissa planned to ignore her, but as if she was doing it on purpose, the woman didn't move to let her pass. Confused, Melissa looked up at the woman.

With a modest smile, the woman asked, "Are you okay? Do you feel uncomfortable?"

The woman's question stunned Melissa. Melissa never expected that a complete stranger would even bother about her emotional state.

She quickly looked around the bathroom, making sure that the woman was indeed talking to her. She couldn't help looking at the woman suspiciously because of the strange act she just showed her. Melissa knew that she must have looked terrible at that time. She was not in a good mood because she lost all her money, but she still wanted to gamble. She was restless, gambling all night. She didn't even have to look into a mirror to know how haggard she looked now.

Melissa answered her coldly, "I'm fine."

She tried to walk past the woman.

The woman thought to herself, 'This is not how I expected it to be. It seems like Melissa is not easy to fool. Such a suspicious woman.' The woman felt frustrated. She thought to herself again, 'If so, how am I going to get Melissa to take the bait?'

Wearing back her warm smile, she didn't care about how rude and cold Melissa was.

The woman said again in a soft voice, "That's good to hear. I'm from R City. And I just noticed that your accent is quite familiar. May I ask where you are from?" From the moment the woman agreed to this mission, she was very well aware about Melissa's background. She knew that Melissa came from R City, so she pretended to be coming from the same place to get her attention.

Melissa's expression changed at what the woman just said. Somehow, she felt a connection between them, eliminating the suspicions she initially had. Meeting someone from her hometown not only moved her, it also made her look at this woman as her townsman.

"Really? What a coincidence! I'm also from R City. I'm Melissa Shen. Nice to meet you. What's your name?" she greeted in a happy tone.

"I'm Victoria Li. You can call me Victoria. It's such a pleasure to meet another person from the same hometown, right? I didn't expect to meet you in Macao. Is it luck or something?" the woman answered, laughing.

Just like that, Melissa and Victoria Li became friends. They happily chatted with each other. And half an hour later, Melissa felt like she had known Victoria Li forever, so she started to tell her almost everything about herself.

After talking about gossip, news and makeup, Victoria Li finally came to the point. She asked Melissa the question she really cared, but she pretended to ask it in an unintentional way. "I saw that you seemed unhappy and upset. Is there something wrong or did something bad happen today?"

Melissa's face suddenly changed. She looked even more upset now that Victoria Li mentioned her mood. However, she didn't find anything wrong with her question, so she started complaining about the things that happened that day. Melissa felt relieved that she finally found someone to listen to her complaints and grievances, so she ended up talking the entire time.

Finally she sighed, "You have no idea what I had to go through today. I don't know why, but I'm just so unlucky. Except for the first two bets, I'm basically a loser. Finally, I'm out of pocket, so I can't go and bet anymore."

She talked about her experience with frustration. Melissa also blamed the gods because they didn't bring her the luck she needed. She continuously sighed on how she felt dissatisfied with her fate. Victoria Li reached out and held Melissa's hands to comfort her. "It's not a big deal. It's just money, right? Don't be upset," she said in a soft voice. "There's an old saying that says 'better luck next time.' Who knows, you'd be lucky later on. If you keep betting, most likely you will win all that money back."

Melissa sighed again. Taking her word into consideration, she thought to herself, 'Actually, I agree with her. I know that if I keep betting, I will win everything back!'

"You are right. I think so too. But, I've lost all my money. I can't even afford a plane ticket for me to go back home. How can I have any money to gamble?"

Melissa's voice became lower and lower.

Victoria Li said, "It's nothing. You flew all the way to Macao, so if you can't have enough fun here, what is the point of coming? If it's just a problem about money, that can be easily solved." Victoria Li intentionally paused after mentioning the word "money" to put a stress on it. She knew that once she talked about money, Melissa would take her bait.

And as Victoria Li expected, Melissa suddenly got excited. Her eyes lit up, hearing Victoria's statement. She looked at her like she was a goldmine.

So Melissa asked her eagerly, "How? How do I solve this problem?"

"I was once in the same situation in the past," Victoria Li replied in a bitter tone.

"At that time, I was just like you. All I wanted was to have some fun gambling, but my money went down the drain quickly. I felt so frustrated. But luckily, one of my friends owned a financial company. So after I told him about my situation, he lent me a great deal of money. Until then, I didn't know that he was in the lending industry."

Melissa's eyes went wide open. 'Lending me money?' she thought. 'Isn't that usury?'

Victoria Li saw the confusion in Melissa's eyes, so she explained to her calmly, "If you have similar needs, I can introduce you to my friend. If you can pay the money back in a short period of time, there will be very minimal interest."

Hearing that, Melissa hesitated. 'If it only involves a little interest, then that doesn't look like usury. I just need some money for one day. I think it won't be a problem. Besides, I can pay them back as soon as I win enough money.'

With that thought, Melissa made up her mind. She decided to borrow some money. 'If I am lucky, I can win the money back in two or three bets,' she thought to herself confidently.

Victoria Li called her so-called "friend" and asked him to come. Soon, Melissa was asked to sign a few documents to confirm their arrangement. Melissa was now three million dollars richer, thanks to this man.